Module 1 - Case
PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
Case Assignment
The Apollo Project, which placed men on the Moon, began in
1963 and ended in 1972. Remarkably, no human being has set foot on Lunar soil
since Apollo 17, which returned to Earth in December 1972. The project remains
a unique chapter in human history; audacious, heroic, and so implausible, given
the technology of its day, that some people still believe that it all took
place on a Hollywood sound stage.
In this Case, we will examine the early days of the project.
Please write an essay answering the following questions:
Apollo 11: Neil Armstrong on the Moon
Credit: NASA
Assignment Expectations
Q1. Where did the project come from? Give a brief
description of the circumstances out of which the project arose.
Q2. Discuss the project constraints (cost, scope, etc.) in a
rough, qualitative way. Since the project sponsor was the richest, most
powerful country on Earth, it is clear that many of the constraints were
largely irrelevant. However, which constraints could have been “show stoppers,”
and under what conditions?
Q3. Barron and Barron (2012) discusses four major areas of
expertise that are required for the successful completion of any project. Which
of these was most crucial to the success of the Apollo project? Why?
Resources for this Case are listed on the Background
Information page. These are starting points; feel free to search the Web for
additional information, and use whatever you think is useful. Be sure to
provide citations and references for everything you use, including materials
linked to this course.
Module 1 - SLP
PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
PART I.
Applying the criteria found in Chapter 4 of Barron &
Barron, determine whether each of the following scenarios is, or is not, a
project. Write a short paragraph for each scenario, explaining your logic.
Developing and bringing to production a vaccine targeting a
newly-discovered variant of influenza. Following CDC guidance, it must be
available no later than1 Octoberof this year.
Performing quality control testing of new vaccines.
Designing the Spring and Summer Collection of a major
fashion house. A new collection is premiered every year in February, during New
York Fashion Week.
Developing and fielding a new air defense system based on
lasers. Some progress can be made, but the final design must await development
of key technologies.
Write a novel. A publisher has paid an advance, and expects
deliverywithin 180 days.
PART II.
Describe a project in which you have been involved. The
project can be something you were involved in at work, at your church, in some
other organization, or something you did for yourself and your family. Using
the criteria above, explain why it was a project.
Choose carefully: you will be asked questions about this
project as part of SLPs 2, 3, and 4.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer the above questions using short, well-constructed
paragraphs. Feel free to use tables and bulleted lists, if appropriate.
The readings do not provide specific answers to every
question. You will need to “fill in the gaps,” using your understanding of the
questions, the Background Information, and whatever additional information you
can find on the Web.
Style and format must comply with the Trident Writing Style
Guide (TUI, 2014).
This is not an English course; however, errors in spelling,
grammar, and style will be penalized.
Provide citations and references. Use of APA style (TUI,
2014)) is encouraged, but not required.
There is no page requirement. Write what you need to write.
Module 2 -
Case
PROJECT PLANNING
Case Assignment
We continue our examination of the Apollo Project by
considering some planning and project initiation issues.
Every project has stakeholders; people and organizations
that will benefit, in some way, from the project. For a project the size of
Apollo, the list was extensive, as were the types of benefits. But there were
also non-stakeholders; those who opposed the project for various reasons, the
most common being that the project would absorb resources that could be put to
better use elsewhere. For the first part of this Case,do the following:
List the most important stakeholders, and what they expected
to gain.
List the non-stakeholders – the project opponents – and give
some reasons for their opposition.
The Apollo Project was ambitious to the point of madness in
one respect; both the preferred solution and implementation plan were unknown
at the outset. Achieving the goal would require inventing the required
technology as the project went along. Accordingly, a series of increasingly
more powerful rocket engines and larger, more capable spacecraft were developed
and tested in the run-up to the Apollo 11 launch. For the second part of this
Case,
Summarize the sequential technological advances that took
place between Kennedy’s announcement of the project, and the Apollo 11 launch
in 1968.
Comment on the “build the bridge as you go” approach. For
what sort of project would that be appropriate? What sort of organization
should attempt it?
Resources for this Case are listed on the Background
Information page. These are starting points; feel free to search the Web for
additional information, and use whatever you think is useful. Be sure to
provide citations and references for everything you use, including materials
linked to this course.
