The final step in managing either positive/supportive or negative/adverse project stakeholders is to develop implementation strategies for dealing with them. Once project implementation strategies are operational, the project team must take a proactive posture. Critically discuss this proactive posture that you have studied in the VW mexico project
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The restructuring of KFH involves external and internal project redesign and management. The external level of project management is more important as it enables the identification of relationships between individuals and groups involved in the project within the parent functional departments in the organisation (Harrison and Lock, 2004). This report will present an appropriate project organisation structure to the board of KFH along with a project plan, cost and time schedule, project evaluation and role of project players.
External organisational structure involves functional project management of matrix projects. Functional management involves work carried out in functional areas with each area functioning independently, while project management involves control of all areas by a single project manager (Brynjolfsson et al., 2012). This research proposes to adopt a matrix project management structure where project managers and functional managers work together to promote cross functional orientation. This research supports the promotion of a matrix organisational structure for the restructuring process, as the project manager shares the responsibility with the functional managers of the different departments to identify priorities, role clarity and resource allocation. According to Soderlund (2011), matrix organisational structure is most effective in project restructuring as authority, responsibility and communication are present at the horizontal, vertical and diagonal levels. A matrix organisational approach is promoted as
the process involves leveraging of resources, gaining functional expertise and maintaining the scope of the project.
The following Figure 1 presents the KFH organisational redesign structure, where individuals from different departments working on the project restructure are found to report to managers, functional managers and the project manager.
Figure 1: Organisational Restructure (Author, Current Study)
Chief Executive Officer
Operations and Facilities Department ManagerFacilities Operations Manager
Administration Accounts Manager
Resource Manager ManagementGeneral
Project ManagerRestructure Project Task Restructure Force Senior delegates from all functional departments work under the restructure project manager
This research adopts the control and monitoring techniques proposed in PRINCE2 for managing the KFH restructure. Project control is carried out to promote the delivery of a project's products and can be promoted by adopting an event driven and time driven approach. This report suggests the adoption of a project initiation document, end stage report and exception plan, and event driven activities. Time driven control activities include progress feedback reports, including highlight reports and checkpoint reports (Turner, 2007).
o According to the Office of Government Commerce (2009), the project initiation document is the primary control of any project as it defines the scope, time and cost of the project. The document is used to ensure that an effective rationale for the project, clear defined project goals and project assessment parameters are set. Turner (2007) further indicates that the project initiation document can be used as a baseline document to help understand change management issues and progress assessment. o On the other hand, the end stage report is used to summarise the project as a whole, including stage-wise developments and identified risks. This report is compared with the project initiation document to help identify if there is a need to revise plans, amend the scope, or stop the project due to irregularities (Turner, 2007). o The exception plan helps control project scope by identifying possible actions required to recover from the effects of tolerance deviations. This plan is implemented if the initial project plan and the stage plans show
great deviations and, if approved, will become the baseline project plan. The purpose of the plan is to ensure that the project can be controlled even if large deviations from the project process are identified (Office of Government Commerce, 2009). o Project checkpoint reports are presented by the project manager at defined stages in the project plan (initiation, implementation, and conclusion) in order to detail the status of work of every department involved in the project restructure. This is an internal document used for internal project control and monitoring (Hinde, 2012). o Highlight reports are submitted to different stakeholders (internal and external) to summarise the stage status of the project and monitor the project progress (Hinde, 2012).
The following figure will summarise the project control activities adopted by KFH.
The qualities of a good project manager are a well examined subject in literature. Different project management bodies propose different project management competencies and qualities of a good project manager. According to PMCD (Project Manager Competency Development), a good project manager should show high scores with respect to three dimensions including knowledge, performance and skills, each of which are grouped under eleven sub factors (PMI, 2013). IPMA (International Project Management Association), on the other hand, groups project manager competencies into three skill areas including technical competencies, behavioural competences and contextual competencies, encompassing 46 elements (Varajao et al., 2013). Three primary qualities to be possessed by a project manager are:
According to Kerzner (2013), project teams are made up of different groups of people throughout the project management life cycle. Muller and Turner (201) further argue that understanding the roles and responsibilities of the key members of the project helps identify the human resource contribution to the project and ensure project success. The KFH restructuring project management taskforce involves four functional managers, the project manager and the CEO. The roles and tasks of different project teams within the restructuring process are identified in the following table.
HR Manager The HR manager should perform job analysis to understand the requirements of different employee roles as a result of the restructuring process and examine the possibility of creating new roles.
Engage different functional manager. to identify job roles of all employees Plan and execute programmes to ensure employee adaptation to new job roles and restructure Act as a contributing project team member whose focus is the employee agenda rather than business agenda
Training manager Recruitment manager
IT Manager The IT manager will work with the facilities manager to centralise IT operation across the organisation and develop necessary protocols for implementation.
