Sample PROJ6000 Assignment 3

PROJ6000 Principles of Project Management Assessment 3 Sample

Assignment Brief

Individual/Group - Project Charter development
Length - 2,000 words

Learning Outcomes:

Successful completion of this assignment will result in achievement of the following subject learning outcomes:

1. Understand PMBOK knowledge areas and process groups and their role, relevance and impact on project management best practice and PMI's Code of Ethics.

2. Critically compare and contrast project management approaches and their appropriateness for managing a variety of project types, including IT projects.

3. Apply appropriate project management (including IT project management) tools and techniques, paying particular attention to risk management.

Submission - By 11:55pm AEST/AEDT Sunday in the first week of Module 6 (week 11)
Weighting - 40%
Total Marks - 40 Marks

Context:

Project leadership is about inspiring the project team to do their best from the outset. This requires a combination of verbal and written communications and a range of applied leadership skills. One of the foundational documents that helps “kick-off” the project is the Project Charter. This is a document that describes the entire project in a short, succinct and presentable document that can be shared with project staff or other stakeholders to commence the project in earnest. It also helps clarify the project context, the project team roles and the goals of the project.

In this assessment for assignment help you will be given a project case study to use in order to develop a Project Charter. Though all students will receive the same case study, it is expected that each student will think about the project from their own perspective as an up-and-coming project manager. Use your own style based on your critical thinking of what it means for you to lead a project. That will help you formulate your unique Project Charter.
Instructions:

1. Read the case study provided by your lecturer. This will form the basis for your Project charter, because you will assume that you are the project manager for this project.

2. After reading the case study start developing your project charter. This needs to be a 2000-word report (+/- 10%) and must use a minimum of 6 references (academic literature and industry publications. The case study is a 7th reference).

3. The Project Charter must include the following headings and be written as if you were presenting it to the project team that will build this project. You are the project manager. The contents of the Charter are:

a. Background to the project
b. Reasons for the project
c. Project objectives
d. Constraints, limitations and risks
e. Leadership structure (project manager and his or her senior aides: list the roles and explain what each does in the project. You need to cite 4 roles)
f. Project risks and their mitigation
g. Project stakeholders and how to interact with them
h. The vision of the project and the type of project team culture you wish to promote in your team

Output and Submission:

Submit your completed assessment by the end of the first week of Module 6 (Week 11) on
Blackboard.

Learning Resources:

Elias, A. A. (2016). Stakeholder analysis for Lean Six Sigma project management.
International Journal of Lean Six Sigma. https://lesa.on.worldcat.org/oclc/6862439489
Patanakul, P., Iewwongcharoen, B., & Milosevic, D. (2010). An empirical study on the use of project management tools and techniques across project life-cycle and their impact on project
success. Journal of General management, 35(3), 41-66.

Solution

Introduction

Project charter is a formal document that describes and plans various stages and budget of a project and identifies the stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle. Application of various processes, methods, knowledge and skills for achievement of certain specified goals and objectives within limited time and budget is regarded as project management (Demirkesen & Ozorhon, 2017). A charter in project management defines preliminary roles and responsibilities and provides shared understanding. In this study, such a project charter of an innovation and construction project based on Merck KGaA case study will be developed along with associated risks and their mitigation strategies.

Background of project

Merck KGaA is a global innovation and technology support company that has been operating in business market for approximately 350 years. After going through a rebranding, various operations such as pharmaceutical, life science and chemicals groups were brought under a single group of operation. Furthermore, due to high growth of operations, that company also undertook several large construction projects and invested $565 million for these projects (Pmi.org, 2021). The project was to meet the architecture needs and to promote transformational change. One global headquarters construction project was taken into action and the program consisted of approximately 90 interdependent construction projects. The core projects of the program included development of employee restaurant and innovation centers. Other than that, the construction project also included linking of public squares orientated in different cities of the world. Prompt engagement of decentralized and communication setup within internal area through architectural designs were also included in the project (Pmi.org, 2021). Navigation of fragmented construction projects and contractor management for investment in design processes and in research and development programs were also include in the project.

Reason of Project

The project was undertaken for various reasons. Some of those are described below.

Integration and distribution of work: Due to highly fragmented centers of Merck group and versatile functional areas of work all across the world, single management and communication line set-up was becoming problematic. Thus, by developing one global headquarter, the company intended to manage most of the corporate activities of projects and their distribution in a fair manner. Furthermore, management of numerous fragmented construction projects was also a reason for this project (Pmi.org, 2021).

Management of insufficiency: Due to highly fragmented operational areas, navigation of contractors and marketplace was becoming complex. This was causing poor management of undertaken projects as well as execution due to insufficiency of skills among leadership personnel. Market failure and compromisation of external factors were becoming hindrance. In order to manage these insufficiencies, this project was undertaken.

