Background and environment of project

Write an essay on “Project Based Management”.
 

Project management is  defined as that particular discipline of management  studies that deals with the  initiation, planning,   execution, control and  management of  all the  activities that are essential for meeting  a set  of  objectives and goals, in accordance  to a predefined success criteria.  Researchers Hwang et al. (2012)  are of the opinion that the word ‘project’   is used to define “temporary endeavors” aimed at developing specific and unique  products or services. Thus project are generally characterized with a beginning and end date: the entire time span in between these two dates being allocate to the management of the tools and techniques being used by the project team to meet the goals   of the project.  Researcher Turner (2014)  has commented that   this very ‘temporary’ nature of a project generates several challenges in the process of  managing  it: the primary challenge being the adherence to the success criteria and fulfilling the goals while overcoming the financial, environmental and technological constraints associated  with  the project  itself.  Yet another school of  scholars  are of the opinion  that amidst the various  constraints  associated  with  a project, the scope, budget, time  and quality of the end products  should be considered as the ‘primary constraints’, whereas  allocating the available project  resources  is the secondary constraint: the primary  challenge of project  manager is  reach the project  goals while maintaining  a balance between the above mentioned set of  constraints (Kerzner 2013).

The primary objective of this report is to provide an insight into the project management procedures being utilized in the construction sector.   The case study of a construction project has been chosen, with the aim of gaining information on the organizational background and the environment of the project. The report would also shed light on the project management procedures that are generally utilized in similar projects, with the aim of comparing the identified methods with those that have been utilized in the project under consideration. Finally, recommendations would be provided to the project managers regarding the optimal utilization of the selected project management strategies.

This report explains the background of the project with clear justifications. Audience and project management plan is also analyzes in this report. Apart from that, based on the identified loopholes, certain recommendations have been made to overcome the possible options to mitigate.

The project in consideration is aimed at the seismic strengthening of a residential complex located at the Wellington city, New Zealand (Mirzaei  and  Mabin  2014).  It is a well  known fact that the entire country, being located in  the Pacific ring of fire,  is prone to severe  earthquakes, which  might   lead to the loss  of  money and lives  alike: thus,  the  seismic strengthening of old buildings  are  some  of the mostly commonly conducted  construction  projects of this region.

Audience and structure of the PMP

The building under consideration was constructed in 1978: the 15 storied building has been leased to several families, all of whom had agreed on the conduction of the project.   An assessment  of the  seismic strength of  the building was conducted  prior  to the  commencement   of the  building  ( since the building does not adhere to the New Building Standards): the   results indicated that  the  seismic performance  of the said building  was approximately 70 percent of the said standard (Mirzaei  and  Mabin  2014). Needless to say, the value was satisfactory (taking into  consideration the age of the building and the fact the  construction processes used in developing the  building   were much  different  from those defined in the Building Standards).

It has already been mentioned that   Wellington City   lies in an earthquake prone region: thus buildings constructed in this region have to abide by the New Building Standards which predicts the chances of life safety in   case of earthquakes occurring once in 500 years.   Thus, the building in consideration was not being considered as ‘earthquake risky’ or ‘earth quake   prone’ in accordance to the guidelines of New Zealand Society for Earthquake Engineering. However, the owners of the said building were interested in strengthening the building to an extent such that it is capable of achieving a hundred percent mark on the NBS levels.  The building owners were of the opinion that the seismic strengthening of the building would not only   reduce the chances of loss of money and lives due to earthquakes in the near future, but would help in retaining the interest of the tenants in the said building (Mirzaei  and  Mabin  2014).

Thus, it can be concluded that the owners of the building were aimed at securing the financial value of the building, along with its architectural structure through the project (Kerzner 2013).  

The following section of the report is aimed highlighting the audience of the PMP process (that is the stakeholders associated with the project), along with the project management plans that were utilized in the construction   project under consideration.  Discussions would be made   on the various information requirements of the stakeholders (section 3.1), along with the modes to be used in sharing such information.   Information regarding the PMP process would be discussed in Section 3.2 of the report.

3.1.1The intended audience for the PMP

Researcher Burke (2013)  is of the opinion that the stakeholders associated with any construction   project can be classified into the following groups:

1. The client: According to  Walker (2015) , since  construction projects are conducted  with the  aim  fulfilling the business requirements of  any individual  or an organization, the said client is considered as the   primary stakeholder  of the  project, besides being  one of the key audiences of the   PMP.

The project  under consideration was  initiated at the interest  of the   owners of  the residential complex and  thus are being considered as the  primary  stakeholder of the  entire  project (Verzuh  2015).

