Assignment. PM

Suppose you were a consultant called into the

project by the federal government in 1990, when

it still seemed viable. Given the start to the project,

what steps would you have taken to reintroduce

some positive “spin” on the Superconducting

Supercollider?

2. What were the warning signs of impending failure

as the project progressed? Could these signs

have been recognized so that problems could

have been foreseen and addressed or, in your

opinion, was the project simply impossible to

achieve? Take a position and argue its merits.

3. Search for “superconducting supercollider” on the

Internet. How do the majority of stories about the

project present it? Given the negative perspective,

what are the top three lessons to be learned from

this project?

The U.S. Department of Defense has a long history

of sponsoring projects that have questionable

usefulness. If you were assigned as a member of a

project review team for a defense project, what criteria

would you insist such a project has in order

to be supported? In other words, what are the bare

essentials needed to support such a project?

2. Why, in your opinion, is there such a long history

of defense projects overshooting their budgets

or failing some critical performance metrics?

(Consider other project cases in this text, including

the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle discussed

in Chapter 5.)

3. “The mystery is not that the Zumwalt was canceled.

The mystery is why it took so long for it to

be canceled.” Do you agree with this assessment?

Why or why not?

4. Google “criticisms of the Littoral Combat Ship”

and identify some of the problems that critics

have listed. In light of these problems, why do

you think the Navy has pressed ahead with the

development of the LCS?

Final Paper 

The final paper will require the student to complete two (2) case studies from the Pinto text (one from Chapter 13 and one from chapter 14) and respond to two (2) exercise questions from the Kloppenborg text. Students should incorporate outside resources into their paper. A minimum of five (5) outside sources will need to be referenced. This assignment is due on Sunday evening of week 7 by 11:55 p.m. EST.

Respond to one (1) of the two (2) following case studies from Pinto Chapters 13 (pgs. 484-486):

• Case Study 13.2 or
• Case Study 13.3

Respond to one (1) of the two (2) following case studies from Pinto Chapters 14 (pgs. 516-519):

• Case Study 14.1 or
• Case Study 14.3

Students will respond to Exercise Questions #2 and #6 of Chapter 14 in the Kloppenburg text (pg. 491).

The Final Course Paper should be approximately 10-12 pages with at least five (5) outside references.