Assignment Expectations
Integrate your answers to the above questions into a
well-constructed essay. Feel free to use tables and bulleted lists, if
appropriate.
The readings do not provide specific answers to every
question. You will need to “fill in the gaps,” using your understanding of the
Project’s history, plus the Background Information.
Style and format must comply with the Writing Style Guide
(TUI, 2014).
This is not an English course; however, errors in spelling,
grammar, and style will be penalized.
Provide citations and references. Use of APA style (TUI,
2014) is encouraged, but not required.
There is no page requirement. Write what you need to write.
Module 2 - SLP
PROJECT PLANNING
Barron & Barron (2012) lists six major categories of
project constraints.
PART I
1. List them.
2. The following scenarios describe ongoing projects. In
each project, one of the major constraints is either tightened (made more
controlling) or relaxed (made less controlling). Which constraint is being
either tightened or relaxed, and (more importantly) what will be the likely
effect on the other five constraints? Explain your reasoning. (You may, if you like,
go online and find more information about the project, but that is not
necessary. Your commonsense understanding of what is involved will be
satisfactory. The important thing is to explain how your understanding supports
your analysis.)
2.1 Josh and Brittany are planning to paint the interior of
their house, prior to putting it on the market. It is important that every room
be either completely repainted, or touched up. They were planning to use a
premium paint costing $30 per gallon, but after running the numbers, decided
that the total bill would be too high. As a result, they are planning to use a
discount paint costing $20 per gallon.
2.2 An engineering team at Honda is designing the next
generation of subcompact sedan. After considerable debate, they have moved from
a stamped-steel body to a carbon fiber composite body, feeling that less weight
and greater strength is “the wave of the future.” There are many uncertainties
involved in adapting this technology to mass production.
2.3 The design team at a fashion house has run into
problems. Right in the middle of designing their Spring and Summer Collection,
the lead designer died of an overdose. The remaining team members, aware of
their limitations, decide to make minor changes to last year’s line, and focus
their attention on accessories, such as scarves, purses, and shoes.
PART II
Write a short essay (two or three paragraphs) explaining the
constraints you had to deal with while completing the project you described in
SLP 1.
SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer the above questions using short, well-constructed
paragraphs. Feel free to use tables and bulleted lists, if appropriate.
The readings do not provide specific answers to every
question. You will need to “fill in the gaps,” using your understanding of the
questions, the Background Information, and whatever additional information you
can find on the Web. Style and format must comply with the Trident Writing
Style Guide (TUI, 2014).
This is not an English course; however, errors in spelling,
grammar and style will be penalized.
Provide citations and references. Use of APA style (TUI,
2014)) is encouraged, but not required.
There is no page requirement. Write what you need to write.
Module 3 - Case
PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
Case Assignment
Project execution and control can, and should be, very
procedure-based. Reports are written, information is shared, meetings are held,
milestones are met or not met, work schedules and budgets are adjusted, etc.
This is fertile ground for the project management consultants, who specialize
in making sure all the procedures work as expected.
Procedures tend to go out the window, however, when a crisis
strikes. A crisis is, by definition, an existential threat to the project; the
whole thing is in danger of failing. The Apollo Project encountered at least
two. In the first, three astronauts died on the ground. In the second, three
astronauts were in imminent danger of dying in space, as the world watched in
horror.
For this Case,
Describe the crises.
Describe how NASA reacted to them.
How did the NASA response either exemplify, or vary from,
the various recommendations contained in the background readings? Explain.
Resources for this Case are listed on the Background
Information page. These are starting points; feel free to search the Web for
additional information, and use whatever you think is useful. Be sure to
provide citations and references for everything you use, including materials
linked to this course.
Assignment Expectations
Integrate your answers to the above questions into a
well-constructed essay. Feel free to use tables and bulleted lists, if
appropriate.
The readings do not provide specific answers to every
question. You will need to “fill in the gaps,” using your understanding of the
Project’s history, plus the Background Information.
Style and format must comply with the Writing Style Guide
(TUI, 2014).
This is not an English course; however, errors in spelling,
grammar, and style will be penalized.
