The Millenium Dome - Essay Example

? The UK project “The Millennium Dome” Project management involves scoping, planning, methodologies, budgets, schedules, risk management and many other factors. Project management is the science of organizing the projects components so that you attain the desired objective, irrespective of the project being the development of a new structure, launch of a new service or product, or a marketing campaign (Bruce & Langdon, 2008:68). A project is not something that is part of the normal operations of the business. Most of the times a projects are typically created only once, besides being temporary, and specific. A project just like the Millennium Dome consumes a lot resources and it has funding limits. In project management it requires the application of techniques, knowledge, and skills to efficiently and effectively execute the project. Therefore, project management is a competency strategy for most organizations; this enables them to tie the project results to the goals and objectives of the business (Kousholt, 2007:90). In addition, many projects have funding limits and a projected budget unto which it must operate from. This creates the need to have a project manager. Project management process During the project management process of Millennium Dome, it was done in five (5) phases. Project initiation; during this phase an idea of the project to be undertaken is carefully examined to establish if it is beneficial to the organization. A decision making team is formed to determine whether the project can be realistically be completed. Project definition and planning; a project plan is put in writing giving an outline of the work that is to be performed. It is at this stage that the list of deliverables to be presented and also the potential outcome of a set of specific activities (Meredith & Mantel, 2011:455-7). During project planning the requirements of completing the project are defined. The project manager of Millennium Dome identified how many people and also how much expense was to be involved in the project and any other requirements necessary for the completion of the project. According to Haughey (2013:55) reported that a project manager is to make sure that he manages the assumptions and risks that are related to the project. In addition, he also determined the constraints of the project. The constraints accrued in the Dome were related to budget, scope, schedule, and resources. It was found out that a small change in one constraint typically affected the other constraints. Project launch or execution; Resources and tasks are distributed and the teams were informed of their responsibilities. This was a good time as any other information related to the project was welcomed so as to make adjustments to the project. The project manager in this phase is to know how many resources and how much budget he had to work with for the project. The Dome cost ?789 million. He was able to assign those resources and allocated the budget to the various tasks of the project. Moreover, he is to ensure that the project team works in harmony. Project performance and control; the incorporation of project managers was tantamount for the Millennium Dome project as there was need to compare the status of the project to the actual plan, as the resources performed the scheduled work. The project managers were tasked with adjusting schedules in addition to doing what was necessary so as to keep the project on track (Meredith & Mantel, 2011:468). The project manager is in charge of updating the plans of the project to reflect on the actual time elapsed for each task. Project closure; this is when the project manager, owner of the project, and any other person having interest in the project, pulls together to analyze the final outcome of the project. Project closure is when the Millennium Dome was completed and the client approved the outcome which was the government of the United Kingdom. Project manager The project manager works with the sponsor of the business who wants to have the project to be implemented together with other stakeholders. The project manager during construction has the primary responsibility of ensuring that the construction job is planned and its progress is overseen along the way. Furthermore, the roles of project manager comprise of : planning and defining the scope of the project, sequencing, resource planning, development schedules, time estimation, cost estimation, developing a budget, documentation, creation of charts and schedules, risk analysis, monitoring and reporting the project progress, ensuring team leadership, strategic influencing, interoperability and portability analysis, and finally controlling quality (Haughey, 2013:134-135). Evaluation of the Millennium Dome The Millennium Dome at Greenwich was designed to be the United Kingdom’s showcase to celebrate the new millennium. It had a diameter of 365 meters making the Dome the largest single roofed structure in Europe and the whole world. It has a floor area the size of 12 football pitches. The project cost ?758 million and was thus seen as the major part in the regeneration of the East London by being built on wetland (Kousholt, 2007:88). The Millennium Dome which was later to be renamed O2 has the Dome appearing like a large white marquee supported by twelve 100 m high support towers. The canopy is made of PTFE coated glass fiber fabric having a diameter of 365m and a height of 52m. Additionally, its symmetry is actually interrupted by a hole through which there is a ventilation shaft for the Blackwall Tunnel. The Millennium Dome