Project Management: International Space Station and Apple Lisa

This report examines project management principles through case studies of the International Space Station (ISS) and Apple Lisa. It begins with an executive summary, followed by a literature review exploring tools and factors influencing project success, such as project needs identification, risk management, and efficient scheduling. The report then identifies and discusses the ISS as a successful project and Apple Lisa as a failure, analyzing the internal and external reasons for their outcomes. The ISS's success is attributed to meticulous planning and execution, while Apple Lisa's failure resulted from technical flaws, poor project management, and marketing shortcomings. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing future project success, emphasizing the importance of project planning, risk management, and effective execution. The report is structured as a formal business report, adhering to the VU Harvard referencing style, and includes an introduction, literature review, case study analysis, discussion of success and failure factors, and recommendations for improving project outcomes.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AND APPLE LISA CASE STUDY
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1ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The project management is needed in making any project successful and the two required case
studies of failed project and successful project are described in the report. The development of
the International Space Station and the Apple Lisa are the two projects which can termed as
failed and successful are analysed here and the recommendations to make a project successful
are also described in the business report.

2ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Identification and discussion of the projects...............................................................................4
Reasons for the success and failure of the projects.....................................................................7
Recommendation for developing a successful project....................................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................12

3ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
Introduction
The role of project management in making a project successful is described in the below
business report and the two case studies of the ISS development and the Apple Lisa has been
explained and also discussed. The various structures and operations of the International Space
Station (ISS) and the Apple Lisa has been made and then the reason for the success or failure of
the two case studies are also discussed. The International Space Station is considered to be one
of the most successful project in the world and the project is associated with more than one
country and it might be regarded as the success of all the project planning and management made
for this project (Mir & Pinnington 2014, p.20). However, the Apple Lisa was a complete failure
due to the fact that it had various technical failures as well as lack of project management and
high pricing of the product. The detailed case studies indicates the internal and external reasons
for the success or failure of the two case studies and the various entities and the structures in the
two project are also elaborated. The report elaborately describes the two cases of failure and
success and also the role of the project management including project planning and scheduling
due to which a project might fail or succeed is also discussed (Kerzner 2017, p.39). The various
factors by which a project may be considered to be successful or failed is also discussed in the
report and the necessary recommendation of how a project may be made successful is also
described in the report.
Literature Review
There are certain tools for the management of projects and processes that must be
maintained and followed in order to implement it successful. The process of making a project
successful is generally dependent on these factors however, many external factors also influence

4ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
the projects to fail or succeed (Alias et al. 2014, p.14). According to Kerzner 2017, p.31, the
project’s success is depended on the factors such as identifying project needs and requirements,
defining the critical milestones of the project, manage the various risks associated with the
project, designing of an efficient project schedule and also testing the deliverables before
delivering the project to the clients. These factors mainly determine whether a project will
succeed or fail and the above constraints must be met in order to make a project successful.
However, various techniques can be applied to make a project successful such as traditional
model, agile approach and the waterfall approach. The role of managing a project is thus
regarded as the most important aspect in determining the success or failure of the projects
(Harrison & Lock 2017, p.17). The success factor in the projects thus increases the overall profit
and performance of a company and it also helps to increase the brand value of a particular
project.
Identification and discussion of the projects
The successful and failed case can be judged by the final outcomes of the project and
whether it meets with the desired aims set during the planning phase of the project. Thus the two
successful and failed projects are the development of the ISS and the Apple Lisa failure
respectively. The two case studies are discussed below:
Development of the International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) can be defined as an artificial satellite which is
habitable by the human beings and it is situated in the lower Earth orbit. The main five space
agencies (CSA, JAXA, NASA, ESA AND Roscosmos) that are active and associated with the
various kinds of space research programs have jointly built the international space station for the

5ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
astronauts and for various kinds of space research related works. The international space station
has its own international rules, regulations and agreements for operation and usability (Smith
2019, p.14). The international space station also acts as the space environment research platform
for the research work in various fields like meteorology, astronomy and biology of human body.
The international space station is constantly orbiting around the earth with a constant speed of
7.66 km/s and also have certain boosters to do the necessary maneuvers. The ISS is mainly
divided into two sections which are operated by the Russians and the United States respectively
and the funding of this sections are mainly done by the respective governments and space
agencies. The building of the space station has initially started in the 1990’s and it is mainly
build by assembling various parts into one single component (Madanipour 2013, p.44). The
overall construction cost of the space station is over $60 billion dollars and it took over 10 years
to construct the entire section.
The idea of building this space station was once only a science fiction story, however,
with the perfect project planning and project execution, the building of the ISS was successful.
The first step was in joining the two Russian Soyuz space vehicles in the outer space and thus
followed by many other vehicles and space crafts. The ISS however nowadays are designed for
many purposes such as academic researches and commercial purposes. The first initiative was by
the US to build the various parts of the ISS in the year 1998 and the first crew to reside inside the
international space station was in the year 2000 (Raftery & Hoffman 2013, p.21). The necessary
items that are needed by the inhabitants of the space station are generally carried by the different
space shuttles and carriers carrying food, water and other essentials. The entire space station is
powered by a huge number of solar panels which powers the entire operations of the space
station and these panels are connected along the main body of the ISS. The project of the

6ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
development of the space station is regarded as one of the most successful and large projects in
the entire world to be carried out by the humans. The international space station is also a result of
adequate planning techniques and perfect execution of the pre planed operations which points
out that with the proper project planning and project management, the toughest of jobs can be
managed well (Lynn & Kalay 2015, p.16). However, the international space station had certain
problems and critics about the proper execution and planning. There are success factors
associated with the international space station and the proper functioning of it, for more than 3
years. This the successful project identified and described in this report.
Apple Lisa Failure
The Lisa was initially a desktop computer which was developed by the Apple Computer
Inc. in the year 1983 which was among one of the first computers to provide the Graphical User
Interface (GUI) in the computers. The Apple’s Lisa computer system is considered to be one of
the project failures. The Lisa desktop computer, after various developments in the structure was
designed and launched in the international market which turned out be highly priced, with
insufficient performance and with a crash prone operating system (Cain 2016, p.11). The Apple
Lisa was a failure because of the fact that the Macintosh which was released after the Apple Lisa
was faster, cheaper and efficient than the Apple Lisa and it was thus a complete failure for the
Apple Company. The Apple Lisa was however, considered to be the pioneer of the modern
Macintosh but it lacked many criteria’s in terms of technology and planning and it also lacked
the appropriate marketing strategy due to which it has also an over-priced model. The software
and the operating system of the Apple Lisa was the main reason behind its failure and thus the
lack of workstation price and technical application lack, made the project Apple Lisa a complete
failure and it made a huge loss for the company as well (Gansky 2017, p.20). The project of

7ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
Apple Lisa began in the year 1978 to design a more advanced and modern version of the
computers. The user interface, operating system and applications of the Apple Lisa was all
designed by the company in a very short span of time and also all the essential parts were
designed parallel to each other, which caused the failure in the system.
The Apple Lisa can be termed as a commercial failure for the company as because the
computer designed by the Apple Company not only had technological flaws in the design and
operational section but also lacked the proper planning and execution (O’Regan 2018, p.33). The
Lisa was considered to be one of the most advanced and large projects of Apple at that time and
the company only focused in the technological up gradation and enhancement of the product,
ignoring the marketing and the financial strategies. Thus the Apple Lisa being one of the first
computers in the world to provide the graphical user interface to the users resulted in a massive
failure. The Apple Lisa was also considered to be one of the first computers to have dedicated
RAM slots and dedicated I/O slots in a parallel placement to each other. However, the Lisa had
several hardware flaws which were updated in the second generation Lisa, but ultimately the
Lisa was a complete failure. The fact that the second version of the Lisa had the necessary
amendments but it has very much overpriced from the Mac system and thus people chose the
Mac to be more practical than the Apple Lisa (Badewi 2016, p.15). The Apple Company had to
withdraw and discontinue the Lisa model due to its technological and operational flaws and thus
the case study of the Apple Lisa is described here as one of the main project failures in the world.
Reasons for the failure and success of the projects
The International space station is considered to be one of the most successful projects
carried out by the human race due to the fact that it was build and expanded obeying certain
project management plans and structures. The proper project management and planning is the

8ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
cause for the success of the International Space Station and thus the various operations, whether
be it small or big is properly planned, managed and structured and then the process are executed.
The International Space Station is a joint venture by many space agencies over the world and
hence it is required to plan and execute the operations altogether, which makes it a global
success and thus the ISS is considered to be one of the most important projects that has been
successfully managed (Young 2016, p.22). Various conditions are also related with the
inhabitants of the International Space Station such as biological conditions and these conditions
are also maintained and designed according to the project plans which are made well before the
execution of the actions. The International Space Station also have certain control stations which
are located in the Earth and the maintenance and controlling of these stations also needs proper
project management and planning strategies as because these stations play an important role in
managing the Space Station. The ISS also have certain automated systems which are designed
and monitored by the ground stations and thus the planning of such devices is an important
aspect in the success factor of the development of the Space Station. The ISS also succeeded
because of the fact that the technologies involved in the system are also of highest order and very
much effective in terms of the operational functions (Kerzner 2018, p.42). The development and
maintenance of the ISS needs proper project management planning and execution which must be
done in order to successfully operate the station. The fact that the ISS needs constant monitoring,
is also done and managed by the several monitoring devices which can also be considered to be a
success factor in the building of the International Space Station.
The another case study that has been discussed above is about the failure of the Apple
Lisa which was a computer system designed and developed by the Apple Company Inc. in the
year 1983. The computer thus designed was considered to be one of the first machines to give the

9ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
graphical user interface to the users but the project of the Apple Lisa was ultimately a failure.
The Apple Lisa was designed with respect to the then current technologies available and all the
current applications were included in them but it was designed within a very small phase of time
which caused several issues in the software and hardware design of the system (Bergvall-
Kåreborn & Howcroft 2013, p.11). Due to the lack of marketing and financial aspects in the
Apple Lisa project was priced at a very high rate, compared to the later released Macintosh and
thus it resulted in the failure. The planning strategy has also some flaws in the introduction of the
Lisa and the Mac as because the Mac was launched instantly after the launch of the Lisa. This
attracted the customers towards the more practical and cheaper Mac rather than adopting the
Lisa. The Lisa also had problems in its operating system which gave the user’s a very bad
experience of it while using the Lisa, and this can also be considered as one of the reasons for the
failure of the system. The successful and failed projects are thus determined by whether the final
outcomes of the project meets with the proposed outcomes of the project (Tessman 2014, p.48).
Thus the reasons for the success and failures of the two projects have been explained and stated
in the above section of the report.
Recommendation for developing a successful project
The development of a successful project generally is related with the appropriate
development of the project plans and schedules and also the appropriate implementation of those
plans and structures. Several factors are responsible for the development of a successful project
which are discussed below –
Project plan: The project planning should be the key constraint in making a project successful
and the planning should be made keeping in mind the roles of the stakeholders, the managers and

10ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
the customers. The plan should be made clear to every employee of the organization and the
employees should also abide by this plan as a roadmap until the project is completed.
Identifying risks: The identification of the risks is an important factor which might cause the
project to fail. The risks that are associated during the execution or development of the project
are to be identified and solved in order to successfully deliver the project. The risks involve
various factors such as internal and external risks which effect the internal and external
operations of the company. The identified risks should also be mitigated with the help of project
management techniques. This fact should be kept in mind in developing the future projects.
Creating a proper budget: A proper budget is very much essential in terms of developing a
successful project as because every project requires its own costs and thus the proper allocation
of the budget in a project should be done. In case the project activities needs to be changed, the
budget factors and allocation to each task also needs to be changed so that the project can be
made successful. Thus this factor also must be considered in developing a future successful
project.
Adding milestones: The milestone of a project defines the tasks that needs to be accomplished in
a certain time for the development of the entire project. The project deliverables may be used for
the implementing of the milestone of a project. The milestone of a project also helps the
employees to understand their tasks and act according to the milestone.
Thus the above factors must be kept in mind in developing a successful project and these factors
must also be referred in the developing phase of the project.

11ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
Conclusion
The business report above states the two case studies regarding the International Space
Station development and the Apple Lisa which are the two cases of successful and failure
projects. The two case studies have been elaborated and the various aspects in the two cases have
been discussed. Thus from the above business report it can be concluded that the management of
project including the project planning and scheduling and risk identification is very much needed
in making a project successful. The various clauses that can make a project successful also been
described and recommended in the project. The reasons for the success and failure of the two
cases of the ISS and the Apple Lisa has been discussed and emphasized in the report. The
International space station was built by the various nations with a proper project execution and
planning and that was the result of the successful implementation of building the Space Station.
However, in the case of the Apple Lisa the various project planning strategies and outlines were
not followed which resulted in the failure of the entire project.

12ANALYSIS OF SUCCESSFUL AND FAILED CASE STUDY
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