Applied Project Management Assignment Sample

Applied Project Management

Introduction

Managing a project is in itself a great challenge for the project manager. There are different plans that are needed to be formulated prior to starting the project.   The first and foremost is to develop and understand the project goals. In addition to this, there are many constraints, such as budget, time, scope, and quality (McChrystal, et.al, 2015). This report provides a piece of complete information about different aspects of a project. Various plans, such as HR Management Plan, Communication Plan, Stakeholder Management Plan, and Pertinent Subsidiary Plans. All these are formulated in the context of a project "Building Victorian Public Schools” undertaken by ADCO Constructions Pty Ltd. All these plans contain various subparts that are to be covered in this report.

Organisation’s Background

ADCO Constructions Pty Ltd is one of the leading construction organisations that deal in building and construction services within Australia. It was founded in 1972 and is headquartered in NSW. Its services are design and construction, contractor management, cost planning services, contractor involvement, etc. The company provides its services in different sectors, such as aviation, aged care, education, health, retail, and much more. Its 2018 revenue was nearly $1 billion. At present, it is one of the top 100 private companies in Australia.

Project Overview

The project of building Victoria Public School is a government undertaking. The aim of this project is to build public schools, thereby providing education to each and every child in every area and every community. ADCO has won the tender for building Victorian Public School that has a value of $150 million. Eight new primary schools will be built by 2020. Upon timely completion of Richmond High School, Victorian School Building Authority (VSBA) gain confidence in the company. At present, ADCO has demonstrated key challenges and prepared the plans to manage this government school building project.

Project Charter

Stakeholders’ Register

HR Management Plan

In this part, the importance and purpose of the human resource management plan. It provides a general description of how different operations can be carried out on a project and how resources can be arranged and managed. The ultimate goal of HR Management plan is to smoothen the workflow and provide and manage resources to complete the project well on time and within the stipulated budget (McChrystal, et.al, 2015).

Roles&Responsibilities

It is important for a successful project that each and every member associated with the project should be cleared about their roles and responsibilities. It also depends on the organisational structure that one member can have multiple roles and responsibilities. The team members working on this project has varying authority and different degree of responsibility (Mitchell, & Golden, 2012). In roles, the major focus is on the portion of a project for which a member of the team is answerable and accountable. In addition to this, responsibilities are emphasising on the work a team member performs to complete the work. For this construction of Victorian Public School project, the roles and responsibilities have been defined below:-

• Project Manager:The Project manager is responsible for the completion of the project and its ultimate success. He is responsible for authorising and approving each and every expenditure associated with the project. Furthermore, he is also responsible for approving that work activity that is meeting the required standards and quality criteria and is also within acceptable variance (McChrystal, et.al, 2015). In addition to this, the PM is responsible for checking the progress of the project as per the schedule and outlining the bottlenecks in the project. Another duty of the PM is to keep a record of the employees’ performance for rewarding their efforts. This would help in motivating employees in the due course of the project (Leach 2014). He along with the HR manager acquire the best talent and experienced personnel for the project and getting the things done well on time. The following qualities are needed in a PM: leadership, budgeting, effective communication, and scheduling (Mitchell, & Golden, 2012).).
• Designing Head:The role of the designing head is to design the structures and building along with the basic facilities on the premises. He is responsible for gathering site details and measurement for the final design proposal. The DE is for setting the standards as per the bye-laws, design upgrade as per the clients' requirement, and testing the operation. He is also required to help in the implementation of the project, monitoring the project progress, review the final task and submit the final report to the project manager (Leach 2014). He cannot authorise any bill or payment. It is required from a DE to have a proficiency in AutoCAD, 3D Max, Photoshop, and Vectorworks.
• HR Manager:The HR manager is required to work closely with the Project Manager to keep control over all the requirement of the project and provide or arrange sources from outside or inside the organisation to get the project flow going and growing. She is required to hire new workers to complete the scheduled tasks and provide the training to the existing ones. The HR is also liable to give an update of the training programme to the PM. She is also liable to keep a track record of the performance of the employees and motivates the employees in order to avoid them getting affected by burnout. She serves as the link between the senior management and the lower level employees. She is required to have proficient communication skills, managing skills, time management, and planning skills.
• Finance Manager:the finance manager is not a part of the project but is required to provide and manage the funds as per the project plan. He is required to work with PM in budgeting and arranging funds for carrying out the daily operations and project tasks. The finance manager is required to release the funds to provide salaries to the employees and rewards if any, such as bonuses. The skills that are must for the finance manager comprise budgeting, planning, and analysing skills. In addition to this, he should be proficient in basic budgeting software, such as Tally, MS Excel, etc.
• Team Members:These members comprise lower level executives, construction workers, and other staff. These are the backbone of every project as they are the ones who will carry out all the operation in this project. Hence, they have the most important responsibility with less authority. Most of the time, they are being directed by their seniors and they are allotted tasks to complete on a daily basis. All that is required from them is to follow the directions and guidelines set by their senior.

