Problematic Project Management Practices at WA Health - Case Study Example

Project Management Capstone Student name Course name Institution Date of submission Student Number Sub Section 1: Evidence of problematic practices The problematic project management practices identified in the case study include cost, human resource, time, communications, and procurement. 1. Procurement In procurement, two bad practices are identified. a) Poor budgeting practices. While the proposed capital budget of $1.76 billion may sufficiently cover the hospital construction in addition to a fraction of the total amount of furniture, fittings and equipment (FF&E), it does not cover their costs of the delivery the FF&E to the hospital. b) Poor planning practices. The government has expressed that it has an intention of keeping the Royal Perth Hospital operational. This suggests that the $27 million worth of FF&E will be available. However, its actual impact on the FF&E provision for FSH was not put into consideration, and how a shortfall will be funded. 2. Time In time, two bad practices are identified. a) The project planning was behind schedule. The WA Health’s parallel planning process failed to attain its objective of fast-tracking approvals leading to a lag in eight months. This is after the oversight by FSH Steering Committee was hindered by a lack of timely and accurate information, leading to delay in approvals. b) The WA Health took more than one year to perform the clinical and infrastructure planning required for description of the scope of services for FSH. Its ultimate completion in September 2005 meant that time needed for completion of the hospital would be extended by more than one year from 2010 to December 2011. 3. Communication In communication, the two bad practices identified include. a) Inaccurate information hindered the Steering Committee’s ability to offer efficient oversight. This is despite the fact that its role is to provide independent oversight and advice to Government. b) All through 2007, WA Health failed to supply the Steering Committee with information, despite several attempts by the Committee to request for information. 4. Human resource In human resource, the two bad practices identified include. a) The FSH project depended extensively on the external project planning and management expertise, despite the fact that the costs of consultancy contracts were managed ineffectively. Indeed, the contract cost three times more than what had originally been entered in the budgeted. b) WA Health failed to supervise and to manage the work of the consultants effectively. In fact, when the FSH project begun, WA Health lacked the skills required for effective management and handling of the consultant who had to take part in a complex building project, the size of the FSH project. 5. RISKS In risks, the two bad practices identified include. a) Changing project scope and designs: When the alterations of the scope and designs are approved, it could lead to the risks of the FSH project costing more than the ‘guaranteed maximum price. b) Failure to coordinate the Managing Contractor and Facilities Manager could lead to risks of further delays to the completion of the FSH project. Ultimately, this would also increase the risks of cost overruns. Sub‐Section 2: 2.1 Description of problematic practices The two predominant practice problems are identified in the areas of communication and human resource. In communication, the most dominant problem was the practice of executing the project without a communication plan. Such poor communication strategy was a form of incompetence that may have been the most significant, as it had the potential to affect the entire aspects of the project, including budgeting, communicating the scope and engaging the consultant. The problem areas included communication between stakeholders, team members, and the ever-changing scope of the project. In particular, inaccurate information hindered the Steering Committee’s ability to offer efficient oversight despite the fact that they played an important role of providing independent oversight and advice to the Government. As evident from the case study, the Steering Committee needed comprehensible and sufficient information to coordinate and control the project. In respect to human resource, the practices of poor supervision and management of the consultants was a problem. Ultimately, it contributed to poor knowledge transfer between the consultants and the FSH Project managers. Another problem was poor engagement of consultants to integrate them into the project. In the case study, the WA Health failed to supervise and to manage the work of the consultants effectively. In fact, when the FSH project began, WA Health lacked the skills required for effective management and handling of the many consultant who had to take part in a complex building project, the size of the FSH project. 2.2 (b). Analysis of problematic practices i) Communication The problem areas included communication between stakeholders, team members, and the ever-changing scope of the project. The audit report shows that the WA Health and the FSH Project managers had no system in place for speedy information exchange. This led to lack of coordination and synchronisation of tasks, which ultimately led to project time and cost overruns. This shows that communication was the basis of the project failure. Indeed, Timothy1 explains that effective communication strategies across the entire stakeholders are the most critical success factor for project management. Another research by Achterkamp et al. 2also found that ineffective communication is the leading cause of failure of complex projects since it requires coordinating many units of operation, functions, and tasks. In respect to project stakeholders, Achterkamp et al. 3suggest that a complex project tends to have several people who demand to be kept informed of the progress, as well as any issues that come about during project execution. The FSH project has an additional complication of having many stakeholders within the public and private sector all over Western Australia. However, it lacked a concrete communication strategy and plan to allow it to keep each of the Steering Committees up-to-date on project