Strategic and operational challenges

This project requires the demolition of some minor structures and construction of a large shade on a certain piece of property at 94 Western Beach Road, Geelong, Victoria 3220 (hence the name 94WBR-Shed Project). The mentioned property is actually a backyard on which, there are some small and medium sized structures and walls (Sears et al., 2015). The structures and walls are to be demolished and the land is to be cleared in order to pave way for constructing a large shed on the same. For aiding the management of the construction, a 3D architecture model of the building has been developed that will be used as reference for the actual shed to be built.

This report consists of four distinct parts each of which analyses four different aspects of the project. The first part discusses strategic and operational challenges related to the project and the second part is used to develop a feasible project team. Furthermore, the third and fourth parts include a suitable strategy for demolition and construction and a draft project plan for the construction of the shed. 

Due to the nature of complexity of the project, it is quite clear that there are several strategic and operational challenges associated with the project. The challenges can also be further classified based on their sources of the origin. The categories in which the strategic and operational challenges are included are as follows.

1. Project Specific
2. Parent Organization

• Industry (AEC)

1. PM Discipline Challenges

The operational and strategic challenges under each category are classified as follows.

Project Specific Challenges – These are the challenges that are only specific to this particular project. Some of these challenges are as follows.

• Location – The location of the property on which the shed will be constructed is at the backyard of several buildings in the Deakin Geelong Waterfront Campus. As a result, even minor carelessness during construction of the shed can cause damage to the other nearby buildings of the campus (Walker, 2015).
• Budget – The parent organization is not an international business organization and hence, issues may arise regarding the budget of the project. The project may face budget challenge as the overall budget for the project is limited without the chance for additional funding.

Parent Organization Challenges – These are the challenges associated with the parent organization and are listed as follows.

• Improper Strategic Development – Due to lack of sufficient insight in construction projects, the parent organization may develop improper project strategy that will result in loss of time and money (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017).
• Choice of Contractor – The project may also face a challenge due to poor choice of contractor resulting in loss of funds and poor quality output.

Industry (AEC) Challenges – These challenges are the ones that are related to the engineering construction industry. These challenges are listed as follows.

• Construction Guidelines– The construction industry as well as the government have some predefined sets of guidelines that are needed to be followed for any type of architecture and construction (Harrison and Lock, 2017). If these guidelines are not met, serious challenges will be faced in future during licensing of the building.
• Costs– Due to changes in market and steep increase in the material costs, budget overshoot will occur resulting in failure of the project.

PM Discipline Challenges – The final challenges are associated with Project Management disciple and are listed as follows.

• Scope Risk– Unless the scope of the project is adequately defined, scope creep will occur resulting in loss of high amounts of budget as well as time.
• Quality Challenge– There will be a significant issue regarding the quality of the project unless the project stakeholders follow standard quality assurance guidelines set for the project (Zheng et al., 2016).

Other Project Related Challenges – There are some more challenges that may affect the project. These are as follows.

• Delay in government permission may result in delay of project causing loss of time and resources.
• Delivery of construction materials may be delayed or poor quality materials are delivered that will result in loss of time and resources of the project.
• Lack of manpower during project can cause serious delays as well as poor quality outcome from the project.
• Due to construction work, the adjacent traffic may be blocked resulting in government intervention and loss of license for further project work. 

Appropriate team structure is essential in determining the success of a project. Similarly, this particular project also requires a suitable project team who will take part in various activities in the project ensuring success. An appropriate organizational structure for the project.

For the purpose of setting up of the proposed shed, it is required to perform some demolition activities in the property in order to clear the land of the existing structures and building parts. Since there are only minor structures and walls to be removed, the demolition process will be of very small scale. The proposed project schedule for the demolition construction process is shown in the following table.

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names
94WBR Shed Project	158 days	Mon 5/7/18	Wed 12/12/18
Project Planning and Preparation	64 days	Mon 5/7/18	Thu 8/2/18
Formation of Stakeholder Groups	10 days	Mon 5/7/18	Fri 5/18/18		Project Manager
Preparation of Project Scope	5 days	Mon 5/21/18	Fri 5/25/18	2	Project Manager
Determination of Deliverables	2 days	Mon 5/28/18	Tue 5/29/18	3	Project Manager
Estimation of Schedule	2 days	Wed 5/30/18	Thu 5/31/18	4	Project Manager
Estimation of Budget	5 days	Fri 6/1/18	Thu 6/7/18	5	Project Manager
Estimation of List of Resources	4 days	Fri 6/8/18	Wed 6/13/18	6	Engineers
Contact with Project Consultancy	2 days	Thu 6/14/18	Fri 6/15/18	7	HR Manager
Preparation for Project	10 days	Mon 6/18/18	Fri 6/29/18	8	Construction Manager, Project Manager
Site Clear Up	10 days	Mon 7/2/18	Fri 7/13/18	9	Construction Manager, Construction Workers
Bring Framework Structures	2 days	Mon 7/16/18	Tue 7/17/18	10	Construction Manager
Release Tender	5 days	Wed 7/18/18	Tue 7/24/18	11	HR Manager
Hire Contractor	2 days	Wed 7/25/18	Thu 7/26/18	12	HR Manager
Recruit Sub Contractors	5 days	Fri 7/27/18	Thu 8/2/18	13	Contractor
Project Execution Phase	85 days	Fri 8/3/18	Thu 11/29/18
Hire Bulldozers	4 days	Fri 8/3/18	Wed 8/8/18	14	Construction Manager
Initiate Demolition on the Property	1 day	Thu 8/9/18	Thu 8/9/18	16	Construction Workers
Demolish all Concrete Structures in the Property	15 days	Fri 8/10/18	Thu 8/30/18	17	Construction Workers
Flatten the Land	5 days	Fri 8/31/18	Thu 9/6/18	18	Construction Workers
Place Foundation	10 days	Fri 9/7/18	Thu 9/20/18	19	Construction Workers
Build the Shed	30 days	Fri 9/21/18	Thu 11/1/18	20	Construction Workers
Apply Plaster	10 days	Fri 11/2/18	Thu 11/15/18	21	Construction Workers
Apply Colour	5 days	Fri 11/16/18	Thu 11/22/18	22	Construction Workers
Finalize the Construction	5 days	Fri 11/23/18	Thu 11/29/18	23	Construction Workers
Project Closing	9 days	Fri 11/30/18	Wed 12/12/18
Project Handover to Board	1 day	Fri 11/30/18	Fri 11/30/18	24	Construction Manager, Contractor, Engineers
Clearing of Wages and Dues	5 days	Mon 12/3/18	Fri 12/7/18	26	Project Manager
Post Project Review	2 days	Mon 12/10/18	Tue 12/11/18	27	Engineers, Project Manager
Stakeholder Signoff	1 day	Wed 12/12/18	Wed 12/12/18	28	Construction Manager, Construction Workers, Contractor, Engineers, HR Manager, Project Manager

