Ocean’s Eleven
As part of pm.CinemaHall, we analyzed the film “Ocean’s Eleven“ through the lens of project management.
It almost seemed like the film’s script was written by an experienced project manager. This is an understandable impression*, because in 2000, screenwriter Ted Griffin found himself at the deep of a creative impasse and was considering a career shift. Coincidentally, that same year, PMI released an updated version of PMBOK (2000 Edition). Ted bought this book with the goal of transitioning into project management. The more he read, the more he admired those individuals who had devoted their lives to project management – a project sponsor investing money in an unpredictable outcome; a project manager taking responsibility for unprecedented tasks; a project team risking it all for the project’s success; opposing stakeholders posing challenges to the project…
As Ted immersed himself in PMBOK, his muse returned! He spent two nights poring over the book, associating project roles with resonant names like Danny Ocean, Rusty Ryan, Terry Benedict, and Reuben Tishkoff. He devised an incredible project objective, set a deadline, stripped out all the tedious processes and tools, added some humor and romance, and… voila! He had a brilliant script for an adventure film. Director Steven Soderbergh was immediately taken with the idea, declaring, “Ted, we finally have a breath of fresh air in this rotten Hollywood swamp,” and thus began work on the best PMBOK adaptation, initially titled “PMBOK’s Eleven.” However, due to copyright disputes with PMI, the name had to be changed.
*The story behind the making of the film is fictionalized for promotional purposes. Any coincidence of names, companies, and books is accidental.
Upon viewing and analyzing the film, we identified the following project management tools and processes:
Brief Project Overview
Project Goals
- Overall Objective: Steal $150 million from three casinos during a boxing match.
- Team Goal: Divide the jackpot equally among the 11 team members.
- Customer’s Goal: Win back Tess (ex-wife) and make money.
- Project Manager’s Goal: Enjoy the process and profit from it.
- Sponsor’s Goal: Seek revenge on Terry Benedict and turn a profit.
Project Constraints
- Ocean is prohibited from leaving the state.
- The vault’s security measures rival those of a nuclear base.
- Lock codes are changed at least every 12 hours and are never repeated.
- The elevator operates only with the guard’s fingerprint.
- The elevator shaft is equipped with volumetric sensors.
- Guards are armed with Uzis.
- A robust vault door claimed to be the most secure in the world.
- Surveillance cameras.
Project Assumptions
- The team can bypass the cash desks and navigate through the secret doors.
- They can use the elevator.
- They can overcome the guard’s resistance.
- They can enter the vault without being detected by the security cameras.
- They can effortlessly extract $150 million in cash.
- They will face no obstacles while doing so.
Project WBS, Level 1
- Reconnaissance (shift and dealer schedule, cash cart route, security staff, casino organization, quickest escape routes, vault access codes)
- Power (plunge the city into darkness)
- Surveillance (connect to the casino’s surveillance system)
- Construction (build a prototype)
- Intelligence (gather access codes)
- Transport
High-Level Risks
- The plan is technically complex and risky.
- Terry Benedict, the owner of three casinos – Bellagio, Mirage, and MGM Grand, is notorious for his vindictiveness and merciless disposition.
- The project’s financing depends on a sponsor who is an enemy of Terry Benedict and who has nothing to lose.
