The Scottish Parliament Building - Essay Example

This starts with creating a terms of reference or clear specification of the project. This is followed by the actual plan in this of the building process starting with assessing materials needed, cost of the project, to the actual laying the foundation until the last detail is achieved. The plan is then communicated to every member in the team. Teamwork is at the core of any successful construction project or any other project. Every supervisor in the project should have the plan in details and examine it at length and to modify where need be.

The implementation of the project follows the planning; controlling is an ongoing process till the end. Follow up should be done after closing the project. The role of project management has been outlined as giving a clear guideline to follow in undertaking any project; it also helps the implementing to manage time and resources in an effective manner (Hans, 2010.34). The elements focused on in this essay are managing the scope of the project, time, costs, labour, the quality of the project, the risks involved, the integration process, the communication throughout the project and finally the procurement process.

The Scottish parliament building was estimated at a very high cost from the initial assessment. The argument was behind the democratic approach towards the design. The cost so said at $600 million had to be justified by the overall result of the construction. The site selection feasibility study was carried out to assess the environment and the traffic of the location. The construction management was chosen as the procurement vehicle. This was a good managerial choice since it offered speed advantages towards progress of the construction.

It had a disadvantage towards the uncertainty of price. This would have been determined only after the last contract had been leased out. Project procurement management was not thoroughly given thought and a comprehensive strategy document for procurement was not prepared. A systematic risk analysis was not done towards the chosen route of procurement indicating poor managerial practices in the whole project. The procurement process of the materials specified by the contractor was rested upon the contractor chosen.

This would have jeopardized the overall quality of the procurement management process. Management of cost: - The initial estimated costs rose from the start of the project. Once the tenders were issued out, the contractor who came in with design projected an increase in costs estimate of the design (Jeremy and Philips, 2006, 100). The risk had risen from 80% to 100%. This was due to lack of a proper strategy ab-initio. The construction costs rose to 115 million pounds i.e. 86% a figure way above the budget.

Value engineer was called upon to assess these figures and came up with a decrease of 25% which was adopted. This was explained towards construction delays and design process. The project was carried out towards achieving the quality of the finished work hence details of the design had to be altered. The materials so chosen for the construction took a better part of the whole cost estimates. This was in light of achieving the quality intended. A thorough costing should have been carried out and good decision made from the first debates in the year 1998.

The delay to start the project took over two years and the value of money was rising. The cost objective was not at the end of the project since