Name of the University
Project Name:
Create and Launch of Unmanned Space Probe
Assessment Title:
Analyze Project Management Success Factors
Student Name
Student ID
Table of Contents
Critical Success Factor Analysis. 3
Introduction
Project Management is a systematic approach that offers a way to introduce and manage large and complex projects. Several businesses, whether it is government or private, consider project management tools and techniques for achieving strategic goals and, as a result, create value for respective firms (Too and Weaver, 2014). Scientific Exploration is one of the reasons due to which space and the aeronautical industry are involving in the country UK. Several projects have already been launched for space probes research. These space probes are used for information and scientific research purposes and do not have any man present. Joint Working Group proposed unmanned MoonLITE launch to explore and analyze moon scientifically from orbiting satellite with space probe planned to launch in 2014 (Castle, 2008). Recently another project has been appointed for creating and launch for unmanned space probes for scientific exploration of Mars. To plan such a complex project, a systematic project management technique is always implemented. However, project management success factors are also responsible for making space probes project successfully. The purpose of this paper is to analyze three critical success factors for the current project, including project planning, managing change, and contracts.
Critical Success Factor Analysis
Project Planning
Project planning is the first step for initiating the complex or more straightforward project within an organization. Planning is defined as “the process of identifying the means, resources, and actions necessary to accomplish an objective.” The purpose of the critical success factor is the proper plan out all the activities to create and launch the Mars unmanned space probes. Different kinds of strengths and weaknesses make project planning, and it’s management difficult to accomplish. The following table demonstrates basic strengths and weaknesses in context with the current space probes creation project.
| Strength | Weakness |
| Blueprint: A blueprint is a map that showcases project activities from the start, middle, and proper finish line. The map for space probe and its creation, research, planning, and design is assigned from the project start to finish. | Network Techniques: The network techniques, including the critical path method, requires determined activity structure and determined attribute difficult to apply because reality is changing and unpredictable (Wyrozebski & Wyrozebska, 2013). As space probe change requirements, such network techniques are incapable of estimating the total time for project completion. |
| Task Accountability: All the team members will be given tasks, including project manager for the project. For example, the designing team will work on spacecraft design, mechanical parts, and the total amount of mantle work. Further, if the task will fail then, team members will try to resolve issues and task approves then will get rewards. | Change Control: The space probe is usually designed in a period of 5 years, which is a longer period. As the period for creation and launch for project duration much longer, change control will go out of scope, which traditional change methods are completely incapable of handling. |
| Resource Management: Space probe could manage resources, including labor, financial investors, and time scheduling to launch it immediately. | Multitasking: Different projects for spacecraft are already going on. However, multitasking for bigger projects is difficult, and it increases the time delay to wait for new developments. For example, until testing for space probe’s one part is not finished, we cannot continue with the project. |
| Risk analysis and Mitigation Technique: I seen spacecraft could have some amount of failure. However, another strength of project planning is a consideration for pertaining risks and their mitigation techniques before the real risk arises. | Estimation Issues: Another weakness for planning is estimation issues that occur inside companies. For instance, either budget estimation is not done properly, or data use for it is not correct. Thus, estimation for the project becomes incorrect, and chances for failure increase. |
| No constraints in between: The planning of the project will be clear and will not create any chaos for team members, project managers, and investors. The setbacks for R&D of space probes will be reduced due to proper planning. | Poor Communication: The framework for the communication plan is not followed at the time of project planning activities. Furthermore, lack of communication and meetings with contractor companies over spacecraft design issues could lead to project failures altogether. |
