Module 1 – Case
PROJECT SELECTION AND INITIATION
Case Assignment
About the Case Study:
In the early morning hours of July 16, 1945, the first
nuclear weapon – an A-bomb, in 20th century parlance — was detonated in the
New Mexico desert. Dr. Theodore Taylor
was one of the project scientists. Here,
minus some technical details, is his description of such an explosion:
When (a bomb) is detonated, the temperature in the core
builds up to several hundred million degrees in one-hundred millionth of a
second. That is many times the
temperature at the center of the Sun.
Pressures build up to 100 million atmospheres, and the core begins to
expand at five million miles per hour. (Every chemical element) is in there;
barium, iodine, cesium strontium, hydrogen, tin, copper, gold…(The initial
fireball is) something 12 inches across, expanding faster than anything in our
Galaxy. Conditions there are quite
different, perhaps, from anywhere else in the Universe, unless there are other people who make bombs. (McPhee, 1973; pgs. 118-9).
Seventy years ago, we saw the birth of something utterly
new;new not only for us humans but also, perhaps, for the entire Universe. That event was a turning point in human
history. It was, perhaps, the beginning
of the end of human history. The rest of
the story is still being written, in places as dissimilar as Pakistan, North
Korea and Iran.
The famous project that produced the A-bomb, which moved
from untested theory to deliverable weapons in the middle of World War Two, was
the Manhattan Project. At its peak, the
project employed 130,000 people, most of whom had no idea what they were doing,
and consumed as much energy and materiel as the American automobile
industry. Not only every project
manager, but every world citizen, should know about the Project, because it
changed every citizen’s life.
The Manhattan Project did not run smoothly. It’s the classic example of a project
succeeding because it had to; it was
simply unimaginable that either Nazi Germany or Imperial Japan would win the
War. Despite its rocky history, however,
it’s worthwhile to examine the evolution of the Project, and compare it to the
stages of an ideal project, both to appreciate what could have been done
better, and to acquire a sense of humility concerning the entire project
management enterprise. It is, after all,
amazing what people can accomplish, either with or without report-generation
software.
The definitive on-line source concerning the Manhattan
Project is provided by AtomicArchive.com (AJ, 2015). For an overview, you should scan the entire
99 page site. The material is voluminous, but well organized, and tightly
edited. The definitive print source is Rhodes (1986; paperback edition 1995),
which is now available used , online, for less than one dollar. Anyone with
even a passing interest in either management, science, technology or history
should own a copy.
About Case 1:
For this case, we will examine the Origination and
Initiation (NY Guide, 2002; Chaps. 3.1
& 3.2) of the Manhattan Project (AJ, 2015; Rhodes, 1995). For information
about these phases of the project, please refer to the Module 1 Homepage.
When contemplating something totally new, the alternatives
are simple; either try to do it, or
don’t. In this case, we know which
alternative was selected.
For Case 1, write an essay answering the following
questions:
Q1; What were the
factors that entered into the decision? Describe and explain.
Q2: Since the
decision involved unknowns, risk estimation was highly subjective. What factors (e.g., familiarity,
manageability) played roles in the estimation process? Explain.
Assignment Expectations
Integrate your answers to the above questions into a
well-constructed essay. Feel free to
use tables and bulleted lists, if appropriate.
The readings do not provide specific answers to every
question. You will need to “fill in the
gaps,” using your understanding of the Project’s history, plus the Background
Information.
Style and format must comply with the Writing Style
Guide. ( TUI Guide, n.d.)
This is not an English course; however, errors in spelling, grammar and
style will be penalized.
Provide citations and references. Use of APA style (Writing Guide) is
encouraged, but not required.
There is no page requirement. Write what you need to write,
neither more nor less.
