Integrated Risk Management Plan: Fire Safety Inspection Program for Fire Prevention in Lancashire - Case Study Example

1. Summary of recommendations IRMP is an acronym for Integrated Risk Management Plan. It involves improvement of the safety of the public, reduction of emergency incident numbers and life saving. The project employs this method in prevention, protection and restoration of lives from fires in Lancashire. The project aims at ensuring that the fire emergence response services are available at the right place and time in Lancashire. The project will involve identification of the risks that already exist, evaluation of how to attend to these risks, identification of ways to improve the situation, determination of standards and policies in place and determination of the available resources. Any future improvements will be done in consultation with the residents and other stake holders. The public will be offered education on how to prevent the occurrence of these fires. They will be made to understand on the importance of prevention rather than responding to outbreaks. The fire safety inspection program will be initiated in the area to ensure that all precautions regarding fire outbreak prevention are undertaken by the residents of Lancashire. To achieve this, PRINCE2 methodology will be used in the implementation of the project. This methodology is chosen because it focuses on delivering products which is essential in this case of high rates of fire outbreaks in Lancashire. This will ensure that the anticipated reduction of fire outbreaks is achieved rather than trying to extinguish the fires. This methodology will also allow identification of risk records; their grading and reporting of the lessons learned which could be applied to similar or related projects. This will be much cost effective because the method allows division into small units which can be managed easily. The small units necessitate proper management of costs and other related resources with overall outcome of saving on the costs. In addition, each process is able to be closely monitored according to the plan of costs and expected results. This allows the managers to strictly follow the budget and thus no extra costs are incurred outside the budget. The method is chosen because it is a standard method, the language used is common, decision making process is flexible, it allows reviews, possible problems can be identified in early stages, communication within the team and the stakeholders is highly possible, it is easy to manage deviations from the project and the satisfaction of the consumers is improved. The common language enhances communication among team members and thus the output is improved. Deviations from the plan can be managed easily because the method allows controlled change hence enhancing decision making process. 2. Anticipated human resource issues during the project Issues management is very important for quality management according to PRINCE2 management methodology. The management of these issues in PRINCE2 methodology involves description of the issues, their evaluation, making decisions about the issues and the status of the issues. In this IRMP project in Lancashire various human resource issues are expected to arise during the project implementation. The high numbers of fire outbreaks in the region imply that very few people are informed or have knowledge on fire and rescue strategies. Since the PRINCE2 methodology does not cover negotiation and pre-assignment of staff getting well trained personnel in the region will pose a problem. Since PRINCE2 methodology do not consider team development the cost of getting staff outside the region are likely to escalate. Thus the project manager is likely to face budget constraints. This is because the area affected is vast and may require many employees. This may impact negatively on the available funds for running other activities if the management chooses to have a large support staff. To partly solve this, the management will need to employ personnel from outside Lancashire. The costs may be reduced by having well trained support staff who could assist in on job training for undertrained staff to be employed. Even though the project aspires to have employees with ability to multitask, the use of few employees will imply that the time required to accomplish the project may be prolonged. This will mean that the fires will continue ravaging the area for a longer time. Therefore the management will be faced with time constraints if they choose to have a lean team. Thus the management will need to juggle between time constraints and budget constraints to achieve its objectives of covering a large part of Lancashire without compromising any set objective. The management could solve this problem at initiation stage of the project by advocating more funds from the stakeholders to fund the employment of well trained personnel for better output and reduced project time. They will need to argue their case very well to convince the stakeholders on the need for an increased well trained manpower. The fact that there is no team building and performance appraisal in PRINCE2 methodology is likely to impact negatively on the performance of the employees. This could be addressed by motivating the workers through provision of good working environment and improved communication between the management and the employees. 3. Issues concerning developing into a project manager anticipated during the project I anticipate improving my visionary element during the process of running my project. I will try to create a vision for the expected results and the mission of the project so that from it we can outline the vision of the project. This will create a basis for motivation of all the teams involved in the project since it will define what i expect from them. I will also try to ensure that all involved in the implementation of the project make sense out of what we will be doing so as to achieve our vision. I will also try to build on my greatness as a leader through striving very hard in order to achieve all set objectives on time and budget. I will ensure that all those involved in the running of the project work as a team and are proud of being part of it by encouraging excellence in all we shall be doing. In addition, I will try to encourage team members to develop positive attitude toward being honesty, hardworking, righteous, ethical, and trustworthy. I will try to enhance my leadership skills through improvising better ways to communicate to both stakeholders and team members. I will also try to improve on my speaking skills to enhance my skills of presentation. I will build a good self image by being exemplary in whatever I expect my team members to do. To brand my self I will strive to live my values and behavior such as being just, ethical and honest. To develop my management skills a will strive to accomplish all the set goals on time, motivate my team members by giving them some freedom of choice and independency in addition to recognizing those who will show outstanding achievements in their work. To enhance my planning