The Orion Shield Project Case Study

Executive Summary Project management is the science of planning, organizing, executing, and managing the resources needed to achieve a specific goal. Effective project managers (PM) strategically facilitate the entire project management process to ensure the project’s success. To do this the PM must adequately meet the specific requirements (i.e., time, scope, quality, and cost) set forth by the project and its stakeholders. It is theorized that PM must possess a set of core competencies in order to successfully manage a project. Those competencies are development of project management knowledge areas, application of appropriate project management tools and techniques, understanding of the project
It is also measured by how satisfied the stakeholders are with the performance of the contract. While Gary managed to somehow succeed in meeting time, quality, and scope requirements. He failed in meeting satisfactory levels with the customer. At the initial interchange meeting STI’s rep, Sarah Wilson, communicated disappointment with Gary’s inability to properly balance the administrative and technical roles of the project. For example, he primarily focused on the technical aspects of the

project and failed to deliver standard administrative forms (like the meeting agendas) in a timely fashion. Due to this discontent in several areas the customer began to micromanage the project. They required Gary to have his engineering staff report to STI’s engineering staff on a regular basis, they also set up a customer office to follow Gary’s work closely. Since the prime contractor, STI, had more at stake and started to distrust Gary’s management they had to dedicate more time and resources than expected to make sure the project was run properly. This could have easily been alleviated with the properly application of human relation techniques. Human relations is “the cornerstone of getting along with people and is one of the most important career skills” (Cook, n.d). Known as one’s soft skills, human relations allow one to understand human behavior, establish rapport, clarify misunderstandings, and create an environment of social interaction. All of