PRJ5001 Project Management Profession Case Study Sample

PRJ5001 Project Management Profession

Assessment 2: Case Study Analysis/Business Case 

Students are required to work individually to provide a literature review and evaluation of a case study of a project business case. Students need to complete the Academic Skills Module before submitting this assignment. Students who fail to do so will be deducted 10% mark from this assignment.

Assessment 2 Detail

The case study on Victorian Myki Smart Card project will assess students’ knowledge of key content areas of PRJ5001, adequate Initiation, Planning and stakeholder engagement. For successful completion of the assessment, students are required to research on the case study and analyse it to provide an evaluation of reasons for controversy of this project attributable to lack of adequate care in project initiation, planning and stakeholder engagement and recommend improvements based on content/theories learnt in PRJ5001. The improvements need to focus on project initiation, planning and stakeholder engagement for this assignment. Students will have to research and find further information on the case study and related articles. Students are also required to review 4 relevant publications as part of this assignment and analyse/critique them for relevance to project initiation, planning and stakeholder engagement in context to the project induced problems from project management perspective.

Students are required to complete the Academic Skills Module (ASM) as part of this assignment. The ASM assists students in tackling assignment and developing the important academic skills necessary to write an assignment effectively. Students can access the ASM via the Dashboard and complete this module as an independent learning activity. The Student Learning Support team will deliver a webinar in week 4 to facilitate and support PRJ5001 students to complete the ASM. Students who do not complete the ASM by week 9 of the term (i.e. the due date for Assignment 2) will be deducted 10% mark from this assignment.

Guideline for evaluating the Case Study and writing Critical Review (word count is indicative), 

Part A: 

- Introduce the project (~ 200 words)
- Elaborate on the reasons for 
- Review 4 articles and critique them for relevance to project initiation, planning and stakeholder engagement in context to the case study.  
- Provide critical review and evaluation of reasons for controversy attributable to lack of adequate care in project initiation, planning and stakeholder engagement (~ 300 words) 
- Recommend what could have been done to improve the lack of adequate care in project initiation, planning and stakeholder engagement.

Solution

Introduction

The project Myki is a smart card ticketing system which gets implemented and designed for public transport system at Victoria (Audit.vic.gov.au, 2015). It can be stated as one of the most complex smart ticketing systems internationally. 1 billion dollars in operating the micro project in 2005 with the time frame of 2 years has been used. Requirements of the project compared to the time and budget was not enough to comprehend the requirements, which impacted the stakeholder engagement as well. Hence the project mostly gets criticized or reviewed by concern people to identify the reason of controversy. According to the MBA Assignment Experts overview,  However, it cannot be ignored that the objective of the project is influencing enough to have innovation in the process. The paper will share its concern for VictorianMyki smart card project to understand and evaluate key content areas of it. Any project is vital in its different phases like initiation, planning, stakeholder engagement etc. The paper will try to analyze the project from several perspectives. It will first discuss about the project to identify the reason of controversy. Finding from scholarly articles will be encrypted to justify the finding. It will try to identify gaps in initiation, planning, and stakeholder engagement to confirm recommendation to lead to the project success.

Reason of Controversy

Project Myki has failed to confirm success for it considering the requirements and delivered outcome. It has faced several challenges throughout its life cycle. Most of the researcher of the view that the project was planned ambitiously without taking care of reality to deliver most complex ticketing system internationally in a very short time period. Majority of the views confirm that the timeframe was not feasible and for the same the project fails to accommodate its aim and objectives as by the time only half of the process gets accomplished (van Holstein et al. 2021). It clearly identifies that the project is the result of extreme ambition without confirming feasibility for the same. Due to over ambition or impractical expectation, the project even fails to be accomplished by the allotted budget. On the other hand, it is accomplished by 55% over budget with 7 more years compared to the decided time frame. The controversy hence has enough scope to flourish to raise questions like how the plan is done or how such type of over ambitious plan can get the approval for a government project. The controversy even gets centered around the inefficiency lacking experience at in effectiveness of the government as being well aware of the nature of the project, the government fails to accommodate right type of stakeholders for the project who can confirm success for the project. In 2005 July the state has committed for 1 billion dollars for Myki project to replace aging card system (Audit.vic.gov.au, 2015). The government with over ambition has expected to have significant benefits as well as benefits for the Victorians to have reliable attractive efficient transport service within lowest pole of life cost. By examining operational effectiveness of Myki, the audit has found that it is significantly delayed with initiate the cost to confirm the controversy to accomplish the objectives and benefits.

Reviewing Scholarly Articles

As per the research, poor planning and initiation leads to distraction from original scope for the Myki project. The main reason of such distraction is over ambition and vague specification which has been evaluated with the help of four research articles. It has even confirmed significant delivery risk through management due to shortcomings in project oversight and governance by the state as per the study done by Liu and Hao, 2021. Since the creation of 2012 management and oversight gets improved by PTV regarding the multi contractor. Significant risk however remains due to lower potentiality of the contract performance regime and non-realistic time frame for Myki retender (Audit.vic.gov.au, 2015). 

