Project Initiation Management - Coursework Example

TOPIC: PROJECT INITIATION MANAGEMENT Task: To provide critical reviews of four articles Student’s Name: Student number: Name of the unit: Unit Code: Unit coordinator: Article: What is preproject planning, anyway? By Gibson Jr. et al This article is about the findings of the effect of preproject planning on the overall project performance. It is about five studies carried out by the University of Texas to determine whether there is a correlation between preproject planning and project performance. The first study involved the Construction Industry Institute (CII) initiating a research project to find the most effective methods of defining projects and estimating costs for the project. This study was aimed at providing enough strategic information with which project implementers can use to predict success of the project. The second study was an extension of the first one bringing together owners and contractors. The main objective of the study being establishing an easy to use preproject managing tools culminating in the Project Definition Rating Index for industrial projects. The third study aimed at describing the performance of the office of facility planning and construction. It was aimed at finding out the relationship between preproject planning effort and project performance. The fourth and fifth studies led to the development of project definition rating index for building projects (Gibson Jr. et al 2006). The findings of the studies are vital to the success of any project. Preproject planning is important in that it can easily avoid costs that might be incurred if at the middle of project execution the team realizes that some aspect of the project was wrongly designed. Having a preproject plan provides information that helps eliminate this at the stage of planning when costs for the project are minimal. Preproject planning ensures that the intended project is realised at the end phase. It also guides the project implementation team in doing the right thing so as to produce the intended result in the project. It is worth to note here that the tools of gathering information during the preproject planning also goes a long way in ensuring that the right product is produced. Advanced computer based management systems that use wireless, satellite and internet or mobile tools help in achieving project goals of quality, time, scope as well as cost. Thus equipped with a better preproject plan have a higher probability of producing a better project in terms of performance at completion (Gibson Jr. et al 2006). Article: Projects, their quality at entry and challenges in the front-end phase by Knut Samset The article is about what entails project planning and implementation. It is actually defines what constitutes a successful project at completion. It singles out five indicators of a successful project; efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, impact and sustainability. The article also points out that a project can be success in tactical terms and experience shortfalls in strategic terms. That is, it can meet short term goals such producing agreed outputs within agreed time and fail to be relevant in the future and this is being successful in tactical terms. In strategic terms a project can exceed estimated costs and experience delays in completion, but remain relevant and viable in the long run. The article also points out that uncertainty is highest at the front end phase of the project and this is the point where decision makers have to get it right since after this decisions get locked and becomes expensive to unlock, but the article warns that in order to arrive at the best alternative a lot of information need not to be gathered as this may distort decisions only quality information is needed. As time passes and as we get away from the front-end phase of the project things become clear as uncertainty subsides. The article also postulates that intuition and experience have in many case led to better decisions as far as projects are concerned (Samset 2014). The assumption that having a lot of information at the entry phase of a project might distort or push the decision makers into selection less effective alternative as the project idea is not true in totality because the more information one has, the more informed that person becomes and hence the decision made out of that huge information is an informed one. The decision makers are also informed people, actually experts in that particular field and can be able to sieve through the huge information and come out with the quality information. Because uncertainty remains high at the entry phase of a project, more information needs to be gathered at this stage so as to reduce the uncertainty because research has shown that having made it right at the entry phase of a project goes a long way in helping achieve successful projects upon completion (Griffith and Gibson 2001, p. 71). Yes, it might be costly to gather all this information at the entry phase of the project but it will be more costly to be forced to overhaul the project at the middle of implementation simply because you did not get it right at the entry phase. Article: Turner, 2009, Project success and strategy The article identifies project key performance indicators dubbed as the project success criteria and project success factors. After identifying these indicators and factors the article goes ahead to mention something about a project strategy and principles of project management. The article reiterates that in order for all the stakeholders to see a project of having succeeded, all of them should agree on one standardised criteria of judging the success of a project since different stakeholders judge the success of a project differently. Some of the key performance indicators identified in the article include the completion of the project on time and within the estimated cost. The project is also deemed to be successful if it generates revenue in its first year and should continue to do so in the subsequent years. This means that the users and consumers of the project like it, hence continue buying it. The project is also successful if it is deemed to be safe, easy to operate, is of required quality, it works as expected and the contractors made a profit. The success factors isolated by the article include competence in planning the project, organizing and implementing the project and controlling the project. All this is summarised in five key points which include; key stakeholders agreeing on success criteria before start of project, maintaining a collaboration between project owner and project manager, confirmation of project key points regularly, empowering the project manager, and owner taking interest in project performance (Turner, 2009). The article also presents the seven forces model of strategic management of projects. It also isolates some principles of project management which include managing through a structured breakdown with a single point of responsibility, aiming at the results, balancing results, organizing the project by negotiating contract and putting in place a clear and simple management reporting structure (Turner, 2009). The article’s take that judging project success, on time, cost and quality is simple and dangerous does not hold according to me because it is from the realisation of these three that the other elements such as revenue making by the project emanate. Projects are judged mainly on three major indicators and that is cost, time and quality (Turner, 2009). Other indicators of success are derived from these three. However, I buy the idea of having in place a one standardised criteria of judging project success as this will ensure that projects that satisfy all stakeholders are put in place and implemented. Article: What you should know about megaprojects and why: an overview by Bent Flyvbjerg. The article describes mega projects and tries to create a picture of how big mega projects are. Mega projects cost US$1 billion or more examples including high speed rail lines, airports, seaports, motorways, hospitals among others. The paper also isolates the drivers of megaprojects which it has dubbed the four sublimes; technological sublime which is the excitement engineers and technologists get from building large and innovative projects, political sublime which is the rapture that politicians get from building large monuments for themselves and for their glory, the economic sublime that is the joy business people and trade unions get from making lots of money and jobs from megaprojects and finally the aesthetic sublime which is the pleasure that designers and lovers of art get by looking at monuments (Flyvberg 2014). Mega projects are constantly growing. The common law about mega projects is that they always get into cost overruns. Some causes of these overruns include delay of completion of such projects. Technological a mega project may succeed, but fail in the financial sector. The article also describes the break-fix model of mega project management stating that mega project managers of bringing megaprojects to fruition hence they sooner break. Knowing costs and challenges of implementing a mega project then nothing could ever be started hence ignorance helps in the start-up of large projects, a principle called the “hiding hand”. Overestimating project benefits and underestimating costs may get large projects started but may produce projects that are not economically viable or result in the selection of a wrong project (Flyvberg 2014). But as far as large project are concerned there is light at the end of the tunnel as debate about cost overruns is now publicly discussed. Whatever the magnitude of a project proper early planning will get the project completed in time and within the estimated costs. This planning using project management technology will ensure that the timeline and costs of the project are close or exact to the actual amount required for the project to be complete. With the developments being seen in the management of mega projects there is the general feeling that large projects are headed the right direction as far as their implementation is concerned. References Flyvberg, B 2014, What you should know about megaprojects and why: An overview, Oxford University, UK. Gibson, Jr. et al 2006, What is preproject planning, Journal of Management in Engineering, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 35-42. Turner, 2009, Project success and strategy. Samset, K 2014, Projects, their quality at entry and challenges in the front-end phase, RMIT University, Melbourne. Read More