Advantages of Using PRINCE2 Model:Shelter - Case Study Example

HOUSING PROJECT Customer Inserts His/her Name Customer Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor’s Name 12, 10, 2011 Word count 1. 0 Organization overview 428 words 2. 0 Projects description 427 words 3. 0 The scope of the project 829 words 4. 0 Methodology 846 words 5. 0 Risks and risks management 925 words 6. 0 Project resourcing 813 words Total word count 4363 words Table of Content 1. 0 Organization overview 428 words i 2. 0 Projects description 427 words i 3. 0 The scope of the project 829 words i 4. 0 Methodology 846 words i 5. 0 Risks and risks management 925 words i 6. 0 Project resourcing 813 words i 1. 0 Organization overview 1 2. 0 Projects description 2 3. 0 The scope of the project 4 4. 0 Methodology 7 4. 1. Advantages of using PRINCE2 model 8 4. 1. 1 Initiation stage 10 4. 1. 2 Planning and designing stage 10 4. 1. 3 Execution of the project 10 4. 1. 4 Monitoring and controlling stage 10 4. 1. 5 Closing stage 11 5. 0 Risks and risks management 12 5.1. Risks likely to be encountered during my project 13 5.2 Risk management 14 6. 0 Project resourcing 15 6. 1 Steps in resourcing 16 7. 0 References List 19 8. 0 Appendices 20 1. 0 Organization overview Shelter is one of the not for profit organization in England which carries out different kind of tasks targeting better housing to citizens. Mostly, they give advices to different categories of people ranging from young to old. In this attempt, they supported more than one thousand children advice wise on housing in collaboration with childcare professionals. They also managed to advise more than 35,000 tenants on possible means for avoiding losses emanating from eviction, how to deal with property owner whenever a dispute rises and much emphasis put on the importance of tenants’ awareness on their rights. This organization also saved more than 194,000 people against homelessness. Shelter organized negotiations with different governmental department on possibility of cutting housing benefits by 10% for people who failed to secure a job within 12 months. Much of the work done by this organization is advisory but it is essential if this organization can seek monetary funding so that they can solve the housing problem faced by many citizens. With the high recession rate experience in the year 2010, shelter faced with tough time since the effects had hit the people who in turn sought assistance from this organization. The effects of this recession were an increase in unemployment, high cost of living, and rampant rise in homelessness effects. This projection was that the situation would become even worse in future therefore calling the urgency of the matter. Given the organization has been allocated a budget of $ 250,000 the CEO must devise a new project which will see the problem on housing is solved partially if not hundred percent. CEO in collaboration with the government can facilitate construction of cheaper apartments to serve the people who have hardly hit by the effect of recession. The government should be involved since it previously cut the public spending when coalition government came into place in 2010. The organization will construct these apartments in phases where one phase completion before starting a new phase to avoid white elephant projects. Once a phase is complete, the first privilege applies to the first victims of retrenchment since the latter have the amnesty from the government for 12 months. This will curb the effects likely to rise from the planned changes to housing benefits to giving funds to welfare advice and affordable housing. However, the occupants will be required to contribute little amount to meet maintenance, electricity and water bills. There will be Exceptional of electricity bills to occupants who opt not to use electricity but the other charges will be mandatory. 2. 0 Projects description The urgency of housing problem poses a big challenge to government, mortgages companies, and property owners in United Kingdom specifically England and Wales. High rate of recession have led the government to change some policies in order to cope with the situation but to some extent, occurrence of more problems remains unsolved. The work planned by this organization is critical in that it seeks to alleviate the housing problem. Failure to counterattack this problem at early stage, may amount to worst scenario in future as illustrated in the Shelter’s report for year 2010/2011. The hardship encountered by tenants in paying rents, other house owner in paying mortgages and quest for people to own decent apartments for their families is a cause for alarm. This project will seek to end the impunity portrayed by rogue property owners to their tenants. Reports revealed that these property owners have terrorized tenants across England without proper penalties being directed to them (shelter 2011). Besides local authority knowledge on this animosity, property owners have made life miserable to tenants who sometimes just keep quiet due to lack of other options. These tenants have high quest for good and decent houses for their families. There is an overwhelming increase in the numbers of troublesome property owners to tenant that increased from 1,477 in year 2009 to 86,628 in year 2010. This is an issue of urgency and unless applicable measures are put into place many tenants will suffer in silence since little prosecution have been done to perpetrators by the local authorities. The slowness of local authority to tackle this problem between the rogue landlords is putting more lives into risks (shelter 2011) Well-wisher should therefore warmly welcome this project and the member of the public since the accomplishment will put the country some milestone ahead in solving housing problem. More so, this project welcomes same minded people to contribute some funding if they wish but most importantly, any kind of interruption to this project should be objected by people of goodwill. It is my wish that this project will act as an eye opener to Government and other members of our society so that they can get the weight of the situation. Once the project is over, many people will benefit through cheap and decent houses that they can afford to pay for maintenance and other amenities such as electricity and water. In addition, jeopardized lives by rogue property owners will have a reason to smile again because even through peanut jobs they can meet the little charges. 