Project Management and Tran Essay

Tran was victorious his dog C exclusivelyie on her evening walk as the sun began to set everyplace the coastal range. He looked forward to this succession of the day. It was an opportunity to enjoy roughly peace and quiet. It was besides a time to revaluation events on the Ajax retch and p disperse his next moves. Ajax is the grave name given by CEBEX for a high-tech security system project funded by the U. S. jut oute section of Defense (DOD). Tran is the project manager and his core them consisted of 30 full-time computer operoseware and software engineers. Tran and his family fled he was 18 and apply the education stipend to attend chapiter State University.He joined CEBEX upon graduating with a twofold degree in mechanical and galvanizing engineering. aft(prenominal) working on a variety of projects for 10 years Tran decided he wanted to encrypt management. He went to night school at the University of capital of the United States to earn an MBA. Tran became a p roject manager for the money. He also thought he was good at it. He enjoyed working with people and making the overcompensate thing happen. This was his fifth project and up to forthwith he was batting. 500,with half of his projects coming ahead of schedule. Tran was dashing that he could now afford to send his oldest fry to Stanford University.Ajax was one of many defense projects the CEBEX Corporation had at a lower place contract with DOD. CEBEX is a huge defense alliance with annual sales in excess of $30 billion and to a greater extent than 120,000 employees worldwide. CEBEXs five major(ip) business areas are Aeronautics, Electronic Systems, Information& Solutions, and spot Systems. Ajax was one of several peeled projects sponsored by the coordinated Systems & Solutions division aimed at the homeland security business. CEBEX was confident(p) that it could leverage its technical expertise and political connections to get going a major player in this maturement marke t.Ajax was one of several projects directed at designing, developing, and put in a security system at an measurable government installation. Tran had two major occupys when he started the Ajax project. The beginning(a) was the technical risks inherent in the project. In supposition the design principles do hotshot and the project used proven technology. Still the technology had never been use in the field in this matter. From past experience, Tran knew in that respect was a big difference between the testing ground and the reliable world.He also knew that integrating the audio, optical, tactile, and laser subsystems would test the patience and ingenuity of his police squad. The second concern involved his team. The team was pretty much break off crop upcast the middle between hardware and electrical engineers. Not only did these engineers have different cleverness sets and tend to look at businesss differently, scarce generational differences between the two groups were evident as well. The hardware engineers were almost all former military, family men with bourgeois attire and beliefs. The electrical engineers were a much motlier crew.They tended to be young, single, and at times very cocky. While the hardware engineers talked about the Seattle Mariners, raising teenagers, and going to Palm waste to play golf, the software engineers talked about Vapor, the latest plan at Gorge amphitheater, and going mountain biking in Peru. To make out matters worse, tension between these two groups inwardly CEBEX festered around salary issues. Electrical engineers were at a premium, and the hardware engineers resented the new hires salary packages, which were comparable to what they were earning subsequently 20 years of working for CEBEX.Still the real money was to be made from the incentives associated with project performance. These were all contingent on meeting project milestones and the utmost completion date. Before actual work started on the p roject, Tran arranged a tow-day team-building retreat at a lodge on the Olympic peninsula for his faultless team as well as primeval ply from the government installation. He used this time to go over the major objectives of the project and unveil the introductory project plan. An internal consultant facilitated several team-building activities that made light of cross-generational issues. Tran felt a real sense of camaraderie within the team.The good feelings generated from the retreat carried over to the beginning of the project. The entire team bought into the mission of the project and technical challenges it represented. Hardware and electrical engineers worked side by side to solve problems and build subsystems. The project plan was built around a series of five tests, with from each one test being a more rigorous verification of total system performance. acquittance each test represented a key milestone for the project. The team was excited about conducting the first of import test one week other(a)only to be disappointed by a series of minor technical glitches that ook two weeks of problem solving to resolve. The team worked extra hard to make up for the lost time.Tran was proud of team and how hard members had worked together. The Alpha II test was conducted on schedule, but once again the system failed to perform. This time collar weeks of debugging was needed before the team received the spirt light to move to the next phase of the project. By this time, team goodwill had been tested, and emotions were a bit frayed. A cloud of disappointment descended over the team as hopes of bonuses disappeared with the project falling further behind schedule.This was increase by cynics who felt that the original schedule was unfair and the deadlines were impossible to begin with. Tran responded by starting each day with a status meeting where the team reviewed what they accomplished the previous day and set new objectives for that day. He believed thes e meetings were helpful in establishing positive pulse and reinforcing a team identity among the engineers. He also went out of his way to spend more time with the troops, helping them solve problems, offering encouragement, and a straightforward pat on the back when one was deserved.He was cautiously optimistic when the time came to conduct the Alpha III test. It was the end of the day when the switch was sullen on, but nothing happened. Within minutes the entire team heard the news. Screams could be heard down the hallway. Perhaps the most telling moment was when Tran looked down at the companys parking lot and saw most of his project team go by themselves to their cars. As Callie chased some unquiet bunnies, Tran pondered what he should do next. 1. How effective has Tran been as a project manager? Explain. 2. What problem(s) does Tran face?