What Is a Project Management?

The Benefits of Proper Planning

The complaint that the project leaders are delaying the project’s start is normal, provided that the project leadership will take months to start the project. Bristol’s Metrobus, for example, has been plagued by delays and will not be operating until early next year (Osborne, 2017). This contradicts expectations that the transportation infrastructure will be operating by the end of the year. People who do not appreciate the value of careful preparation on front-end projects criticize the delay in beginning the job (Davies & Mackenzie, 2014). Some of the benefits that the critics overlook include problem anticipation, skill discovery, accountability, and the need to ensure that the resources are adequate.

Proactive Problem Solving

To start with, projects experience myriad problems such as losing employees and missing deadlines and thus, the project leadership has to take considerable time to proactively plan on dealing with problems that will arise in the execution phase (Evans et al., 2017).

Discovery of Team Skills

Secondly, the project team takes time to learn about the strengths and skills of each team member.

Establishing Accountability

Thirdly, the planning phase involves assigning duties to the team members and thus achieving accountability for the various tasks. This process also takes significant time which could be perceived as a delay by less informed stakeholders (Chen, Chen & Lin, 2016).

Resource Planning

Furthermore, planning requires the project team to establish the resources required for the project and therefore ensure that the project will not stall. The process of determining and sourcing the necessary resources is time taking and could be interpreted as the project team’s lack of preparedness (Steyn et al., 2016).

Hence those who complain about the delay in starting a project are ill-informed on the benefits of proper planning, and if they knew these benefits, they would understand that the delay is well worth the wait as it significantly reduces the time required for project completion.

Factors Contributing to the Success of the 2012 Olympic Games Project

Question Two

By any standards, the project team in charge of the 2012 Olympic games was successful taking into account that they operated within the time and budget limits and they incorporated sustainability into the entire project. The major factors in the success of this project included proper planning, communicating expectations, establishing KPI’s early in the project and the establishment of a culture of accountability that ensured that every member kept their end of the bargain (Martinelli & Milosevic, 2016).

Effective Planning

Project planning contributed to the success of the project to a great extent. For instance, the project team established that it wanted to finish the major avenues a year before the games and therefore avoid last minute rush. To meet this objective, the team partnered with Laning O’Rourke & Mace forming CLM Delivery Partner Ltd and established a clear project scope that acted as a compass during project execution (Meredith & Mantel, 2011).

Clear Communication of Expectations

Secondly, communicating expectations played a major role in project success. Every stakeholder or partner in the planning of the 2012 Olympic Games was aware of their obligations, and they knew that meeting expectations would be rewarded while falling short of expectations would lead to fines. The communication of expectations helped the CLM to deliver within the time and budget limits (Fleming & Koppelman, 2016).

Establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Thirdly, the project team established key performance indicators, and they helped to keep project execution on track (Kerzner, 2017). The CLM was expected to meet the sustainability, financial and quality goals and the achievement of these objectives is what determined the pace of the progress of the project. For instance, the project team had planned to finish the main venues one year before the games, and thus, this metric was used to measure success (Meredith & Mantel, 2011).

Culture of Accountability

Furthermore, the project team aimed to reduce the 34,0000 tons of carbon IV oxide that would be emitted through traveling and transportation of materials to the site. Finally, the culture of accountability also contributed to the success of the project team. For example, the CLM was mandated with delivering the project outcomes, and if they exceeded expectations, they could share the savings, but if they missed a deadline, they would be held responsible (Meredith & Mantel, 2011). This arrangement ensured that CLM was committed to operate within the project budget and deliver within the time limits since failure to do this would translate to massive losses. Additionally, the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA) contractors were expected to meet their commitments failure to which would lead to additional costs.

Creative Solutions for Sustainability

Question Three

Sustainability was a great concern for the project team, and they resorted to creative strategies that would assist in meeting the sustainability goals. The creative solution that stood out in this project was the use of water and rail to deliver the materials. Olympic Park has two access roads only, and these were not sufficient for the transport of the materials. As a result, the project team liaised with the sub-contractors to use the three-way waterways and the rail system to transport 50 % of the materials to and from the site hence reducing traffic and the use of fossil fuels (Meredith & Mantel, 2011). The creative solution challenged the notion that sustainability costs more and it illustrated that pursuing a sustainability approach garners more support from donors and the community who play a crucial role in project execution and completion (Patassini, 2017).

References

Chen, H. L., Chen, W. T., & Lin, Y. L. (2016). Earned value project management: Improving the predictive power of planned value. International Journal of Project Management, 34(1), 22-29.

Davies, A., & Mackenzie, I. (2014). Project complexity and systems integration: Constructing the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games. International Journal of Project Management, 32(5), 773-790.

Evans, J., Waldheim, N., Clarke, A., Hernandez, M., Phelps, W., Glazier, E., ... & Maniwang, S. (2017). Incorporating Qualitative Data in the Planning Process: Improving Project Delivery and Outcomes (No. FHWA-HEP-17-075).

Fleming, Q. W., & Koppelman, J. M. (2016, December). Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.

Martinelli, R. J., & Milosevic, D. Z. (2016). Project management toolbox: tools and techniques for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.

Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011). Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Osborne, J. (2017). Bristol’s Metrobus opening delayed until spring 2018. BBC News. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bristol-42171846

Patassini, D. (2017). Beyond benefit cost analysis: accounting for non-market values in planning evaluation. Routledge.

Steyn, H., Dekker, A. H., Kuschke, B., Van Eck, B. P. S., & Visser, K. (2016). Project management: A multi-disciplinary approach. FPM Publishing.