was designed by Richard Rogers, and constructed from 1997 to 1999 at a total cost of ?789 million (Hephaestus, 2011:78-80). Conversely, due to poor management of the project it was redeveloped from 2005 to 2007 as an entertainment district thus renamed O2. This O2 comprises of a multipurpose indoor entertainment arena, the O2 Bubble, a multi screen arena, and the entertainment avenue which features clubs, bar and restaurants. The redevelopment was done to at a cost of ?600 million and was designed by the HOK Sport Venue Event. According to Thornly (2012:20) asserts that the O2 Arena had a seating capacity of 20,000 and with 94 luxury boxes thus making it predominantly concert venue. This has made to hoist some games like ATP World Tour Finals from 2009-2012, the 2009 World Artistic Gymnastic Championship, and the Summer Paralympics basketball finals in 2012. The Millennium Dome was the center piece of exhibition that was held in Greenwich in 2000. Of the total cost ?399 million was provided by grant from the Millennium Commission. About 12 million people were expected to visit the exhibition during its life time 1999-2000. However, with regard to the number of visitors that toured the exhibition, only 6.5 million people visited the place way below the projected 12 million people. The colossal structure was built on 180 acre plot in the Greenwich Peninsula. It was built to house a single theatrical show and thirteen others separate exhibition with each reflecting an aspect of theme: ‘Time to make a difference’ (Barnes, Dickson, & Happold, 2000:101-102). The Committee undertook periodic inquiries into the Dome and any other related matters regarding its future. It attracted a good deal of criticism because most the people thought that the project flawed because the ambitions that were held for it were inflated. Some people were of the opinion that the relative weakness of the central theme ‘Time to make a difference’ was a potential obstacle to the project in the attainment of visitors and sponsors. Since the project inception there were substantial efforts to secure the maximum degree of public participation but this was shelved as the idea was downplayed due to delays. The project as confirmed by the government failed to live up to its projection of not being an extra burden to the government, it also failed to entertain and inspire, provision of lasting legacy. Though the project planners was able to provide the most convenient means of transport to the exhibition, there were challenges that accrued due to the mode of ticketing that was to be adopted. Thereafter, the committee that was tasked with ensuring that the exhibition goes on as planned, were critical on some aspects of the project such as: the lack of preparation and transport routes to the Dome and the transport options t the site itself, the paucity of information on what the Millennium Dome would contain, and finally the uncertainty that was surrounded the future of the Dome after 2000 (Barnes, Dickson, & Happold, 2000:324). The Millennium Dome was actually built for exhibition to enable the celebration of the year 2000 milestone. It was originally an idea that was proposed by the conservative government. This fulfilled the first process of project management which is project definition. The Dome was to provide a millennium experience exhibition and was to feature interactive exhibits. The event that was organized was basing on three major themes namely: ‘where we live,’ ‘who we are,’ and ‘what we do.’ It was designed in a unique way so that it attracts tourists into London during the millennium year. When the Millennium Experience was opened in 1999, the initial reaction was poor especially. It is at this point that the Millennium Dome project failed the objective of project closure. There was lack of clear themes, lack of content, and also creativity. The other part of the project management process that failed was the projected budget. Twelve million visitors were to attend but only 6.5 million attended. Moreover, the project was being funded from the British lottery and the construction went ahead to consume ?789 million, this was actually higher than the anticipated costs of constructions and the ticket sales. Consequently, the project manager is to blame for failing to complete the project on the proposed budget. This is because only 600 million was the projected budget for the project. Therefore, the project manager failed in project execution and control. In 2000, the organizers were continually asking and receiving money from the government although part of the problem that had been identified was the unrealistic high forecasts for visitors (Pott, 2008). The contributing factors that led to the failure of the Millennium Dome project included the following: poor execution by the concerned individuals. This emanated from the lackluster content that resulted from negative experiences for the visitors; there was also poor management of expectations; failure to properly plan for the post event disposition of the venue (Thornly, 2012:389-400). According to Brooks (2000:45) asserts that the Millennium Dome was plagued by problems and poor publicity thus leading to the stranding of people during the Millenniums New Year celebrations. As a consequence, it was open to the public thereafter and it was later closed on December 2000 and remained unused for most part of the year although it required maintenance of ?1 million monthly. This proved expensive to the government thus the idea of its redevelopment. However, it can not be forgotten that the ?260 million project for