St Albans Writers Festival in Australia - Managing Project - Case Study Example

NАGING РRОJЕСT СОMРLЕХITY 15327: Creating a specific methodology An Article Submitted By: STUDENT NAME: STUDENT No.: DATE OF SUBMISSION: © 2015 Table of Contents TITLE PAGE 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 INTRODUCTION 3 THE PROJECT 4 Project Description 4 Project background 5 Project Major Constraints 6 PROJECT METHODOLOGY 7 Project Appropriate Tools 12 CONCLUSION 14 REFERENCES 15 INTRODUCTION Management of projects has never been a mean fete in any field. Project sponsors and consultants alike have been reported to experience a myriad of challenges as they attempt to manage their projects to completion (Crawford et al., 2006). The complexity of managing the said projects is dependent on the type of project at hand. In the views of Kathleen (2010), project complexity is defined by the difficulties experienced in integrating the project objectives and aims. Based on the difficulty level of the project, proponents have come up with four categories of projects namely “Simple, Focused, Full-scale, and Complex” as enumerated by Remington et al (2009). Accordingly, a simple project will have a lower degree of difficulty in integrating its requirements when compared to the other types. Similarly, the same type of project will have the least level of risks when in comparison with the rest: implying that each of the four types of project complexities need to be addressed differently. Since the task at hand is to manage project complexity by creating a specific methodology in complex projects, it is important to first of all mention the characteristics of complex projects. According to the definition proffered by the Institute of Project Management (cited in Eisner, 2005), complex projects are usually “large, high risk, long-term, with a multiplicity of stakeholders and team members, demanding multi-million dollar budgets for multiple deliverables”. Thus, managing such project complexity as advised by Pundir et al. (2007) will require well thought-out methodologies as well as dependable risk management tools and techniques. Finding this kind of skillset is the basis of the present article, where the author presents a brief description of the project as well as creating a specific methodology to be used, before making a conclusion. THE PROJECT Project Description The project under discussion is the St Albans Writers’ Festival in Australia. The St Albans Writers’ Festival is an annual event that is organised to give writers, readers and those who love books an opportunity to meet, interact, brainstorm and listen to one another as well as give audience to renowned authors, script writers and poets from all walks of life as they deliberate on their literary works. During this year’s meet, the St Albans Writers’ Festival project will specifically focus on Australian writers and their writing. The arrangements are that presentations will be made to groups of different sizes in five venues located in the village of St Albans. Local residents and visitors will have to secure their prior bookings via the website - www.stalbanswritersfestival.com.au. It will also be to the discretion of the local residents and visitors to choose the presentation they would wish to attend at any one given time of the event duration. According to the posted schedule, a certain activity will be taking place at a specified time and location from Wednesday 16 September 2015 to Thursday 24 September 2015 as indicated in Schedule 1 and Schedule 2 below. Note that the dates have been chosen as the optimum weather periods based on the analysis of weather patterns. Additionally, the Event will be taking place in FIVE locations in the village of St Albans NSW as earlier indicated (See Schedule 2). Schedule 1: Event Date and Time Date Time Event Wednesday 16 September Whole Day Setup Friday 18 September 1900-2100 Opening Saturday 19 September 0930-2130 Presentations and discussions Sunday 20 September 0900-1730 Presentations and discussions Monday 21-Thursday 24 September Whole Day Cleanup Schedule 2: Event Location Venue Location Activity Property Owner St Albans Public Park Wollombi Road, St Albans Festival Centre, registration, informal presentations, coffee cart, food truck, wine and beer sales Hawkesbury City Council St Albans School of Arts Hall 7 Upper Macdonald Road, St Albans Lecture style presentations, book sales, tea and coffee Hawkesbury City Council Settlers Arms Inn Wollombi Road, St Albans Readings, lecture style presentations in addition to normal trading Ian and Gabrielle Burns-Wood Church and church hall of St Alban the Martyr 26 Wharf St., St Albans Lecture style presentations, books sales, tea and coffee Newcastle Church of England Archdiocese Tennis shed Bulga St., St Albans Small workshops Hawkesbury City Council Project Background The St Albans Writers’ Festival project is listed as a ‘non-profit making’ community-based annual event that has always been aimed at celebrating all Australian writers and writing back in 2013. Archived information illustrate that reading is a popular pass time for local residents in Australia. This argument is clearly confirmed by the discovery that St Albans is home to four book clubs and the presence of many more in the immediate vicinity. To further strengthen this preposition, it is indicated that the local community held the first St Albans Book Feast in 2013. Based on the success of this one-day