According to 1st research article related to studies in management of construction project risks, plan building, risk concept, qualitative analysis, risk quantitative and risk response strategies given by Keshk, Maarouf, and Annany, (2018), for improper implementation can lead to delay to increase cost due to deficiency in original governance, contractual arrangements and project planning to lead to outcome. The research conveys that implementation of well-designed ticketing system is not easy to confirm efficient and effective functioning which is the exact case of public transport system of Victoria. In 2005, the state commits for one million dollars for the Myki ticketing system by 2007 for replacing ageing card system. The investment has been done to have significant benefits for the Victorians through more reliable, attractive, and efficient transport services, the best value solution in lowest budget. However, implementation was not appropriate neither feasibility of the project gets checked properly. It highlights implementation issue for the project. It is very important for PTV to take care of the referred issues to not to have the repetition of the history to confront failure once again. The audit has examined operational effectiveness for the Myki ticketing system which immediately confirms that no balance is there within the input and output as expected outcomes cannot be accomplished by the exercised input in terms of time and budget. The planning itself is improper for the project.

The issue has been highlighted by stating the example of Burj Khalifa given by Abraham, (2019). It states Burj Khalifa project is well known project for being the tallest skyscraper as built by human being which becomes most popular tourist destination internationally. It is multi use development tower to include 37 floors of corporate office, recreation club, fitness centre, restaurant, observation hill, hotel. It is considered as a successful project considering the designing and other aspects like tallest building internationally. However, the planning part carries certain issues as the cost management was not appropriate. The planned budget of the project was of 876 million which finally becomes 1.5 billion. it happens because of several reasons. Increased price of raw materials due to downtown in global economy in 2008 is the major reason. The research confirms that iron price gets increase by 75% in 2008 and same thing is applicable for cement and Aluminum. The planning did not include flexibility in its budget structure which becomes the major issue for the entire project as cost gets increased considering the planned budget. Similarity can be seen among Myki and Burj Khalifa project as both the projects fail to accommodate the budget effectively. Hence planning for the projects cannot be stated as appropriate.

As per 3rd article given by Almansoori, Rahman, and Memon, (2021), the other paper has also highlighted the example of well-known Burj Khalifa project, as it is successful to consider the deliverables as it has successfully accomplished all is expected outcome to confirm success by making it will know internationally. The project however carries some issues in it. Time management becomes an issue for the entire project. As the refereed was highly anticipated project for Dubai along with UAE hence time plays a crucial role for the entire project. The planned duration of the project was of 47 months however it has taken 9 months extra which further carries other issues like cost management. The economic crisis of UAE in 2008 can be stated as the major reason for the delay as the period is conveyed as Dubai shock. The entire project hence gets accomplished by 57th months as changes in design even occurred in the middle of the construction project to affect the time and cost which signify poor planning for the project. Similarity is there among Myki and Burj khalifa project as both the projects cannot accommodate the timeframe effectively. Hence planning for the projects is ineffective considering delay of the projects.

In the 4th article also, Baker, Pawlikowski, and Young, (2009), started the example of the Burj Khalifa project and stated that it used to be stated as a successful project internationally from the perspective of successful accomplishment of deliverables as well as stakeholder engagement. In Burj Khalifa project due to its multi-use structure, the professionals’ engineers’ consultants’ managers employees need to be recruited by the rigorous process to confirm efficiency for the project. The project however successfully accommodates the same. The entire project was of 12000 professionals along with skilled workers from every part of the world. The SOM team itself, the architecture firms mainly confirm success for designing and engineering of Burj Khalifa which is supported by 65 people involving administration personnel, engineers, architects etc. Engineers were supported by 7500 construction workers and on-site technicians to make the project successful. The cooperation and collaboration exercised by all the stakeholders confirm successful HR management as well as stakeholder engagement. Collaborative effort of every stakeholder with their best contribution confirm success by achieving the goal to build the tallest tower Burj Khalifa internationally. Contradictorily Myki project fails to confirm stakeholder engagement and receives failure in all terms.

Lack of Adequate Care in Project Initiation, Planning and Stakeholder Engagement

Clarity can be referred as one of the most significant requirements to successfully complete the project. Lacking clarity creates project management issues for the concern as overambitious goals immediately leads to initiated cost and time. As per research 39% projects fails due to inappropriate project plan which cannot clearly defined project goal.It even fails to have a framework for quantifying project progress through set project milestones along with quality tests. Having improper support of clear objectives cannot portray vision for the workforce to accomplish.

In the concern of lacking care for planning, the most relevant aspect is improper planning for budget and time. Most of the researchers have confirmed that the project is over ambitious to consider it time frame and budget allocation with immediately denotes that the planning for timeframe or budgeteven done effectively making a balance with requirements or nature of the project (Audit.vic.gov.au, 2015). The planning of the project was not feasible as it has accomplished goal and objectives with much initiated time and budget. Improper planning for budget and time confirms issues for the entire project.