| Preparation in advance: The past space probes project introduced will be research to predict strength and weakness so that preparation for the same issues could be overcome in the Mars space probe. | Lack of resources: The financial resources lack because investors do not back such a government project. For example, due to a lack of funding from banking systems results in project disclosures. |
Adopted from (Rivera, 2014; Maylor, 2010)
Stages of Project Planning for Mars Unmanned Space Probe
| S. No | Event | Timeline | Remarks |
| Pre-Proposal activities | |||
| 1 | Announce and acknowledge the unmanned space probe mission to the Mars | 23- Nov- 08 | UK Government acknowledges for conducting a Mars mission after five years. |
| 2 | Conceptual study for Mars space probe mission. | Mar- 10 | The feasibility study for all possible project requirements should be studied. |
| 3 | UK government and the scientific department decides for a mission on Mars | 03- Aug- 12 | |
| 4 | The committee is set up so that mission feasibility could be checked including commercial + Technological | 03- Aug- 12 | |
| 5 | Ask and seek the permission of budget | 17- Aug- 12 | The possible windows for launch date are considered 15 months, which changed into 41 months from now. However, the Government has decided to go with it later. |
| Payload Development | |||
| 6 | Announce opportunity for payload development | Aug- 12 | As the possible payload for Mars is in a limited scope. Hence, the UK government allows officials from private and government to propose effective payloads. |
| 7 | Payload proposal | Aug- 12 | |
| 8 | Payload acceptance | Sep- 12 | The selection for the final payload is made by analyzing competencies. |
| 9 | Baseline Design Review – BDR | 04- Nov- 12 | The functional divisions of spacecraft companies discuss together and finalize system design and specifications. |
| 10 | Design & configuration finalization | Nov- 12 | |
| 11 | Subsystems procurement and Subsystems design | Nov – Feb 2012 | UK Government bought designs for subsystems needed depending on whether commercially available technology meets the requirements. |
| 12 | Preliminary Design Review – PDR | Mar- 12 | Different subsystems propose their design with the required specification in review at PDR. |
| 13 | Testing & Screening Subsystems | Mar-Apr 2012 | |
| 14 | Subsystem integration and assembly | May-12 | |
| 15 | System-level testing | Jun- 12 | The subsystems will be tested separately to identify the faulty instrument, which could increase damage risk for a space probe. |
| Performance measurement | |||
| Qualification | |||
| Final Calibration | |||
| 16 | Pre-Shipment Review – PSR | Jul- 12 | These payloads will be shipped from respective centers to London. |
| 17 | Payload delivery | Jul- 12 | The payloads will be properly shipped with airtight nitrogen supply. |
| 18 | Payload integration – | Jul – Sep 2012 | |
| Electrical + mechanical integration | |||
| Electrical measurements | |||
| Alignment | The alignment cube will align all the components of the system, including electrical and mechanical parts. | ||
| 19 | Optical liveliness test | Sep- 12 | |
| Pre-Launch Activities | |||
| 20 | Spacecraft assembly | Oct- 13 | |
| 21 | Spacecraft integration with the launcher | 22- Oct- 13 | |
| 22 | Heatshield closure | 22- Oct- 13 | The fault was found in the heat shield, which caused a challenger disaster. |
| 23 | S/c – LV integration testing | 30- Oct- 13 | |
| 24 | Launch rehearsal | 31- Oct- 13 | To evaluate problems, space probe and launch rehearsal will take place with multiple burns. |
| Pre-Countdown Activities | |||
| 25 | Propellant filling operations | 01- Nov- 13 | |
| 26 | Second stage propellant filling | 02- Nov- 13 | |
| 27 | Launch | 05-Nov-13 14:38 IST | The delay occurred in launch due to a communication ship from 28-Oct to 5-Nov. |
| Geocentric Phase | |||
| 28 | Orbit raising maneuver | 06- Nov- 13 |
The Liquid Apogee Motor and min thrusters would be introduced; however, if it failed, then the UK government will not seek further maneuvers. |
| 29 | Orbit raising maneuver | 07- Nov- 13 | |
| 30 | Orbit raising manoeuvre | 08- Nov- 13 | |
| 31 | Orbit raising manoeuvre | 10- Nov- 13 | |
| 32 | Orbit raising manoeuvre | 11- Nov- 13 | |
| 33 | Orbit raising manoeuvre | 15- Nov- 13 | |
| 34 | Trans-Mars injection | 30- Nov- 13 | Another transfer orbit will be chosen that could support less fuel due to project constraints. |
| Heliocentric Phase | |||
| En route to Mars | Dec – 12 – Sep- 13 | Accuracy is the major constrain which is needed so that trajectory will reach in arc-seconds to Mars orbit. | |
| 35 | 1st Trajectory correction | 11 – Dec- 13 | |
| 36 | 2nd Trajectory correction | 11 -Jun- 14 | No planning is currently done for trajectory correction; however, considered possibilities if fuel is present. |
| 37 | 3rd Trajectory correction | 22- Sep- 14 | |
| Areocentric Phase | |||
| 38 | Mars orbit insertion | 24- Sep- 14 | Planning to make the mission a success. Further, Mars unmanned space probe will be sent for scientific explorations and research and development. |
| *The color blue represents all the critical steps in the project planning activities. *All the dates are assumed based on estimation. | |||
