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.
Monday, November 30, 2009
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.
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
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Critically assess the benefits of Earned value management(EVM) in project and project management practices
Critically assess the benefits of Earned value management(EVM) in project and project management practices
In project management context, the need to ascertain and answer the question: “What did we get for the money we spent?” gave rise to the Earned Value Management.
The Earned Value Management (EVM) therefore provides an objective measurement of the amount of work that has actually been completed when compared against the amount of work planned to be achieved.
What makes the earned value management different from other project performance measurement technique is that it integrates scope, time, and cost data in its calculations.
When a baseline is given, project managers can determine how well the project is meeting scope, time, and cost goals by entering actual information and then comparing it to the baseline. A baseline is simply the original schedule or the anchor point for measuring performance.
References:
http://www.12manage.com/methods_evm.html accessed on 28th October 2009.
In project management context, the need to ascertain and answer the question: “What did we get for the money we spent?” gave rise to the Earned Value Management.
The Earned Value Management (EVM) therefore provides an objective measurement of the amount of work that has actually been completed when compared against the amount of work planned to be achieved.
What makes the earned value management different from other project performance measurement technique is that it integrates scope, time, and cost data in its calculations.
When a baseline is given, project managers can determine how well the project is meeting scope, time, and cost goals by entering actual information and then comparing it to the baseline. A baseline is simply the original schedule or the anchor point for measuring performance.
References:
http://www.12manage.com/methods_evm.html accessed on 28th October 2009.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
How does earned value give a clearer picture of project schedule and cost status than a simple plan versus actual system?
One significant advantage that the earned value has is its ability to measure the work accomplished for money spent. The earned value actually gives a clear picture because of its incorporation of the time variable in the measurement of progress.
According to Lessard (2007), earned value compares the PLANNED amount of work with what has actually been COMPLETED, to determine if COST, SCHEDULE, and WORK ACCOMPLISHED are progressing as planned.
A simple plan versus actual systems are misleading and can lead to false conclusions to both management, the project managers, stakeholders when it comes to evaluating project performance and progress.
The Cost Variance (BCWP-ACWP) for example does not measure how much work was done for the money spent.
An example will suffice here:
Consider a Construction project of a five-star hotel in Aberdeen with a planned duration of 12months and a budgeted actual cost (BAC) of $6million. At the sixth month, the actual cost of work performed (ACWP) is $3.5million, while the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) is $3million.
With the information above, one may jump into conclusion that there is a cost overrun of $500,000.
That may not necessarily be the case. In fact, the 500,000 may have been used for the advance purchase of construction materials. Or the project may indeed have a cost overrun and maybe behind schedule. We cannot just be hasty in our judgements.
Let’s imagine another scenario. What if at the sixth month, ACWP is $2.5million and BCWS is $3.0million, does this then indicate that the project is coming under budget or better still is it behind schedule? Like the first scenario, there is no way to ascertain.
So the question is: how can be sure of accurate information?
Enter “The Earned Value method”. Like mentioned above the earned value keeps track of schedules and budget against time and, therefore, overcomes these problems. The Earned Value determines the current status of a project by using the three data: BCWS, BCWP ( budgeted cost of work performed ) and ACWP.
From these data, Schedule Variance and Cost Variance, Cost Performance Indicator and Schedule Peformance Indicator can be calculated.
A positive variance indicates a desirable condition; negative means there something wrong.
If the cost performance index (CPI) > 1 then the project is on schedule or ahead of schedule, otherwise, it's behind schedule.
If the schedule performance index (SPI) >1 then the project is on or ahead of schedule, otherwise it's behind schedule.
The important thing is that variations are per unit time. So we know exactly where we stand at any particular moment of the project.
Why is it important for project managers to resist changes to the project baseline?
Under what conditions would a project manager make changes to a baseline?
When would a project manager not allow changes to a baseline?
The Project baseline is the threshold for planning, controlling, measuring and evaluating the project's progress.
Furthermore, the Project baseline is a very important parameter in the EV cost/schedule system.
Changing the project baseline therefore changes other value such as the SV.
Constant changes can also hinder the proper monitoring for project progress and tracing of delays as at when due.
Changes in project baseline should then be limited to major changes in scope. For example when there is a design to improve a product, when the original baseline is poorly defined or when there is a change in customer requirement or government requirement. Environmental factors like natural disasters can also force a change in the project baseline.
In general, the project baseline should be only be changed if the project will FAIL if the change is not implemented.
The Project manager should not allow a baseline change to "improve poor performance" also known as "rubber base lining". The Project manager should have at the back of his mind that poor performance may be based on factors such as conflicts in than workplace rather than the baseline.
Price and Planning errors are also not enough reasons for the baseline to be changed. Ditto for some changes in cost (the Project Manager should rather rely on some contingency reserves before thinking of changing the project baseline).
References:
LESSARD, J., 2007. Project Management for Engineering Design. USA: Morgan and Claypool.
One significant advantage that the earned value has is its ability to measure the work accomplished for money spent. The earned value actually gives a clear picture because of its incorporation of the time variable in the measurement of progress.
According to Lessard (2007), earned value compares the PLANNED amount of work with what has actually been COMPLETED, to determine if COST, SCHEDULE, and WORK ACCOMPLISHED are progressing as planned.
A simple plan versus actual systems are misleading and can lead to false conclusions to both management, the project managers, stakeholders when it comes to evaluating project performance and progress.
The Cost Variance (BCWP-ACWP) for example does not measure how much work was done for the money spent.
An example will suffice here:
Consider a Construction project of a five-star hotel in Aberdeen with a planned duration of 12months and a budgeted actual cost (BAC) of $6million. At the sixth month, the actual cost of work performed (ACWP) is $3.5million, while the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) is $3million.
With the information above, one may jump into conclusion that there is a cost overrun of $500,000.
That may not necessarily be the case. In fact, the 500,000 may have been used for the advance purchase of construction materials. Or the project may indeed have a cost overrun and maybe behind schedule. We cannot just be hasty in our judgements.
Let’s imagine another scenario. What if at the sixth month, ACWP is $2.5million and BCWS is $3.0million, does this then indicate that the project is coming under budget or better still is it behind schedule? Like the first scenario, there is no way to ascertain.
So the question is: how can be sure of accurate information?
Enter “The Earned Value method”. Like mentioned above the earned value keeps track of schedules and budget against time and, therefore, overcomes these problems. The Earned Value determines the current status of a project by using the three data: BCWS, BCWP ( budgeted cost of work performed ) and ACWP.
From these data, Schedule Variance and Cost Variance, Cost Performance Indicator and Schedule Peformance Indicator can be calculated.
A positive variance indicates a desirable condition; negative means there something wrong.
If the cost performance index (CPI) > 1 then the project is on schedule or ahead of schedule, otherwise, it's behind schedule.
If the schedule performance index (SPI) >1 then the project is on or ahead of schedule, otherwise it's behind schedule.
The important thing is that variations are per unit time. So we know exactly where we stand at any particular moment of the project.
Why is it important for project managers to resist changes to the project baseline?
Under what conditions would a project manager make changes to a baseline?
When would a project manager not allow changes to a baseline?
The Project baseline is the threshold for planning, controlling, measuring and evaluating the project's progress.
Furthermore, the Project baseline is a very important parameter in the EV cost/schedule system.
Changing the project baseline therefore changes other value such as the SV.
Constant changes can also hinder the proper monitoring for project progress and tracing of delays as at when due.
Changes in project baseline should then be limited to major changes in scope. For example when there is a design to improve a product, when the original baseline is poorly defined or when there is a change in customer requirement or government requirement. Environmental factors like natural disasters can also force a change in the project baseline.
