Ajax Case Analysis

AJAX Case-Analysis

        The AJAX team is stuck between the storming and normalizing phases of their team development. Due to the number of obstacles they had to overcome when they were first formed (age, culture, social standing, and mindset), they naturally will take longer to go from the storming and normalizing stages to the performing stage where they will be at the highest group efficiency. Their joint goal which united them initially was the compensation bonuses for finishing the project on time. When this core driver began to falter due to errors and minor glitches, the team became frustrated and lost hope for the incentives which has led to Tran’s current situation.

Although Tran has been demonstrating a lot of good project manager characteristics, there are a few additional things he can do to regain momentum and strengthen his team moving forward. Since this project is heavily focused on integrated technological aspects which pull a variety of subsystems in, he should break down the milestones into shorter sprints. By breaking these big milestones down, the team will experience smaller and more frequent victories leading to increasing motivation and longevity for the project deliverable. These smaller sprints will also allow glitches to be caught quicker leading to a higher likelihood that the milestone will be passed each time. Tran should continue spending time to work with the engineers to reinforce that they are working cohesively to overcome obstacles. When he implements these smaller sprints within the milestones, he should reinforce the successes from completing the sprints so as to provide positive forward momentum for the team.

He may also consider restructuring the project timeframe to create a more realistic range of when the project milestones will be reached. Although this may cause pushback from his bosses and the client, it would lead his team to see the project deliverable as more obtainable. By creating a new timeline that is approved by the client, the bonuses would be back on the table for the team to work towards. If Tran is able to extend the time, he should do so based on the progress made so far. Another controversial idea would be to decrease the manpower on the project in order to promote better communication when working through issues. This decrease in manpower in addition to the increase in time could help the client equal out costs (assuming they care more about cost than time). Although this could be tricky when deciding which engineers to cut from the project, a decrease in staffing would likely lead to quicker discoveries of glitches within the group which would then decrease the turnaround rate for milestone completions.