Prerequisites of Success of a Project the FIFA 2010 World Cup - Case Study Example

RUNNING HEAD: Success of a project Name Tutor Institute Date Introduction A project is basically a short-term task aimed at creating an extraordinary service or product to the society (Heerkens, 2007). However, a project cannot be successful if decisions to address specific wants are not made. There must be funding for execution of the project’s goals and objectives as well ensuring the end products are achievable and are of a high quality. The commencement of any project and the conclusion therefore has to be well defined for the success of a project. A project comprises of myriad of processes which aim at bringing about a particular result. For the project’s life cycle to be attained, the project management and product-oriented processes have to be well undertaken (Kerzner, 2009). The product management processes and tools are therefore very key in the success of any project. The constraints of time, cost and quality as well as the scope of work to be done by the multi-disciplinary team, should be put under study to have a successful project. Body This paper will critically study the 2010 FIFA World Cup as a successful project. Some of the key issues will try to find out why this project turned out to be a success. 1. Brief introduction to the project. The FIFA 2010 World Cup is a sporting event that takes place after every four years. This project is one of the most anticipated by soccer fans all over the world where the fans come out to celebrate their teams and the players strive to take the cup to their home countries. The FIFA 2010 World Cup is the latest and the most exceptional tournaments that have place reason being that it was held in an African country- South Africa. This project is yet another tribute of the World’s largest sporting event which has been enjoyed for a very long period of time. This project featured 199 teams battling it out for the prestigious world cup in the 10 stadiums in South Africa. It is here that the hopes and dreams of rival countries were achieved assisted by the fans present. It was a long journey that began from qualifications of interested parties, fatigue by the players trying to battle it out, to the final tournament that led to the best team winning. 2. A project stakeholder analysis. Various stakeholders took part in greening the FIFA 2010 World cup. Without them, it would have been very difficult to achieve the goals of the project as well as the success of the tournament. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are among the stakeholders that took part in the implementation of the FIFA 2010 World cup. The major role performed by these two, basically is to ensure that reduction of carbon emissions is put under check in quest to promote the National Greening Programme. At the World cup, GEF granted One million U.S dollars which was shifted to putting up solar panels on the public street lights, billboards and traffic lights around the stadia in the specific cities hosting the games. The 2010 FIFA World Cup Regional Tourism Organizing Plan is another of the many stakeholders that took part in the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Their major role was to host the world class African World Cup making sure that a lifetime social legacy of South Africa is created in the whole continent. Their major aim was to ensure that a successful FIFA World cup was to be recorded, make South Africa the best tourist destination in addition to acquiring maximum benefits from the same. One of the most important stakeholders is The FIFA Organizing Committee. The International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) is the organizing body that governs international football tournaments. FIFA took all the measures to ensure that this project was a success. The Chief Competitions Officer ensured that the scheduled matches run smoothly, the Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer worked endlessly in conjunction with the South African group to ensure the success of the project among others. These are just a few of the major stakeholders that promoted the success of the FIFA 2010 World cup. 3. Implementation phase of the project- A brief description of how the project was managed. As previously noted, we stated that the commencement of the project and the conclusion has to be well defined. For the success of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, the involved stakeholders split the project into three major phases. The first phase is the Compliance Phase that took place between 2005 and 2006. This is the commencement of the project that took place early enough to allow for adequate preparation for the big event. Lock, (2007) argues that process is inescapable to a project and its implementation. It is in this phase that the Government of South Africa made arrangements to ensure that it met the terms of FIFA’s necessities. Host cities and stadiums were carefully selected and agreements signed. This phase ensured that funds were disbursed to the various departments for management and coordination of the process. For instance the transport sector had enough funds for the necessary infrastructure projects like refurbishing of airports and roads. The second phase was the project implementation stage. This took place between 2007-2009. The Operational plans were tested especially in regard to safety and security. Basically this phase was a test-run phase where the entire required infrastructure needed for project implementation was delivered. Finally the last phase was of the World Cup Operations in 2010. This was the peak of the project from the first two phases. This is where the culmination of all tasks conducted to make the project a success took place. All the necessary World Cup Operations took place in this phase. (Muller, 2008). It is evident that this phase was very successful as evident from the many commendable remarks by many scholars and notable personalities. It no doubt left a major landmark in the African continent. 