Tutorial 6: Project Closure Report

Tutorial 5 - Risk Management on Building of 4 Luxurious Villas in China

Tutorial 4 - AON on Building of 4 Luxurious Villas in China

Tutorial 3 - Return On Investment (ROI)

Activity 4 - Activity on Node

Tutorial 2 - Work Breakdown Schedule (WBS)

Activity 2: Construct a 2 Storey Building on the Left – Wing of the area with a budget of S$10million and a completion schedule of 2 years

1. Initiation
i) Gather all stakeholders for meeting/discussion.
ii) Setting up project office at site.

2. Planning
i) Create a Project Plan
ii) Create Resource Plan
iii) Create Financial Plan
iv) Quality Plan
v) Risk Plan
vi) Communication Plan
vii) Procurement Plan
viii) Contract the Suppliers

3. Execution Processes
i) Build Deliverables
ii) Monitor and Control
- Perform Time Management
- Perform Cost Management
- Perform Change Management
- Perform Quality Management
- Perform Risk Management
- Perform Issue Management
- Perform Procurement Management
- Perform Acceptance Management
- Perform Procurement Management

4. Closure
i) Perform Project Closure
ii) Review Project Completion

Activity 1 - The Top 10 Signs of Project Failure

1.4 Duration Estimates are done by Management

Project failure as one that either goes over budget, over schedule or both, or fails to deliver what the stakeholders actually expected. Every project and organization may differ and should be treated appropriately by using the correct project management and software design methods. Below are the failure factors for duration estimation of a software company.

1. Lack of clear link between the project and the organization’s key strategic priorities, including agreed measures of success.

2. Lack of clear senior management and ministerial ownership and leadership.

3. Lack of effective engagement with stakeholders.

4. Lack of skills and proven approach to project management and risk management.

5. Lack of understanding of and contact with the supply industry at senior levels in the organization.

6. Evaluation of proposals driven by initial price rather than long term value for money (especially securing delivery of business benefits).

7. Too little attention to breaking development and implementation into manageable steps.

8. Inadequate resources and skills to deliver the total delivery portfolio.

Example:

The effort to complete a project is 100 man days but an employee can only spend 80% of their time doing productive work then the duration is 125 days to deliver the project.
Estimation will be affected by a number of factors e.g. sick, holiday, training, going to meetings not related to the project. All the daily tasks that an employee will be expected to undertake. The bottom line is "how productive is a person each day in your organization".


1.10 The Project Manager is too worried about losing job or making people angry.

Being too self conscious about the job safety would hinder the Project Manager's ability to push the project forward. As a project is always filled with unforeseen circumstances, issues like over -budgeting, lack of resources , different views etc may cause a rift between the project team and the stakeholders.


In such situation, Project Manager have to be strong, do not fear to speak up to stakeholders for funds/ resources to push forward the projects.

External or internal stakeholders should be reminded or even rebuked should they do not keep to the dateline as Project Manager is the Managing Director of the project.

Example
A project manager who is afraid of losing his job would not be proactively managing the project as he feared that by being too aggressively and progressive, he might cause the wraths of some of the stakeholders (owners, other project team members).

He would only acts as a site coordinator which coordinates the main contractors with the stakeholders, both internal & external.

A lot of good ideas & innovations may also be refuted due to the manager's fears.

Conclusion

There are lots of debates online about project estimation and ultimately every project will be different because of the people working on it, the technology being used and the expectations of the stakeholders.
Software projects are all about developing new and innovative systems otherwise we would just buy the most appropriate product off the shelf. This means there is no blue print for accurate software estimation – software engineers are not laying bricks to build a house so there is no way to say how many bricks per hour a person can lay and apply that to all projects (the analogy being lines of code = bricks).

Tutorial 1 - Extension of 4 x 3 Bedrooms Luxurious Villas in China

1. Project Objective

i) Increase revenue growth
ii) Meet market demand
iii) Build a globally recognised brand
iv) Provide naturally luxurious, ecologically sensitive, culture awareness experiences for the discerning, responsible traveller

2. Scope of Project - Total Area for 4 Villas: 5,537.18m2

i) Estimated Duration: 10 Months

ii) Estimated Cost: USD 900,000 each ,total USD 3.6 million

iii) Responsibility Matrix: Architectural Designer, Interior Designer, Structural Consultant, M&E Consultant, Quantity Surveyor, Landscape, Costing, Purchasing, Finance, Project Team, Legal, Local Representative.

iv) Current Issues: Budget Constraint, Unrealistic Timeline.

v) Manpower Requirement: Architect x 1, Interior Designer x 1, Structural Consultant x 2, M&E Consultant x 2, Quantity Surveyor x 1,Landscape x 1, Costing x 1, Purchasing x 2, Finance x 1, Project Team x 2, Legal x 1, Local Representative x 1, Main Contractor: Project Manager x 1, Supervisors x 3, Workers x 100 (Carpentary, Building, Landscaping), Sub Contractor: Project Manager x 1, Supervisor x 2, Worker x 20 (Electrical)

vi) Resources Requirement:
- Funding: Create public fund thru listing.
- Building Material: Bricks, Timber, Tiles, Steels
- Infrastructure: Technology
- Utilities: Electricity, Water
- Labour
- Equipment: Forklift, Crane etc..