In general, the project baseline should be only be changed if the project will FAIL if the change is not implemented.
The Project manager should not allow a baseline change to "improve poor performance" also known as "rubber base lining". The Project manager should have at the back of his mind that poor performance may be based on factors such as conflicts in than workplace rather than the baseline.
Price and Planning errors are also not enough reasons for the baseline to be changed. Ditto for some changes in cost (the Project Manager should rather rely on some contingency reserves before thinking of changing the project baseline).
References:
LESSARD, J., 2007. Project Management for Engineering Design. USA: Morgan and Claypool.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
New Project Leadership and Teams, Teamwork, Conflicts
1. Consider the discussion of "new project leadership and teams". If you were asked to propose a principle that could be applied to project leadership, what would it be? Justify your response.
2. Why is teamwork important in oil projects? Isn't it enough to have individual project workers who are highly skilled and motivated?
3. Explain why some conflict is natural and beneficial to project organizations.
1. Consider the discussion of "new project leadership and teams". If you were asked to propose a principle that could be applied to project leadership, what would it be? Justify your response.
A critical analysis of all four leadership styles vis-à-vis the situation in which they could be applied would guide is making a well-informed proposal of a principle that could be applied to project leadership.
The Laissez-Faire leadership style is the leadership style in which the project leader allows the project team to work on their own. Laissez-Faire leaders delay and appear indifferent to what is happening. It is ideally used in project where team members are experienced or skilled self starters.
The democratic leader allows the team members to be involved in the decision making progress but makes the final decision. The participation of team members in the decision making process takes time and by extension, more time is spent. Using the democratic style however, the leader makes better decisions and also boosts the confidence in the team members.
Unlike the democratic leader, the autocratic leader tells the team what he wants and how is wants it done without necessarily getting the advice or contribution of any of the team members. The autocratic leadership style is employed in situations where advantage of control outweighs the disadvantages.
When faced with situations involving serious risks, for example, then the Bureaucratic leadership style can come in handy. The Bureaucratic leader works “by the book”; insisting that the team members follow set down procedures/guidelines religiously
Summarily, it can be deduced that there is “right way” or one good principle that could be applied or manage that suits all situations. To make an effective choice therefore, the following questions should be asked.
• How skilled are the members of the team?
• What is the nature of the project-Normal routine or new idea?
• What is the team leaders’ natural or preferred style?
2. Why is teamwork important in oil projects? Isn't it enough to have individual project workers who are highly skilled and motivated?
“…Behind every man, there are always other able men...’ says a Chinese proverb!
The importance of teamwork in oil projects, nay every other project organizations are undeniable. The following points underscore the benefits of teamwork in maximizing strengths, bringing out the best in others as well as the efficient management of resources.
1. It improves efficiency. With proper communication in place and a better understanding of the projects’ scope and objectives, teamwork ensures that no two employees will have to do the same task that can only be handled by one employee alone.
2. Teamwork creates synergy in the projects. Team members brainstorm and come up with ideas that lead to innovation. Since team members have multiple points of view, extra knowledge is gained in the project team.
3. Explain why some conflict is natural and beneficial to project organizations.
In explaining why some conflicts could be considered as natural and to an extent beneficial to project organizations, we have to first and foremost understand what a conflict is.
Hart (2003) defined conflicts as struggle between two or more forces, positions or actions.
In a project organization, like all other organization, conflict is natural because there is bound to be difference in objectives, opinions and values. For example customers and contractors are at loggerheads once in a while, project staff and functional groups also disagree, people on different teams and even people on the same team.
The Project Manager should however realize that having conflicts is a natural consequence of being human. Timely understanding and analysis of the nature of the conflict goes a long way to helping the project manager deal with it.
It can be seen that conflict is natural and inevitable.
Contrary to the old view that conflicts are always negative and destructive, PMI is embracing “a new school of thought” that conflicts can indeed be beneficial and necessary to help foster team work, innovation, enhance creativity and so forth.
This underscores the fact that conflicts should not be stereotyped as either positive or negative.
A study of one hundred Project Managers carried out by Themhain and Wileman (spring, 1975 cited in Nicholas and Steyn, 2008) indentified the potential sources of conflicts in project organization as schedules, project priorities, workforce, technical opinions, administrative issues, personal clashes and cost issues.
The Lack of conflict in a project organization is unhealthy. Apart from the fact that it could result in mediocre judgments, it can also be regarded as a sign of “over conformity”.
Some benefits that can come out of conflict include
• People learn to work together.
• The team experiences increased amounts of energy, because conflict does not allow the team to stay stagnant; it causes them to move forward.
• It can foster creativity by forcing team members to see things from new points of view that they would never have thought of otherwise.
• Positive conflict can build cohesiveness among group members.
• Individuals and groups learn to grow and apply their knowledge to future conflict.
References:
HARR, L.B., 1999.The Managers Pocket Guide to Dealing with Conflict. USA: HRD Press
NICHOLAS, J.M and STEYN, H., 2008.Project Management for Business, Engineering, and Technology. 3rd ed. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.
BASS, B.M., 2006.Transformational Leadership. 2nd ed. NEW YERSEY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
2. Why is teamwork important in oil projects? Isn't it enough to have individual project workers who are highly skilled and motivated?
3. Explain why some conflict is natural and beneficial to project organizations.
1. Consider the discussion of "new project leadership and teams". If you were asked to propose a principle that could be applied to project leadership, what would it be? Justify your response.
A critical analysis of all four leadership styles vis-à-vis the situation in which they could be applied would guide is making a well-informed proposal of a principle that could be applied to project leadership.
The Laissez-Faire leadership style is the leadership style in which the project leader allows the project team to work on their own. Laissez-Faire leaders delay and appear indifferent to what is happening. It is ideally used in project where team members are experienced or skilled self starters.
The democratic leader allows the team members to be involved in the decision making progress but makes the final decision. The participation of team members in the decision making process takes time and by extension, more time is spent. Using the democratic style however, the leader makes better decisions and also boosts the confidence in the team members.
Unlike the democratic leader, the autocratic leader tells the team what he wants and how is wants it done without necessarily getting the advice or contribution of any of the team members. The autocratic leadership style is employed in situations where advantage of control outweighs the disadvantages.
When faced with situations involving serious risks, for example, then the Bureaucratic leadership style can come in handy. The Bureaucratic leader works “by the book”; insisting that the team members follow set down procedures/guidelines religiously
Summarily, it can be deduced that there is “right way” or one good principle that could be applied or manage that suits all situations. To make an effective choice therefore, the following questions should be asked.
• How skilled are the members of the team?
• What is the nature of the project-Normal routine or new idea?
• What is the team leaders’ natural or preferred style?
2. Why is teamwork important in oil projects? Isn't it enough to have individual project workers who are highly skilled and motivated?
“…Behind every man, there are always other able men...’ says a Chinese proverb!
The importance of teamwork in oil projects, nay every other project organizations are undeniable. The following points underscore the benefits of teamwork in maximizing strengths, bringing out the best in others as well as the efficient management of resources.
1. It improves efficiency. With proper communication in place and a better understanding of the projects’ scope and objectives, teamwork ensures that no two employees will have to do the same task that can only be handled by one employee alone.
2. Teamwork creates synergy in the projects. Team members brainstorm and come up with ideas that lead to innovation. Since team members have multiple points of view, extra knowledge is gained in the project team.
