Gray, Marisa

Project Fundamentals

Spring 2010

Case Study: Orion Systems A

Question:

What recommendations would you make to Rosas about organizing the Jaguar project, and why?

Taking into consideration the history of ORION and the major concerns that have been identified in the major assessment I would make the following recommendations to Rosas.

The Jaguar project is cast to be very high-profile that would affect the procurement of future government contracts. As Rosas prepares the project scope and the start with the way the project teams are developed. In the past it indicated that team members could be working on several projects at the same time during the week. Due to the high profile of this project, suggest that engineers be recruited and assigned based on the high level of skills needed. Each assignment would have a core of engineers that are assigned to the project full-time so that consistency would be maintained. In order to keep the production costs within range, include on the design and development team a member of the manufacturing and logistical support. Having their input would be invaluable to eliminate a product being designed that would not be feasible when tested. From a long range view, having the customer support managers involved at least part-time during the design phase give them a greater understanding of how and why the design of the project functions. According to the assessment, there was concern with project ownership. If teams are brought together earlier, with an identified time commitment that would help towards engagement of members. Also if a communication plan were in place then even members that are not involved with the project on a full-time basis would be able to stay in touch with the progress so that when they are brought back into the plan, the catch up time would not be as great.

How would you change the organizational chart and master plan to reflect these changes?

In my opinion, I would recommend that Rosas incorporate ways to address the concerns found in the assessment. I would include the Production Manager, Integrated Logistical Support Manager and the Quality Assurance manager on the front tier of the organizational chart. With each team leader (TM) having team members whereby half the team is assigned full time. The chart would also reflect the time-frame of each step starting just as soon as the prior step is completed.

ORION B

What are the major changes between this plan and the way ORION has managed projects in the past?

The major change is the expansion of the managers and making sure their coordination of their respective disciplines are incorporated into major decisions. Having the extended group responsible for the quality and productivity of the subsystems for doing the work on time and within budget is also a major change. The concurrent approach of engineering is different. Once the systems design is reviewed and approved other teams will begin working within the laboratory to design, develop, and test specific subsystems rather than waiting until the end. This phasing of production is new because it works alongside the core development rather than waiting until key areas are completed. This will allow for any refinements needed before the project is so far down the production line. The bottom line, these changes should accelerate the project completion time, reduce production costs and contribute to customer satisfaction.

How well do you believe these changes deal with the problems identified in Part A?

Adopting these changes should save the project both time and money. It should also cut down scope creep because the key engineers are working together to design and implement. The challenges they had with customer support should be reduced because the manuals and technical documents can be produced as they are working along with the design.

This strategy should also provide a stronger sense of project ownership because team members would be included earlier in the project. The Team Leaders would recruit their team members with the understanding that at least half of the team would work on the project full-time. Keeping a communication plan updated and reflecting each step will also help member stay engaged when they are not working on the project directly.

Who is likely to support this plan?

This plan is likely to be supported by the manufacturing, marketing and other groups that would traditionally join the project after the full plan was underway.

Who is not likely to support this plan?

This plan will likely be challenged by the design engineers because they are used to running the complete show. They will now lose their special status and not receive the additional pay curves they are accustomed to.

Reference: Gray, Larson Project Management: The Managerial Process, McGraw-Hill Irwin