Orion Shield

When faced with the task of managing a project, there are several distinct, yet common challenges the lead project manager may face. These issues may be technical, contractual, legal or ethical in nature. A good project manager must know how to confront these issues and manage them so that they do not become a detriment to the success of the project. As noted by Schwalbe (2010), there are nine knowledge areas in which a project manager must be proficient in order to successfully lead and manage projects. The core competencies are: scope, time, cost and quality management; facilitating knowledge areas are human resource, communications, risk and procurement management (p. 10). In the case of the Orion Shield Project, Program Manager Gary Allison was challenged with several obstacles that contributed to his overall poor performance.

From the beginning, the project was tainted by Henry Larson's unethical decision to include false information regarding the capability of their design in SEC's initial proposal bid to the client, Space Technology (STI). It was both unethical and illegal for SEC to knowingly submit blatantly incorrect specs to the client and further, engage in a contractual relationship predicated upon such false information. Larson purposefully manipulated Gary by selecting him first as project manager for the proposal team and then promoting him to program manager for the R&D Phase knowing that he had no previous experience in either position and would be less likely to strongly oppose him. Had a more experienced project manager been chosen, he or she would probably have not gone along with Larson's plan and removed themselves from the project if he insisted upon falsifying the proposal. What's most damaging about Larson's actions is the impression it left upon Gary; in the beginning, his instinct was to do the right thing and disclose the issue regarding the design to the client. Later, when the results of the accelerated aging tests were discovered to be unfavorable, Gary decided to hide the results not only from the client, but also from his superiors within the organization. Gary is inadvertently further perpetuating a culture of secrecy and non-disclosure, started by Larsen. If not discovered and curbed by upper management effectively, this kind of unethical behavior can become accepted as standard practice throughout the organization.

Contractually, SEC committed to a 10 month, $2.2 million dollar fixed price incentive fee to carry out the Orion Shield Project for Space Technology. As a company, SEC negotiated this contract and agreed to the terms based upon the initial proposal produced by Gary Allison and Henry Larsen. If the true specifications of the proposed design and the implications of its' fault were known, SEC would probably have negotiated more favorable terms that would accommodate for some of the problems that occurred later on in the project as a result of this omission. Since the contract was negotiated on a fixed fee basis, when it was finally revealed that the original design would not work, SEC would be responsible for eating the excess costs of the subsequent re-design and incorporation of new materials. This caused cost overruns in several stages of the project and also resulted in Gary's neglect to meet contractual administrative requirements such as the submission of meeting minutes to the client due to his attempts to minimize the budget by taking on extra responsibilities which should have been assigned to another staff member. Further, STI could have easily held SEC in breach of contract had they discovered that the design was knowingly represented inaccurately, or even worse, that Larsen used STI's funds to run tests on a new, previously undisclosed material without prior approval.

As a Program Manager, Gary did not do a good job of executing an even balance between his administrative and technical duties. Due to his technical background, Gary felt more comfortable tending to the technical side of the project, taking on several extra responsibilities in which he should not have been involved, and left the bulk of the administrative