i

MGT 2022

Project Management Framework

(Faculty of Business)

Organizational Objectives and Project Outcomes Pipeline installation Project - KUDCEMP 1012.

Assignment 1 Semester 1, 2009 Prepared for: Barrie Todhunter

Prepared by: Sushil Chandra Weerasekera Student no: 0075676 Date Submitted : 6th April 2009

Organizational Objectives and Project Outcomes Pipeline Laying Project, KUDCEMP 1012 ___________________________________________________________

Executive Summary:
The establishment of corporate objectives regarding ecological, social, ethical and economic responsibilities which shape business practices has been gathering credibility as a useful tool in the business sector since the early 1990s. This new holistic focus has led to the need to identify, measure and report on previously unidentified elements which impact business. In this report, KUDCEMP 1012 a pipe laying project is examined and it was found that building Organizational Objectives without considering or identifying all stakeholders led to Critical Success Factors not being achieved. The report highlights how iterative scoping process of stakeholder needs in the beginning of the project could have highlighted the true need of keeping traffic disruptions low, and thus allow for alternative solutions to be reached.

Assignment 1 MGT8022, Project Management Framework

i Date Produced: 6th April 09

Organizational Objectives and Project Outcomes Pipeline Laying Project, KUDCEMP 1012 ___________________________________________________________

Table of Contents:
Executive Summary:...............................................................................................................................i Table of Contents:..................................................................................................................................ii Introduction:...........................................................................................................................................1 Background:...........................................................................................................................................2 Organizational Objectives and Project Outcomes..................................................................................4 Uncovering unstated needs in the project:.........................................................................................4 References to Project Outcomes and Outputs in Project Management Bodies of Knowledge (PMBOKs)..........................................................................................................................................6 Benefits Management........................................................................................................................7 Risk Strategy development & Implementation by studying other projects:.........................................9 The Public Sector Environment in KUDCEMP 1012. ........................................................................9 1.Conclusions......................................................................................................................................11 Recommendations...............................................................................................................................12 2.References:......................................................................................................................................13 Appendix 1 Key Success Factors for KUDCEMP 1012....................................................................15 Appendix 2 - Project Categories .........................................................................................................16

Assignment 1 MGT8022, Project Management Framework

ii Date Produced: 6th April 09

Organizational Objectives and Project Outcomes Pipeline Laying Project, KUDCEMP 1012 ___________________________________________________________

Introduction:
This report is being written to understand the soft skill sets and broader perspectives necessary to ensure project success, particularly in the setting up of Organizational Objectives. Traditionally, the understood and desired outcome for the project manager has been to remain within the iron triangle of Budgets, Time and Quality but this does not happen if a broader perspectives / soft skills are not used to understand other desired Outcomes as well. The report seeks to shed light on what went wrong in KUDCEMP 1012 a pipeline laying project conducted in the city of Mangalore India, by juxtaposing the various events that took place in the project with what is now know in the literature, particularly with regard to:

Uncovering unstated needs in a project. Management Bodies of Knowledge (BOKs) & Prince 2.

Project

Benefits Management
Risks The

Management - Strategy Development & Implementation of other Projects:

Public Sector Environment and Frameworks.

Finally the report opinionates on how the Objectives could have been developed at the start of the project to improve the Outcome in terms of the general outcome measurement model for projects:

Figure 1-1. Outcome measurement model (adapted from Buckmaster 1999. p. l89)

Assignment 1 MGT8022, Project Management Framework

1 Date Produced: 6th April 09

Organizational Objectives and Project Outcomes Pipeline Laying Project, KUDCEMP 1012 ___________________________________________________________

