Orion_Shield_Project_Case

Executive Summary After 14 years as a successful engineer with Scientific Engineering Corporation (SEC), Henry Larson promoted Gary Allison as project manager of the Orion Shield Project. This was a promotion that would change Gary’s successful career at SEC significantly. In less than a year, Gary went from a preeminent engineer at SEC, to nearly loosing his position with the company, due to his lack of project management skills and Henry Larson unethical guidance. During the course of the Orion Shield Project, Gary encountered several technical, ethical, legal, and contractual project management issues. His lack of project management experience was evident from the beginning, and throughout the project Gary failed to recognize that a project manager is responsible for the errors of the project. In addition, to his inexperience in project management, Gary’s bad communication and honestly to the stakeholders played a major role in the failure of the Orion Shield Project. Gary should have informed his counterparts of his missed deadlines and poor test results. That way many of his problems would have either been avoided or resolved in an ethical fashion. Furthermore, Gary should have communicated to SEC about Henry’s unethical involvement in the project. Gary decision to keep Henry Larson involvement hidden, ultimately led to Gary taking on the full responsibility and action of all the errors that occurred throughout the project. His miscommunication, poor decision-making, and mismanagement of the project budget not only negatively impacted the stakeholders of the project; it also negatively impacted Gary’s career. In this paper we examine the downfall of Gary Allison’s Orion Shield Project. Tables of Contents Introduction According to Somebody (2011) Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, securing, and managing resources to successful achieve specific goals. The most important aspect of project management is the delivery of positive results on time and within the project budget. In order to successfully complete a project it’s important a project makes efficient use of time, human resources, capital, resources, and communication. An essential responsibility of the project manager is the execution of project control system in the initial phase of the project so that the project can progress on time and within budget. Project control is an important aspect of a project and if executed incorrectly it can have destructive effects on the project outcome. In Gary Allison’s case, the incorrect execution of project control was the ultimate downfall of the Orion Shield Project. The technical, ethical, legal, contractual and communication issues of project management will be discussed as they relate to the Orion Shield Project, along with an analysis of Gary Allison strengths and weakness throughout the project. Technical Issues Gary Allison encountered many technical issues when trying to produce a product that could meet SEC maximum temperature requirements as well as guarantee a long life expectancy. Gary Allison tried to use his best judgment on the research and design phase of the project by keeping close watch of detail on the actual process of the project. Gary also spent majority of his time contributing to the design and research attributes of the project. In doing so Gary hoped he would be able to recognize and resolve any technical issues prior to them becoming a problem. Nevertheless, Gary efforts didn’t go as planned in the closing stages of the project. Gary focused so much of his time controlling one area of the project that he ignored his additional obligations as project manager. Gary could have avoided a great deal of the pressure associated with the project if he would have looked to his staff members for assistance. As a project manager it is logical that Gary wanted to supervise the operations of his project, but as a new project manager he should have trusted his staff members would perform well. As a project manager this type of management skill is known as (THIS) when a manager allows other work as a team (Pg.5). Gary Allsion spent so much time working on administrative paperwork due to the warning he received for Space Technology Industries that it stopped focusing on the supervision of the research and design phase of the project. Even though, the team is responsible for their individual assignments, Gary as a project manager should have focused on allocating his time accordingly so that he could have learned about the new material (JXB-3) before testing begun and not after. Many of Gary technical issues could have been avoided if he found a balance between his administrative tasks and helped with testing and develop phase of the new product. Ethical Issues The first example of an ethical issue takes place prior to SEC winning the bid to create the product. In the initial notice received by RFP Gary observed that the temperature specifications of SEC proposed product only went to 130 degrees F instead of the 145 degrees F required by Space Technology Industries. Gary Allison notified Henry Larsen with his concern of the temperature specification, and Larsen told Gary to tell Space Technology Industries that SEC proposed product could withstand 155 degrees F. Feeling unsure about Larsen idea to change the specifications Gary went along with the change. Most organizations have what is known as a code of conduct. A code of conduct is defined as a set of rules outlining the responsibilities of or proper practices for an individual, party or organization. Related concepts include ethical codes and honor codes (Reference). In most managerial positions, employees are required to take ethics and code of conduct training before assuming a managerial position (Reference). In the case of Gary Allison, it is apparent that no such training was taken. Providing false information in the initial stages of winning a bid is a very unethical practice, especially if the false information is coming from the project manager. It was extremely important that Space Technology Industries and NASA received the correct specification requirements so that test requirements