3. 0 The scope of the project This project platform is on phases as earlier described in this paper. Shelter’s efforts and services might have saved many people risks such as loss of properties or mistreatment by housing owners but this project will see these cases minimized through allocation of people with dire need of housing. These phases implementation will be biannual and widely distributed throughout the country but priorities will be in areas with high numbers of homeless citizens. To facilitate the quick commencement of this project, the organization will liaise with government authorities such as local authorities and town councils to allow assessment of the real situation on the ground. Government and local authority are the well informed parties on population statistics since they have database. This will save much time compared to carrying out a survey to these are which maybe as well costly. This organization since it is a charitable organization has advantages through donations that will see the budget constraint relaxed. The contributions of these well-wishers will cater for additional needs that may arise when the project is in progress. This will allow participation of like-mined groups and organization through donations or material provision towards the project. However, the funding process will be by the parent organization while the role of the other organization will be to complement the project’s budget. The first phase intends to assess the possibility of the project dream realization since the impact posed on public will give a go-ahead or a decline of the project and an alternative strategy sought soon. This phase will be allocated a total sum of $100,000 while the rest $150,000 will be allocated for the second phase which is projected to be bigger and more accommodative. The reason for low funds allocation in the first phase, will act as a control experiment to caution for any complications that may occur during this project. It will be therefore call for proper project management strategies and steps evaluation. The initial stage of this project will involve much consultation with experts in housing sectors, environmentalists, government, and legal agencies. This will ensure that this project does not backfire before completion since the organization will get advices from housing experts. These experts will warn on dangers or risks likely to face the project, which will keep the organization at an alert and proper evaluation carried out as early as possible. Government and legal agencies will be required for the purpose of law compliance and awareness of such project by the state. In addition, government awareness of such project will buffer security to workers and any other necessary assistance from the state level. This assistance will range from leasing of public land to free offer of construction site. Since this project is piloted by not-for-profit organization, it is has high chances of free land from public land with government intervention. As The CEO, I will have to be very optimistic and active to make sure land provision by the government. The environmentalists are crucial player in housing sector and their contributions are not ignorable at any cost. Their main role will be to carryout environmental impact assessment, which is vital in averting possible health hazards likely to emanate from the construction process. Possible health hazards assessment will include noise pollution, land pollution, and water pollution. This means the project will be late in commencing due to these consultations and compliance requirements but once these tasks are accomplished, the project starts soon. Paperwork takes the next course of the project and considerations for proper budgeting and input allocation takes over. Materials required and labour inputs will be budgeted to cater for everything and the project accomplishment within the stipulated time. To make sure the budget is not constrained, miscellaneous money allocation will be set aside. The first phase is likely to meet many challenges and hence the project manager will have to be very keen not to make any possible mistake. Having put all the requirements and procedures in place, I will be optimistic and almost assured of the project success of the first phase. This phase will be complete by the halfway period of the first project year. The success of the first phase will trigger the commencement of the second phase of the project planned to start the seventh month of the organization’s project year. Second phase of the project is likely to meet fewer challenges since much work was in the first phase. The main requirement of this phase will require budget allocation of inputs and environmental impact assessment of the site of the project. In addition, this phase will commence soon due to reduced consultations and compliance requirements. This phase is also likely to attract attention of more well-wishers who have witnessed the completion of the first phase. It will be therefore an improvement of phase one. Success of this project will facilitate budget increase in the next organizational year that will see related projects developed. 4. 