Overview

Here is a story that illustrates almost everything of importance about project control. During one of the many organizational changes that take place in any engineering establishment, I was asked to take a well-established design engineering unit into my section. These people were then doing both design and development projects. It was a pleasure to have them because a dozen of them were first class engineers in their specialties. Furthermore, the unit manager, a young engineer with outstanding experience, had a fine reputation for technical judgment.

The new arrangement was announced at the beginning of a top maagement review of one of this young man's development projects. My first experience with the unit occurred at this meeting.

This particular project happened to be seriously behind schedule hence the high-level attention. The nature of the project effort had changed significantly as new technical problems unfolded with the progress of the work. Early schedules and plans became hopelessly outdated.

During the review, the unit manager, whose technical excellence was unquestioned, committed all the sins in the book. He allowed himself, his project engineer, and his project team to be put very much on the defensive in spite of their knowing more about the project and its problems than anyone else there. During the meeting important difficulties were revealed, and questions asked about their resolution. But the unit manager offered no new plans or specific remedies, dwelling rather on difficulties and imponderables. His attitude seemed to be, "Let the front office have its...