Ozan Dundar - 27147

United Photonics Malaysia

Question 1
Who do you think should be the manager of laz-skan development project?
Laz-skan is definitely a challenging project generated by a relatively small part of the group.
That is why project members enthusiasm and commitments are very important elements for
the project. As it is also a very different project comparing the ones that have been developed
earlier, project skills and technical knowledge are also very important. Therefore, T.S Lim
would be an appropriate choice as he was the initiator of the new project and he has strong
technical skills as an engineer and his initiation shows his commitment and availability of
time. In addition to that, since he was working in the Malaysian capacity, location is also
ideal for him to work.

Question 2
What are the major dangers and difficulties that the development team will face as they
manage the project towards its completion?
Laz-Skan project has the dangers and difficulties as every other project which needs to be
considered and well thought about in order not to jeopardize project completion. Those
difficulties and dangers can be assessed as potential risks for the project .Project risks are a
set of possible events that can negatively affect the viability of a project. Following risks can
be listed for Laz-Skan project:

The lens is the most complex and risky development process of the whole project.
Network diagrams refer that activities optimistic time for the activity is of 28 weeks and
has a pessimistic time of around 53 weeks. Lim is satisfied that the process of lens
making is not taking place on the critical path. However, there is a possibility that the lens
making process may become critical if it moves on the pessimistic scale.

Vision support development process contains the critical path. In this process, the concern
is whether the project will be completed within this time period or not supposing the
critical path remains critical. So, if we take a look the project starts it gives around 52
weeks to complete the development of the project but as per the schedule and planning it
will take 48 weeks for the project to be completed. This gives us 4 more extra weeks.
However, if we consider planning, risk and complexity of this project and also the time
which is 52 weeks, 4 weeks is valuable period within critical path timeline. If the risk for
shortening the project would not be taken, then it could be to not possible to complete the
project on time.

The control software development process also gives rise to another problem. As
development process is the most difficult part of the project to plan and estimate, these
estimates should be handled carefully. As the activities in this process are new to the
project it has been seen that new young engineer has been hired which has some
experience in this field. The question to identify risk would be whether the new engineer
is capable enough to carry out this project or not? In addition to that considering that he is
the only one in the project team with required skills who cannot be replaced throughout
the project, the risk for overestimating this engineers skills and facing an in competency
must be evaluated.

T.S. Lim is already working for the Malaysian business which is being run by Annuar
Kamaruddin, COO and has roles and responsibilities to Bob Brierly as well, who is the
VP of Development running CSU in United States. Previously, T.S Lim was only
involved in existing business of modifications in custom products as per customer desire
and now will be handling Laz-Skan as well. The consequence for T.S. Lim would be that
he could be drawn in different directions at the same time with his two different bosses
each wanting their work done.

Although Bob Brierly should be the immediate boss of T.S. Lim but his blind trust in his
team may result in the occurrence of a vulnerable risk at any time. Just like in the
beginning when T.S. Lim brought the idea of Laz-skan to Bob Brierly, he was relying on
the facts and figures provided by his junior who was not that much experienced in his
field. It gave an image of bottom-up costing which is realistic but not competitive.

Geneva Trade Show in April 2006 is the key to success for entering the market with new
product but there is a strict deadline of time to manufacture the first batch of prototypes to
be presented in the show.

Engineers had a very little experience and such a major project requires special attention.
If these engineers face a situation which has never occurred before, then it might go
wrong. Also the quality of the project may be affected due to strict deadline for the trade
show discussed above.

Question 3
What can they do about the project specific difficulties and dangers?

As mentioned before lens development is the most complex and risky process of the
whole project. That is enhanced control over this process should be placed. Therefore,
sort of control software should be installed to detect problems on time as uncertainty may
cause any problems which can creates the opportunity to fix issues on timely manner.
Also outsourcing some lens in parallel to the manufacturing process which is on going in
the company can help to speed up the task. Nevertheless, in terms of cost efficiency this
option could require additional expenditure.

Additional efforts and focus is required for Vision support system which is the critical
path of the project. It is very crucial to speed up this process and complete according to
timeline of schedule and planning which can provide 4 weeks surplus comparing the
original time frame of 52 weeks.

If we assume the expected time as 48,

. Hence,

probability of finishing the project in 52 weeks is 0, 9864 which is doable.

There are two critical paths as shown in the network diagram of the Laz-Skan project:
1-4-5-6-7-8-12-32-33-34-35-36
1-4-5-6-7-11-8-12-32-33-34-35-36
Both of these belong to the Vision Support System in the Laz-Skan project. The
maximum time that the project will take is 48 weeks, no matter whichever path is

adopted. The project started in February 2005 and had to complete before April 2006.
Agreed time is too short for arranging the prototypes of the new product to the Geneva
Trade Show and also costs per week for accelerating the critical activities are too high.
Therefore, project could be shortened between 4 to 6 weeks from the deadline even with
the relaxed activity times with no cost crashing. The only thing that could be focused on
is the motivation of team members and a strict follow up of each task.

T.S. Lim should report to a single manager so that he may properly concentrate on his day
by day tasks. This is an important factor because Project Manager needs a relaxed mind to
bring innovative ideas and improvements to the project and if there is a pressure of work
from two seniors then it will affect the quality of the project badly. Not only gets the
performance of the Manager but also the working of his whole influenced with such
atmosphere which would be more stressful in this case.**

Engineers should be gradually trained on the job so that they may not get surprised to a
certain situation during the project execution. This training may be outsourced from a
professional institution or a senior person from within the organization like Anuar
Kamaruddin or Bob Brierly may share his relevant experiences with the young intakes to
give them better exposure of what is expected in a certain situation. But since COO has
been working for the organization for a long time ago and is better aware of the issues
related to the execution of different projects in UPM so the priority should be given to
him rather than investing more on external Trainer or time and again visits of Bob Brierly
from US. Risk plan based on Tasks?