Public Administration ETDs

Publication Date

4-30-1976

Abstract

This thesis addresses the question of how a public engineering organization integrates and coordinates its technical requirements: objectives, functions, and responsibilities for research and development activities, with the parameters of the budgetary system that controls its research and development monetary life blood.

A single engineering organization, the Engineering and Development Directorate of the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is investigated. An overview of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center and the Engineering and Development Directorate is made in order to provide an understanding of the framework within which the Engineering and Development Directorate must function to carry out its research and development responsibilities.

The technical process within the Engineering and Development Directorate is investigated. The elements of technical requirements definition, technical requirements documentation and technical requirements approval are analyzed for National Aeronautics and Space Administration research and development programs. The Engineering and Development Directorate Shuttle Inline Program is used as an example of research and development programs being performed by the Engineering and Development Directorate.

The budgetary processes that the Engineering and Development Directorate must respond to is analyzed in detail. The budgetary elements of budgetary documentation, budgetary approval, fund authorization, and expenditure control are analyzed. The Engineering and Development Shuttle Inline Program is traced through the intricate internal and external steps in this budgetary process.

The results of this investigation show that the Engineering and Development Directorate has developed a sophisticated control system that integrates and coordi­nates the technical processes with the budgetary processes. It performs this integration and coordination by having a single control office, the Management Support Office, responsible for this integration and coordination. Acting as the right arm of Engineering and Development Directorate management, the Management Support Office combines budgetary and technical requirements into a Program Requirements Plan document. The Program Requirements Plan document in effect becomes, for the Engineering and Development Directorate, the major management tool used to control technical activities that result in the expenditure of research and development dollar resources.

Degree Name

Public Administration

Level of Degree

Masters

Department Name

School of Public Administration

First Committee Member (Chair)

Albert H. Rosenthal

Second Committee Member

Leonard Arnold Stitelman

Third Committee Member

Gerald Joseph Boyle

Document Type

Thesis

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