Need definition
This is an Australian sport stadium located in Yarra Park Melbourne. It is also the 10th largest stadium in the world and largest in Australia (Sissons & Stoddart, 2014). Since it was constructed in the year 1853, the ground has been in constant renewal to align it to required international standards. The need for project development was sphere headed by the need to come up with international cricket playground. The development and advancement of the ground brings out a clear indication that need analysis and conceptual design was not clearly outlined. Conceptual design comes from need definition which should clearly explain what is to be achieved and the standards required. The design of the stadium was engineered by the need to have advanced playground. Later on, the conceptual design had to keep changing as a result of change in use (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). Changing from the initial design to make the stadium accommodate all sort of activities has been a big challenge and claims have been based on failure to capture actual and complete need analysis of the stadium. During project design, it was important that all project stakeholders had to come up with a complete problem definition, expected results and execution strategy (Sears et al., 2015). There are several aspects that should have been considered before coming up with the design of the Melbourne cricket stadium. These factors are; the capacity of the stadium so that stakeholders can be able to give out an estimate of the resources required. Next aspect is on the use of the ground because this had great influence on the design to be adopted, the size and resource allocation. This paper would focus on problem need analysis, conceptual framework design and evaluation of the entire project during its implementation.
In the project management, need definition is very important step that should be done comprehensively to cover all the requirements. The project need problem would be “Melbourne cricket stadium actualization strategy”. Failure to have clear definition of needs results to project creep. Project creep is a phenomenon which makes it impossible to finish the project within the set timeframe. It is usually done after planning phase of the project development. Need analysis was done to help in coming up with standard stadium that could be recognized across the globe. During need analysis, all project stakeholders were involved to help come up with clearly defined goals of the project (Burke & Woolcock, 2013). Stakeholders’ involvement was done with aim of coming with project goals that does not conflict with some of the project stakeholders. Some of the project definitions that were deduced during project need analysis are; the size of the field which was projected to be 4 hectares. The size was unanimously agreed at by considering the nature of games that would be hosted in the field. Though during its inception, the field did not target to be the best in the Australian land, due to numerous upgrades done, it is one of the notable fields in Australia. The next need analysis which come up during project definition stage was the location of the ground. Coming up with the site where the Melbourne cricket stadium was to be set was another major aspect which stakeholders had to handle (Steinfort & Walker, 2007). The location of social amenities are always confronted by conflict of interest from stakeholder and stadium was not an exception. Some years later after its establishment, there was need to relocate it because it was claimed to be occupying steam railway land. Different stakeholders had varied opinion on where to build the ground with minimal effects to environment, and in an area close to the city.
Conceptual framework design
Additionally, need analysis on the standards of the field was not accurately captured considering its future prospects because it has been under improvement for some time. Though there has been improvements over time, this cannot be attributed to unmet problem definition. Important to note is that by then, the stadium was at its best state and was according to international standards (Beringer, Jonas & Gemunden, 2012). All the changes which have taken place so far can be attributed to general requirements from international sports bodies which have been changing. Further, the capacity of the field was one of the major concerns from all stakeholders. As of then, the capacity predication could not be clearly arrived at due to unpredictable changes. Some of these changes were related to types of games to be hosted and other uses of the ground apart from cricket. Considering its purpose of use, at some point it was decided that the field should be used for cricket only. The conflict of interest continued until it was decided the ground can be used for other purposes when not in use for cricket games. This is an indication of how need definition on the use of the field was not factored at initiation stage of development. All stakeholders should have come together and decide on the use of the stadium for the benefits of all people rather than cricket games. Upon this agreement on the use of the ground, the capacity can now be clearly defined because its use has been set and no more improvements have been under way (Unger & Eppinger, 2011).
It is used by researchers to give out an explanation of how scenarios are implemented to real projects (Ramasesh & Browning, 2014). Through use of the conceptual framework, researcher is able to connect all the variables in the study. It is an important aspect in the study as it helps project stakeholders to identify all variables to be used in the research process. From the problem statement of coming up with international cricket playground, the following variables were deduced for implementation during project execution; the use of the stadium, location of the stadium, resources required, stadium capacity and the standards of the stadium. All these variables should interact accordingly in order to achieve the main set goal (Alias et al., 2014). In this case, the main objective was to come up with international standard cricket playground within stipulated timeframe. The dependent variables should be well articulated in order to facilitate achievement of independent variable. If any of the dependent project variables was not executed expeditiously, it is obvious entire project implementation could not meet required standards (Too & Weaver, 2014). Planning the use of the stadium was an important factor since “use” variable had adverse effects on all other three dependent project variables.
