Principles and Strategies - Port River Expressway Project - Case Study Example

Project analysis report Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Executive Summary Port River Expressway project was completed successfully due to critical success factors which were considered by the project manager and put into practice. This report of the completed project discussed the critical success factors which included the competent human skills, availability of adequate funds and the employee motivation. The project was divided into four phases and they include initiation, planning, implementation and evaluation phases. The project was implemented successfully as a result of the careful planning which helped to utilize the resources effectively and managing conflicts among the stakeholders. The main aim of the Port River Expressway project was to improve the economic development of Southern Australia. Introduction The successful implementation of a project depends on the ability to set effective goals and objectives. The project manager has the biggest responsibility in ensuring that the project is managed successfully. It is therefore important that the project manager should possess effective skills to ensure the goals and objectives of the project are accomplished (Dennis 2007). Port River Expressway was one of the major projects which were accomplished successfully due to effective skills which the project managers possessed. The project was intended to connect the two rail terminals which are Port of Adelaide which is located in Southern Australia and port Wakefield Road. The project was aimed at improving the economic development of Southern Australia since there is expressway between the two terminals which open the Southern Australia for development opportunities. The South Australian Department for transport was responsible in managing the project (Port River Expressway 2014). The project was implemented successfully and this led to the development of the South Australia. Appendix 1 below indicates the view of the Port River Expressway. The main objectives of the project were; I. To connect the Port of Adelaide with port Wakefield Road to ease transport between Southern Australia and Northern Australia II. To improve the economic development of Southern Australia by increasing the trading activities III. To improve the transport and communication network between Southern Australia and Northern Australia The project stakeholder analysis There are various project stakeholders should be considered when formulating the objectives of the project. Project stakeholder analysis helps to reach a consensus and this benefit the project in that they will be committed to work towards achieving the goals and objectives of the project. To start with, the project manager is an important stakeholder in the success of the project (Dennis 2007). The project manager develops and formulates policies which guide the project implementation. The skills of the project help to develop and implement the project tasks with care which leads to the achievement of the expected outcome. The suppliers also contribute to the project implementation. The reliable and competent suppliers to ensure that the project tasks are achieved within the duration assigned to each activity. They also determine the quality of the project because when they are motivated to supply quality materials and in time they will improve the quality of the construction (David & Roland 2006). Continuous supply of materials contributes to continuing construction, thus the critical path of the project can be identified. Other key stakeholders are the employees who implement the designed policies. The employees expect to be compensated well, so that they can offer their best skills towards the project implementation. The project manager should motivate the employees through training and rewards so that they can improve their productivity, which leads to implementation of the project successfully. Therefore they contribute to the success of the project. The South Australian government plays an important role in ensuring the success of the project. The South Australian government initiated the project, hence it contributed to the success of the project. The main contribution of the Southern Australia government was to fund the project (Harrison & Dennis 2004). This was one of the key critical success factors which contributed to the success of the project. The government ensured availability of adequate resources to undertake the project like hiring the qualified architecture who designed the project effective. Therefore the project stakeholders were also important in the success of the project as their expectations were managed which helped to gain their commitment towards the project implementation. The project management process There were four phases with which the project underwent. The initiation phase was the phase which included identification of the project. The South Australian government identified the need to connect the two of Port of Adelaide with port Wakefield Road. This was important in connecting the South Australia and Northern Australia (David & Roland 2006). As a result of the project identification, the objectives of the project were identified so that they could be used to evaluate the success or failure of the project. In addition, the consensus was reached between North and Southern government to construct the bridge. The second phase of the project implementation was to design the implementation process. This is the phase where the project was analyzed and planned in details. Project planning was done at this phase by identifying the various tasks and the resources required to implement it. The resources are allocated at this point and the stages of the project are identified. Delegation of duties is important at this stage to avoid