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The Challenger Project

In: Business and Management

Submitted By Opsecalpha
Words 3237
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Final Paper: The Challenger Project Christopher A. Pantoya PJM 520: Project Leadership and Communication Dr. Paul Sam March 30, 2014

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to examine the space shuttle Challenger from a project management perspective. The project team, controls, metrics, and the overall process will be evaluated. An emphasis will be placed upon the communications project leaders had with personnel responsible for critical deliverables in order to identify risks that were overlooked, which could have contributed to the catastrophic outcome.

The Challenger Project The space shuttle Challenger is among the most studied events in U.S. history, especially from quality assurance and project management perspectives. At the time, NASA had recently successfully completed a series of significant accomplishments and seemed on the verge of achieving even more. However, program managers began to let small details escape scrutiny or ignored them altogether in order to meet established timelines, which eventually led to the catastrophic shuttle launch. Thus, numerous processes have been developed in order to prevent repeating the tragedy. In fact, many facets of project management can be attributed to the Challenger shuttle launch project failure. Specifically, the project’s leadership needs to be assessed in order to categorize some of the indicators, which were identifying risks that were overlooked. The plans execution from initiation through implementation and finally conclusion requires careful evaluation. The areas of communication principles and control measures will provide background information that may not be readily evident. Additionally, individual team members must be studied to gain insight into how project deliverables were tracked as well as how their performance was monitored. Furthermore, areas that seem

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