The EVa Project
Introduction to the Exercise
It is July 2015.
You have been appointed project manager of EVa, a very prestigious and challenging new project for developing a chip (“the chip") that will be at the heart of entertainment and navigation systems in next-generation electric vehicles. The market for electric vehicles is growing rapidly. With targets for reduced emissions on the horizon, governments are offering many incentives. Significant investments are also being made in charging stations and other infrastructure.
EVa is being developed by Semic– one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world. Headquartered in Europe, it has about 30,000 employees in more than 25 countries. The company has five business lines that make semiconductors widely used in smartphones, automobiles (including electric vehicles), mobility solutions, smart homes, smart displays, etc. In 2014, Semic had net revenues of more than €10 billion. EVa is being implemented in EV Technologies, one of the five business lines.
Semic, which invests almost €1 billion annually in research and development (R&D), is highly rated in the industry for a deep pool of talent. It has a high level of development capability and prides itself on successful project execution. Over 1,500 projects are executed at any point of time. The top 10 projects in each business line are considered to be critical to the company. EVa is one of them.
Customers & Market for the Chip
The lead customer for the chip is Cars4U, a very large and prestigious automobile manufacturer. Cars4U has decided to move rapidly from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles in response to to mandates for climate change. Cars4U needs the chip by the end of 2017 for integration into a new line of electric vehicles to be introduced in 2018. In the automotive industry, the due date is referred to as Model Year 2018 (MY2018). Cars4U has agreed to buy at least 1 million chips per year for a fixed price during 2018-2020 – assuming of course, that it is developed on time and with correct specifications.
The development costs for the EVa project are estimated at €20 million. The chip can also be sold to other automotive manufacturers. i.e., a very large market. Given projected product volumes and prices, Semic is confident of making big profits from the chip. The stakes are high.
The Project
The EVa project starts in November 2015 with a planned development phase of three years. Semic employs a Stage-Gates approach to managing projects (see Introduction to Stage Gates for an overview): a project is divided into a number of stages, separated by gates or milestones. At each gate, the project’s overall status is reviewed by a steering committee at Semic. The steering committee decides whether to continue with the project or terminate it, i.e., a go/ no-go decision.
The EVa project has 6 stages (and 6 gates). This exercise focuses on the first three stages shown below.
The plan incorporates an overall buffer in case of contingencies. The size of the buffer is about 17 weeks, i.e., four months.
Your Team
Semic believes that based on your track record, you are the right person for the role of project manager. You have been effective in getting things done, including bringing new products to market on time and within budgets. The top management of the EV Automotives is convinced that you have the knowledge, experience and credentials to take EVa to the finish line and make it a success. You will be working with a very experienced team of sub-project managers who lead teams of software engineers, designers and other staff. Your core project management team consists of the project manager (you), the project planner and six sub-project managers, who are supervise their teams (see the organization chart below). The core team holds bi-weekly meetings to discuss all the important issues pertaining to the project and make project management decisions. These meetings are held every other week and focus on focus on management issues rather than technical issues: progress, staffing, budgets, customer feedback, etc.