Despite talk at some cocktail parties we've attended recently, the point of this story is not to blame a measurement system, nor to assign fault to either the Lockheed or the JPL team. The metric system is not THAT much better than the English system.

The real problem with this project, and with many others, the reason the Mars orbiter landed so abruptly, was lack of project management. The teams acted independently (this is often a good thing in a technical project) BUT unfortunately, there was no one (apparently) who planned and coordinated their activities. Each team probably did perfectly fine work on its own. But when the results of their fiercely independent efforts merged, crash!

We at Armadillo take project planning to heart. We believe in schedules, timelines and budgets. We understand that promises are to be kept. And, we believe that in order to complete projects that meet requirements on time and under budget, preparation and thought are necessary up front and on a continuing basis.

We at Armadillo have experience in every phase of the technical product cycle, from gathering marketing, customer and end-user requirements to functional specifications to technical specifications to system architecture to implementation/integration to documentation to quality assurance to support to maintenance.

We can help you structure your technical projects so results meet your high expectations.