Project Stakeholders
| Name | Role | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Daniel “Danny” Ocean | Initiator and Customer | A smooth con man, recently paroled from prison, who proposes the idea of robbing three Las Vegas casinos in one night. Despite his criminal nature, he is calm, honest, and thoughtful in his actions. |
| Frank “Ramon” Catton | Team (Competencies: Insider at the casino, pushy black man) | An old friend of Rusty and Danny who works as an insider dealer at the casino for the project. He is metrosexual. |
| Robert “Rusty” Ryan | Project Manager | Danny Ocean’s close associate and key link of the team. He is constantly eating, mostly fast food. |
| Officer Brooks | Authority | Enforces Danny Ocean’s interstate travel ban. Ocean is required to report to Officer Brooks about his movements. |
| Security guard Oscar | Outsource | Provides the team with access to the construction blueprints of the three casinos. |
| Reuben Tishkoff | Sponsor | Former casino owner with a personal grudge against the new owner, Terry Benedict. A wealthy and influential casino mogul, and an old friend of Danny and Rusty. He sponsors the project and also serves as an advisor to some of the team members, notably Linus. |
| Turk Malloy | Team (Competencies: Skilled Mechanic, Driver, Car Specialist, Fake Jerk) | One of the Mormon twins that Danny employs as auto mechanics and drivers for various project tasks. Turk is assertive, confident, and often conflicts with his brother Virgil. |
| Virgil Malloy | Team (Competencies: Skilled Mechanic, Driver, Car Specialist, Fake Jerk) | The other Malloy brother, serving as an auto mechanic and driver. Virgil is more meek, courteous, and amiable than his brother, though he can also be quite sarcastic and arrogant. |
| Livingston Dell | Team (Competence: Top Electronics Engineer, Time Manager) | A freelance electronics expert who is enlisted for the team to handle computer hacking and related tasks. He is a neurotic introvert and feels uneasy when not seated at his PC. |
| Basher Tarr | Team (Expertise: Munitions, Demolition and Arms) | A demolition and munitions expert and a former partner of Rusty and Danny. Despite his intelligence, he can be overly pessimistic. |
| “The Amazing” Yen | Team (Competency: Acrobat, Grease Man) | A diminutive Chinese acrobat who serves as a flexible and versatile element for the team, using his flexibility and acrobatic stunts. |
| Saul Bloom | Project Representative (Competence: Convincing Actor) | An elderly con artist with a lot of experience, used by the team to impersonate various characters needed for the project tasks. Though initially reluctant due to his retired lifestyle, he eventually agrees to participate. |
| Linus Caldwell | Team (Competence: Fake Jerk, Plucker, Shadowing) | A naïve yet talented pickpocket whose parents are renowned thieves. Danny sees Linus’s potential and invites him to the team, though Linus requires significant convincing, coaching, and testing throughout the project. |
| Nevada Gaming Commission | Regulator | The commission mandates that casinos must maintain sufficient funds in their vaults to cover the value of the chips. |
| Stripper Charmaine | Outsource | Steals the pass of a technician who is infatuated with her. |
| Mr Walsh | External Stakeholder | Casino manager and Terry Benedict’s right-hand man. |
| Tess Ocean | Emotional Stakeholder | Danny’s ex-wife, who didn’t wait for him to leave prison. Despite their split, Danny still harbors feelings for her. |
| Bucky Buchanan | Unregistered Stakeholder | Discovers and almost exposes Saul at the casino. |
| Bruiser | Outsource (huge bruiser working with Ocean) | A large and intimidating figure who is bribed by Danny Ocean to ‘beat’ him, enabling Ocean to infiltrate the casino. |
| Terry Benedict | Opposing Stakeholder | Owner of three casinos – Bellagio, Mirage, and MGM Grand. He is notorious for his vindictiveness and ruthless nature. |
Storyboard
| Time | Component of PM | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 0:03:50 | Start of team building. First meetings. | Danny Ocean finds Frank Catton and tries to find Rusty Ryan. Just from the first meetings, the high secrecy of the project is clear, as well as the caution and harmony of the participant, despite the long break in the relationship. |
| 0:08:30 | The Tuckman model in working with a team. For a serious project, you need those with whom you are at the “Performance” stage | Danny Ocean and Rusty Ryan at their first meeting, without saying a word, swindle for money a group of actors whom Rusty teaches to play poker. |
