Death of a Spy Satellite - Stillman and Rubin
Stillman - Case Study
Intro to Public Administration
The Death of the Spy Satellite
Facts and problems:
The problems that surrounded this Spy Satellite case appeared to be a direct result of a lack of oversight in all aspects of the project. Some of the pronounced facts were:
The project "Future Imagery Architecture (FIA)" was behind schedule and over budget
Boeing, the awarded bidder was the contractor for building the new generation of spy satellites. However, Boeing had never built these types of spy satellites previously, yet kept reassuring Washington that it could construct them and that it could comply with the stringent guidelines from Congress and the satellite agency.
By shifting the responsibility away from the military under a new policy to down size government, Boeing, the contractor was given sole responsibility over its work, yet it had never performed such a task.
Because of Boeing's lack of experience with spy satellites, the ambitious and objective proposed satellites were supposed to have strong enough radar and electro-optical elements, yet it could not be accomplished due to lack of expertise, manpower and defective parts, thus, played a major part in the lag time of the project.
The first satellite was to be delivered in 2004 and the National Reconnaissance Office ( satellite agency) anticipated that the cost to be approximately $8 billion in total, which was $3 billion over the budget set for this project initially. And in the end, in September 2005, the project was terminated and the cost thus far was approximately $ 13 billion. (Stillman, 2010, p.368) Boeing kept reassuring the government that the project, although it had issues, was still on task and doable. Unfortunately, Mr. Ed Nowinski, an engineer for Boeing, was released from his responsibilities with Boeing, as the project was falling apart.
Issues that were raised within administration were primarily oversight and the lack of accountability to the public budget
Intro to Public Administration
The Death of the Spy Satellite
Facts and problems:
The problems that surrounded this Spy Satellite case appeared to be a direct result of a lack of oversight in all aspects of the project. Some of the pronounced facts were:
The project "Future Imagery Architecture (FIA)" was behind schedule and over budget
Boeing, the awarded bidder was the contractor for building the new generation of spy satellites. However, Boeing had never built these types of spy satellites previously, yet kept reassuring Washington that it could construct them and that it could comply with the stringent guidelines from Congress and the satellite agency.
By shifting the responsibility away from the military under a new policy to down size government, Boeing, the contractor was given sole responsibility over its work, yet it had never performed such a task.
Because of Boeing's lack of experience with spy satellites, the ambitious and objective proposed satellites were supposed to have strong enough radar and electro-optical elements, yet it could not be accomplished due to lack of expertise, manpower and defective parts, thus, played a major part in the lag time of the project.
The first satellite was to be delivered in 2004 and the National Reconnaissance Office ( satellite agency) anticipated that the cost to be approximately $8 billion in total, which was $3 billion over the budget set for this project initially. And in the end, in September 2005, the project was terminated and the cost thus far was approximately $ 13 billion. (Stillman, 2010, p.368) Boeing kept reassuring the government that the project, although it had issues, was still on task and doable. Unfortunately, Mr. Ed Nowinski, an engineer for Boeing, was released from his responsibilities with Boeing, as the project was falling apart.
Issues that were raised within administration were primarily oversight and the lack of accountability to the public budget
References: McCune, Erin (March 2007) The Top 10 Project Management Challenges. Project Management in Payment Views. Glenbrook. Retrieved from: http://paymentsviews.com/2007/03/12/top-10-project-management-challenges/ Taubman, Philip (Nov. 2007) Failure to Launch. In Death of Spy Satellite Program, Lofty Plans and Unrealistic Bids. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/washington/11satellite.html?pagewanted=all#step1 Stillman II, Richard J. (2010) Public Administration Concepts and Cases 9th ed. Wadsworth Cenage Learning. Berkley, George and Rouse, John (2009) The Craft of Public Administration 10th ed. McGraw Hill, New York, NY