Analysis of Teradyne Jaguar Project: Leadership and Project Tools

This case study analyzes Teradyne's Jaguar project, examining its shift from traditional project execution strategies to a model incorporating project management tools and a structured development process. The project involved significant changes, including reorganizing project teams, emphasizing upfront planning, and introducing formalized project management tools like Primavera and AlphaTech. The analysis explores the impact of these tools, the cultural changes within the organization, and the challenges encountered, such as resistance to new methodologies and software development delays. It also addresses risk analysis and scope creep, highlighting lessons learned from the project's successes and failures. The study emphasizes the importance of cultural adaptation and effective training for the successful adoption of new project management practices, concluding with insights into leadership, project management, and organizational change.

TERadyne –jaguar project
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
History.............................................................................................................................................2
Culture.............................................................................................................................................2
Project Execution Strategy..............................................................................................................3
Project Teams..................................................................................................................................3
Design and planning........................................................................................................................4
Project Management Processes and Tools.......................................................................................4
Impact of Project Management Tools..............................................................................................4
Cultural Change...............................................................................................................................5
Adoption of Project Management Tools..........................................................................................5
Risk Analysis and Scope Creep.......................................................................................................5

Introduction
As the project lead of the Teradyne’s Jaguar project, Jack O’Brien was sitting in the traffic on
this way towards office he thought of the efforts of his team being placed in the last eight years.
The Teradyne organization is the manufacturer of semiconductor test machines and is awaiting
for the new full testing equipment to arrive. This project was highly important for Teradyne as it
included the formalized took for the purpose of project tracking, up-front project planning and
structured development process. The project has been a success despite for all the learning curve
imposed by the new methodologies however, the software was seen to suffer and O’Brien was
working on deliverables. The paper analyzed the traditional project execution strategies as
compared to the Jaguar project, impact of new project management tools on the project and
lessons learned from the experience.
History
Teradyne is 45 year veteran in the field of semiconductors and specialized in the testing of
electrical components like transistors etc. The company was found by two MIT graduates in
1960 with a motive of brining a line of fast and reliable testing equipment. With the increase in
complexity and volume of components the R&D investment of Teradyne also increased. The
organization stepped into broadband test, assembly test, semiconductor test and diagnostic
solutions. In became the largest business operation that produced two third of the annual revenue
in 2004.
Culture
The organization has a strong background as all the engineers come from engineering
background. Every project was driven by performance and the technical competence remained
strongly focused. The engineers were constantly motivated to prove themselves and to dive in

their tasks. The cubicles were assigned to the executives with casual dressed. Long office hours
were normal.
A major change in leadership was seen in early 1990 with the arrival of new CEO Alex D’
Arbeloff. Due to reliability and quality concerns, Alex was highly interested in risk of losing the
competitive edge of the organization. Due to the team being competent, Alex believed that
reporting and performance measurements were among some of the fundamental operating
problems. In order to combat such issues, Alex introduced TQM (Total Quality Management). It
took five years for the organization to embed such principles into their working environment.
But the engineering management resists the TQM aspects which can be seen by over and late
budget projects
Project Execution Strategy
The change in technology and strategic direction in the project with code name-Jaguar. The
project was a representation of significant departure of the traditional project execution strategy
which also included reorganization of the project team structure, increased emphasis on the up-
front design and planning, introducing the prescriptive processes of project management and
using formalized tools of project management. These changed required the core values of the
organization to change.
Project Teams
The focusing on market-segment for the engineering organization was abolished by Teradyne
and then folded into a single platform. This required the organization to merge the engineering
organization of Agoura Hills and Boston which were earlier working with different approaches.
A major change was encountered on this behalf.

Design and planning
The change in up-front planning and designing was seen during Jaguar project. Earlier all the
projects were poorly planned and the goal, objectives and scopes were not defined clearly with
no systematic method. This led to requirement of clearly defined scope and rigorous planning
and the project required an early commitment for key product specifications. A significant
amount of time was consumed in product planning and conceptual development. A phase-gate
model and Phase II Project and Product Planning were compiled within a 75 page presentation
which provided a detail of design, proposed system architecture, functional specifications,
project plan execution etc. While Phase III, “Detailed Design and Development”, the frustration
and discomfort of some of the employees were addressed.
Project Management Processes and Tools
With the introduction of project management tools the project execution strategy was broken
down into 3-point estimation, critical path analysis, earned value analysis and the Primavera
project scheduling program for enabling the team in executing all the practices of project
management. AlphaTech, was used for adapting and mitigating the delays concerned with the
teams.
Impact of Project Management Tools
The project management tools were received with mixed reaction where some believed in all the
values of these tools however the other viewed them as a distraction. Due to the commitment
towards achievement of milestones, the people were afraid of these tools.

Cultural Change
The project was not as successful as it was thought to be due to the failure of proving proper
training to the employees regarding the change in culture. A large cultural change and training
effort was necessitated for TQM which required a considerable amount of time. The same would
have been successful if Teradyne had spent same efforts in cultural change as it did with the
introduction of TQM.
Adoption of Project Management Tools
less focus was placed on status meeting and more on the data and tools. No confidence was
shown in the tool and was not seen as an efficient mode of entering the data.
The addition of project management staff assisted in this and would be advantageous in the
future. The individuals were not trained effectively and the software development performance
was seen to be behind the schedule and no response was taken by Teradyne to resolve the matter.
Risk Analysis and Scope Creep
The risks were not investigated thoroughly and no investigation was performed inside or outside
the company. On the beginning of the development, the software engineers were seen to work on
different product. These criteria were not considered on the development of the resource needs.