Proposed Construction of Two-Storey Elevated Parking - Research Paper Example

Note: If you need anything, please send me a message. Thanks! PROJECT MANAGEMENT Project Plan for the Proposed Two-Storey Elevated Parking Table of Contents Contents Contents 2 1. Introduction All organisations perform work and these include projects that require people, resources, planning and control. These projects may be undertaken in developing new product or service, realise organisational change in structure or style, designing a new transport vehicle, developing new information system, construction of a building and other structure, and so on. The success of these projects depend on the performance of people, efficient use resources, proper planning, timely execution, and effective monitoring and control of all aspects of the project. People managing a certain project, aside from meeting the needs and expectations of stakeholders, must have the knowledge, skills, tools, and methods to balance competing demands for scope, time, cost, and quality of the project. PMBOK or Project Management Body of Knowledge, the selected project management methodology for this project plan, served as a guide to generally accepted project management knowledge and practices that include recognition and application of five major processes in managing a project – initiating, planning, executing, and controlling1 (PMI, 2008, Abstract). 2. The Project The selected project is construction of two-storey elevated parking for a small commercial establishment with a total floor area of 800 square metres. The agreed completion date of this project is six months or 180 days from agreed project start date. Construction of this two-storey elevated parking requires civil and structural work that includes building concrete foundation, columns, beams, walls and slabs. JM Construction, the firm chosen by the business owner will do the actual construction work while project management is assigned to PX Management, a company with long years of experience in civil and architectural work. The project was chosen because of its simplicity and suitability in demonstrating important project management stages as suggested in PMBOK guide. 3. PMBOK This project management methodology was selected not only because of its detailed and specific project management processes but also because of its applicability to almost all project types. The initiating processes for instance can help the planner clearly identify project goals, objectives, and the business need that the project will address. The planning processes on the other hand can help ensure that project management has a workable scheme to complete the project. The controlling processes ensure the balance between project objectives and progress through monitoring, evaluation, and subsequent corrective actions2. According to Webber & Webber3, while PRINCE2 help project managers handle day-to-day activities, PMBOK enable a more responsible project manager particularly in the use of earned value in monitoring progress and problem detection. These include detailed issues about people, team building, and procurement planning. Moreover, since PMBOK encourages division of project into small manageable programmes and processes, productivity is ensured as well as delivery of project’s immediate goals4. 4. Project Plan of the Proposed Construction of Two-Storey Elevated Parking 4.1 Managing Risk PMBOK specifically encourages identification and quantification of risks associated with a project as well as development of risk responses and control5. For this reason, the project plan for the proposed two-storey elevated parking is prioritizing determination and documentation of risks that are likely to affect the project. These include recognition of the favourable impact of positive events and minimizing the consequence of negative events through risk quantification. Similarly, the project plan also includes documented enhancement steps and responses to foreseeable threats during project execution. More importantly, it has considered risk control and changes in risk over the course of the project. For this reason, a comprehensive list of risk sources must be created along with estimates or calculation of their frequency, probability of occurrence, and their consequences if ever occur. a. Internal and External Risk Identification Construction of the proposed two-storey elevated parking entails some risk events that include major stakeholders’ change of mind, inaccurate estimates, and staff turnovers that may affect the outcome of the project. For this project, risk may include the possible changes in construction requirements, unforeseen errors in architectural, civil, and structural design, omissions and misunderstandings between key individuals’ involved, unclear roles and responsibilities, and poorly defined work sequence. Moreover, like many other construction projects, poor estimates and coordination may cause insufficiencies in skilled staff and materials. Another source of concern for this construction project is potential risk events such as natural disaster or accidents leading to the departure of some important personnel particularly those that are directly involved in construction work. According to William Duncan common risky events in construction include new technology that could eliminated the need for such project but this will rarely occur in this project. However, losses due to a major storm are something to think about since