project management assignment[1]

18

Click here to load reader

Upload: brendan-hills

Post on 23-Aug-2014

119 views

Category:

Documents


1 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Project Management Assignment[1]

Project Management - BE3S81

Assignment 1: Project Failure

By

Brendan Hills - 07175272

Page 2: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

Introduction

Project failure is all too common, however it can often be attributed to one or

more of the following factors, or lack thereof. In this report I will address the

issues of:

Pg

III Scope Management

V Stakeholder Management

VII Risk Management

IX Project Management Control

XI Communication Management

Appendices

XIII Bibliography

Project Management Page II 07/04/2023

Page 3: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

Scope Management, is the controlling of the scope of a project, scope

can be broadly defined as ‘the work to be done’ (BSI 6079-1: 2002) or as the

oxford English dictionary puts it “the extent of the area or subject matter that

something deals with or to which it is relevant. 2 the opportunity or possibility

for doing something.”

Defining the scope of a project at conception stage is key to determining a

budget and timescale, if the scope is not clear enough the project team or the

stakeholder may have misconceived ideas as to what is or is not included

within the realms of the project.

Therefore the Management of scope becomes an important factor throughout

the lifecycle of a project. At the inception of a project the key processes are 1.

Scope Planning - creating a project scope management plan that documents

how the project scope will be defined, verified, controlled, and how the work

breakdown structure (WBS) will be created and defined, 2. Scope Definition -

developing a detailed project scope statement as the basis for future project

decisions and 3. Create WBS - subdividing the major project deliverables and

project work into smaller, more manageable components. Prior to the start of

the project 4. Scope Verification – is the process of obtaining the stakeholders’

formal acceptance of the completed project scope and associated deliverables.

Verifying the project scope includes reviewing deliverables to ensure that each

is completed satisfactorily. If the project is terminated early, the project scope

verification process should establish and document the level and extent of

completion. 5. Scope Control - controlling the inevitable changes to the project

scope.

From my own experience I have found scope management to be a valuable

tool, when changes take place and the stakeholders have a clearly defined scope

to begin with it is clear as to whether the project budget and programme had

allowed for the said work element. The Project Manager is then able to advise

Project Management Page III 07/04/2023

Page 4: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

the stakeholders as to the effect the change in scope may have on the project

and the stakeholders then have the ability to make an informed decision as to

whether the deviation is necessary. On the flipside having worked on a project

with a scope which had not been planned and defined in enough detail there

was confusion between the stakeholder and the project team as to whether the

cost for a certain element, in this case the sprinkler installation to a factory was

included, as it turned out the installation was not included and the project

budget was exceeded as a result.

The budget overrun could have been avoided if the scope had followed the

aforementioned steps, at the scope verification process the stakeholder would

have had the opportunity to highlight to the project manager of the missing

sprinklers and the scope could then have been revised to include them, both the

project team and project stakeholders would then be fully aware of the

sprinkler installation forming part of the scope, the design team could have

potentially engineered the scheme to a lesser budget and found savings

elsewhere or the budget could have been increased in order to deliver the

project within budget.

Project Management Page IV 07/04/2023

Page 5: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

Stakeholder Management, refers to one of the monitoring and

controlling processes of the project. A stakeholder is anyone who has an

interest in your project or will be affected by its deliverables or output or “a

person or group of people who have a vested interest in the success of an

organization and the environment in which the organization operates” (BSI

6079-2: 2002). The stakeholders need to be aware of progress, in relation to

actual work done, cost control, programme and quality, this should be reported

back to them during the lifecycle of the project and their expectations need to

be managed in order to achieve a result which they are satisfied with. The

project manager needs to implement a reporting procedure so that at regular

intervals the stakeholders are made aware of the progress.

It is important to get stakeholders involved at the inception of a project in

creating a set of realistic goals and objectives. Stakeholders are not always keen

to participate but engaging them at this early stage of the project will help

ensure success. “Stakeholders are most likely to be actively engaged by a set of

goals and objectives aimed at improving business performance and thereby

take an interest in the project.” (ProjectSmart.co.uk). This also ties back to the

scope verification process of scope management, making the stakeholders

aware of the deliverables of a project as well as the boundaries.

