A Troubled Project at Modern Materials Inc

No effective control and goal orientated leadership was visible. Nowhere during the four months did she ask for progress reports from the stakeholders, if she took any interest in the project and ask for progress reports, she would have seen that the project was behind schedule. No milestones were set to make sure that project goals were on track.

The main objectives of the pilot program were to test the new features and to gain feedback from people using the new system. Six weeks before the new system went live, Butler set up 40 phones with department coordinators and high-level staff to test the new system. Over three weeks they tested the system and gathered information to help improve the system if need by. The overall goal of the pilot program was to ‘gain buy-in from the user community’. Obviously when establishing a new program, there is bound to be some problems and bugs. For instance, Butler encountered a software bug that caused immense stress to the staff and the system developers. Some of the issues caused by the software bug were random server reboots, lost phone numbers, voicemail malfunctions, and a problem with all of the multiline phones.

• What mistakes happen during the designing project/mobilization phases? How did these mistakes impact the first 6 weeks of the project? Why is Chen finding the situation so difficult?

The problems started from the beginning when the project started in 1998 and they were not able to identify any Vendor during the first RFP project who could satisfactorily meet stringent system integration requirements. Only one vendor

Does the System do what the customer needs it to do in a timely and efficient manner?

*This was a build/design project. The idea of making design decisions after construction was underway is an recipe for catastrophe in a project of this magnitude. The city's insistence that this be held to a tight schedule yet allowing multiple design changes was unfortunate. There were too many players, lots of pressure, and the whole project was run by committee with differing agendas. The project administrators had to balance administrative, political, and social imperatives.

Livingston elicited feedback from the MIS management and was given a recommendation that there be a formal feasibility study and a logical timeline in order to keep the project on track. Instead, Livingston decided to violate the normal structure and simply appoint Tim Emary from the planning group as project leader. He gave the new committee a week to build a complete schedule with major milestones, etc. and a date of 18 months to completion of the project.

They also didn’t appear to honor any form of schedule or business ethics because they were charging direct labor time to the project while working on other projects. Functional management appeared to lack leadership and direction across the whole unit.

"With software projects failing (over budget and late) at an alarming rate of 80 percent, a premium had been placed on competent delivery methods and capabilities."

* unity of purpose and focus under a common corporate strategy (further supporting the firm’s strategy as it relates to acquisitions and divestitures);

The main problems with the existing system and goals for the future system identified as below:

Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc manufacture a variety of different products for individuals and businesses. Due to ineffective accounts payable system, Consumer and Industrial Products, Inc started a new project called Payables Audit Systems (PAS). The process of beginning this new project was taken very seriously. Roles were assigned and defined. Ted Anderson was the director of the project. Peter Shaw was assigned the responsibility of user project manager. The user project manager was “responsible for making sure that the system meets the user department’s

Parks Corporation should have appointed an experienced project manager to run the Blue Spider project and Gary Anderson, who was an experienced engineer, should have been made the assistant project manager with the responsibility of managing the project’s R&D activities. Anderson was too inexperienced as a project manager and really had no clue what the true responsibilities were for managing a project except what he might have learned in his MBA program. 2. Project requirements needed to be clear and specific. In order to achieve successful project management and implementation, Anderson needed to ensure the requirements for the Blue Spider Project were clearly stated and written down in detail, so everyone involved in the project clearly understood the requirements. And, everyone needed to know what was not included in the Blue Spider Project. 3. Regular and effective communication was needed. If effective communication channels were established that let team members share their knowledge and skills Anderson could have delivered the right understanding of the project requirements to all the team members involved. All types of communication helps build a bridge between team members and stakeholders who have the responsibility to detect potential problems, clarify details, and maintain trust. 4.

The project did not achieve desirable standards as far as customer requirements, scope, environment and execution were concerned. It was important that the project integrators to ensure customers do not escalate during the implementation of the project, being the first adopters of the software FoxMeyer should have exercised caution by adopting the software in phases rather than implementing the project directly, furthermore, execution was the biggest problem, despite knowing that the project needed skilled personnel FoxMeyer did not train staff during the early stages of the project and had to rely on consultants. Finally the company should have gained control over the project from the start to ensure that all the staff and management were involved but in this case despite knowing that the project would not work as envisaged the management did not take control or stop the implementation of the project.

to the future of the company. A plastic injection mouldings manufacturer, they had for the last twenty