this is an open-air project where most of the initial work will be executed under the sun. Another possibility are triggers or risk symptoms such as poor morale due to ineffective management and poor working conditions. Although this is an indirect manifestation of the actual risk, such symptoms is a warning of upcoming delays, cost escalation, and other associated effects6. For this reason, work involved for this project must be detailed and specific in order to allow easy and accurate identification of possible risks. b. Risk Quantification – Determination of risk events that needs responses Using the list of identified risks, each risk must evaluated to determine its impact on project outcomes and the extent to which such risk should be responded. For instance, risk associated with unavailability of construction material at a certain period due weather disturbances or transport problems is a primary concern since this could cause delays and unnecessary expenses such as penalty payments. For this reason, project implementers should conduct sensitivity analysis, probability, and decision trees so they can objectively evaluate and compare the combined effect of risks on project activities7. For best result, this project plan is suggesting the use of Monte Carlo analysis for effective quantification of risk particularly in task and resource scheduling. Although such method is more difficult to apply than traditional PERT or CPM, it provides a more estimate of project duration as it consider path convergence and better method of calculating critical path. Moreover, the Monte Carlo utilises all three PERT values – optimistic, expected, and pessimistic – and produces a probability distribution by sampling the duration of each activity8. c. Risk Response Development – Avoidance, Mitigation, and Acceptance Risk response or risk planning provide for project planner to define enhancement steps for opportunities and responses to threats9. For instance, avoidance planning can eliminate a particular threat by eradicating the possible cause or causes of such threat such as ensuring that there is an alternative material supplier in case the main supplier failed to deliver for some reason. Mitigation on the other hand can reduce the probability of occurrence of risk resulting to reduced monetary value of a risk event10. For instance, using well-maintained heavy equipments reduced the probability of breakdown during operation thus reducing the monetary value of work stoppage or accident due to malfunctioning. Similarly, project owner and managers who are aware of the reality of risks are more likely to accept the consequences of such risk event occurring thus their tendencies is to develop a contingency plan in case it actually occurs. However, if project management is ready to accept the consequences because they think it would only cause small activities overrun, they could be passive about it and accept lower profit. d. Risk Response Control The result of actions undertaken in a, b, and c is often a risk management plan indicating the risk events and the course of action to be taken. However, since not all risks can be identified at the early stage of planning, this risk management plan should be flexible enough to allow the cycle of identification, quantification, and response to be repeated. These include additional risk identification and further risk response development when necessary or workarounds and corrective action if deem possible. According to Muhamed Abdomerovic11, monitoring and controlling risks include keeping track of both residual and new risks and evaluating the risk management plan through the entire duration of the project. Therefore, this project plan suggests updating the risk management plan as necessary or whenever new risk is identified during execution or construction phase. Moreover, since the risk management plan will only contain the baseline project risk processes and procedures for identifying, prioritizing, assessing, and managing risks, project implementers should provide along with their performance reports a set of risk progress reports so the project manager can determine necessary corrective actions12. 4.2 Project Stages 4.2.1 Initiation Commitment of the whole organisation is required during this stage of the project. This is time to think about the importance of the project in meeting the business need of the main stakeholders, which in this case is increasing its revenues by providing a safe and convenient parking space for its customers. These may involve many meetings and identification of those who have higher stake in the project success which Harvey Maylor13 called the “voice of the customer”. A Project Charter may be created at this stage so scope of the project can be clearly define along with the contract, and industry standards that must followed in order for the project to meet needs of all stakeholders. More importantly, this is the time for construction management to get an approval for the project to begin14. 