could be met and considered safe. Ultimately Gary Allison failed the code f ethics when he decided that it didn’t matter if Space Technology Industries or NASA receives correct information and when he let Henry Larsen to persuade him to present false information in their bid. In project management ethics focuses on four areas: equality, truth, honesty, and integrity (Reference). In the case of Gary Allison he lacked all four areas of ethics when he decided to present false specifications of SEC product to win a bid. From the beginning Gary should have told the truth about the flaw of the product, because being honestly about the flaw could have helped Space Technology Industries and NASA realize that they were working with an honest organization and not one willing to risk safety specifications to win a bid. In the end, Gary gave up his integrity when he allowed himself to go along with Henry Larson unethical plans. This one discussion ultimately cost Gary his management career with SEC. Legal Issues In project management cost and time are extremely important not only to the project, but also to the client. As soon as SEC won the bid and Gary Allison became project manager they both became responsible of finishing the project within the set time and within the budget of the client. Dispute Gary’s numerous mistakes; this is an area he did succeed in. Gary took on working 16 hour days and doing most of the project task on his own to meet deadlines. This is a good trait for a project manager to have because it inspires other staff member to work just as hard as their project manager. If Gary wouldn’t have been able to delivery on time and within budget his client had the legal right to take action if cost was connected to the failure of the project. On the other hand, Gary decision to fabricate test results in the proposal and lie to the clients of where the funds was coming from to test the new material created legal issues. If the client found out this information under legal contract laws they have the right to back out of the contract as Scientific Engineering Corporation wouldn’t have held up their end of the contract. The most important goal of project management is to complete the product on time and within budget. Legally time and budget along with safety must be taken into account when completing a project. In Gary’s case he was able avoid breaking the contract obligation due to his dedication of meeting the deadline and budget. Contractual Issues Despite Gary Allison errors throughout the project he did show strength in his efforts of contractual obligations. Regardless of his failure on the administrative side of the project, Gary was able to protect and do what was needed of him to complete numerous deadlines. However, Gary lack of effort to produce superior customer service ultimately overshadowed his positive effects of contractual obligations. The breakdown in communication ultimately came from Gary’s lack of administrative duties, which led to the client becoming upset about the way the work was being completed as well as how communication was being processed. Even though Gary delivered his information on time to the clients at the meeting it lacked the sufficient information they were looking for. Moreover, Gary didn’t provide to the clients the obligations of delivering complete minutes for all interchange meetings. It is very important for project managers to meet all contractual obligations along with presenting their results in an acceptable manner or the risk of losing the contract can happen. This was the case for Space Technology Industries who threatened SEC to improve their results or risk them pulling the contract to find a new contractor. Communication Issues Communication is probably the most important factor in project management. As a project manager Gary Allison did a poor job in communicating with the client, his mangers, and project management team. His failure in communication resulted in rushing to meet deadlines and produce altered schedules in order to make certain that all work was completed on time. Gary wanted to reschedule the verification mix when the team got off schedule, but this wasn’t effectively communication to the production and engineering team and ultimately resulted in the team having to put additional hours in to computer the task and get paid at the overtime rate of their salary. If Gary implemented an effective communications plan this would have helped Gary avoid many problem, as well as set a guideline for his team to follow. Space Technology Industries main issue with the project was the lack of communication with the progress of the project. Gary Allison should have showcased better managerial skills, by assigning work task, and requiring mandatory work status updates on a weekly basis. Conclusions In the end, Gary Allison did possess all the attributes to one day become a successful project manager. However, his inexperience as a manager prevented him from succeeding. The first thing Gary should have done was identify the technical issues in the product to fix before submitting the proposal. Instead, Gary failed to create an effective project plan that outlined major deliverables of the project, and ultimately resulted in him being easy manipulated by Henry Larsen. Numerous ethical, legal and contractual issues were created because Gary’s lack of effective project planning. Gary was able to make most of his deadlines, but at the expense of falsifying documentation. Gary would have been a better project manager if he would have included better business practices in his management technique. Also, constructing a project management plan could have help with better communication amongst his team, while giving his client a summary of project expectations. In the end, if this was carried out many of Gary’s ethical, legal, and contractual issues could have been avoided. Also, producing status reports for the clients would have been beneficial to Gary’s project as well. Finally, Gary could have been an effective manager if Henry Larson would have taken the time to train him in best practices before he started overseeing the project. References