Heathrow Airport Project Evaluation - Essay Example

?Heathrow Airport Project Evaluation Project Details Heathrow Airport is the busiest international airport in the world with a terminal that caters for more than 20 million yearly travelers from around the world (BAA, 2012). BAA Airports was commissioned to refurbish the 40-year-old Terminal 1 which would make it an international airport. This meant some of the Star Alliance airlines having their operations at terminal 2 and 3 would have to move to terminal 1. Completion of this project on time would enable Heathrow Airport, which currently caters for 90 airlines, to rise up to more than 180 airlines worldwide. Though completing the project on the laid timeline was one of the most important things, there were other factors that had to be considered, including the safety and health issues (BAA, 2012). This was important because the terminal was to be used by passengers, and their needs came first. All factors had to be considered so as to maintain the reputation of BAA to the stakeholders , the public, and the media. The passage of terminal 1 may lead to delays which could cause not only significant penalties but also loss of other clients. A project manager, David Buisson, was chosen to manage the project as he was a certified project manager who also had more than 13 years of working experience as a manger in various challenging and complex projects (BAA, 2012). Mr. Buisson had worked with teams of professionals from various places around the world, including professionals from industries who were skilled enough to tackle major transport and communication projects. Using the experience developed from many years of experience and meeting different people around the world, Mr. Buisson had the required sufficient knowledge to choose a team that would be able to complete the project in the required timeline. The teams chosen would be required to collaborate and make the success of the project the most important thing they do. They should also remember the safety of the project as it is supposed to serve millions of people and for decades of years to come. Planning Approaches Planning and survey are a continuous process which may take time before being implemented. There are three proven planning approaches for projects which include top-down execution and responsibility; top-down policy and bottom-up planning and execution; and bottom-up execution and responsibility (Kerzner, 2000). The top down execution and responsibility is the department responsible for coordinating and planning of procedures and policies. The management in this approach is centralized as it involves a few people making decisions for the rest of the team (Cooke-Davies, 2000). In this case, the stakeholders are informed of the proceedings of the project and they make the decisions of whether the project would still be done or not. They decide whether the request for time extensions would be necessary, whether additional resources would make any changes to the project and they make conclusions without consulting the teams doing the project. This approach has its disadvantages as various departments may not get the special attention required to complete the project on time. Different teams may also not understand how they should relate to each other while trying to complete the project. The other approach is the bottom-up execution and responsibility which encourages each department to develop or come up with their ideas and implement plans without much supervision (Morris, 2004). In this approach, there is a manager in charge of them, but they only report to them in critical circumstances. In our case, the project manager encourages the team members to use the collaborative approach while solving various problems. This approach involves training various people as well as having different parties which can be expensive especially to big projects such as refurbishing Heathrow Airport Terminals. The last planning approach is the top down policy and bottom up planning and execution which have overall planning rules or guidelines which are developed by one department (Turner, 2004). This encourages consistent approaches since each department has the responsibility of making its own procedures and plans and implementing them after they have been fully developed. This also ensures that each department is aware of its success, which leads to good relationship within the team members (Cooke-Davies, 2000). In refurbishing Heathrow Airport terminals, the project manager chose the team that was supposed to complete the project. They draw up the timeline of when the project is supposed to start and approximate time it is supposed to be completed. They also come up with a budget that will work for the project keeping in inflation and other factors that may lead to change of the budget they had initially put on table. They also considered other factors such as natural calamities before delegating each team with appropriate jobs according to their various areas of expertise. Success Factors In every project being undertaken, there are some factors that will usually contribute to the overall success of the project. The first success factor in a project is the staffing of the project team. According to Duncan (1996), an efficiently skilled team is critical if the project is to meet expectations. This means that the managers in the project should strive to use the right personnel for every process in the project. The staffing should also take into account the top managers in the project, where sufficient skills and leadership style should be taken into account. The second critical success factor in any project is the planning process. Before any project is initiated, it is imperative that proper planning that accounts for all factors be conducted (Cleland and King, 1998). The planning process includes mapping out the project to the end, making timelines, establishing resources and the risks of the project. The planning process helps the project manager to envision difficult tasks – the factors that might lead to failure and account for resource allocation to the project. The project should also have sufficient time for the complete project to be implemented. The planning stage of the project will include the creation of timelines, work breakdown structures and cost allocation processes. The third critical success factor in the project is the support that the project manager and the project itself enjoy from top-level management (Cooke-Davies, 2002). One of the major factors contributing to the success or failure of a project is the commitment of top-level management. The support will ensure that any needed resources are availed to the project and hence eliminate unnecessary delays. In this case, the support is crucial since some projects might need more resources than originally planned. The support from top-level managers will ensure that the project’s extra resources are availed in a timely manner. As already stated, the planning process for the project will include a layout of the expectations from the project and the tentative implementation period. This is also tied to the other critical success factor, which is a layout of the expected benefits from the project (Cooke-Davies, 2002). For support from stakeholders to be assured, the project must have well defined future benefits. Some of the most important stakeholders in any project include the financiers of the project. These stakeholders will only support the project to completion if they are assured that the project will have tangible benefits for them. Therefore, the project manager should be able to map out all the proposed benefits of the project, possible risk factors and all the objectives and goals of the project. This also works for top-level managers, who should be able to convince all the stakeholders that the project is beneficial. The last critical success factor in any project is the planning for the change associated with the project. For major projects, it is expected that there will be a lot of organizational changes that will follow (Belassi and Tukel, 1996). For example, a project might introduce a lot of changes in organizational culture, processes and resource allocation. This means that the project