1998 Project Mangement Case Study

Center for Army Lessons Learned Virtual Research Library

The Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) exists to collect and analyze data from a variety of current and historical sources, including Army operations and training events, and produce information serving as lessons for military commanders, staff, and students. CALL disseminates these lessons and other related research materials via a variety of print and electronic media, including the Virtual Research Library.

Webmaster Note: searches using a project management string should first check the advanced search tips. A search query, without qualification, will provide an unmanageable listing of HTML pages and documents.

Berkeley Digital Library Project

Research at Berkeley includes faculty, staff, and students in the Computer Science Division, the School of Information Management & Systems, and the Research Program in Environmental Planning & Geographic Information Systems, as well as participation from government agencies and industrial partners.

The project's goal is to

The Berkeley collection includes a tour of the Site and:

The UC Berkeley Digital Library project is part of the NSF/ARPA/NASA Digital Library Initiative and the California Environmental Resource Evaluation System (CERES).

The Law Office and Project Management

The San Diego Daily Transcript article "Project Management Lite With Project KickStart" describes a Law Office Project Case...

"....We considered a law firm's involvement with the developer of an office building and began entering major tasks from "Organize Entity" and "Option Property," down to "Close Permanent Financing," "Print Form Lease" and "Litigate Mechanics Liens/ Counter Claims." We then broke down each major task into subtasks and assigned tentative end dates, and assigned personnel for the first few groups of subtask tasks, but not knowing who might be around two or three years later, didn't bother with personnel for the last part of the projects. Dates could be entered directly or through a pop-up monthly calendar; people could be easily assigned by dragging names from the People list to a specific subtask..."

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Projects and Organization

NASA Checkout and Launch Control Systems Project

The NASA CLCS Project Home Page describes

Visit http://lpsweb.ksc.nasa.gov/CLCS/pm/pm.html

European Space Agency Ariane 5 Project

Ariane 5 is probably the most dramatic example of a software bug in a project. Code for Ariane 4 was used on Ariane 5, without testing and review as it had worked fine for A4, A5 was more powerful and took a steeper trajectory, which caused the A4 software (correctly, for A4) to put an error on the bus. The next stage in the software missinterpreted this error as an integer and demanded a huge course change. This caused the rocket to start to break up, and Mission Control aborted the launch and detonated the rocket.

An excellent accident report is avaliable at http://www.esrin.esa.it/ and a critique of the testing and engineering software process is at:

http://www.eiffel.com/doc/manuals/technology/contract/ariane/

Stones of History Project

Canadian Parliament buildings The Canadian Parliament buildings are undergoing a massive refurbishment which will update the facilities and services to a modern standard. The Peace Tower is the symbol of the Canadian Government and people. The Stones of History Project Web Site covers:

This is an interesting Canadian heritage project under the management of the Canadian Public Works and Government Services Department. The Stones of History Project illustrates the use of project management in the preservation of culture and heritage.

Watershed Management Project

The Watershed Management for three critical areas in Myanmar (Burma) was funded by UNDP, implemented by the Ministry of Forestry (Myanmar) and supported by FAO during August 1995 to March 1996. The goal was to:

"create sustainable living conditions and improve the welfare for the upland communities as well as for downstream agriculturists through improved land use practices".

The Project Web Site includes information on:

World's Largest Ever Offshore Survey Project

What is believed to be the largest ever single survey contract awarded by an offshore operator is in its final stages of completion by Racal Survey. The $8 million survey project was commissioned by Shell Exploration Philippines B.V. and Occidental Philippines Inc. joint venture as part of its development of the Malampaya gas field offshore the Philippines. An integrated geophysical and geotechnical survey employed Racal's survey vessel the m.v. Orient Explorer continuously for more than 300 days and the m.v Eagle V for some 50 days of inshore work. The offshore survey tasks were augmented by specialist nearshore and onshore studies for various landfalls in anticipation of the installation of offshore structures and pipelines and included seabed studies and tidal observations. Visit Racal Survey on the World Wide Web at www.racal-survey.com

Asian Development Bank Project DIAL

This prototype project by the Asian Development Bank studies the potential use of the Internet to assist policy makers and legislators "in the developing member countries (DMCs) of the Asian Development Bank."

The project has three sections:

Unfortunately, only government officials in Developing Member Countries or related legal professionals may become authorized users. However, interested users are free to use the rest of the site. Additional features include a Project Report and a What's New section

Panorama Inc - On-line Case Studies

Panorama invites you to share the experience of some of its client implementations.

Public Works Management System

Works Bureau, Government of Hong Kong

Financial management, scheduling and resource control for 1,500+ projects with an annual budget of HK$16 billion. 1,000 registered users to date in 70 locations over a WAN accessing a network of application servers and a centralised database server. Provides a massive information infrastructure now essential to public works planning and budgeting. System led to the creation of a project management "Code of Practice" which now acts as the basis of training for all relevant users within the bureau.

Project Management and Accounting System

Racal Telecommunications Ltd

The system controls over 300 projects with 200 users working in 6 locations across the UK. System integrated with Oracle Financials, operating on UNIX Server and Oracle with Windows 95 Clients. The extent of Panorama s flexibility is shown in the accurate modelling of Racal s inter-group trading processes.The base system was implemented within 6 months of the tender being awarded to Panorama. The entire process included joint project supervisory board, pilot project and training workshops for 200 users.

Vehicle Test Scheduling System

Ford Motor Company

Control of Ford s vehicle test scheduling programmes, integrated with Ford s own Oracle application development. Operating on central UNIX Server in Detroit with some 100 users in US, UK and Germany. Integration of extensively customised version of Panorama with an application developed in parallel on the other side of the Atlantic proving the success of Panorama remote support and development capabilities.

To review these case studies go to:
http//www.panorama.com/caseover.htm

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