| 0:11:30 | The vision and high-level goals of the project. The uniqueness of the project is clearly traced. The need for resources. Project scope. | Danny Ocean, in a conversation with Rusty Ryan, voices the Project Vision and the high-level goals of the project. Discuss the resources and scope of the project (3 casinos). Phrases are heard: “It’s tricky”, “It’s never been done before”, “It’ll need planning and a large crew”, and “Eight figures each”. |
| 0:12:00 | Reconnaissance. Identification of the opposing stakeholder. | Studying the blueprints of a vault. Clarification of the complexity of the task and identification of one of the key stakeholders of the project, namely the opposing, interested in the failure of the project – Terry Benedict. |
| 0:12:40 | Roles/competencies of the team |
Rusty Ryan defines the competencies of the roles in the project team. Need “at least dozen guys doing a combination of cons”:
|
| 0:13:00 | Project budget. Project sponsor. | Need a sponsor who is an enemy of Terry Benedict with loose cash and has nothing to lose. He is defined – Reuben Tishkoff. |
| 0:13:20 | Outsourcing | Collection of information on the project (blueprints, copies). In this case, outsourcing is used (guard Oscar). |
| 0:13:40 | The goal of the initiator/customer. Preparation for negotiations. | Ocean presents his reason to his partner, while using a prepared, rehearsed speech, i.e. there was a classic preparation of the presentation. |
| 0:14:40 | Search for funding. Negotiations with a potential sponsor. Risks |
The sponsor voices the high-level risks of the project: “They got cameras, they got watchers, they got locks, they got timers, they got vaults. They got enough armed personnel to occupy Paris.” and “…once you’re out the front door, you’re still in the middle of the fucking desert!” |
| 0:15:10 | Lessons from past projects, benchmarking, business cases | Sponsor tells lessons learned from other people’s failures: “The three most successful robberies in Vegas history”. |
| 0:17:00 | Sponsor motivation. | Ocean and Ryan got the sponsor interested in personal gain – revenge on Terry Benedict. |
| 0:17:40 | Project initiation. Project constraints | Reuben agrees. The constraints of the project are announced:
|
| 0:18:00 | Competences and characteristics of the team | Reuben (sponsor) gives a psychological description of the project team – “you’re gonna need a crew as nuts as you are.” |
| 0:18:10 | Project team recruitment. Workarounds and reserves when recruiting a team. | The crew:
|
| 0:29:00 | Kickoff Meeting. Team building. |
Acquaintance and team building of the team (everyone is full and almost sober). Ocean’s warning that nobody’s on the line here yet and it’s not too late to refuse, as his proposal be both highly lucrative and highly dangerous. Linus motivation by Reuben. Kick-off meeting of the project team. |
| 0:30:30 | Description of the content of the project. Project technical constraints. | Ocean presents the project and the goals of the project, and also technical constraints:
|
| 0:32:20 | Team motivation and reward. Deadline. |
The Nevada Gaming Commission stipulates: a casino must hold in reserve enough cash to cover every chip at play on its floor. That means: during the week, by law, it must hold anywhere from 60 to 70 million dollars in cash and coin. On a weekend, between $80 and $90 million. On a fight night, like the one two weeks from tonight, the night the team is going to rob it, at least $150 million. |
| 0:32:50 | Project assumptions. | Saul voices the assumptions of the project:
|
| 0:33:40 | Planning. WBS. Project Schedule | Plan (WBS):
|
| 0:34:00 | Work with stakeholders. Business analysis. | Frank is transferred to the Bellagio casino as a dealer and begins reconnaissance ahead of the heist. |
| 0:35:10 | Procurement of tools | Theft of a technician’s pass by a stripper named Charmaine, who likes her and thinks she likes him too. |
| 0:36:00 | Organization of communications. Working with risks | Bug installation. To reduce risks and distraction, one of the chambers was covered with balloons. |
| 0:37:30 | Unforeseen circumstances | A positive risk (opportunity) is triggered. The electronics engineer screwed up, but he was not only released, but also returned the forgotten radio. |
| 0:39:00 | Prototype | The team builds an accurate replica of the cash vault and conducts drills to bypass the security system. |
| 0:39:40 | Budget savings | Frank knocks out a discount from a car dealer. |
| 0:41:00 | Team member test | Saul’s motivation and readiness test. |
