Complexities of Geelong Fast Rail Project
The rationale as well as the method on the basis of which the project is considered as complex is the project budget. All the project comes along with various stages and for the purpose of this project, which is the new express track project, the first phase of the project has been allocated with a budget of around $2billions. The huge budget of the project helps in identifying this project as complex. Furthermore, the Geelong Fast Rail project consists of many risks that can clearly assist in the determination of the project as complex.
The different complexities that are related to the Geelong Fast Rail project are,
- Sustainability:Sustainability is said to be one of the major aspect related to projects like the rail project. For the purpose of achieving success, it is essential for the Geelong Fast Rail Project to be sustainable. The project manager and the other stakeholders are aware about the project sustainability and as a result there are no lack of awareness in this project (Read, Naweed and Salmon 2019). The project sustainability is said to be uncertain as well as unpredictable. Various interactions must be initiated during this project between the government, project manager and the client of the project for gaining project success.
- Resource:The availability of resources are required in ample amount for large projects like the Geelong Fast Rail project. The complexity of resources arises in a project because the team members are lacking in appropriate awareness, which is essential and can be achieved by avoiding wastage of resources (Ma and Fu 2020). The process of resource management can be evaluated at the initial stage, however, resource complexity takes place because the resource manager does not undertake the determination of project resource in an effective way and the team members also causes wastage of resources at the time of project execution. Complexity of resource cannot be predicted because the team members can undertake resource wastage at any point of the project life cycle. The rate associated with resource change is done on an immediate basis with advancement of project (Kirawanich 2018). The different stakeholders of the project who are responsible for management of resources are the project manager, sponsor as well as the resource manager who must undertake meetings on the resources. The project budget can exceed the estimated budget with the complexities related to resources.
- Health and Safety:The rail infrastructure project involves various activities that are required to be carried out for the completion of the project and comes along with several risks of team member health and safety. Therefore, health and safety is regarded as one of the major complexities for the purpose of this rail infrastructure project (Kaewunruen and Lian 2019). The team members and other stakeholders are not completely aware about the placement of different project equipment and as a result of the same, the risk related to their health and safety are high. The health and safety complexities cannot be predicted and the same can take place at any point of time during execution of project. Different communications, which can be initiated for avoiding the health and safety issue must be done in order to ensure the safety of team members.
The various strategies that can be undertaken for the purpose of minimizing and at the same time managing the complexities of Geelong Fast Rail project are,
- The environment associated with the project must be undertaken for analysis, which is said to be a major strategy for the purpose of determining the appropriate measure for overcoming the identified complexities of sustainability, resources as well as health and safety (Poveda-Bautista, Diego-Mas and Leon-Medina 2018). The process of identifying remedies can assist in identification of gaps that are prevailing within the project and causing the project complexities.
- Undertaking measures in order to develop the objectives of the project is considered as another effective strategy for overcoming the complexities of Geelong Fast Rail project. With the help of objectives, the team members will be well acknowledged with the activities and tasks that must be undertaken by them along with the amount of resource that can be utilized (Arashpour et al.2018). Furthermore, with the help of project objectives, the team members will undertake all the works according to the same and the complexities can be mitigated and the project can be delivered within estimated time and budget.
- The capacity related to the resources required in this project must be further analyzed, which is regarded as one of the major strategy for the purpose of overcoming project complexities (Nipa, Kermanshachi and Patel 2022). By identification of resource capacity, the complexities related to wastage and shortage of resources can be mitigated on an immediate basis without effecting the delivery of Geelong Fast Rail project.
The key roles, members as well as stakeholders associated with the Geelong Fast Rail project are as follows,
- Project sponsor:The project sponsor has the primary responsibility for providing with all essential funding of the project along with the approval of budget required at different phases of the project. In other words, it can be stated that the project sponsor is responsible for the purpose of providing with project resources by providing funds and further supporting the project for enabling in the achievement of project success (Derakhshan, Turner and Mancini 2019). The project sponsor of the Geelong Fast Rail project will provide with all the essential cost that will be required at different phases of the project and as a result of the same, provide with essential guidance in the project.
- Project manager:The success of the project lies in the hands of the project manager. Therefore, it can be stated that the project manager is responsible for organizing, planning as well as directing the project and leading towards the completion of the project within estimated budget, time and scope. The project manager of the Geelong Fast Rail project will be responsible for planning all the components of the project from the execution till the delivery of the project (de Oliveira and Rabechini 2019). In addition to this, a strategy is developed by the project manager for providing more outcomes, satisfaction, value as well as quality by the project completion. The project manager further breaks down the project into different activities along with the major tasks as well as subtasks. A relevant schedule is further developed according to the project deliverables by the project manager. The project manager of the Geelong Fast Rail project has also developed the schedule for this project in order to meet the deliverables of the project, the project dependencies are further highlighted in the schedule of the project (Nguyen, Mohamed and Panuwatwanich 2018). In essence, the project manager of this project shall direct the project team for achieving the common aim and objective of this project, which is the achievement of the rail infrastructure for the Geelong Fast Rail project.