4. A critical analysis of the project outcome - the critical factors that made this project a success. It is evident that the FIFA World Cup was one of the most successful projects that has ever been undertaken. Indeed it shall not escape the history books. This is because of quite a number of factors. First the project had a preparation stage which involved all the stakeholders of the project actively involved in the preparation and approval of the project outline and its budget. This stage is key in the life cycle of a project. It is in this stage that selection and briefing of the project team is done as well as discussions of the projects roles and organization. This project went through the Feasibility stage. It is here that the stakeholders measure the possible success of the project. External resources were identified which were vital to service provisions and play the role of specialist consultant. The staff involved was of exemplary characters- very reliable in the implementation of the project’s objectives. The success of this project is also attributed to definition and planning of the project. The project was published precise with the aims and objectives (Muller, 2008). The project manager coordinated this who also ensured that proper communication was constant throughout the project to avoid misunderstandings and misinterpretations that may arise- minimize surprises that were likely to have occurred at a later stage. The project manager of the FIFA 2010 World Cup made sure that the implementation stage was followed closely monitoring the progress of the project and the changes that might occur. All the required stakeholders were constantly briefed on the progress which in turn created a feeling of inclusion in them. This team work, absolutely led to the project’s success. If the members are not constantly involved in the organization of the project, there is no team building and strive to achieve the best from the resources provided in the implementation of the project. This, however, did not happen in our case as proper communication was done to all the involved members of the project. Satisfactory delivery of services was done to the large number of fans and players who were very important in this big event. 4. Conclusion This research has helped me learn that in any project, there must be work breakdown structures. This technique enables the manager analyze the content of work and all costs that will be incurred in the project implementation (Phillips, 2010). The key elements of the project have to be identified, each element should be broken down into constituent parts until manageable work packages have been identified and then allocated to the best suitor. I have also learnt that Project Evaluation Technique is important for any project. It is here that the interrelationship between tasks is identified. Tasks are therefore well done after this process is done since most of them are related and aim to one goal of achieving success of the project. Tasks are done in a parallel manner shortening the length of the project. Careful planning should be embraced by all project managers. In our case, the FIFA 2010 World cup would not have been a success if no planning was not done. If planning is done, all the other subdivisions in the organization work smoothly, even with minimal supervision. 5. Appendix This paper looks at the project implementation process. An example of a successful project was put in check in order to find out the important features of a successful project. We have discussed that it is the effort of the stakeholders involved that made the FIFA 2010 World Cup a success. The project implementation process includes six major steps that work closely to ensure success of a project. First, there must be a need identified, initiate a project to provide this need, plan the project, execute the plan, control it and finally carry out the close out phase which tries to evaluate if the project was a success or not. Below is a summary of the Project Implementation Process. Appendix A. Summary of the Project Process Flow Finally, we can argue that for any project to run all the above processes have to be followed. All existing project managers and those who plan to be should borrow a leaf from the FIFA 2010 World Cup mproject managers who made it a success. Bibliography Edgar, T. (2011). The Pearson General Knowledge Manual 2011. Pearson Education Publishers: India. Heerkens, G.R. (2007). Project Management: 24 Steps to Help You Master Any Project. McGraw-Hill publishers: New York Kerzner, H. (2009). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. John Wiley and Sons Publishers: London. Lock, D. (2007). Project management. Gower Publishing Ltd: U.S.A Muller, M. (2008). Africa’s Place in the International Football System: Why South Africa Received the 2010 FIFA World Cup. GRIN Verlag Publishers: New York. Phillips, J. (2010). IT Project Management: On Track from Start to Finish. McGraw Hill Professional: New York. Read More