1. The consultants: According to Kerzner (2013), the construction and legal consultants associated with any project need to be considered as the stakeholders of the project.

The information  provided in the case study indicates that the consulting  firm  associated with the project  played  a dual role:  the  representatives  of the organization were   to play the role   of the construction consultants,  beside being the project  management  consultant of the  very  same  project (Mirzaei  and  Mabin  2014).

As the  sole construction consultant of  the project, the said firm was responsible for the advising the  constructional  and  architectural changes to be included  in the  building so as  to  fulfil the objectives of these seismic  strengthening  project. On the other hand, as the project management consultant of the project  they  were  responsible for  managing the scope of  the project, along with the activities associated  with the project, the budget of the project and  risks  associated  with it (Phillips 2013).  Besides this, the project manager   appointed by the consultant firm was also responsible for meeting the expectations of the clients and the other stakeholders of the project.

The project under consideration had no formal legal consultant associated with it: the legal procedures associated with the project were managed by the representatives of the construction consultancy firm. 

1. The project manager: It has already been mentioned that the construction consultancy firm itself had appointed one of their representatives as the manager of the project. The said project manager was responsible for the following activities associated with the project:
2. The management of all the administration of all the administration and the engagement of all the stakeholders associated with the project (Turner 2014).
3. The management of the expectations of the stakeholders associated with the project.
4. The documentation of the entire project (Phillips 2013).
5. The reporting process associated with the project.              

Figure 1: The intended audience for the PMP

 In addition to the above mentioned groups, the following stakeholders were also associated with the project in consideration:

1. The tenants: According to the information provided in the case study, the first six levels of the building were occupied by several families, the 7 floor being solely occupied by one of the major tenants:  the other two floors were unaccented at the time the project initiated (Mirzaei  and  Mabin  2014). The families residing in the complex added further constraints the seismic strengthening process as the project team   had to face several restrictions while moving their tools and bringing about structural changes in the said floors. As for example, the major tenant solely occupying the seventh floor was an IT professional and all the construction works associated with the project had to be constructed with without making any alterations to their delicate IT infrastructure.
2. Contractors: Researcher Heagney (2012) is of the opinion that the contractors associated with a construction project should also be considered as the stakeholders of the project. According to the information available in the case study, the following contractors were associated with the project:
3. The building contractor (Mirzaei and Mabin  2014).
4. The fire engineering specialists

 3.1.2The information requirement of the audience

 The information requirement of the above mentioned stakeholders is being depicted in the following table: 

Sl. No	Stakeholder	Information requirement	Mode of sharing
1	The client	i. The progress reports of the project ii. The financial reports of the project (Chia  2013). iii. The final NBS assessment report	i. Monthly  reports sent by official mails ii. Monthly  reports sent by official mails iii.  Presented at the end of the project, during the project closure phase
2	The consultants	i. The progress reports of the project ii. The financial reports of the project (Crawford 2014).	i. Well documented reports generated twice in a month (Heldman 2013). ii. Well documented reports generated twice in a month
3	The project manager	i. The progress reports of the project ii. The financial reports of  the project	i. Well documented weekly  reports ii. Well documented weekly  reports
4	The tenants	i. Changes being incorporated  in specific sections of the building ii. Tentative date from when the project starts iii. Tentative date when the project ends	i. Information to be shared at   the very beginning of the project.    ii. Information to be shared at   the very beginning of the project.   iii. Information to be shared as and when requested (Crawford 2014).
5	Contractors	i. Changes being incorporated  in specific sections of the building ii. Any changes in the scope of the project iii. Occurrence of any accidental or unwanted incident (Heldman 2013).	i. Information to be shared at   the very beginning of the project. ii.  As and when required   iii.  As and when required

Table 1: The information requirement of the stakeholders

3.2.1 Established structure of PMP

AuthorsHwang et al.  (2012)  have  commented that the Project Management Framework recommends  any  project, irrespective of its   size and aim,  should be conducted through the following  five  phases:

1. Project initiation: Researchers Pemsel and Wiewiora  (2013)  are of the opinion that the project initiation is the very first phase of any project and the primary objective of this   phase is to develop a broad level definition of the project. Out of the various activities performed in this stage, the development of the business case, defining the scope and objective of the project and conducting the feasibility test of the project are considered as the most critical activities.
2. Project Planning: The primary objective of this project is to develop the blueprint that would be followed throughout the project. The following tools are used for developing the said blueprints:
3. Work Breakdown Schedule  or a WBS helps in defining the activities associated with the project (Teller, Kock and Gemünden 2014).
4. Milestones are used to define  the high level goals of a project that need  to be met  so as   to  conduct  the  project in a successful manner.