Project team

In this project, a certain area of property within Deakin University Geelong Campus will be used for the construction of a new large shed. This process will follow demolition activities to remove all the building structures and walls left on the piece of the property. After this is complete, the construction will start based on a graphically recreated 3D model of the shed.

The project scope includes the following items.

Scope 1 – The first scope includes demolition activities to be carried out on the piece of property. There are some structures on the land including remnants of old building, walls and other blocks. These structures will have to be demolished and the land needs to be flattened for aiding future construction.

Scope 2 – The second scope includes the construction of the proposed shed according to the requirements of the Deakin University. In addition to the proposal, a graphically reproduced 3D model of the proposed shed has also been provided for the aid of the construction team. 

As per the scope of the project, the objectives are as follows.

• To prepare a complete project charter for the proposed demolition and construction
• To prepare feasible and accurate budget and time structure for the project
• To hire a consultant for assisting in the development of project plan as well as the architecture design of the shed
• To hire a contractor and subcontractors for the demolition and construction of the shed
• To execute demolition on the existing structures on the property
• To flatten the land of the property
• To construct the shed as per the design and requirements

The estimated budget for the project is shown in the following table.

Resource / Requirement	Estimated Cost / Expense
Bulldozers	$25,000
Demolition equipments like sledgehammer	$5,000
Land Leveler	$10,000
Construction Materials	$150,000
Plasters and Colors	$20,000
Stakeholder Fees	$50,000
Payments to Contractors and Subcontractors	$100,000
TOTAL	$360,000

Throughout the project, certain tools and techniques are to be deployed for managing various aspects of the project. These tools and techniques are listed in the following table.

Project Management Attribute	Preferred Tool/Technique	Explanation
Risk	Risk Register	Identification of risks and preparing suitable management strategy
Cost	Budget Planner	Estimation of budget accurately with proper breakdown
Human Resources	Monitoring	Monitor the progress of work and make suitable changes accordingly

The propose communication plan for the stakeholders of the project is shown in the following table.

Stakeholder	Communication Frequency	Communication Method	Reason for Communication
Project Manager	Daily	Daily project report	Regular update on project
Construction Manager/Contractor	Weekly	Team Meeting	Update on construction
Engineer	Before Start of the Project	Face to Face	Required design of the shed
Workers	Daily	Face to Face	Project instructions
HR Manager	Before Start of the Project	Human Resource requirement document	Recruitment of new workers / human resources

There are number of risks associated with the project that include construction risk, budget risk, scope risk and others. In order to identify the risks and prepare suitable management strategy, risk register should be used. Risk register not only helps to identify risks but also helps to determine the impact of the risks on the project.

Throughout the course of the project, the quality guidelines should be maintained in order to ensure sufficient quality of the project is maintained. This should also include purchase of high quality of materials to be used to build the new shed.

Construction projects always require following safety guidelines for ensuring the safety of construction workers. Emergency health services and first aid should be available at the construction site throughout the course of the project. 

The stakeholders of the project along with their roles are shown in the following table.

Stakeholder	Role
Project Manager	Project Management
Sponsor	Provide Funds
Consultant	Provide Construction Information / Advice
Architect / Engineer	Prepare Design / Blueprint of the Building
Contractor	Construction Management
Supplier	Supply Materials

Conclusion

This report includes several important requirements for the proposed 94WBR project. In this report, the initial challenges (operational and strategic) have been discussed in detail and under separate categories. According to the requirements of the project, the most appropriate organization structure has been developed that includes the VC of the university as the head of the entire project followed by the management team, project manager and other project stakeholders. Finally, an appropriate demolition construction process has been determined and accordingly, a suitable project plan has been developed. 

References

Burtonshaw-Gunn, S.A., 2017. Risk and financial management in construction. Routledge.

Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. Routledge.

Luo, Y., Zheng, B., Fang, Y. and Yin, X., 2016. Effects of Relationship and Contract Governance on Construction Project Performance: Review and Prospects. In ICCREM 2015 (pp. 639-649).

Martínez-Rojas, M., Marín, N. and Vila, M.A., 2015. The role of information technologies to address data handling in construction project management. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering, 30(4), p.04015064.

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Sears, S.K., Sears, G.A., Clough, R.H., Rounds, J.L. and Segner, R.O., 2015. Construction project management. John Wiley & Sons.

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Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.

Zheng, X., Le, Y., Chan, A.P., Hu, Y. and Li, Y., 2016. Review of the application of social network analysis (SNA) in construction project management research. International journal of project management, 34(7), pp.1214-1225.