Monday, November 30, 2009

London 2012 Olympic Games

This activity explores how by integrating environmental and social considerations into project management you can deliver projects that are environmentally sound and contribute to the sustainable development.

Over recent years environmental considerations have become a significant part of all major infrastructure projects. In today’s world when we consider environment we not only consider biodiversity, pollution prevention, air and water quality, habitat and species protection, land use and visual amenity, but we now add to the list a wider range of issues incorporating impact on communities now and in the future, climate change considerations, efficient resource use, source of materials, whole life considerations, waste management and future proofing.

We have moved from a time environmental considerations on projects sat firmly in the compliance space to a time when the proactive and responsible management of the natural environment is a key factor in best practice project management.

Winning the right to host the Olympic Games stirs a great deal of national pride, which explains why governments are so keen to support Olympic bids. But another, equally important, reason is the long-term benefits that the hosts enjoy. These are not just quick-fix boosts for tourism and inward investment; the Games can be a springboard for regeneration and development.

While Sydney and Athens have both complained about the cost of maintaining little used venues, a more positive example can be found in Barcelona, where a successful Olympic Games revitalised the city and helped define Spain as an economic force in Western Europe.

Now the spotlight has turned to London, specifically the area of East London that will host the 2012 Olympic Village and the bulk of the competitions.

East London was a logical choice. As one of the most disadvantaged areas of the English capital, it will benefit immensely from hosting the Games. Also, the area was already the recipient of investment in areas such as transport and housing such as the Thames Gateway scheme, which will help support the Olympic project.

As a consultant you are required to:

i) Identify some of the key project sustainable issues that can affect this project.

ii) Explain the concept of project sustainability management. What purpose does it serve?

iii) What are some of the principal reasons why project sustainability management has become such a popular business tool in recent years?

iv) Describe the basic elements of a sustainable management framework.


(i) Identify some of the key project sustainable issues that can affect this project.

The Brundtland Report which was released by the United Nations in 1987 defines sustainable development as “development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
Sustainable development is an holistic approach to improving the quality of life of the people in three dimensions namely: Social, Economical and Environmental. The sustainable development postulates that there are intrinsic links among economic, social and environmental well being of the people.
Sustainable development was at the forefront of the bid for the London 2012 Olympic Games. Identifying the sustainable development issues means communicating the benefits of the bid to the people in the three dimensions of sustainable development mentioned above.
In the London Olympic project, the key sustainable issues are in terms of
1. Waste- the Olympic project will be a zero-waste games project in the sense that material waste will be reduced at source by reusing and recycling activities.

2. Biodiversity-it is also expected that wildlife and natural habitats will be conserved. This will make sure that nature is brought closer to the people.

3. Transport-by reducing the need to travel by providing alternatives to private car. This will reduce emissions from private vehicles.

4. Climate change-in terms of minimising greenhouse gas emissions
Other areas include healthy living by inspiring people to take up sporting activities, transform the heart of East London, making the UK, a work leading sports nation.

ii) Explain the concept of project sustainability management. What purpose does it serve?

Project sustainability management is a pattern of resource use that aims to meet human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present but also for future generations (Wallace, 2005)
The purpose of project sustainability management in the London 2012 games is in creating venues, facilities and infrastructure for the London 2012 Games that leave a lasting social, economic and environmental legacy for East London and the UK in general, while minimizing any other adverse impacts during the design and construction of the Olympic venues, infrastructure and housing.

(iii) What are some of the principal reasons why project sustainability management has become such a popular business tool in recent years?

Project sustainability management (PSM) has become a popular business tool in recent years because it has been ascertain that most projects execution cause more harm than good. In a bid to improve the quality of life of the people during and after the project, PSM is being adopted to ensure that the projects don not compromise on the existence of future generations.

iv) Describe the basic elements of a sustainable management framework.

The three basic elements of a sustainable are Economical, Social and Environmental. According to Schaltegger (2000), these basic elements interact to produce positive or negative impacts.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Microsoft, a software engineering and systems development consulting firm, sells a wide assortment of Internet and computer-based solutions for resource planning, administrative, and accounting networks to organisations in health delivery, financial services and hotel management. Typically, a service provider would approach Microsoft with a list of problems it was experiencing and some targets for organisational improvement. Because most of Microsoft’s clients were not themselves computer-savvy, they tended to rely heavily on Microsoft to correctly diagnose their difficulties propose solutions to correct these problems, and implement the new technologies. The industry Microsoft operates in is extremely competitive, forcing successful organisations to make low bids to win consulting contracts. In this environment, project management is vital for Microsoft’s success because poorly managed projects quickly “ate up” the profit margin for any job.

