TCM 750: Advanced Project Management

Case Review I: The Blue Spider Project
By
Sona Ngoh

Missouri State University
Department of Technology & Construction Management
College of Business Administration

Spring 2014

Contents

1. Summary of Findings 3
2. Background Information 4
3. Problem Statement 5
4. Analysis of Issues and Alternatives 5
5. Detailed Recommendations 8
6. Implementation and Evaluation 9
I. Bibliography 11
II. Works Cited 12

Summary of Findings

The Blue Spider Project is an example of a situation where the project manager show lack of understanding of the life-cycle for project management and the inability to leverage the application of the key skills of integrated cost, schedule and technical performance management to achieve project success. Gray has engineering degree with an MBA, an outstanding record as a production engineer but fails as a project manager because he was unable to get a clear vision of all aspects of his project or capable of focusing on a specific aspect of the project while keeping tab of other aspects as required. Gray’s inability to leverage his newly acquired decision making responsibilities as a project manager with his technical expertise helped to escalate the drawbacks of a potentially valuable project into a near catastrophe, almost losing his job in the process.

Background Information

Parks Corporation is a Department of Defense contractor company that initially concentrated mainly on R&D projects for the Department of Defense. In recent years, Parks Corporation changed its focus from predominantly R&D business to a low-cost production facility. Parks Corporation was started as a small business with only a handful of engineers but had grown up to having 6,500 employees at some point. The recession of the late 1960s