Project Management for Business - Construction of the Wembley Stadium in London, England - Case Study Example

Project Management for Business Name Tutor Unit Code Date TASK 1 1.1 Describe the background and principles of project management The current business environment is characterised by innovation and distinctiveness whereby an organisation undertakes a temporary effort to create a unique product or service. These has introduced the aspects of projects, previously limited to a few fields, into the wider business environment. A project is mainly characterised by its temporality, time-limit, and uniqueness. Projects are typically designed within the limits of time, cost, quality and deliverables. Project management is a body of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques that guide the realisation of project objectives so as to meet stakeholder needs and expectation. Different types of projects include exhibitions, sports events, disaster recovery project, music concerts, fashion shows, banking projects, marketing, product development, defence, infrastructural developments, among others. In this paper, the focus is on infrastructural development, with a specific focus on the construction of the Wembley stadium in London, England. The project involves the construction of a stadium. The objective was to upgrade the existing stadium into a modern national stadium capable of holding football and rugby events as well as international athletics. Initially, the project was estimated to cost 326 million euros and was to be completed within four years. 1.2 Appraise the viability of projects, developing success/failure criteria Before a project is executed, there must be an appraisal done to determine whether it is viable. Different tools and techniques are used to assess the feasibility of a project, including financial measures such as the payback period, the internal rate of return, the net present value, and the profitability index, among others. Other measures include the comparative benefit model, operating necessity and competitive necessity. Project development is influenced greatly by the uncertainty and the risks involved. As such, projects may fail to be fulfilled or meet stakeholder expectations. Project failure occurs due to various reasons that include: Poor communication Lack of proper stakeholder engagement Poor risk management Inadequate resources Unqualified project team However, for a project to succeed, there are three main elements that have to be realised. First, the project should be completed in time and within budget. The project should also lead to the realisation of the projects objectives as intended. The Wembley stadium was largely characterised by failures. The project was planned to be completed in 2003 but there was a time overrun of over eight years, as the project was completed in September 2002. Besides the project faced financing difficulties. The project cost was first estimated to be 326 million euros but it ended up costing 757 million euros. Political issues also contributed to the failure. Besides, the project was characterised by poor designs that led to a 253 million euros lawsuit. There was also poor management, particularly from the top management. 1.3 Explain the principles behind project management systems and procedures A project evolves through what is called a project life-cycle. The project life-cycle encompasses the stages a project goes through from start to end. There are four key phases in a project life-cycle as discussed below: a) Project initiation This is the first stage where a project idea is formulated. The idea crops up from an organization’s need based on the strategic objectives. The organization can choose projects from many alternative ideas or schemes that balance between local demands, strategic priorities, ongoing diagnostics, and research or baseline studies. To determine ‘demand’ projects from communities or stakeholders, two key elements involved are the needs analysis and situation analysis. The Wembley stadium project was initiated in December 1996. This came out of the need for the lottery funding announced by Sport England in 1994. The objective was to build an iconic national stadium that would host three major sporting events - football, rugby league and athletics. b) Project planning Project planning entails the development of a project plan. A project plan is a document that provides supporting details to the project in terms of cost, time, scope and quality. The major inputs to project planning process are project scope statement, environmental factors (political, economic, social-cultural, technical and ecological). The main output of the planning process is the project management plan. This a tool of communication and control that will indicate the project break down structure, resources schedules, tasks relationships, estimated work packages, assignments and leveling of resources. The objectives of project planning is; To estimate the project cost/budget To list all activities or tasks involved in the project. This requires analytical thinking for it to be comprehensive with the required details To estimate the activity durations of all the activities listed To construct the network diagram giving all the logical interrelationships among the activities. In general, assembling the “who, what, and when and how” of a project can be a daunting task especially for complex and uncertain projects. The complexity of the Wembley Stadium project made it very challenging to plan adequately. The project involved many stakeholders, huge resources and the activities were too many to plan well for. c) Project execution This is the phase where the project management plan is translated into action. The inputs of this process are the outputs of a project planning process. Implementation success or failure depends on the quality of the project management plan. d) Project closure The project is completed. This captures all the activities necessary for the project office to close the project. The purpose is to formally close the project. Afterwards, an evaluation is done to determine the project’s success or failure. This information can be used to make decision regarding project closure or corrective action in the current project or future projects. 