Ray O’Brien

CTO for IT & Innovation Manager

NASA Ames Research Center

The IT CTO Council PanelNASA IT Summit 2011

Focused Innovation

So many opportunities and a rapidly changing technology landscape – how does one choose?

At ARC, the formal innovation focus will leverage the Center’s IT strengths & specialized facilities for benefit of the Agency

Enhanced by beneficial public/private partnerships, many with presence in SV

Moving Innovation from Disruptive to Sustained Use/Operations Phase

Many great ideas die along the way Could have a great innovation program but some

percentage will need to move out of the “lab” Many challenges – contractual, financial, political,

policy, process integration Sometimes timing is just off – but at least one

definition of innovation says this is key, and a certain author states that if the timing is right, it’s too late

Repeatable Infusion 

Much more difficult than repeated innovation Frequently will be an extended uphill trudge So the innovation pursuit should be worth the

trudge An innovation framework and recognition of

CTO’s role in innovation will help but might also need a playbook

Each “win” (innovation successfully infused on a large scale) will probably help rewrite the playbook

A Recognized Role for Innovation within NASA IT

For a variety of reasons, service providers/owners may not always be in best position to propose new approaches

New I3P Service Office Charters appear to be addressing this by allowing CTO community to influence direction

Every Center has strengths, assets, other resources that the CTO community needs to leverage to take advantage of this new role/opportunity