Background of the case study

This assessment identifies a case study related to project failure in IT and discusses a critical issue that contributed immensely to the failure of the project. The case study that is used in this assessment is that of Denver International Airport Baggage Handling system. The case study is used to illustrate how poor project management and leadership from the project manager can lead to project failure. The paper begins with an overview of the key issues relevant to this assessment. These issues are outlined in details in the later parts of the essay to help put into perspective how the key issues identified apply in this case. Poor project management and leadership by project managers has resulted in the failure of many IT projects globally. The failure in projects due to poor leadership and project management is contributed by various issues such as poor decision making by the management of the project (Chemuturi & Cagley, 2010). Incompetence on the part of the project managers as well as disregard of expert advice in aspects that project managers are not specialized in are some of the reasons why projects fail due to poor leadership and project management.

Background of the case study. The Denver International Airport Automated Baggage Handling System was bound to be the biggest automated baggage handling system in the world. However, this was not to be because after some few years and after the implementation of the project had begun, the plan and the dream came down crumbling. The project idea came from the increasing need for a bigger capacity airport in Denver city. The city of Denver made a decision to construct a state of the art airport that would put the city on the global map as a hub for air transport and as the best airport in the world. The government decided that the project should cover an area of 140 square kilometers hence making it the largest airport in the US with a capacity to handle more than 50 million passengers each year (Cahl & Schlol 1996). The project was also designed to minimize the time that passengers would take queuing to get their luggage checked and reducing queuing in the airport.At the core of this project was the baggage handling system. An automated baggage handling system would help reduce aircraft turnaround time to approximately 30 minutes. This would increase efficiency in the airport hence offering the airport a competitive advantage that would make it superior to others.

The project managers made very costly mistakes in the design of the IT system. The biggest mistake was underestimation of the project complexity by the project managers and designers of the plan. The challenges faced in implementing the baggage system resulted in the opening of the airport being delayed by more than 17 months (Fox & Van, 2007). The direct costs of this delay such as the interest charged on loans taken to implement this project and the maintenance cost during the period were approximate $1.1M a day (McCarthy, 2010).

Importance of the key issue under review

The decision making by the management as well as their inability to solve the problem that arose during the course of the project played a crucial role in the failure of the project. The management also keeps holding media briefings where they demonstrated the projected failures like how two cars moving at high-speed crashed into each other. When the airport was reopened, it was an embarrassing moment for everyone involved in the project and especially the project managers since the airport was a shadow of what was planned and promised. The projected failed to integrate and automate all concourses and hence a concourse was used by a single airline for outbound planes only.

Importance of the key issue under review.Poor project management and leadership from project managers is a very crucial issue in determining the success or failure of a project. This is because, in every project, there are many people involved and there are many different aspects of a project that needs to be organized and coordinated. The moment a project leader fails in performing any of his/roles the whole project is at the risk of failing. The functions of a project manager include; Leading, controlling, organizing, staffing and planning. Therefore, it is very clear that the project manager holds a very crucial role in determining project success. Without proper leadership in any project, it is highly probable that the decision-making process for the project will be very slow. Since every project is time bound, it is important to complete projects on time hence the need for quick decision making. Poor leadership and management also result in erroneous decisions which may have a massive effect on the project both financially and economically (Lock, 2014).

The lack of proper leadership by the project manager leads to poor planning. The importance of planning for any project cannot be underestimated. This is also important in IT projects since once an IT project is planned poorly, it makes it very difficult to redesign the project and implement it successfully. Failure to plan properly by the project managers leads to underestimation or overestimation of project size or complexity. If a project manager fails to plan a project well and come up with the requirements of the project, it becomes difficult for the people implementing the project to understand the complexities of the project and what input is required to implement the project successfully. Due to this, therefore, the people in charge of the project may end up allocating inadequate resources for the project. The failure to implement enough resources for the project may lead to the project halting momentarily or even in worst cases the project stalling altogether. The resource in this context involves physical, financial, human and technological resources (Kloppenborg, 2015). In the case of Denver International Airport Automated Baggage systems the project managers under approximated the complexity of the project. This mistake was made at the stage of project planning and was carried forward to the implementation stage. The baggage system in for the airport was so complex that after many years of trial on the IT system, a breakthrough could not be found. The engineers and other experts involved in the project carried out numerous tests to try and make the plan work but everything hit a dead end. The plan of having three concourses integrated to have a single concourse that could reduce airplane turnaround time to thirty minutes became a dream since it ended up as a single concourse that could only allow takeoff of a single airline. This, therefore, explains why lack of proper leadership and management can lead to project failure when leaders fail to plan properly.

