Supersonic Concorde Airline - Assignment Example

Introduction Supersonic airline research in Europe began in 1956 and resulted in the British and French Governments signing an international treaty for the joint design, development and manufacture of a supersonic airliner six years later. The first prototype was rolled out, as at Toulouse in 1967 and since then, there have been a number of notable dates in the history of Concorde. In total 20 Concorde were built between 1966 and 1979. The first 2 Concorde were prototype models one built in France and the other in England. Another 2 pre-production prototypes were built to further refine design and test out groundbreaking systems before the production runs, of only 16 aircraft in total, commenced in both countries. The first production aircraft off each production line did not enter service but acted as a test bed for the granting of airworthiness' certification as well as providing extensive route proving information. In the end only British Airways and Air France purchased Concordes, with the airlines initially purchasing 5 and 4 aircraft respectively. In this paper the Project Manager was assigned by both the British airways and the Air France to prepare a report in developing a commercial supersonic airliner and ensure that it is completed on time and within budget. The paper describes the skills and competencies required for a project manager to be able to produce the necessary development of the supersonic airliner. The project manager will be able to site some problems that may encounter during the development. The possible cause of delays and incompletion of the project is analyzed. Proper approach on this project is needed to be able to focus on the project. Skills and Competencies The Project manager should possess the following skills to be able to success in this project: Technical Expertise, Ability to work with the user/client, Project management tools and techniques,ability to nurture and motivate project team members, and ability to solve problems. Technical Expertise - is the most ancient ingredient of project manager. In the golden years many believe that the essential qualification of a successful project manager is its technical expertise in the said project. Since developing a commercial supersonic airliner it is the best skill that a project manager must posses. After all, without consummate technical expertise how could the project manager command the respect of the team, plan a technically elegant solution or solve problems as the project progressed Without superior technical knowledge how can a PM enforce high standards and avoid having the "wool" pulled over their eyes by wily team members The Concorde project is a technical project that needs the best knowledge on it. In this project the PM should be able to analyze the needed development as to what should be done to make the commercial supersonic airliner success. Ability to work with the user/ client - as project management evolved it soon became apparent that project managers also required the ability to sting together a few coherent sentences when they discussed a project with the recipients of its benefit. As time passed this basic communication requirement evolved into the need for project managers who could "see" the project from the user's or client' s perspective rather than concerning themselves only with the technology. The highest evolution of this ingredient is when we seek project managers who plan project based on their impact on the business and drive the effort to deliver business relevant outcomes. Project manager tools and techniques - also became apparent there were specialized tools and a technique for the project manager has to possess. At the Development of Concorde supersonic airliner the project manager must formulate a good tools and techniques in order for the to produce a good project. Overtime the tool set expanded on the scalable methodology that a project manager could adapt to suit projects' with different characteristic of varying strategic reach. Finally there is now recognition that successful project managers use their tool that to manage "out in front of" the project team uncovering problems early and bringing about the resolution before they have a significant effect on outcome. Ability to nurture and motivate project team members - at about the same time there was recognition that the "expert power" of the technical guru was not sufficient to yield highly motivated project teams. Particularly those borrowing people, across functional lines, needed additional techniques and interpersonal processes to develop effective project team cultures. They also make assignment that keep team members clearly focused on their outcomes and foster team member feelings of accountability for delivering them. Ability to solve problem - organization always want project managers who are a good solver problem and this fit very neatly with the historic requirement that project manager be the technical expert. As the complexity of the problem grew and the area of expertise expanded there is recognition that consistently successful project managers "build" effective solving problem teams whose members don't bring every problem to the guru for resolution. Other skill includes accountability, authority and responsibility. It is but important that the team should be able to finish the said project on a given with a reasonable cost of the project. The Concorde project needs more time and must be financially able since this project will cost a lot. It all depends on the skills and competencies of the Project Manager. Competent maintains most of the original meaning: a competent project manager is properly or sufficiently qualified to manage a project. But competence is also dependent on the characteristics of the project involved. For example, a project manager who is competent to manage residential home construction may not be competent to manage nuclear power plant construction. Just like handling the Concorde project. A competent project manager of the project in a food chain store may not be competent if the project like the Concorde will be given to him. Competency is now widely used to refer to a specific, observable characteristic or behavior that leads to excellent performance. This leads to an interesting anomaly: a competent project manager may be missing one or more competencies! Competencies can be difficult to define because of the need to establish a causal link between the behavior and the accomplishment. To be able for a project manager to be competent in this