It is beyond the scope of the present study to recommend how NASA should organize institutionally to develop its CS&T capabilities, but several ideas have surfaced which may be useful to the agency in its consideration of future courses of action. In order to be effective, it would seem appropriate that NASA's CS&T endeavors maintain a multimission focus. A possible starting point may be a nucleus of discipline specialists to develop the program coupled with an agency-wide matrix management strategy to apply contemporary CS&T in mission environments and a vigorous encouragement of the development of CS&T "centers of excellence" at the Centers. Before embarking on any major organizational changes, however, it is useful to perform a systems analysis to fully explore the organizational possibilities and their ramifications. In this regard, the techniques developed by Krone (1980) are highly recommended. In consideration of the two-fold objective of maintaining state-of-the-art expertise in CS&T and applying this expertise to NASA programs, one is confronted with the dilemma of providing both an effective R&D environment and a line organization capability to apply CS&T to real missions. If one assumes the existence of line organizational entities that now exist within NASA but applied to CS&T endeavors, then a possibility to be considered is the augmentation of the line management positions with staff researchers as illustrated in table 6.8. The positions of "Fellow" are intended to be highly competitive and attractive positions open to employees of NASA or other government agencies, industry, and academia. They might be treated similarly to professorships within universities, where highly talented individuals may be tenured in a position, but many are rotated through positions on temporary assignments of several years' duration. An intriguing organizational structure apparently has been developed by the Navy for its new artificial intelligence laboratory at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. A rough outline of the structure is shown in figure 6.3. The major point of interest regarding the NRL effort is that it is organizationally constructed to maximize scientific productivity. The head of the organization is the Chief Scientist, who is expected to contribute in a meaningful scientific way to the work of the organization. The CS&T study group was able to find out rather few details regarding the proposed operation of the NRL facility, but it appears to be sufficiently interesting that NASA may wish to explore this alternative during the system analysis phase.
6. 6. 6 Programs for Excellence Perhaps the most fundamental requirement in maintaining one's technical excellence is to maintain active relationships with peer researchers. This will involve both formal and informal interfaces with standards organizations, other government agencies, universities, industrial R&D programs, and professional societies. A good set of computational facilities and communications capabilities as proposed in section 6.6.4 will facilitate this process. Participation in joint government..industry..academic programs such as institutes and consortiums can formally provide not only a mechanism for applying more leverage to technical problems but also, potentially, a very appropriate forum for technical interchange. "Visiting Scientist" programs, where NASA sends selected individuals to major research enviromnents such as MIT, SRI, and Xerox/PARC for periods of 6 months to a year can be very effective in transferring state-of-the-art concepts and technology into NASA programs. The Agency may also wish to consider Scientist Exchange Programs, in which NASA scientists perform research in university or industrial environments while their counterparts work at NASA for 6 months to a year. In some cases, close relationships between field centers and local universities may be nmtually beneficial, and TABLE 6.8.-POSSIBLE PERSONNEL POSITIONS FOR CS&T RESEARCH
Pay,
status
Line
management
Applied research
and consulting
Independent
research
Division
Branch
Chief
Head
Senior Staff
Scientist
Staff Scientist
Senior Research
Fellow
Associate Research
Fellow
Section Head Research Scientist Assistant Research
_/ Fellow Responsibility "_/