For the concerned project inadequate care is even highlighted for stakeholder engagement. Engagement is very important for a project to make it successful. For the concerned project, failure to maintain consistency for the life cycle of the project is most important issue for stakeholder engagement (Kaur and Lodhia, 2019). However, the inconsistency is associated with other issues of the project -improper or ineffective planning and lower acknowledgement for success criteria and clear goals. The stakeholders do not have enough acknowledgement about the clear goals hence they fail to maintain consistency whereas ineffective planning leads to improper justification for the clear goals.

Recommendation

In order to confirm effective initiation, popular approaches for setting goal like CLEAR and SMARTcan help the project comes up through set of effective goals from initial stages of the project. It can assist to overcome the barriers for the project. Further, one needs to remember that without have clearly definedgoals,a project cannot have successful initiation. Therefore, it is very important to create goals for the project to clarify the workers about the deliverables. Documentation of those is even important.

In order to confirm effective planning for a project, it is very important to be well aware about the project type and expected outcomes. The planning is the most important part for a project to confirm success. Thereby, it is very important to do the planning with enough time and exercising emotional intelligence. It is even important that flexibility needs to be implemented in the project specifically considering time and budget as these two factors can be most important yet crucial to direct the project towards success or failure. Most importantly planning for evaluation of the project work needs to be taken care to have the idea of progress of the project.

In order to have proper type of stakeholder engagement for the project, it would be very important to confirm belongingness for the project. The stakeholders need to be well aware about the goals and objectives or deliverables for the project. It can even be relevant if the stakeholders would be involved in the decision-making process which immediately can confirm engagement with best contribution from them through their given ideas.

Conclusion

The paper has discussed about the Myki project to identify the reason of its failure. The Myki project was complete failure if it can be evaluated in the context of allotted time and budget. Due to deficiency in effective planning, stakeholder engagement, and lower acknowledgement for clear goals the project cannot finish by the time and budget the government has decided. Over ambitious and big specification of the project further makes it very clear that the planning is not at all feasible in real terms. The discussion clearly points out significant concern for a project to be taken care of to make it successful in terms of deliverable time and budget.

References

Abraham, O.A., 2019. Effective Project Management in Contemporary Developments: Case Study Burj Khalifa Tower. https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1701509.pdf

Almansoori, M.T.S., Rahman, I.A. and Memon, A.H., 2021. Correlation between the Management Factors Affecting PMO Implementation in UAE Construction. International Journal of Sustainable Construction Engineering and Technology, 12(3), pp.155-165. https://publisher.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/IJSCET/article/view/9937

Atin, S, and Lubis, R 2019 Implementation of Critical Path Method in Project Planning and Scheduling. In IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering (Vol 662, No2, p022031). IOP Publishing.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/662/2/022031/pdf

Audit.vic.gov.au, 2015 Operational Effectiveness of the myki Ticketing System. https://www.audit.vic.gov.au/report/operational-effectiveness-myki-ticketing-system?section=

Baker, W.F., Pawlikowski, J.J. and Young, B.S., 2009. The challenges in designing the world's tallest structure: The Burj Dubai Tower. In Structures Congress 2009: Don't Mess with Structural Engineers: Expanding Our Role (pp. 1-10). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228715791_The_Challenges_in_Designing_the_World's_Tallest_Structure_The_Burj_Dubai_Tower

Galati, F and Bigliardi, B, 2019 Redesigning the model of the initiation and evolution of inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D relationships. Journal of knowledge management. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JKM-05-2018-0326/full/html

Kaur, A and Lodhia, S.K, 2019 Key issues and challenges in stakeholder engagement in sustainability reporting: A study of Australian local councils. Pacific Accounting Review. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/PAR-11-2017-0092/full/html?journalCode=par

Kells, S., 2010. A look inside the performance auditing box: Victoria's new ticketing system tender. Accounting, Accountability & Performance, 16(1/2), pp.85-110. https://search.informit.org/doi/abs/10.3316/ielapa.235814179667665

Keshk, A.M., Maarouf, I. and Annany, Y., 2018. Special studies in management of construction project risks, risk concept, plan building, risk quantitative and qualitative analysis, risk response strategies. Alexandria engineering journal, 57(4), pp.3179-3187. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1110016818301133

Liu, S and Hao, W, 2021 Forecasting the scheduling issues in engineering project management: Applications of deep learning models. Future Generation Computer Systems, 123, pp.85-93 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167739X21001345

Suprayoga, G.B, Witte, P and Spit, T, 2020 Identifying barriers to implementing a sustainability assessment tool for road project planning: an institutional perspective from practitioners in Indonesia. Journal of environmental planning and management, 63(13), pp.2380-2401 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09640568.2020.1724083

Van Holstein, E, Wiesel, I, Bigby, C and Gleeson, B, 2021People with intellectual disability and the digitization of services. Geoforum, 119, pp.133-142. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0016718520303067