| 0:42:40 | Business analysis of the main opposing side. Project risks |
Linus tells the results of his observations on Terry Benedict. Important risks emerge: Benedict is a helluva target. He is as smart and ruthless as they come. If the team makes even one mistake, Benedict takes out their knees and ruins their lives and anybody they know. |
| 0:44:40 | Change in the project |
The first serious inconsistency is miscommunication between the main participants. Ocean turned out to have another goal in this project. Before the robbery, it becomes known that Benedict’s girlfriend Tess is Ocean’s ex-wife, who did not wait for him to leave prison, and he still has feelings for her. Although “Tess does not split 11 ways,” Danny assures Rusty that his personal problems won’t affect the project’s execution. At this stage, it becomes unequivocally clear that Denis Ocean is the initiator and customer of the project, but Rusty Ryan is the project manager. |
| 0:49:00 | Important milestone | The psychological setting of the project initiator (Ocean) for success. Most of the project has already been completed and the goal of the project could be blurred. Ocean raises his spirits and at the same time engages an important stakeholder (Terry Benedict) in the project. |
| 0:54:00 | Team member check | At the behest of the project manager, Linus keeps an eye on not only Benedict but Ocean as well. |
| 0:55:30 | Team meeting. Setting goals. Prototype. Workout | Rusty distributes tasks to the project team with clear deadlines. Another vault prototype is shown (this time a small one). Yen trains to complete his tasks. You can see the positive humorous attitude of the team (bets on Yen’s jump). |
| 0:56:40 | Unforeseen situation. Change in the project | During the blowing up of the old casino, the explosives disrupted the city’s power supply, and at the same time the team’s plans to blackout the city. |
| 0:57:30 | Workaround. Additional resources | The solution comes – a pinch. There is a presentation of the possibilities of the pinch. They have to quickly rob the California Institute of Advanced Science. Additionally, 20 batteries and a copper wire are required. |
| 0:59:00 | Team incompatibility. Violation of orders. Team cohesion. | Linus couldn’t be in a car with the talkative Mallory brothers. Violating Ocean’s orders, he was AWOL. But the team still does not abandon him and saves him. During the rescue, Yen injured his hand. |
| 1:01:40 | Overtime. Stable, confident team member | Reuben is nervous as the deadlines are running out. Saul comforts him. |
| 1:01:50 | Change in team and plan. Start time | Ocean was put on the casino no-go list. The reason is Ocean’s meeting with Tess. The project manager keeps Ocean from the climactic performance of the project. It becomes completely clear who is in charge of the project – Rusty Ryan. The show will start at 7:00 pm sharp. |
| 1:04:00 | Psychological training | The project manager conducts NLP training for one of the team members. |
| 1:07:00 | Contingency | An old acquaintance of Saul recognizes him. Because of this, Benedict’s doubts creep in and he does not allow Saul to bring the case into the vault on his own. |
| 1:07:20 | Project execution | An explosive device disguised as precious stones are deposited in the vault for safety by Saul, who has temporarily turned into a wealthy high roller businessman who allegedly came to play at high stakes. |
| 1:08:50 | Project execution | The Malloy brothers, under the guise of casino employees, are preparing a cart for transporting cash. |
| 1:10:10 | Risk management | When Linus introduces himself to Benedict as an official of the Nevada Gaming Commission, Benedict tests him with questions about the former Commissioner. But the team apparently analyzed the risks and prepared. Linus answered correctly. |
| 1:16:40 | Project communications | Linus steals the security ciphers from Terry Benedict. Thanks to this and the “bug” installed into the computer network of the casino, team members can watch everything that happens and even broadcast the desired image on the security monitors. |
| 1:18:10 | Change in the project | Acrobat Yen ends up in a vault inside a money transport box. But they put a case in the box with the Chinese. |
| 1:18:50 | Project execution | Ocean himself gets inside the casino with the help of a bribed security guard, the Bruiser. |
| 1:20:30 | Team member check | It turns out that Ocean and Ryan were playing a double game with Linus. They checked it several times and now completely trust it. |
