The Blue Spider Project - Case Study Example

The Blue Spider Project Name of Student: Course: Date submitted:   Project initiation A. Is the decision to start BS project a strategically sound decision? Is it beneficial for an executive to take too much of an interest in an R&D project? Give reasons for your opinion. The decision to have the Park Corporation is major strategic error businesswise considering the state of affairs at the corporation. As clearly seen, the company is a failure in the manner that work authorization happens. There are very sudden and unannounced changes of plans occurring all of which lead to the workers having a rough time working around the company. As seen, transfers of personnel occur randomly or according to the senior managers of the projects. The company’s inability to maintain ethical behaviour also places them at a position that compromises their successful completion of projects. The corporation does not meet the basic requirements for the design material. The prime contractor, the Lord Industries, requires that the design material be in a position to be operated at within a range of-65 F to 145 F. The material that the Park Corporation has cannot be operated above 130F. This means that from the start, the company is bound to face future problems resulting in the incapability. The manner in which personnel selection occurs is questionable. The best men are not selected to work in the Blue Spider project, a fact that sees Gary struggle with having to manage them in the long run. The participation of executives in a R&D project is not move that can be viewed as happening for the god of a project. Such participation only leads to the project manager having his creativity, functionality and credibility compromised. The involvement of Henry Gable in the Blue Spider project is seen to have caused more harm than good. He views the Blue Spider project as his baby. Henry goes behind Gary’s back and brings in the new material, the JXB-3. Gary confronts Gabe on the issue and Gabe is quick to admit how they had begun the work on the new material in a move to “rescue” the Blue Spider project. The use of this material in the long run leads to Gary losing his job as project manager when the discovery is made that the age of the material is less than five years. Henry also misleads Gary in telling him to lie the Lord Industries about the source of funds that were used the purchase and testing of the new material. It goes without much emphasis therefore that the involvement of executives In R&D projects is a step that would lead to alterations of the project’s objectives and plans in a move that will eventually endanger the project manager in his capacity as the one assuming full responsibility for the project. B. Should functional employees of the customer and contractor be permitted to communicate with one-another without going through the project office? Justify the selection of type of project organization form in BS project. Effective communication is founded on the use of the right channels for communication. Having the employees of the customer and contractor being allowed to communicate without going through the project office is an instance of ineffective communication (Roots n.d.). A closer look at the situation in the Park Corporation reveals that the corporation has failed in the controlling the manner in which communication happens within the organization and the customers outside the organization. This creates the basis for the failed communication during the time of execution of the Blue Spider. The nature of communication between the Lord Industries and the personnel at Park Corporation that does not go through the project management offices compromises the position of the project manager. This is best seen at the time that Henry Gabe finds out about the new test results on the new material which reveal that the age of the material is less than five years. Henry, in his call with Gary, reveals that he expects to get the bad news from project engineers and project managers but he is entitled to surprise when the information is channelled from the customer. While this is a situation that led to the revelation of the situation of the Blue Spider project that was crucial to the Corporation’s wellbeing, Gary, the project manager is left in a position that affects the trust his own employer has for him. Due to this manner of communication, Gary ends up losing his job. Risk management A. Should a project manager ever censor bad news and risks? Discuss- how did the BS project handle risks? What might they have done? A project manager is placed in a stance to handle ethically any form of information that may be critical to the success of any corporation at large (Enterprises n.d.). Project managers are usually entrusted to handle projects which tend towards building a company its reputation and those that are bound to fetch the companies’ very massive revenues. During the time of the project, it is the duty of the project managers to update the companies that have employed them on how far the project is and how well it is faring on (Enterprises n.d.). It is always ethical to have the state of affairs, regardless of the positivity or negativity, presented to the company’s directors. Censoring bad news and oncoming risks only proves to be a fatal error in the end as the companies end up overspending, making losses on profitable projects and this leads to a company losing its reputation