In my experience poor stakeholder management can lead to project failure, not

necessarily through exceeding the budget or time constraints but failing to

manage the expectations of the stakeholders and reporting back to them

regularly. The project concerned was large, and the lack of a suitable financial

reporting mechanism meant that the project sponsors felt the budget was at risk,

even though the project was actually on target financially. Eventually a

mechanism for monthly reporting was initiated and this enabled the project

sponsors to relax in the knowledge that the project was likely to be a success, if

this system was implemented from the outset and the stakeholders were aware

Project Management Page V 07/04/2023

Page 6: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

of how they would be informed of the progress this tension between the project

manager and stakeholders could have been avoided.

According to the BSI 6079-1 framework this reporting would be occurring in

the controlling process at each phase of the project and at any other agreed

milestones of the project or simply at monthly intervals throughout, this would

avoid any uncertainty and enable the stakeholders to budget for any extra

expenditure or manage any delays.

Project Management Page VI 07/04/2023

Page 7: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

Risk Management while commonly thought of as managing negative

factors is actually the process of exploiting potential opportunities as much as

preventing potential problems, risk management is an essential tool in good

project management and should be undertaken at all stages of the project and

continually updated in order to effectively manage the risks and identify any

new or previously unrecognised risks. Risk management should be used during

the project selection stage in order to determine which project to run with, and

from then on until the project termination phase. In order to effectively manage

risk it is prudent to implement a risk management framework such as the BS

3110:2008 framework. This framework clearly defines how and by whom the

risk is to be managed and can be scaled down for use on a project of any size.

If the project risks are not managed appropriately the negative effects to a

project are unlimited, the project could run over budget, exceed time

constraints and fall short of the desired quality. The basic processes involved in

risk management are to identify the risks, in a construction context this is best

done as early on in the project life cycle as possible and with as many

participants as possible, both client (stakeholder) and contractor inputting into

the risk register, the risks then need to be owned and each participant then

manages their own set of risks. Once a set of individual risks have been

identified it is necessary to analyse these and evaluate and prioritise them. It is

then time to respond to the risks in order to control them, this could include

measures to avoid risk, seek risk (take opportunity), modify risk, transfer risk

or retain the risk, reporting the outcomes to the stakeholders and keeping the

stakeholders informed of the causes, likelihood, timescale and significance of

the risks to name a few, then during the ensuing phases of the project reviewing

the risks in order to control and update the risk register and close any out of

date risks.

In a recent example where the risks were not managed appropriately a dispute

arose between the contractor and client over who owned a particular risk as the

Project Management Page VII 07/04/2023

Page 8: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

risk register was not specific and somewhat ambiguous, it highlighted the

importance of identifying all risks in finite detail and allocating a risk owner in

express terms at the beginning of a contract so that it is clear who will be liable

for the exposure in terms of cost, time/delay and quality.

Project Management Page VIII 07/04/2023

Page 9: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

Inadequate project management control – The controlling function or

process in all commonly recognised project management framework. The

Oxford English dictionary defines control as “the power to influence people’s

behaviour or the course of events. 2 the restriction of an activity or

phenomenon. 3 a means of limiting or regulating something” and this is exactly

as it applies in a Project Management context, to steer the Project, influence the

Stakeholders, Project Team and Project Support Staff. Restrict and manage

changes and limit and regulate budgetary expenditure. In the BS6079-2

framework the controlling process occurs at every phase of the project life

cycle, for instance a budgetary control may be the provision for monthly cost

reporting, and this allows the Stakeholders, Project Team and Project Support

Staff to plan for any changes and adjust the path of the project accordingly.

Inadequate project management control is one of the main factors for project

failure, project success or failure is usually determined by the ability of the

project manager to deliver the project on time, on budget and with an

acceptable level of quality, a successful project may sacrifice one or even two

of these factors but still be considered a success. In some cases one of the three

factors can be considered to be a priority and if that factory is successful then

the project will be a success. If the project is not controlled effectively it is

likely that the participants will loose sight of the priorities, the scope may

become unclear, the communication will breakdown between stakeholders and

project team and eventually all parties concerned will loose out.

In order to control the project the project manager should breakdown the

project and more specifically the controlling process into manageable steps or

process groups, this may consist of control schedule, control quality, control

costs, control risk, control change and control scope. Within each of these

process groups there may be a number of processes that must take place in

order to manage the group each with a different frequency and priority.

