Project Management and project life cycle

Name: Mohammed Hassan Ayad Al-Tahan

Glasgow Caledonian University

INTRODUCTION:

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 Project management is term newly created in the last decade of the twentieth century by
Henry Gantt the creator of Gantt Chart and supported by his fellow idea Henri Foyal for
his creation of five functions of management. First movement of creating the modern
definition of the project management it was in the 1950 where a new era started by the
collaboration of the most important engineering majors to make it as formal discipline for
engineering major to follow and to commit by it here the importance of PM showed to
avoid any odds to happen between different engineering sectors working in single project
also the collaboration agreed to include the knowledge from different sectors and enroll it
to create better project management representation, where earlier the sectors had two
major systems that they work by the PERT( project evaluation & review technique) and
CPM (critical path method) as elaborated by Special Projects Office (1959).

The definition of project management varies but the most common is what defined by Dr.
M. Barnes president of APM at APM body of knowledge (2019), project management is
the application of procedures, knowledge and experience to meet the objectives in a
specified project within agreed parameters at expected and agreed final deliverables of
cost, time and scope. What makes the project management different is the final
deliverables are finite has to be met within agreed time, expected cost and scope
objective achieved and to accomplish the task it requires professional project manager
that has different skills in addition to his technical skills. This definition is called task
perspective definition where it is bounded to specific time and. Cost fixed, where the
objectives are set at the planning phase and not changed later.

There is another perspective to define the project management the earlier described is
called task perspective. But this new perspective is different from its definition for the
term, this definition is new one presented by different Swedish researchers through
different years as Anderson. E. S. (2006) conveys, each project is called as temporary
organization added to the permanent organization which is the organization
accomplishing or managing the project in each lifecycle of project there is a mission to
accomplish and goal to achieve this would reflect to make targets flexible and evolutionary
during the project lifecycle on contrary of the task perspective.

The lifespan or time taken to complete a project by completing different activities during
the different stages of the project is called the PMLC (Project Management Life Cycle).
This lifecycle describes the project and sets different stages from beginning to the
handover of the project. There are some opinions that went supporting to the PMLC to be
four or five stages

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According to Maylor (2010) the PMLC consists of four stages that is called 4D Model
which are Define it (initiation), Design it (planning), Do it (implementation), and Deliver it
(closure/ termination). The PMLC grants any project the proper distribution of objectives
and provide a better structure for modeling any project to offer lead time, cost efficiency
and job completion effectivity. The 4D model is said to be missing an accurate details or
a stage is less to describe PMLC which may reflect on the Implementation stage which is
mixed with the monitoring stage in the 4D model of PMLC.
Naybour P. (2012) states few benefits of the PMLC he mentioned that it would be much
easier for teams to communicate through the project phases by describing and defining
roles, responsibilities and the required tasks for each team to accomplish and the task
status. Also, it is easier for tasks progress to be checked and completed through the
different sectors of the project. It is much easier for the organization departments to make
notes and review their work to create easier information sharing and less mistake chances
by using the reviews of different sectors within the organization and more important is the
different stakeholders can access to the progress and see the movement of the project.
PMLC has different styles in application yet it is useful for many majors and sectors
globally but some others suggest indirectly it has no clear limitations as a concept to follow
yet each style or method of implying it has its own flaws some takes structure issues,
deliverability issues, flexibility issues etc.

PART A: PMLC stages

In this part of essay, the four stages of PMLC will be discussed and elaborated with details

Initiation (Define it): the first stage of any project is identification phase where the first
seeds of project are planted which makes an opportunity to create a project the has a
reason, value, and advantage after it is completed. There are several procedures needs
to be considered in this stage these procedures are known as the inputs and outputs that
are defined in the below table

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 Procedure Description
Business The study of project from business financial and resources implementing
case aspects, it defines risks of project and the revenues of it.

Feasibility researching the opportunity of project and documents the required tasks
study to create a successful project. Risks are identified with proposed solutions
to each issue may occur.
Project Create project structure and execution plan. It includes vision, scope,
charter objectives and final deliverables for the project in details. Also
responsibilities for the project stakeholders and team described.
Team Assembling team for the project by creating organization chart that states
structure the responsibilities, authorities description, and details each position
required skills qualification and experience to hire a person.
Project The physical work office that must be constructed in a position that has
office the proper infrastructure with right project management tools also creating
responsibilities, standards and work process to deliver needed support
and services to the project.
Project Reviewing the project from all its different sectors legally, documentary,
review financially, structure of project. Everything needs to be checked and
enhanced before starting the project.

Table 1: inputs and outputs table for the initiation phase. Ray S. (2018)

Planning (Design it): at this stage the project will be an initiation phase output and it
has detailed and identified the benefits, cost, time, goals, project team and every needed
information to start designing the shape of project.

Figure 1: Planning phase activities.

