Most large companies and many smaller companies have extensive policies, procedures and processes for risk management.  ISO-9001-2015 places a lot more emphasis on risk and policies and processes to deal with it.  In spite of these risk requirements, poor QA and management execution accounts for a majority of project failures.  Let me give you one example with the lessons learned.

POOR EXECUTION EXAMPLE
A sister division in my company requested us to provide a red team to review a PDR ( Preliminary Design Review) for a large, air inflated radome since they did not have the expertise to perform the review themselves.  I was the lead for the red team.  Our sister division was procuring the radome from a well-known and qualified radome manufacturer. The availability and strength requirements for the radome were very difficult to meet given it was going to support a high security mission and be installed at a location that was subjected to severe weather (maximum winds 200 mph).  The PDR did not go well.  The review did not support the radome fabric material availability or strength requirements. The radome subcontractor specification and SOW (statement of work) were incomplete and there were numerous other problems with the review.  The red team gave the PDR a red color meaning it had flunked the review.  The red team documented the minutes of the review along with corrective actions and went home.

Our sister division did not contact us after the review. About 1 ½ years later we heard they ignored the red team review, let the subcontract for the radome, and installed it.  During a pressure test after installation to confirm the wind load strength, the radome fabric failed.  This event led to a significant investigation internal to my company to determine why the radome failed.  We were exonerated based on the PDR minutes that clearly stated the fabric would not meet the requirements.   Later we learned that the cause of the fabric failure was due to the flaws introduced during the assembly of the fabric into the radome which were not caught by the subcontractor or our sister divisions QA and engineering personnel.

LESSONS LEARNED

1. The results of the PDR were ignored.  QA is responsible for ensuring the processes (in this case the PDR) are conducted per policy and procedures. Evidently in this example either QA failed in their responsibility and/or management overrode their opinion and proceeded with the radome as designed.
2. The subcontractor and sister division QA and engineering personnel did not find the fabric assembly flaws.   Our sister division did not have the expertise to find the fabric assembly flaws.  The subcontractor failed to find the flaws due to poor performance or neglect.
3. Our sister division should not have discontinued communications with us because they did not agree with the red team review.  They relied solely on the expertise of the subcontractor and paid the consequence.  This lesson learned highlights the importance of good subcontractor oversight.

SUMMARY

Policies, processes and procedures are necessary but do not mean much if the execution is poorly performed.  As with a football team , the best plan does not lead to a win if the execution is poor.

Bio:

John earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering and MS in Engineering Management from Northeastern University. He has a total of 44 years’ experience, 30 years with DOD Companies. He is a member of PMI (project Management Institute). John has managed numerous firm fixed price and cost plus large high technical development programs worth in excessive of $100M.  He has extensive subcontract management experience domestically and foreign.  John has held a number of positions over his career including: Director of Programs; Director of Operations;  Program Manager; Project Engineer; Engineering Manager; and Design Engineer. His technical design areas of experience include: radar; mobile tactical communication systems; cryogenics; electronic packaging; material handling; antennas; x-ray technology; underwater vehicles; welding; structural analysis; and thermal analysis.  He has experience in the following areas: design; manufacturing; test; integration; selloff; subcontract management; contracts; risk and opportunity management; and quality control.  John is a certified six sigma specialist, certified level 2 EVM (earned value management) specialist; certified CAM (cost control manager).