managers should be able to plan for management of the expected change after the project is completed. There is no need for completing a project effectively if the change that the project will introduce is not effectively managed by the team working with the project. Failure Factors Though the project seemed successful, there have been numerous challenges that were expected since most projects do have the same, and some that were unexpected. The team in the project had to deliver in 42 different phrases which made the project both challenging and complex (BAA, 2012). The major challenge was the timeline required to deliver the requirements of the project which meant more resources leading to even more capital that was not on the budget (Belassi and Tukel, 1996). The timeline may affect the regard of other partners in the airline as well as the investors who may decide to invest in other airlines that have stable timelines within their projects. The size and scale of team members in a project are important. A very large team can be challenging to handle while very small teams can be insufficient to complete the project on time. In this particular case, there were more than enough members who made time management and communication difficult as every person had different opinions regarding the project success. There were different opinions from different parties which were the project manager idea of maintaining a collaborative approach towards solving problems. Dealing with each issue from each person from the team meant more time to be wasted, which was a major challenge. The other challenge that the project faced was lack of a sufficient plan that could work to every contractor (BAA, 2012). There were a number of third parties who could not keep up with the schedule, so if one party were not able to finish leveling the floor on time, the other party scheduled to install furniture would be delayed causing the other party in charge of painting and sending the entire project to chaos. Plan is the most important aspect before starting a project as it determines if the project will be successful or total waste of time and other useful resources. Budget changes especially toward the end of the project can be a challenge to the stakeholders. In this case there was the original plan of installing a cladding system for BMI Airlines supposed to improve the lighting and aesthetics of the area above the tickets desks but was omitted a few weeks before check-in desks were put up for opening. When the team learned about the decision, they were faced with a very difficult task of trying to find other options that would come up with solutions that would ensure that installation and procurement occurred within a span of four weeks. The decision must also be acceptable to a number of stakeholders of the project. A few years earlier, when the building was initially constructed, the terminal floors were substantially damaged and it was proving to be a challenge for the team trying to repair them (BAA, 2012). To repair those floors added extra weeks and money, which was not planned in the project. There was also replacing of old information technology with the updated ones so as to be able to deliver the project as planned. There was also the environmental challenge which required the team to ensure all the electric and water terminals would save energy and sustain an old building (BAA, 2012). Communication to various stakeholders was also a big challenge as each one of them wanted to be updated with the proceedings of the project with every change in budget or schedule and any risks identified. There were some tiles in the terminals that needed replacement, which was one of the priorities as millions of passengers were to use the same. There was also the electrical risk challenge keeping in mind that the building was 40 years old, which made its electricity terminals unreliable and a health hazard. The terminals needed electricity all the whole time and if in any case there were blackouts, there would be automatic generators running to avoid closedown of the airline. Summary and Discussion The above analysis has summarized the project details, discussed the planning approaches available to a project of this scope and discussed the factors crucial to the success or failure of the project. An evaluation of the Heathrow Airport project reveals that the project was successful. Using the success factors discussed above, the analysis reveals the efficient management of the challenges that acted as tentative failure factors for the project. Initially, it is evident that the project was staffed with skilled personnel for the project. For example, the project manager, Mr. Buisson, is established to be a certified project manager. As already stated, the success of a project is dependent on the qualification and skill of its leaders. The project’s success can be attributed, in part, to the use of skilled personnel in the project. The planning that went into the final project also contributed to the success of the project and the achievement of the set objectives. From the case study, the strict deadlines that had to be met by the project, a layout of the objectives and timeline indicate that sufficient planning was conducted before the project was initiated. This reveals that the potential failure factors discussed above were taken into account. The success of the Heathrow Airport project can also be attributed to the efficient management of the challenges and the failure factors. The case study discusses the challenges and risks that were faced and the means that the project managers took to mitigate them. From the above discussion, it is evident that the success of a project is entirely dependent on how the failure factors are taken into account. For example, all the success factors in the project can be achieved, but the project will still not succeed if the failure factors are not eliminated. In the Heathrow Airport case study, the main challenges were effectively managed – a factor that contributed to the success of the project. For example, the asbestos that was in the building posed a big challenge in the project phase. The other challenge came with the age of the building being refurbished. The electrical risk challenge was dealt with by formulating an effective plan that took into account the working of the terminal and the risks associated with the project. This discussion indicates that the project became successful through the interrelation of all the factors and the efforts to mitigate the risks and challenges. The main challenge can be attributed to the fact that the terminal had to run during the refurbishment process. The project team had to find a means of completing the refurbishment, while at the same time not affecting the working of the airport or terminal. Conclusively, it can be seen that the Heathrow Airport project was a success and that the objectives and benefits were all achieved. This success is compounded by the fact that the plans indicated before the initiation of the project were followed, and the resources fell within original budgets. A project that is completed as fully meeting expectations can be termed a success in any field. References BAA, 2012. Changing the face of the busiest airport in the world though project management. Project Management Institute. Belassi, W. and Tukel, O., 1996. A new framework for determining critical success/failure factors in projects. International Journal of Project Management, 14, pp. 150–155. Cleland, D. I. and King, W. R., 1998. Project management handbook. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Cooke-Davies, T. J., 2000. Towards improved project management practice. Leeds Metropolitan University. Cooke-Davies, T. J., 2002. The ‘real’ success factors on projects. International Journal of Project Management, 20, pp. 185–190. Duncan, W., 1996. A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Newtown: Project Management Institute. Kerzner, H., 2000. Applied project management: best practices on implementation. New York: John Wiley. Morris, P. W. G., 2004. The management of projects. London: Thomas Telford. Turner, J. R., 2004. The handbook of project-based management. 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