Adopted by (Biswas et al., 2017)
Managing Change
Change is a process in which modifications needed inside project documentation, deliverable, and the baseline is reported. As the spacecraft project is huge and requires effective planning, a variety of changes occurs at the time of development and launch. For instance, sometimes, in launch rehearsals, heat failure occurs, which requires changes into new equipment demand. While, change management is a structured approach in which organization, it’s management, and processes are converted from current state to future state. Therefore, change is important and must be considered for such a huge and complex space project. However, the change could offer strength as well as weaknesses for the space probe project. The alternative for change is to implement an effective change model using Kotter’s eight-step approach to overcome poor change management weaknesses.
| Strength | Weakness |
| · The proper and well-planned approach for change management makes project changes successful. · A well-developed communication plan with team members creates internal working relations and networks. · The communication is frequent, and throughout the project, activities making vision clear and accomplishing (Cameron & Green, n.d.). · Front line managers and employee alignment so that change could be moving. · Effective sponsorship from senior management, including investors who supports space probe project with funding and resources.
| · Apply the change process without any support from sponsorships and investors to back up is followed by huge project failure. · Effective actions are not taken whenever a change is needed in the project documentation. · Create a separate change management plan for unmanned probe design without using technical specification project plans. · Confusion over communication plan over an implementation plan, which is not required at request for change process (Alsher, 2018). · More focus is given to tools and checklists by change agents that do not offer any directional guidance for change (Alsher, 2018). |
Alternative
To implement structured change management, Kotter’s eight-step model will be used as an effective approach.
Step 1: Increase Urgency
In the first step, the potential risks at the time of launching a probe will be discussed as well as opportunities for change to implement. It is important to gather threats that will hamper such a huge project in between.
Step 2: Build a Guiding Team
The potential change leaders will be gathered, and a team will be set up in which change management processes will be discussed. Furthermore, stakeholders will also join the team for offering help over change processes.
Step 3: Develop the vision
The vision for project change is shared with the change leadership team, including new equipment, heat failures, and launch rehearsals.
Step 4: Communication
The communication process for change management is discussed with the people who are working space probe project. It is also vital to understand their point of view and thoughts for certain issues, including training.
Step 5: Action Empowerment
Change resistance should be detected if coming from team members. Furthermore, the change should be brought into action inside this stage, respectively.
Step 6: Create short term wins
The short terms goals should be achieved through this change management process. For example, changing electrical or mechanical components should be the first focus rather than changing the entire launch rehearsal process.
Step 7: Consolidating Gains
The continuous improvement process should also be implemented in this project process to achieve a positive outcome.
Step 8: Maintain Change
The consistency for change processes will be followed effectively for a short period till next launch rehearsals.
Contracts
A ‘contract’ is a legal binding agreement that demonstrates rights, duties, and regulations for both parties to govern and commit, as well as aligned with the approval of the law. One of the major objectives for the project manager to focus on is ensuring proper contract management for unmanned space probes. For such a highly technical and specialized space project, procurement contracts and their management must be undertaken very seriously. Furthermore, there are several types of contracts that are applied as per the project situation. In context with our project, the first request for a proposal will be created before making a contract between two parties involved. RFP or Request for Proposal specifies all the technical requirements, resources, and equipment costs to procure technological solutions (Falkner et al., 2019). In other words, bids are conducted for the total cost, time, and schedule for project activities. Once the bid is approved, the final contract between the British government and spacecraft contractor company for the project “Mars Unmanned Space Probes” will be developed. As space probes require a large period to develop and launch, thus the fixed-price contract is selected as the best possible contract type.
