Why Projects Fail: A Case Study of Boeing 737 Max 8 Project Management

Project Management
Why projects Fail

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Project overview: Why Boeing 737 Max 8 project failed?.........................................................3
Process groups.............................................................................................................................4
Knowledge areas..........................................................................................................................5
Recommendations............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Project management is described as to planning and managing the project successfully by
completing its objectives. It includes smart budgeting, clear communication, resource
management, analysing risks through different teams as well as stakeholders(Aanbari & Kwak,
2018). The chosen project here is failure of Boeing 737 max, Boeing 737 max is the family of
the commercial aircraft that includes four different models. The Boeing 737 Max 8 is the most
popular model which made its first passenger services in 22 May, 2017 with seating capacity was
between 162 to 210 passengers. Later on, the Boeing 737 max 8 was grounded due the first crash
on Oct. 29, 2018. This Lion Air flight 610 dove into the Java sea after take off from Jakarta and
took 189 lives. And the second Max 8 crash was in Ethiopia on March 10, 2019 that took 157
lives. This report will include the project overview that why the project of Boeing 737 Max 8
failed and project management process. It will also include the different knowledge areas and the
recommendations. At the end, overall conclusion and references included.
Main Body
Project overview: Why Boeing 737 Max 8 project failed?
The Boeing 737 Max aircraft was grounded on 13 March, 2019 across worldwide. It due to the to
the two consecutive crashes. The first crash was occurred in Indonesia in the year of 2018 and
later on second crash occurred in the year of 2019 in Ethiopia which took 346 lives
combined(Cusumano, 2020). It was the major blow to the business of the Boeing company due
to having thousands of 737 Max orders. The crash investigations were complexed which took
months in order to find out evidence and actual cause of crash. According to the report published
by the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee on Lion Air Crash on Oct. 25,
2019. The report mentioned nine factors which was responsible for the crash that majorly blamed
the MCAS. Before the crash, the pilots of Lion Air were not able determining the altitude and
actual airspeed so as they were unable take full control on the aircraft. MCAS has pushed the
nose down of aircraft whenever they pulled it from the dive(Smith, 2020). This report identified
that MCAS function was not well designed and was unable to include redundancy. Investigators
further disclosed that MCAS was only relied on one sensor that had fault. Crew member had not