Background:
In KUDCEMP 1012, the city of Mangalore in Karnataka, India, had approached the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for a loan to improve its water distribution system, and on receiving the loan, turned over the work to the Karnataka Urban Development and Coastal Environmental Management Project (KUDCEMP) for implementation. In recognition of the fact that work was not of continuing nature, and that it comprised of a planned set of activities meeting specific goals, KUDCEMP 1012 was classified as a project. Water Board Engineers were pulled out of Operations of the Water Board and asked to concentrate on the new pipeline laying work under KUDCEMP. However in order to ensure that monies were not diverted and to ensure payback of the loans, ADB continued to keep an active role. This is fairly typical of Category 7.7 Infrastructure Projects which normally includes creating an organizational entity to operate and maintain the facilities and lending agencies impose their life cycle and reporting requirements. (Archibald 2003) Although the KUDCEMP 1012 was imagined to be a classical linear pipeline project, (Morris P., 1995) with well defined start and stops to the work involved and clear objectives (see appendix 1 for S-lon Manekya Critical Success Factors (CSF) plan for KUDCEMP 1012), it quickly disintegrated, or experienced project creep into multiple projects running long side each other. KUDCEMP 1012 covered 60 square kilometres of land, the running of a program in a vast area when the Project Manager was geared to complete projects in small sections, led to great confusion (Lycett 2009). This came about as the CSF of being able to complete road crossing when required was not achieved, consequently the next CSF of Hydrostatic testing was not achieved either. To save time, the Project Manager moved the installation crew to a new front, and later, used any of the seven available installation crews (depending on their geographical location) to complete the job when the road cutting permissions were obtained. In the process, some pipe connections were occasionally left off by the new crew, leading to water losses during hydrostatic testing, and loss of time. At one point 30-40 partly worked on fronts had opened up in the site, where as the engineer had staff to deal with only 7 fronts at a time.

Assignment 1 MGT8022, Project Management Framework

2 Date Produced: 6th April 09

Organizational Objectives and Project Outcomes Pipeline Laying Project, KUDCEMP 1012 ___________________________________________________________

Assignment 1 MGT8022, Project Management Framework

3 Date Produced: 6th April 09

Organizational Objectives and Project Outcomes

Uncovering unstated needs in the project:
It is important to understand that in Category 7.7 Infrastructure projects, there can be more than one sponsor (Archibald 2003, see appendix 1 for a table of the categories of projects). In KUDCEMP 1012, the organizational objective of the city of Mangalore would have been to ensure adequate supply of treated drinking water for its growing population, as well as ensure the minimum disruption to life in the city. However from the perspective of the other sponsors ADB and KUDCEMP disruption to life in the city was of less importance than completing the project within the scope of the iron triangle of budgets, time and quality intact. This dichotomy was not immediately apparent to the executor of the project, M/s S-lon Manekya, who built their plans in accordance with instructions given by ADB and KUDCEMP. With the start of the project, numerous Mangalore City corporators got involved, S-lon Manekya found itself in the role of a lone bandit surrounded by cops. Work would be ground to halt with calls from the city corporation office with regard to the noise or a traffic situation and not restarted for several days. The importance of being aware of the major players, their interests and the ability to work with them is listed as one of the major differences between an excellent project manager and other project managers (Gardiner, 2005, p113). However, the definition of citizens as customers of public sector services is contentious, because the community collectively pays for services that are not necessarily used/enjoyed by every citizen (Donnelly 1999. p50). Unlike customers of private sector services, the definition of a public sector customer is somewhat ambiguous, customers of public sector services may actually be unaware that they have received a public service and various customer groups may have conflicting interests to the point where some of them may be "unwilling customers for the service" (Donnelly 1999. p50). In this sense, the problems faced by S-lon Manekya in the midst of the installation could not be readily resolved as it could not possibly keep everybody happy at that point.