In a fixed price contract, the price for spacecraft probes creation as well as the launch will be agreed before it’s construction will start. The project manager will estimate total project cost and overhead by looking into previous creation before the contract agreement is legalized. Once the fixed price is decided, then the contract between investors and the company will be accomplished. One of the important strengths of fixed-price contracts is early project completion will offer incentives and overcome some damages that occur while construction (Krishna Singh, 2017). Additionally, the contract agreement between two parties will legal judication covers all the damage if some mishap appeared. Another benefit is that the fixed price contract has easy administration because requirements are clear, and possible failure risk is low (Gardiner, 2005). In the case of unmanned space probes, already such projects are successfully launched before with research and specific technical requirements. Therefore, fixed-price contracts are appropriate and support this project sufficiently.
However, fixed-price contracts are not always applicable to such complex projects and thus must go through revision before initiation. For example, cost overruns and contract performance issues have been observed previously for similar projects. Department of Defense gave contractor McDonnell Douglas a fixed price contract in 1980 for the development of A-12 Avenger II aircraft (Kim et al., 2016). However, technical challenges came for designing the aircraft with incomplete details. Due to this situation, there are delays and overruns on cost, which were responsible for the termination of the project. The contractor claimed that the fixed price contract was not appropriate for the research and development process, which required more money and investments, respectively. Therefore, a fixed price structure is not applicable for R&D projects where every day, a new change is required. With an additional pile of the overrun cost that could disturb fixed price, decided prior contract was legalized and final.
Another example includes the Boeing corporation, the contractor company that was assigned to develop an aerial refueling plane in the year 2014 to increase U.S. airpower capacity (U.S. Government Accountability Office, 2014). However, the contractor was unable to complete the contract schedule and targeted budget due to excessive limit of project funding ending up terminating project completely. Hence, the excessive limit for development cost in fixed structure always affects space-oriented projects due to changing requirements.
To overcome such issues, the new proposed relational contract could be an effective approach for dealing with such research projects. Oliver Hart, a Nobel winning Harvard economist, states that a relational contract outlines the guiding principles of the strategic partnership between spacecraft contractor company and British government could overcome cost overrun issues (Nickisch, 2019). Additionally, in the process, rather than explaining all the technical details, the focus is one guiding principle to build good relationships. Another research includes that defines three important guidelines principles, including loyalty and equity, and structured communication processes (Frydlinger and Hart, 2019). As a result, the government could trust the contractor company and have faith not to exceed the project cost limit. Additionally, constant communication between the company and the project manager will make sure the project is going in the right direction. Therefore, the goal should be focusing on relationship development rather than methodological and prolonged assumptions for investment cost.
Conclusion
To conclude, the purpose of this analysis was to gather how critical success factors of project management are important. Factors including project planning, managing change, and project planning offer support to make the complex project easier. The unmanned space probes are one the biggest and complex project that requires huge research and development. Hence, for making it successful, all three factors were considered. Project planning decides cost, time, and project schedule for the creation of probes.
Additionally, the lack of planning for project activities could make it deficient and completely out of control. Therefore, planning should be the first step for initiating the project by the project manager. Change is inevitable and is considered at the time the project is going on. Sometimes, requirements change as per the time for probes development. Therefore, change management techniques should be implemented for understanding change and implementing for the launch of mars space probes experiment. A contract is legally binding, which introduces regulations between two parties. In this context, the spacecraft contractor and the British government is in legal binding for which a fixed-price contract was chosen. However, the fixed price often results in cost overrun issues. Hence, a strategic relationship contract will be designed that will focus on guiding principles rather than cost measurements.
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