the design and construction of the Millennium Dome was greatly significant and successful achievement of being completed on schedule and also within the budget. According to Meek et al. (2008:168) argue that the United Kingdom’s National Audit office found out that the total cost of the Millennium Dome in 2002 at the liquidation of the New Millennium Company was ?789 million, of which approximately ?628 million was covered by the National Lottery grants and another ?189 million via sales of tickets. The full lottery grant was not needed because of the surplus of ?25million over costs. Conversely, the ?603 million of the lottery money was still ?204 million that was in excess of the initial estimate of ?399, as a consequence of the visitors shortfall in numbers. Many people were expecting a fulfilling Millennium but were utterly shocked by the tremendous stress and anger on the night of the millennium itself, among those who were struggling to get to the event. There was massive public relation that posed damage to the image of the Dome and the organizing company. This was as a result of inadequate planning, lack of awareness particularly on the part of the organizing company on scheduling, especially with regard to ticketing. Moreover, there was an apparent lack of thought-out scale for the activities of processing of the tickets and security checks that were ineptly checked. Some of the other problems encountered were compounded by lack of sense of urgency by the concerned parties (Shore & Parry, 2004:117). Managing a large scale project When the projects grow in size and complexity, so do the methodologies that are used in managing them. When managing big projects one of the things you have to consider is risk management. This is vital for project management as it the equivalent of business continuity instituted at the project level (Lewis, 2009:92). Managing of the large scale projects requires proper cost management. This is attributed to the fact that many participants keep coming and going as the project progresses. Therefore, keeping of track of labor, materials and the capital expenditures becomes complicated. The Millennium Dome project is a typical example of this as it cost ?789 million and had numerous contractors specialized in different sections. In the long run it failed to live up to its objectives leading to its redevelopment to O2 (Brooks, 2000:49-50). The long development time-scale requires the large scale projects to accommodate a high rate of change thus leading to further expansion of the timescale. In a period of where there is unprecedented political, economic, and the technological turbulence, the longer the project would stay overtime, the higher the probability of that project to accommodate technological changes, external requirements changes, and the internal changes for example staff attrition and turn over. The redevelopment of the Millennium Dome to be renamed 02 was necessitated by the changes that had come over a long time. This is an attribute of managing large scale projects. On the other hand, the small scale projects can easily be altered because there are fewer bureaucratic processes to be followed. With regard to technology risk, the utilization of leading edge technology or the usage stable technology is another outstanding feature of managing the large scale projects. However, the small scale projects is not a must they use because it uneconomical. According to Lewis (2009:378-380) suggested that large projects require substantial rationalization and re-organization of numerous sections of the organization. This is tantamount as it raises the issues of physical redesigning, union involvement, and the client facilities. The development of large projects requires a high level of intra-organization organization, something that lacked during the project development process of Millennium Dome. The use of organizational standards such as naming conventions, data dictionaries, and developmental methodologies minimizes the complexity of communication in the large scale projects. It is quite typical for the large projects to involve multi-project developmental approaches like quick-wins, prototyping, fast tracking and among others. Summarily, the management of large projects is centered on the following concepts which should be given special focus, they include: project management technique, real-time planning and control, the project development strategies, quality assurance, stakeholder management, team building, and the change control procedures. Measuring project benefits Some of the benefits of the Millennium Dome apart from the exhibition purposes and the New Year celebrations include: it led to improved collaboration, improved awareness of ideas, materials, and concepts within the general public, the government and larger society in general; it also resulted in improved skills and attitudes of the users, staff, and stakeholders by being the largest single-roofed structure in Europe. Some of the indirect benefits of the Dome project were a catalyst for change; it impacted both positively and negatively on the UK’s government actions and policies, and an improved image of the funding body (Mayes, 2010:66). The effectiveness of the Dome was measured using user satisfaction measures and usage data, before and after focus groups, utilization of awareness survey by tracking the use of project’s outcome in conventional media and newer media. Recommendations To improve on the project outcome one should establish the priorities and objectives of the client. This is to take place during the conceptual