Consider a scenario in which the Navy began to receive a new fighter aircraft for its aircraft carrier operations. Upon delivery of the first few aircraft, it was found the tailhook system was not reliable. The system failed to connect to the arresting barrier several times causing near-catastrophic accidents. The Navy refused delivery of any further aircraft until the problem was corrected. Payments to the aircraft manufacturer were also stopped. This problem had the potential to be of great loss of revenue to the manufacturer.

Assumptions:

• The Navy expected a fast response to resolve the problem.
• An engineering project was established to redesign and deliver a modified tail hook system.
• Navy quality expectations were very high.
• The project engineering team members are competent.

Respond to the following question pertaining to the principles of project management during the project execution phase:

Since the engineers are competent and the work is within their field, how closely do you think the project manager should monitor their progress during the redesign project? Why?