Case Study: Updating Airplane Tracking Systems in the Australian Defense Force

Introduction

In 2012, the air-force division of Australian Defense Force (ADF) launched a pioneering project, with the objective to update the navigation systems of their aircraft, letting ground control track their positioning more accurately. The project is divided in three stages:

• The Concept phase, in which the project group identified three aircraft types, from a potential set of five, that were suitable to upgrade.
• The Business Case Development phase, in which the project team worked on facilitating stakeholder agreements about the details of the upgrades, and prepared for the contractors to be able to work with these upgrades.
• The Execution phase, in which the project team works with ensuring the performance of the aircraft, and the security of the pilot.

The project is currently in stage three, with stage two completed in 2016, and stage three planned to be finished in 2018. The final business case in phase two was approved by the government, and is thus considered a success, while phase three and the overall project will be considered a success if the aircraft performs at the set expectations, while not compromising the safety of the pilot.

The project is led by project manager Rino Carrera. There have been several focus points throughout the course, for which Carrera has utilized different project management tools to secure project success. Some of these include identifying the purpose of the project, including for example scoping and goal setting, which Carrera used a Project Management Triangle for, identifying and satisfying the project stakeholders, where a Stakeholder Influence Matrix was used, identifying the scope and resourcing, and integrating this through time management utilizing a Critical Path Analysis, and risk management, through for example a Risk Cube.

About the article (Placeholder)

Overall, the project has so far been a success thanks to Carrera’s usage of project management tools. This article will delve into some of the decisions Carrera has made while using these tools, and will have an especially in-depth look at the management of the stakeholders, where Carrera used not only theory, but prior experience in order to set up proper communication, both internally in the team, and with external stakeholders, as well as the project’s risk management, in which Carrera may not have utilized the most optimal tools to fulfill the job.

About the Project (More broadly defined)

• Analysis of utilized methods and tools
• More descriptive than introduction

Focus Areas

Stakeholder Management

• Slight deviation from theory
• Why deviate? Challenge
• Did it work better? Why? Why not?

Risk Management

• What methods were used
• Is it possible to use other methods?
• What would use other methods bring to the table?

Annotated bibliography

• TBA

References

• TBA