Project Management: Scantel Project - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages It consists of five major systems as mentioned which can be briefly described as Initially Callister was faced with the problem confidentiality during the development and procurement of the equipment to be engineered for the project.There was a dilemma between confidentiality and the necessary evil of expert opinion which put the project at the risk and mercy of being plagiarised or "stolen".Most of the decisions in this regard have been left tentative as evident through the diagrammatical analysis above.Reasonable estimates have been drawn up by Callister, subject to the "optimistic", more likely and "pessimistic estimates". Furthermore, the development of the unique lens, relying heavily on the trial and error approach (as shown by events (5-38-43-44)is at the risk of being procured late due to its specialist nature. However as evident in the diagram and the conclusions of Callister the manufacture of the lens is not amongst the critical path activities. The diagram expresses no fear of delays within the sphere of the development of the visual support system. Moreover, there is an optimistic possibility of the work being completed beforehand if the funding is allocated at the right time and place. The control logic system was innovative yet due to its novelty and the lack of prior experience of the company with it there was a fear that the time schedule here could be tentative. Events 37-42 present the time frame for the development of the chassis and body requirements and the major uncertainty involved here was the timely receipt of data collection from other units.Last but not the least is the Display system which was only at the risk of facing delays due to the delivery timings. The dangers presented by delays Scantel like, any other company in its position is facing a rather time-based competition in the market.Its network diagram and product design cycle should be imperatively short and the time estimates should be as accurate as possible. The problem with the design activities underlying all the above five subparts of the project are intertwined to a large extent and the uncertainty does not make the task any easier.Take the example of lens design. The development of this product needs a lot of trial and error(reiteration) For example, some activities may have to be iterated several times to meet the design criteria. The problem with such time-critical projects as Scantel is that they are at a risk of market failure and profit loss if the established target dates are not met.Academics have always elaborated the dangers that time delay can cause and have pointed to possible losses where there will be a corresponding "domino" effect on the subsequent tasks and a drain on the resources.(Nichols 1990.Research has shown that "if a product suffers from a 50% over expenditure in product development, the loss of total recoverable profit is 4%. However, if the product is late to market by 6 months for a life cycle of 5 years, it can lose one-third of its profit" (Nichols, 1990). New information and trial and error based development almost always cause an uncertainty in the time base. (Nukala et al., 1995). ...Download file to see next pagesRead More