Voice of Customer (VOC)

Project Management in its entirety is nothing but a set of disciplines that are applied to a project to ensure the outcome is a success. Project Management encompasses different methodologies and approaches that are applied to manage projects as well as events. This report is about using project management techniques to manage FIFA WorldCup. FIFA is considered to be among the largest events in the world and happens every four year. The last FIFA world cup was organized in Russia and a total of 64 matches had been played during the event. The matches were organized in twelve different venues in a total of eleven different cities of Russia. The event which was the 21^st FIFA world cup began on 14^th June 2018 and ended on 12^th July, 2018 and in grand total 32 teams had participated in the world cup. The event’s estimated cost was around 14.2 Billion USD.

VOC or Voice of Customer means a process that is primarily used to capture feedback of both external and internal customers to help provide them quality and services. In participation with FIFA 2018 World Cup, Voice of Customer is an accumulated feedback from players, advertisers, attendees, distributers, teams, ground staff and media on execution of every match so as to improvise upon outcome and overall quality.

CCR is Critical to Customer Requirements is the overall expectation by the customer for a specific service being offer to him or her which may result in either refusal or acceptance of the service. For instance, in FIFA 2018 world cup, a customer would either accept to buy a ticker or refuse to buy a ticket based on the services being offered to him.

Critical to Quality Parameters are essentially a set of parameters for quality that are assessed based on the desires of the customer. As such, the players needs would be that the grounds are ready as per the matches, the accmodation, dressing rooms, gears, equipments and diet are as per their needs and expecatation. At the same time, the attendees demand would be that the seating is comfortable, there is minimal disruption and the matches continue without any hindrances. The overall quality parameters would be determined based on these factors.

This is a methodology wherein concepts such as lean manufacturing, lean thinking and lean constructions are applied in the field of project management. It helps in bringing about continuous improvement in processes to ensure customer expectations and feedbacks are in perspective (Howell & Ballard, 2013). There are many project management methodologies which might be used for project management of the FIFA Worldcup using lean principles.

Critical to Customer Requirements (CCR)

PMBOK or Project Management Body of Knowledge is a methodology that could have been easily applied for the lean management of FIFA World Cup. In total, there are 5 process groups which are involved with this methodology and all of them are explained combined with lean management in the below mentioned sections.

The very first project group which could have easily been applied for the lean management FIFA World Cup is known as the initiation. In this particular phase, the project manager along with the members of his team would determine the feasibility of the project from different angles such as economic, technical, environmental among others. The overall results of these feasibility studies are then compiled and determined. The entire analysis of overall venues as well as the stadium’s status would then be studied in order to find out whether it is a fit to conduct world-level tournament. Simultaneously, A charter would also be prepared for listing the results of feasibilities and improvements.

Therefore, the venues selection would be in accordance with quality levels desired.

The 2^nd step in this case, is the planning phase in the lean project management of the World Cup. The overall schedule of the tournament will be determined combined together with budget estimation so as to ensue organizers have enough clarity on the constraints and limitations of the budget and schedule (Rose, 2013). There are many risks as well that are associated with each of the matches, these includes technical faults, security risks, budget overrun, climate risks, technical faults among others. The analysis and planning activities will lead to an effective overall risk management for an improvise quality of results. Other areas that are planned in this very process group will include resources, communications as well as procurement.

For any world sporting event, the schedule is always planned well in advance. As such, there’s a lesser scope of changes in the determined schedule. Also, there are multiple constraints that are involved in quality and budget parameters. It is this very process group under the methodology of PMBoK which would include execution of altogether 64 matches given in the tournament as per schedule. The services that has been provided to each and every single customer involved include team managers, team players, audience among others that are managed in this very phase. After conclusion of each of the matches, a feedback process is initiated in order to ensure the shortfalls of this match does not repeat in other matches.

