Project Management: the University of Colorado at Denver Study Facility - Essay Example

Project Management: of Colorado at Denver Study Facility Executive Summary In the recent past, of Colorado at Denver has experienced an increase in student intake during every academic year. Increase in the student population has resulted in unprecedented hitches with respect to studying facilities within the institution. In this case, those students in transient and commuter schools have difficulties accessing suitable study facilities within the institution. Statistics from relevant research shows that students usually utilize considerable amount of time in class preparations (Seung 87). These students need an appropriate place for completing their assignments and homework projects. In addition, need for friendly studying environment increases during examination period. Therefore, students remain in dire need of an appropriate environmental context to conduct their learning activities. University of Colorado at Denver usually has study rooms and library facilities. However, these rooms open their doors for a limited number of hours. Studies indicates that junior students would use approximately 15 hours, while senior students use 20 hours every week in class work preparations (Seung 89). In this context, it would be appropriate to consider development of a facility that provides a 24/7 study room services around the campus. The main objectives of this project include provision of a user-friendly learning environment for the student population. The first aim is to facilitate availability of a 350-student capacity study room within the facility. This space will accommodate a significant number of students all around the clock. Apart from individual study sections, the facility will have lounges meant for constructive discussions relating to learning processes. The project also takes into consideration the fact that modern learning processes requires utilization of electronic knowledge sources from the internet (Seung 46). Therefore, involved stakeholders will ensure that the UCD facility has fully equipped and operational computer laboratories. Apart from objectives of promoting academic learning, the project will enhance provision of a suitable social atmosphere for the students. This aspect of socialization will be addressed by installation of TV room with entertainment features. In addition, students will acquire employment opportunities through various management related vacancies within the facility. Addition of a snack vendor kiosk will facilitate generation of funds that can be used to improve service delivery within the facility. In general, integration of all these aspects within the project will serve the purpose of providing a satisfactory and cost effective environment for studying. Students who would prefer to conduct their learning activities at unconventional hours will benefit from this project. In this regard, facility management will ensure development of a sustainable secure atmosphere that will substantially increase studying time for the university students. In order to ensure objective development of a feasible project proposal, the concerned team will apply inherent efforts in involving relevant authorities in their respective roles. Relevant authorities within the project’s work structure would include the university’s administration. Relevant information needs to reach the campus management in a timely manner. In this case, timely provision of relevant data increases chances of project approval from the administration. Apart from the campus directorate, numerous logistical permits will be necessary during construction exercise. In this case, city authorities will play a significant role in enabling commencement of construction plans implementations. Timely provision of rational information should reach city officials in order to appraise the quality and validity of the project in meeting its objectives. This means that suitable communication techniques and channels will facilitate acquisition of relevant permits from city authorities (Morris and Sember 13). Project’s Communication Strategies Achievement of the project’s success will depend on the nature of communication employed during planning and implementation stages (Barager 06). Project manager will have the responsibility of ensuring that appropriate communication strategies are integrated into the project’s progress plans. Target audience for communication messages will include all parties involved in provision of logistics and human skills throughout the project. Relevant information concerning any aspect of the project should reach appropriate target audience in time. Failure to provide timely information to one stakeholder means that the party would make uninformed decisions concerning aspects of the utility. In an event that manager and other key team members fail to provide explicit objectives, UCD administration and funding agencies may fail to approve their proposal. Rejection of a proposal in such instances only results from application of inappropriate communication strategies (Barager 07). In this regard, information should flow from one party to another, as this will enhance objective decision making at any given stage. Communication between Group Members With respect to flow of information within the project’s system, one important form of communication entails that between group members. UCD study facility project team comprise of five individuals with a structured bureaucracy of information delivery. The project manager holds the highest position, followed by a team leader and eventually three team members at the lowest levels. This structure provides distinct responsibilities of each individual within the project’s team. Technical responsibilities of team members include participating in defining resolutions at the micromanagement levels. These include evaluation of scope specification changes with respect to technical aspects like material quality and cost elements. Upon evaluating such changes, team leaders should communicate them to the team leader, who will in turn relay the message to team manager. The manager will then formulate appropriate response and utilize the hierarch to provide feedback to team members. In this manner, structured relations ensure development of objective communication from one level of the project’s management to another (Binder 32). With respect to individual responsibilities, the team manager will serve the purpose of formulating policies guiding project implementation. In addition, the manager will have the mandate of structuring informed changes within the main plan execution strategies. Upon making necessary changes, he will inform subordinate team members about the nature of the latest decisions. In this context, communication can only be successful in