Orion Shield Project turnitin

Executive Summary Scientific Engineering Corporation (SEC), was awarded the contract with Space Technology Industries, referred to as “client” to complete phase I of the Orion Shield Project. Phase I was to identify material to meet the requirements of an expanded life cycle for NASA’s Shuttle Launch Booster. An inexperienced project manager was chosen to lead this effort. This analysis identifies the technical, contractual, legal, ethical, and project management issues experienced throughout the life cycle of the project. The analysis shows a lack of planning at the inception of the project, improper staffing of the project team, lack of communication, failure in stakeholder management, unethical behavior and failure in balancing project constraints. The issues presented in this project resulted in a negative impact in SEC’s bottom-line.

The Orion Shield Project case proves itself to be filled with a number of project management deficiencies from start to end. Gary Allison a project engineer and inexperienced project manager was selected and accepted the position of Project Manager on the Orion Shield Project. This paper will provide an analysis of the technical, ethical, legal, contractual and other project management issues that were present throughout the project’s life cycle.
Technical Issues Staffing a project team is a vital piece of the project management process. The composition of a successful team includes members with the skills, knowledge, and abilities to perform the work of the project (Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), 2013, p. 35). This holds true in the assignment of a project manager. The first error in the Orion Shield Project was assigning Gary Allison as the project manager. As quoted in CIO (2012), “inadequately trained and/or inexperienced project manager can doom a project”. Schwalbe (2012), identifies ten knowledge areas a project manager must develop; it includes stakeholder, procurement, risk, communications, human