eventually. Gary as a project manager held information that was very crucial to the financial welfare of the Park Corporation. For instance, upon conducting the aging tests on the Spartan missiles made using the JXB-3 material, Gary received information that though the material would meet the specifications, its age life would fall below five years. Gary obviously understood that this is a discovery that should have been made long ago in order to either abort the project or have alternatives used. Gary confronts Paul Evans who thinks that there could be marginal errors with the tests and suggests that they inform the company in order to address the issue. Gary is prompt in admitting that he would rather have the information kept as a secret and he suggests that they wait until the Park Corporation have the contract to have mass production of the Spartan missiles. Despite Paul Evan’s attempts to have the information pushed to the Corporation’s seniors, Gary insists and claims that he will assume full responsibility for his act. Gary and Paul should have faced the seniors instead of concealing the information in order for them to have knowledge of the issue so that they can get ready beforehand. Stakeholder and communication management: A. Who are the key stakeholders and briefly identify their mutual and conflicting interests or objectives in BS project. Key stakeholders are the investors in a company whose investments are supposed to give them dividends that arise from proceeds realized in the business venture, and other people who may have interest in the business (Johnstone n.d.). In the Park Corporation, key stakeholders include the investors in the company and the executives to whom the Blue Spider project is of particular interests. The memo presented by Gary to the General Manager and the Vice President of the corporation authorizes them to book $150,000 or 75% of the profits realized from the Blue Spider project. Just a week after the final presentation of the project to the Lord Industries, Gary holds a meeting with Elliot Grey to analyse the financial situation as regards the project. What comes up is that there was a mistake that Gary had made in the financial planning report that had been submitted for the last quarter. Gary suggests that he meets the general manager in order to notify him on this mistake and assume full responsibility but Elliot says that the mistake was collective. Basically, this presents a dead end for the financial state of the project since the booked profits will not in the long term be realized. The motive by Elliot and Gary to remain silent in the issue reveals that the corporation’s personnel does not prioritize stakeholder’s objectives in the business. Usually, stakeholders make investments in corporations and they expect to realize profits from the projects that the company is able to complete. They are thus entitled to regular updates of such projects and the financial health of the corporations in which they have made their investments in. Henry Gable has his particular interest in the project and thus ensures that he chooses a project manager from whom he can easily get information. Plan, implementation and management A. Quality should be considered whenever there is a change to any component of the “triple constraint” (time, cost and scope). Did the project plan explain how the project and any changes would be controlled? Should this be part of the plan? Give reasons. From the word go, effective planning was an issue that the personnel at the Park Corporation failed to address. Factoring in the time required for the project, the costs requirements for the completion of the project and the scope of the project were handled with such simplicity that their lack to address these constraints with seriousness backfired on them at very critical instances during the project (Haughey 2011). This was a major setback in the successful completion of the project and it also breed the mistrust with the prime contractor, Lord Industries. Initially, a schedule had been set up and the defined timelines were a sure way to have the personnel work within their limits and still deliver quality. An engineer, in a meeting that is called by Gary is prompt to question the reason as to why a new schedule they had no prior information of is being put in the place. Having a new schedule in a great way offsets the manner in which the personnel is handled since Gary calls for unplanned for help form the other personnel in the Corporation. The new schedule in itself is hectic and requires that testing be done over the weekends and the holidays. When Gary requires assistance during such moments, most of the personnel he requires to be part of the team are not readily available. A keen eye on the scope of the project which is closely related to the costs reveals that these two constraints were overlooked in all the planning that was done for the Blue Spider Project. Initially, Gary had been convinced by Henry Gabe to lie on the specification of the material to be uses to make the missile. When the material they have for work does not meet the specification way into the project, Gary is forced to have a new material brought in. the purchase of the material is the beginning of the budgets being offset. At some point, Gary has to ask for help from Elliot to go on with the project. A well planned for project should barely require that those working on it use their personal funds or even acquire new