event, a committee of local residents was formed to organise and present another two-day event later. The year that followed, it is indicated in archives that the English Literature and Creative Writing group held three very successful events at the inaugural St Albans Literary Festival on 7 - 9 November 2014. Following these two successes, the St Albans Writers Festival was registered as an ‘incorporated not-for-profit association in February 2015 and has ever since received overwhelming support from the Australian literary community. At the forthcoming event slotted for the 16th of September to 24th September this year, twenty-eight writers will be presenting their work, either individually, as part of a discussion panel or in casual discussion sessions with readers. Moreover, fees have been kept to a minimum, with substantial discounts for local residents and free access for volunteers in an attempt to support the event. Project Major Constraints Just like any other complex project, the St Albans Writers’ Festival project is bound to be faced with the three major constraints described in the Project Management Triangle (adopted by Remington et al., 2009) as ‘Time, Cost, and Scope’. In this project, time will be of the essence because it is an entity usually beyond anyone’s control. To overcome this constraint, it will be imperative to meet all the deadlines in the schedule. Secondly, the project management team in the current assignment has already drawn out an estimated cost, inclusive of 5% contingency fee to comfortably complete the project. This additional provision will ensure that deadlines are met without any adverse effects. Finally, the scope in this project has clearly been spelt-out in the list of deliverables needed to be addressed by the project team. A mix of these three aspects (time, cost, and scope) will definitely ensure quality of our deliverables, which is the ultimate objective of the St Albans Writers’ Festival project initiative. PROJECT METHODOLOGY Each project, notwithstanding its complexity must adopt a certain methodology informed by six processes namely: “pre-initiation, initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, and closing” as noted by Eisner (2005). As the project consultant of a complex project in the nature of the St Albans Writers’ Festival, the author has merged the listed six processes and developed a four-phased methodology deemed to be the ‘best fit’ in line with provisions by Kathleen (2010). In the four-phased methodology so developed, project initiation phase is followed by project planning, project managing, and finally project closeout as described in the sections that follow. Project Initiation Phase The St Albans Writers’ Festival project was initiated as explained in the project background section. For the reason that residents in the Australian village of St Albans are lovers of books and literary works, it was enough precursors for the community to initiate the idea and evaluate the possibility of moving the festival event into a project. During this time, the project idea of providing readers and lovers of literary works a forum to meet and exchange their views was defined, evaluated, and authorised after reliable feasibility studies were conducted. The said feasibility studies were based on the successes of the previous events as demonstrated throughout the background section of this article. On contending that there was a need for creating a forum for these players to meet, then it was imperative to develop a high level of requirements and establish cost estimates concerning the envisioned project as advised by Remington et al. (2009). The preliminary steps involve the identification of the project sponsor to be the overall accountable executive officer, after which the project consultants are assigned to form the project governance. The project governance team for the St Albans Writers’ Festival project comprises of an organising committee made of the executive committee composing of: the President and Public Officer; Vice President; Secretary; and Treasurer, plus other three general members. Additionally, the executive committee at the St Albans Writers’ Festival project forms the Project Review Committee which is mandated to meet regularly and oversee the progress of the project. It is important to note that certain activities abound during the project initiation phase. Firstly, the project review committee (PRC) is the decision-making organ that either makes priorities concerning the execution of the events affecting the festival. The organ consults and provides a forum for any project changes, risks or issues that require discussion and/or resolution in line with the needs of the festival event. After priorities of the project have been identified, the project review committee makes sure that there is effective use of the festival’s resources to meet the cost of the set priorities of the project. This prioritization process depends entirely on the various divisions of the festival considering all those areas that need urgent attention based on the prioritization list. This is really in line with findings by Crawford et al. (2006) who claim that the PRC group in complex projects communicates “division-specific priorities” to the sponsor and other stakeholders in the project. It is therefore the author’s strong belief that review of the project is a key component of the initiation phase. It is also during this phase that any requests concerning