Project Organisation Charts

This section gives a tabular display of the complete project operations and team members. The purpose of providing this organisation charts is to illustrate the roles and responsibilities of the team members so that they could relate to the project process. In this project, Responsible, Accountable, Consult, and Inform (RACI) has been used to assist in communicating responsibilities and roles for the team working on the project. In addition to this, the organisational structure may be used to assign the responsibilities by the department.  

Staffing Management Plan

This part is interesting as it consists of information on different areas including staff acquisition, the time at which the resources are required or may be released, training needs of the employees, methods for reviewing performances, and rewarding and recognition system to be used. The staffing management plan is a part of the project scope.

Staff acquisition

For the construction of the eight Victorian Public School within 12 months of time, ADCO would be needing a large workforce and staff. The first thing ADCO is sure about is that it won't be outsourcing any operation in the project in order to have a maximum amount of profit. The PM is required to work with the HR manager and finance manager to arrange the workforce and other resources well on time (Qarase, 2012). All the teams working on the project are required to send the requirement for their requirement for the workforce. All resources would be required to be approved by the project manager and the HR manager. The project team will be relocated to the site in order to fulfil the workforce requirement. The rest need would be fulfilled by hiring experienced employees.

Resource Calendars

The construction project will last in 12 months. All resources, such as pieces of machinery, workforce, and other resources are required to be arranged and hired for at least 12 months. The designing head is required to work 40 hours a week for the first three months of the project. The PM is also required to work the same amount of hours per week as during the first three months, the work is crucial and needs regular guidance (McChrystal, et.al, 2015). The employees have to give at least 8 hours daily for 6 days a week. In addition to this, the company is also providing overtime option.

Training needs

Until the project manager does not hire new employees, there is no need for providing training. However, in this project, the PM would be hiring new employees and hence, they need basic training of the construction project.The PM is required to identify the training needs and sanction funds for the same (Leach, 2014).

Recognition and rewards

The project manager will be reviewing the performance of the team members along with the other team heads and communicate all the criteria based on which their performance will be judged. The evaluation will be done throughout the whole project and every team member is aware of it (Qarase, 2012). The PM will meet the team leaders to get the information of their team member's performance and their weaknesses to provide the right training to them. After thesuccessful completion of the project, all the team members will be rewarded as per their performance (Akkerman, et.al, 2015).

Communication Plan

For the project manager, there are hundreds of responsibilities to handle at the same time and that comprise delegating tasks, evaluating the project tasks regularly to remove any bottlenecks and making sure that whatever an employee does, it should contribute somewhere to the accomplishment of the goals of the project. In other words, they should have the same goals as that of the company's goals (Rue, et.al, 2014). It is a fact that no project can be successful without a project management plan and a communication plan.

A communication plan is a part of a project management plan that determines how significant data and information will be conveyed to all the stakeholders of a project in the due course of the project. In addition to this, it also determines who will be getting what information and through what channels and in what form. In this project, a communication plan is provided below that comprises communication matrix, key messages, type of information that has to be communicated, and much more.

Key Challenges and Communication Response

Key Messages

• Title of Project: Construction of Victorian Public School
• Purpose of Project: To build world-class schools with all facilities for children to get a quality education at a very low price.
• Benefits of Project: The benefits of this project is that ADCO might be able to add more value to its business bottom-line. It will improve the market credibility of ADCO in delivering final project outcomes on time (Grahamand Harvey, 2012). ADCO will be able to benefit the local community by building schools for them. In addition to this, the reputation of the company among the local community and employees might get improved (Mitchell, & Golden, 2012).).
• Project’s impact on ADCO: If this project gets completed well on time or before the stipulated time, then ADCO might get other projects easily as it will add more value to the brand image of ADCO. The company won the contract after completing its previous project before time, thereby reflecting its credibility.

Project Management Information System (PMIS)

The project management system is the tool that is used in managing the project to deliver and store information regarding different aspects of a project. Majority of the project managers use this tool to collect, store, and distribute data and information manually or via some electronic means. The best part of such tools is that it can be used by both senior as well as lower level management (Murphy and Simon, 2012). There are various types of PMIS that are being used in a different project. For example Oracle, ERP, SAP, OLS, IBM, etc. In this project, it is proposed that ADCO should make use ERP as its project management information system (PMIS). This would help in planning, executing, and closing project management goals. The project manager can employ ERP for a budget framework like preparing project budget and managing daily expenses. In addition to this, the information of each and every employee working on the project and what tasks have been given to them on a daily or weekly basis can be stored and referred. In addition to this, he can also store the performance data of each employee while working on the project. This would help in rewarding and providing bonuses to the employees (Murphy and Simon, 2012).

