Week 8 - Project Management

Executive summary

As a highly qualified and experienced engineer, Gary Allison deserved to be given the opportunity to head a project at SEC Company. The contracting partner STI puts a lot pressure on Gary after he questions the unethical tactics applied by his manager through falsifying on specification data for the project and is compelled to accept it. Gary experiences trouble in the entire project, as he strives to balance technical responsibilities and administrative role and end up mishandling his team. By undermining the project manager role bestowed on Gary, Henry Larsen demands to be provided with information about the project by Paula Arnold and goes ahead to initiate his own activities using the project’s budget without Gary’s knowledge. After being misled throughout the project, Gary lacks the capability to address the arising issues and correct the problems. The lack of sufficient support and communication makes Gary to uptake more tasks by himself and fails to perform the primary duties he is assigned.  While it is necessary to provide a final project with highest quality and to specification, one should balance such a goal with available budget. Lack of knowledge on project specification, project and work plane leads to failed project management.

Introduction

A successful project completion requires various important aspects with the most important being constant communication on the progress on the project. The communication process should specifically focus customer, so that they are up to date on progress of the project and the extent to which their specifications are being met. A lack of communication between the management of Orien Shield Project and the owners brought about the poorly developed and managed project. Failure to adhere to ethical code is also a major drawback on this project and Gary failed to address the issue on false data on specification from the beginning and allowed Henry to arm-twist him into accepting this dishonesty towards the client. The failure to exhibit management skills in terms of team management eventually resulted to various problems including technical, contractual, ethical and legal issues. Due to lack of staffing skills, the relationship between Gary and his team worsened, and this also led to poor relationship with management and STI .Even after working for long hours with Arnold, the job could not be completed in the right manner. Lack of support from the top management can result to failure at every step in project management. An understanding of interpersonal skills and recognition of the interest of the employees is an important ingredient in project management and success in development. As a multidimensional construct, success in project requires the involvement of people at all levels in management, and working in conjunction with employees carrying out assigned responsibility, a major quality that Henry lacked. He failed to provide support for the Gary and the management responsibility he offered him while expecting success in the project which was his baby. The final results were that Gary was overwhelmed by these responsibilities and wasn’t accountable for the position that he gladly accepted.

Ethical issues

Ethics plays an essential role in success of project and are informed by decisions made by the relevant managers (Schwalbe, 2009). The decisions are related to the cultural structure of an organization and a culture that ensures that ethical standards are maintained provided the best environment for project success (Jónasson & Ingason, 2012). Decisions should therefore be made on the basis of available information, facts and a decision making approach that has been will thought through (Scott, 2016).  The culture in this organization seems to accord little ethical standards to the process of decision making, and this is seen where Henry reasons with Gary that being truthful will not win a contract but at this juncture, dishonesty on project specification would ensure a successful bidding. Management in the case of Orion Shield project is a major component in ethical issues surrounding it. The fact that Henry Larsen, as the director of engineering, had little regard for honesty while dealing with customers and goes ahead to entice Gary into accepting his proposal shows an organizational structure that pays little attention to how ethics would affect overall performance. As long as the customer does not finds out the shortcomings in the project’s failure to meet the required specifications shows s culture where ethical standards are not adhered to and a lack of organizational structure to address the challenge.

Before the listing of the RFP projection by STI, Henry fixed Gary into an ethical dilemma by instructing him to dive false data on project proposal to serve his own interest while disregarding those of the customers.  Even the questioning of integrity by Gary does not concern him arguing that he was not looking for an ethical manager. Gary has his sight on excelling career wise and being truthful to the customer, he thought, would give him approval and a path for personal growth. By being forced by falsify on project material and other relevant information, his career and personal growth are jeopardized as the project fails to deliver customer standards. Lack of good structures in the organization that would support ethical values and standards affects may aspects of the organization including teamwork interpersonal relations, breakdown of communication process and overall failure in providing quality results. In successful corporations, a foundation of ethical standards and values offers a guidance system that is well understood and thereby ensuring that operations are effective and enable a decision making process that is appropriate to the company’s goals (Dinsmore & Cabanis-Brewin, 2011). Given that organization are social communities with a specific goal and purpose, an organizational culture that upholds ethics and values is a very powerful enabler in project success. 