remedies to the project can be initiated so that the same can be forwarded for evaluation by the PRC (Eisner, 2005). Moreover, it should be noted that it is during this phase that a functional project manager is assigned to carry out the ‘project scope’ definition in order to get to know its size and hence the amount of resources needed. Determination of the project scope will be guided by the number of deliverables expected to be achieved and probably the amount of time spent in achieving each deliverable as advised by Kathleen (2010). Then finally the project is updated by the PRC after a second round of review before being moved to “Active” status on approval, and is now ready ‘to go’ provided that the necessary resources are available and the assignment of a Project Manager with the prerequisite expertise. Project Planning Phase Project planning phase is the most important stage in project management because it is a process that takes time and attention. The phase describes the actions that are taken in executing the project and identifies the level of effort to be administered through the life of the project as noted by Pundir and colleagues (2007). The key deliverable in this phase is the ‘Project Management Plan’ which is very critical in ensuring the success of the project. The Project Management Plan informs all players of the purpose of the project and the extent of the workload as well as time expectations (Remington et al., 2009). In the project planning phase, the project consultants are required to develop a “Project Scope Statement” that provides the basis for future project decisions. In the views of Crawford et al. (2006), the project scope statement is of singular importance to the project because it sets the overall guidelines as to the size of the project. The underlying content of this statement is to set out the objectives of the project and explain how the same will be achieved. In addition to the Project Management Plan, it is important to develop “Resource Management Plan” by identifying the ‘specific resources’ for each of the required skills in the project according to observations by Eisner (2005). Taking an example of the St Albans Writers’ Festival project, this activity will be undertaken by inviting renowned writers of literary works and script plays as well as poets who have a name to themselves to come and share with their favourite fans. Doing this calls for the commitment of the project consultants, the invited participants as well as the volunteers. Additionally, both the people and the equipment necessary to support those involved in the project must be available at the same time. This requirement is provided in the “Project Work Schedule” as illustrated in Schedule 2 above. The importance of this ‘list of tasks’ is to provide the capability of tracking progress on the project as well as providing a mechanism of setting expectations for what is expected from whom and by when (Remington et al., 2009). This way, responsibilities for everyone are identified and known. The final activity in this phase is to develop “Project Communications Management Plan” which basically defines the information needs of project stakeholders and team members, as well as identifying which people need what information, when it will be needed, and how they will get it (Pundir et al., 2007). This is important because communication explains how work should be performed by different parties within a project. That is why complex projects require ‘formalised communication plans’ as noted by Kathleen (2010). Project Managing Phase This forms the execution and controlling activities of the project management plan where “Product Deliverables” are ‘built, completed, tested, and accepted’ with other deliverables being managed (Crawford et al., 2006). In this phase, the main focus is managing the project by ensuring that all the planned activities are carried out in an effective and efficient manner. Any delay in the finish date of a missed activity may require adjustments to the entire project schedule, resource staffing, and other impacts. Any management lapse therefore is deemed to result in irreparable consequences as advised by Eisner (2005). All the management aspects of the project are bundled up in this phase and may include but not limited to the following. One, scope management ensures that all the elements (e.g., people and requirements) inside and outside the project are properly controlled and managed to avoid any runaway extremities beyond the levels originally spelt out in the project scope statement. Second is schedule management which ensures that the project is within the stipulated timeframe. This activity purposes to establish whether the project is ahead of, or behind the schedule, or what tasks are needed to be completed by what date? In this phase, it is very fundamental to state clearly whether the dates that tasks start and end are accurately documented as well as validating all task relationships and task duration as indicated in the schedule. Remington et al. (2009) further note that project communication is an essential aspect of the project managing phase as it allows passing of relevant information about the progress of the project to everyone involved. All the stakeholders need to be kept abreast of project status. Finally, project cost must also be properly managed to avoid overriding the budgetary estimates for any reason. In case there is a failure to control project costs