capability, I will try to engage all the stakeholders democratically to ensure all expected activities are catered for. For quality assurance of the project I will try to identify best fitted individuals for different duties and ensure monitoring of all tasks through support staff that will be answerable to me. I will use the qualified staff and close monitoring to help me achieve and accomplish my objectives on time. 4. Leadership skills in relation to project management The success of a project depends on the development level of leadership of the project manager. The skills of leadership need to be used throughout the lifecycle of the project. The delivery of the project is a responsibility of the project managers and they can have a negative or positive impact on the project. Being able to apply the management methodologies, techniques and tools require leadership skills. Servitude is an essential leadership skill in the initiation of the project. This skill has enabled me to explore various possibilities of the project plan for the IRMP project in Lancashire and related costs. This has enabled me to identify and meet the needs of my team of employees. It has also enabled me to remove their barriers in terms of their differences in knowledge and enabled them to appreciate the ability of each other in the team. For better planning, skills such as being able to engage stakeholder democratically and identifying the right people for the roles they are suited to undertake, are essential. These skills have enabled me to engage the stakeholders concerned with fire outbreaks in Lancashire democratically to be able to support the project. The project manager also needs to have skills of developing bureaucracies in the project control alongside setting standards for the team and delegating duties to be successful in his or her duties. Even though I did not develop bureaucracies in the project I aspire to do so in future projects since this inability left me doing a lot of tasks at the same time. Bureaucracies will involve dividing the teams into smaller units which will be managed by different heads; these heads will then be supervised by several supervisors and the supervisors will be under my supervison. This will lower the workload for me and improve efficiency among different teams. The ability to delegate duties was of much help to me during this project since many activities were able to be performed concurrently. Leadership skills such as being exemplary, effective management of meetings and focusing on the orientation of people and promoting consultation spirit are essential for the project manager. In most of the tasks I set standards which were followed by my teammates and promoted consultation spirit among the members which was much beneficial since no one did anything that he had no knowledge of without consulting and the results were very good. The project manager also needs to have support team to ensure things are done without him being around. I did not have support team in this project and this left me at the end of the day since I had to be everywhere supervising various activities. This was impossible in most cases and a lot of time was lost. Thus in subsequent projects this will be a skill that will help me much. 5. Comparison of PRINCE2 theory and PMBOK theory PRINCE2 methodology has various advantages over PMBOK methodology. Prior to the start of the project, PRINCE2 holds discussion on plans of the project which is not seen in the PMBOK. In addition, PRINCE2 methodology provides control for the change in the plan while PMBOK only mentions the need for it. Furthermore there is much configuration management in PRINCE2 methodology which is not found in the PMBOK methodology. Moreover PRINCE2 provides team and stage plans which are just talked about as project plan in PMBOK methodology. The project management team is offered standard roles in the PRINCE2 methodology while PMBOK lacks such roles. Finally the planning process of PMBOK is very sketch in comparison to the comprehensive product based plan of the PRINCE2 methodology. PMBOK also have some advantages over the PRINCE2 methodology. The PMBOK carries out the actual procurement and pre-assignment for the members of the team which is not done in the PRINCE2 methodology. In addition, the human resource management to be covered in the project is identified in the PMBOK whereas PRINCE2 does not identify these needs. If the PMBOK methodology could have been employed in this project the human resource issues that arose could not arise. For instance the issues related to acquiring well trained staff and their payments would have been negotiated with the prospective employees prior to being hired. Thus, there would be no additional costs expected in the process of implementing the project. In addition, the procurement could have been done and the needs for the team members could have been done in detail. Therefore, the project would run on schedule and time and cost constraints will be limited during the implementation process. Since the plan is discussed prior to initiation of the project, the scope of the project is expected to go as per the plan and therefore little if any scope constraints will be experienced. However, issues which needed to be managed would have been mentioned as requiring to be managed but nothing could be done using PMBOK methodology. This could have altered the quality of the outcome of the project since issue management is vital for the maturity of the management methodology. 6. A report on the success of the IRMP project The success of this project is attributed to the PRINCE2 methodology which was employed. It enabled prior planning of all activities to be undertaken throughout the project. This allowed for proper preparation and acquiring of all the required personnel and equipment required in the project. In addition, the management configuration was carried out and this ensured that all goals and objectives of the project were to be attended to. Furthermore, the PRINCE methodology allowed the allocation of standard roles to the management teams which ensured efficiency in the accomplishment of the project’s goals and objectives. Finally the product based planning which was carried out enabled the set objectives to be easily accomplished. In addition to methodology, the leadership skills which enabled us to apply the management methodologies, techniques and tools were very vital in the success of the project. Skills such as servitude, being able to engage stakeholders democratically and to identify people who are suited for certain tasks, ability to develop bureaucracies and to delegate duties, being exemplary and being able to form support staff and to consult were very instrumental in the success of our project. However, the project faced some management and human resources issues concerning time, scope and budget constraints in addition to lack of team building and performance appraisal which are not found in the PRINCE2 methodology. Therefore, anyone who intends to be a project manager needs to address these issues for the success of his or her project. Read More