Project Management Page IX 07/04/2023

Page 10: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

An example of a poorly controlled project would be the construction of the new

Wembley stadium. The problems on this site were many but some of which

could have been avoided had sound project management principles been

adhered to. The project was deemed to be a failure due to the budget overrun

and the late handover of the project. The late handover was in part due to

problems with change control and quality control, major changes were made to

the design at a late stage in the construction, had these changes and the likely

impact been reported the changes may have been circumvented and other

solutions found. There were also issues with sewers collapsing beneath the

stadium which is a two fold problem, it was initially caused by a lack of quality

control but then it was poorly controlled through a lack of programme control.

If the lines of communication were clearer throughout the project the

deliverables may have been achieved and the risks mitigated.

Project Management Page X 07/04/2023

Page 11: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

There is a significant quantity of communication that must occur in any

project, Communication management is act of managing the quantity, quality

and flow of communication during the project life cycle. A Project Managers

role is to ensure information is generated in a timely manner. It must also be

collected, disseminated, stored, and destroyed at the appropriate time, a project

manager needs to be able to communicate and facilitate communication

between all members of the project team, project support team and

stakeholders and ensure that everyone has the correct information at the right

time.

Communication management is therefore fundamental to ensure a successful

project outcome. A project should have an effective communication network

implemented to enable all the relevant parties to report progress, express

concerns and discuss how to achieve their project objectives (BS6079 – 1). A

structure should be determined for the frequency of meetings, including

attendees, agenda’s and their own terms of reference. A point of contact should

be established at each organisation so as to minimise the different

communication flows, a suitable flow may be that all written or emailed

communications pass through the hands of the project manager, thus avoiding

information being issued to the wrong parties. There is also a certain need for

some documents or communications to be withheld from parties to the project,

for instance a financial report to the client commenting on the surplus budget

may not be prudent to issue to the contractor. The project manager then needs

to coordinate the issue of information so it reaches the correct recipients and

only those recipients.

In an example which dates back a few years a large hospital project became an

unsuccessful project after the lines of communication were broken. The

architects involved circumvented the prescribed drawing issue procedure and

would hand drawings to contractors and subcontractors on site or email

drawings directly to them as opposed to raising an architects instruction

Project Management Page XI 07/04/2023

Page 12: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

highlighting the drawing issue, then issued to all parties by the project

manager. This occurred due to an under resourced department who could not

keep up with the work flow, the ultimate effect was that the client, quantity

surveyor and other members of the project team were unaware of much of the

changes occurring on site. The client then received a large shock when the final

account was submitted by the contractor at a significant amount more than had

been reported. Whilst this project may have been destined for failure due to

other contributing factors such as poor scope control, the project manager

certainly could have mitigated the damage caused if the stakeholders were

made aware of the likely escalation in costs and this could have been planned

for and the risks assessed.

Project Management Page XII 07/04/2023

Page 13: Project Management Assignment[1]

Brendan Hills 07175272 Project Failure

Bibliography

British Standards Institute (2002). BS 6079 - 1: 2002 Project management - Part 1: Guide to project management. London: BSI Publications. 14 - 30.

British Standards Institute (2000). BS 6079 - 2: 2000 Project management - Part 2: Vocabulary. London: BSI Publications. 3 – 13.

British Standards Institute (2006). BS 3110: 2008 Risk management. London: BSI Publications. 4 – 30.

Oxford University Press. (1990). -Scope. Available: http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/scope?view=uk. Last accessed 13 Nov 2008.

Project Management Institute (31 Jan 2005). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. 3rd ed. USA: Project Management Institute. 21 - 56.

Project Smart. (13 Nov 2008). Stakeholder Management. Available: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/stakeholder-management.html. Last accessed 2000.

Richard Yancy. (2004). Communications Management. Available: http://www.yancy.org/research/project_management/communications.html. Last accessed 12 Nov 2008.

TenStep, Inc.. (2007). 5.0 Project Scope Management. Available: http://www.tensteppb.com/5.0ProjectScopeManagement.htm. Last accessed 12 Nov 2008.

Project Management Page XIII 07/04/2023