Development of innovation center: Inadequate design process of workplace can cause delay and hindrance in creative projects. This can also create challenges in communication between teams as frequent meetings cannot be organized (Patanakul, Iewwongcharoen & Milosevic, 2010). Thus, cooperation and concentration management became priority reasons behind undertaking one global headquarter construction project.

Another reason for this construction project was to strengthen brand image in highly competitive European construction market as the company underwent rebranding into a single brand name.

Project objectives

The project of construction and development of one global headquarter had two core projects namely establishment of innovation center and employee restaurant for various reasons. The objectives of the project are listed below.

• To construct innovation center for cooperation of interdisciplinary teams.
• To setup better means of communication between internal and external levels.
• To improve concentration and cooperation of essential activities.
• To establish employee restaurant to manage decentralized staff canteen for a better meeting place (Pmi.org, 2021).
• To improve skill level and management quality of contractors for sustainable market operations.
• To avail adequate design process for skill development and productivity increment with uniform distribution.

Constraints, limitations and risks

In a construction project, there are various constraints that limit the success rate of the projects and create challenges in the planning and execution of the project. Availability of technical support and technology in a business market as well as technological infrastructure influences the success rate and pace of a project completion. The constraints are primarily associated with economy, technology and management (Muriana & Vizzini, 2017). As a result, these technological constraints reduce construction tolerance and needs of architectural aspects. Furthermore, project resources can cause economic constraints that severely influence quality and performance of project deliverables. Due to combination of technological and economic constraints, the balance of time and cost of the project completion can occur.

In addition to these constraints, the limitation of management can produce several risks as well. For example, poor communication between interdisciplinary teams of the construction project can reduce cooperation and accuracy of planning (Demirkesen & Ozorhon, 2017). Engineering designs can thus get faulty which can put entire infrastructure in high safety risk. Improper allocation of resources can exceed budget of the project which can cause financial risk. Moreover, due to inefficiency of management and leadership skills, both time and cost management of the project can fail which, in turn, can generate governance risk for the project as well.

Leadership Structure

In order to manage the information system and other essential operations of a project suitably to lead a project towards its success, a proper leader ship structure is essential. This construction project also included several key leadership positions.

Project manager: The primary function of project managers is to contribute in fostering good relationship between interdisciplinary teams (Menu & Boyd, 2017). Providing direction to different teams and monitoring life cycle of a project while ensuring scope and budget compliance are the primary roles of project managers. In this project, the responsibilities of project managers included communication and collaboration between interdisciplinary teams as well as management of contractors and suppliers.

Contractors or operation managers: The role of contractors is hire labors and subcontractors and to foster cooperation between multiple subcontractors to manage the need of materials and equipment. Other roles of the contractors include suggestion of building designs and providing cost estimation for materials as well as for whole of the project (Sanchez & Terlizzi, 2017). In this project, the roles of contractors are to manage diversified and fragmented teams and provide as well as review cost compliance for the construction project.
Architect

Merck KGaA needs an architect for the transformative change: The architects will work under the contractors and their role would be to make the implementation of the innovations as per the requirements. According to Demirkesen & Ozorhon (2017), the main responsibilities of an architect are to design the new buildings, develop new ways to use the existing buildings, restore, and innovate and many more. As this construction requires connections like bridges joining the individual level segments, proper meeting places for information exchange and many more, innovative designs would be required from the architect. Thus, it can be ensured that the specialist construction knowledge as well as new designs is functionally good, safe and aesthetically pleasing. The architect will involve the designers and civil engineers who will consider different demands of the workplace or the new construction like communication, concentration and cooperation. Thus, a spatial expression would be found with the flowing transition. The new design would be prepared by the architect and the high level drawing would ensure a spacious internal area in each floor.

The contractor would be fully involved in participating in the evaluation of the final design with the architect. Moreover, the new design would be verified with the integrated network planner, civil engineers and designers contributing the expertise knowledge. The architect would also be responsible for applying innovative methods while constructing the new building as per the requirement. Moreover, it is also important for the architect to investigate the construction quality and especially within the estimated budget and schedule.

Account manager

In construction projects, the account manager is responsible for overseeing the budget and project progress within the budget and schedule. Thus the project manager estimates the amount in which the whole project needs to be finished. As stated by Erdogan, Šaparauskas & Turskis (2017), the account manager is responsible for the cash flows for a project and estimating the budget for which the project needs to be finished. For this construction project also, the account manager needs to record all the expenses and wages of the builders, designers, contractors, engineers and thereby estimating the overall project cost.

Project risks and mitigation

Table 1: Project risks and mitigation plan
(Source: Created by author)

Stakeholder engagement

The stakeholders for the projects can be categorized in the following.

