From the U.S. Government Accountability Office, www.gao.gov Transcript for: NASA Quick Look Description: Audio interview by GAO staff with Cristina Chaplain, Director, Acquisition and Sourcing Management Related GAO Work: GAO-16-309SP: NASA: Assessments of Major Projects Released: March 2016 [ Background Music ] [ Narrator: ] Welcome to GAO's Watchdog Report, your source for news and information from the U.S. Government Accountability Office. It's March 2016. Each year, GAO looks at how well NASA is planning and executing its major acquisition projects, such as the James Webb space telescope and the Orion multipurpose crew vehicle. A team led by Cristina Chaplain, a director in GAO's Acquisition and Sourcing Management team, recently completed this year's quick look. Eden Savino sat down with Cristina to talk about what they found. [ Eden Savino: ] Can you give me a sense of how big NASA's portfolio of major acquisitions is? [ Cristina Chaplain: ] Yes. NASA has about 18 major projects, lifecycle costs adding up to $54 billion. So it's a sizable investment. These projects range from the very big projects like the James Webb telescope, the Orion crew capsule, which is hopefully going to take humans beyond low earth orbit, the space launch system, which is going to be a rocket on the scale of the Saturn Five. And then it also includes the smaller projects that study the sun, other planets, as well as climate. And then some new projects coming up, like the next Mars Rover. And a project also focused on one of the moons on Jupiter. [ Eden Savino: ] You've been doing the quick look now for 8 years now, is that right? [ Cristina Chaplain: ] Yes about. [ Eden Savino: ] So this year you found some real progress. Can you talk about that? [ Cristina Chaplain: ] Yes. About 6 years ago, as you know, NASA has been on our High Risk List since 1990 for acquisition problems and always seen projects come in well over cost, well behind schedule. And if you looked at them 6 years ago you'd find their cost growth was about 19 percent. This year it was about 1.3 percent when you take out the largest project from that portfolio. That number has to be balanced by the fact that there are a lot of projects that are re-baselined in the portfolio. They need to start over after they hit some problems, as well as the fact that there's been some new very large projects added to the portfolio which, because they haven't experienced cost growth yet, the overall number is going to stay smaller for cost growth. [ Eden Savino: ] So the newer projects, because they haven't really hit problems yet, they haven't been around long enough to have hit a problem, you're expecting in the future that there might be bigger increases. [ Cristina Chaplain: ] Yes. On all the newer projects, the human spaceflight ones, they're going to be hitting their trickiest phases in the next few years. And they typically have a lot of cost growth and a lot of technical problems. Much of it's inherent in doing a human spaceflight project. Some of it is management-oriented. But we do anticipate they're going to experience problems going forward. [ Eden Savino: ] And you mentioned that there's one of the largest projects. Is that the James Webb telescope? [ Cristina Chaplain: ] The James Webb telescope, as you may know, it re-baselined a few years ago due to a lot of cost growth and schedule delays, a lot of management and oversight issues. But since they re-baselined, they have been doing, performing very well. And they're still hitting their cost targets. They're entering their trickier phases too, so we're keeping a close eye on that project. [ Eden Savino: ] So what more needs to be done to continue this good progress? It sounds like some of it is just from projects being new. But are there other things that can kind of keep this progress in check? [ Cristina Chaplain: ] NASA's taken a lot of good measures in recent years to improve project management and oversight. They've really focused on ensuring projects have enough reserves in case they have problems. They've also focused on things like cost and schedule estimating and overseeing projects more systematically. We'd like to see all those things continue. And we'd really like to see these practices be inculcated in the largest projects, because we haven't seen them totally adopted in the largest projects. We'd also like to see cost estimates updated on a regular basis. NASA tends to just set up one estimate and stick with it. When you come to a very large project that's always in a state of churn and facing a lot of risks, it's important to keep Congress and everybody else updated as to what the latest risk posture is and what the latest cost estimate is. [ Eden Savino: ] If you're trying to get someone to Mars, you might find a few things that you have to change along the way. [ Cristina Chaplain: ] Correct. Yes. [ Eden Savino: ] So what would you say is the bottom line of this report? [ Cristina Chaplain: ] The bottom line is that this is good news for NASA. They've been taking very good steps to lower acquisition risks. But they really need to sustain this in the largest projects. They're going to be very tested in the next few years. There's going to be a new administration. And all these projects are going to be hitting their most difficult phases of development. So these practices need to be there when NASA is tested the most. [ Background Music ] [Narrator:] To learn more, visit GAO.gov and be sure to tune in to the next episode of GAO's Watchdog Report for more from the congressional watchdog, the U.S. Government Accountability Office.