Your company, XXX has the mission of assembling
commercial and military launch vehicles. XXX does no fabrication, it simply provides customers specialized assembly expertise, brings the prefabricated parts of the expendable launch vehicle together, and though an assembly process delivers a completed launch vehicle to the launch facility to be mated with the propulsion system prior to launch. SST Corporation assembles many different launch vehicles for various customers who design and launch the rockets but lack the necessary facilities and expertise in rocket assembly (see Launch Vehicles figure). XXX is submitting a proposal in response to the Ansari X-Prize Competition as a sub-contractor to Scaled Composites. XXX will assemble the different competitor rockets and ship to Scaled Composites who will conduct engine mating, launch, and test data collection.
Your vice president for engineering has to decide whether to incorporate these X-Prize rocket assembly projects into the existing program of launch vehicle assembly or, have a separate program or, consolidate the effort into a project portfolio. You have been asked to research the use of programs and portfolios with projects and provide your recommend course of action. Consider the advantages/disadvantages of:
•?Incorporating the X-Prize vehicles into the existing program of launch vehicle assembly
•?Establishing the X-Prize vehicles into a standalone program.