funding channels to complete the project. Elliot tells Gary the kind of trouble he has put himself into upon knowing that the expected $200000 profits by the company would not be realized. The two scenarios give a depiction of the manner in which the personnel at Park Corporation perceived the scope and cost constraints. B. Was Gary qualified to be a project manager- rationale your answer? Gary despite having been very psyched up to start on the Blue Spider as a project manager faces challenges which in the long run depict the nature of person he is in that position of leadership. Gary is indeed not well skilled to be in his position as a project manager. He has the capability to perform but his execution tells a different tale all the same. This is based on the knowledge that Gary has an MBA. As Henry Gable tells him, being in possession of master’s degrees and doctorates are not a sure indicator of how a project manager will be successful. According to Gable, an effective program manager should: be able to communicate in oral and written forms, should be able to motivate the team he or she is leading and that they must be committed to the project at hand despite the time requirements to have the project completed (Enterprises n.d.). While Gary is able to stick out for the rest of the team, he is not quite effective on controlling the rest of the team at large which leaves him as one who is incapable of being viewed as a qualified project manager. Gary is seen to place his focus on the technical bit of his job and forgets to be in the forefront of motivating his team and handling the manner in which communication happens. This goes hand in hand with the comments that he receives from the call made from Lord Industries in which his ability to effectively manage the project is questioned based on the setbacks experienced in the Blue Spider project. The claim is that Gary spends more time doing than he does managing. Gary had not had the opportunity to hone his skills after completing his MBA, thus having him take a position that is quite critical jeopardizes Park’s efficiency to deliver. It would have been wiser to have him start off as an assistant in the ranks of project management then with enough proof of unquestionable performance, a promotion to a project manager would follow suite. Contract A. What happens when a situation of mistrust occurs between the customer and the contractor? It should always be the aim of a contractor to maintain the trust with the customers for which they are undertaking a particular contract. This ensure that the customer has faith in the successful completion of the project without fraud cases or without the contractor telling lies on some aspects of the contract. If the trust between the customer and the contractor is broken then the customer is left with the option of either pulling out of the contract or requiring that contractor submit to the terms of scrutiny and follow up of the project (Zoghul 2003). The Lord Industries had due to previous business relations placed so much trust with the personnel at Parks Corporation. This is revealed in the manner in which they exempted them from the weekly interchange programs that Lord Industries required its customers to be part of. Upon the realization that the Park Corporation personnel in charge of the Blue Spider project had proceeded to replace the material used for the project without updating the Lord Industries on these proceedings, the Lord industries revert the previous position. What ensues is very hectic weekly interchange meetings and several paperwork requirements to ascertain the position of the Blue Spider project at every instance as required. This ends up being very hectic for the personnel in charge of the Blue Spider project and Gary has to step in to do most of that paperwork as opposed to having his men on the project multitask. This in turn eats into Gary’s time to be in the research and development labs for almost a whole month. While Gary still feels that a summary would be enough to the Lord Industries, he is made to understand that after having put themselves in the position to be mistrusted then they would have to deal with the weekly interchange meetings and increased paperwork. A sure conclusion is that mistrust issues bred between customers and contractors always lead to inevitable and negative impacts all of which have far reaching effects on the contractor involved. B. Justify the choice of Firm Fixed Price (FFP) contract for BS project. What other type of contract they could have chosen (5marks). The Lord Industries awards a firm-fixed price contract valued at $2.2 Million to the Park Corporation in order for them to do have the Blue Spider project completed. The personnel at the Park Corporation are expected to comply with the specifications stated in the production of the Spartan Missiles which are for use by the Army. Lord Industries expects that the personnel selected to manage the project will work within the financial confines that the contract value places them in. The company directors, according to the information presented to them by R&D department proceed to book the profits as $200,000. The drawbacks of having accepted this form of contract start to manifest with time (books n.d.). At the time of bringing in the new material, Henry Gable suggests that Gary Anderson tells the Lord Industries company that the new material was purchased using funds from the corporations own IR&O funding. This