As social communities, bad decisions made at the top level are bound to affect all other sections in the organization. The direction by Henry as a director forces Gary to falsify on crucial information on the project as he complies with unethical instruction on the project.  Gary was at fault for bending the truth so that the continuation of the project by the company would assured and therefore, save his job. Another case regarding lack of ethics unfolds when the project is being finished, when new testing presented to Gary indicates that the age life of the new material is less than expected. He perceives that it best for such findings not to be communicated to STI or even to his seniors until after the signing of the contract. While he had the opportunity to show that the results were not acceptable, in terms of a true indicator of the performance of the product, he decided to hoodwink the customer and management by failing to share the findings. Values in project management act as a barometer that guides thoughts and actions of individuals while working in a team. The behavior is internal to both an individual, team and the overall organization and its basis is personal values or organizational values that are embedded in the organizational culture. All leaders including project managers should work within values that have been set in an organization and should be held to established ethical standards even if an ethical code has not been laid down (Jónasson & Ingason, 2012). Lack of adherence to ethical values in the company led to the overall failure by the project management to provide high quality results. Decisions made and actions taken by Henry and Gary in terms involving project specifications and allocations of the budgeted resources was not in the best interest of the customer but mostly suited their desire for performance recognition.  Gary should have accepted only technical task since these are consistent with his background of technological experience and qualifications. The project management team leaders did not consider the standards and norms of the client and therefore engaged in actions that could be considered disrespectful and failing to consider the interest of others. Project managers must demonstrate accountability and transparency in the decision making and actions taken while at the same time considering objectivity and impartibility and on that basis take appropriate action. 

Legal and Contractual Issues

The contractual issues involved in project management can result to legal issues if the performance of a completed product fails to meet the requirements in the contract. The fact that contractual relationships are legal in nature calls for project team and team leaders to be fully aware of the risk of litigations that may be sought in the process of contract administration. This is a major issue that Henry as a director and Gary as the project manager failed to consider in the process of winning and administering the project. Gary Allison the major culprit in this case due to failure to ensure Orion Shield Project delivers the requirements of the contract and the customer can take legal action against him. He chose to follow the demands of the company’s management and in the process filled a falsified proposal and submitting it to STI so that the contract could be rewarded. Being the project manager, he bore the responsibility of communicating the appropriate costs that are associated with this project. When requested to provide information on the costs associated to the project, he gave false information to Sarah Wilson. He therefore stands at an inevitable risk of being charged with perjury, where a person intentionally presents false information as about the material as being true.  He can absolve himself from the risk of such litigation given the trust that the customer placed on him to be truthful in delivering the needed results and specification.  

There were also contractual issues that arose from failure of to honor the contracts requirements and misrepresentation of information by Gary who allowed Henry to hoodwink him into violating the contract for personal gain. The fact that Henry used all the money that was supposed for the project for other purposes indicates that there was little regard for the contract as a whole. The contract highlighted that this was a FPI fee that would give the project a basic fee and such a fee had to be reasonable for the customer. Delivering the project that was surpassed the stated requirements; a performance profit could have been received by SEC. This contract was actually FFP where extra incentives are not awarded, SEC as the contractor was to be liable for the extra cost.

Technical issues

The condition for the project required that for a contractor to be awarded the contract, they had to ensure that material to be used in the labs had to withstand 145 degrees in temperature. SEC was aware of such conditions even before the accepting STI and RFP. However, at the request of Henry Larson, his director indicated that the materials used in the project could withstand   a maximum of 150 degrees. These requirements were met after the JXB3 was included for replacement. STI had to accept additional material and present it to NASA even if such material was new and had not been tested at all. The structures of Scientific Engineering Corporation had a poor staffing approach especially in regard to technical skills required in the process of project completion. Human resource management in project planning is important in filling the technical skills required (Walker & Rowlinson, 2007). There were major issues that affected Orient Shield project where lack of inclusions of necessary competences made Gary to bear majority of technical responsibilities. He spent a lot of time performing various task and had little time for personal activities leading to overworking and frustration at the workplace. In the staffing process the organizational culture for SEC lacked good interpersonal relationship that could have allowed Gary to seek more technical skills to share the huge tasks.

 

Project management issues

Communication in project management helps in providing the link among the various aspect of the organization that includes ideas, people and information which is very important for success. Communication planning appreciates the needs of the project’s stakeholders who are in need of information, providing it when needed and determining the best way it will be provided. The communication process is therefore a life blood of the entire project and its success depends on how effective the process is (Roudias, 2015). The communication requirements for stakeholders are determined by stakeholders or customers of the project and on that basis a project manager selects the content and details of information required. The communication plan must also address the expectations or standards that must be complied with and especially as deemed important by the customer (Dunne & Dunne, 2011). Had he been aware of these principles Gary would have planned on how to keep the stakeholders of Orient Shield Project informed on the progress of the project and provided the information as required by them. The information that should have been provided by Gary’s team did not have to contain information that could serve Henry’s interest. Rather, it should have involved the client’s need of whether the expectations have been met as outlined in the contract.