Provide citations and references. Use of APA style (TUI,
2014) is encouraged, but not required.
There is no page requirement. Write what you need to write.
Module 3 -
SLP
PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
When a project falls behind schedule, the possible “fixes”
fall into two broad categories: crashing and fast-tracking. Crashing involves
adding resources, such as manpower. Fast-tracking involves identifying two or
more activities that were scheduled to occur consecutively (that is, one after
another) and performing them concurrently (at the same time). Both approaches
incur extra costs and risks, and may not be possible in all situations.
PART I
Analyze the following situations. Explain if, and how,
crashing and fast-tracking could be used. Be sure to address these two specific
options, and not simply talk about all the things you could try.
Your teenager is going to see her grandmother, and has a
non-refundable airline ticket. She needs to be out of bed, washed, fed, packed,
and dropped off at the airport no later than 10 AM. The alarm does not go off,
and it is apparent that getting her onto the plane is going to be a challenge.
After fighting off the initial panic attack, what do you do?
You are a general contractor. You have signed a contract to
have a new house ready for occupancy no later than July 1st, or pay a penalty.
It is the first of June, and the following major tasks have yet to be
performed:
Lay carpeting in the living room, den and bedrooms.
Paint the entire interior.
Blow insulation into the attic.
Install the cooker hood (vented through the attic).
Sod the front lawn.
More labor is available, at extra cost. What do you do? Why?
(Obviously, you will need to make some assumptions. State them.)
PART II
Refer to the project you described in SLP 1 and SLP 2. Did
any part of the project fall behind schedule? If so, how did you handle it? If
not, what resources were available, and how would you have used them, if the
project HAD fallen behind schedule?
SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer the above questions using short, well-constructed
paragraphs. Feel free to use tables and bulleted lists, if appropriate.
The readings do not provide specific answers to every
question. You will need to “fill in the gaps,” using your understanding of the
questions, the Background Information, and whatever additional information you
can find on the Web.
Style and format must comply with the Trident Writing Style
Guide (TUI, 2014).
This is not an English course; however, errors in spelling,
grammar, and style will be penalized.
Provide citations and references. Use of APA style (TUI,
2014)) is encouraged, but not required.
There is no page requirement. Write what you need to write
Module 4
Case
PROJECT CLOSEOUT
The Required Sources with an asterisk (*) are linked to the
course, and can be accessed directly.
You should read through, and be familiar with, both sources in their
entirety. For this Module, however, you
should study:
• Barron
& Barron (2012), Chap. 23
• New York
Guide (2002), Chaps. 3, 5
The Required Sources and the Additional Sources provide good
starting points; however, both the Module and the Case topics are extremely
well-documented, and you’ll be able to find many links to both governmental and
non-governmental sources. Feel free to
use whatever seems useful.
Be sure to provide
citations and references for whatever sources you use, preferably in APA
format.
Required Reading
* Barron, M. & Barron, A. (2012). Project management for all careers. Creative Commons. (the Text)
* New Your Guide
(2002). Management’s Guide to Project
success. New York State Office for
Technology. (the Guide)
Woods, W. (2011). The
Apollo flights: A brief history. How
Apollo flew to the moon (Chap 2). NY:
Springer Praxis Books.
SciAm (July 16, 2009).
Down to Earth: The Apollo Moon missions that never flew. Retrieved on 27 May 2017 from
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/canceled-apollo-missions/
Optional Reading
Madrigal, A. (2012).
Moondoggle: The forgotten opposition to the Apollo program. Atlantic magazine: Retrieved on 16 Apr 2017 from
www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/moondoggle-the-forgotten-opposition-to-the-apollo-program/262254/
NASA (2015). The
Apollo Mission (website). Retrieved on
16 Apr 2017 from www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/index.html
NASA (n.d.) The
Apollo program (links). Retrieved on 16
Apr 2017 from https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo.html
Case Assignment
“The past is never dead.
It’s not even past.”
In this Module, we consider what happens to a project once
it reaches the finish line; if it ever does.
Some projects, such as the iPhone, are finished at product
rollout. Production, of course,
continues at a frantic pace, but the design is frozen, at least for a time.