- Team members:The role of the team members of this project is to undertake all the activities of the rail infrastructure project in order to achieve the deliverables of the project. The team members of the project are responsible for working on multiple stages of the project for the purpose of project preparation as well as planning (Alnaggar and Pitt 2018). On the basis of the project activities, the team members are allocated to different tasks of the project according to their expertise. Furthermore, it is very much essential for the team members of the project is to understand their duty as well as responsibilities towards the project. Team members must further initiate to undertake proper communications for the purpose of ensuring that none of the requirements for the project is missed due to lack of communication.
- Resource manager:The resource manager in the project plays a key role in the planning as well as allocation of project resources. The resource manager also assists the project manager in the allocation of project resources in an effective as well as efficient manner (Axelsson and Granath 2018). The demand for resources in the rail infrastructure project will be further determined by the resource manager along with ensuring that the capacity of resources meets all the staffing needs associated with the project. The resource manager is further responsible for the purpose of assigning the different team members to different activities of the project. Resource manager are essential in the project in order to ensure that the availability of project are never decreased in the project and the team members of the project does not face any sort of resource deficiency (Willumsen et al. 2019). In essence to the same, the resource manager plays a key role in monitoring the everyday activities of the team members along with the management and monitoring of the workload as well as utilization of resources. The conflicts associated to resources that takes place in a project are resolved by the resource manager along with overcoming the shortages associated with project resources, which is one of the major complexity faced by different project.
- Project contractor: Project contractor specifically refers to a construction manager, who is mainly employed by a specific client usually upon the associated advice of the project architect or might as well be an engineer. The project contractor is also entrusted with the specific responsibility for carrying out an entire coordination of a project, where the associated general contractors might also act upon the building designer as well as a foreman (Vuorinen and Martinsuo 2019). Some of the basic responsibilities of a project contractor has the primary inclusion of carrying out an effective assessment of the project based on specific documents. With respect to the renovations, a specific site visit also is particularly required to obtain a better understanding of the respective project. This has a direct dependence upon the method used for the project deliver, the existing contractor will also make submissions of the fixed proposal or a specific bid. The project contractor carries out specific consideration of the costs required for home office overhead, required materials, specific equipment, cost required for labor, as well as to provision the owner with the associated price of a particular project (Eskerod and Larsen 2018). In addition to this, the project contractor may also carry out the respective responsibilities of a construction manager within a specific project.
- Victorian and Australian Government:The Victorian and Australian Government will provide with essential funds that shall be required in this project along with passing several laws as well as regulations, which will be necessary throughput the lifecycle of the Geelong Fast Rail project.
Reason for Communication |
Communication Method |
Frequency of Communication |
Audience |
Owner |
Conducting team meeting |
Face to face communication |
Seven days |
Project team members |
Project manager |
Seeking update about project stakeholders |
|
According to requirements |
Stakeholders |
Project sponsor and project manager |
Resource updates |
Face to face communication |
After completion of every phase |
Team members |
Project manager and resource manager |
Checking project deliverables |
Face to face communication, email |
After completion of every activities |
Team members |
Project manager and team members |
The project management framework that shall be utilized for the Geelong Fast Rail project is the Lean Framework. The primary aim of undertaking lean framework is to maximize the satisfaction level of the customers along with the minimization of the amount of waste that can be produced by this project. The rail infrastructure project is mainly being undertaken for the benefit of the people residing the areas around the development and as a reason of the same, the primary focus will be provided upon the customers with the utilization of lean framework by the Geelong Fast Rail project.
The different tools, which will be required for managing the complexities related to the Geelong Fast Rail project involves the following,
- Network Diagram
- Critical Path Method
- Gantt Chart
- Work Breakdown Structure
- Communication Plan
References:
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Axelsson, K. and Granath, M., 2018. Stakeholders’ stake and relation to smartness in smart city development: Insights from a Swedish city planning project. Government Information Quarterly, 35(4), pp.693-702.
de Oliveira, G.F. and Rabechini Jr, R., 2019. Stakeholder management influence on trust in a project: A quantitative study. International Journal of Project Management, 37(1), pp.131-144.
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Nguyen, T.S., Mohamed, S. and Panuwatwanich, K., 2018. Stakeholder Management in Complex Project: Review of Contemporary Literature. Journal of Engineering, Project & Production Management, 8(2).
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