the event that project management team utilizes suitable channels of relaying their messages (Binder 37). Within the UCD project, management team comprises of only few individuals. In this case, the most appropriate channels for facilitating delivery of messages between members of the group would be regular meetings. Team manager can always convene a meeting with subordinates in order to notify concerned individuals of latest developments. Meetings can be economical and effective in facilitating communication between technical groups. This channel allows team members to provide immediate feedback upon reception of policies from team manager. In addition, meetings will facilitate discussions among members of the team management group. In the process, responsible managers can provide clarity on ambiguous policy guidelines (Barager 03). This will ensure that all project team members remains updated on relevant information at every stage of the project’s implementation. Apart from personal meetings, managers can inform individuals in important decisions through telephone calls. Project manager cannot fail to participate in important decisions whenever he is away from the project’s environment. In this case, he can always provide directions through direct calls to involved team members. This will ensure that team members do not make minor mistakes in the event that a superior manager where not at site to supplement appropriate directional instructions. In this regard, excellent communication techniques within the team members will ensure successful delivery of individual duties required of every team member (Binder 41). This facilitates timely achievement of desired objectives relating to project’s success. Communication with City for Permits Apart from team members, the project team management to engage in active communication with external stakeholders within the facility. In earlier illustrations, we acknowledged that city authorities will play a significant role in ensuring success of the project during its implementation stages. Development of requisite building infrastructure can start only after the project team has acquired relevant construction permits. This means that city authorities dealing with issuances of appropriate permit certificates needs information concerning the nature and progress of the project. From a technical perspective, city authorities may be interested in different type of information unlike team members. Such relevant information for the authorities may include safety procedures adopted and environmental facets of the project (Barager 03). As an illustration, one example of a permit required for the project is that for installation of plumbing and gas pipeline system. This means that city authorities need assurance that materials used for installation of these infrastructure meets pre-determined standards for environmental safety. Therefore, project management will supplement relevant and tailor-made information to involved city offices for permit allowances. In order to achieve a positive impact from messages delivered, project team management ought to develop a comprehensive plan for communication. City officials need to receive information in a rationally frequent basis in order to refresh their support and perspective on the project. In this case, project manager needs to restructure management systems to ensure availability of relevant information in a timely manner (Morris and Sember 95). In the progress of project development, certain sections of city planning offices may need urgent information on certain aspects of the project. In one instance, a city engineers needs to know when the project will carry out a preliminary electrical installation for their facility. This information would enable involved city experts in synchronizing their timetable with that of the project management team. In order to ensure efficiency in such circumstances, the project team will adopt utilization of appropriate tools for communication. Use of a central network for message exchange will facilitate presence of a relevant platform where involved stakeholders within the city council can access information. Relevant information may include project calendar and a periodically updated project’s progress report. This network will reduce the need for direct communication between project manager and city authorities. In this manner, officials will access information at their will; hence increasing their ability to make permits related decisions. Upon development of appropriate infrastructure for communication, the next part would be to know the nature of audience within various offices in city management structure. Knowledge of one’s audience enables project manager to develop customized messages that will capture attention of a specific city office. For instance, city office dealing with issuances of plumbing permits may require different information from that of concerned with electrical systems installation permits. In addition, certain offices within city departments may require less or more information than other offices. This means that knowledge of such aspects will facilitate efficient communication with relevant stakeholders within the city management authority. It is understandable that stakeholders may develop lack of interest of a project’s progress as a result of failure in communication strategies. Therefore, after development of customized information to city officials, the next communication strategy entails adoption of appropriate techniques of relaying intended messages to target audiences. Appropriate techniques will elicit desired responses from stakeholders, which in turn may fast track issuance of construction permits (Morris and Sember 121). Information overload may result in delays of responses and frustrations on the permit issuance sides. In order to avoid confusions and misunderstanding in such instances, project manager may encourage stakeholders to participate in interactive communications through meetings. In addition, utilization of telephone calls can provide a good avenue for staging interactive communications. Interactive communications are usually effective in forming constructive relationships between stakeholders in project development. Meetings with city officials will create an environment where project management can clear ambiguous information. On the other hand, city authority officers can personally provide their perspective concerning technical aspects of the project. Involved parties can engage in better communication by attention to both verbal and non verbal communications within discussion tables (Morris and Sember 123). Apart from interactive instances, project managers may utilize available communication infrastructure in creating effective push and pull message delivery. In push communication, project manager would