3. Explain why some conflict is natural and beneficial to project organizations.
In explaining why some conflicts could be considered as natural and to an extent beneficial to project organizations, we have to first and foremost understand what a conflict is.
Hart (2003) defined conflicts as struggle between two or more forces, positions or actions.
In a project organization, like all other organization, conflict is natural because there is bound to be difference in objectives, opinions and values. For example customers and contractors are at loggerheads once in a while, project staff and functional groups also disagree, people on different teams and even people on the same team.
The Project Manager should however realize that having conflicts is a natural consequence of being human. Timely understanding and analysis of the nature of the conflict goes a long way to helping the project manager deal with it.
It can be seen that conflict is natural and inevitable.
Contrary to the old view that conflicts are always negative and destructive, PMI is embracing “a new school of thought” that conflicts can indeed be beneficial and necessary to help foster team work, innovation, enhance creativity and so forth.
This underscores the fact that conflicts should not be stereotyped as either positive or negative.
A study of one hundred Project Managers carried out by Themhain and Wileman (spring, 1975 cited in Nicholas and Steyn, 2008) indentified the potential sources of conflicts in project organization as schedules, project priorities, workforce, technical opinions, administrative issues, personal clashes and cost issues.
The Lack of conflict in a project organization is unhealthy. Apart from the fact that it could result in mediocre judgments, it can also be regarded as a sign of “over conformity”.
Some benefits that can come out of conflict include
• People learn to work together.
• The team experiences increased amounts of energy, because conflict does not allow the team to stay stagnant; it causes them to move forward.
• It can foster creativity by forcing team members to see things from new points of view that they would never have thought of otherwise.
• Positive conflict can build cohesiveness among group members.
• Individuals and groups learn to grow and apply their knowledge to future conflict.
References:
HARR, L.B., 1999.The Managers Pocket Guide to Dealing with Conflict. USA: HRD Press
NICHOLAS, J.M and STEYN, H., 2008.Project Management for Business, Engineering, and Technology. 3rd ed. Oxford: Elsevier Ltd.
BASS, B.M., 2006.Transformational Leadership. 2nd ed. NEW YERSEY: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Introduction to Project Management
1. Why do you think that projects need to be managed differently than non-projects?
2. What do you think are some additional or special considerations necessary for managing projects?
3. Think of a successful project and an unsuccessful project with which you are familiar. What distinguishes the two, both in terms of the process used to develop them and their outcomes?
1. Why do you think that projects need to be managed differently than non-projects?
Projects are unique, temporary endeavours having a start, middle and end time. Non-projects have no set time frame (no finite lifetime).
Projects need to be managed differently from non-projects because of the distinctiveness of their characteristics as itemized below
a. Projects are carried out with a definite result in mind.
b. A project is a unique one-time activity that is never repeated in the same manner again.
c. Project is temporal. Once the result is attained, the project is closed.
d. When a project is initiated, it is likely that skills and expertise is utilised from various disciplines, departments and organizations.
e. Projects involve some degree of risks. This is so because of the unfamiliar nature of projects.
f. Failure to successfully complete a projects may threaten the Project Managers portfolio and in turn jeopardize the company’s goal
g. A project passes through phases, people, tasks, resources as it moves from one phase to the other in achieving its goal.
2. What do you think are some additional or special considerations necessary for managing projects?
Some consideration necessary for managing projects are
a. What is the size of the project ?
b. How much will it cost ?
c. How long will it take ?
d. What are the factors that militate against it ?
3. Think of a successful project and an unsuccessful project with which you are familiar. What distinguishes the two, both in terms of the process used to develop them and their outcomes?
One successful project that readily comes to my mind is the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2, Lagos, Nigeria fondly called MMA2.
An unsuccessful project would be the Ajaokua Steel Company, Kogi, Nigeria
The MMA2 project was driven by private sector investment under a Public-Private Partnership Scheme. The Federal Government of Nigeria awarded the contract to Bi-Courtney Limited, to design, build and operate the Murtala Muhammed Airport in 2003. This Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) arrangement also transferred the risks to Bi-Courtney Limited.
Interestingly, the company had to expand its scope to include the Terminal that eventually exceeded the expectations of the Federal Government.
Money which was an initial problem for the completion of the project was later resolved when in March 2007, some major banks in Nigeria agreed to arrange N20 billion part-financing for the completion of MMA Terminal 2.
Here the project was successfully completed.
The Ajaokuta steel company on the other hand has not seen the light of the day. It has turned out to be a white elephant project that has guzzled up billions of naira with little or no positive result to show for it, Today little or nothing is heard of Ajaokuta but millions of dollars must have ended up in private pockets.
There was no working capital provided outside of the commissioning materials. The plant started dwindling because there was no fund to bring in raw materials to run the mills, so capacity declined significantly when it became impossible to operate.
References:
NICHOLAS, J.M and STEYN, N.2008. Project management for business, engineering, and technology: principles and practice. 3rd ed.Oxford: Elsevier.
http://www.mma2lagos.com/about.asp accessed on 16th October 2009
2. What do you think are some additional or special considerations necessary for managing projects?
3. Think of a successful project and an unsuccessful project with which you are familiar. What distinguishes the two, both in terms of the process used to develop them and their outcomes?
1. Why do you think that projects need to be managed differently than non-projects?
Projects are unique, temporary endeavours having a start, middle and end time. Non-projects have no set time frame (no finite lifetime).
Projects need to be managed differently from non-projects because of the distinctiveness of their characteristics as itemized below
a. Projects are carried out with a definite result in mind.
b. A project is a unique one-time activity that is never repeated in the same manner again.
c. Project is temporal. Once the result is attained, the project is closed.
d. When a project is initiated, it is likely that skills and expertise is utilised from various disciplines, departments and organizations.
e. Projects involve some degree of risks. This is so because of the unfamiliar nature of projects.
f. Failure to successfully complete a projects may threaten the Project Managers portfolio and in turn jeopardize the company’s goal
g. A project passes through phases, people, tasks, resources as it moves from one phase to the other in achieving its goal.
2. What do you think are some additional or special considerations necessary for managing projects?
Some consideration necessary for managing projects are
a. What is the size of the project ?
b. How much will it cost ?
c. How long will it take ?
d. What are the factors that militate against it ?
3. Think of a successful project and an unsuccessful project with which you are familiar. What distinguishes the two, both in terms of the process used to develop them and their outcomes?
One successful project that readily comes to my mind is the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2, Lagos, Nigeria fondly called MMA2.
An unsuccessful project would be the Ajaokua Steel Company, Kogi, Nigeria
The MMA2 project was driven by private sector investment under a Public-Private Partnership Scheme. The Federal Government of Nigeria awarded the contract to Bi-Courtney Limited, to design, build and operate the Murtala Muhammed Airport in 2003. This Build, Operate, Transfer (BOT) arrangement also transferred the risks to Bi-Courtney Limited.
Interestingly, the company had to expand its scope to include the Terminal that eventually exceeded the expectations of the Federal Government.
Money which was an initial problem for the completion of the project was later resolved when in March 2007, some major banks in Nigeria agreed to arrange N20 billion part-financing for the completion of MMA Terminal 2.
Here the project was successfully completed.
The Ajaokuta steel company on the other hand has not seen the light of the day. It has turned out to be a white elephant project that has guzzled up billions of naira with little or no positive result to show for it, Today little or nothing is heard of Ajaokuta but millions of dollars must have ended up in private pockets.
There was no working capital provided outside of the commissioning materials. The plant started dwindling because there was no fund to bring in raw materials to run the mills, so capacity declined significantly when it became impossible to operate.
