Blue Spider Project Case Studies
Report of the lessons learnt in the Blue Spider Project Case studies.
The Blue Spider Project that Gary Anderson managed for Parks Corporation was a good example of an unsuccessful project. There were many aspects that increased project risk and contributed to the problems encountered. Some of those problems could have been prevented or resolved if Gary Anderson applied proper project management methodology.
In any project, one of the most important success factor is the project manager being able to communicate effectively. Gary Anderson failed to communicate effectively both internally and externally. Internally, Gary had been consistently not updating the status of the project or any decision made to other functional managers. For example, when Gary started testing the new material JXB-3, he didn’t notify the testing manager and as a result, work that was no longer required were done which not only increased the cost of the project but also made the testing manger being upset as he needed to play catch-up and reallocate his resource. Gary Anderson repeated the mistake of having poor communication with internal staff when he didn’t notify the production manager of the rescheduling of the verification mix and forced the production of the mix to be performed during overtime which again increased the cost of project and caused the production staff making a mistake in the mix. More importantly Gary failed to maintain a strong external communication with the customer right from the start of the project. In the beginning of the project when Gary was ‘living’ in the research lab, it was basically impossible for the customer to contact Gary if they wanted an update of the project or had any questions. The customer didn’t have a clue of whether Park had started doing any work yet and they would be very concerned as Lord’s contract worth much more. Gary had broken the trust from Lord at the start of the project and as a result, Lord decided to demand more
The Blue Spider Project that Gary Anderson managed for Parks Corporation was a good example of an unsuccessful project. There were many aspects that increased project risk and contributed to the problems encountered. Some of those problems could have been prevented or resolved if Gary Anderson applied proper project management methodology.
In any project, one of the most important success factor is the project manager being able to communicate effectively. Gary Anderson failed to communicate effectively both internally and externally. Internally, Gary had been consistently not updating the status of the project or any decision made to other functional managers. For example, when Gary started testing the new material JXB-3, he didn’t notify the testing manager and as a result, work that was no longer required were done which not only increased the cost of the project but also made the testing manger being upset as he needed to play catch-up and reallocate his resource. Gary Anderson repeated the mistake of having poor communication with internal staff when he didn’t notify the production manager of the rescheduling of the verification mix and forced the production of the mix to be performed during overtime which again increased the cost of project and caused the production staff making a mistake in the mix. More importantly Gary failed to maintain a strong external communication with the customer right from the start of the project. In the beginning of the project when Gary was ‘living’ in the research lab, it was basically impossible for the customer to contact Gary if they wanted an update of the project or had any questions. The customer didn’t have a clue of whether Park had started doing any work yet and they would be very concerned as Lord’s contract worth much more. Gary had broken the trust from Lord at the start of the project and as a result, Lord decided to demand more
References: Dyer, R. (1984), ‘Planning and execution of a major R & D project’, International Journal of Project Management, 2(1), Pages 6-9