Project Management and Program Office free essay sample

Federal Radar On the morning of November 14, Sharon Taylor, Space Warning Network (SPAWN) Program Manager, was getting ready for a private meeting with Paul Shaifer, President of the Federal Rader Corporation (FedRad). Mr. Shaifer had scheduled the meeting to discuss the problems that had plagued the company’s important SPAWN Program during its first year and a half. These problems, which included unauthorized design changes and Taylor’s inability to control the program’s cost, schedule, and technical performance, had contributed to a cost overrun and schedule delay, estimated at 30% and four months respectively, and a general loss of customer confidence. The Federal Radar Corporation Since its founding, FedRad had been pre-eminent in the radar field. FedRad’s scientists and engineers were prominent figures in the development of radar and, over the years, the name â€Å"FedRad† was synonymous with technical excellence in building radar equipment. Financial success had rewarded the company’s technical skills in the production of surface, navigational, and fire control radar equipment for the military services and large prime contractors. In recent years, however, sales, employment, and profits had declined appreciably as heavy competition reduced FedRad’s contract capture rate. During the years, FedRad’s largest customer by a substantial margin was the Navy. Air Force business was growing rapidly, however, and FedRad thought it might eventually equal the Navy’s volume. The SPAWN Program accounted for most of the company’s Air Force business and was the largest single program in-house. The Space Warning Network (SPAWN) FedRad won the SPAWN prime contract 18 months ago. SPAWN was an advanced warning system to detect, tract, and report weapons fired from space. The SPAWN radar subsystem required several advances over earlier radar systems because of unique scanning and tracking problems. The other major subsystems were similar to those of existing manned aircraft and missile warning systems, but the performance and reliability requirements for the system as a whole were considerably more stringent because successful reaction to a space attack requires an extremely fast and accurate response. Although FedRad had always made significant contribution to radar’s state-of-the-art, most of the radar equipment it had developed prior to the SPAWN Program was based on the same fundamental principles. In addition, the major portion of its contracts had required only the redesign and improvement of existing components to meet new specifications. Consequently, the company was able to follow a management approach characterized by functional groups (e. g. , engineering, marketing, purchasing), performing traditional tasks. Although program coordination existed, there was very little centralized control over a total program. FedRad first departed from its traditional approach to organization when the company won the SPAWN contract. To win the competition, FedRad had descried a SPAWN Program Office in its management proposal. There were two reasons for this departure from tradition: first, the recent loss of a key Navy contract, primarily because of an unsatisfactory management proposal and second, the Air Force’s current attitude toward contractors’ management organizations and procedures. Establishing Program Management for the SPAWN Proposal Upon winning the SPAWN contract, Paul Shaifer announced the appointment of Colonel Brian Emery (USAF, Retired), formally Assistant Deputy Commander for Systems and Logistics, Air Force Systems Command, to the newly created position of Special Assistant to the President for Management. At the same time, Sharon Taylor, formerly Ordnance Fabrication Shop Supervisor, was appointed to be the SPAWN Program Manager. Victor Towell became the new Vice President, Programs. He was 48 and had been with FedRad for 25 years. He also assisted the Marketing Department in its efforts to identify and capture new business in a variety of positions (see Exhibit 1). These individuals were given the charge to establish the actual SPAWN Program Office Organization. Soon after the contract award, Emery and Taylor developed a long and complete description of the SPAWN Program Office which called for a staff of 20 people reporting to Taylor. Emery and Taylor presented the new organization to key Engineering, Manufacturing, Purchasing, and Marketing Departments personnel. Their attempt to solicit support for the new SPAWN Program Office was a complete failure. Most functional managers vigorously resisted the concept that a centralized program organization should have overall responsibility for a program’s technical, cost, and schedule elements. â€Å"Technical integration has always been performed by the Engineering Department,† declared Charles Greggson, â€Å"and, as far as I am concerned, always will. I plan to appoint a Program Engineer, the staff administrator we traditionally use to monitor program activities. This person will handle the Program Office’s contracts with Engineering and I’ll conduct my own Engineering budgeting and scheduling. I think your proposed provision that all customer contract be conducted through the Program Office is unnecessary and unworkable. † The Purchasing Department resented the appointment of a subcontracts manager and felt that anything this manager would do directly with the subcontractors was a violation of their prerogatives. The Marketing Department opposed the idea that Taylor should play a major role in the marketing effort and should becomes acquainted with both the