Critical to Quality Parameters

It is among the most important process groups that is involved in the control and improvement of quality. The lean project management will be implemented by executing both external and internal reviews as well as audits in the performance of every single match being organized. Also, there needs to be monitoring of all customer desires and their feedbacks for later improvisation of quality. Also, there needs to be waste management practices that should be integrated in this particular step (Tavan & Hosseini, 2016)

The conclusion of the event as well as the closure ceremony and the final set of matches will be handled in this group. There will also be frequent reports exchange in order to track the events as well as a final completion report that lists all of the important feedbacks and statuses that were submitted.

The very first process that needs to be executed under the PRINCE2 methodology for FIFA World Cup will be nothing but starting the project. It will be a very brief process wherein requirements of the project would be analysed and the outcomes would be sought. It will be done so as to assess the overall matches, schedule, teams and budget involved. The PM team will be selected for this process and all the important information will be shared with them.

The next stage is the initiating phase wherein the project will be determined for both justification and feasibility for the World Cup. The necessary business case for managerial requirements will be prepared in this stage. All of the essential commitments for resoruces that are involved in this project will be ensured too. An important baseline for decision making activities and process will also be created in this particular stage. All essential activities will be ensured for organizing and managing the project in order to improve the quality (Vanickova, 2017)

This particular stage will be carried out right from the start of the project until it’s closure. The board is responsible for key directions of the overall project. The initial stages include initiation, monitoring, stage boundaries as well as closure. The stage needs to be involved in FIFA 2018 World Cup in order to manage the project in lean way.

It is among the most important process group so as to improve as well as control the quality of overall event. The Lean way of project management could have easily been implemented by executing both external and internal reviews as well as audits of each of the performance of all the matches. Also, customer expectations needs to be monitored and feedbacks needs to be captured for quality improvement (Pai, 2010)

Lean Project Management Techniques

This particular stage of the project management decides whether the project should be continued or stopped. For FIFA 2018 World Cup, this particular stage will primarily be used to ensure the deliverables are delivered and planned based on the determined schedule. The project viability and continuity will also be ensured in this particular stage. Furthermore, the quality of the project would be improved in this phase as well.

The deliverables for the product would be planned and managed based on the pre-determined schedule and budget. The World Cup would be managed using the lean project management principles through PRINCE2 methodology also known as Projects in Controlled Environment.

The event closure as well as the ceremony for closure, final matches will be managed under this particular group. There will also be frequent reports being exchanged in order to track all of the closing events. Also, a final completion report that lists all of the essential statuses and feedbacks shall be submitted (Jamali & Overisi, 2016)

OPM is a framework which is applied in the organizations to align the projects, programs, and portfolios with the organizational policies and strategies. It would be applied in the case of FIFA 2018 World Cup to implement lean project management by aligning all of the activities carried out before, during, and after the event with the associated policies and strategies.

The strategic objectives of the world cup along with the lean objective of implementing and achieving continuous improvement of the processes will be achieved with the aid of OPM.

Agile Management methodology is an adaptive methodology which is used in management of project. It functions like that of Agile Software methodology and divided into small iterations. In Agile management methodology, project is divided into small sections which are in themselves completed from design to testing phases. Team releases them as and when they are completed to build rapid feedback (Juricek, 2014). It does not have pre-defined phases which are present in the methodology. All decisions of the team are made on the basis of respective project requirements and scenarios. In the given scenario,  Agile management Process would have been used successfully by following its sprints based approach. Firstly, all requirements and information are gathered. Then all managerial based activities would be performed in the form of sprints in small iterations. The FIFA 2018 world cup has 64 matches. All these matches would be divided and allotted to sprints. By dividing them into sprints, the execution of matches would get streamlined. This will provide a lined-up outcome. The Agile Management Process offers various benefits. In this methodology, customer remains in contact with development of project throughout the lifecyle. The feedback is taken at every iteration and all management based activities are carried on the basis of the feedbacks. The feedback of the customer is given highest priority. This ensures that project is developed as per the requirements of customers and project needs. In the given scenario, the implementation of Agile methodology would have would ensure that all team members, managers are kept in contact on regular basis along with distributers, advertisers, audience and organizers. The other pros of the Agile process is that it would have provided required scalability to the FIFA world cup. Like any other project, the schedule and budget remains constraint. The organizers cannot be altered or accept any new modifications in the schedule and above all in budget. But, during the course of tournament, there could be many changes which can increase the budget or extend the deadline such as technical issues, environmental issues, team non-coordination issues and many more. In such a case, Agile methodology would have saved the world cup by providing flexibility and scalability. It will help in making the lean implementation easy as the activities would be more flexible then (Kornfeld & Kara, 2013).