References:
NICHOLAS, J.M and STEYN, N.2008. Project management for business, engineering, and technology: principles and practice. 3rd ed.Oxford: Elsevier.
http://www.mma2lagos.com/about.asp accessed on 16th October 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Project Investment Appraisal Techniques
1. Identify the relative merits of the Project Investment Appraisal techniques and identify which is the preferred method by the Project Managers and Project Management.
Project Investment Appraisal is carried out by Project Managers to evaluate whether a particular project decision will in the long run make profits or not.
In order words, the project investment appraisal is intended to give advice on a project that will lead towards the maximizing of shareholders wealth.
Project management investment techniques are used to assist project managers to make decisions.
Notable amongst these techniques are payback period method (PBP); return on cost employed (ROCE), (also called accounting rate of return (ARR) or more simply as Return on Investment (ROI));Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value.
The payback period technique relies on the payback period is making a decision on any project period.
The payback period is the number of years it is expected to take to recover the original investment from the net cash flow resulting from a capital investment project. (WATSON and HEAD, 2007)
In this case, the project is accepted if the payback period is equal to or less than the predetermined target value, else it is rejected.
Despite the fact that the payback period method is quick, easy, simple to apply and calculate, it does not give any real indication of whether an investment project increases the value of the company.
Another drawback of the payback period method is that it ignores the time value of money.
The payback period ignores all cash flows outside the payback period and so does not consider the whole project as a whole.
What we can deduce from the foregoing is that the payback method does not really guarantee the maximization of stakeholder’s wealth. At best, it could be seen as a tool of assessing the effect of accepting a project.
Another project investment technique that we can use is the return on capital employed or the accounting rate of return technique.
The advantage of using this technique is that it considers all cash flows during the life of an investment project.
Another point of interest is that it gives the value in percentage terms. This is significant because the existing financial analysis used in assessing a company’s performance is in percentages.
One major drawback of using this method is that it uses accounting profits. The use of accounting profits makes the project open to manipulation.
The bottom line here is that there is no link to the fundamental objective of maximizing shareholders wealth.
Like the payback period method, it also does not consider the time value of money.
One thing that is common to the above two traditional methods of investment appraisal technique is their non-consideration of the time value of money.
The net present value works on the principle that an investment decision is viable if the money derived from business is greater than the money put in. It is clear that the time value of money is taken into consideration.
Also, it is clear that cash flow is used rather than profit. It also takes into account all relevant cash flow over the life of an investment project.
The internal rate of return is regarded as the arithmetic result of the NPV method.
It is instructive to deduce that the net present value method is “…academically preferred method of investment appraisal...” (WATSON and HEAD, 2007) based on the reasons below
1. The time value of money is taken into consideration
2. The shareholders’ wealth is maximized
3. It makes use of cash flows.
References:
WATSON, W. and HEAD, A. 2007. Corporate Finance: Principles and Practice . 4th ed. England: Pearson.
LUMBY, S. 1991. Investment Appraisal and Financing Decisions: a first course in financial management.4th ed.London: Chapman and hall.
Project Investment Appraisal is carried out by Project Managers to evaluate whether a particular project decision will in the long run make profits or not.
In order words, the project investment appraisal is intended to give advice on a project that will lead towards the maximizing of shareholders wealth.
Project management investment techniques are used to assist project managers to make decisions.
Notable amongst these techniques are payback period method (PBP); return on cost employed (ROCE), (also called accounting rate of return (ARR) or more simply as Return on Investment (ROI));Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Net Present Value.
The payback period technique relies on the payback period is making a decision on any project period.
The payback period is the number of years it is expected to take to recover the original investment from the net cash flow resulting from a capital investment project. (WATSON and HEAD, 2007)
In this case, the project is accepted if the payback period is equal to or less than the predetermined target value, else it is rejected.
Despite the fact that the payback period method is quick, easy, simple to apply and calculate, it does not give any real indication of whether an investment project increases the value of the company.
Another drawback of the payback period method is that it ignores the time value of money.
The payback period ignores all cash flows outside the payback period and so does not consider the whole project as a whole.
What we can deduce from the foregoing is that the payback method does not really guarantee the maximization of stakeholder’s wealth. At best, it could be seen as a tool of assessing the effect of accepting a project.
Another project investment technique that we can use is the return on capital employed or the accounting rate of return technique.
The advantage of using this technique is that it considers all cash flows during the life of an investment project.
Another point of interest is that it gives the value in percentage terms. This is significant because the existing financial analysis used in assessing a company’s performance is in percentages.
One major drawback of using this method is that it uses accounting profits. The use of accounting profits makes the project open to manipulation.
The bottom line here is that there is no link to the fundamental objective of maximizing shareholders wealth.
Like the payback period method, it also does not consider the time value of money.
One thing that is common to the above two traditional methods of investment appraisal technique is their non-consideration of the time value of money.
The net present value works on the principle that an investment decision is viable if the money derived from business is greater than the money put in. It is clear that the time value of money is taken into consideration.
Also, it is clear that cash flow is used rather than profit. It also takes into account all relevant cash flow over the life of an investment project.
The internal rate of return is regarded as the arithmetic result of the NPV method.
It is instructive to deduce that the net present value method is “…academically preferred method of investment appraisal...” (WATSON and HEAD, 2007) based on the reasons below
1. The time value of money is taken into consideration
2. The shareholders’ wealth is maximized
3. It makes use of cash flows.
References:
WATSON, W. and HEAD, A. 2007. Corporate Finance: Principles and Practice . 4th ed. England: Pearson.
LUMBY, S. 1991. Investment Appraisal and Financing Decisions: a first course in financial management.4th ed.London: Chapman and hall.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Project Environment Appraisal
Hello Guys,
I have given the opportunities below
1. It is assumed we know the market already and so we know the market very well (maybe the competirors have products of low standards, then it will mean that our Profit margins will be high.
2. It also gives us the opportunity to incorporate new applications that was not there in previous versions or in any of our competitors own verssion of iPod.
3, In addition to the above, it is an opportunity to launch the iPod in difrrent launguages, this will mean that the product could be exported overseas
And here are the Strengths
1. Our iPod will be a have a better product life span, durable than any of our competitors
2. Another strength is in the staff experience in the project team
3. Another strenth is the fact that we have a great customer service team, we could actually hep deliver prodcts at the customers houses.
4. We can also count our having all the necessary legal documents, accreditations , licenses as a strength
Now to the weaknesses, lets see
1. Does the phone fulfill corporate duties or is it just an entertainment system.
2. Missing features can also be a weakness (explainng this further, a competitor can come up with a product that has all of the feature of our iPhone and then have an additional feature like 3G for example)
3. High Price can also be a weakness, seeing the amount of resources put into the project team, the price of the ipone may end up soley for the elites. This is not good enough.
Finally, for the Threats
As far as the project is concerned and one of the opportunitty is increase in the knowledge of the Project team, this could also pose a threat as retention of key staff becomes a major concern.
Explaining further is the fact that most often, companies tend to lose their staff after a major project like ths is launched. Competitors just give them offers they cant refuse and off they go!
Another threat I see here is enviromental factors, though external but indeed, it cannot be overlooked. While bigger competitors may survive environmental disasters, the same cannot be said of smaller firms
The ipod launch may also likely to be threated by the time it is launched. Most of these gadgets may do well in one season like christmas than another. so the Market demand here is seasonal and this could really pose a severe threat.
Fourthly, our ipod launch could well be vulnerable to attacks from other major competitors-Yes such stuffs do happen in the business world and this could really pose a major threat. A major competitor can wait till after the launch and then capitalise on the possible drawbacks of our ipod and then come up with a better ipod product.