Air Force SPO Director and higher-level military and DOD officials. Otherwise, they favored a strong Program Office because they felt the Air Force desired it. Emery and Taylor presented and discussed the new organization on many occasions during the next three weeks. Each presentation led to lengthy arguments and terminated in disagreement. At this point, Emery was assigned to another task. Consequently, establishing an operational SPAWN Program Office was left entirely to Taylor. When the actual engineering work was to being, Taylor had been able to secure, for her office, only five people from the Engineering Department. These people were responsible for technical management and program control. Greggson refused to give Taylor additional engineers. Taylor was able to obtain from other departments one person to perform manufacturing liaison work and another to act as Subcontracts Manager. She hired two Program Control people. Taylor felt insecure about her organizational support as SPAWN moved into high gear. Her feeling was borne out during the next six months. By January of this year, the SPAWN Program was two months behind schedule and a cost overrun of from 10-25% was projected. The problems leading to the January situation are described below. Technical Management Problems The Program Office’s technical management team consisted of George McTavish, Technical Manager, Phillip Hsu, Technical Manager, and Peter Kolman, Systems Integration Coordinator. All three men remained on the Engineering Department payroll. McTavish was assigned 80% to the Program Office. Hsu was assigned 100% to the Program Office and reported directly to McTavish. Kolman worked with the Program Office as necessary but continued to report to his Engineering Department superior. It became apparent that the Program Office was technical manager in name only. The Engineering Department’s technical integration action continued to perform the same functions it traditionally had performed for Air Force representatives without going through the Program Office explaining, when questioned by Taylor, that channeling technical communications through a third organization only confused matters. In two instances, Taylor learned about unauthorized design changes would result in improved technical performance, Taylor doubted that the improvements would justify the schedule delay and cost increase. She learned that FedRad engineers had obtained informal approval for the changes from lower-level Air Force engineers, but she was not certain that the SPO Director would approve funding for the changes. Program Control Problems Taylor’s program control team consisted of Mary Brody, Program Control Manager, and Frank Gonzales, PERT Supervisor. Both were assigned full time to the Program Office. Although they had experience in program planning and cost analysis, neither had prior experience with PERT networking (an approach to managing costs and schedules). The description of the work breakdown structure and PERT network, both of which were included in teh SPAWN proposal, had been prepared by Anatole Kalmis, a Project Administrator in the Engineering Department. Kalmis had worked with Taylor and the Marketing Department during proposal preparation, but was recalled to handle detailed networking and changes full time for the Engineering Department after the program began. As defined in the SPAWN management proposal, Brody and Gonzales were responsible for PERT, which included maintaining the work breakdown structure and master plans, revising and up-dating the PERT networks; preparing system output reports, such as Management Summary Reports; and recommending corrective action for problems revealed by the reports. During the first months of the program, however, their roles were reduced to monitoring the actual planning and control work conducted within the Engineering Department and trying to integrate this information into the total program plan. These plans encompassed the other FedRad departments and contractors of major subsystems. Several incidents occurring between June and January had created problems for the Program Office. In one case, Gonzales was not informed of a network revision made by the Engineering Department to reflect a schedule slippage caused by a shortage of engineers. This revision was discovered only shortly before a set of drawings was scheduled to go to the computer subcontractor. As a result, the subcontractor’s schedule also was delayed and several engineers were placed on idle time. On another occasion, FedRad engineers had provided Air Force representatives with work breakdown charts detailed below the level furnished by the Program Office. The SPO Engineering Deputy had a question regarding the charts and called Taylor to inquire about it. He ascertained in short order that Taylor was both unaware of the charts in question and uninformed about the overall status of the engineering effort. Following this incident, the SPO officer developed the habit of contracting FedRad engineers directly to obtain information. Subcontractor Management Problems FedRad had three SPAWN subcontractors for the major computer subsystems and the smaller display subsystem. The subcontracted portion represented about 45% of total contract dollars. All three subsystems were closely interdependent and were expected to meet stringent quality and reliability requirements. Of the three, FedRad previously had worked with only the computer subcontractor. Kay Hollis, assigned 50% as Program Office Subsystems Manager, was responsible for monitoring and analyzing subcontractor performance. The Purchasing Department