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 Plan Description

Project Plan which executes the project activities within systematically

sequenced, well resourced, and efficiently controlled. To raise the
effectivity, maintain cost, delivering scope, and restrict to delivering
time of the project.

Resource Summarization of the resources needed to work on a project.

Properly documentation of resource plan will indicate the exact
quantities of workforce, equipment and materials required to
complete the project.

Financial the plan that includes all the financial expenses for each activity,
and the financial strategy to run the project and achieve its goals.

Quality Documents that specifies quality standards, resources, and

specifications. Also outlines the sequence of actions needed to get
a product, or service.

Risk Determining actions to respond efficiently and effectively to the risks

that has effect on project objectives (such as cost, scope, time).

Acceptance Agreement between stakeholders and project manager that states

the objectives that needs to be done at least, under certain criteria
that meets the final approval from the stakeholders at the end of the
project.

Communication Enables communication effectively in project with the stakeholders.

It shows guidelines sharing information, as well as the responsibility
of which department and will be looped to the different project
stakeholders.

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 Procure*ment identifies requirements for the project and manage the steps
effectively to get final contract. The plan flexibility is key factor to
meet the needs if they change, and defines items needed to
procure, contracts approval statements, decisions criteria, and more

Review project Project plans are double checked and reviewed in details so that the
project will succeed and passes the planning phase

Table 2: Planning phase description different stage elaboration as per

Westland J. (2007)

The evolution of PMLC there was development and successful tools, programs and
softwares developed especially after the electronic revolution to make the job easier. So,
a revolutionary programs begun to appear.

One of the tools is work breakdown structure (WBS). (PMBOK 5) Project Management
Body of Knowledge defines work breakdown structure (WBS) as a hierarchy of
decomposition of total work scopes be carries them out by project team to deliver project
objectives as Miller D. P. (2006) conveys.

Network diagram is a tool used which is creating a diagram of squares represents tasks
and arrows represents the flow of work. To allow tracking the project stages, throw this
diagram a term called CPM revolved which means Critical Path Method (CPM) this
method is time based method it focuses on the longest routes of job that takes more time
to finish the project and applies it because it will be more accurate with probability of
finishing work than taking the shorter routes of finishing project.

Implementation & control (Do it): as the project planning phase is finished then the
deliverables of the project are set and the plan to achieve them is fixed using different
planning tools, at this stage the project team will take job and make it physical and work
on implementation. The manager has a duty to overview the project work rate, and
accomplishment through guiding the project team and leading them to the work plans.
There are few deliverables the management needs to be taken care of and most important
during this phase. The below table will explain briefly on each type.

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Management Description
type

Time managing time spent, progress made, and required time to finish other
jobs in project. successful time management in any project
management requires accurate planning, proper scheduling, effective
monitoring and controlling of all project work.

Cost Process of estimation, allocation, and control of the cost in a project. It

allows project team to predict further expenses in to reduce the chances
of exceeding budget.

Quality Process of maintaining quality standards in a project. It ensures quality

specifications are met as agreed earlier in planning phase or in recent
implementation phase of project.

Change It is the employees side where it works by depending on them, the

change in roles, duties authorities or replacing persons in project will
also reflect on project technical progress

Risk Reducing the occurring of unexpected events through different

procedures that directly affects the projects, accidents, poor legal
performance, etc..

Procurement creating contacts with outside vendors and suppliers for products or
services needed to finish the project.

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 Acceptance The stakeholders accept on the changes, or achieved deliverables
during the project implementation phase. This happens through proper
communication

phase Reviewing the implemented project results and having acceptance on

review them by the stakeholders and team

Table 3: implementation of project Management deliverables. Westland J.

(2007)

Closure/ Termination (Deliver it): at this phase the project is finished and all the work
is stopped and resources shut down. Now the handover procedures take place Getting
delivery acceptance from customer. Project team Reassigned on other projects. Closing
financial accounts and ensuring all paid and the client project review has to be performed,
to ensure all the objectives, deliverables and scopes are fulfilled as per the previous
agreements of all the 3 phases at last writing the final report.

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PART B

At this part the chosen project is Berlin Brandenburg airport. It is considered

one of the most project management catastrophes. It took 13 years to build
the recently finished airport.

Start time 2006

Expected end time October 2011

Actual end time October 2020

Initial budget 2.8 billion Euros

Final budget 7.3 billion Euros

Key stakeholders German federal government, Berlin

state, Brandenburg state

Key Deliverables Giant airport serves states of Berlin,

and Brandenburg.