Figure 2: Established structure of PMP

It is worth mentioning the steps need to be conducted in accordance to the precedence mentioned in the list. 

Researchers Young (2013), on the other hand mention that the above mentioned steps must ensure the  management of the under mentioned domains of  the project:

1. Project Communications Management

b.. Project Cost Management

1. Project Human Resource Management (Shields and Rangarajan 2013).
2. Project Integration Management
3. Project Procurement Management
4. Project Quality Management
5. Project Risk Management
6. Project Scope Management (Fewings 2013).
7. Project Stakeholder Management
8. Project Time Management

Expert  in the domain  of construction management are of the opinion that most  construction projects initiate with the process  of biding:   the  term being used  to refer the process using  which construction  consultants  inform  client  organizations of the  probable budgetary  requirements of   a specific  project (Hill 2013).  The authors also mention that the initiation phase of the project starts only after a successful bidding process.   

According to researcher Flyvbjerg  (2013) construction projects primarily consist of the following phases:

1. a. Project initiation: According to Svejvig and Andersen  (2015) this  particular  phase  of any construction  project s  utilized  for the conduction of the feasibility  studies  associated  with the project.
2. Project planning: The final roadmap for the entire project is developed during this particular phase of the project (Too and Weaver 2014).
3. Execution phase: The work activities associated with the project are performed in this particular stage.
4. Performance monitoring and controlling: The project execution and the performance monitoring phase of the project are conducted in parallel with the later being aimed at ensuring the project progresses in accordance to the blueprints developed in the planning phase (Teller et al. 2012). 
5. Closure: This phase of the project denotes the completion of the project.

Domain	Percentage of Test Item
Project initiation	12%
Project planning	22%
Execution phase	28%
Performance monitoring and controlling	21%
Closure	7%

Table 2: PMP Content Outline

The information provided in the case study indicates that the following project management procedures were used in    project:

1. Project initiation: It has already been mentioned that the New Building Standards evaluation of the residential building was conducted even before the   project actually started.   The results of this very test were utilized in the planning stage of the project so as to   identify the activities require for strengthening the building (Budayan,  Dikmen  and Birgonul  2015).
2. Project planning: The case study indicates that the architectural plans to be utilized in the project were developed in this particular phase, along with the development of the various work plans and strategies required for the successful completion of the project.
3. Execution phase: The entire project was conducted in accordance to the blueprints developed in the previous stage. Besides this, the project team   had to overcome the various constraints that they experienced because of the families residing in the   building (Too and Weaver 2014).
4. Performance monitoring and controlling: The information provided in the case study indicates that the methodology popularly termed as the critical chain project management was utilized for conducting the project efficiently. The application of the appropriate   performance monitoring and controlling methods ensured that the project progressed in accordance to the blueprints developed in the planning phase (Shields and Rangarajan 2013). 
5. Closure: As mentioned in section 3.1 of the report, the responsibility of conducting the reporting and documentation activities   of the project lied solely on the shoulders of the project manager.   Thus, it can be said that the project manager appointed by the construction consultancy was responsible for the project closure phase.

 The following management procedures were utilized in the project:

1. Project cost management: The entire project required around $ 10000 to complete. The entire task of managing the costs associated with the project was taken up by the project contractor.  The following activities were associated with the management   of   project cost:
2. Developing the budget of the project
3. Considering the costs associated with the human resources of the project (Heldman 2013) .
4. Monitoring the cash flow of the project.
5. Quality management: The project contractor was associated with the task of quality management of the project (Kerzner 2013) . The guidelines of NBS were followed and in the final stage of the project, the entire building had to be accredited by the NBS. 

5.  Conclusions and Recommendations

The  above sections of the report  provides an  insight into  the various aspects associated with  a project aimed at increasing the seismic  strength   a  building  located  in Wellington City: the building  being  built in  before the  NBS  construction standards were defined. The stakeholders associated with the project have been identified, along with the project management information that has to be shared with them: besides emphasizing on the PMP methodologies used in the project.

In the light of the discussions made in the section above, it can be concluded that all standard PMP  methodologies were utilized in conducting  the project  in  consideration: it was the  strong adherence  to the project management plans  that helped  the  project  team to avoid the various constraints during the course of  the constriction.

However, the following recommendations are being made to the managers associated with similar projects so as to enhancing efficiency:

1. CCPM approach instead of traditional methods: It has been mentioned that the project utilized CCPM methods of management.  The success of the project indicates that this method should be utilized in all construction projects instead of traditional approaches.
2. Identification of constraints: The project managers should be capable of identifying the constraints associated with the project in the initiation phase, thus being able to make plans for overcoming them. 

References

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