Yet anotherr threat to the iPod launch could be a legislation issue. This could arise from copyright infrigments to project team protests, etc
Sixtly, Possible negative publicity could be a threat.
Great work guys¬!"!
I have given the opportunities below
1. It is assumed we know the market already and so we know the market very well (maybe the competirors have products of low standards, then it will mean that our Profit margins will be high.
2. It also gives us the opportunity to incorporate new applications that was not there in previous versions or in any of our competitors own verssion of iPod.
3, In addition to the above, it is an opportunity to launch the iPod in difrrent launguages, this will mean that the product could be exported overseas
And here are the Strengths
1. Our iPod will be a have a better product life span, durable than any of our competitors
2. Another strength is in the staff experience in the project team
3. Another strenth is the fact that we have a great customer service team, we could actually hep deliver prodcts at the customers houses.
4. We can also count our having all the necessary legal documents, accreditations , licenses as a strength
Now to the weaknesses, lets see
1. Does the phone fulfill corporate duties or is it just an entertainment system.
2. Missing features can also be a weakness (explainng this further, a competitor can come up with a product that has all of the feature of our iPhone and then have an additional feature like 3G for example)
3. High Price can also be a weakness, seeing the amount of resources put into the project team, the price of the ipone may end up soley for the elites. This is not good enough.
Finally, for the Threats
As far as the project is concerned and one of the opportunitty is increase in the knowledge of the Project team, this could also pose a threat as retention of key staff becomes a major concern.
Explaining further is the fact that most often, companies tend to lose their staff after a major project like ths is launched. Competitors just give them offers they cant refuse and off they go!
Another threat I see here is enviromental factors, though external but indeed, it cannot be overlooked. While bigger competitors may survive environmental disasters, the same cannot be said of smaller firms
The ipod launch may also likely to be threated by the time it is launched. Most of these gadgets may do well in one season like christmas than another. so the Market demand here is seasonal and this could really pose a severe threat.
Fourthly, our ipod launch could well be vulnerable to attacks from other major competitors-Yes such stuffs do happen in the business world and this could really pose a major threat. A major competitor can wait till after the launch and then capitalise on the possible drawbacks of our ipod and then come up with a better ipod product.
Yet anotherr threat to the iPod launch could be a legislation issue. This could arise from copyright infrigments to project team protests, etc
Sixtly, Possible negative publicity could be a threat.
Great work guys¬!"!
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Project Life Cycle, Phases
Questions:
1. Map out the life cycle and phases for a project in the Information Technology sector.
2. Identify the key deliverables for each of these phases .
3. Discuss the difference between a statement of work , a contract statement of work , and a work requisition or work order .
Answer1:
Map out the life cycle and phases for a project in the Information Technology sector.
In the Information Technology Sector, the system development life cycle (SDLC) is adopted for developing and maintaining information systems. The phases of the SDLC are given below:
◦Planning
◦Analysis
◦Design
◦Implementation
◦Maintenance and Support
Answer 2
Identify the key deliverables for each of these phases .
Planning-
Key deliverables : the project definition document containing project plan and schedule, with a detailed listing of scheduled activities for the upcoming phases.
Analysis-
Key deliverables: the system requirements document detailing management and user requirements, alternative plans and what they will cost, and any recommendations that have been observed.
Design
Key deliverables: a `blueprint' or a design specification
Implementation-
Key deliverables: a fully functional and documented system.
Maintenance and Support-
Key deliverables: a full functional/documented system in its operational environment
Answer 3
Discuss the difference between a statement of work , a contract statement of work , and a work requisition or work order .
A statement of work (SOW) is just the document of what will be done, by when, by whom for the project.
The contract statement of work (CSOW ) is the legal document which the SOW is a subset, the contract will contain budget/finance and require sign off
A work order (WO) or work requisition is a document given by the client/customer to the vendor /supplier that provides important details (relating to size, shape, colour and other important items) about goods and services that the client wants the vendor to supply.
A work order or work requisition is for a specific deliverable such as a specific engineering service so it is delivered when needed.
References:
SCHWALBE,K.,2002.Information Technology Project Management.2nd Edition.United Kingdom:Course Technology.
TAYLOR,J.,2004.Managing Information TechnoloGy Projects: Applying Project Management Strategies to software, hardware, and Integration Initiatives.NewYork:AMACOM.
HAUGAN,G.T.,2006.Project Management Fundamentals: Key Concepts and Methology.Virginia:Management Concepts.
http://bwoodsy.tripod.com/sdlcproject.html accessed on 10th October 2009
http://www.elucidata.com/refs/sdlc.pdf accessed on 10th October 2009
http://ironbark.bendigo.latrobe.edu.au/subjects/IS/iss106/lsweek3a.htm accessed on 10th October 2009
1. Map out the life cycle and phases for a project in the Information Technology sector.
2. Identify the key deliverables for each of these phases .
3. Discuss the difference between a statement of work , a contract statement of work , and a work requisition or work order .
Answer1:
Map out the life cycle and phases for a project in the Information Technology sector.
In the Information Technology Sector, the system development life cycle (SDLC) is adopted for developing and maintaining information systems. The phases of the SDLC are given below:
◦Planning
◦Analysis
◦Design
◦Implementation
◦Maintenance and Support
Answer 2
Identify the key deliverables for each of these phases .
Planning-
Key deliverables : the project definition document containing project plan and schedule, with a detailed listing of scheduled activities for the upcoming phases.
Analysis-
Key deliverables: the system requirements document detailing management and user requirements, alternative plans and what they will cost, and any recommendations that have been observed.
Design
Key deliverables: a `blueprint' or a design specification
Implementation-
Key deliverables: a fully functional and documented system.
Maintenance and Support-
Key deliverables: a full functional/documented system in its operational environment
Answer 3
Discuss the difference between a statement of work , a contract statement of work , and a work requisition or work order .
A statement of work (SOW) is just the document of what will be done, by when, by whom for the project.
The contract statement of work (CSOW ) is the legal document which the SOW is a subset, the contract will contain budget/finance and require sign off
A work order (WO) or work requisition is a document given by the client/customer to the vendor /supplier that provides important details (relating to size, shape, colour and other important items) about goods and services that the client wants the vendor to supply.
A work order or work requisition is for a specific deliverable such as a specific engineering service so it is delivered when needed.
References:
SCHWALBE,K.,2002.Information Technology Project Management.2nd Edition.United Kingdom:Course Technology.
TAYLOR,J.,2004.Managing Information TechnoloGy Projects: Applying Project Management Strategies to software, hardware, and Integration Initiatives.NewYork:AMACOM.
HAUGAN,G.T.,2006.Project Management Fundamentals: Key Concepts and Methology.Virginia:Management Concepts.
http://bwoodsy.tripod.com/sdlcproject.html accessed on 10th October 2009
http://www.elucidata.com/refs/sdlc.pdf accessed on 10th October 2009
http://ironbark.bendigo.latrobe.edu.au/subjects/IS/iss106/lsweek3a.htm accessed on 10th October 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Change Contol Check Lists
The following could suffice for an effective change control process checklist:
1. Mention the Change task to be implemented
2. Review proposed change with project sponsor and/or the change
control committee (if any).
3. Get the necessary approvals to initiate the change process.
4. Initiate the change
5. Conduct follow up to ensure the change is adhered to, more like Verification
1. Mention the Change task to be implemented
2. Review proposed change with project sponsor and/or the change
control committee (if any).
