Case Studies

Case studies illustrate the kinds of decisions and dilemmas managers face every day, and as such provide an effective learning tool for project management.

Due to the dynamic and complex environment of projects, a great deal of project management knowledge is tacit and hard to formalize. A case study captures the complex nature of a project and identifies key decision points, allowing the reader an inside look at the project from a practitioner’s point of view.

• Going to Extremes NEEMO Case Study

• OCO-2: A Second Chance to Fly

• Seven Axioms of Good Engineering: Development of a Case Study-Based Course for NASA

• Knowledge Legacy – From the X-15 to the Space Shuttle

• Columbia’s Last Mission

• The Deepwater Horizon Accident – Lessons for NASA

• Weathering the Storm: Lessons from Hurricane Ike

• Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite

• STS-119 Flow Control Valve Issue

• The Cassini-Huygens Mission

• Ares I-X Upper Stage Simulator

• Redesigning COBE

• Launching New Horizons: The RP-1 Tank Decision

• Gravity Probe B

• Space-to-Space Communications System

• Viking Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer

• TIMED

• EOSDIS

• Vegetation Canopy Lidar

• Miniature Seeker Technology Integration (PDF)

• Advanced General Aviation Technology Experiment (PDF)

• High-Speed Research Program (PDF)

• Wide-Field Infrared Explorer (PDF)

• Shared Voyage: Learning and Unlearning from Remarkable Projects (NASA Only)