Apart from this, there are other benefits of these systems that can be reaped out by ADCO. The first and foremost is that the project manager can make use of ERP for resource scheduling and preparing timelines. In addition to this, any important or crucial information for the project can also be conveyed to all the stakeholders in a very convenient and hassle-free way.The PMIS can also be used to define the scope baseline for this construction project (Badewiand Shehab, 2016). In addition to this, the project manager can be able to manage materials, keep a record of them, and collect financial data. Furthermore, during the closure phase, the PMIS can be used to review the goals to check whether or not the tasks are accomplished. As the project is required to be completed within 12 months of time, ERP can be the right tool as it improves the efficiency of the teamand team members (Rue, et.al, 2014). The communication process is improved by making use of ERP as it improves reporting and planning.

Project Stakeholder Management Plan

Stakeholders Management comprises processes that are significant for identifying people, groups, and firms that might get affected by the project or vice versa. In addition to this, it is about analysing stakeholders’ expectations and their likely effect on the project (Crawford, 2014). Furthermore, it also consists of formulating strategies and tactics for engaging stakeholders in a way that is appropriate to the interest of stakeholders’ interest and involvement in the project. The overall aim of formulating stakeholder analysis plan is to gain support for the project and determine the likely resistance, source of conflict, or objectives of the project's stakeholders. There are many sections of the stakeholder management plan that has been discussed here.

Stakeholder Power Analysis

In order to prepare an effective stakeholder management plan, it is important to first identify and assess the stakeholders. This can be done by performing stakeholder analysis, wherein potential stakeholders and their information, such as involvement, interest, interdependencies, and potential impact on project are collected and analysed. It is important to note here that the impact is measured by stating High, Medium, and Low as per their respective impact or involvement in the project. To confirm the identification of stakeholder and analysis process, it has to be accurate (Crawford, 2014). The Project manager will assist in facilitating a series of interviews. In addition to this, optional qualitative interviews might be performed for collecting data of stakeholders. The key benefits of this process are that it facilitates a clear, actionable plan to interact with different stakeholders associated with the project. This would need the support and cooperation of stakeholders.

Stakeholder engagement analysis

Based on the information gathered in the aforementioned stakeholder analysis and communication plan, it is the responsibility of the project manager to keep the stakeholder engaged throughout the life of the project. However, it has been seen that the level of engagement varies with the course of the project. For instance, during the initial stage of a project, it is significant for the project manager to engage each and every stakeholder and that too with a high level of engagement (Rue, et.al, 2014). The reason for which is that a highly engaged stakeholder in the initial stage of a project is pivotal for the head start of the project and achieving employees buying and discarding challenges that might have a negative impact on the pace of the project. As the project proceeds, the engagement level of stakeholders of the project will get shifted to the end users and the wider project team (Grahamand Harvey, 2012).

To make sure that the right level of engagement is achieved by every stakeholder, the Project Manager will require to evaluate the current level of engagement by making use of PMBOK Stakeholders Engagement Assessment Matrix (Ajodhia, 2012). The major point to note here is that each and every aforementioned stakeholder will be analysed in terms of their existing and desired level of engagement in the project (Crawford, 2014).

From the above matrix, it is cleared that the majority of the stakeholders that are directly associated with the project and ADCO are supportive and are actively contributing to the project. However, it is also cleared that the client which is Victorian Government is resistant. The clients might want changes in the drawings or in the structure which might be increasing the project scope and affecting the project progress.

Control stakeholders

To effectively control the stakeholders and their engagement, the project manager of ADCO will utilise the stakeholder management plan and communication plan and various strategies. These would help in communicating project related information to the key stakeholders mentioned above proactively and timely. The project manager can leverage the information provided in the communication plan (Qarase,   2012). This would be a great help for reducing the resistance from stakeholders and increase their support. Managing the engagement of the stakeholders can be helpful in increasing the probability of success of the project as the stakeholders will help in understanding project goals and objectives.

Another aspect that is discussed here is monitoring the stakeholders’ engagement that aims at monitoring the relationships of stakeholders with the project and adjusting plans and strategies for engaging stakeholders. This requires a deep information analysis and assessing the level of engagement of stakeholders.