0 Methodology Project management is a critical component when it comes to planning and management of resources for the pupose of attaining a particular goal (Sebastian 2007). Some of the facts pataining to project is that the beginning should be well defined as well as the end due to time and deliverables constraints. A defined methodology should be put into place to curb the challenges that may hinder project goal achievements. Type of constraints encampases scope,time, and budget and mostly the challenge of optimisation allocation and integretaion of inputs required to achieve the planned objectives (Lewis 2006) Since time in memorial, the methodologies have evolved from one to another.in project management,agile,interactive,incremental and phased approaches are used to accomplish a project. However, the methodology used should consider the overall project objectives, speculated time, cost and roles of all participants and stakeholders.Some of the widely usdsed methodologies includes: i. The Traditional Approach ii. Critical chain project management iii. Extreme project management iv. Event chain methodology v. PRINCE2 vi. Process-based management vii. Agile project management. Each of the listed methodology has its usage scope in different projects (Lock 2007). In my situation, I will prefer using the PRINCE2, which is a structured approach in management of projects. This model came into action in late 1990s for generic project management. This methodology was a result of PROMPT and IBM’s MITP methodologies combination. This methodology comes with many benefits accrued to it. The diagram below shows the PRINCE2 process model. 4. 1. Advantages of using PRINCE2 model 1. In the first place, it has strategies and means of project management within the stipulated time framework. This will help my organization to meet the six months deadline for each phase. If our organization does not meet the deadline, there is high chance that the second phase would start late which will be in accordance to the organizations objectives. 2. Secondly, this methodology will specify steps to harmonize people and activities in my project. This Harmonization will allow flow of events during the project process in order to curb externalities costs and avoidable expenditures 3. It also paves a way for project designing and supervision. This will ease the difficulties and technicalities required in designing a proper project as well as defining the proper means of the progress evaluation. Supervision will offer a platform for any corrections required during the project period in order to minimize costs and expenditures. 4. Lastly, this methodology offers suggestions that are applicable in case of project adjustment. These suggestions will alleviate time wastage when a problem occurs differently from the plan. 5. The features of this model specify inputs and outputs as well as specific goals and planned activities. This offers automatic control in case any variation differs from the plan. 6. In addition, subdivision of this model into manageable units allows proper monitoring of the resources. More importantly, the monitoring allows project management in either controlled or organized way. Regardless of the use of PRINCE2 methodology, application of basic project management still applies. These processes include initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and closing of the project. Below is a diagram on the project development stages. 4. 1. 1 Initiation stage The initiating process dictates how the project will be and the scope of the project. For a project to succeed, this stage should be performed well. Some basic project control is required in this stage in order to understand the business environment. This is the right stage to report and making any recommendation towards any deficiency so that they can be fixed. 4. 1. 2 Planning and designing stage The main objective of this stage is to plan costs, time, and resources. Projections are also done to allow approximations of required tasks and to manage effectively any risk which may occur during project’s life. 4. 1. 3 Execution of the project Work planned in earlier stages is completed at this stage in accordance to project’s requirement. People and resources are coordinated as well as integration and activities performance in the project as planned. (Project Management Guide 2005) 4. 1. 4 Monitoring and controlling stage This stage involves overseeing the project execution as well as spotting hitches as early as possible to allow correction. The main advantage of this stage is that performance is scrutinized and weighted regularly to spot any inconsistency against the project management plan. (Project Management Guide 2005) 4. 1. 5 Closing stage This stage includes the formal approval of the project and the ending thereof. Files archiving and documenting lessons are taught as part of Administrative activities where project is closed as well as contract (Project Management Guide 2005). (Project Management Guide 2005) In conclusion, the language offered in this model is common to all parties involved in the project process. It is therefore too easy to interpret and minor mistakes avoidance during the process. Management roles and responsibilities carried out in a project are completely elaborated and easy to cope with which ease the involvedness of the project and organizational skills. I have no doubt that this methodology will work out productively in my project given the advantages described above. 5. 