project management in aviation

Assignment 2 Scenario 7505BPS Project Management
Improving Project Management in an Ailing Airline
You are a senior manager in the Strategy Development group of a major airline
conducting both long-haul international and low cost carrier operations. Winning your
job against tough competition was helped by your past experience of being a successful
project manager on a variety of projects across the aviation and aerospace industries.
Your current position is part of a career broadening strategy within the airline but you
feel that your experience in managing successful projects could still be usefully applied
not only in your job but also in helping the airline in some difficult transitions.
The airline has had problems conducting a range of projects to introduce new alliances,
aircraft, changes to operations and maintenance procedures, introduction of new
information technology systems, and a range of process improvement projects across
the organisation. Also, an impending restructure has been announced to reduce the
number of staff while also seeking productivity improvements. All projects have been
aimed at reducing costs, increasing competitiveness and maintaining an enviable safety
record. Past problems in executing projects have not reduced costs to the extent
required. Problems in some projects have caused targets not to be met, resulting in
increased complaints from internal and external customers, increased safety related
incidents in the air and on the ground, and a subsequent lowering of staff morale.
Increased media scrutiny and leaks from disgruntled staff have added to these
problems.
The Chief Executive Officer of the airline has demanded improvements in overall
management but has particularly targeted an improvement in the way the company
conducts its project management. Your manager in charge of Strategy Development, as
part of a good team spirit, has offered help by using your project management expertise
in a program being instituted to improve project management across the airline. She
calls you in to give you the good news.
“The company is implementing a remedial training program for those in project
management positions and those who will form a pool of potential project managers or
senior project appointments in projects being implemented across the next 24 months.
The CEO wants a special segment included in this program that particularly addresses
the strategic issues and challenges that confront project managers. I want you to write
a report on an actual past or recent project in the aviation or aerospace industry that
has been completed or nearly completed. The project must provide a range of
important lessons-learned that our airline can apply from both successes and failures –
so I want balance – because few projects are entirely successful and sometimes more is
learned from the failures than successes.” She paused and then added “That’s why our
airline has had such a good safety record and we need to correct the current slide in
project performance before our good record becomes tarnished to upset both
customers and shareholders.”
Assignment 2 Scenario 7505BPS Project Management
“You can pick any project – it may be developing an aircraft, starting up a new airline or
maintenance business, developing a communication and navigation system, an aircraft
upgrade, a new system for bookings such as SABRE – there’s plenty of them – as long as
the project emphasises lessons that can be learned from either success, failure or both.
The next key requirement is that you need to address is the impact of project
management across the full cycle and to demonstrate the higher level and strategic
thinking that project managers must adopt in managing a project – I don’t want any
coverage ‘down in the weeds’ – other presenters will cover the finer detail. I want you to
consider all the activities and skills of project management and select those parts that
most contributed to project successes and failures, and to draw a conclusion as to the
level of project success. However, you must include mention of why and how the
organisation selected the project, how well they estimated and managed cost, schedule
and risk, how well the planning translated into execution, the effectiveness of
leadership, project team and stakeholder dynamics, and the special problems
encountered and addressed in project execution.”
As you reflect on this, she begins to bring the meeting to an end. “This is a vital training
program and I want your contribution to reflect the strength of the Strategy Group and
what we can bring to this airline. You’ll produce a 3,000 word report with all the usual
headings and inclusions of a good report, especially a clear aim. You’ll have a cover
sheet, an Executive Summary of at least one page, the report itself, references to help
further learning plus any supporting appendices. The lessons learned must be clear in
the report’s recommendations.
You realize that this format is just like your Masters work done in the past because it
will help learning in the new project management training program. Just as you think
that the meeting is finished, your manager suddenly taps her pen on the desk to
emphasise a new point. “Remember that people on the course will want to use your
report to learn how project management works at the higher level. Therefore, don’t just
tell a story because they can read that on the web. You need to relate the key areas of
project management theory to your project topic – show them how theory translates
into practice. I assured the CEO that you can bring all your past experience and
knowledge of project management to contribute to solving our current problems and
increasing our competitiveness.”
You leave the office already thinking about which of all the projects you’ve heard about,
including some that you’ve worked on, could best meet all the given criteria. You realise
that there are many but which one helps answers all the questions you’ve been asked
better than all the others? You decide that a good start is to go through your meeting
notes to identify all the key questions that you’ve been asked to address.

Assignment Question
? Your assignment must be completed as a Report.
You should read this instruction in conjunction with
the Scenario, Improving Project Management in an
Ailing Airline, also found on the Assignment 2
SafeAssign site. This scenario provides context plus
the key information required from your report.
? You must select a project based on the scenario
description. This project must be different from that
used in Assignment 1 of this course and different
from that used in 7507BPS Aviation Project if you
are currently enrolled on that course.
? Analytically discuss the project in terms of the
scenario’s requirements using course Project
Management (PM) principles and methodologies
studied up to Week 10 or beyond if you wish to
extend your reading of Pinto. You should also
discuss outcomes and how they may have been
changed, plus a derivation of the lessons learned in
terms of recommendations
? Your report must meet the following requirements:

1. Word limit: 3000 words (? 150 words)( Cover
Page, Executive Summary, Table of Contents,
Reference List or any Appendices are not
included in word count)
2. Font: 12 point, Times New Roman font
3. Line spacing: 1.5 lines
4. Alignment: Justified
5. Referencing style: American Psychological
Association (APA) (See Griffith Library
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