stage. The designing of a project’s organizational structure is to take into account the availability of resources, communication requirements, specific contract provisions, economic issues, and social issues. The Millennium Dome also failed to integrate the client into the project, something which was to be avoided (Loosemore, 2010:45-46). The development of the Millennium Dome required that being a large scale project it was to be divided into sub projects. The overall project is to be comprised of senior managers who are to be tasked of ensuring that it attains its design objectives. A successful project manager must ensure that they properly manage the basic elements of a project. They include time, money, resources, and mostly scope. These elements are interrelated. The resources include people, equipment, and material. Time is composed of task duration, dependencies, and critical path. Money includes profits, costs, and contingencies. The scope includes the size of the project, requirements, and goals. For you to ensure a successful project must ensure that you properly manage the project scope. This is what the project is supposed to accomplish and the budget that has been made to attain these goals and objectives. It is typically imperative that any alteration to the scope of the project, will actually result in the matching change in the budget either on resources or money. Ultimately, a smart manager of a project will always avoid change in scope. Usually, the scope changes usually occur in the form of scope creep (Wysocki, 2001:78). This is when there is piling of small changes that are manageable in themselves, yet in aggregate they are significant. It is therefore to be advised that for any requested change, no matter how small it may be, it is to be accompanied by the approval for a change in the schedule or budget (Haughey, 2013:16). As a result, by actively managing the project scope, you can effectively and efficiently manage time, money, and resources. By the project manager adopting such a policy the Millennium Dome could have attained its constructional goals and objectives. The project sponsors were to ensure that they employed the services of PM who needs to have a combination of skills including the ability to detect the unstated assumptions, asking penetrative questions, and the general management skills. The project manager is the one who is to be responsible for making decisions whether big or small, in such a manner that uncertainty is minimized and risk is controlled. During the lifetime of the project there is need to ensure that there is open communication, this provides an avenue for every participant to express opinions and concerns. They should also ensure that they determine the costs more accurately. By the project planners inaccurately predicting the scope of the project, it leads to unrealistically low project budgets. Another recommendation is that they should anticipate and minimize risk by the project planners being given extra time to study the market issues. The contractors should also be evaluated by judging their qualifications and monitoring their performance (Luecke, 2011:69). To sum up the other recommendation include; establishing a productive project management culture, auditing the project to ensure that you identify the challenges and the improvement opportunities, developing a strategic quality plan, evaluating the effectiveness of the project and the quality process, and finally creating a structure to enhance the success of projects. The project manager of the construction of the Millennium Dome is required to define what the project was and what the users of the project would obtain by undertaking the project. Reference List Barnes, M. R., Dickson, M., & Happold, S. E. (2000). Wides Span Roof Strucures. Reston: Thomas Telford. Brooks. (2000). Managing Large Porojects. Ontario: Thomsett Company. Bruce, A., & Langdon, K. (2008). Essential Managers Project Management. London: Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Incorporated. Haughey, D. (2013). Retrieved April 9, 2013, from The Role of the Porject Manager: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-role-of-the-project-manager.html Hephaestus. (2011). Articles on Tensile Architecture, Including: Roof, Millennium Dome, Tensegrity,. Munich: Hephaestus Books. Kousholt, B. (2007). Project Management. Copenhagen: Nyt Teknish Forlag. Lewis, B. (2009, October 7). Retrieved April 9, 2013, from Small vs. Big projects, and the Differences in Managing them: http://www.infoworld.com/d/adventures-in-it/small-vs-big-projects-and-differences Loosemore, M. (2010). Essentials of Construction Project Management. New York: NewSouth Publishing. Luecke, R. (2011). Harvard Business Essentials: Managing Projects Large and Small . Harvard Business Press: Harvard. Mayes, P. (2010, April 10). Retrieved April 10, 2013, from Project benefits/ impacts and their Measurement: http://www.slideshare.net/paulmayes/project-benefits-impacts Meek, H., Meek, R., Palmer, R., & Parkinson, L. (2008). Managing Marketing Performance, 2008-2009. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. (2011). Project Management:. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Pott, K. (2008). Construction cost management. New York: Routledge. Shore, A., & Parry, B. (2004). Successful event management. Bedford Row: Cengage Learning. Thornly. (2012, October 14). Retrieved April 9, 2013, from The Millennium Experience: http://www.businessballs.com/project.htm Wysocki, R. K. (2001). Project management process improvement. Norwood: Artech House. Read More