intentionally supplement information to city authority offices without expecting any feedback from them (Morris and Sember 123). Certain contexts may require manager to relay information to stakeholders within the city department. However, representatives of those city offices may not be available for interactive communication platforms like telephone conversations or even personal meetings. In such instances, project management team would prefer to send an email or leave a voice mail message at the end of the tone. Pull communication can also enhance delivery of information to selected target audiences. Utilization of a centralized information system will serve as one effective mode of pull communication. Project management teams will post progress reports and cost related information in the central system. In addition, project manager may also decide to post decision tree diagrams after an interactive meeting with permit officials (Barager 02). In this context, interested information seekers within any city office can locate relevant information from the central system at their discretion. Communication with School The other important stakeholder in this project is University of Colorado’s administration and investment office team. The project can only proceed after the university’s investment office approves its proposal. In this regard, appropriate communication strategies will ensure provision of relevant information to the university’s administration. Subsequently, this information will determine whether the authority will approve or reject the proposal in subject (Barager 02). One thing that will capture administration’s interest is objectives of the study facility project upon its completion. As a learning institution, University of Colorado will have to ensure that facilities within its surroundings meet the required standards of learning environments. In addition, the university may need assurance that certain requisite aspects like security measures are included in the planning stages. Such information is necessary during decision making because the study facility will impact directly to the university’s learning atmosphere and public reputation (Seung 65). With respect to the project’s development plans, University of Colorado at Denver will participate as the main funding body during construction of the facility. This means that UCD have a right to access any relevant information concerning the projects progress and decision processes. Project managers will need to develop periodic cost analysis and forecasts documentations throughout the project. Upon production of this information in a stakeholder friendly manner, team management will have to relay them to the investment office within the institution’s administrative structure (Binder 74). In addition, project team structure shows that decisions made earlier are subject to changes as the project progresses. At any phase of the program, the project manager may decide to change construction specification details, and other technical aspects of various implementation phases. In one case, project manager may act on information from city engineers on the appropriate type of materials used in special construction facilities. In this case, change in technical specifications may result in a corresponding change in cost related factors of the project. Therefore, the school deserves a right to know of such changes since they play a central role in funding the project implementation phases. In order to ensure effective communications with the university’s administration, the project management team will adopt appropriate strategic measures. One such strategic measure involves the aspect of versatility and flexibility in communications. Interaction with various stakeholders and construction experts during feasibility studies may necessitate changes within the project’s detailed plans. In this case, project manager should be in a position to provide latest changes to the university’s investment office. In return, the university may call for emergency meetings with project management team in order to discuss matters relating to latest developments (Binder 79). In such instances, project manager should put in place flexible communication measures that will objectively respond to such emergency needs. One appropriate measure would involve delegation of certain duties to other team members. University officials may plan for an urgent interactive meeting with the project management team. However, the project manager may be caught up in other project related issues with different stakeholders. At this juncture, duty delegation measures will allow a team leader to respond to administration’s questions during the emergency meeting. In this regard, such communication measures will ensure effective communication with the school throughout the project development period (Morris and Sember 86). Communication Management At this juncture, it is evident that effective communication with all these stakeholders will significantly influence the project’s success. Proper management will ensure that information needs of all these stakeholders are addressed in a professional and timely manner. Team members will need policy related information from team manager. On the other hand, university administration requires relevant changes within the project’s planning and implementation stages. Permit issuances are interested in details related to technical and environmental aspects during different construction phases. This means that proper management of information flow will ensure efficient coordination of efforts provided by all the three stakeholders within the project’s premises (Morris and Sember 142). Project manager should ensure provision of current and progress reports to every stakeholder in customized report forms. In addition, these stakeholders need to learn about any problems experienced in implementing the plans. Timely communication of problems will ensure involved stakeholder can provided required help to team members. In this regard, proper communication management with the three parties will ensure project’s success; hence accomplishment of pre-determined objectives of the facility. Works Cited Barager, Jeffrey. Communicating with Project Stakeholders. Office.com. Web April 17, 2013 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/project-help/communicate-with-project-stakeholders-HA001127782.aspx Binder, Jean. Global Project Management: Communication, Collaboration and Management across borders. Indianapolis: Gower Publishing, Ltd., 2009. Print. Morris, Rick and Sember, Brette. Project Management That Works: Real-World Advice on Communicating. Pittsburgh: AMACOM Publishing, 2008. Print. Seung Lee. Establishing Private Learning Facilities: A guide for entrepreneurs. New York: Cengage Learning Publishers, 2012. Print Read More