already reveals that with such a contract, the contractor is restricted to the use of a specific amount of money which is usually scrutinized by the customer. At some point, Gary has Elliot Grey step in to provide corporate funding to have the project completed. This shows that in the event that a corporation has to make uncalled for advances in a project then they should be ready to cater for the extra costs that come up with form of contract. The Park Corporation should have settled on a Fixed Price with Economic Price Adjustment (FP-EPA) (books n.d.) contract which allows for changes in budgetary allocations to the project to be made, subject to upcoming changes that result in the finances plan being offset. With this contract, the corporation would have easily catered for the new material and even completed the project without using their own funds (books n.d.). Others A. Complete your evaluation of project management for this project, and calculate the average rating using the following grid and justify the average score. (5 marks) Excellent=5; Very good= 4; Good=3, Poor=2, very poor =1 Initiation stage Planning stage Implementation stage Closeout phase Average Scope management 2 2 2 1 1.75 Time management 4 4 1 3 2.75 Resource management (human resource) 2 2 2 2 2 Communication management 1 1 1 1 1 Stakeholder management 2 2 2 1 1.75 Risk management 1 2 1 1 1.25 Contract and procurement management 1 1 2 1 1.25 Scope management The Park Corporation had its own scope of the project which was not very critical at all the stages. This can be seen from the use of material which does not meet the specification and there after switching to another material for which no prior plans had been accounted for. This affects the Blue Spider all through and leaves the corporation at a critical position Time management Time management was not an issue in the initial phases since the Henry Gable had through grapevine heard of the prospects of the Blue Spider project and had managed to have Gary prepare all the proposal documents. The Park Corporation had an edge over the competitors in the initial stage and planning stages. This changes when the implementation stages comes. There are major delays that arise from external and internal forces. Gary, for instance, is able to identify that the slow decision making by the team members ate on their time to make substantial progress. At the conclusion phase, they however make a better impression by handing in the project in time despite the strife. Resource management The company displays poor personnel management as seen in manner in which Gary tries to get the new employee to be fixed for the weekend testing. The employees are switched from their departments to suit the needs of the executives running the projects. Communication Communication within the company and also with the external parties is generally poor since the word go. Miscommunication leads to Lord Industries losing their trust in the corporation. The personnel selected for the project also complain of the poor communication as regards the major changes occurring with the project. Stakeholder management Stakeholders are not brought to the light on the conflicting issues in the corporation as most of the operations are run under the grounds of miscommunication and concealing of information. Risk management The corporation’s risk management practices are rather poor and questionable. In the case that Gary tries to censor the bad news from senior management, the company is seen as one that would end up collapsing or experiencing major setbacks since poor risk management always costs a company heavily (Faculty 2011). Contract and procurement management Parks Corporation displays its lack of efficiency in contract and procurement management in that they are not able to factor in all the necessary aspects of the project and analyze them in a way that will see them become successful in the end. B. What lessons have you learnt from BS project? Give reasons for your opinion. The Blue Spider Project presents many lessons from the manner in which every move produced certain results based on a cause and effect scenario. The manner in which a project is run attributes majorly to the nature of success that can be expected from the project. Basically, a project should be well planned and the three constraints, time, costs and the scope, factored in. The project managers should also be able to cover for the miscellaneous costs that may be encountered along the execution of the project in the event that the project experiences some setbacks. The failure of the Park Corporation’s R&D personnel to conduct a best analysis of the constraints leads to the project encountering setbacks that can be traced back to improper planning based on these the three constraints. Communication should also be well established in a corporation. This covers for communication within the corporation and external communication made with its clients. There should be a defined structure in order to avoid having communication happening through grapevine or through inappropriate channels. Ethical issues in business should be adhered to at all times. Failure to adhere to the code of ethics costs a corporation in the event that the issue they are executing without complying with code of ethics comes to light. A company is also bound to lose its reputation due to the failure to uphold business ethics. 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