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culture within the industry. This section of the book is concerned with the developments in the management approach to a particular large project that was transformed from certain disaster into a resounding success. |
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In the defense industry, production runs are generally low volume and design and development is a one product exercise. Accordingly, the whole business is run on a project basis covering all aspects from cradle to grave of a particular weapon system except for the weapon use. Although other industries may be similar to this model, the majority are not because projects are concerned only with the initial development and production and/or operational use is in another branch of the company. Perhaps, another difference is that the customer has a very large organization, traditionally with access to all levels of the company and accounts. Furthermore, the customer is purchasing the equipment on behalf of the service user (who are very powerful and influential in their own right when it comes to procurement decisions). |
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In summary, the project manager has a vast number of the customer's staff to satisfy while making sure that the eventual equipment user is satisfied. In this respect, the defense project manager is a combination of a program manager and a project manager. |
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II.
Program Management vs. Project Management |
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The simple differences between a program manager and a project manager are that |
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a program manager manages the benefits accruing from the use of the project deliverables from inception to realization of the benefits through operational use of the deliverables; |
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whereas the project manager aims to achieve the deliverables on time at the right technical and quality standard and at minimum cost, there is no concern with the use that the deliverables will be put to achieve the users' benefits. |
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It is beyond the scope of this section to deal with the elements of program management in the role of a defense project manager, so, the following sections concentrate on the project management role. |
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It is important to understand the role of the project manager within the defense industry and how it relates to the functional organization. The com- |
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