The Fundamentals of Project Planning

Introduction

Project planning can be loosely defined as the process of accumulating essential resources ranging from financial, material as well as human resources and harmonizing them in a sequential arrangement that effects the achievement of a goal or objective. Aston (2017) points out that efficient project planning and management involves a lot more than ensuring the effective maintenance of the project management iron triangle: delivering on time, budget and scope rather it also involves unifying the stakeholders and the delivery teams, creating and communicating a vision for success and getting everyone upto date on what exactly needs to be done to stay on the success path. The entire process of planning for a specific project is very much crucial for the purpose of figuring out the basic scope behind a specific project, determining and interpreting the objectives of the project, and finally planning the best possible way to reach those goals for the successful completion of the project (Pedro, 2012). This highlights that project planning is in fact the first step of project management. The structure for the project management must be chosen in such a manner that makes the most optimized use of the human resources and the financial resources and thereby realizes the manner to reach a dynamic state of equilibrium in between the resources and the goals that are set for the project. The present task will demonstrate the relevance and the utilisation of the distinct project management strategies, tools, and techniques. Moreover, this task will also throw some light on the calculation of the estimates, budgets and actual costs for a specific project and also interpret the financial performance for the project.

Task 1: Project Management Plan

Part A

Matyus (2019) defines a Project Management Plan (PMP) as a document highlighting every phase of a project. The purpose of such a document essentially is to provide a comprehensive baseline of what the projects successful implementation entails including how it will be achieved, who will be involved, how it will be measured and reported and most importantly the flow of communication (Wrike Inc., 2019). Every project can be handled in an effective manner by the incorporation of the effective project management plan. The project management plan developed herein comprises essentially the procurement plan, a human resource plan and a communication matrix regarding the construction of a bar at Wadham College (Kerzner and Kerzner, 2017). The project management methodologies that have been adopted in the construction PMP will aid the project managers and provide a guide through the successful implementation of the project.

Procurement Plan

This is the planning process regarding the identification and the consolidation of the requirements for a specific project and also sets the determination of the time frame for the purpose of their procurement so as to aid the personnel associated with a particular project achieve the set target within the specified time period (Tsujibe, et al. 2015). Lynch (2018) highlights that procurement planning is essential to ensure control in the recruitment and purchasing phase of the project. With procurement planning, the projects can avoid instances of less supply and thus delay in the time scope of the project or excess and impacting on the eventual cost. The requisite procurement planning is one of the most crucial prerequisites for the successful completion of a project and also offers for an excellent basis for the purpose of monitoring the entire project in an effective and an efficient manner.

Here ICB implies International competitive bidding and QCBS implies quality and cost based selection. These are the procurement procedures that are most appropriate methods used for procurement planning for the construction of the building. This plan describes for the major procurements regarding the distinct construction phases of a residential building that is being constructed in the UK. Apart from the estimates of the costs that might be incurred for the building purpose, this plan also provides for the procurement options that can be used and utilized in combinations for achieving the target before the set delivery time frame (Qiu, et al. 2016).

A Human Resource Plan

Human Resource is a crucial element of success in a project. According to Kenton (2019) Human resource planning is crucial in ensuring the best fit between employees and a job while at the same time avoiding manpower shortages and surpluses. An effective human resource management plan is very much crucial and one of the most important processes regarding the effective project management process and provides for the provision of managing the distinct people who are connected to a specific project (Bailey, et al. 2018). This provides for the responsibilities, the project roles, staffing estimation. This entire human resource plan can be reviewed and upgraded as and when it is requisite even while the project is ongoing. A human resource plan that describes the role and responsibilities of the distinct personnel related to the present building construction project is provided below. Along with that this plan also specifies the number of personnel that is required under each specific role

Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) Of The Human Management Plan

A Communication Matrix

Communication is a key element in the success of whatever endeavour is taken up by man, it is a crucial component of the relation between different people who work together to enable the success of a project. It is one of the most essential organizational issues that is a prerequisite to the success of a project (Shu, et al. 2018). Zulch (2014) premises that communication enables passing of instructions by different professionals as well as sharing and decision making which enables the propulsion of the project from one phase to the other. The communication matrix for a project allows the personnel associated with a specific project to communicate with the distinct components of the project in an effective and efficient manner for the meeting the distinct queries and discussions related to a specific project (Lin, et al. 2017). A communication matrix for the ongoing building construction process within the UK is mentioned below:

COMMUNICATION MATRIX

Task 1 Part B

GANTT Chart

The very first activity is framing. This is the first step for any building construction project. The second activities are rough plumbing and rough electricity. Both of these activities are important in the initial stage as for the initial construction tasks both water and electricity are essential for continuing the project. However, after the completion of the project, another round of plumbing and electricity installation would be required. The next activity in the construction project is trimming. At this stage, a trimmer is used to perform various metal related activities like installation of chimney, installation of joists in the ceiling etc. The next activity in the construction project is installation of cabinet. Cabinets are small wardrobes which are required to be installed in various parts of the house. After the completion of this phase, painting would be done. Painting would be done in both outside and inside of the building. The color of paint is generally selected by the customers (Sears et al. 2015) Carpet installation is another important activity and it should be done after the indoor painting is over in order to save the carpet from damage. The next phase is dry washing. Dry washing is generally done in both outside and inside of the building. Now that almost all the important activities are completed, the next activity to be performed is preliminary inspection. Inspection is an important activity for any construction project. By inspecting all the corners of the building, a project manager should be confirmed that the work has taken place according to the preference of the customers (Sears et al. 2015). After the preliminary inspection, the cleaning would be done. The cleaning staffs are required to clean every corner of the project in order to ensure that the customers receive a neat and clean building on their arrival. The final activity of the project is final inspection. In this step, a project manager would ensure that all the activities are appropriately done and all the safety measures are taken. It should also be ensured in this phase that the building is prepared without harming the environment and the percentage of carbon footprint associated with the project is as less as possible.

Risk Management Plan

Construction projects exhibit huge potential risks due to the amount of investment put in them as well as the sheer sizes of the materials and components used as well as the constructed structures. Jayasudha and Vidivelli (2016) highlights that construction projects for instance have a very wide range of risks all of which can be classified under Construction Hazards, Financial and economic risks, performance and labour shortage risks, security risks, contractual and legal risks, political and societal uncertainties, as well as physical and technical risks all of which ought consideration in the Risk Management Plan for a projects success. The risks associated with the building construction project are listed below along with the necessary risk management techniques;

Technical Risks – technical risks are all those types of risks for which the project manager and his team feel restrictions to perform the steps of the project (Jones, 2018). One possible type of technical risk associated to injuries and safety measures. Construction projects are often subject to risks of injuries for the workers. If a worker gets injured in an accident, there are chances that the project would be closed. In order to avoid this risk, proper safety measures should be taken. Additionally, the project manager needs to hire skilled and trained workers. Other important types of technical risks are unavailability of resources, improper design etc. Resources should be gathered on advanced basis to avoid the unavailability (Burtonshaw-Gunn, 2017). To design a construction project properly, it is also important to hire skilled engineers and architects.

Financial Risks – every construction project is subject to a budget which is provided by the customers and it is the responsibility of the project manager to perform all the activities of the project within that provided budget. However, often the project manager fails to maintain the budget and that is where the financial risk arises. In addition, economic factors such as Inflation and high interest of financial institutions impact on the budgeting and provide a risk of lack of funds for project completion (Jones, 2017). In order to avoid this risk; the project manager should prepare a proper project plan where all the resources and the associated costs would be mentioned. Hence, the probability of exceeding the budget would decrease.

Environmental Risk – the environmental risk arises from over consumption of energy while constructing the building. With increasing pollution, the environmental risk is becoming more and more popular in the UK construction industry. Reports depict a more than half of the total consumed energy consumed by the UK economy comes from the construction industry. Hence, to mitigate this risk, the project manager should be conscious about the percentage of carbon footprint associated with the project in order to reduce the risk of environmental pollution as much as possible (Burtonshaw-Gunn, 2017).

Social Risk – the social risk is related to the difficulties faced by the local residents of the area. The local residents can feel a lot of difficulties in their daily life due to the construction of a building. This risk can be reduced by asking the cooperation and support from the local residents of the area.

