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Requirement
Write a report based on the case study "Teradyne Corporation: The Jaguar Project"
Solution
Introduction
As the project lead of the Teradyne’s Jaguar project, Jack O’Brien was sitting in the traffic on this way towards office he thought of the efforts of his team being placed in the last eight years. The Teradyne organization is the manufacturer of semiconductor test machines and is awaiting for the new full testing equipment to arrive. This project was highly important for Teradyne as it included the formalized took for the purpose of project tracking, up-front project planning, and structured development process. The project has been a success despite for all the learning curve imposed by the new methodologies however, the software was seen to suffer and O’Brien was working on deliverables. The paper analyzed the traditional project execution strategies as compared to the Jaguar project, the impact of new project management tools on the project, and lessons learned from the experience.
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History
Teradyne is 45 year veteran in the field of semiconductors and specialized in the testing of electrical components like transistors etc. The company was found by two MIT graduates in 1960 with a motive of brining a line of fast and reliable testing equipment. With the increase in complexity and volume of components the R&D investment of Teradyne also increased. The organization stepped into broadband test, assembly test, semiconductor test and diagnostic solutions. In became the largest business operation that produced two third of the annual revenue in 2004.
Culture
The organization has a strong background as all the engineers come from engineering background. Every project was driven by performance and the technical competence remained strongly focused. The engineers were constantly motivated to prove themselves and to dive in their tasks. The cubicles were assigned to the executives with casual dressed. Long office hours were normal.
A major change in leadership was seen in early 1990 with the arrival of new CEO Alex D’ Arbeloff. Due to reliability and quality concerns, Alex was highly interested in risk of losing the competitive edge of the organization. Due to the team being competent, Alex believed that reporting and performance measurements were among some of the fundamental operating problems. In order to combat such issues, Alex introduced TQM (Total Quality Management). It took five years for the organization to embed such principles into their working environment. But the engineering management resists the TQM aspects which can be seen by over and late budget projects.
Project Execution Strategy
The change in technology and strategic direction in the project with code name-Jaguar. The project was a representation of significant departure of the traditional project execution strategy which also included reorganization of the project team structure, increased emphasis on the up-front design and planning, introducing the prescriptive processes of project management and using formalized tools of project management. These changed required the core values of the organization to change.
Project Teams
The focusing on market-segment for the engineering organization was abolished by Teradyne and then folded into a single platform. This required the organization to merge the engineering organization of Agoura Hills and Boston which were earlier working with different approaches. A major change was encountered on this behalf.
Design and planning
The change in up-front planning and designing was seen during the Jaguar project. Earlier all the projects were poorly planned and the goal, objectives and scopes were not defined clearly with no systematic method. This led to a requirement of clearly defined scope and rigorous planning and the project required an early commitment for key product specifications. A significant amount of time was consumed in product planning and conceptual development. A phase-gate model and Phase II Project and Product Planning were compiled within a 75-page presentation which provided detail of design, proposed system architecture, functional specifications, project plan execution, etc. While Phase III, “Detailed Design and Development”, the frustration and discomfort of some of the employees were addressed.
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Place Your OrderProject Management Processes and Tools
With the introduction of project management tools the project execution strategy was broken down into 3-point estimation, critical path analysis, earned value analysis and the Primavera project scheduling program for enabling the team in executing all the practices of project management. AlphaTech was used for adapting and mitigating the delays concerned with the teams.
Impact of Project Management Tools
The project management tools were received with mixed reactions where some believed in all the values of these tools however the other viewed them as a distraction. Due to the commitment towards the achievement of milestones, the people were afraid of these tools.
Cultural Change
The project was not as successful as it was thought to be due to the failure of proving proper training to the employees regarding the change in culture. A large cultural change and training effort were necessitated for TQM which required a considerable amount of time. The same would have been successful if Teradyne had spent the same efforts in cultural change as it did with the introduction of TQM.
Adoption of Project Management Tools
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Less focus was placed on status meetings and more on the data and tools. No confidence was shown in the tool and was not seen as an efficient mode of entering the data.
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The addition of project management staff assisted in this and would be advantageous in the future. The individuals were not trained effectively and the software development performance was seen to be behind the schedule and no response was taken by Teradyne to resolve the matter.
Risk Analysis and Scope Creep
The risks were not investigated thoroughly and no investigation was performed inside or outside the company. On the beginning of the development, software engineers were seen to work on different product. These criteria were not considered on the development of the resource needs.
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