PMBoK Methodology

Lean Six Sigma is made up two process improvement methods – Lean and Six Sigma. Lean majorly focuses on reducing lean time by eliminating waste and un-productive steps. And, Six sigma focuses on reducing variations and defects by identifying their root causes. When they work together, they can enhance speed and increase customer satisfaction.  

In the given scenario of FIFA world cup 2018, Lean Six Sigma can make the implementation of lean processes easier (Kornfeld & Kara, 2013). It can also reduce the overall budget of the word cup. The tournament may consists of unproductive activities such as monitoring team players or their luggage. These activities can be easily removed by allowing players to take care to their belongings themselves

Waste is defined as the activity which is no longer involved in a project. Hence it can be eliminated without affecting the end results and making it even more successful. In the given scenario of FIFA world cup, there were activities which were conducted before starting the project and also after concluding of the tournament. These activities can be easily removed by implementation Lean Six Sigma as this process methodology because it will not count them as productive.  The implementation of LSS approach is conducted with the help of DMAIC methodology. It is done in a series of phases named – DEFINE, MEASURE, ANALYSE, IMPROVE and CONTROL. In DEFINE phase, issues related with the execution of tournament are identified. Then MEASURE phase shall find out the operational activities such as conduction of matches, cleaning the ground, etc. Then these activities are measured using data collection plan. ANALYSE shall find out the root causes of issues such as match is not performed at the correct time and results in higher budget. IMPROVE phase shall include identifying and evaluation of potential solutions. CONTROL involves revised process implementation. With the help of DMAIC approach, coaches shall help in pinpointing the weakness of the players and letting them improve upon them.

Management and organization of this kind of global even is not easy. The lean project management principles are therefore recommended and combined with agile methodology this can be further improvements. Apart from using this methodology, customer feedbacks should be integrated in the agile process and it should be considered a top priority. The lean management along with agile methodology will have offered scalability and enhanced flexibility. The schedule could not accept any changes. Since the project budget could not have altered much, there were multiple changes that can still have been accommodated such as technical and environmental changes.

Conclusion 

There are many different methodologies and approaches to project management which can be used to manage events. FIFA being among the most important global events made use of project management methodologies to manage the overall event. Lean Project Management principles combined together with Agile methodology were a greater fit for the management of the FIFA World Cup. This is because in this methodology continuous improvement of process is followed and customer responses and feedbacks are also kept in perspective.

References

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Bridge, C. (2016). Overview of Lean Six Sigma [Ebook] (4th ed., pp. 11-12). USA: PricewaterhouseCoopers Public Sector (PS) LLP. Retrieved from https://ipmamc.memberclicks.net/assets/2016conference/chelseabridge_2016ipmatrainingforum.pdf

Jamali, G., & Oveisi, M. (2016). A Study on Project Management Based on PMBOK and PRINCE2. Modern Applied Science, 10(6), 142. doi: 10.5539/mas.v10n6p142

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Juricek, J. (2014). Agile Project Management Principles. Lecture Notes On Software Engineering, 172-175. doi: 10.7763/lnse.2014.v2.117

Tavan, F., & Hosseini, M. (2016). Comparison and analysis of PMBOK 2013 and ISO 21500. Journal Of Project Management, (10), 27-34. doi: 10.5267/j.jpm.2017.1.002