3. Get the necessary approvals to initiate the change process.
4. Initiate the change
5. Conduct follow up to ensure the change is adhered to, more like Verification
Friday, October 9, 2009
Cost, Time and Quality issues in PM
Question:
Good quality, low cost, fast delivery – you can have any two out of three.
1. Discuss from your own work experience when you have seen this happen
2. What experience do you have of clients/managers trying to get three out of three?
3. What are the problems this creates in project management terms?
Answer 1
Discuss from your own work experience when you have seen this happen.
In my career as the Project Supervisor of a telecommunication’s vendor company, I have seen too much of this.
Typically the most attention is on fast delivery (I believe that is due to the ease of measuring and physical verification).
When BTS (Base Transceiver station) sites are being built, a timeline is always given as to when the sites will be completed and when it will be on AIR. More often, we deliver these sites far ahead of schedule.
Next would be low cost. (Again I attribute most of this to the ease of measuring and verification).
The lowest bidder is more often assigned the job on most of the projects I handled. I must say that this is at the mercy of the quality standard when the job is finished.
Quality is always at the rear because you really need to understand the project and its parameters.
One thing I have learnt and used over and over again is to be able to project the cost of each slip and compare. For example
Cost of delay = Missed Sales, Cost Increase = Profit Lose, Cost of Quality = Reduced Sales
With this in mind, I know what to and what not to compromise
Answer2
What experience do you have of clients/managers trying to get three out of three?
The customers I have worked for also wanted three out of three but, as with any human endeavour, many times their representatives focus on two out of three depending on their experience and background.
In my opinion, it all depends on how prepared the customer is when it comes to setting up a project. It might take some time to develop a relationship between a customer to actually hammer out what it is expected of each in order to produce the best results at an affordable rate. The clarity of information provided by the customer to the project managers will greatly affect the end results.
On some of the projects I worked on, the customers had my bosses so intimidated that they had to modify our estimate to meet the customers’ expectations, even though I knew it was wrong and could not be successfully completed in these terms.
On a final note, the success of the Project will be measured by the fact that
a. The project is completed within the estimated cost
b. The project is delivered as planned
c. The quality of the project is within the customer’s defined requirement.
Answer3
What are the problems this creates in project management terms?
The biggest problems were unrealistic deadlines, targets, schedules, uncompleted jobs.
References:
LOCK, D., 2007. The Essentials of Project Management. 3rd ed.England: Gower Publishing Limited
Good quality, low cost, fast delivery – you can have any two out of three.
1. Discuss from your own work experience when you have seen this happen
2. What experience do you have of clients/managers trying to get three out of three?
3. What are the problems this creates in project management terms?
Answer 1
Discuss from your own work experience when you have seen this happen.
In my career as the Project Supervisor of a telecommunication’s vendor company, I have seen too much of this.
Typically the most attention is on fast delivery (I believe that is due to the ease of measuring and physical verification).
When BTS (Base Transceiver station) sites are being built, a timeline is always given as to when the sites will be completed and when it will be on AIR. More often, we deliver these sites far ahead of schedule.
Next would be low cost. (Again I attribute most of this to the ease of measuring and verification).
The lowest bidder is more often assigned the job on most of the projects I handled. I must say that this is at the mercy of the quality standard when the job is finished.
Quality is always at the rear because you really need to understand the project and its parameters.
One thing I have learnt and used over and over again is to be able to project the cost of each slip and compare. For example
Cost of delay = Missed Sales, Cost Increase = Profit Lose, Cost of Quality = Reduced Sales
With this in mind, I know what to and what not to compromise
Answer2
What experience do you have of clients/managers trying to get three out of three?
The customers I have worked for also wanted three out of three but, as with any human endeavour, many times their representatives focus on two out of three depending on their experience and background.
In my opinion, it all depends on how prepared the customer is when it comes to setting up a project. It might take some time to develop a relationship between a customer to actually hammer out what it is expected of each in order to produce the best results at an affordable rate. The clarity of information provided by the customer to the project managers will greatly affect the end results.
On some of the projects I worked on, the customers had my bosses so intimidated that they had to modify our estimate to meet the customers’ expectations, even though I knew it was wrong and could not be successfully completed in these terms.
On a final note, the success of the Project will be measured by the fact that
a. The project is completed within the estimated cost
b. The project is delivered as planned
c. The quality of the project is within the customer’s defined requirement.
Answer3
What are the problems this creates in project management terms?
The biggest problems were unrealistic deadlines, targets, schedules, uncompleted jobs.
References:
LOCK, D., 2007. The Essentials of Project Management. 3rd ed.England: Gower Publishing Limited
Monday, October 5, 2009
Some examples of megaprojects are:
Aerospace projects
• Airbus A380 (2007)
• B-2 Spirit (1997)
• Boeing 747 (1970)
• Eurofighter Typhoon (2003)
• F-22 Raptor (2005)
• Joint Strike Fighter (In progress)
• KH-11 reconnaissance satellite (1976-1990)
Airport projects
• Abu Dhabi International Airport, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• Alcochete Airport, Portugal
• Athens International Airport, Athens, Greece
• Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, India
• New Islamabad International Airport, Islamabad, Pakistan
• Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing, People's Republic of China
• Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, Berlin, Germany
• Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado, USA
• Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, Manila, Philippines
• Dubai International Airport, Dubai, UAE
• Dubai World Central International Airport, Jebel Ali, UAE
• Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
• Incheon International Airport, Incheon, South Korea
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong, China
• Kansai International Airport, Japan
• Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia
• London Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5, London, UK
• Long Thanh International Airport, Vietnam
• Madrid Barajas International Airport, Madrid, Spain
• O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
• New Doha International Airport, Doha, Qatar
Building projects
• The Centaurus, Islamabad, Pakistan (Est. 2010)
• World Trade Center, New York City, New York (1973)
• Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station), Berlin, Germany (2006)
• Burj Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Est. 2009)
• Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York, USA (1978)
• Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, USA (2009)
• Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Est. 2010)
• Pagcor Tower, Manila, Philippines (Est. 2012)
• Jakarta Tower, Jakarta, Indonesia (Est. 2011)
• Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, Romania (1989)
• Parliament House, Canberra, Australia (1988)
• Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1998)
• Sydney Opera House, Australia (1973)
• Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC (2004)
• The new Wembley Stadium in London, UK (2007)
• CN Tower, Toronto, Canada (1976)
• Sears Tower, Chicago, USA (1973)
• Empire State building, New York City, USA (1931)
Canal projects
• Arabian Canal, United Arab Emirates
• Danube-Black Sea Canal, Romania
• Erie Canal, New York
• Grand Canal, China
• Grand Korean Waterway
• Kiel Canal, Germany
• Panama Canal and Panama Canal expansion project, Panama
• Suez Canal, Egypt
• Welland Canal, Ontario, Canada
Dam Projects
• Aswan Dam, Egypt
• Katse Dam, Lesotho
• Alqueva, Portugal
• Hoover Dam, USA
• Itaipu, Brazil
• Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam, Russia (1961-78)
• Three Gorges Dam, China
• Tennessee Valley Authority, USA
• The Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project, Iceland
• Diamer-Bhasha dam, Pakistan
Defense Projects
• Great Wall of China
• Maginot Line
• Hadrian's Wall, UK
• Strategic Defense Initiative (never fully implemented)
• Manhattan Project and other nuclear weapons programs, including the one that built the Tsar Bomba
• Željava Air Base
International Sports infrastructure projects
• Cricket World Cup
• FIFA World Cup
• Olympic Games
• Rugby World Cup
IT projects
• Enabling Grids for E-sciencE: Multi-science Grid infrastructure for the European Research Area. Already largest multi-science Grid infrastructure in the world and expected to greatly expand once the LHC is completed.