Evaluation
The purpose and use of the stadium was to have a good cricket playground which can host international games. During its initial design, the stadium was set to host cricket games only. The perception of having a playground that hosts cricket games did not settle well with many of the stakeholders as it aroused mixed reactions. According to Nauright (2012), the use of the stadium has been changing over time because of change in decision. On the same note, the change in stadium use has resulted to change in some other factors such as resource allocation, the size of the playground and design of the playground as it has been redesigned several times to accommodate various events. A good example is on the goal posts which have changed at least two times. According to project development plans, the project has been attributed to many issues from the onset as it did not match the required international standards from the initial planning. From this analysis, it would be important to observe the need of having clear project deliverables that are well planned and input from all stakeholders being considered to avert further project crises. According to Blomquist et al., (2010), being unable to deliver project deliverables as planned with so many changes on the way shows total failure in project management skills and experience.
An analysis of the dependent variables and the issues that halted smooth implementation of the Melbourne stadium shows that, the four variables did not interact freely with a goal of achieving the main project deliverable (Soderlund, 2011). Each of the four dependent variables have been executed without considering the effects they have on others. Failure to execute one of the variables accordingly affected other variables which in turn halted required stadium standards. To avoid project creep which was witnessed during implementation, project management team should have gone back to drawing board to come up with a new field design. This would have helped solve the issues of redesigning the stadium from time to time. The project team did not have definite problem analysis and clear planning on the development of the stadium. With very clear set objective, the project lacked articulate implementation supporting parameters. For example, the issue of relocation was attributed to, by having the stadium within the heart of the city but project development team did not consider challenges that may hinder the project over time. Stadium use is one of the major variables that had far reaching consequences because poor decision on the use of the stadium influenced project slag on all other variables (Sherriff, Griffiths & Daube, 2010).
Moreover, resource allocation has been done repeatedly to make sure proposed changes have been done successfully. This has been attributed to by aspects such as proposed changes in terms of design, capacity and relocation of the stadium because part of it had occupied railway land (Memon et al., (2011). The relocation of the stadium shows there was failure during design of the initial development plan. Despite having all stakeholders in place, Melbourne project planning and execution have faced several challenges that could have been prevented. Having part of the stadium occupying railway land is an indication of reluctance in responsibilities. Since all stakeholders were available during project planning and actualization, such mistakes should not have been noted. Finally, stadium standards has been of major issue because first project execution did not meet required capacity. One of the standard issue was noted when Melbourne playground developed wide cracks as a result of extreme heat resulting to unplanned renovations. The contractor of the field was criticized for doing shoddy work (Meskendahl, 2010). In this case, environmental conditions were not factored out during execution of the project. There should be clear analysis and evaluation of all calamities that can affect any project during implementation or after implementation.
Conclusion
Project management is a complex undertaking that should be well planned with clear deliverables. Project planning is very important stage because all other stages depends on the planning phase of the project. During development of Melbourne cricket stadium, project need definition and conceptual design was considered to be problematic stages which raised so many project implementation issues. Need definition did not consider some of the major aspects of Melbourne stadium implementation as outlined in project management criterions. During need analysis, project team should have had a clear understanding of the project deliverables as well as set goals. Further, project resources and prospective stadium uses would have been much easier if need analysis was done accordingly and by the right team with all stakeholders. Conceptual design of the project gives an outline of the variables to be considered when planning project execution strategy. In Melbourne cricket stadium project implementation, four dependent variables were important in project implementation if stadium standards were to be met. The dependent variables covers; uses of the stadium, suitable location search, project resource allocation and the size of the stadium. For the project to be implemented successfully without project creep, all the independent variables should have been executed successfully. The evaluation of the stadium development has been done to show issues that faced implementation of the project. Inadequate planning and need analysis have been identified as some of the major causes of project implementation challenges.
References
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