However, in retrospect and standing a little apart from the debate about definitions of sponsors and customers, the "focus on delivery and improved results for ordinary citizens is in one sense, is a great call to arms for any company. It moves thinking away from the intellectual glamour and challenging complexities of policy development and advice to the much less exciting but ultimately more necessary area of delivering results that the community can see and appreciate" (Barber 2002. pl3). Generally, if S-lon Manekya had had the ability at that point, to focus on citizen needs, and develop top quality products and services which would be appreciated by the population, it would have been an opportunity to convert bad publicity to good since "improved quality means retaining and attracting new customers yielding more business and so increasing profits and growth in market share [...] an improvement in the bottom line" (Donnelly 1999. p48). According to Shead. when "analysing outcomes applicable to particular areas of public sector activity, it becomes evident that there is a hierarchy of outcomes which can be identified and that, even at the lowest and most specific level of this hierarchy, there is generally a many-to-many cause and effect relationship between outcomes and the strategies used to achieve them" (Shead 1998. p93). Figure 3.1 illustrates this relationship in KUDCEMP 1012. While a lot of the right choices in piping materials and precautions to protect the sources of water were made, the choice of installation method however was unfortunate. HDPE piping allows from trench less technologies to be used which is less noisy and less disruptive to traffic, however due to a large number of uncharted underground utilities being present an open trench method was preferred. The citizens of Mangalore did not take active part in the choice of technologies for installation of pipes. If they had, and the criteria of being less disruptive been given a higher rating, the objectives and the outcome of the project would have been surely different. This is more fully explained in section 3.2 below.

Strategic Goal

Improved Quality of life

Outcome

Safe and clean drinking water available 24 hours a day

Supporting Outcomes

Protected Sources of water, Piping should allow ingress of water

Low level of Unaccounted for Water, Leak proof systems

Low Pumping Costs

Long lasting piping designed for a growing population

Outputs / Services

Water Pollution Prevention & Treatment Plants

HDPE piping systems

Good Installation Practices

Well designed Piping layouts

Figure 3.1.1. Outcomes and Outputs in HDPE pipeline projects such as KUDCEMP 1012 - a many to many relationship (adapted from Shead 1998. p94)

References to Project Outcomes and Outputs in Project Management Bodies of Knowledge (PMBOKs)
PMI PMBOK 2004, A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK), holds that Stakeholders have varying levels of responsibility and authority when participating on a project and these can change over the course of the project's life cycle. Their responsibility and authority range from occasional contributions in surveys and focus groups to full project sponsorship, which includes providing financial and political support. Stakeholders who ignore this responsibility can have a damaging impact on the project objectives. Likewise, project managers who ignore stakeholders can expect a damaging impact on project outcomes. Sometimes, stakeholder identification can be difficult. Failure to identify a key stakeholder can cause major problems for a project. (PMI 2004, p 25). The late identification of citizens of Mangalore as key stakeholders / sponsors of KUMCEMP 1012 is the chief reasons for the project not progressing linearly as planned for S-lon Maneya. That the citizens of Mangalore themselves did not participate in setting out

the objectives, is the chief reason that least traffic disruption did not find mention as one of the objectives of KUDCEMP 1012. PMI 2004 also states that While planning the project, the project team should involve all appropriate stakeholders, depending upon their influence on the project and its outcomes. The project team should use stakeholders in project planning since the stakeholders have skills and knowledge that can be leveraged in developing the project management plan and any subsidiary plans. The project team must create an environment in which stakeholders can contribute appropriately. (PMI, p.46) KUDCEMP 1012 relied more on the experiences of the Water Board engineers and hard technical skills rather than create an environment where the citizens of Mangalore could participate in setting up the objectives. Soft skills were lacking at the start of the project.

Benefits Management
Ward et al (Ward. Murray & David 2004. p7) cite a dictionary definition of 'benefit' being "an advantage on behalf of an individual or group of individuals", meaning that "for a benefit to be realised within an organisation, a person or people must perceive and agree that they now have advantages over the previous way of working. Considering that such persons can be considered to be stakeholders, it follows that solutions "which deliver benefits will have been designed from the stakeholders' view or vision what constitutes a benefit". Therefore, it can be argued that a stakeholder workshop provides a means of developing a benefits dependency network (Ward & Elvin 1999.p212). A method supported by Bennington and Baccarini who describe "The literature (as) strongly support(ing) interviews and workshops with stakeholders as a technique of identifying project benefits" (Bennington & Baccarini 2004. p24). Cooke-Davies suggests that the business case "lies at the heart of benefits management" (Cooke-Davies 2000. p79) and as such should be used to "link project deliverables to corporate strategy through understanding and quantifying the benefits that the project is intended to contribute" (Cooke-Davies 2001. p2). And that when