Integration

A successful project is based on how well its HR strategy gels with its stakeholder management plan and communication plan in achieving business goals. This depends on managing communication and relations. This can be done by making use of the right HR technology. Everyone in the industry is impacted by different approaches taken up by HR. It is required from the HR manager to engage with each and every stakeholder that might have a significant effect on the project outcome. Only then, one can integrate the HR strategy, stakeholders, and communication plan.

The first and foremost is to understand the local interest of stakeholders. All the stakeholders in the organisation are required to align with the local interest of the company. HR should formulate a model that is centralised and based on policies to make sure that business interests are accomplished during the project. In addition to this, HR is required to develop a proactive, collaborative, and visible experience. She is required to take a collaborative approach that is proactive also. This would help in creating a positive and inclusive environment for work. This would help in creating an engaging environment for people.

The project manager can secure backing and pitch benefits. The PM should make some initiatives to go ahead and search for talent from all across the world. This would help the employees to learn diverse skills and tactics. This would instigate a feeling of engagement in them. To conclude this, it is important for HR to promote sharing responsibilities with employees in order to make them feel valued and ask feedbacks to form them. this would make them engaging in the project.

Conclusion

In this project report, the project management, Stakeholder management, and communication plan in the context of a school construction project undertaking of Victorian Public School Association had been discussed. The project has a market value of $150 Million and the construction work is carried out by ADCO Construction Pvt. Ltd. In the project, different aspects of the aforementioned plan had been elaborated. For instance, in stakeholder analysis, the importance of stakeholder analysis, the significance of identifying stakeholder, and strategies to engage and their analysis as per the guidelines are given by PMBOK had been done. It was identified that the client and employees usually cause resistance in the projected growth. Furthermore, in the communication management plan, key challenges in the communication and strategies to resolve them have been highlighted. Apart from this,key messages for stakeholders to get the idea of the project and its aim and objectives has been provided. This report provided complete information about different aspects of a project. Various plans, such as HR Management Plan, Communication Plan, Stakeholder Management Plan, and Pertinent Subsidiary Plans.

References

• Ajodhia, V., 2012. Integrated cost and quality benchmarking for electricity distribution using DEA.  International Journal of Energy Sector Management,4(3), pp.417-433.
• Akkerman, R., Farahani, P. and Grunow, M., 2012. Quality, safety, and sustainability in food distribution: a review of quantitative operations management approaches and challenges. Or Spectrum,  32(4), pp.863-904.
• Anderson, D.R., Sweeney, D.J., Williams, T.A., Camm, J.D., and Cochran, J.J., 2015. An introduction to management science: quantitative approaches to decision making. Cengage Learning.
• Badewi, A. and Shehab, E., 2016. The impact of organizational project benefits management governance on ERP project success: Neo-institutional theory perspective.  International Journal of Project Management,  34(3), pp.412-428.
• Berger-Walliser, G. and Shrivastava, P., 2014. Beyond Compliance: Sustainable Development, Business, and Proactive Law.   J. Int'l L.,  46, p.417.
• Crawford, J. K. 2014.  Project management maturity model. Auerbach Publications.
• Edvardsson, B. and Enquist, B., 2016. The service excellence and innovation model: lessons from IKEA and other service frontiers.  Total Quality Management & Business Excellence,  22(5), pp.535-551.
• Graham, J. and Harvey, C., 2012. How do CFOs make capital budgeting and capital structure decisions?.  Journal of applied corporate finance,  15(1), pp.8-23.
• Hill, A., and Hill, T., 2012. Operations management. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hirschey, M., 2016.  Managerial Economics. Cengage Learning.
• Ho, W., Xu, X. and Dey, P.K., 2016. Multi-criteria decision making approaches for supplier evaluation and selection: A literature review.European Journal of Operational Research,  202(1), pp.16-24.
• Leach, L. P. 2014.  Critical chain project management. Artech House.
• McChrystal, G. S., Collins, T., Silverman, D., & Fussell, C. 2015. A team of teams: New rules of engagement for a complex world. Penguin.
• Mir, F.A. and Pinnington, A.H., 2014. Exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success.  International journal of project management,  32(2), pp.202-217.
• Mitchell, P., & Golden, R. 2012. Core principles & values of effective team-based health care. National Academy of Sciences.
• Murphy, K.E., and Simon, S.J., 2012. Intangible benefits valuation in ERP projects.  Information Systems Journal,  12(4), pp.301-320.
• Qarase, A. O. 2012. The effect of using the learning cycle method in teaching science on the educational achievement of the sixth graders. International Journal of Educational Sciences, 4(2), 123-132.
• Rue, L., Byars, L., and Ibrahim, N., 2012. Management: Skills & Application. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
• Yeoman, I., Robertson, M., Ali-Knight, J., Drummond, S. and McMahon-Beattie, U. eds., 2012. Festival and events management. Routledge.