Project owners

The contractor is the main project owner to which Merck KGaA will deliver the construction project. Thus, the contractor would be liable for completing the project within the time and sending a time to time progress report to the Merck KGaA Company. Face-to-face meeting or virtual communication is important for this case.

Project management teams

This team involves the contractor, project manager, designers, engineers, account manager and other subcontractors. Virtual communication and weekly meetings need to be held with them in order to circulate the information and apply any kind of changes (Oppong, Chan, & Dansoh, 2017).

Service Suppliers

The logistics, material suppliers need to be notified for the building materials at the proper time. This also includes financial support like bank insurance companies, shareholders and others. All of them should be notified as per the project progress and information should be shared according to stock.

Vision and culture

The main vision of this construction project is to restructure the interiors design so that the three levels of the innovation center are to a large extent visually linked using arched ramps. Moreover, three demands are to be fulfilled like communication, cooperation and concentration by following spatial expression in the transition.
The project team culture is thus to be set as per the requirement where the information exchange would occur time-to-time. Experts are to be assigned and their concerns are to be taken for the design and implementation plan for the project. Thus, a huge collaborative chain culture is to be followed in this project so that no such gap can be found.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that this study is about developing the project charter for the innovative construction project of Merck KGaA. The reason for the project, its objective, constraints, leadership roles, stakeholder engagement, risks and mitigation plan is described in this study. Moreover, the focus has been given for which the project can be done within the proper time and specialized teams with a proper interaction between them. 

References

Demirkesen, S., & Ozorhon, B. (2017). Impact of integration management on construction project management performance. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1639-1654. Retrieved from: http://www.projcp.com/Readings/180329%20Integration%20management.pdf [Retrieved on 20th February, 2021]

Erdogan, S. A., Šaparauskas, J., & Turskis, Z. (2017). Decision making in construction management: AHP and expert choice approach. Procedia engineering, 172, 270-276. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705817306173/pdf?md5=316b61f50bc340c13e68161ff03487df&pid=1-s2.0-S1877705817306173-main.pdf&_valck=1

Luo, L., He, Q., Jaselskis, E. J., & Xie, J. (2017). Construction project complexity: research trends and implications. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(7), 04017019. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Lan_Luo10/publication/314017360_Construction_Project_Complexity_Research_Trends_and_Implications/links/5badd64792851ca9ed2b94bd/Construction-Project-Complexity-Research-Trends-and-Implications.pdf

Meng, X., & Boyd, P. (2017). The role of the project manager in relationship management. International Journal of Project Management, 35(5), 717-728. Retrieved from: https://farapaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/The-role-of-the-project-manager-in-relationship-management.pdf [Retrieved on 20th February, 2021]

Muriana, C., & Vizzini, G. (2017). Project risk management: A deterministic quantitative technique for assessment and mitigation. International Journal of Project Management, 35(3), 320-340. Retrieved from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Cinzia_Muriana/publication/312875787_Project_risk_management_A_deterministic_quantitative_technique_for_assessment_and_mitigation/links/59d0a45a0f7e9b4fd7f9faf1/Project-risk-management-A-deterministic-quantitative-technique-for-assessment-and-mitigation.pdf [Retrieved on 20th February, 2021]

Oppong, G. D., Chan, A. P., & Dansoh, A. (2017). A review of stakeholder management performance attributes in construction projects. International journal of project management, 35(6), 1037-1051. Retrieved from: http://www.projcp.com/Readings/180329%20Stakeholders%202.pdf

Patanakul, P., Iewwongcharoen, B., & Milosevic, D. (2010). An empirical study on the use of project management tools and techniques across project life-cycle and their impact on project success. Journal of General management, 35(3), 41-66. Retrieved from: https://web.stevens.edu/ses/documents/fileadmin/documents/pdf/PeerasitPMtoolsandsuccessPublished.pdf [Retrieved on 20th February, 2021]

Pmi.org (2021). Resolving agency issues in client-contractor relationships: The Merck Innovation Center. Retrieved from: https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/academics/call-for-proposal/merck-agency-theory-instructional-case.pdf?v=88ca6b10-9d26-4907-9cd9-ed37bc01d330 [Retrieved on 20th February, 2021]

Sanchez, O. P., & Terlizzi, M. A. (2017). Cost and time project management success factors for information systems development projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), 1608-1626. Retrieved from: https://fardapaper.ir/mohavaha/uploads/2020/09/Fardapaper-Cost-and-time-project-management-success-factors-for-information-systems-development-projects.pdf [Retrieved on 20th February, 2021]

Szyma?ski, P. (2017). Risk management in construction projects. Procedia Engineering, 208, 174-182. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877705817360290/pdf?md5=fbc0c95022edc83c57f81249ceb88504&pid=1-s2.0-S1877705817360290-main.pdf&_valck=1