Launching a rocket into space may appear like the most waterfall project. Putting a man on the moon was however the most agile programme one can ever think of. This talk retraces the epic Mercury / Gemini and Apollo programmes and draws parallels to how to approach agile in the world of digital IT.

1. What putting a Man on the Moon
can teach us about Agile?
AgiNext.io
Philippe Guenet | March 2018

2. Philippe Guenet
2@HenkoPhil
Over 20 years’
experience delivering
digital systems
Senior Architect,
Delivery Lead, IT
Strategist
Now working as an
independent
advisor/coach in
digital leadership
Space geek from a young age!

3. Launching a
rocket seems like
the most waterfall
project ever…
3@HenkoPhil
Design rocket
Train Astronauts
(>1 year)
Assemble rocket
Move to launch site

4. 4@HenkoPhil
5… 4…
3…. 2…
1…
Ignition
Lift-off

5. 5@HenkoPhil
The not so
healthy
competition of
the cold-war
Sputnik
Televised humiliation
of the Vanguard
Launch failureYuri Gagarin

6. Confidential 6
“This nation should
commit itself to
achieving the goal,
before this decade
is out, of landing a
man on the Moon
and returning him
safely to the Earth”.J. F. Kennedy
May 1961

7. How do you get to
the Moon in the ‘60s?

8. 8@HenkoPhil
Giant
constraints
Rocket
technology was
totally
experimental
No round-the-
globe
communication
network
Flight control
had to be
imagined
Sensors and
telemetry were
just emerging
Space is a
totally
unforgiving
environment
Complex
trajectory
required
computing
capabilities
that barely
existed

9. When you do not know,
you experiment!

10. Empirical
knowledge of a
rocketry genius,
Wernher von Braun.
(acquired from
V2s…)
10@HenkoPhil
Wernher von Braun

11. Atlas launch successes
11@HenkoPhil
Atlas launch failure

12. 1961, Alan Sheppard’s
first manned sub-
orbital flight
… and first bio-accident
12@HenkoPhil
Alan Sheppard

13. 13@HenkoPhil
Mercury: Astronauts in Space
Test –
x20 flights
Orbital
(Atlas)
Duration
Space Epics and Experiments
1958 to 1963 - 6 manned flights from 1961
Friendship7
Orbit
Glenn
Sub-orbital
(Redstone)
Unmanned
Liberty Bell7
Grissom almost
drowned
Freedom7
Sheppard
Faith7
1d 10h flight
Cooper
Mercury spacecraft
Aurora7
Sigma7

14. 14@HenkoPhil
Gemini: Flying in Space + EVA
Space Epics and Experiments
12 flights – 1964 to 1966
Unmanned
(Gemini 4)
EVA Challenges
Tests
Circular
orbit
EVA
Docking
Maneuvres
Duration
Rendez-vous
Experiments
(Gemini 8)
Dangerous spin
(Gemini 6A & 7)
2 weeks in space
(Gemini 9A - 12) Repeat to mastery
Gemini spacecraft

15. 15@HenkoPhil
Apollo – Last straight to the Moon
Saturn V Moon Rocket
111 meters high
(taller than Big Ben)
To this date, most powerful
vehicle and loudest man-made
noise ever produced
Saturn V rocket

16. 1967 - Apollo 1
Fire in the cabin
16@HenkoPhil
Unmanned
missions
Saturn IB / V
shakedown
AS-201
AS-202
AS-203
Apollo 4
Apollo 5
Apollo 6
1968 - Apollo 7
Back on track
Tragic loss of
3 Astronauts
10 days in Earth orbit
Disaster strikes

17. 17@HenkoPhil
Apollo 8 – Translunar injection
Inspect and adapt:
Little else to learn in
Earth orbit, to remain
on track within the
decade, go for
translunar injection

18. 18@HenkoPhil
Apollo 11 – “The Eagle has landed”
“One small step for
Man, one giant leap for
Mankind”
Neil Amstrong
21st July 1969
…within the decade

19. 19@HenkoPhil
Apollo 11 – the narrow margin of success
Amstrong ejected
from LLRV and had
less than a month
training on LLTV
Last Simsup tested
Error 1202 and
1201. Not a case for
abort
Pressure build up
after landing in
helium tank.
Broken lever to
arm ascending
mechanism
Overshot landing
site, landed with
<30 seconds fuel
left

20. 20@HenkoPhil
Apollo 12 – Lightning strikes!
Telemetry went mad on
take off, later found to be
the result of a lightning
strike
Abort?
Or, keep cool and
reboot?!

