Managing Technology-Based Projects: Tools, Techniques, People and Business Processes

Chapter 13

Concurrent Engineering and Other Project Management Systems

THE PENTAGON RECONSTRUCTION PROJECT

When hijacked American Airlines flight 77 slammed in the west face of the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, over 400,000 square feet of office space was destroyed, together with the communications, command, and control technology infrastructure, and an additional 1.6 million square feet of working facilities was damaged. The very same day, project “Phoenix” was formed with the mission of reconstructing the west face of the Pentagon. “Without any preplanning, budgets, or contract approvals; it was an unconventional start of an extraordinary project” says former Phoenix Deputy Program Manager Mike Sullivan. The primary constraint for the completion of this project was a one-year deadline requested by the U.S. government. Fortunately for the Phoenix Project, the nearly completed Wedge 1 Project (part of the 20-year Pentagon Renovation Program, PenRen), was still active. On the very day of the attack, resources from PenRen were quickly reallocated to form the Phoenix integrated project team (IPT). “With all of the stakeholders around the table,” says Clark Sheakley, a client liaison with General Dynamics, “it was possible to create and update plans on the fly and to keep everyone informed.” The schedule and other parts of the project plan were very informal during the first month after the attack. Virtually overnight the budget to reconstruct the Pentagon was estimated, based on ...