Quality Management Plan

The quality management plan for the construction project has three phases;

Quality Planning

The quality standard identified for the present building construction project is ISO 9000. This quality standard ensures that a project is conducted by satisfying the stakeholders and by obeying all the quality principles. Quality planning involves taking up relevant activities to ensure quality standards, resources, practices and specifications are met (Payne and Watt, 2013). For the present project, the stakeholders are the customers, the project manager himself and his team of workers and the local residents (Mitra, 2016). To satisfy the customers, the building should be constructed according to the specifications provided by the customers. To satisfy the project management team, all the required safety measures should be taken. And to satisfy the local residents, the percentage of carbon footprint should be maintained at the lowest level.

Quality Control

The risks associated with the present project are;

Technical Risk – can be avoided by hiring skilled employees.

Financial Risk – can be avoided by proper financial planning.

Environmental Risk – can be avoided by consuming low volume of energy.

Social Risk – can be voided by asking for support from the local residents.

Quality Assurance

After the completion of the project, a thorough inspection would be performed to ensure that the project has been completed by satisfying all the required techniques and standards (Mitra, 2016).

Task 2

As the report is based on the construction project it is necessary to calculate the estimated budget and other financial details of the project. The estimated financial details will help in procuring of funds and will also provide the organisation with the details of how funds will be utilised in the construction project.

Estimated activity costs

Estimating costs is the practice of projecting the costs that will be incurred for the construction project. There are numerous elements that are involved in a construction project and these are required to estimated keeping in mind a gap or margin as the estimated costs may fluctuate during the actual work of construction.

Cumulative budgeted costs

The cumulative budgeted cost refers to the costs that are estimated in the overall budget for the construction project.

The above two tables represent the budgeted overall estimates for the construction project. In order to create an estimation for the construction project it is not sufficient to consider only the historical cost of the past projects. It is important the economic conditions such as the factors of inflation and deflation are taken into consideration when the overall budgets are prepared for the project. Along with these budgeted costs in order to undertake the activities of the construction project it is necessary that the sunk costs are estimated which will be incurred during the progress of the construction project. These sunk costs are costs that are already incurred and cannot be recovered. The sunk costs have not been included in the budget as these costs cannot be recovered but it is favourable to estimate the amount of such costs (Connors et al, 2015).

Cumulative actual costs

The cumulative actual costs are the costs that are actually incurred during the project. Here the overall basic actual costs can be represented in a table for the construction project.

A basic cost has been given here that has been incurred in the construction project.

Compare variances of actual costs vs. budgeted costs

Milestone monitoring

The milestones are the specific points which are identified in the timeline of the project in order to maintain a proper schedule or rather to achieve or complete the project within the specific timeline that is set. The milestones are these points which are observed in order to monitor the progress of the project and to completed the project within the stipulated time. These milestones are monitored to track the progress of the project activities.

Earned value analysis

According to Lukas (2012) Earned Value refers to the value of construction work that has actually been completed at the point of its calculation. It refers to the value of work performed expressed in terms of the approved budget assigned to the work for an activity or WBS Schedule. It is crucial as it enabled the client to know how much money has been earned from the money already spent in a project. The earned value analysis is very useful as it provides the project manager with the actual costs that have been incurred and that can be compared to the budgeted costs. In order to calculate the earned value of the project it is required that the planned value, the actual value is ascertained. The earned value is calculated as

Earned Value (EV) = %age of Completed works *Budget at Completion (Amount Budgeted) (Lukas, 2012)

Conclusion

The report includes the project management details of a construction project. It includes the planning and the quality management as well as the budget plans and other details of the financial control for the construction project. Therefore, it can be said that the project management includes a detailed plan of the project including the financials involved which provides a basis to the project manager with the help of which the project plan can be progressed further. In addition to this, it helps in completion of the project within the set time limits.

Reference List

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Bailey, C., Mankin, D., Kelliher, C. and Garavan, T., 2018. Strategic human resource management. Oxford University Press.

Connors, A., Conlon, D.E. and Moon, H., 2015. The role of sunk costs and project completion information in different decision environments. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2015, No. 1, p. 12442). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.

Lin, R., Qian, F., Wu, J., Fang, W.T. and Jin, Y., 2017, July. A pilot study of communication matrix for evaluating artworks. In International Conference on Cross-Cultural Design (pp. 356-368). Springer, Cham.

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Tsujibe, A., Taguchi, K. and Inoue, T., Hitachi Ltd, 2015. Procurement plan creation device. U.S. Patent Application 14/426,053.

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