21. 21@HenkoPhil
Apollo 13 – “Houston, we’ve had a problem”
Disaster strikes, 200,000
miles away
Fuel cell gone, no power,
no water, no oxygen
Service module engine
assumed unusable Stricken Apollo XIII service module

22. 22@HenkoPhil
Apollo 13 – Flight control to manage the crisis
Gene Kranz
NASA Flight Director
Concept of down-moding
= Inverted MVP
Rescue mission objectives whilst
keeping astronauts safe
Apollo 13 = Most successful
failure

23. 23@HenkoPhil
So, what can the Moon programme teach us
about Agile?

24. 24@HenkoPhil
He who
dares,
wins!

25. Actually quite right.
Great outcomes start with
great ambitions.
#strong_vision

26. 26@HenkoPhil
Small vision
Reducing costs
Big vision
Exploring the potential
beyond the business
#strong_vision
Big execution
By next year 80%
must work Agile
Small execution
What can we do of value
by next month?
Mindset shift

27. 27@HenkoPhil
#leadership
Gene Kranz
ComplicatedComplex
ObviousChaotic
Apollo XIII Standard
mission
All is good, starting
a cryo-stir, over
“Houston
we’ve had a
problem”
“Gentlemen,
failure is not
an option”
LEM as a life-raft,
recompose teams
Get Astronauts
back home safely
Bang

28. 28@HenkoPhil
§ Know your context
§ Recalibrate the context for teams to
operate at their full potential
§ Systemic thinking and people
#leadership

29. 29@HenkoPhil
#strategy_deployment
Industrialise
knowledge to
enable innovation
Man on the
Moon (Apollo) Fly in Space
(Gemini)
Man in Space
(Mercury)
Experiment
Practice
Mastery

30. 30@HenkoPhil
#strategy_deployment
genesis custom product commodity
Open strategy
Enables higher order items
Return to the
MoonHarvest asteroid
Deep cosmos
observation
Mars
Interstellar?

31. What did space ever do for us?

32. 32@HenkoPhil
Half a century
of Global
Leadership
Fuel-cells and solar power
Health monitoring sensors, home blood
pressure kits
Computers and miniaturisation
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs)
Anti-Icing systems
Safety grooving on highways
Improved Radial tires
Chemical detection of corrosion
Instant television (Telstar launched in
1962)
Weather forecasting and Earth
monitoring
Memory foam
Navigation
Water purification
Enriched baby foods & formula
Fire retardant paint, foam, suits,
breathing system and 2-way radio
(firefighters)
Scratch resistant lenses
Video enhancing and analysis system
(used in CCTV)
Thermo foil blankets
Artificial limbs / sensors
Infrared thermometers
Portable vaccum cleaner
Freeze drying technology for food
Solid lubricants
Air cushioned trainers
Teflon coasted glassfiber (used on the
Dome canopy)
Popularisation of use of Carbon Fiber
Nitinol - alloy used on teeth braces
Heat absorbing sportswear
Lasers used to clean arteries
Breast cancer detection
Self-righting life raft
Corrosion stopping coating
1800 spin-off technologies
#knowledge_wins

33. #agile_thinking
We choose to go
to the Moon in
this decade and
do the other
things, not
because they are
easy but because
they are hard …
… because
that goal will
serve to
organize and
measure the
best of our
energies and
skills…

34. #agile_thinking
…And so we choose to
drive Agile Thinking
and take enterprises
further with it!

35. Philippe Guenet
Founder | Principal Consultant
pguenet@henko.co.uk
+44 (0) 7798 623 007
@HenkoPhil
Please join our industry knowledge
development sessions at:
Digital Leadership
http://www.meetup.com/DigitalLeadership
Thank you
Recommended
Visit: Kennedy Space Centre (Florida)
Book: “Failure is not an Option” from Gene Kranz
Book: “Apollo 13” from Jim Lovell
Film: “The Right Stuff” from Philip Kaufman
Special Thanks – Thomas Much (review)