THE AJAX PROJECT

Ruby AmeySouthwestern College of Professional Studies

Project Management FundamentalsMGMT 505

Dr. LightFebruary 11, 2012

CEBEX CORPORATION

• CEBEX is a large Defense Corporation that has many other projects that are being all done at the same time. This corporation makes contracts for projects with many successes that are well known by the reputation of the corporation. The market for this corporation has been fast moving and growing steadily. With billions of dollars behind the corporation, all projects are easily within reaching their goals. CEBEX has annual sales in excess $30 billion with over 120,000 employees worldwide.

CEBEX CORPORATION CONTINUED

• CEBEX has five business areas Aeronautics, Electronic Systems, Information and Technology Services, Integrated Systems and Solutions, and Space Systems. AJAX is one of the new projects sponsored by the Integrated Systems and Solutions Division in the Homeland Security Business.

PROBLEMS TRAN FACESTECHNOLOGY PROBLEMS

• Audio• Optical• Tactical• Laser Subsystems

GENERATION AND CULTURAL PROBLEMS

• Cultural Differences• Generation Gaps• Salary Problems• Language and

Communication

METHOD OF SOLVING TRAN’S PROBLEMS

• Spending More Money on the Project• Spending Money on a Retreat• Motivating the Team Members• Defusing problems by Answering their

Concerns

COST ASSOCIATED WITH THE PROJECT

• Paying for the Retreat• Paying for the Facilitator• Paying for the Project• Paying for the Salaries of Experts• Overall Budget Costs

RISK ASSESSMENT FOR PROJECTRisk Event Likelihood Impact Detection

DifficultyWhen

Conducting the two day retreat

4 5 1 Beginning of the project

Conducting all phases of testing

5 4 5 Discovery of fault or success at the time of each test

Not knowing how the technology will respond until after installation

5 5 5 The difference of theory and practical application of theory

Cohesion of the team

3 5 2 Discovered at the beginning of the project

Project Risk Assessment (Amey, 2012)

RETURN ON INVESTMENTSReturn on Investment

“The quotient of original budget and actual cost was used to calculate the cost index (CI).

Project performance indexes were used to assess the cost and schedule performances on the

project considered to be representative of the company being benchmarked. The CI and schedule

index (SI) are defined in Equations 1 and 2. Cost Index, CI = (1)

Schedule Index, SI = (2)” (Kwak, 2000, p. 5).

CONCLUSION

• Tran did an effective job managing the project. He was initially faced with problems with his personnel refusing to work together because of cultural and age differences. He dealt with the issue by sending his group on a two day retreat. His efforts included hiring a facilitator to have exercises designed to create a cohesive team. The retreat was a success.

• The project progressed in five stages after installation. When installation was complete, the five tests were executed to determine the effectiveness of the installation, hardware and software of CEBEX. Tran encountered problems with the project during the second round of testing. Because of the nature of the work, his team became discouraged again. Tran effectively motivated his team by working with each group to boost their motivation levels. Finally, the project is on track with the third round of testing a success.

Reference• Anderson, J., ., & Narasimhan, R. (1979). ASSESSING PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

RISK: A METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH. Management Science, 25(6), 512-521.

• Charvat, J. (2003). Re-engineering IT Projects: Knowing When to Stop. Cost Engineering, 45(3), 10.

• Hamilton, T. M. (1968). Clarifying Responsibility Relationships. California Management Review, 10(3), 41-52.

• Larson, E.W., & Gray, C.F. (2011). Project management the managerial• process, fifth edition. Columbus, OH: McGraw-Hill

• Liu, L., & Zhu, K. (2007). Improving Cost Estimates of Construction Projects Using Phased Cost Factors. Journal Of Construction Engineering & Management, 133(1), 91-95. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9364(2007)133:1(91).

• Kwak, Y. H. (2000). Calculating Project Management's Return on Investment. Project Management Journal, 31(2), 38.