The Blue Spider Project "This is impossible! Just totally impossible! Ten months ago I was sitting on top of the world. Upper-level management considered me one of the best, if not the best, engineer in the plant. Now look at me! I have bags under my eyes, I haven't slept soundly in the last six months, and here I am, cleaning out my desk. I'm sure glad they gave me back my old job in engineering. I guess I could have saved myself a lot of grief and aggravation had I not accepted the promotion to project manager." HISTORY Gary Anderson had accepted a position with Parks Corporation right out of col- lege. With a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, Gary was ready to solve the world's most traumatic problems. At first, Parks Corporation offered Gary little opportu- nity to do the pure research that he eagerly wanted to undertake. However, things soon changed. Parks grew into a major electronics and structural design corpora- tion during the big boom of the late 1950s and early 1960s when Department of Defense (DoD) contracts were plentiful. Parks Corporation grew from a handful of engineers to a major DoD con- tractor, employing some 6,500 people. During the recession of the late 1960s, money became scarce and major layoffs resulted in lowering the employment level to 2,200 employees. At that time, Parks decided to get out of the research and development (R&D) business and compete as a low-cost production facility 8. Should Paul Evans have been permitted to report information to Gable before reporting it to the project manager? 9. Is it customary for the project manager to prepare all of the handouts for a cus- tomer interchange meeting? 10. What happens when a situation of mistrust occurs between the customer and con- tractor? 11. Should functional employees of the customer and contractor be permitted to com- municate with one another without going through the project office? 12. Did Gary demonstrate effective time management? 13. Did Gary understand production operations? 14. Are functional employees authorized to make project decisions? 15. On R&D projects, should profits be booked periodically or at project termination? 16. Should a project manager ever censor bad news? 17. Could the above-mentioned problems have been resolved if there had been a sin- gle methodology for project management in place? 18. Can a single methodology for project management specify morality and ethics in dealing with customers? If so, how do we handle situations where the project manager violates protocol? 19. Could the lessons learned on success and failure during project debriefings cause a major change in the project management methodology