Future
Work


This section describes possible areas of future work on topics specifically related to this stakeholder analysis, as well as broader areas related to the general methodology presented in this thesis.

4.10.1 Stakeholder
Analysis
for
the
Earth
Observations
Program


• Develop a more in-depth analysis of some of the Level 3 stakeholder groups. The Level 3 stakeholder map shown in Figure 14 shows a more detailed view inside some of the stakeholder groups used for this stakeholder analysis. For some of these stakeholders, such as the Government or Federal Agencies, it may be useful to conduct a more in-depth analysis of the value flows within the stakeholder sub-groups. For example, it would be useful to analyze the Federal Agencies in more detail to establish more specific opportunities for cost sharing and program collaboration with NASA/NOAA.

• Consider including science-related value flows for the Public, Media, and NGOs. As described in Section 2.4, certain science-related value flows such as “science knowledge” were modeled as six separate value flows corresponding to the categories of the six science- themed decadal survey panels. For this analysis, the value flows into the Public, Media, and NGOs were not separated into science-specific value flows. However, there may be compelling arguments for considering this for value flows such as “informative and entertaining content” from the Media to the Public. As climate change becomes an issue of greater national importance, media stories and NGOs concerned with this topic have become increasingly powerful in the national dialogue. Including science-specific value flows for the Public, Media, and NGOs may increase their relative importance within the stakeholder network.

• Identify additional methods for validating value flow scores. Section 3.2 described a variety of techniques used to validate the numeric scores assigned to each value flow.

Additional proxy literature and data sources could be identified for those value flows that were not validated in this analysis. Also, additional stakeholder representatives could be consulted to provide anecdotal verification of the relative value flow rankings for the remaining stakeholder groups.

• Investigate the major value flows associated with water resources, solid Earth, and human

health missions. The analysis in Section 4.7 calculated the most important value flows

created by missions from the top three science categories: climate, weather, and land-use. The charts in Figure 69, Figure 70, and Figure 71 provide visualizations of how each science category delivers value to the stakeholder network. A similar analysis with accompanying charts could be completed for water resources, solid Earth, and human health missions to understand the most important mechanisms by which they deliver value to the stakeholder network.

4.10.2 General
Stakeholder
Value
Network
Methodology


• Investigate the timing or timeliness of value flows within a stakeholder model. For certain value flows, timing is a critical issue to consider; for example, a project may need to obtain regulatory approval at the beginning of the project or at any point during the project. Timeliness might also be an important attribute to consider as a metric for assigning quantitative scores to value flows. For example, it may be critical for Scientists to obtain data regarding the arctic sea ice as soon as possible. Baron’s diagram of market and non- market interactions shown in Figure 9 introduces the concept of timing by aligning the stakeholders and their interactions along a horizontal axis of time. A similar chart could be created for the value network methodology presented in this thesis. Also, the stakeholder scoring questionnaires presented in Section 3.1 could be modified to incorporate the attribute of timeliness.

• Further develop the mathematical theory underlying the value loop calculation method. Section 4.8.5 discussed one of the preliminary findings of the concurrent theoretical work by the MIT Systems Architecture group, which is to use the formula A*B*C2 _{rather than} A*B*C to calculate the value flow scores. Further work on the theoretical foundation for the stakeholder value network analysis will provide a more sound justification for the value loop calculation methods and the overall methodology presented in this thesis.

4.11 Conclusions


The stakeholder analysis conducted within this thesis yielded a wealth of useful, insightful results that can be used by Earth Observations Program planners. Section 1.7 listed the five specific objectives of this thesis as follows:

• To develop a more complete understanding of the stakeholders of an Earth Observations Program by articulating the goals, objectives, and needs of every stakeholder using

information contained in stakeholder policy or strategy documents, mission statements, websites, the decadal survey, government reports, legislation, and other official stakeholder documents.

• To understand the important interactions among all stakeholders by constructing a detailed stakeholder map showing the inputs and outputs of each stakeholder using information garnered from the articulation of stakeholder needs

• To identify the most important stakeholders, the highest value-producing interactions among stakeholders, and most important NASA & NOAA outputs by conducting a rigorous quantitative stakeholder analysis using the stakeholder value network analysis approach. • To complement the recommendations of the decadal survey by providing more specific,

targeted insights and recommendations using the results of the qualitative and quantitative stakeholder analyses presented in this thesis.

• To make the stakeholder analysis techniques presented n this thesis more broadly applicable as a business practice by generalizing the methodology for conducting the analysis using a set of templates for commonly encountered projects or systems with significant stakeholder concerns.

I achieved the objectives of this thesis by developing a qualitative and quantitative stakeholder model that yielded useful, insightful results and recommendations for the Earth observations program.

The stakeholder analysis articulated the objectives and needs of all the major stakeholders in the model, in contrast to the decadal survey, which focused mainly on scientific objectives. The objectives, needs, and inputs template allows for easy and direct traceability of stakeholder outputs and inputs to the satisfaction of specific stakeholder needs.

The complete stakeholder model captures all the major inputs and outputs, or value flows, between each stakeholder, while the simplified stakeholder model indicates only the most important stakeholders and value flows. This provides a succinct description of the role of each major stakeholder in the Earth Observations Program, their most important contributions to the program, and the specific inputs and outputs that contribute the most value to the stakeholder network.

The value loop analysis yielded numerous insights about the most important stakeholders, most important value flows and value loops within the system, and the most important outputs and inputs to NASA/NOAA. It also indicated the relative importance of each science category corresponding to the six science-themed decadal survey panels, which can be useful for prioritizing missions.

The insights and recommendations yielded from the stakeholder analysis, described next in Chapter 5, are largely consistent with those in the decadal survey. In some cases, the stakeholder analysis provided additional information that produced more specific or targeted insights and recommendations than those in the decadal survey. In other cases, the value loop analysis results differed with the decadal survey recommendations, and the analysis yielded some additional recommendations that were not included in the decadal survey.

Thus, the specific objectives and central hypothesis of this thesis are confirmed.

Chapter 5 describes the major insights yielded from the stakeholder value network analysis and presents a list of recommendations for the Earth Observations Program. This chapter is intended to function as a stand-alone executive summary for program planners interested in the results of the stakeholder analysis.

Chapter 6 presents a generalized description of the stakeholder analysis process described in this thesis. It is intended to function as a stand-alone document that can be used as a handbook for conducting a rigorous qualitative and quantitative stakeholder analysis as a general business practice.

Central Thesis Question:

To establish a set of priorities for the Earth observations program, can a mathematically rigorous stakeholder analysis yield additional or more specific insights and recommendations than the group consensus process used by the Decadal Survey Committee?