Other major projects, notably telescopes and particle
accelerators, are never finished, at least in the eyes of the developers. Rather, they are taken away from them by the
customers, who are anxious to begin work, and convinced that better is the
enemy of good enough.
Other projects just sort of wither away. President Reagan’s ballistic missile defense
system, popularly known as Star Wars, encountered a plethora of technical
challenges and budget overruns. The collapse
of the Soviet Union in 1989 decreased the perceived urgency of a missile defense
system, and the program has languished ever since. The first full-scale test, to be followed by
an operational deployment, was cancelled in 2009.
Despite setbacks and cost overruns, the Apollo Project was
successful. America achieved Kennedy’s
stated objective of landing men on the Moon and returning them safely to
Earth. Yet it did not complete all its
objectives, at least in the eyes of the scientific community. The last three
lunar landing missions (Apollo 18, 19 and 20) never flew.
Q1: Briefly recap the
reasons why the last missions were cancelled, including the factors that argued
against that decision.
An important part of any project closeout is the “lessons
learned.”
Q2: How did NASA
share the scientific knowledge gained from the Apollo program?
Q3: How did the
technical lessons learned during Apollo influence the American space program in
the years that followed?
Q4: What, in your
(informed) opinion, are the most important lessons that any would-be project
manager can take away from a study of the Apollo program?
Resources for this Case are listed on the Background
Information page. These are starting
points; feel free to search the Web for additional information, and use
whatever you think is useful. Be sure to provide citations and references for
everything you use, including materials linked to this course.
Assignment Expectations
•
Integrate your answers to the above questions into a well-constructed
essay. Feel free to use tables and
bulleted lists, if appropriate.
• The
readings do not provide specific answers to every question. You will need to “fill in the gaps,” using
your understanding of the Project’s history, plus the Background Information.
• Style
and format must comply with the Writing Style Guide (TUI, 2014).
• This is
not an English course; however, errors in spelling, grammar, and style will be
penalized.
• Provide
citations and references. Use of APA
style (TUI, 2014) is encouraged, but not required.
• There is no page requirement. Write
what you need to write.
Module 4
SLP
PROJECT CLOSEOUT
Project closeout is important for both the customers and the
project team. The customers need at
least two things:
Evidence that their requirements have been met.
Documentation of the project team’s responsibilities, if
any, following the end of the project.
Suppose the “project” is buying a new car. Then the first deliverables above would be
the keys and title, and the second would be the warranty, which includes the
owner’s responsibility to perform prescribed maintenance, and the dealer’s
responsibility to repair any defects attributable to vehicle design, assembly,
preparation, or delivery.
The project team, on the other hand, should receive a
Post-Implementation Report. This can be
either a formal document, or an informal briefing, but it should consist of:
Distillation of feedback.
What went wrong? What went
right? Why?
Lessons learned. In the future, what should be done
differently?
Derived best practices.
What procedures should be changed, to implement the lessons learned?
Suppose the project was building a house. Feedback might include a comment from the
appliance installer, saying that he has been required to remove the attic
insulation over the kitchen ceiling before installing the cooker hood, and this
task had been a time-consuming nuisance.
The lesson learned would be as follows: always install appliances that
require ducting before insulating the attic. The best practice might be to
either write or revise the construction checklist, specifying that these two
tasks must always be performed in the preferred order.
Assignment: Referring
to the project you discussed in the previous SLPs,
What was the most significant feedback you received,
following project completion? From what
sources?
What lessons did you learn from the feedback?
How did the lessons you learned change the way you would
approach similar projects, in the future?
SLP Assignment Expectations
Answer the above questions using short, well-constructed
paragraphs. Feel free to use tables and
bulleted lists, if appropriate.
The readings do not provide specific answers to every
question. You will need to “fill in the gaps,” using your understanding of the
questions, the Background Information, and whatever additional information you
can find on the Web.
Style and format must comply with the Writing Style Guide.
(TUI, 2104).
This is not an English course; however, errors in spelling,
grammar and style will be penalized.
Provide citations and references. Use of APA style (TUI,
2014) is encouraged, but not required.
There is no page requirement. Write what you need to write.