Airport transports 34 million

passenger annually

Table 4: key information of the project as per Lopez J., O'Hare M. (2020)

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Initiation:

The Berlin Brandenburg airport idea started by 2004 and took two years of
compensating the inhabitants. by 2006 the project seen the lights and
initiated its ownership by German federal government, Brandenburg state,
Berlin state with 2.68bn euros. The value of the airport was to serve 6 million
locals of the two states and 16 Km from Berlin City center, after the shutting
down of Tegel airport in 2008 and Schönefeld utilizing the infrastructure of
previous airport and the still working one. The airport must annually connect
34 million passengers. The government tried to privatize the airport for
different airlines but corruption took large role of failing in this task. And it
took long time to handle the project to a general contractor

Planning:

The planning of airport took long time there were many different scopes, first
they needed to create some changes of infrastructure and then it had to build
a new infrastructure for it, it was planned to open October 2011. Building
airport on 3600 acres’ land, then changed to 4000 acres. The plans tried to
satisfy the 3 stakeholders that wanted different scopes. Yet it was impossible
to finish the project by time. Due to the un-identified that changes every time.
The architects were changed several times.

Implementation:

The actual work on the airport started by September 2006 due to some
lateness of removing two villages to construct the airport over. The
contractors failed in different areas such as fire alarms, smoke extractors,
and many other, also due to lateness the contractor had to change the
electrical and electronic devices several time because they were too old so
it added another expanse.

Also the work was too slow because of the continuous changing of plans and
scopes, also due to poor planning of management 60 Km of thermal heating
cables were taken out because they were not insulated, 90 km of electric
cables were replaced, in 2013 the project had a glitch the lights were unable

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to shut down and many other quality, managerial, planning and execution
problems.

Termination:

The project is still not handed over. Until now the works still going on in the
duty free center, no good satisfaction survey results. Still late on some works
and the claim is the hand over is by 8th November 2020. But it does not
appear to be handed over to the owners any soon. Glucroft W. N. (2020)

Conclusion:

The project management requires huge amount of planning and working

before initiation of any project. For berlin Brandenburg airport it was a definite
clear result of the improper planning failing to create a value, unclear vision
and goals also, a bad stakeholders satisfaction management.

The operating company was unexperienced is least to say rather than the
unforgivable mistake that reflected a bad risk management and poor
experience of procurement and wasting more the 3 times of project value.
The project was late 3829 days from its original opening date. The simplest
evidence for the improper management was the airport took another airport
name in India as (BBR) and they had to change it into (BER). Glucroft W. N.
(2020)

That is all I conclude for the essay.

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References:

 United States. Special Projects Office, U.S navy Washington D.C. (1959).
Application of a technique for research and development program evaluation.
Chicago, Illinois, USA: INFORMS. Available from URL:
https://mosaicprojects.com.au/PDF/PM-History_PERT-Original_Paper.pdf.
[Accessed: 28/10/2020].

 Murray R. (eds), 2019. APM Body of knowledge -7th edition.-. Buckinghamshire,

UK. Association for Project Management. Available from URL:
https://www.apm.org.uk/book-shop/apm-body-of-knowledge-7th-edition/.
[Accessed: 28/10/2020].

 Anderson E.S. (2006) Perspectives on projects. PMI® Research Conference: New

Directions in Project Managemen. Montréal, Québec, Canada 19 July 2006.
Project Management Institute. Available from URL:
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/perspectives-projects-task-organizational-
7985. [Accessed: 28/10/2020].

 Naybour P. (2012), Explain 5 Benefits of a Project Lifecycle. [Online]. 7th July 2012.
Available from URL: https://www.parallelprojecttraining.com/explain-5-benefits-of-
a-lifecycle/. [Accessed: 28/10/2020].

 Ray S. (2018) Project Initiation: How to Start Your Project Off Right. [Online]. 31
July 2018. Available from URL: https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/project-
initiation. [accessed: 10/11/2020].

 Miller D. P. (2006). Building a Project Work Breakdown Structure: Visualizing Objectives,

deliverables, activities and schedules. First edition. New York, USA. CRC Press Taylor &
Francis Group. Available from URL:
https://books.google.com.om/books?id=d3aL_KZK_RwC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepa
ge&q&f=false. [Accessed: 10/11/2020].

 Westland J. (2007). The Project Management Life Cycle: A Complete Step-by-step

Methodology for initiating, planning, executing, and closing a project successfully.
Second edition. London, UK. Available from URL:
https://books.google.com.om/books?id=4ph42sGN9vwC&printsec=frontcover&dq
=project+life+cycle+models&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiHhpDFqYLtAhXzsnEK
HZTzDbAQ6AEwAHoECAAQAg#v=onepage&q=project%20life%20cycle%20mo
dels&f=false. [Accessed: 12/11/2020].

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  Lopez J., O'Hare M. (2020), Nearly a decade late, Berlin's Brandenburg Airport
finally opens (during a pandemic). 30 October 2020. CNN. [Online]. Available
from URL: https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/brandenburg-new-berlin-airport-
opens/index.html. [Accessed: 11/11/2020].

 Glucroft W. N. (2020) Berlin's new airport finally opens: A story of failure and
embarrassment. 31 October 2020. DW. [Online]. Available from URL:
https://www.dw.com/en/berlins-new-airport-finally-opens-a-story-of-failure-and-
embarrassment/a-55446329. [Accessed: 14/11/2020]

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