| 1:23:40 | Project execution | The key element of the robbery is a compact EMP generator, with the help of which, at the appointed time, electronics are disabled in almost the entire city. In a few tens of seconds, until the power is switched to backup sources, Danny and Linus go through a disabled security system. |
| 1:25:35 | Unexpected event. Positive risk | Yen was stuck and could have died from the explosion, but the batteries in the demolition console were dead. Linus got ready. He had spare batteries. While they were changing, Yen managed to hide from the explosion. |
| 1:29:50 | Project execution. Involving the main stakeholder and manipulating them. Project communications | The team blows up the armored door, after which Danny and Linus find themselves inside the vault. Terry Benedict receives a call from criminals that he is being robbed. Terry calls the police, but his call is also intercepted by robbers. They carry out a diversion with a remotely controlled vehicle that supposedly takes stolen cash out of the casino. In fact, the money is taken out by the SWAT team that came to the call, again robbers, under the guise of special police officers. |
| 1:41:40 | Project completion | At the end of the robbery, Danny Ocean, leaving the casino, meets with Terry Benedict and offers him to hand over the participants in the robbery “in exchange” for his girlfriend. Benedict agrees to the “exchange”. Tess is watching this scene through a live camera feed. |
| 1:45:25 | Dissolution of the team | The robbery succeeds. Joint meditation of the team and the participants in the crime go home. |
| 1:49:50 | Transfer of project results to the customer | Danny is forced to return to prison for about six months for violating the conditions of release. After his release, Rusty and Tess are waiting outside the prison. |
But they are being watched!
Terry Benedict is running through the business analysis to initiate his project…
Watch the Ocean’s Twelve
Project Management Summary
“Ocean’s Eleven” is more than just an entertaining heist film; it’s an engaging case study in project management. The main character, Danny Ocean, and his right-hand man, Rusty Ryan, are tasked with managing a complex, high-risk project – stealing $150 million from three Las Vegas casinos. Like any ambitious project, it requires meticulous planning, resource allocation, risk management, and efficient execution.
- Initiation and Planning: The first steps towards this ambitious project involve defining its scope and setting clear, specific goals. Ocean and Ryan assemble a skilled team to achieve these goals, with each member contributing a unique skill set.
- Resource Management: The team members in “Ocean’s Eleven” serve as the project’s resources. Each member has a role that plays to their strengths and contributes to the project’s overall success. This is a crucial aspect of project management – understanding and utilizing each team member’s abilities to their fullest extent.
- Risk Management: The plot of the film is riddled with potential pitfalls and unexpected hurdles. In project management terms, these are project risks. Ocean and Ryan anticipate these risks and plan for them, preparing contingency plans and backup options to ensure the project stays on track even when things go wrong.
- Communication Management: Clear and constant communication is crucial to the project’s success. The team in “Ocean’s Eleven” stays in constant contact, updating each other on their progress and any challenges they encounter. This mirrors the importance of communication in real-world project management, where team members must keep each other informed about their progress, risks, and issues.
- Execution and Closure: The execution of the project is carried out with precision, each team member playing their part flawlessly. Once the project – the heist – is successfully completed, the project is closed, with each member going their separate way.
In sum, “Ocean’s Eleven” offers a fun yet insightful exploration of project management. While the stakes in real-world projects may not be as high as robbing three casinos, the fundamental principles are the same. The film emphasizes the importance of careful planning, risk management, effective resource utilization, and communication in achieving project success.
Participants of the pm.CinemaHall offered to watch the MoneyBall (2011) and other films at subsequent screenings.
So, there are something to see! To participate in future pm.CinemaHall, subscribe to Anatolii Savin’s Twitter.
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