Unfortunately, Microsoft’s senior management team has noticed a recent upsurge in their project operating costs and a related drop-off in profitability. In particular, Microsoft’s executives are concerned because the last seven consulting contracts have resulted in almost no profit margin because the software systems were delivered late and required several rounds of rework to fix bugs or correct significant shortcomings in the software. The firm decided to hold a weekend off-site retreat with the project managers responsible for these most recently completed projects in order to learn the reasons why project management was being done poorly.

To a person, the project managers fixed the blame for their problems on the clients. A typical response was made by Amanda Jones, a project manager with over five years’ experience, who stated, “We are put in a very tough position. Most of the customers don’t know what they really want so we have to spend hours working with them to get a reasonable Statement of Work that we can develop the project scope around. This takes time. In fact, the more time I spend with the customer up front, the less I have to get my team to actually develop the system for them. It’s a Catch 22-If I want to get things right, I have to pry information out of them. The better I do getting a sense of their problems, the less time I have to develop and run the project!”

David Brown, another project manager, spoke up. “It doesn’t stop there, unfortunately. My biggest problems are always on the back end of the project. We work like dogs to get a system up that corresponds to the clients demands, only to have them look it over, push a few buttons, and start telling us that this was not anything like what they had in mind! How am I supposed to develop a system to solve their problems when they don’t know what their problems are? Better yet, what do we do when they ‘think’ they know what they want and then when we create it, they turn around and reject our solutions out of hand?”

After three hours of hearing similar messages from the other project managers. It became clear to the senior management team that the project management problems were not isolated but becoming embedded in the firm’s operations. Clearly, something had to be done about their processes.

Questions

i. How would you begin redesigning Microsoft’s project management processes to minimise the problems it is experiencing with poor scope management?

ii. How do the company’s consulting clients contribute to the problems with “scope creep”? If you were to hold a meeting with a potential customer, what message would you want the customer to clearly understand?

iii. How do you balance the need to involve clients with the equally important need to freeze project in order to complete the project in a timely fashion?

iv. Why are configuration management and project change control so difficult to perform in the midst of a complex software development project such as those undertaken by Microsoft?


i. How would you begin redesigning Microsoft’s project management processes to minimize the problems it is experiencing with poor scope management?

Without a doubt, the most common reason that projects fail is because of poor scope definition. By that it means the expectations of the stakeholders, and especially the client or sponsor, are different than the expectations of the project team. This is the most difficult problem, but it is critical to the success of the project that it is overcome (Newell, 2002). This underscores the situation being experienced at Microsoft.
Once the project starts, most clients will probably end up asking for more or entirely different work than what was originally agreed but from the statements of David Brown and Amanda Jones, this was not the case.
If the different clients have engaged the project team during the project stages, Scope- change management would have been possible to effect and the final result will be acceptable to the clients.
To solve the issue of poor scope management, therefore, the scope of the project has to be well defined and understood by both the clients and the project team. In addition, having a scope-change process is place is also ideal. The clients should be able to make changes to the project even when the project is in progress. Since its a software oriented projects, prototypes or beta versions should be produced and testing done, corrections made, before the final product is released to the client.

ii. How do the company’s consulting clients contribute to the problems with “scope creep”? If you were to hold a meeting with a potential customer, what message would you want the customer to clearly understand?

Scope creep refers to the change in a project's scope after the project work has started. Typically, the scope expands by the addition of new features to an already approved feature list. As a result, the project drifts away from its original purpose, timeline, and budget.
The company’s consulting clients can contribute to scope creep when there is lack of proper identification of the features that are required to bring about the achievement of project objectives in the first place, not being involved early enough or at all or when they underestimate the complexity of the Project.
The customer has to understand that scope creep is a significant risk in software development project and spells doom for the project if not carefully handled.


iii. How do you balance the need to involve clients with the equally important need to freeze project in order to complete the project in a timely fashion?

In a software project, freezing entails prohibiting further changes to the requirements. These changes are normally made by the clients so the need to inform them about the need to freeze the project is important. Preventing any further change will allow the project team concentrate on the project so that the project can be completed in a timely fashion.

iv. Why are configuration management and project change control so difficult to perform in the midst of a complex software development project such as those undertaken by Microsoft?