project he must be able to accomplish something on a given period. You may be a good project manager but not competent enough to be able to finish the Concorde project that needs to be done with knowledge in technicality and specs. Project Life Cycle The project life cycle is divided into five phases: A. Define - This is the phase of the project where the project concept as a need solution is evaluated, selected, and defined. The project manager chosen for the Concorde project will make a request for the approval of the development of the Concorde supersonic airliner. Here the objectives are being presented, to formalize and institutionalize the initiation of the Concorde project. The object of this project is to be able to develop a commercial supersonic Concorde airliner. The focus will be on the development. Cost estimation is the next activity. To estimate how much software engineering time will be required to do some work. Here the project manager should produce an egoless team. Here everybody is equal, and the teamwork together to achieve a common goal. This team is suited to difficult project such as this. The structure of the subordinate in this team is to report to the manager and is responsible for performing the tasks delegated by the manager. By doing this, the team ensure that only those projects that warrant investment are actually undertaken and executed. This will also help in managing the workload of individual departments. Anyone from the team can make a Project Request. The Request form needs to be signed by the Operating Unit Head. The Project Approver needs to evaluate the request on the basis of pre-set criteria. Upon receiving the project request the project now will have the status of approved or denied. A project manager will now be chosen from his skills and competencies and assigned to this project. A project overview statement - The Project Overview Statement (POS) essentially is a short document that establishes the purpose of the project, and explains what business value it will provide to the organization. The objective of this activity is to secure management approval and to provide the Project Manager with the authority to apply organizational resources to project activities. The POS becomes a source of reference for the project team. The problem is identified. The project goal and objectives are determined. The success criteria are identified. The required effort is estimated. Assumptions, risks and obstacles are identified. Here the main goal is to be able to develop a commercial supersonic Concorde airliner for both British Airlines and Air France. The objective has been determined and from it we will be able to create a plan. The objective of this activity is to help Initiators in justifying a business need. This activity is needed so as to ensure that the costs and benefits for all projects are weighed before investment is made. The Business Need is established. Dependencies are identified. A Cost-Benefit analysis is done. Funding requirements and risks are identified. Since this project cost a lot it will be necessary to provide a report for financial funding. The project will take a year to be able to finish. Even if the works are being delegated still the project will not be finish within 2 to 3 years. The objective of this activity is to define the roles and responsibilities of the various team members and stakeholders, and to define the decision-making structure for the project. Escalation procedures are defined. Rules and responsibilities are defined. Phase Gate - Gain approval to develop project plan. This activity ensures that management approves the transition of a project across its various phases. This will ensure that projects that are not likely to succeed are "killed" early. Senior management analyzes status reports and the communication with the customer and in conjunction with the Project Manager makes a decision if the project should move to the next phase. Here the phase gate is being evaluated as to approved or denied. B. Plan: This is the phase of the project where the concept is verified and developed into a workable plan for implementation. Planning kick off meeting - This activity review the Development of commercial supersonic Concorde airliner, the overview statement, set expectations, and articulate any risks that are likely to occur and dispel any doubts that the team may have. The Project Manager calls for this meeting. Guidelines are being sets for the project execution and articulate from the project team. Project timelines, Project Approach, risks, assumptions, and constraints are discussed. Next is the project approach. Here we will able to establish a high-level approach of how to implement the project goals by developing an implementation approach, and project policies and standards. The Project life cycle and the various phases for the project are determined. Any reusable components from other projects are identified. The various methods in which the project objective can be achieved are evaluated and the best method is chosen. A rationale is provided for this decision. Quality Strategy is to decide on the Quality Strategy that will be used for the project. The Project Manager and team decide which Quality Assurance and which Quality control activities will be carried out for the project. Work Plan - Work Breakdown Structure here the activity is to decompose the project into activities, sub-tasks, and work packages. This allows the Project Manager to estimate the duration of the project, determine the required resources and schedule the work. Work Plan - Estimating Time and Cost to estimate the time and cost for each task. This will be an input to the development of the Work Plan. Work Plan - Schedule Development. The objective of this activity is to document the various tasks that need to be executed during the project duration, to assign responsibility for each of the tasks, and to establish timelines for the tasks. It also establishes dependencies between various tasks. This will ensure that the project can be completed on time and that the business scope of the Overview statement is addressed. The plan will continue to Risk Management Strategy Plan, Communications Management Plan, Issue Management Plan, Quality Assurance Plan, Resource Plan, Procurement Plan, Operational Transfer Plan, Integrated Project Plan, Team assignment and Phase Gate - Gain approval for plan. C. Launch - This is the phase of the project where certain management activities are carried out to ensure that the project is established with clear reference terms