0 Risks and risks management Every project is posed with many risks that are associated with each stage of the project. In my case, my housing project’s risks can widely be categorized into pre-completion and post-completion period risks termed as construction and operational risks respectively. Sources of these risks arise from failure of some stages of the project or failure realized in later stages of the project. Large amount of funds will have been used in meeting the expense of project development. Other risks related to this project refer to market prices, financing, technology, revenue collection, and political related issues. Physical risks are likely to be encountered that includes damages on the progressing work, damages to plant and equipments, possible injuries to third party. In addition, there are theoretical based risks that include contractual obligations, delays, and revenue loss. For the purpose of my discussion on the risks likely to face my project, below are major risk elements I preferred more prone to my project. 5.1. Risks likely to be encountered during my project The most tormenting risk likely to decline the effort to my project is the completion risk. In the process of project implementation, many externalities are likely to bring the project to a standstill. In other instances, this risk leads to late completion of the project or the project consumes extra expenditures that were not budgeted. Secondly, after the project is complete there is a possibility of performance and operational risk. This emanates from failure of the project to meet the expectation and objectives. My project may fail to fulfil the obligation of providing cheap and decent houses to needy families if the occupant selection is not in order of priority. There is high possibility of even the families with ability to acquire houses by their own means to be included into the project. It is an assurance that nobody would dislike this offer if presented unless you are highly convinced. Unless the project allocates the needy families who surely require this offer, it will be a total project failure. Similarly, the project manager should make sure the occupants pay the agreed charges in order to facilitate the maintenance of these apartments and meeting the bills requirements. Cash flow risk is another risk associated with this project. Given the budget of $250,000 divided into two unequal shares of $100,000 and $150,000 for phase 1 and 2 respectively, there is a risk that additional expenditure may occur during the project period that can interrupt project cash flow. This is experience in many projects due to uncertainty of these occurrences Inflation and foreign exchange risk. Considering the budget allocation of $250,000 at the present period, the value of this amount is likely to depreciate with time. The recession that has hit United Kingdom is likely to cause inflation as the government attempts to print more money to solve recession. Extra money printing will lead to value loss, which will make this money allocated to project losing value after some time hence requiring extra funding sources. Inflation will directly affect the import of some building materials due to currency’s reduced value compared to other currencies. Insurable and uninsurable risks, there are many risks related to equipment and plants popularly termed as commercially insurable risks. An effort to cover all the process in the project is recommendable to allow compensation in case of any destruction. However, some risks are not insurable since are not controllable naturally. These destructions are natural and they include disasters and catastrophes that affect many people at the same time (Nigel 1995) 5.2 Risk management As we all understand that prevention is better than cure, sometimes these risks are not preventable since they occurs naturally without our knowledge. For instance, the coast of United Kingdom especially England is prone to floods that happen after certain duration. Where these risks are detectable, careful strategies can be put into place to intercept the loss caused by the risk. Risk management has become a helpful body in indentifying, assessing and prioritising risks. In this project I accept the fact that risks are real and some of the strategies put into place are elaborated below (Douglas 2009). 1. To start with, the first strategy will be transfer of the risk to third party. This will involve registering the project with insurance companies and buying of premiums that covers different type of risks such as fire. Insuring the project facilitates compensation whenever a loss is incurred during the construction and operation periods. 2. Secondly, measures will be put into place to avoid any chance of risk occurrence. Some of these measures will include; avoiding places that are prone to disasters such as coasts, use of certified equipments during the construction period, hiring of experts to oversee the progress of the project among others. Measures will be set to reduce the negative activities or probability of these risks. Early intervention of a damage noticed during construction of the houses can save later destruction since a stitch in time saves nine. 3. Preparedness of any possible risk occurrence will save extra destructions. For instance, the apartments should be well equipped with fire extinguishers to curb the magnitude of fire risks. The buildings’ structures such as doors and windows should be well fitted to make it possible accessible during emergency cases. 4. As the CEO, I should also be flexible enough and prepared psychologically of possibilities of these risks. Once they occur, it is normal and we should accept the fact they have occurred and it is irreversible. This will help in forging ahead after a risk has struck. 6. 