• National Programme for IT for England's National Health Service
• Navy/Marine Corps Intranet
• IBM 360
• The National Broadband Network, a FTTP network under construction in Australia, proposing to reach 90% of homes.
Oil and Gas projects
• Southstream pipeline
• Athabasca Oil Sands
• Corrib Gas Project
• Hibernia
• Nord Stream
• Sakhalin-I
• Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
• Peregrino
Port projects
• Punta Colonet in Baja California, Mexico
• Port of Rotterdam
• Yangshan port.
• Port of Sines, Portugal
Rail and rapid transit projects
• Beijing Subway, Beijing, People's Republic of China
• Athens Metro, Athens, Greece
• Bay Area Rapid Transit System, San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
• Extension of Line 1 Lima Metro
• Canada Line in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Crossrail, London, UK
• North West Metro between the CBD and Northwestern suburbs of Sydney, Australia
• Channel tunnel between France and the UK
• Delhi Metro, New Delhi, India
• Dubai Metro in Dubai
• Gautrain in Gauteng, South Africa between Johannesburg and Pretoria
• Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland.
• Great Belt Fixed Link, Denmark
• High Speed 1, Ebbsfleet International, London, UK
• High-speed railway to Jerusalem, (Israel Railways), Israel
• London Underground
• Marmaray in Istanbul, Turkey, an express railway system connecting Europe and Asia under waters of Bosphorus.
• Qingzang railway in Qinghai and Tibet, China
• Seattle Light Rail, Seattle, USA
• Second Avenue Subway, New York City, USA
• Seikan Tunnel in Japan
• Shanghai Metro, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
• Jakarta Mass Rapid Transportation Project, Jakarta, Indonesia
• Transcontinental railroads
• Washington Metro, Washington, D.C., USA
• Transit City, Toronto, Canada
• Taiwan High Speed Rail, Taiwan, ROC
Road traffic projects
• Bang Na Expressway, Thailand, Bang Na Expressway- World's longest bridge by one reading (most of it isn't a bridge.)
• Sunda Strait Bridge, Indonesia, Southeast-asian longest oversea bridge
• Rio-Antirio Bridge, Greece, Europe's largest cable-stayed bridge
• Rio-Niterói Bridge, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Egnatia Odos, Greece
• A1 (Croatia) between Zagreb and Split, with extension being built to Dubrovnik, Croatia
• A3 motorway (Romania) between Braşov and Oradea
• A4 motorway (Romania) between Iaşi and Târgu Mureş
• Bundesautobahn 20, Germany
• Central Artery/Tunnel Project, more popularly known as the "Big Dig"), Boston, Massachusetts, USA[3]
• National Highways Development Project, India
• Port Tunnel Dublin, Republic of Ireland
• Expressway Network of the People's Republic of China
• Fehmarn Belt bridge and its connections on land, linking Denmark and Germany
• Interstate Highway System, United States of America
• Millau Viaduct, France
• Oresund Bridge and its connections on land, like the City Tunnel, Malmö.
• Roman road system of antiquity
• Vasco da Gama Bridge, Portugal, Europe's largest bridge
• Karakoram Highway, Pakistan, Highest paved international road in the world
Science projects
• International Space Station, multinational space station in low Earth orbit (1998-2016)
• ITER International nuclear fusion project, in France (Est. 2018)
• Large Hadron Collider 14 TeV particle accelerator, in Switzerland and France (2008)
• Superconducting Super Collider, canceled 40 TeV particle accelerator, in Texas (1991-1993)
• Manhattan Project, in the United States (1945)
• Project Apollo (1960-1975)
• Soviet Moonshot, canceled moon landing program (1962-1969)
• Project Constellation, planned moon landing spacecraft and space shuttle replacement (Ongoing)
• Space Shuttle program (1972-2010)
• Buran program, canceled space shuttle program (1980-1993)
• Human Genome Project, investigation to determine human genetic code (Ongoing)
Urban projects
• HafenCity in Hamburg, Germany
• Brasília in Brazil
• Jakarta Waterfront City, in Jakarta, Indonesia
• Satrio International Tourism and Shopping belt, in Jakarta, Indonesia
• Ciudad Universitaria in Mexico City, Mexico
• Dubailand in Dubai
• Esplanada City Center, Bucharest, Romania
• Expo 98/Park of the Nations in Lisbon, Portugal
• Iskandar Development Region in Johor, Malaysia
• Putrajaya, Malaysia
• King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia
• La Défense in Paris, France
• Liverpool One, Liverpool, England
• Lusail City, Doha, Qatar
• Moscow-City in Moscow, Russia
• New Songdo City in Incheon, South Korea
• Okhta Center in Saint Petersburg, Russia
• Pagcor City in Metro Manila, The Philippines
• Palm Islands, The World (archipelago) and Dubai Waterfront in Dubai
• Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany
• Project CityCenter in Las Vegas, USA
• Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Water infrastructure projects
• Chicago River reversing its course, Chicago
• Deep Tunnel Project, Chicago
• Delta Works, Netherlands
• East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland, California, USA[4]
• Great Manmade River, Libya
• G-Cans project, Saitama, Japan
• HaMovil HaArtzi (National Water Carrier), Israel
• MOSE Project, Venice, Italy
• Zuiderzee Works, Netherlands
• New York City Water Tunnel No. 3, New York, New York
• Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Snowy Mountains Scheme in New South Wales/Victoria, Australia
• South-North Water Transfer Project, China
• State Water Project, California
• Thames Tideway Scheme, London, United Kingdom
• Thames Barrier, London, United Kingdom
Climate and environmental change projects
• Proposed sahara forest project
• Seawater Greenhouse
• Great Plains Shelterbelt
• Green Wall of China
• Aerially Delivered Re-forestation and Erosion Control System
Aerospace projects
• Airbus A380 (2007)
• B-2 Spirit (1997)
• Boeing 747 (1970)
• Eurofighter Typhoon (2003)
• F-22 Raptor (2005)
• Joint Strike Fighter (In progress)
• KH-11 reconnaissance satellite (1976-1990)
Airport projects
• Abu Dhabi International Airport, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
• Alcochete Airport, Portugal
• Athens International Airport, Athens, Greece
• Indira Gandhi International Airport, New Delhi, India
• New Islamabad International Airport, Islamabad, Pakistan
• Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing, People's Republic of China
• Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport, Berlin, Germany
• Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado, USA
• Diosdado Macapagal International Airport, Manila, Philippines
• Dubai International Airport, Dubai, UAE
• Dubai World Central International Airport, Jebel Ali, UAE
• Frankfurt Airport, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
• Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China
• Incheon International Airport, Incheon, South Korea
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
• Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong, China
• Kansai International Airport, Japan
• Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Malaysia
• London Heathrow Airport, Terminal 5, London, UK
• Long Thanh International Airport, Vietnam
• Madrid Barajas International Airport, Madrid, Spain
• O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, USA
• Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok, Thailand
• New Doha International Airport, Doha, Qatar
Building projects
• The Centaurus, Islamabad, Pakistan (Est. 2010)
• World Trade Center, New York City, New York (1973)
• Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Central Station), Berlin, Germany (2006)
• Burj Dubai, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Est. 2009)
• Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York, USA (1978)
• Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, USA (2009)
• Jamuna Future Park in Dhaka, Bangladesh (Est. 2010)
• Pagcor Tower, Manila, Philippines (Est. 2012)
• Jakarta Tower, Jakarta, Indonesia (Est. 2011)
• Palace of the Parliament, Bucharest, Romania (1989)
• Parliament House, Canberra, Australia (1988)
• Petronas Twin Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1998)
• Sydney Opera House, Australia (1973)
• Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC (2004)
• The new Wembley Stadium in London, UK (2007)
• CN Tower, Toronto, Canada (1976)
• Sears Tower, Chicago, USA (1973)
• Empire State building, New York City, USA (1931)
Canal projects
• Arabian Canal, United Arab Emirates
• Danube-Black Sea Canal, Romania
• Erie Canal, New York
• Grand Canal, China
• Grand Korean Waterway
• Kiel Canal, Germany
• Panama Canal and Panama Canal expansion project, Panama
• Suez Canal, Egypt
• Welland Canal, Ontario, Canada
Dam Projects
• Aswan Dam, Egypt
• Katse Dam, Lesotho
• Alqueva, Portugal
• Hoover Dam, USA
• Itaipu, Brazil
• Sayano–Shushenskaya Dam, Russia (1961-78)
• Three Gorges Dam, China
• Tennessee Valley Authority, USA
• The Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project, Iceland
• Diamer-Bhasha dam, Pakistan
Defense Projects
• Great Wall of China
• Maginot Line
• Hadrian's Wall, UK
• Strategic Defense Initiative (never fully implemented)
• Manhattan Project and other nuclear weapons programs, including the one that built the Tsar Bomba
• Željava Air Base
International Sports infrastructure projects
• Cricket World Cup
• FIFA World Cup
• Olympic Games
• Rugby World Cup
IT projects
• Enabling Grids for E-sciencE: Multi-science Grid infrastructure for the European Research Area. Already largest multi-science Grid infrastructure in the world and expected to greatly expand once the LHC is completed.