this is well done, "the precise timing of the flow of benefits can be predicted from the project or programme schedule" (Cooke-Davies 2001. p2-3). In KUDCEMP 1012, a benefits analysis could have been made early in the project to highlight to the stakeholders the either the savings in costs of an open trench method of laying pipes or the less disruptive trench less technologies and allowed the citizens of Mangalore to choose between the two processes. Having the understanding of the populace would have gone a long way in preventing the objections which were filed regularly at the citys corporation offices which then hindered the work a great deal. Table 3.3.1 Benefits analysis of Two pipe laying techniques. Method 1) Open Trench method of laying pipes, using the feature that HDPE pipes require narrower trenches, therefore less earth removal is involved than in conventional piping 2) Trench less technologies of laying pipes, using the feature that HDPE pipes are flexible and form very strong joints.
Guided

Business Case Charting of underground utilities is not necessary, earth is removed as carefully as possible to expose uncharted utilities first.

Benefits Objectives Cheaper technology but is disruptive to daily life.

Horizontal

Least disruptive to daily life and traffic, and can save Unaccounted for Water in terms of illegal tapping, however it is 3-4 times as expensive.

boring machines dig through the soil at a depth where no utilities are expected, and pull the pipe into the precise bore created. The pipe so laid cannot be easily damaged subsequently or illegally taped very easily..

Risk Strategy development & Implementation by studying other projects:

Risk Strategy has a different emphasis from Benefits strategy. A quantitative approach to construction risk management could have been taken through analysis of the hierarchal processes in KUDCEMP 1012. A decision tree analysis of decisions taken in other similar projects and their effects could have been used to develop strategy and organizational objectives and predict project outcomes. If all the risk factors are identified and their effects quantified by determining the probability and severity then various alternative responses can be generated with cost implication for mitigating the risks. The expected monetary values are then derived for each alternative in a decision tree framework and subsequent probability analysis could have aided the decision process in managing risks of KUDCEMP 1012.

The Public Sector Environment in KUDCEMP 1012.

Extortions, bribery and other corrupt practices can confuse idealistic Objectives or convert all Objectives into being corrupt ones. Especially in South Eastern Asia, the instance of corruption is quite common. To understand how these pressure build up particularly in public sector organizations and with elected member/s it is important to develop a framework of the public sector environment. Many elected members "bring with them the manifesto on which they stood for election" (Donnelly 1999. p50). These "manifestos" can be expected to range in quality and detail and "include a mix of high-principled statements as well as very specific local actions", with very few of the manifestos "written as a considered basis for the formation of corporate and service strategy" (Donnelly 1999. p50). The potential for conflicts to arise when a defined service adversely affects an elected representative's constituents (an issue "rarely faced by commercial senior executives" (Donnelly 1999. p51)). In addition, once defined it may be found that "the initiatives required to achieve political re-election" may conflict with what is purported

to be managerial 'best practice' (Hughes and O'Neill cited in Brown & Waterhouse 2003. p234). S-lon Manekya experienced what could be called bullying tactics in KUDCEMP 1012 from the City Corporation. There is no escaping the importance of keeping a cordial relationship and a respectful image of the company as one that cannot be corrupted with people in power and also have good negotiation tactics and strategies. Every leader has to have a vision and the ability to predict the future, but good leaders must have a special capacity to anticipate the radically unexpected. In business, the best leaders in brutally competitive environments have a sixth sense for market changes, as well as moves by existing competitors and new entrants.. (a good leader) because of his intuition and savvy, could put himself in the chair of the person across the table, allowing him to predict every move in a negotiation. (Welch, 2005, p 89) Make every effort not to have your first date at the negotiation table. A war zone is no place to get acquainted. (Welch, 2005, p 110). In this respect too early contact and a understanding of the depth of the opposition is imperative in making sure Organizational Objectives are not diverted and Project Outcomes are as desired.