Oversee ITM framework Manage IT security Enable centralisation of IT processes across the organisation
Technology officer Security officer
Accounts Manager
The accounting manager helps maintain the budget and time schedule for the restructuring process
Manage finance of project restructure Account for budget spending Provide inputs on financial risks
Budget and finance officer Accounting officer
According to PMBOK, project planning involves the initiation (project charter), the scope (definition) and the work breakdown structure (determination of cost, time and human resources required) (Saladis and Kerzner, 2011). This section will present a simple project plan for restructuring the KFH IT and Facilities department. The process of project planning involves input statements (project scope statement, process assets, and requirement documentation) to arrive at the work breakdown structure and the scope baseline.
A work breakdown structure is most useful for project planning as it provides a deliverable orientated hierarchy of the different deconstructed project components and elements. The aim of this process is to ensure that the end product can be viewed by different stakeholders. The first step in project planning is the description of the different elements and identifying the different levels.
Table 2: Project Planning
Project Planning 1. Initiation1. Initiation Plan 1.1.1.1.1. Identify external review committee reportsIdentify feasibility of plans
Project Schedule
PERT (Program Evaluation Review Technique) is chosen as the most effective method to help identify the project schedule for the KFH project. According to Harrison and Lock (2004), PERT planning and scheduling involves the following stages.
1: Identification of specific activities and milestones: In the project planning phase, the WBS structure has identified the different tasks involved in the seven different phases of the project. Every activity (deliverable) is presented with a milestone.
According to McConnell (2009), the use of a PERT analysis helps in the improvement, planning and scheduling of different activities, improved forecasting of associated resource requirements and identification of any repetition in the planning pattern. The
following figure shows the PERT planning process for the facilities department restructure implementation. Similar PERT estimates need to be developed and coordinated with other activities to identify the PERT network and the critical path. In the following table, the PERT estimate provides the actual time that it would take to complete the particular task.
Table 3: PERT - Planning
ID 1 Job analysis in Facilities department Task LikelyMost 2 1 Min Max 3 PERT 2 Est. 2 Budget review for restructuring in Facilities department 2 1 3 2. 3 New role feasibility in Facilities department 3 2 4 3. 4 Create Energy Management department 4 3 4 3. 5 Budget review for implementing Energy Management department 1 0 2 1. 6 Implement IT process restructure in Facilities department 2 1 3 2.
Project Estimation
Estimation is most important in project management as it helps identify the cost of completing the project and delivering the business capability. The use of top down estimation is applicable to the current project scenario as it helps in identifying the overall cost of the project and is carried out early in the project life cycle (Sears et al., 2010). Ideally, estimation techniques should involve a top down approach during the early stages of planning (like the current report), following which a bottom up approach
of costs are first carried out. cost of work scheduled against It also provides the cost and performed. This method is one standardised unit of measure EVA are identified below.
Figure 3: EVA Formula (Pa
The role of performance measurement the magnitude of deviations indicates that successful measurement key performance indicators management indicators should goals, provide the basis for decision ma
out. Earned value analysis helps in comparing against the earn value (i. the percentage of work and schedule variance by arriving at the actual one of the most popular methods of cost control measure of progress. The various formulae used
: EVA Formula (Pajares and Lopez-Paredes, 2011)
rformance and Change Control measurement in project management is vital as deviations from the original plan of the project. Brandon measurement or evaluation of a project is dependent which are set at the start of the project. should be set in a manner such that they suppo r decision making and are measurable. The following Figure 4
comparing the budgeted work completed). actual cost of work control as it uses a used for analysis in
s it helps assess Brandon (2010) dependent on the project. The project support business rable. The following Figure 4
presents some of the key performan project performance and arrive at an
Figure 4: Key Performance Indicators (
Change control is important in team modify the scope of the deviations and unavoidable circumstances control has been described as will identify the steps involved in the p
Definition of change request for change. reasons for the request, conditions for s
Project Goals Functional specifications satisfaction Technical specification satisfaction Schedule goals satisfaction Budget goals satisfaction
performance indicators which are used to rmance and arrive at an evaluation of its success.
ce Indicators (Author, Current Study)
in project management as it helps members the project by using specific controls and circumstances (Wang et al., 2008). The process as part of project control in previous sections. y the steps involved in the process (Turner, 2007). change request: This step involves the documen change. This document contains information on quest, conditions for success and expected comp
Benefit to Tenant Average time taken to complete restructure Average Post Project Evaluation score Average Post Occupancy Evaluation score
Finance % variation between and predicted actual final account Personnel accident/incident rate per of man hours worked
to determine the
members of the project policies due to process of change sections. This section
documentation of the on the request, uccess and expected completion.
Finance Goals ariation between budget and predicted or actual final account Personnel accident/incident rate per number of man hours worked