• National Programme for IT for England's National Health Service
• Navy/Marine Corps Intranet
• IBM 360
• The National Broadband Network, a FTTP network under construction in Australia, proposing to reach 90% of homes.
Oil and Gas projects
• Southstream pipeline
• Athabasca Oil Sands
• Corrib Gas Project
• Hibernia
• Nord Stream
• Sakhalin-I
• Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
• Peregrino
Port projects
• Punta Colonet in Baja California, Mexico
• Port of Rotterdam
• Yangshan port.
• Port of Sines, Portugal
Rail and rapid transit projects
• Beijing Subway, Beijing, People's Republic of China
• Athens Metro, Athens, Greece
• Bay Area Rapid Transit System, San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
• Extension of Line 1 Lima Metro
• Canada Line in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Crossrail, London, UK
• North West Metro between the CBD and Northwestern suburbs of Sydney, Australia
• Channel tunnel between France and the UK
• Delhi Metro, New Delhi, India
• Dubai Metro in Dubai
• Gautrain in Gauteng, South Africa between Johannesburg and Pretoria
• Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland.
• Great Belt Fixed Link, Denmark
• High Speed 1, Ebbsfleet International, London, UK
• High-speed railway to Jerusalem, (Israel Railways), Israel
• London Underground
• Marmaray in Istanbul, Turkey, an express railway system connecting Europe and Asia under waters of Bosphorus.
• Qingzang railway in Qinghai and Tibet, China
• Seattle Light Rail, Seattle, USA
• Second Avenue Subway, New York City, USA
• Seikan Tunnel in Japan
• Shanghai Metro, Shanghai, People's Republic of China
• Jakarta Mass Rapid Transportation Project, Jakarta, Indonesia
• Transcontinental railroads
• Washington Metro, Washington, D.C., USA
• Transit City, Toronto, Canada
• Taiwan High Speed Rail, Taiwan, ROC
Road traffic projects
• Bang Na Expressway, Thailand, Bang Na Expressway- World's longest bridge by one reading (most of it isn't a bridge.)
• Sunda Strait Bridge, Indonesia, Southeast-asian longest oversea bridge
• Rio-Antirio Bridge, Greece, Europe's largest cable-stayed bridge
• Rio-Niterói Bridge, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
• Egnatia Odos, Greece
• A1 (Croatia) between Zagreb and Split, with extension being built to Dubrovnik, Croatia
• A3 motorway (Romania) between Braşov and Oradea
• A4 motorway (Romania) between Iaşi and Târgu Mureş
• Bundesautobahn 20, Germany
• Central Artery/Tunnel Project, more popularly known as the "Big Dig"), Boston, Massachusetts, USA[3]
• National Highways Development Project, India
• Port Tunnel Dublin, Republic of Ireland
• Expressway Network of the People's Republic of China
• Fehmarn Belt bridge and its connections on land, linking Denmark and Germany
• Interstate Highway System, United States of America
• Millau Viaduct, France
• Oresund Bridge and its connections on land, like the City Tunnel, Malmö.
• Roman road system of antiquity
• Vasco da Gama Bridge, Portugal, Europe's largest bridge
• Karakoram Highway, Pakistan, Highest paved international road in the world
Science projects
• International Space Station, multinational space station in low Earth orbit (1998-2016)
• ITER International nuclear fusion project, in France (Est. 2018)
• Large Hadron Collider 14 TeV particle accelerator, in Switzerland and France (2008)
• Superconducting Super Collider, canceled 40 TeV particle accelerator, in Texas (1991-1993)
• Manhattan Project, in the United States (1945)
• Project Apollo (1960-1975)
• Soviet Moonshot, canceled moon landing program (1962-1969)
• Project Constellation, planned moon landing spacecraft and space shuttle replacement (Ongoing)
• Space Shuttle program (1972-2010)
• Buran program, canceled space shuttle program (1980-1993)
• Human Genome Project, investigation to determine human genetic code (Ongoing)
Urban projects
• HafenCity in Hamburg, Germany
• Brasília in Brazil
• Jakarta Waterfront City, in Jakarta, Indonesia
• Satrio International Tourism and Shopping belt, in Jakarta, Indonesia
• Ciudad Universitaria in Mexico City, Mexico
• Dubailand in Dubai
• Esplanada City Center, Bucharest, Romania
• Expo 98/Park of the Nations in Lisbon, Portugal
• Iskandar Development Region in Johor, Malaysia
• Putrajaya, Malaysia
• King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia
• La Défense in Paris, France
• Liverpool One, Liverpool, England
• Lusail City, Doha, Qatar
• Moscow-City in Moscow, Russia
• New Songdo City in Incheon, South Korea
• Okhta Center in Saint Petersburg, Russia
• Pagcor City in Metro Manila, The Philippines
• Palm Islands, The World (archipelago) and Dubai Waterfront in Dubai
• Potsdamer Platz in Berlin, Germany
• Project CityCenter in Las Vegas, USA
• Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Water infrastructure projects
• Chicago River reversing its course, Chicago
• Deep Tunnel Project, Chicago
• Delta Works, Netherlands
• East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland, California, USA[4]
• Great Manmade River, Libya
• G-Cans project, Saitama, Japan
• HaMovil HaArtzi (National Water Carrier), Israel
• MOSE Project, Venice, Italy
• Zuiderzee Works, Netherlands
• New York City Water Tunnel No. 3, New York, New York
• Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel (SMART), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
• Snowy Mountains Scheme in New South Wales/Victoria, Australia
• South-North Water Transfer Project, China
• State Water Project, California
• Thames Tideway Scheme, London, United Kingdom
• Thames Barrier, London, United Kingdom
Climate and environmental change projects
• Proposed sahara forest project
• Seawater Greenhouse
• Great Plains Shelterbelt
• Green Wall of China
• Aerially Delivered Re-forestation and Erosion Control System
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