Using the Fall of the Firefly Case Study project to investigate and based on a review of the Literature from the most recent project management sources, you are required to comprehensively Identify the main components to be used in a Lessons Learnt Report on the Failure of the US Air Force introduction of new aircraft as it related to The Fall of the Firefly case study.
This report depicts the role of project planning, setting objectives and project scope understanding for successful accomplishment of any project. For this particular report the nominated case is “Fall of the firefly” rather T-3A Firefly trainer was in trouble. Based upon the case background a proper project plan has been prepared in this report. The main reason behind the failure was that, the developers are not focused on resolving the project risk or instead of developing any new aircraft they have decided to buy commercial off the shelf trainer for saving both money and time.
In the early phase of project development, if any mistake is highlighted then it will lead the entire project towards loss. In order to determine the future success of a project initially a proper project plan should be prepared. In addition to the project planning an accurate risk management plan should also be developed identifying the risks, its impact, frequency and required mitigation strategies. Among different project management approaches the most suitable approach should be selected. The details of project planning, risk management, procurement and contract management and scope management approaches and moreover the main components to be used in the learnt report are also illustrated in this report.
A project will be defined as a successful one if it is managed by following four of the mentioned components:
In order to develop the firefly project certain prominent phases in terms of planning, risk management, contract and procurement management, quality management, scope management are considered by the project executives (Laursen and Svejvig 2016:740). It is the responsibility of the project head to play active roles for accomplishing successfully the Firefly project. The firefly was aimed to design for the U.S. Air Force defense departments. Besides defense, it was also objected to be used for the pilot training purposes. Before giving birth to the firefly project, the components of the design were considered and in order to deploy the design the total work was again subdivided into small segments.
It is the responsibility of the project head to complete the project to accomplish the project within estimated time and budget as well. Based on the economic efficiency the attributes of the project should have to select by the developers. The aim of the training was to produce more skilled pilot. On the other hand, it was their responsibility to not to exceed the estimated budget. Thus, during the training phase candidate elimination is also done based upon their adopted skills and knowledge efficiency.
The raw materials supplied by the suppliers for the development of the project, proper measurements are also not done which is another reason for the failure. In fact combining all the factors it has been found that the entire project approach was absolutely undetermined. With the changing time phase different fireflies were developed with additional changes in terms of engine size, cover materials etc (Yeo and Paley, 2017:512). Thus, from the project management perspectives, it can be said that all the phases of project development in context with initiation, planning, development, execution, testing, implementation and maintenance are needed to be acquired.
In order to screen the pilot candidates through exposing them to the military style of traffic patterns, acrobatics and spines the T-3A Firefly is a propeller driven aircraft. This aircraft is used for the Air Force education and training programs of United States. The T-41 aircraft was replaced by T-3A Firefly because it was not able to provide all expected performance. The learners are able to get ideas about the flight landing, slow flight and all ground level operations (Yaghoubi, Eskandari and Nazar 2015: 512). It is necessary for the aircraft designers to design all the parts in such a way so that it can serve necessary activities to fulfill the users’ expectation.
The T3 fleet assembled by the British Air Force was unexpectedly followed an engine failure in the year of 1997, during the flight testing. The reasons of unplanned engine stoppages are determined with the flight suspension. Three students and three of the instructors were killed in that accident. Due to improper procurements and contract management, three times the firefly faced accidents, two times the crashes caused for the pilot’s error and once for stall condition that was possible to be recovered by the pilot.
The hallmarks of T3 were aerobatics and spins ad those were not performing accurately by the T-41 predecessors, thus T-41 faced also serious accidents. During flight takeoff and landing, the T-3 engine faced failure for 66 times. The used equipments and their applications were not accurately operated as a result engine related issues were occurred.
