EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Royal Australian Navy’s Collins Class Submarine is designed to replace the 30 year old Oberon Submarines. The Collins Class is the first submarine to be made in Australia and is the most advanced of its time due to its software architecture. Deep Trouble addresses various issues that were faced during the design and development stages of the Collins Class project. This report will focus on the interrelationship between the three PMBOK knowledge areas of scope, procurement and quality management and the impact each had on the final project.

The Collins Class submarine was prone to excessive noise signatures whilst travelling at speed and lacked the operational capability to enter conflict situations due to the
There are suggestions that the Germans were potentially misled as to the design specifications the Navy actually required.

These underhand tactics imply that a clear and common understanding of the procurement requirements were not understood by either submarine company and that the initial scope of the design was not adhered to by defence after a change in government had occurred. The result of these shortfalls in basic project management contributed to a submarine that had its quality compromised in a way which prevented it from performing at the levels required for military operations. (Woolner, 2008, p 281)

Following the federal election in October 1998, John Moore, the newly elected Defence Minister had his own thoughts regarding the Collins Class project stating ‘it had all the signs of a project that was out of control’. (Woolner, 2008, p 274) Minister Moore requested a report from the secretary of the department Paul Barratt covering the issues of the Collins Class, how they could be fixed and what it would cost. Minister Moore viewed this report and others that followed as ‘all whitewashes’, (Woolner, 2008, p 275) and appointed the former CEO of CSIRO Malcolm McIntosh, with the help of John Prescott, former managing director of BHP to investigate the Collins Class project which resulted in the McIntosh-Prescott report.

NOISE SIGNATURE

Commander Mick Dunn, in his interview on Deep Trouble explained that, “when travelling at speed, due to the