Poor planning due to lack of proper leadership

Another issue that manifested itself in the Denver International Airport Baggage Handling system project is poor decision making by the project managers. Even after working on the project for a considerable period of time and realizing the mistakes that they had made, the decisions they made only worsened the situation(Knight, Thomas, Angus& Case, 2012). The project manager failed to offer the way forward that the staff under him could follow. He could not help to identify a solution for the problem at hand. In any given project, the project manager has to manage effectively situations that may arise during the implementation of the project. A good project manager should be able to offer his juniors a way forward when things look to hit a snag. One of the many errors in decision making by the management is that in 1991, before requesting for bids for an integrated system, the management of the project made a major strategic error. The management assumed that individual airline companies would make baggage arrangements by themselves. One of the airlines that had done so is the United Airline which had contracted Boeing Airport Equipment Automated Systems Incorporated to manage its baggage. Many other airlines delayed in taking action since the project was not near completion and there was still enough space for leasing. Around the month of June 1991, the project management changed this strategy and decided that in order to realize an integrated system, it was critical that they are in control of the baggage themselves (Heldman, 2011). Due to this reason, the project management team decided to take the responsibility from the airlines. The timing of this decision couldn’t be worse since the project was only two years away from the scheduled completion date. This decision put a lot of pressure since it was difficult to accomplish so much within that short period of time and this was one of the reasons why the project failed. The project management also entered into an agreement with BAE and where they were supposed to complete the entire BAE as they had already started the section leased by United Airlines. The decision was poor since all indications indicated that the project could not be completed on time. The capacity of the company to handle such complex work was questioned but the project management team decided to go ahead with the idea. The project manager also has to give reassurance by finding a quick solution to every challenge that arises concerning the project. In the case study under review, the project manager failed to crack and understand the very complex plan to make it work. When this happens in a project, it becomes difficult to inspire and motivate the staff working on the project. This is because they eventually lose faith in the person who is leading them and therefore it becomes difficult to inspire confidence thereafter. This contributed greatly to the failure of the project.

Another key issue that impacts on projects due to poor leadership is lack of proper risk assessment and management. The project manager for any project should ensure that before a project commences, a proper assessment of risk that lies ahead is done. This helps in managing any unforeseen future occurrences that may have a negative effect on the project (Lock, 2013). This is crucial since it helps in saving costs that would be incurred in case the project failed or was altered due to failure to manage the risks (Ducros & Fernet, 2010). After the risks have been identified, it is important that the project manager puts measures in place to help mitigate risk. The project manager should put all the necessary measures to minimize risk in a project. Continuous monitoring to identify loopholes is also important. One of the major challenges that faced the Denver Airport Project is the continuous crashing of the system due to power fluctuations. If the project manager had done a proper assessment of risk, this would have been detected and backup measures put in place (Schwalbe, 2009). The system of the over 100 computers networked which was envisaged was also not backed up. The failure or outrage in any one of the computers would result in the failure of the entire system. This, therefore, illustrates the failure on project management team to foresee these risks.

Poor decision making by project managers

Incompetence and lack of experience by a project manager are also a major contributor to project failure. This is because a lot of competence and understanding of technical issues involved in a project is very important for successful implementation of a project. The person leading the team should demonstrate a high level of competence, experience and composure in order to be able to lead the juniors. After the death of Walter Slinger in October 1992, the person who was appointed to lead the team undertaking the project lacked in depth engineering knowledge and understanding required to implement the project.(Australia & Blanton, 2015) This further demonstrates how poor leadership can contribute to project failure.

The project manager or team of any project has the responsibility of ensuring that the project recruits employees who are highly qualified and capable of carrying out tasks assigned to them. This is important since every project requires people with a particular set of skills and a particular level of knowledge without which the project cannot become successful. Before undertaking a project, the project manager should ensure that experts are available to implement the project and arrange for any training if it is necessary. In the case of DIA, the technology that was to be used in the airport was relatively new and complex. The BAE team of engineers and also the engineers working under direct supervision of the project manager had very limited knowledge of the automated baggage system. The scale of the project also made it even more difficult for the people involved. As a result of the staff being short of knowledge of the new system, the rate of project implementation was slowed down(Bruce & Langdon, 2009). There were also many instances of tests conducted on the system failing to perform as expected. This failure can solely be pinned on the project management team since they should have understood the complexity of the system and conducted training to equip staff with the necessary skills.

There is plenty of project management literature that can guide project managers and other experts in writing a good project proposal and in the implementation of a project. Online sources are a very rich source of literature relating to project management. This internet sources include company websites, online magazines and theses and dissertation posted by academicians online. The major advantage of online sources is that they are easy to access and are easy to read since they are summarized to include only the important information on the subject. Online sources are also very important since they give recent case study examples from which a person can draw the necessary knowledge on project management. Peer reviewed journals are also an important source of literature for project management. This subject has widely been researched in the past. The use of peer reviewed journals helps to understand experts view on specific issues in project management. They also help in understanding the findings of many different researchers and therefore identify gaps for research. Books and dissertations from the university library are also a very useful source of literature for project management.

Conclusion

Leadership is a key factor in project management. Without proper leadership and management, it is very difficult to implement a project successfully. IT projects particularly requires people with an understanding of the discipline as project managers. Mistakes and incompetence by project management team can result to project failure. This paper uses the Denver Airport Integrated Baggage System as the case study to help I understanding how poor leadership on the part of project managers can result to project failure. A brief background of the case study is outlined to help in understanding how the problem came about. The paper identifies key issues in leadership that can result to project failure and how these issues applied for Denver Airport case study. Poor planning by the project manager resulted to the undertaking of a project which was not feasible. The project managers underestimated the complexity of the project both in technology and design. The management team of the project could also not recruit qualified staff to undertake the implementation and did not take the action of offering staff extra training given the complexity of the technology in use. Additionally, technical mistakes and poor decisions by the management played a huge role in the failure of the project. The project cost tax payers billions of US dollars and did not become successful even after many years postponing the re opening dates and changes in staff and strategies.

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