From the project planning perspectives, T3 firefly faced again some serious issues. The training command announced about placing of a fleet to the firefly with a minimum maintenance cost. For the screening operation, a feasibility study was also done by the developer which was another major failure. The crew recovery system undertaken by the authority was not compatible to the design outlined (Yeo and Paley, 2017:512). An introductory training program has been developed for increasing the rate of pilot production and reducing the fastest climbing attrition rate. In order to screen the pilot candidates and introductory flight training programs has been conducted. It was also announced that in the training program more than around 150 flights can be involved. The enhanced flight screening program was replaced with commercial training. Apart from commercial training, the flight screening program was also eliminated.
On the other hand, the commercial flight screening program was replaced with training program which gives administration certificates to the trainees. From the planning aspect of “fall of the firefly case” it has been found that, in order to save government’s money, they intentionally did not plan to improve their screening programs. As the firefly was designed and developed for training purposes, thus the developers should have considered some of the risk management approaches as well. Though they were expecting to gain extremely trained pilot for future but the result produced vice-versa (Yaghoubi, Eskandari and Nazar, 2015:78). Along with the frequently changing ambiance, based upon the realistic environment the design rather prototype should have to be tested. Due to lack of certain managerial approaches, the leaders of the training were getting diverted from their mission, vision and actual aim of the project.
Lack of training and development approach will lead any project towards massive failure. In the military training aircraft the T-3A Firefly is the latest version of design. This design is completely composite by nature comprises of fuel tank, tricycle style, a fixed landing gear also.
After analyzing the details of the aircraft design it has been found that there are many reasons for which this project has failed. Since 1952, the United States Air Force has used a variety of small aircraft for screening the pilot candidates. The design of the Aircraft is refined and built based upon the future of the aircraft. In the year of 1991, the prototype of the design was first fly. Again in order to maintain each of the components of the design part proper audit and budget is needed to be considered by the project designers (Pearlson, Saunders and Galletta, 2016: 135). In takeoff and landing the project has failed for more than, 66 times. Different issues were identified, related to the engine composition of the project. It is the responsibility of the professionals to consider proper ratio between the fuels an air (Too and Weaver, 2014: 1390). The actual maintenance of the T-3A Firefly project should consider all of the individual components associated to it. Even if proper maintenance programs are adopted then the entire project may produce a mixed outcome. During the modification and continuous testing phase, certain maintenance approaches are adopted by the developers.
In order to implement any project successfully for gaining competitive advantages and commercial revenue it is necessary for the developers to adopt the most suitable approaches. In order to screen pilot the candidates or learners from 1952, The United States Air force used several of small aircrafts. It is not necessary that the entire member will have proper motivation, aptitude and performing skills about air craft project (Laursen and Svejvig, 2016: 750). Based on the skill, knowledge and understanding of the candidates, they should be eliminated at the very early stage of project development. If the developers fail to eliminate the non eligible candidates then the money allotted for their training and development will be a major failure. In the year of 1960, the air forces have chosen a single engine Cessna model 172 which is again modified further.
The main strategy for which this particular project failed is the adoption of commercial off the shelf trainers (COTS). All necessary components are not incorporated to the development phase. The acquisition strategies to be adopted those have to be adopted are not proper. In this case this is another risk factor that should be mitigated (Mir and Pinnington, 2014: 212). In order to determine the suitability as well as availability of the developmental items, proper development efforts are also needed to give by the project developers. In order to develop an accurate continuously development model, cost effective supply sources should have to be adopted as well (Nicholas and Steyn, 2017: 40). Instead of focusing on the new system development the developers were much focused on reducing the overall cost and time for the project.
However, for each case saving time and cost are not effective. In order to implement any project there are certain phases that should have to be followed sequentially to gain commercial success. Based on the development circumstances with the consideration of all the dangers and benefits the Air craft project should be developed. For project success the basics to be followed accordingly include clear understanding of the project goal low time pilot and the capacity of its engine (Gurumoorthy and Tripathy, 2018: 409). The new engine developed for the system was more than 80 pounds of heavier than the created previous one. The integrity of the COTS strategy failed with the changed engine and its ripple effects the aircraft system. Moreover it can be said that the total project was completely undetermined. Comparing the design detail of the system with other existing systems it has been found that the main reason of this project failure is due to its engine and their features.
