Project management discusses the practice of starting, planning, implementing, overseeing and concluding the work of a team to realize precise objectives at a stated time ( Brown, & Brown, 2014) . On the other hand, a project refers to a venture intended to produce a unique product or service that brings constructive change or enhances value. Projects should always have beginnings and endings and must meet exclusive goals and intents (Brown, & Brown, 2014). From the case study, the building of the Death Star II was a project since it had a beginning and an end (Wales, 2015) . The building of the Death Star II ship started the spaceship was built in thirteen days after the destruction of the first death star ship. Moreover, the whole project had a documented plan (Wales, 2015).
While building the Death Star II, the project executives ensured that they had specific objectives to guide them throughout the project (Wales, 2015). Project Management Institute. (2017) Maintained that an objective refers to precise results that an individual or a group of people aims to attain within a detailed time with available resources. In general, objectives are basics that inspire all forecasting and strategic actions. In the case study, emperor and his team had an objective of building a second Death Starship after the destruction of the first death star ship (Wales, 2015). The second ship according to the emperor was supposed to be bigger than the first ship (Wales, 2015). Not only was the second project trying to increase the scope of the new ship but also improve on the design.
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Similarly, the project to build a second Death ship had a defined life span. A project life span refers to the advancement of the diverse phases of a project (Brown, & Brown, 2014). The project life span of any project starts at the conception of the project idea and stops at the time when the project ends (Brown, & Brown, 2014). A project contains a six-project life span. The first stage according to the Project Management Institute (2017) is conceptualization, planning, designing, launching, and implementation. The project began after the destruction of the first ship and ended after four years. During the four years, the project was intended to undergo all the life span process. Unfortunately, jejerrod and those involved in building the ship skipped several phases (Wales, 2015).
Before building the second Death Star, the Imperial army had built a first death star ship that but destroyed within one week of operation (Wales, 2015). The first death star took a total of three years to design and twenty years. Although the two death Star ships shared some standard features, the second was to have two, and a half tonnage of the first but the schedule expected for completion was in four years (Wales, 2015). Consequently, the leading project of constructing death Star I should not preclude the second heath star from being a project. One might conclude that the second project might be cheaper and faster when compared to the first project since the first project solved technical challenges, constructed the requisite supply lines and, the existence of trained manpower, Such thinking might be false since the second project involved increasing the scope of the project (Wales, 2015). Expanding the scope of a project might result in new technical challenges, require new supply line and newly trained workforce.
When planning any project, it is significant to write down the period for the project, the average cost of the project in addition to performance requirements. Project Management Institute. (2017) Uploaded that Specifying the time that a project should take is vital for any project, the result of absolute time management increase the effectiveness of a plan. In the case study, we learn that the second project that involved building the second Death was supposed to take about four years (Wales, 2015). Although the study does not specify the average cost of the project, it highlights that building a spaceship is difficult and labor intensive, consequently building a Death Star must have been expensive (Wales, 2015). Besides, performance requirements for the project required the second Death Star width to be 160 km unlike the previous, which had a width of 120-km. Introducing such changes to the second Death star would mean changes in all subsystems (Wales, 2015).
In project management, the project manager plays essential roles. According to the Project Management Institute. (2017) Project managers refer to the people who are responsible for leading projects from their inception to execution. Project managers perform duties like planning, managing people, resources and ensuring that a plan remains within its scope. The project manager for the Death Star II was Admiral Tian Jerjerrod (Wales, 2015). Jerjerrod was responsible for executing the project and was required to have the disciple to create vibrant and attainable objectives that would see him throughout the project. Jerjerrod had however slept on his job, for months he was behind schedule but sent false reports to the emperor (Wales, 2015). In carefully worded reports, he gave the emperor the impression that the project was in progress and that they had made incredible progress.
Project managers often face numerous challenges while executing projects.one of the difficulties experienced by Jerjerrod was limited time to carry out the project. After spending three months into the project, Jerjerrod realized the there was mismanagement of the project. When he inspected the used in the current planning, he noticed that that the record would maintain that something had already been done (Wales, 2015). However, he later realized that those activities had not been done; instead, someone pushed them to the next stage. From his observation, he estimated that more than half of the work that needs completion in the second phase had been pushed to the third stage (Wales, 2015). Besides, Jejerrod maintained that the project required about sixteen years to end, but he only had a few months to implement and end the project.
Strategic plans implemented by an organization need to align with organizational strategy. Organizational strategy according to Project Management Institute. (2017) Discusses the sum of activities that an organization intends to take to achieve its long-term goals and objectives. Constructing the Death star II aligned with the organizational strategy of the Galactic Empire. Galactic empire organization strategy included ruling through fear, tyranny, and intimidation using a military force. The emperor of the galactic empire was obsessed with the idea of building a Death Star with the capacity to destroy the entire planet and rebels (Wales, 2015). Though there were more straightforward and cheaper ways that the emperor would implement in destroying the world, he only stuck to his single idea of building Death Star 11.
Project managers should not ignore the role that sociotechnical issues play in the successful execution of a project. Project Management Institute. (2017) Maintained that s ociotechnical issues occur when people interact with technology. Sociotechnical issues also arise when the complex societal infrastructures associate with human behavior. Among the socio-technical, issue that the project manager of Death Star Will face includes reduced supply lines. Supply lines used in the first project would be useless in constructing Death Star II since most of the companies that produced the turbo laser batteries repurposed due to a reduction in demand of the batteries (Wales, 2015). Moreover, the manager might lack enough labor force to build the Death Star since most of the people who build the first Death Star died during the destruction of Death Star I.
Strategic management requires organizations to employ specific activities to increase their success. Tactical leadership is one of the events to use, despite being an oppressive society; the galactic empire builds an organizational strategy build around the idea of dominance through strategic leadership. Strategic leadership refers acco9rding to Project Management Institute. (2017) To the process that executives of an organization use different management styles to develop a vision and for their companies that enable their organizations to remain competitive in changing technological and economic times. Besides the empire used strategic plans to achieve their objective, instead of building a Death Star that had similar features as the first, they considered altering the first Death Star and increase its width to 160 km. Additionally, the empire had well-organized communication channels that allowed those in higher ranks to communicate with their subordinates (Wales, 2015). Lastly, by defining their organizational strategy and using strategic execution and follow up the empire maintained its dominance.
Organizational politics influence the goals and visions of many organizations. Project Management Institute. (2017) Observed that Organizational politics deliberate the pursuit of self-interest and individual agendas by those in authoritative positions without thinking of the effects that their choices will have on organizational visions. Organizational politics played a role I building the Death Star II. The emperor who was a dictator decided to rebuild a second Death Star without consulting anybody (Wales, 2015). At no point do we ever see anybody suggesting to the emperor about other alternatives that are flexible than building the Death Star, it seems that the empire relied on an organizational culture that builds power around a few people rather than building an inclusive culture that encourages people to share ideas (Wales, 2015).
References
Wales, A. (2015, December 15). Instruments of Destruction. Retrieved from https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11685932/1/Instruments-of-Destruction
Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge: (PMBOK guide) .
Brown, W. A., & Brown, A. P. T. A. U. C. S. T. W. A. (2014). Strategic Management in Nonprofit Organizations . Sudbury: Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.
Wikia, S. (2012). Wookieepedia - Imperial Navy admirals of the galactic empire: Alpiett Gredge, Amise Griff, Banjeer, barrow Oicunn, Bentro, Betl Oxtroe, Blitzer Harrsk . : Books LLC, Wiki Series.
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