conflicts during the implementation process (Ramakrishna 2010). Careful planning helps to achieve the desired outcome during the implementation process. The next phase is the implementation phase. This is the phase which involves translating the planned events into practice. The project is implemented by focusing on the objectives intended to achieve. The project manager should motivate the employees through training so that they can be motivated to accomplish their tasks appropriately. Motivation improves their commitment towards performing their tasks which will lead to project success (Rad & Anantatmula 2005). There should also be effective communication to ensure monitoring and controlling the project implementation. The final phase, according to this project was to evaluate after it was implemented. This was the most important part of the project. The main aim of the project was to connect between the North and Southern Australia. In this effect project was evaluated using the set objectives to determine if the project was accomplished successfully of which it was determined that the project was implemented successfully (Ramakrishna 2010). The project was run according to the plan. The project was carefully planned and then the implementation took place. This implies that it was implemented according to the intended plan. There are various benefits which the project manager enjoyed from the careful planning concept and through careful planning the project was implemented successfully. To start with, there was effective utilization of resources since at the planning stage various tasks are identified and the resource requirements determined. Therefore, careful planning helped to improve the utilization of resources which in turn helped to manage the conflicts which could arise from inadequate resources (Khang & Moe 2008). On the other hand, careful planning helped to ensure that the tasks are accomplished as intended in terms of time. This contributed to the management of the project leading to its success. The first tool which was used to manage the project was the project milestones. The project manager was able to develop workplan to ensure that each task is accomplished as required. The milestones helped to monitor the progress of the project from task one to the next tasks. The project plan was also used to monitor the progress of the project (Khang & Moe 2008). The project plan helped to indicate the tasks could be achieved and also indicated the delegation of the duties. Therefore, these tools contributed to the success of the project since it was effectively monitored and controlled. Critical success factors These are the factors which contributed to the success of the Port River Expressway project. The first factor was the effective and competent human skills which were applied. The architecture was competent and had the capacity to design the construction and the critical path as well as the resources which were to be consumed (Pennypacker 2002). This was important as it helped to ensure effective utilization of resources to achieve the desired tasks. Careful planning on the other hand contributed to the success of the project. The project manager was able to conduct careful planning by identifying the tasks and mobilizing the resources towards achieving the tasks. This helped to manage conflicts and promoted effective coordination and communication among the stakeholders, thus gaining commitment from the stakeholders leading to teamwork. Finally, availability of resources contributed to the success of the project. For instance, there was adequate finance to finance the various tasks. Due to the availability of finance, the project manager was able to motivate the employees through finance and also acquiring relevant equipment like the computers and the machines which were used to perform the tasks (Kerzner 2003). This enabled the employees to perform their tasks with ease. Conclusion There are skills that I have learnt from this project, which was completed successfully. I have improved my communication skills. This is because this report has proved that communication strategy was the key to its success, thus I am able to improve my communication skills. I am now able to identify the key stakeholders who should be considered during project planning and how to meet their needs so that they can work towards achieving the goals and objectives of the project. Further, I have improved my project management skills like using the project management tools to improve to monitor the progress of the project. However, in future I will try to identify the training programs appropriate to the employees to improve their skills. References David, I. C & Roland, G 2006, Global Project Management Handbook, McGraw- Hill Professional. Dennis, L 2007, Project Management (9th ed.) Gower Publishing, Ltd. Harrison, F & Dennis, L 2004, Advanced project management: a structured approach. Gower Publishing, Ltd. Kerzner, H 2003, Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling JohnWiley and Sons. Khang, D & Moe, T 2008, Success Criteria and Factors for International Development Projects: A Life-Cycle-Based Framework, Project Management Journal, Vol. 39, No. 1, Pp. 72-84 Port River Expressway 2014, About Us, retrieved on 21st Sep 2014, from http://www.roadtraffic-technology.com/projects/port-river/ Pennypacker, L 2002, Managing Multiple Projects: Planning, Scheduling and Allocating Resources for Competitive Advantage, CRC Press, New York. Rad, P & Anantatmula, V 2005, Project Planning Techniques: Management Concepts, John Willey and Sons, New Jersey. Ramakrishna, K 2010, Essentials of Project Management,PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd, Boston, Massuchetts. Appendix Port River Expressway (2014) Diagram showing Port River Expressway stage 3 & 4 (Port River Expressway (2014) Read More