was responsible for all contractual, price, and delivery matters. George Dierden, Purchasing Department Manager, had made it clear during the proposal effort that his organization was fully competent to negotiate with vendors, and had promised to object if any unnecessary duplication or interference by the Program Office came to his attention. Taylor had several problems involving subcontractor management during the June-January period. The most significant of these was a series of revised proposals submitted by the communications subcontractor during negotiations with Purchasing. As of January, requirements changes had escalated contract costs by 15% and the contract still had not been finalized. An additional group of 25 Engineering Change Proposals were awaiting approval by the FedRad Engineering Department, following which they would be negotiated by Purchasing. Another difficulty involved the display subcontractor. The terms of that subcontract had not defined a specific set of management and control procedures, and the subcontractor’s procedures were very difficult to translate accurately into categories useful to FedRad. As a result, Hollis was unable to monitor the display program’s status, or even to identify the single person in the subcontractor’s organization who could talk knowledgeably with her. George Dierden refused to help Hollis, stating that since the contracts people had affirmed to him the subcontractor’s intention and ability to meet requirements, he saw no need for additional information. The Program Office Staff Increase By January, Taylor felt that she had lost control of SPAWN program. Consequently, she described her problems to Paul Shaifer and asked Shaifer to take some action which would increase her effectiveness as Program Manager. Shaifer responded by securing the release of several additional people to the Program Office. Two of these people were appointed to the previously vacant positions of Logistics and Field Support Manager and Quality Assurance Manager. Others provided additional support to the Program Control and Technical Managers. With her staff increased to 13 people, Taylor felt better prepared to face her responsibilities, which were now focused on the Air Force acceptance testing of the first prototype unit, scheduled for August. By early March, Taylor was able to report that her expanded staff had given her substantially greater control over the program. This improved control, however, was largely brought about by better liaison and information-gathering capability. The actual role of the Program Office remained the same, since the functional mangers still were reluctant to yield those responsibilities, which through years of experience, they were confident they could discharge effectively. Further Problems Taylor’s new feeling of control soon vanished. Early in April, she saw a FedRad technical memorandum referring to a significant design change in the Translator Module, a highly sophisticated component linking the radar sensing unit with the computer subsystem. The change surprised her because she had thought the Translator design was finalized at the beginning of the program. Any change in the Translator concerned her because it constituted the interface between the radar and computer subsystems. In addition to the expense of the change itself, any change might have significant impact on those subsystems. A second problem arose. It became apparent that FedRad would be unable to meet the deadline for the Air Force acceptance tests of the first prototype unit, originally scheduled for August. During the summer, the anticipated test date was delayed successively to September, November, and then December. Taylor declared that the inaccurate projections were due to the fact that delays in the end-item completion were reported to her at the last minute. The slippage was accompanied by a projected cost overrun of 30% which, Taylor assured the customer, could be reduced to about 5% by anticipated shortcuts in the development of the second prototype unit. Colonel Grace, the Air Force manager of the SPAWN program, was pessimistic and displeased. He told Taylor that he regarded the Translator redesign to be a waste of money and the cost overruns and schedule slippages to be unacceptable. In October, Grace wrote to Colonel Emery, and old Air Force friend. Among other things, Grace wrote, â€Å"I’m worried about persistent slippages and I’m under pressure from my superiors. My position is sensitive because it is apparent that I should have stepped in and put tighter controls on FedRad months ago. Please try to do something about FedRad at your end†. Shaifer’s Meeting with Taylor Emery passed Colonel Grace’s letter along to Shaifer. Shaifer contacted Taylor and arranged a meeting for the morning of November 14. He suggested that Taylor prepare a list of the changes she wanted in staff, organization, procedures, and any mother areas she believed necessary to making SPAWN’s program management a success. Shaifer said he would do the same and ended the conversation with the comment, â€Å"Maybe between the two of us we can come up with a plan of action that will really work! President Paul Shaifer Special Assistant to the President for Program Management Brian Emery C o r p o r a t e S t a f f Vice-president Programs Victor Towell Vice-president Engineering Charles Greggson Vice-president Finance and Control Melinda Brodlin Vice-president Marketing Kim Parker Vice-president Manufacturing Carson Patel Purchasing Manager George Dierden SPAWN Program Mana ger Sharon Taylor EXHIBIT 1. Federal Radar Corporation Organization Chart