Configuration Management is often difficult to perform:
• Because the project team has other priorities
• Because Configuration Management is an overhead. Therefore it requires resources which are costly and not easy to manage.

Project change control is the management process for requesting reviewing, approving, carrying out and controlling changes to the project's deliverables. It is difficult to perform because it is usually applied once the first version of a deliverable has been completed and agreed. This underpin the issues experienced at Microsoft.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

1. Do you agree with the following statement: “With proper planning it is possible to eliminate most/all risks from a project?” Why or why not?

It is not possible to eliminate risk from a project regardless of planning. The role of risk management is to identify and analyze potential risks associated with a project. Once risks have been identified, preventative action or contingency plans may be established to reduce the impact of the risk on the success of the project. While this presents a way to help control the effects of risk, it does not eliminate risk from the project management equation. Nokes and Kelly (2008)

2. When in the project does risk assessment happen? What about risk mitigation and risk management?

Risk assessment is done when the project is first assigned. Assessing the risk associated with a project is simply identifying, analyzing and quantifying situations that can affect the project negatively and that may hinder the project team of delivery the project in time, within scope and budget. Once the risk has been assessed, risk mitigation and risk management will follow suit. Mitigation, according to the National Research Council Committee for Oversight and Assessment of U.S. Department of Energy Project Management (2005), is the action carried out to reduce the occurrence of the associated project risks identified during the risk assessment process or reduce the effect of the risks even if they occur. Risk management, according to Kerzner (2008) has to do with risk planning, risk assessment, risk mitigation and risk monitoring. Since risks occur during the life phases of the project, risk management is a never ending exercise. (Lock, 2007)

3. In evaluating projects across industries, it is sometimes possible to detect patterns in terms of the more common types of risks they routinely face. Consider the development of a new oil plant and compare it to a pharmaceutical plant. What likely forms of risk would your project team face in either of these circumstances?

Swarbrisk (2008) gave a general category of risk that could be idenstified in projects to include
• The market place and competitors
• The technology and its maturity
• The regulatory and government environment
• The project internal risks relating to funding, schedule and team components
• The suppliers of bulk, unique commodities and services
The principle of dealing with risks is the same whether a pharmaceutical or oil industry and it is summed up in the following four steps:
• Risk Identification
• Risk Categorisation
• Risk Mitigation
• Risk Management


REFERENCES
1. NOKES, S and KELLY S. (2008). The definitive guide to project management: the fast track to getting the job done on time and on Budget.2nd ed. United Kingdom: Prentice Hall
2. LOCK, D. (2008). Project Management. 9th ed. England: Gower
3. National Research Council (U.S.) Committee for Oversight and Assessment of U.S. Department of Energy Project Management (2005). The owner's role in project risk management. Washington: National Academic Press
4. SWARBRICK, J. (2008). Encyclopedia of Pharmaceutical Technology. 3rd ed. New York: Informa HealthCare

Sunday, November 8, 2009

The IT Department at BP

This case identifies some of the serious problems and challenges involved in accurately tracking and determining the status of ongoing projects. In this case, there is no clear method for tracking and identifying project performance midstream. Either it succeeds, or (more often) it comes in very late and over budget. Nigel Smith, the new head of the IT department, is not helping the process because he himself has a tendency to paint a rosy picture of his projects.


1. As a consultant monitoring this problem, what are your proposed solutions? To what degree has Nigel's management style contributed to the problems?

2. What are some of the types of project status information you could suggest they begin to collect to assess the status of their projects?

3. How would you blend “hard data” and “managerial or behavioural” information to create a comprehensive view of the status of ongoing projects at BP?

4. If you were in charge, what would you do?





One of the key important components of monitoring the status of project is COMMUNICATION. It helps project managers to realistically allocate time and resources to the project. Accurate tracking of the status of ongoing project allows the project manager and team members to compare the project against the project plan and determining the steps to take if something is going wrong.


1. As a consultant monitoring this problem, what are your proposed solutions? To what degree has Nigel's management style contributed to the problems?

As a consultant, I would set up a method of Weekly status reporting. This I will ensure via meetings or emails.

I will equally ensure that the true picture of the project status is conveyed to the management and all stakeholders.

As Rowe (2007) suggested, I will implement the use of the traffic light report. The traffic light report provides the overall summary of the project status by using the red, green and yellow lights of the conventional traffic light.

Green indicates that the project is on track, red on the other hand indicate that the project is in trouble and has missed a key milestone. Yellow is more of a warning that the project might not meet completion criteria.