1.4 Explain the key elements involved in terminating projects and conducting post-project appraisals. Project termination is one of the most serious and important decisions a project team and the control board. It may lead to disappointment for stakeholders who believed in the project should they not feel satisfied. The project manager and the project team members among other primary stakeholders of the project may also feel let down. Nonetheless, project termination occurs once there is no proper project planning, environmental changes may render the project irrelevant, lack of customer and management support, among many other reasons. Whenever along the life cycle of a project it becomes clear that the project has to be terminated, there is need to document the achievements realised as well as the failures for future reference. Task 2 2.1 Identify the most appropriate organisational structure, roles and responsibilities of participants within a project. A national stadium is expected to host key sporting events all-through the year. As such, the Wembley project involved a complex structure in managing the construction activities and other activities involved. The project structure exemplifies the connection between the various levels of management and administration. It defines the layout instructions and orders, by which the activities are planned, organized, directed and controlled. Due to the complexity and poor planning of the Wembley stadium project, there is no clear structure to identify the positions and responsibilities. Besides, a lot of stakeholders were involved in the project. Table 1 below indicates the main stakeholders, their roles and responsibilities. Table 1: Stakeholder Role and Responsibilities Stakeholder Role and Responsibility Sport England Launched the English national stadium project. Multiplex Awarded contract to construct the stadium Wembley National Stadium Limited Responsible for constructing and operating the new stadium. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP Provided advice to Wembley National Stadium Limited Tropus Limited Provided project management services to Wembley National Stadium Limited London Development Agency Providing funding to the project. Football Association Parent company and financier of Wembley National Stadium Limited. 2.2 Main Methods of Project Control and Co-ordination The control and coordination of a project entails various processes that include; Time management. It is necessary to determine the project completion time. Cost management. Cost management entails the determination and measurement of project cost through the full project life-cycle. This allows the project manager to predict impending expenditures to reduce the chance of going over the budget. Quality management process help to improve the quality of the team deliverables. It can considered to have 4 main components: implement quality planning, undertake quality control, perform quality assurance and initiate quality improvement. Change management refers to a project management process where changes to a project are formally introduced and approved. Change management process helps the PM to manage all requests for change within the project. Risks management is the process of identifying, assessing and prioritizing risks. This helps to; Identify critical and non-critical risks Document each risk in depth by completing Risk Forms Log all risks and notify management of their severity Take action to reduce the likelihood of risks occurring Reduce the impact on the business, should risk eventuate Communication management is the planning, implementing, monitoring, and revision of all channels of communication within the organization. Project management review helps the PM to document the results of Project Review, at the end of the execution phase. All of them are performed to observe project execution process so that potential problems can be identified in a timely manner. The Wembley stadium project was characterized by huge failures. Therefore, the project could have been managed well to avoid the time and cost overruns and meet the stakeholder expectations. 2.3 Theoretical Leadership Qualities and Qualities of a Typical Project Manager. The role of the project manager consists is mainly to ensure successful planning, execution, performance, monitoring, and management of a project. In general, a project manager should be able to organise his team well, have proper communication skills, engage all stakeholders, manage time well, manage the project resources competently, and manage the product quality. The Wembley stadium project was not managed well. There was no proper leadership. The project even witnessed lawsuits among the stakeholders, which shed a bad light on the project. 2.4 Plan and specification of the project team. The best indicator of a professional team is experience. In general many projects are undertaken through contracting and sub-contracting. The Wembley stadium projects was undertaken by Multiplex that was contracted. Other parties involved in the project included advisers, investment banks, government agencies, consultants, civil servants, and business people. References Crawford, J. K. 2001, Portfolio Management: Overview and Best Practices, in J. Knutson (Ed.), Project Management for Business Professionals. New York:Wiley, pp. 33–48. Kerzner, H. 2001, Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling, 7th ed, New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Lock, D. 2010. Project Management. 9th Ed. Gower. Read More