Case studies

These case studies have all been ‘road tested’ in British universities and can be used to support discussions, group work and other assignments in areas like linking projects to strategy, risk management, stakeholder engagement and leadership qualities. They are deliberately short so that students can read and understand them quickly, making them ideal for a typical 45 minute teaching session.

The Boeing 777 case looks at the aerospace company’s effort to create an airliner that more closely reflected airlines’ true needs, and also could exploit team working to speed the firm down the learning curve and improve quality. It’s a good case to think about stakeholder engagement and the types of risk such a huge programme faces.

The GM Hummer H2 project was a perfect example of a superbly designed and delivered project that produced an output which was rapidly out of step with its intended market. It provides an opportunity to consider how projects relate to strategy, as well as team formation and leadership.

Sir Ernest Shackleton’s rescue mission to save his companions on the 1914 Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition has become legendary. The case study charts the successful and lesser-known unsuccessful aspects of the project, and can form the basis for a discussion about leadership, planning or even communication.

The historically faithful reconstruction of the Globe Theatre on London’s South Bank provides a case study that is about performance art as much as architecture and building. The case can illustrate challenges in stakeholder engagement and also how to translate an idea into a real output, not to mention the many risks and challenges involved.

The debate about whether the Sydney Opera House project was a fiasco or the means to create one of the twentieth century’s finest buildings continues. This case encourages a discussion about the meaning of project success and failure, and also about the various personalities involved and the effect that the experience had upon them.