and substantial management structure. In this cycle the Project manager will launch a kick off meeting to ensure that all the project team are doing the right thing and no problem will be encountered that could delay the project. The Project manager inform the team of the ground rules for the project, the working style, the communication plan and the escalation process for conflict resolution. Initial risk identification - this is to ensure that the entire team identifies risks for the project. This ensures that all perspective is taken into account. Team readiness here the individual assigned to a project are provided the requisite training in order to perform the job and that key goals and responsibilities are identified for the team members at the start of the project. Team readiness - This is to ensure that the individuals assigned to a project are provided the requisite training in order to perform the job and that key goals and responsibilities are identified for the team members at the start of the project. The project manager must have key goals for each team member to motivate them to finish the project. D. Manage Phase - This is the phase of the project where the implementation plan is carried out. Under this phase are the Project Plan Execution, then the Performance Tracking and Reporting- this process is to ensure that the team involves in the development of the Concorde supersonic airliner is making satisfactory progress toward the project goals. The purpose of this phase is to Track cost, time, scope and quality, Track actual accomplishments and results, and provide visibility into progress. Schedule control - here we ensure that the tasks are executed as per Work plan so that the deadline for the project can be met. If the schedule cannot be met, the relevant stakeholders need to be informed. Tracking is done by exchanging task status information with team members and then incorporating the latest status information into your project Work Plan. If the any task, schedule or resource information has been changed, the Project Manager needs to communicate the revised Work Plan to the project team. Change Control - all changes to scope are documented and authorized by the relevant stakeholders. The Project Manager ensures that the Change Request Form has been filled out. The Project Manager analyzes the change request. The Project Manager and established governance may approve or deny a change request. Cost Control - Although the development of the Concorde supersonic airliner cost a lot, the cost control of this project is very much appreciated by the company. The objective of this activity is to manage project cost such that it is aligned with budgeted cost. Costs are agreed upon with the sponsor at the start and upon completion of the project. The budget has to be constantly monitored by the Project Manager. The variance between Budgeted cost and Project cost needs to be communicated to and approved by the sponsor/customer. This should also be present in the status report. Quality Assurance & Control - This process comprises project reviews, product reviews, code reviews, testing, and any other process that the Project Manager might think necessary. Defects are identified, and categorized. Root causes are analyzed. Procurement Management - The objective of this activity is to ensure that appropriate resources are employed, that the process of selection is fair and that the quality of work is acceptable. The contract needs to be signed by authorized signatories. Risk Management - to identify risks, to reduce the probability of the identified risks, to identify mitigation strategies, to identify contingency plans for the bigger risks, and if realized, to reduce the impact of these risks. Management monitors risks with a risk exposure over the threshold limit. Risk mitigation strategies are planned and contingency plans are developed. The Risk Matrix is revisited at and appropriate frequency. Information Distribution - in this activity the project manager ensure that all appropriate parties are kept informed. All relevant information needs to be communicated to the appropriate parties at the right time and in the appropriate format. Time Tracking & Management - Time spent is tracked at a project level, and analyzed at an organizational level. Phase Gate - Gain approval to move to production. Senior management analyzes status reports and the communication with the customer and in conjunction with the Project Manager makes a decision on whether the project should move to the next phase. This will ensure that projects that are not likely to succeed are "killed" early. E. Close Phase - This is the phase of the project where the project process is completed and documented, and the finished product is transferred to the care, custody, and control of the owner Transition to Production - Its ensured that all planned testing is carried out, all customer requirements are met and that the product is fully operational. The Project Manager ensures that the customer accepts the product before Transition to production. Wrap-up Meeting - The Project Manager calls this meeting. The Project Manager, and the team members discuss the project experience including problems faced during project execution. Solutions to such problems are suggested and discussed. Lessons Learned are discussed. Lessons Learned - The Project Manager develops this "Lessons Learned" document with the help of the project team. This document is deposited in the knowledge base. Administrative Closure - The Project Manager ensures that the project is approved and accepted by the relevant stakeholders. All documentation and records are reviewed, organized and archived. Backups are taken. Resources are released and the project is closed. Conclusion Development of commercial Supersonic Concorde airliner needs to be carefully since the main concern of this project is focus on the commercial group. Proper planning, evaluation and being a competent and skilled Project Manager is one of the main ingredient of an effective and successful project. The Concorde development will take at least 2 to 3 years before we will able to implement the said development. The British and France would appreciate the success of this project. The outcome and success of this depends not only from a skilled and competent Project Manager but also depends on a good teamwork. References: 1. Ten Step You Can Manage http://www.tenstep.com/open/0.0.0TenStepHomepage.htm 2. Succesful Delivery Toolkit http://www.ogc.gov.uk/SDToolkit/deliveryteam/briefings/businesschange/skills Read More