In the year of 1991, based on the evaluation result of the aircraft the developers has requested for further inspection and prototype development. Due to extreme larger size of the engine during the development phase some of the members have protested against. The aeronautical systems centre has eventually issue a request to develop new system based on the proposal (Dreyer and Wynn, 2016: 160). The very initial prototype of the system developed and developed in the year of 1993. Due to the COTS acquisition the testing and evaluation of the system was defined as shorten. The different phases considered for the system testing was also not proper and was done by the contractors. Many different design approaches are adopted by the developer but they failed to meet the expectation of the project developers (Ehsani et al., 2017: 2198). The total project was implemented in two different phases with the changing requirements and other specifications. In addition to this the design was not delivered on time to the consumers. In order to avoid unwanted accidents the developers have also hired defense contractors. According to the identified issues in the system there are some mandatory changes those are needed to be done by the developers. Lists of changes are highlighted by the developers that have to be done in the fuel system of the air craft. However, before implementing any changes proper testing and approval for the changes are need to be incorporated (Aly, 2016: 78). As these components are used for the training and development thus, the system must be developed in such a way so that it can serve proper safety to the learners. In context with project planning, risk management, procurement and contract management, project scope and quality proper components are needed to be developed by the project managers to ensure project success. The main issue for which the project failed was consideration of Commercial off the shelf (COTS) trainer.
Conclusion
From the overall discussion, it can be concluded that, the main reason for the overall failure of the firefly project was due to the development of Commercial off the shelf strategy rather than developing a new aircraft. For successful accomplishment of any project objective, it is not enough to hire only experienced trainers. Besides hiring best of the trainer, paralelly the design should also have to be supportive one. It is the responsibility of the project head to ensure that all the project attributes are considered properly before the implementation of the prototype of the firefly. The COTS strategy was approved by the Defense department of United State Air force. An accurate market research and analysis should have to be conducted for determining the availability and sustainability of both the non developmental and existing commercial items through the project lifecycle. The reasons of the project failure in terms of planning, risk management, procurement and contract management, scope and quality management are elaborated in this report. In addition to this, the lessons learned from the fall of the firefly project re also illustrated in this report. Besides, project planning phase even in the testing phase also the firefly faced different accidental issues, the reasons and details of those accidents are also demonstrated in this report.
References
Aly, H.H., 2016. How the Military Can Integrate Unmanned Aerial Systems in the Civil Reserve Air Fleet. AIR COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE, AIR UNIVERSITY MAXWELL AFB United States.
Cuperman, D. and Verner, I., 2015. Fostering analogical reasoning and design skills through creating bio-inspired robotic models. Procedia CIRP, 36, pp.285-290.
Dreyer, H. and Wynn, M.G., 2016. Tacit and Explicit Knowledge in Software Development Projects: A Combined Model for Analysis. International Journal On Advances in Software, 9(3/4), pp.154-166.
Ehsani, E., Kazemi, N., Olugu, E.U., Grosse, E.H. and Schwindl, K., 2017. Applying fuzzy multi-objective linear programming to a project management decision with nonlinear fuzzy membership functions. Neural Computing and Applications, 28(8), pp.2193-2206.
Gurumoorthy, S. and Tripathy, B.K., 2018. Intelligent Technique to Identify Epilepsy Using Fuzzy Firefly System for Brain Signal Processing. In Handbook of Research on Modeling, Analysis, and Application of Nature-Inspired Metaheuristic Algorithms (pp. 400-412). IGI Global.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2), pp.291-298.
Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of Project Management, 33(6), pp.1377-1392.
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Laursen, M. and Svejvig, P., 2016. Taking stock of project value creation: A structured literature review with future directions for research and practice. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), pp.736-747.
Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.202-217.
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