4.2.2 Planning a. Risk identification/ Quantification/Response As mentioned in the previous section, risk identification, quantification, and response are important processes that must be taken into account in this project. During the planning stage, risk details must be documented in a risk worksheet for easy reference and should be the basis of all subsequent planning activities such as scheduling, monitoring, and control. Since planning is not an exact science, managers of the proposed two-storey elevated parking must consider the possible redefinition scope of the project, the possibility of frequent iterations, impossibility of the initial completion date, availability of project resources, and cost of such changes. b. Scope and Quality Planning Scope planning may include having clear understanding of the proposed project through inputs such as project description and its purpose, constraints associated in building such structure, benefit and cost analysis, and well-informed judgements. It may also include reliable geographical and historical information about the construction site and project documentation. The planner may consider using a work-breakdown structure template if the project is similar to previously constructed elevated parking or create his own by studying the construction plan and inspecting the site. The planner may also have the option to decompose major project deliverables into manageable components so it would be to plan, execute, control, and close. A written scope of statement should be developed for the proposed project in order to have basis for future project decisions. For instance, it should be clearly stated that the scope of the project is limited to architectural, civil, and structural, and equipment installation such as elevators is the responsibility of another contractor. This scope statement will be the basis of agreement between the elevated parking owner and the project team. It may include documentation such as a list of deliverables and excluded items, the method by which progress of the project will be measured, alternatives, identified assumptions and constraints, assessment of project scope stability, and critical success factors15. The purpose of having a formal scope statement is to ensure accuracy of cost, time, and resource estimates, clearly identify the baseline from actual progress, and facilitate clear distribution of responsibilities among stakeholders and project team. c. Major Project Deliverables Major project deliverables as mentioned earlier are the primary reference for the project and may include a written document specifying the expected output. In this case, it may be a breakdown of structures to be built such as completing the foundation, erecting columns, finishing works, and others. Major project deliverables are considered critical factors that would mark the progress and successful completion of the project16 thus it can be defined milestones in the proposed construction of two-storey elevated parking. d. Activity Definition This stage is part of project time management and it is required to ensure timely completion of the project. In simple terms, activity definition is all about identifying specific activities required to produce project deliverables. For this reason, it is vital for the project team to identify and document these activities using the work-breakdown structure mention earlier, the written scope statement, geographical and historical information about project, and identified constraints and assumptions. Similarly, it is very important for the project team to consider either template or decomposition technique so their work would be easier. Defining the activities involved in the project can the project team convenient reference of activities, supporting details, and fast and effective way of updating the project’s work structure. Another advantage of clearly defining activities involved in the project is the ability to develop activity sequencing based on interdependencies. For instance, steelworks should follow formwork activities or excavation and soil testing should be performed simultaneously. Accurate sequencing of activities is important since this would ensure timely completion of the project. The project team for the proposed two-storey elevated parking may opt to use project management software such a Primavera or Microsoft Project for computer-aided activity sequencing but since this is only a small project, manual techniques may be sufficient. However, regardless of technique, the project team should always bear in mind the mandatory dependencies or those with inherent limitations that cannot be erected unless the pre-requisite structures have been built. For instance, the project team should prioritise the foundation before erecting any superstructure. In other case where hard logic is not necessary, the project team may look for discretionary dependencies or those activities that can be executed in case-to-case basis. More importantly, since this is a construction project vulnerable to material delays and equipment breakdown, the project team should consider the impact of external dependencies particularly on those activities that are highly depended on external sources. e. Resource and Staff Acquisition Construction projects rely heavily on material resources and people thus acquisition of both is critical to the success of the project. After careful evaluation of project scope, the project team must ensure that resources are available by creating a material resource and staffing management plan, conducting negotiations and established an effective procurement method. f. Schedule Development Schedule development, activity sequencing, activity duration, and estimating are tightly linked to each other as they work as a single process17. Schedule development occurs when the project team for the proposed two-storey elevated parking identify the start and finish date of the project. Therefore, they