Conflict Management Lessons Learned from a Dod Case Study
Conflict Management Lessons Learned from a DOD Case Study[1]
If you have to choose one individual in the case study as most responsible for the termination of LAMP-H project, whom would you choose and why?
As it has been mentioned in the case study, the Project management within the United States Department of Defense (DOD) has been aptly described as the one of the world’s most complicated processes due to the fact that various stakeholders involved from above and below are likely to besiege the project manager. Hence, there were various factors which led to organizational conflicts amongst project stakeholders which finally resulted in termination of the project.
Failures on the part of different stakeholders can be summarized as under:
• US Army is responsible for wrong selection of “The Program Executive Officer (PEO)” who lacked the requisite criteria for successful project manager.
• Since performance characteristics for the LAMP-H was not defined, there was fund cutting by US Army.
• The user of the system, the Transportation School (T-School) was not clear about its requirement, even T-School was no longer certain whether it needed the LAMP-H system.
• T-School’s untimely completion (seven years delay) of the Required Operational Capability (ROC) document which was indispensable in DOD acquisitions.
• The Acquisition Strategy required that the R&D phase of the LAMP-H program be executed within 36 months but Test and Evaluation Command (TECOM) personnel failed to tailor its test program so that it could be completed within the ASAP (Army Streamlined Acquisition Program) structure.
• Formation of new inexperienced project management team, which accommodated whatever might be requested by various stakeholders, regardless of whether the requests were supported by the requirements analysis.
• Request for Proposal (RFP), which was expanded to include all of the special interests and additional requirements, was released twelve
If you have to choose one individual in the case study as most responsible for the termination of LAMP-H project, whom would you choose and why?
As it has been mentioned in the case study, the Project management within the United States Department of Defense (DOD) has been aptly described as the one of the world’s most complicated processes due to the fact that various stakeholders involved from above and below are likely to besiege the project manager. Hence, there were various factors which led to organizational conflicts amongst project stakeholders which finally resulted in termination of the project.
Failures on the part of different stakeholders can be summarized as under:
• US Army is responsible for wrong selection of “The Program Executive Officer (PEO)” who lacked the requisite criteria for successful project manager.
• Since performance characteristics for the LAMP-H was not defined, there was fund cutting by US Army.
• The user of the system, the Transportation School (T-School) was not clear about its requirement, even T-School was no longer certain whether it needed the LAMP-H system.
• T-School’s untimely completion (seven years delay) of the Required Operational Capability (ROC) document which was indispensable in DOD acquisitions.
• The Acquisition Strategy required that the R&D phase of the LAMP-H program be executed within 36 months but Test and Evaluation Command (TECOM) personnel failed to tailor its test program so that it could be completed within the ASAP (Army Streamlined Acquisition Program) structure.
• Formation of new inexperienced project management team, which accommodated whatever might be requested by various stakeholders, regardless of whether the requests were supported by the requirements analysis.
• Request for Proposal (RFP), which was expanded to include all of the special interests and additional requirements, was released twelve
References: [1] Sutterfield, J. Scott, Friday-Stroud, Shawnta S. and Shivers-Blackwell, Sheryl L. “How NOT to Manage a Project: Conflict Management Lessons Learned from a DOD Case Study” (Accessed on 21 Sep 2011) [2] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/ship/lamp-h.htm (Accessed on 22 Sep 2011)