2. What are some of the types of project status information you could suggest they begin to collect to assess the status of their projects?

Hard data (facts and figures) and soft data (rumours and less specific information) are two types of project status information.

Kendrick (2009) further explained that hard data shows how the project is proceeding while Soft data may provide early warnings or futuristic problems.

Based on these definitions, I will suggest the collection of the following hard data project status information: task completed, task remaining, time to complete remaining tasks, time spent so far on completed tasks, budget variances, operating costs, quality etc.

Smith (1995) is of the view that soft data are subjective and difficult to define, collect and analyse. I would probably not suggest they collect soft data information.

3. How would you blend “hard data” and “managerial or behavioural” information to create a comprehensive view of the status of ongoing projects at BP?

Hard data and behavioral information are both useful in relation to the status of ongoing projects especially where risk management is involved.

Hard data according to Kendrick (2009) are diagnostic metrics that assess progress. These metrics are schedule, resources and scope.

4. If you were in charge, what would you do?

If I were to be in charge, I would make sure the following are areas the status report should concentrate on:

· Schedule and scope status of the ongoing project

· Quality of interim deliverables

· Risks including new risk identified

· Spending patterns (versus the planned amounts)

· Staff effort (versus the planned time)

· Changes to the plan


References:

KENDRICK, T., 2009. Identifying and Managing Project Risk: Essential Tools for Failure-Proofing.2 ed. New York: AMACOM.

ROWE, S.F., 2007. Project Management for Small Projects. Vienna: Management Concepts.

SMITH, E.A., 1995. Creating productive organizations: developing your work force: manual. Florida: St Lucie Press

Sunday, November 1, 2009

You are part of the HR Team for a large retail company which employs some 1500 employees. The HR department is identifying annual project proposals.
The HR Director has proposed a project to establish a staff training centre with the intention of delivering the following objectives in the corporate/HR transition plan.

Objectives:

•Overall providing a well informed/well trained workforce with the intention of becoming a learning organisation.
•Specifically providing the right knowledge and skill mix required to ensure the future academic portfolio is achieved
•Specifically ensuring the right leadership, management and administrative knowledge and skills are acquired and developed
You are asked to provide the following input as part of the Proposal Document. Remember this is a proposal only at this time:

•Considerations, assumptions and constraints.
•Some of the factors to be included on the statement of requirements.
•Identify other issues your team would consider as part of the business case for this project.



The following considerations, assumptions and constraints could serve as input for the proposal document


Project Assumptions

•Accuracy of the project plan
•Project will start at the given dates
•Project phases start dates will be followed
•Belief that the staff members will perform adequately after the training
•Delivery time of the project will be kept
•The staff training centre is ready on time
•The contractor handling the staff centre is available and will deliver the project on time
•The objective of carrying out the project will be met
•The project plan will be approved by the appropriate authorities
•That the proposal will be approved by management

Project Constraints

The following could either restricts the actions of the project team or the way the project is perfomed

•Scope (the magnitude or the size of the project)
•Quality (the performance constraints)
•Schedule (time required for the project)
•What is the Budget (capital and material cost) for the project
•What are the Resources( the labour cost)
Project Considerations:

Some considerations that could be addressed

•Social considerations
•Economic considerations

•Technical considerations
•Environmental considerations
Some of the factors to be included on the statement of requirements are

•Scope (what is included in and what is excluded from the project)
•Overview and Objectives (why is the project important)
•Business Justification (why the company needs this)
•Timeline and schedule (how long will it take to deliver the project)
•The cost estimates
•The stakeholders, vendors, contractors handling the project
•The roles and responsibility of the project manager and team members
•Constraints, assumptions, dependencies, risk.
Other issues to be considered as part of the business case for this project include

• Summary including quantified financial and non-financial benefits of the staff training centre (quantified, where possible, over time)

• Implementation tasks and project plan


References:

HELDMAN, K. and MANGANO, V., 2009.PMP: Project Management Professional Exam Review Guide. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing.

LEWIS, J.P., 2005. Project planning, scheduling, and control: a hands-on guide to bringing projects in time and on budget. New York: McGraw-Hill.

KENDRICK, T., 2009.Identifying and managing project risk: essential tools for failure-proofing. New York: AMACOM.

http://www.teamplan.co.uk/products/pdf/Guide%20to%20Creating%20Statement%20of%20Requirement.pdf accessed on October 30 2009.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/3049961/Statement-of-Business-Requirements-SoBR-Template accessed on October 30 2009.