According to Henry, Gary had to be a good communicator and know how to motivate his people to qualify as a good manager. The two aspects are in line with principles of effective project management since good communication help in creating interpersonal relationships within project teamwork. An effective interpersonal relationship assist in creation of a working environment that is motivating to the team members seen they can raise issues affecting them while rewards can given easily due to effective performance (Pm,  2000). However, the advice that Gary should work at the expense of other aspects of personal life does not guarantee one to be a good manager. Despite the role of project manager being fastidious, the healthiest attitude should involve managing fatigue ,  not losing one’s social life and having reasonable expectations both personal from the organization. The constitute a major aspect of good project planning involving allowing managers and staff to rejuvenate both physically and mentally so not to let fatigue interfere with quality of the work . Project leadership should involve defining and setting roles, planning for these roles and delegating to ensure that all team members are involved and thus reduced pressure on the manager (Schwalbe, 2015). These are important aspects that should have been included in advice offered to Gary. However, on the first two criteria, Gary was unable to communicate well and motivate his people and this made him to performance many tasks and finally his frustration.

There were two majors departments involved in carrying out the Orient Shield Project included the project development departments and testing department in which Henry and Gary were involved. The coordination of activities in these departments would have ensured that all activities were carried out in accordance with specifications offered by the customer. A major issue that affected these departments was staffing, as shown by lack of enough staff to assist Gary in carrying out the various tasks involved in the project. The departments should have come up with a staffing plan that would ensure that enough engineers and allocating them tasks in the departments according to their skills. Communication is important for coordination of activities in the different teams in the departments involved in a project. Project management involves collaboration and obtaining synergy among the various parties involved and having them to commit to the same goal. It involves having them to recognize the need for adequate support in improving the overall performance of the project (Binder, 2009).

 For Gary to have achieved different results, he should have adhered to personal values and ethics and develop a project plan that is based on the best interest of the customer.  Having an ethical decision making process is an important aspect that helps in generating respect and trust with stakeholders of the project including customers, top management and team members. Many of the mistakes that arose in the process could be attributed to wrong advice offered by Henry. Moreover, he could have made independent decision as the manager to avoid miscommunication. Moreover, Gary did not really fail in this project and the only problem was the increased cost of the project so his performance was fair but credit went only to Henry. The failure to meet all contract terms could be attributed to any failure in the project. The awarding of the contract to SEC for the new material is due to the positive aspect of the project.

Recommendation

There are various management issues that relates to this case which borders on organizational culture, ethical standards and staffing. An organization should develop values and ethical codes to guide decision making and reducing risks associated with legal issues that may arise (Schwalbe, 2015). If such a culture is developed, managers the decisions made by management can be put under check and managers called to account for them. Culture is normally defined by the communication process of n organization. SEC management should ensure that culture incorporates communication planning and which should be extending in looking for right competences.

Conclusion

There are valuable and vital lessons provided in the Orion Shield project especially to any project manager. A project that is developed on dishonesty end up failing and such failure is perpetrated by incompetent managers like Henry who deceive people and cover their tracks. Sticking to ethical behavior while dealing with customers and serving their interest first will not only lead to organization growth but personal growth also.

References

Pm, I. (2000). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide). Project Management Institute.

 

  Schwalbe, B., (2015).An Introduction to Project Management. Ed.5.

 

Scott, L. (2016). Gower handbook of people in project management. Routledge. 335-336

 

Jónasson, H. I., & Ingason, H. T. (2012). Project ethics. Farnham: Gower.

 

 

Dinsmore, P. C., & Cabanis-Brewin, J. (2011). The AMA handbook of project management. New York: American Management Association. 258-259

 

Schwalbe, K. (2009). Introduction to project management. Boston, Mass: Course Technology. 22-24

 

Walker, D., & Rowlinson, S. (2007). Procurement systems: a cross-industry project management perspective. Routledge.

 

Roudias, J. (2015). Mastering principles and practices in PMBOK, PRINCE2, and Scrum: Using essential project management methods to deliver effective and efficient projects. 10-11

Dunne, K. J., & Dunne, E. S. (2011). Translation and localization project management: The art of the possible. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Co.  302-307

Binder, J. (2009). Global project management: communication, collaboration and management across borders. Strategic Direction, 25(9). 44-46