31 Jan Assignment Expectations

Module 2 – Case

PROJECT PLANNING

Case Assignment

We continue our examination of the Apollo Project by considering some planning and project initiation issues.

Every project has stakeholders; people and organizations that will benefit, in some way, from the project. For a project the size of Apollo, the list was extensive, as were the types of benefits. But there were also non-stakeholders; those who opposed the project for various reasons, the most common being that the project would absorb resources that could be put to better use elsewhere. For the first part of this Case,do the following:

List the most important stakeholders, and what they expected to gain.

List the non-stakeholders – the project opponents – and give some reasons for their opposition.

The Apollo Project was ambitious to the point of madness in one respect; both the preferred solution and implementation plan were unknown at the outset. Achieving the goal would require inventing the required technology as the project went along. Accordingly, a series of increasingly more powerful rocket engines and larger, more capable spacecraft were developed and tested in the run-up to the Apollo 11 launch. For the second part of this Case,

Summarize the sequential technological advances that took place between Kennedy’s announcement of the project, and the Apollo 11 launch in 1968.

Comment on the “build the bridge as you go” approach. For what sort of project would that be appropriate? What sort of organization should attempt it?

Resources for this Case are listed on the Background Information page. These are starting points; feel free to search the Web for additional information, and use whatever you think is useful. Be sure to provide citations and references for everything you use, including materials linked to this course.

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, 2014).

This is not an English course; however, errors in spelling, grammar, and style will be penalized.

Provide citations and references. Use of APA style (TUI, 2014) is encouraged, but not required.

There is no page requirement. Write what you need to write.