Risk Management

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Organizational Risk and Opportunity Management (OROM) concerns the means by which organizations apply risk and opportunity considerations in developing their strategic goals and objectives; implement them through a portfolio of programs, projects, institutional assets, and activities; and manage them through controls.  The overall purpose of OROM is to reach an optimal balance between minimizing the potential for loss (risk) while maximizing the potential for gain (opportunity).  

This report discusses the philosophical underpinnings of OROM, the integration of OROM with existing management processes and the nature of the activities that are performed to implement OROM within this context.  The concepts and applications presented in this report are offered to stimulate thought about how to put OROM into effect both at the executive level of NASA and at organizational levels that are responsible for the technical work (e.g., NASA centers).  

While directed especially toward NASA, the report is relevant as well for other agencies of the government and nonprofit research institutions whose mission involves the development of science and technology in the national interest.  

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Office of Management and Budget Circular No. A-123 defines management's responsibility for internal control in federal agencies. A re-examination of the existing internal control requirements for federal agencies was initiated in light of the new internal control requirements for publicly traded companies contained in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Circular A-123 and the statute it implements, the Federal Managers’ Financial Integrity Act of 1982, are at the center of the existing federal requirements to improve internal control.

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Office of Management and Budget Circular No. A-ll provides guidance on preparing the Fiscal Year 2016 budget and instructions on budget execution.

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A message from NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden on NASA and the importance of risk.

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Meeting minutes and presentations from the 2014 Enterprise Risk and Opportunity Management workshop.

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The purpose of this handbook is to provide guidance for implementing the Risk Management requirements of NASA Procedural Requirements document NPR 8000.4A, Agency Risk Management Procedural Requirements, with a specific focus on programs and projects, and applying to each level of the NASA organizational hierarchy as requirements flow down.

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The purpose of this handbook is to provide guidance for implementing the Risk-Informed Decision Making (RIDM) requirements of NASA Procedural Requirements document NPR 8000.4, Agency Risk Management Procedural Requirements, with a specific focus on programs and projects in the Formulation phase, and applying to each level of the NASA organizational hierarchy as requirements flow down. Appendix A provides a cross-reference between the RIDM-related requirements in NPR 8000.4 and the sections of this handbook for which guidance is provided. 

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This NASA Procedural Requirements document provides the requirements for risk management for the agency, its institutions, and its programs and projects as required by NPD 1000.0, Governance and Strategic Management Handbook; NPD 7120.4, Program/Project Management; and NPD 8700.1, NASA Policy for Safety and Mission Success. Risk management includes two complementary processes: Risk-Informed Decision Making and Continuous Risk Management.

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This policy covers NASA's safety and mission success, including risk and risk acceptance. 

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This document provides the statement of policy and responsibilities for all of the management and engineering disciplines under the purview of the Office of the Chief Engineer, including NASA Procedural Requirements covering management of space flight, research and technology, information technology, and institutional infrastructure programs and projects; systems engineering; software engineering; technical standards; lessons learned; product data management/product life cycle management; and the use of the metric system. Additionally, this document consolidates the agency's crosscutting software policy and responsibilities across NASA Headquarters' offices and mission directorates.

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NASA's policy is to comply with Office of Management and Budget Circular A-123, Management's Responsibility for Internal Control, which provides government-wide requirements for internal control and accountability, based on the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act. Specifically, it is NASA's policy to

a. Develop and maintain internal control policies, procedures, plans and assessments to provide reasonable assurance that the objectives of effective and efficient operations, reliable financial reporting, and compliance with applicable laws and regulations are achieved.

b. Hold Officials-in-Charge and center directors responsible for the development, implementation and effectiveness of internal controls, and for annually assessing and reporting on the effectiveness of internal controls.

c. Ensure that internal control and accountability underpin decisive governance over organizational structure; policies and procedures; processes for managing programmatic, financial, and institutional activities; checks and balances; and tools and techniques to uphold the agency's integrity, efficiency and effectiveness.

d. Ensure that internal controls are well integrated into new or revised activities when making changes to ongoing activities and implementing new activities in programmatic and institutional operations or financial management processes.

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This NASA Policy Directive provides the overall policy framework for NASA's strategic acquisition process with appropriate references to other key processes and directives. This strategic acquisition process complies with NASA obligations as a federal agency and is applicable to each of NASA's major areas of investment (Flight Programs and Projects, Information Technology and Institutional Infrastructure, and Research and Technology) to ensure the efficient, effective use of the resources entrusted to the agency.

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This NASA Policy Directive has two primary aims: (1) to set forth NASA’s governance framework — principles and structures through which the agency manages mission, roles and responsibilities and (2) to describe NASA’s Strategic Management System — processes by which the agency manages strategy and its implementation through planning, performance and results.

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This course covers in detail one of the two processes comprised in the NASA Risk Management process required by NPR 8000.4. Its content is based on the NASA RIDM Handbook and it provides detailed guidance for implementing the RIDM requirements of NPR 8000.4, with a specific focus on programs and projects in the Formulation Phase. Content includes RIDM process interfaces, the technical details of the various steps in the RIDM process and a case study, with opportunities for student participation, that runs throughout the course to illustrate the key learning points. This course is intended for NASA program, project, mission support, institutional, systems engineering, and Safety and Mission Assurance personnel who wish to play a role in bringing about improved decision-making anywhere in the agency.

Course Number: SMA-RISK-OSMA-0013

Length: 8.00 hours

Audience: This course is intended for engineers and engineering project managers.

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The integration of all forms of risk management (Strategic Risk Management, Program/Project Risk Management, Institutional Risk Management, and Acquisition Risk Management) together with opportunity management into an overall Risk Management approach that cuts across the entire organization and applies to all the agency’s activities.

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The management of risks associated with the acquisition process and the oversight of contractors charged with delivering products and services to the acquiring organization.

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The management of risks associated with development and maintenance of mission support capabilities including qualified technical staff, support staff, information technology, facilities and equipment.

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The management of risks across four mission execution domains: safety, technical performance, cost and schedule.

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The management of risks that threaten to jeopardize the organization’s attempts to fulfill its strategic objectives as defined in its strategic plan.