The Program Definition And Risk Reduction Contracts, Valued At $ 128 Million

The program to design and construct the Collins Class Submarine has become one of the most complex and expensive Defence procurement programs in history. It was devised to replace the existing Oberon submarine fleet. The Collins Class Submarine program demonstrated the capacity of Australian industry to manufacture a world-class submarine. Nonetheless, the procurement of the Collins Class Submarines has not been without criticism. The program has experienced various project management issues that ultimately lead to increased costs and time delays. This report will address these issues along with traditional Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and non-traditional KPIs and their interrelationships.

The Fortune 500 Company chosen for this paper is the Lockheed Martin Corporation. Lockheed Martin is a global securities and information technology company headquartered in Bethesda, MD. Lockheed Martin employs roughly 126,000 people in several facilities throughout the world. The company's main business is in research, design, development, manufacturing, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. Lockheed consists of four operating units, or business areas, which consist of Aeronautics, Electronic Systems, Information Systems and Global Solutions, and Space Systems (LMC, 2011).

For this report there were 2 managers interviewed for this topic, Scot Carpenter Director of System Engineering at Teledyne controls and Masood Hassan, Vice President and General Manager of Teledyne Controls. Scot was brought in as the director of System engineering on May of 2016 to oversee the System Engineering group and to handle change for a couple items within the group, mainly the restructuring of the group from 2 functional managers to a 6 distinct groups within the group. Scot has worked with the company as Program Managers which has required him to oversee program with multiple groups while working with individual employees to ensure the success of his product lines. Masood has been with the company for over 20 years and has been the Vice President for more than 15 years. In that time frame he has to work through down turn in the aviation do to the events on 9/11 and other events. He has made changes to the structure of the company, creating System Engineering group, deciding the correct course of action to bring products to production and other aspects of running a company with 500 or more employees.

In BEST robotics, each year the team and I receive a new challenge to complete using only the materials given and in a short period of time, 6 weeks. In this time we brainstorm, analyze, design, build, test, and document our production. We follow the DMADV engineering process which contains the following steps, define, measure, analyze, design, and verify. While using the engineering process is important, the most crucial part of the group is our teamwork. In our club we use a holacracy management system; this allows members of our team to take charge in what he or she is best at and distributes authority so no one person has all the power. Furthermore, as a team we conduct team-building activities like swedish twister, the human knot, or various board games. These activities are a must for the team to function at its greatest capacity. I hope that I will be able to apply the engineering, teamwork and leadership abilities through the NSA to serve and protect my

On Nov 2013, the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) awarded the contract to “modernize” its existing custom developed application Cadet Administrative Management Information System (CAMIS) II to the Solers Corporation (Solers Corporation, 2016). CAMIS was developed over several years and began to encompass support for many disparate business processes at the Academy, but primarily served as a Student Information/Management System. This modernization effort or CAMIS III was the third iteration of moving CAMIS from a legacy system to a new platform. Almost 2 years later: Mar 2016, this project ended with the government decision to discontinue the modernization effort. This was done by primarily not exercising option years and stopping funding on the modernization development line item of the contract. (Paulson, 2015) Despite modernization effort ending, the government continued to support the CAMIS III operations and support portion of the contract, as well as the legacy CAMIS II contract. This paper attempts to analyze why this software project failed, based on the personal experiences and perspectives from the overall combined team and attempts to understand why. The major reasons for failure included: gross underestimates (scope, cost, and schedule). However, there were opportunities to achieve a better outcome. These opportunities were failures by the program manager, vendor team, and management stakeholder expectations.

The department’s leadership is responsible for providing appropriate manpower and resources to each mission using an increasingly tight budget, while also following strict laws for high priority missions, such as nuclear defense, which mandate both high levels of training and manpower (Air Education Training Command, 2015). Additionally, warfare technology has become incredibly advanced. Due to this complication, the educational and technical requirements for military service members and employees are steadily increasing.

The United States Air Force has been able to carry on a great tradition of air supremacy and advanced technology. They were born in September 1947, when they separated from the Army Air Core, and became their own unit (www.peterson.af.mil). Providing for the troops that serve always has been a top priority of the Air Force. The Air Force is run in management form, just like any large organization, or small business. It has a rank structure, where tasks are delegated down from the ranking Officers through the Enlisted Core. After significant evaluation, I have researched and identified the following six categories necessary for the Air Force to preserve

The United States Air Force has traveled on a dangerous road to get to where it is now, this path has been crucial in creating a strong foundation and

Canceling this project is a restructuring theme that will have the goal of improving overall-profit margin through a narrower focus on the company’s core military project business. Our competitors are already well established in the civilian aircraft market. We are not ignorant of the significant financial, emotional and reputational investment

For the majority of American workers, the ultimate mission of their employer is to make a quality product, with the ultimate goal of making a profit. For my employer, the Department of Defense (DOD), the mission, “is to provide the military forces to deter war and to protect the security of our country” (About the Department of Defense, 2015). Having employees that understand how they contribute to the mission, vision, and goals of the DOD is taught from day one. With the ultimate responsibility of taking life, strong core values are also of high importance. Each component of the DOD create their own statements of how to complete their specific area of responsibility in the DOD mission. For the Air Force, each section all the way down to individual units, develop their own statements on how they fit into the overall mission. The following paragraphs will discuss the Technical Order Home Office’s, core values, mission, vision, goals, structure of the unit, and how the key leaders contribute to the overall success of the Air Force and the DOD.

This position paper will address if the F-35 JSF program is worth the current investment the United States has placed into it. First the pros of the program will be presented followed by the cons. Finally, the paper will discuss why the JSF program is not worth the investment.

1. How would you describe Boeing’s approach to project management? What are its strengths and weaknesses?

Boeing’s management plan shows determination to improve through creation of new more members of their airplane family (commercial airplanes). This would also be achieved through integration of military platforms, systems for defense and the war fighter by use of network-centric activities. Boeing plan is also inclusive of creation of improved technology to solve problems across all business units. Boeing plans to e-enable airplanes where automation is the key to this development. Finally, Boeing is determined to arrange for financing solutions to its customers. Through this it will be able to attract more potential customers. Moreover, it can also be able to establish a better relationship with its customers through provision of incentives and sales promotion.

B. Strategic Posture Mission "People working together as one global company for Aerospace Leadership." Objectives

1.1 In developing the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, Boeing executive management’s initial decisions and project management strategies did not control the four major measurements of project success: time, budget, performance and client acceptance (Pinto, 2013, pp. 35,36). This report analyses the methodology and project management decisions that led to a project crisis and risk to Boeing’s reputation.