for any reasons whatsoever, then no doubt that successful completion of the project will be prevented. To forestall this eventuality, it is the advice of the project consultants to project managers to closely monitor the costs as outlined in the procurement plan and take appropriate action in case of any discrepancy. In case of any change effected towards the cost estimates, the same should be appropriately communicated to the stakeholders. This is the first step towards risk management. In fact, Eisner (2005) underscore the importance of early identification, monitoring and resolution of risks in ensuring successful completion of a project and hence its overall quality. Project Closeout Phase The final phase is the closeout phase where all activities across all processes are finalised to close the project. During this phase, it is necessary to take stock of all that transpired throughout the project lifecycle. According to Remington et al. (2009), any new discovery is put in records and archived for future reference. The ‘markers’ of a completed project is when all the defined project tasks and milestones have been achieved and the stakeholders are all satisfied with the project’s deliverables. As it is with the St Albans Writers’ Festival project, this phase will be indicated by closing all the five venues and allowing the participants to go home while the team members will be released to work on the cleanup exercise. Since the cleanup exercise is a stepwise process, it should be clearly coordinated to avoid unnecessary confusions. Project Appropriate Tools and Techniques From the foregoing developed project methodology, it is the author’s informed view to recommend a number of tools and techniques that are deemed appropriate in the eventual completion of this project. From the outset, the author prefers the adoption of ‘adaptive management approaches’ in complex projects. The reason behind this preference resides in the fact that adaptive management approaches complement traditional practices as argued by Kathleen (2010). Since large projects are known to have a great ability to adapt well, then these projects have a high rate of success (Pundir et al., 2007). For this reason therefore, it is only logical to select the adaptive management approach because it is best suited to deal with complex projects. Progressive elaboration is another very appropriate approach to managing complex projects because it allows the project to evolve and bring the solution to the fore. As illustrated by Crawford et al. (2006), progressive elaboration technique allows the project to continuously improve as more information becomes available. The approach works best when the project is planned in bits instead of attempting to plan it in its entirety. The approach is progressive in that one can start by scheduling the tasks that define the basic requirements of the project before addressing those activities that are of complex concepts and are deemed to impose constraints (Kathleen, 2010). When handling complex projects, it is the author’s recommendations to adopt the ‘stage-gate management approach’ which is closely related to the progressive elaboration approach because it enables continuous improvement to the project. In the views of Remington and associates (2009), the “stage-gate management technique” is an important tool that can be used in collecting feedback from both the stakeholders and the team members on a frequent basis. On completing each phase of the project lifecycle, it is necessary to conduct informal team-based quality reviews of deliverables as observed by Eisner (2005). Based on these reviews, the project consultants are now in a position to establish the previous technique that worked well as well as identifying the areas in need of improvements. Consequently, it becomes possible to carry out a formal external quality assurance review of major deliverables so as to institute corrective actions to the anomalies identified. After this, an update of the project cost, schedule, and scope can then be initiated. CONCLUSION In conclusion, it has emerged that managing complexities in projects is really complex in itself depending on the nature of the project at hand. Managing the four categories of projects identified as “simple, focused, full-scale, and complex” calls for different levels of complexity as noted by Kathleen (2010). The more complex a project is, the more difficult it will be to manage. Generally, managing project complexities presents three key constraints of ‘time, cost and scope’ which together contribute towards the quality of the project. Moreover, the present author has recommended the use of a four-phased methodology in project management, suggesting three key appropriate tools at the same time. REFERENCES Crawford, L et al. (2006) ‘Exploring the Role of the Project Sponsor,’ PMI Research Conference, Montreal. Eisner, H. (2005) Managing Complex Systems: Thinking Outside the Box. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Kathleen, B. H. (2010) Managing Complex Projects that are Too Large, Too Long and Too Costly. NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Pundir, A. K., Ganapathy, L. and Sambandam, N. (2007) Towards a Complexity Framework for Managing Projects. E: CO, 9(4), pp. 17–25. Remington, K., Zolin, R. and Turner, J. R. (2009) A Model of Project Complexity: Distinguishing Dimensions of Complexity from Severity, IRNOP IX Conference Papers, Berlin, Germany. Read More