should be careful and realistic about it otherwise the project may fail due to inconsistencies and unworkable expectations. They should consider cost and duration together and create a project network diagram, activity and resource requirements estimates, calendar of activities, procurement plan, and a work schedule with leads and lags. To ensure accuracy of estimates, they may work on mathematical analysis, conduct simulation, duration compression and resource levelling, and others. The resulting project schedule should be detailed and supported by a schedule management plan. 4.2.3 Execution and Project Control This stage will test the stability of the project plan, which is a combination of risk management and comprehensive planning discussed in the previous sections. The success of this project plan will be measured through scope verification or evaluation of project deliverables whether it is fully or partially completed and the cost incurred of a particular deliverable. This includes consistent quality assurance throughout the project duration to ensure that the project is satisfying the agreed quality standards. This is where team development play an important role as it can enhance the ability of the team particularly when the project is behind schedule due to managerial and technical incompetency. The need for such team development is actually determined from the performance report that includes status and progress measurement. 4.2.4 Quality Review Quality review is a combination of performance, variance and trend, and earned value analysis that would measure the extent to which project plan is meeting the project requirements18. For this reason, the project plan for the proposed two-storey elevated parking should be measured against actual project results. The cost and schedule differences should be analysed along with the project scope, quality, and risk involved. To determine the quality of performance over time, it may necessary to examine the trend and identify whether the project is improving or deteriorating. More importantly, the project team should get involved in examining the budgeted cost of work, the actual cost of work performed, and the earned value or the total budget compared to the percentage of the actual work completed. 5. Analysis of Selected Project Management Methodology PMBOK seems to provide more opportunity for project managers to take advantage of the people aspects of projects such as team leadership, team building, motivation, earned value, planning, critical path analysis, and so on19. Unlike PRINCE2, PMBOK focuses more on the activities leading to the successful completion of the project – planning, control, and execution20 rather than processes, components, and techniques21. PMBOK clearly provide the interrelated actions and activities that should be performed such as group processes involving different possible inputs, recommended tools and techniques, and different expected outputs22. The essential knowledge areas contained in the PMBOK are valuable in construction project management as they include critical elements such as integration, scope, time, cost, human resources, communications, procurement, and risk management. By experience, creating a project plan with PMBOK seems convenient as it provides realistic stages where a project planner can detail each essential activity. For instance, PMBOK encourages risk identification, quantification, response development and control that are indispensable in terms of realistic planning. Similarly, PMBOK put together related activities such as activity sequencing, activity duration, estimating, and schedule development in a single process thus making project planning more effective and reliable. More importantly, PMBOK seems more complete as it combines proven traditional project management with innovative and advanced practices. 6. Bibliography Abdomerovic M, (2010), Brainstorming the PMBOK Guide 4th Edition: The Complete Reference for Relating and Chronologically Sequencing Process, PM Publications, United States Bainey K, (2004), Integrated IT Project Management: A Model-Centric Approach, Artech House, United States Duncan W. (1996), A Guide to the Project Management of Body of Knowledge, Project Management Institute, PMI Publishing Division, United States Kanabar V. & Warburton R, (2008), MBA Fundamentals Project Management, Kaplan Publishing, United States Kay R, (2010), PMP Examination Study Guide-Revised PMBOK 4th Edition, R. Kay Publishing, United States Maylor H, (2010), Project Management, Prentice Hall, United Kingdom Merna T, Merna A, Chu Y, & Al-Thani F, (2010), Project Finance in Construction: A Structured Guide to Assessment, John Wiley & Sons, United Kingdom Pennypacker J. & Dye L, (2002), Managing Multiple Projects: Planning, Scheduling, and Allocating Resources for Competitive Advantage, CRC Press, United States PMI, (2008), A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK Guide, Project Management Institute, United States Sudhakar G, (2010), Elements of Software Project Management, PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd, India TSO, (2009), Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, The Stationery Office, United Kingdom Webber L. & Webber F, (2006), IT Project Management Essentials, Aspen Publishers, United States Wilheim V, (2009), Minding the gaps: Integrating poverty reduction strategies and budgets for domestic accountability, World Bank Publications, New York Read More