Recent recipients of the Project Management Institute's Project of the Year Award - Research Paper Example

Project Management Institute’s Project of the Year Award (2006) Recipient: Kaiser Hill Limited LLC, Broomfield, Colorado, US Background of PMI award: Project Management Institute (PMI) is world’s largest professional association with around half a million members in about 180 countries (PMI, 2011). Its prime objective is to advance the profession of project management through global recognized standards, certifications and professional development opportunities etc. Since 1989, PMI has constituted PMI Project of the Year (POY) Award that recognizes the exemplary accomplishments of a project and the contribution of its team in its execution and success.

PMI encourages projects from all over the world regardless of their size, industry type or geographical location. In the year 2006, PMI awarded Kaiser Hill Limited LLC of Broomfield, Colorado, US for successfully executing 10-year effort to cleanup Rocky Flats Plant in Golden Colorado. Company overview: Kaiser Hill Limited LLC is a subsidiary of Kaiser Group Holdings based in Delaware, and works as a general contractor performing closure activities at US Department of Energy’s Rocky Flat Plan in Golden Colorado.

Project overview: Rocky Flats Plant project in Golden Colorado was a six-year long (starting 2000) undertaking that included closure and clearance of an ex-top secret, high security nuclear weapons facility that carried radioactive plutonium waste. The task of clearing 6,245-acre site (including 385 acre industrial area) had a budget of $3.96 Bn (Hunsberger), which was considered an arduous task even for Department of Energy (DoE, US). Given the nature of the site, with contaminated facilities, soil and groundwater, safety of workers was the highest risk for Kaiser Hill. 1. Summarizes how the project manager or team exhibited exceptional and ethical project management practices.

Exceptional Project Management Practices in the Rocky Flats Plant project: The exceptional project management by Kaiser Hill employees was evident from the fact that the project was finished 14 months before schedule and with net savings of $553 million. To perform a risky project as closure of a nuclear waste site requires a lot of determination, courage and motivation from the part of leadership. Here are few initiatives and best practices observed by Kaiser Hill to cater to the uphill tasks posed by the project: Early identification of change: Project managers made estimates of the amount and the kind of work they were expecting at the nuclear site.

Evaluating and Mitigating risks: Project managers also made a list of all known or unknown risks and drafted ways to mitigate them. Hire ex-employees in charge of producing nuclear waste: Since the management knew that there were known unknowns wrt their work, they hired employees who had previously worked on this site during nuclear mass production. Performance incentive programs: In order to motivate employees to give their best shot in their work and reduce time delays; the management developed numerous performance incentive programs for employees that included placement services to other local organizations.

Ethical practices at Rocky Flats Plant: Despite various challenges, project managers at Kaiser Hill endorsed ethical practices at project site. Safety of employees was the primary concern for management and was not compromised in lieu of profits or operating margins. They also ensured that their client (DoE) had full access to the status of the project, its actual costs and schedule. 2. Discusses the role of the project manager or team, the organizational setting, the recipient’s approach to project integration management, and obstacles that had the potential of adversely impacting the project.

The role of Project management team in this project was triple-faced (1) they had to make sure that Kaisler does not undergo any losses for the risky project (2) they had to create a good working environment for their employees, both in terms of safety and behavior towards their job and (3) they had to provide the best quality of work to their client, DoE. The organization was structured in a way that there were no unambiguous lines of responsibility at the site that was geographically broken into projects.

Each project was led by Line Managers who reported to the hierarchy of safety management program owners, project managers, Vice Presidents and President of Kasier-Hill. Project integration management was followed to maximize safety at work place (Integrated Work Control Program, 2001). Major challenges encountered in the project were: Unknown risks of project such as amount Unmotivated employees who aspired to turn this job into a permanent opportunity Safety hazards of the project such as nature of radioactive plutonium waste at site.

Bibliography Integrated Work Control Program. (2001). INTEGRATED SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM MANUAL. Kaiser-Hill LLC. Hunsberger, K. Finding Closure. PMI. CH2M HILL. PMI. (2011, April 11). About Us. Retrieved April 11, 2011, from PMI: http://www.pmi.org/en/About-Us.aspx