WEEK 8 ASSIGNMENT – ACTIVITY: KEEPING THE PROJECT ON COURSE
WEEK 8 ASSIGNMENT – ACTIVITY: KEEPING THE PROJECT ON COURSE
243
The Trophy Project
The ill-fated Trophy Project was in trouble right from the start. Reichart, whohad been an assistant project manager, was involved with the project from itsconception. When the Trophy Project was accepted by the company, Reichart wasassigned as the project manager. The program schedules started to slip from day1, and expenditures were excessive. Reichart found that the functional manag-ers were charging direct labor time to his project but working on their own petprojects. When he complained of this, he was told not to meddle in the functionalmanager’s allocation of resources and budgeted expenditures. After approxi-mately six months, Reichart was requested to make a progress report directly tocorporate and division staffs.
Reichart took this opportunity to bare his soul. The report substantiated thatthe project was forecasted to be one complete year behind schedule. Reichart’sstaff, as supplied by the line managers, was inadequate to maintain the currentpace, let alone make up any time that had already been lost. The estimated costat completion at this interval showed a cost overrun of at least 20 percent. Thiswas Reichart’s first opportunity to tell his story to people who were in a positionto correct the situation. The result of Reichart’s frank, candid evaluation of theTrophy Project was very predictable. Nonbelievers finally saw the light, and linemanagers realized that they had a role to play in the completion of the project.Most of the problems were now out in the open and could be corrected with ade-quate staffing and resources. Corporate staff ordered immediate remedial actionand staff support to provide Reichart a chance to bail out his program.
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244 PROJECT MANAGEMENT CAsE sTUDIEs
The results were not at all what Reichart had expected. He no longer reportedto the project office; he now reported directly to the operations manager. Corpo-rate staff’s interest in the project became very intense, requiring a 7:00 a.m. meet-ing every Monday for complete review of the project status and plans for recovery.Reichart found himself spending more time preparing paperwork, reports, andprojections for his Monday morning meetings than he did administering theTrophy Project. The main concern of corporate was to get the project back onschedule. Reichart spent many hours preparing the recovery plan and establishingmanpower requirements to bring the program back onto the original schedule.
Group staff, in order to closely track the progress of the Trophy Project,assigned an assistant program manager. The assistant program manager deter-mined that a sure cure for the Trophy Project would be to computerize the variousproblems and track the progress through a very complex computer program. Cor-porate provided Reichart with 12 additional staff members to work on the com-puter program. In the meantime, nothing changed. The functional managers stilldid not provide adequate staff for recovery, as they assumed that the additionalmanpower Reichart had received from corporate would accomplish that task.
After approximately $50,000 was spent on the computer program to track theproblems, it was found that the computer could not handle the program objectives.Reichart discussed this problem with a computer supplier and found that $15,000more was required for programming and additional storage capacity. It would taketwo months for installation of the additional storage capacity and completion ofthe programming. At this point, the decision was made to abandon the computerprogram.
Reichart was now a year and a half into the program with no prototype unitscompleted. The program was still nine months behind schedule with the overrunprojected at 40 percent of budget. The customer had been receiving reports on atimely basis and was well aware that the Trophy Project was behind schedule.Reichart had spent a great deal of time with the customer explaining the problemsand the plan for recovery. Another problem that Reichart had to contend with wasthat the vendors who were supplying components for the project were also run-ning behind schedule.
One sunday morning, while Reichart was in his office putting together areport for the client, a corporate vice president came in. “Reichart,” he said, “inany project I look at the top sheet of paper, and the man whose name appears at thetop of the sheet is the one I hold responsible. For this project, your name appearsat the top of the sheet. If you cannot bail this thing out, you are in serious troublein this corporation.” Reichart did not know which way to turn or what to say. Hehad no control over the functional managers who were creating the problems, buthe was the person who was being held responsible.
After another three months, the customer, becoming impatient, realized thatthe Trophy Project was in serious trouble and requested that the division general
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applicablecopyrightlaw.
EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) – printed on 8/29/2021 12:23 AM via STRAYER UNIVERSITYAN: 1502146 ; Harold Kerzner.; Project Management Case StudiesAccount: strayer
The Trophy Project 245
manager and his entire staff visit the customer’s plant to give a progress and get-well report within a week. The division general manager called Reichart into hisoffice and said, “Reichart, go visit our customer. Take three or four functionalline people with you and try to placate him with whatever you feel is necessary.”Reichart and four functional line people visited the customer and gave a four-and-a-half-hour presentation defining the problems and the progress to that point. Thecustomer was very polite and even commented that it was an excellent presenta-tion, but the content was totally unacceptable. The program was still six to eightmonths late, and the customer demanded progress reports on a weekly basis. Thecustomer made arrangements to assign a representative in Reichart’s departmentto be on-site at the project on a daily basis and to interface with Reichart and hisstaff as required. After this turn of events, the program became very hectic.
The customer representative demanded constant updates and problem iden-tification and then became involved in attempting to solve these problems. Thisinvolvement created many changes in the program and the product in order toeliminate some of the problems. Reichart had trouble with the customer and didnot agree with the changes in the program. He expressed his disagreement vocallywhen, in many cases, the customer felt the changes were at no cost. This caused adeterioration of the relationship between client and producer.
One morning Reichart was called into the division general manager’s officeand introduced to Mr. “Red” Baron. Reichart was told to turn over the reins of theTrophy Project to Red immediately. “Reichart, you will be temporarily reassignedto some other division within the corporation. I suggest you start looking outsidethe company for another job.” Reichart looked at Red and asked, “Who did this?Who shot me down?”
Red was program manager on the Trophy Project for approximately sixmonths, after which, by mutual agreement, he was replaced by a third projectmanager. The customer reassigned his local program manager to another project.With the new team, the Trophy Project was finally completed one year behindschedule and at a 40 percent cost overrun.
QUESTIONS
1. Did the project appear to be planned correctly?2. Did functional management seem to be committed to the project?3. Did senior management appear supportive and committed?4. Can a single methodology for project management be designed to force coopera-
tion to occur between groups?5. Is it possible or even desirable for strategic planning for project management to
include ways to improve cooperation and working relationships, or is this beyondthe scope of strategic planning for project management?
Copyright©2017.Wiley.Allrightsreserved.Maynotbereproducedinanyformwithoutpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptfairusespermittedunderU.S.or
applicablecopyrightlaw.
EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) – printed on 8/29/2021 12:23 AM via STRAYER UNIVERSITYAN: 1502146 ; Harold Kerzner.; Project Management Case StudiesAccount: strayer
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