1. Conclusions
Having a clear set of Objectives which have been built up with the participation with all the stakeholders is a time consuming affair initially, and is a step ignored by most Infrastructure Project Managers the world over (Turner 1999 p 74). The absence of Stakeholder workshops, or Scoping (Gardiner P., 2005 p 200) meant that the objectives for KUDCEMP 1012 was setup with a leaning towards Engineering and Financial needs and ignored Social needs. Aligned in this way, the project manager may have been successful in China, however he was quickly brought to his knees in India. Having Stakeholder workshops would have slowed the progress initially, however also throws up the exciting possibilities of increased cooperation with the local population who could have provided vital clues as to the location of uncharted underground utilities and increased co-operation when it came to achieving Critical Success Factors such as road cutting. For S-lon Manekya it also meant an opportunity for furthering good will and popularizing its Brand image.

Recommendations
1) Stakeholders should be identified early in the project and their ability to impact the project assessed early.
2)

Stakeholders should be managed depending on their responsibilities and authority through the course of a project to set up the correct and comprehensive Objectives for the project.

3)

The set of Objectives should act as a guide to the Project Manager who would then know how to act even in the absence of detailed instructions.

4) Objective should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Acheivable, Result Oriented, Time-based).

5)

Detailed instructions for achieving anticipated outputs are useful and should be in place. These can be changed from time to time by measuring feedback of how the actual output vary from anticipated ones.

2. References:
Archibald, R 2003, Managing high technology programs and projects, 3rd edn, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey, USA. Bennington. P & Baccarini. D 2004. 'Project Benefits Management in IT Projects - an Australian perspective'. Project Management Journal, vol. 35. no. 2. pp. 2030. Brown. K & Waterhouse. J 2003. 'Change management practices - Is a hybrid model a better alternative for public sector agencies ?' The International Journal of Public Sector Management, vol. 16. no. 3. pp. 230-41. Cooke-Davies. T 2000. Towards Improved Project Management Practice Uncovering the evidence for effective practices through empirical research'. Doctor of Philosophy thesis. Leeds Metropolitan University. Cooke-Davies. T 2001. 'Managing Benefits - the key to project success'. Project Manager Today, no. December 2001. pp. 1-3. Donnelly. M 1999. 'Making the difference: quality strategy in the public sector'. Managing Service Quality, vol. 9. no. 1. pp. 47-52. Dvir. D. Raz. T & Shenhar. AJ 2002. 'An empirical analysis of the relationship between project planning and project success'. International Journal of Project Management, vol. 21. pp. 89-95. Gardiner P. 2005, Project Management, Palgrave MacMillian, New York, USA. Lycett M, Rassau A, Danson J, 2009 Programe Management: A Critical Review. International Journal of Project Management 22 (2004) 289299 Morris, P., and Therivel, R., (editors) Methods of Environmental Impact Assessment. UCL Press 1995. Shead. B 1998. 'Outcomes and Outputs - Who's Accountable for What ?' Accountability & Performance, vol. 4. no. 1. pp. 89-100. Turner J.R., 1999. The Handbook of Project-based Management, 2nd edn., McGrawHill, Maidenhead. Ward- J & Elvin. R 1999. 'A new framework for managing IT-enabled business change'. Information Systems Journal, vol. 9. no. 3. pp. 197 - 221.

Ward- J. Murray. P & David. E 2004. Benefits Management Best Practice Guidelines. Document Number : ISRC-BM-200401 edn. School of Management Cranfield University. Bedford. United Kingdom. Welch J., Welch S., 2005. Winning. Collins Business ISBN-10: 0060753943

Appendix 1 Key Success Factors for KUDCEMP 1012

Material will be transported on long bed trailers, secured on sides by stee sections, & steel wire rope covered w PE, till receipt of material at site. Co will be transported in regular trucks. shall not be thrown down from the tr on to hard surfaces.

PE pipes are stored or stacked on th sharp projections such as rocks, sto the pipe wall. In cases of rocky g battens (or HDPE pipes sent from the length. Area should be free of hydrocarbon

Appendix 2 - Project Categories