progress. Additionally, many FSH project stakeholders had differing expectations and, therefore, preferred different means and propensities for communication. This complicated communication problem. In a review by Aaltonen and Jaakko4, the researchers explained that when different stakeholders have divergent expectations regarding the project, they tend to use methods of communication that vary. As a result, their standards of communication plan may not be effective. The issue of teamwork is also potentially vulnerable to the prevailing communication standards during project management5. Indeed, the FSH project team was significantly diverse, as it was made up of different professional. For instance, there was no teamwork. In the year 2007, WA Health failed to supply the Steering Committee with information, despite several attempts by the Committee to request for information. The project team was thrust to ensure delivery of the FSH project, which was intended to be customized, as well as to uniquely benefit the hospital’s management. The project team, such as the members drawn from FSH Steering Committee and the WA Health, had never worked together before. The ever-changing scope of the project According to Castro et al.6, all complex projects are intrinsically ever changing and fluid. Therefore, the project management team should consider the changes and challenges along the life of the project, until the completion of the project. More importantly, Timothy7 suggests that the project management team should ensure that the entire team, as well as the stakeholders are kept fully informed of the changing issues and the project progress to ensure effective coordination of efforts. However, this was not the case in the FSA project since there was no communication between the WA Health and the Steering Committee. Therefore, the FSH project should have a tangible communication strategy and plan. Morris8 suggests that in such situations, the project managers can ensure effective communication across the entire complex project once they incorporate a communication plan during the project’s initial planning stages. Ulla9 also examined the significance of having a communication plan. In his view, the plan should be moulded around the fundamental principles of the project. He added that the more complex the project, the greater the need for communication. Ulla10 further suggests that phases of communication planning include the planning phase, distribution of information, performance reporting and lastly administrative closure. Ying and Pheng11 add that the communication should as well integrate the issues regarding everyday communication, the guidelines for communication, annual planning, as well as how the communication plan should be rolled out. It is the distribution of information phase, which specifically applies to the case of FSH project. It is suggested that having a communication plan with these aspects will enable FSH project to curtail the communication problems between the Steering Committee and the WA Health. Human resource In respect to human resource management, lack of knowledge transfer between the consultants and the FSH Project managers, and poor engagement of consultants were the fundamental problems. According to Muhammad et al.12, knowledge transfer in project management can be defined in respect to the level to which the target project engages the consultants, as well as how the employees apply their skills and knowledge to the project. Muhammad et al. 13add that these knowledge transformations enable maximal engagement of the consultant, alongside the project team and project managers. They concluded that when the performance of the project increases from hiring the services of consultants, then it is clear that there is a positive transfer of project management knowledge14. However, this was not the case at the FSH project. Muhammad et al. suggests that the project manager needs to include the consultants in his project management strategy to engage them in order to optimise their involvement with the project. In his view, a project that does not engage its human resource effectively stands to fail. This is particularly what happened to the FSH project. The project managers failed to manage the human resource effectively. In fact, Stulgiene and Ciutiene 15argue that the human resources are the most significant resource that influences the success of the project. Seidl and Mohe16 also attempted to explain the high failure of projects. In his view, the failure of complex projects begins with poor consultant–client relationship. Seidl and Mohe proposed a description of the consultant–client relationship, where the client and consultant are considered different “autopoietic” communication-systems operating using different logics. In his view, unless the divergent logics are eliminated to create a common one, no transfer of knowledge occurs. In turn, the consultants and the employees assigned to them are likely to become disengaged from the project17. The FSH project should use human resource development to engage consultants and project team members. Stulgiene and Ciutiene 18suggested that a complex project with a wide scope of work in complex environments should make use of human resource development. The specific strategies he suggested include use of training, competence development, ensuring job satisfaction, mitigating time pressure, empowerment, and motivation, and lastly reducing work stress. Within these perspectives, in the same way these strategies are applied to the employees, the FSH project managers should apply them to the consultants, as these will motivate them, influence them to show commitment to the project and produce positive outcomes out of the project. FSH project should adopt enterprise management system. Muhammad et al. 19suggested that to ensure engagement of consultants and project team, an enterprise management system should be integrated in the project’s information system to offer project management solutions. Sharma et al. 20 also argued that an ERP system is essential, as it helps create comprehensible and documented project concepts that can be shared interchangeably with the consultants. 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