0 Project resourcing Resources are the most essential requirement in carrying out a project task. These resources comprises if people (labour and experts), equipments, facilities, funding among other resources required in completing the project process. Lack of one of the above resources will be a constraint to project that may affect the progress and completion of the task. It is highly recommendable to schedule resources, facilitate the availability of these resources and optimising them for a project to be successful. Most of the resources used in projects are scarce and limited. High knowledge in Economics will play a key role in allocation of these resources on basis of order of priority. In case of a constraint it is therefore advisable to make a schedule efficiently in order to minimise the project period that in turn maximizes available resource usage. In my project, the funding resource is already catered for through the budget allocation of $250,000 that means the remaining task requires resourcing for other remaining components. This will involve decision making on resources required in application on work items of the project plan and strategising means of acquiring resources required in the project. In order to solve the resource allocation problem, I will have to indentify the resource requirements succeeded by searching for qualified people with necessary skills in the running of this project. Once I’ve located these people, there will be evaluation to verify their competence to my project in terms of the skills and experience. In my understanding on current situation, most of the required in most projects are unavailable but extra effort will be required to get the best resources for my project. One way to accomplish this will involve utilisation of the resource given for the project and allocating them on basis of their availability. Sometimes it will call for critical decisions in resource allocation in favour of direction that improves the progress of the project. These decisions may differ from the textbook approach but they are suggested to cover the gap and limitations (Wallace 1999). 6. 1 Steps in resourcing Definition of resource requirements will exclude people in the first step. A List of roles and responsibilities regarding the project implementation will be created. This step is independent from the number of the people I already have but instead it will focus on project organisation. A further study will be carried out on previous projects so as get details on the roles and responsibilities applicable. The next step will involve matching the people with the list roles and responsibilities that will help in gap analysis. That is, analysis on resources involved and the skills brought versus the resource requirements. An analysis on resource available and individual skills will assist in reorganising of the responsibilities to most suitable personnel. With knowledge of possible resource gap, I will have to discuss this issue with my project steering committee in advance so that any changes can be done at the right time. Some of plans to alleviate these gaps will include part time resources. People with required skills will be hired and allocated on part time routine. For instance, absence of business resources exhibiting complex processing knowledge will require the right person to fill that gap for a given time. Seeking for external resources will also help in some particular area of interest. Some areas require experts such as Risk management. If the organisation does not have such an expert, I will therefore seek a qualified expert from the market for the purpose of risk assessment. As an alternative, some people can acquire training so that with the completion of the training they are capable of filling this gap. Some projects require use case models and diagrams. Knowledge on use case is not common to many people and hence the training on this program will save the scenario. As Turbit suggests, people involved in the project must in good terms so that personal interests may not bring project downfall. I will therefore seek to recruit people who can coexist well during the life of the project. Any misconduct by personnel should face a penalty such as firing but for a better solution, a wise project managers and foremen can help in mediating between the parties involved. This will help in maintaining the two people in the project process since their input may be of great importance for the success of this project (Turbit 2005). In conclusion, project resourcing has not received the deserved importance regardless to its complexity. Without proper project resources management skills you cannot spot the resource gap and the measures to fix them. Resources should not just be accepted especially when it does not fulfil project’s roles and responsibilities. Lack of some responsibilities allocation must be addressed in early stage of the project life to curb or reduce of the impact associated to the problem (Hamilton 2004). 7. 0 References List Douglas, H 2009, The failure of risk management : why it is broken and how to fix it. John Wiley &Sons, San Francisco. Hamilton, A 2004, Handbook of Project Management Procedures. TTL Publishing Ltd, Henderson-Finda, NZ. Lewis, R 2006, Project Management. McGraw-Hill Professional, New York. Lock, D 2007, Project management. Gower Publishing Ltd, Aldershot. Nigel, J 1995, Engineering project management, Blackwell Science Ltd, London Project Management Guide 2005, VA Office of Information and Technology. Available from: < http://www.pope.oit.va.gov/docs/.pdf>[September 23 2011] Sebastian, N 2007, The Definitive Guide to Project Management. Prentice Hall, London. Shelter 2011, Shelter annual report 2010/2011 available from: < http://www.shelter.org.uk > [September 22 2011] Turbit, N 2005, Project Resources, The project perfect white paper collection, Sydney Wallace, S 1999, Resourcing and resource mobilisation. The ePMbook. Available from: < http://www.epmbook.com > [September 22 2011] 8. 0 Appendices Phase 1 budget. Item Estimated cost in $ Materials 75,000 Labour and hiring of experts 10,000 Transport 5,000 Communication 2,500 Miscellaneous 7,500 Totals 100,000 Phase 2 budget. Item Estimated cost in $ Materials 115,000 Labour and hiring of experts 15,000 Transport 7,500 Communication 2,500 Miscellaneous 9,500 Totals 150,000 Read More