Orion Shield

Executive Summary

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI), project management is defined as the use of knowledge, skills, and techniques in order to satisfy the requirements of a project effectively and efficiently (PMI, 2008). Project management is a methodical approach that enables and assists organizations in guiding and planning the processes within a project from start to finish. The project management processes are guided through five stages: initiation, planning, execution, control and monitoring, and closing. These processes can be applied to any type of project, especially projects with complex processes. Implementing these process groups throughout the life cycle of a project enables a project manager to keep control of the project plan.

One of the most important aspects of project management is making sure your products are delivered on time and completed within the allocated resource for the project. Therefore, a project manager must demonstrate a perfect understanding of the importance of time, cost, and scope, which are the major constraint of a project (Schwalbe, 2012). It’s imperative that the project manager conveys information about these constraints to their team and stakeholders, in order for them to understand their importance. Understanding, along with recognizing how these constraints function, is imperative to the success of a project (Schwalbe, 2012).

The Orion Shield Project gives us a good insight into some of the do’s and don’ts of project management from the view of Gary Allison, an engineer at the Scientific Engineering Corporation (SEC). Allison was assigned his first project as a project manager without any background or experience in the field. Allison’s lack of experience caused him to be easily manipulated by his boss, Henry Larsen. [His lack of understanding of the constraints that face a project and failure to identify and implement the stages of the project management process led to the failure of the...