Project Plan
The paper mainly reflects on the “refurbishment of road work within Brisbane City Council” after a flood in the year 2022. The main aim of the paper is to combine the findings as well as outcomes of the project in order to discuss how the entire work of the project is delivered and the lessons that are mainly learned in this process. The report also uses detailed theories and frameworks from previous studies that were tested as well as validated in order to successfully undertake the work of the project. The paper also includes the lessons that were learned so that the capstone project can be undertaken quite successfully.
A project plan was prepared for the refurbishment of road work within the Brisbane city council after the flood in the year 2022. The project that was prepared includes proper information regarding the start and end date of each of the project activities. The project plan is provided below in Appendix 1. The project plan that was prepared was used by the project team in order to boost the performance as well as the success rate of the project. Additionally, it helps the project team to keep proper track of the project and thus assists in saving a lot of money that is assigned for the project and further helps in ensuring the best use of project resources.
The paper mainly focuses on the refurbishment of road work within the Brisbane city council after the flood in the year 2022. Due to the flood, the condition of the road worsened, and it became quite difficult for the city transport to move from one place to another due to potholes, road debris, faded road markings, and missing or damaged signs. The condition of the road makes driving quite unsafe. Additionally, poor road condition generally affects people in countless other ways, and therefore, it makes people poorer. In order to improve the condition, it is quite necessary to refurbish road work within Brisbane city council. The total time that is needed for undertaking the work of the project is around four months.
While undertaking the project, the project manager focuses on different types of theories as well as a framework that is beneficial for the success of the project. The waterfall framework is mainly utilized in order to undertake the refurbishment work quite successfully. The main advantage of using the waterfall framework is that it helps in allowing departmentalization as well as control (Chari & Agrawal, 2018). The schedule that is mainly prepared for the refurbishment project generally sets deadlines for each stage of development, and as a result, the construction project can be undertaken successfully through the development process model one by one. During the implementation of the framework, it is very much important to maintain controlled methods of communication. In order to achieve successful implementation of the project framework, it is quite important to properly maintain controlled methods related to communication. It is considered a step-by-step laid out strategy that is helpful in developing as well as testing a particular application. This particular methodology is identified to be best suited for planning as well as managing different types of short project requirements of the project (Khoza & Marnewick, 2020). The planning, as well as documentation at an early stage of the development procedure, is identified to be very much inexpensive, which is considered to be quite beneficial for the refurbishment of road projects within the Brisbane City Council. The use of clear structure during the Waterfall methodology helps the entire team to focus on a clear as well as a defined set of project steps so that they can undertake the work quite successfully without having any roadblocks. Furthermore, as the waterfall is quite methodical in nature, therefore, the project team can be able to transfer clean information at each step which further helps the project team to undertake the work of the project quite successfully in a short time period (Andrei et al., 2019).
Project Detail
While undertaking the refurbishment of the project, it is identified that the project delivers the following, which further satisfies the client.
- Blueprint of the road: The blueprint that is prepared for the road includes the new innovative designs of the roads, which helped the team in successful project execution.
- Refurbished road: The road that is refurbished helps in providing a smooth experience to the customers and helps in avoiding the chances of accidents.
- Status report: The status report that was delivered helps the project team to keep a proper track of the progress of the project such that the team got the entire information and can take extra initiative for managing the circumstances well.
- Project documentation: The project document that was delivered includes important information regarding the progress of the project and the strategies, as well as a framework which are used for the successful delivery of the project.
The budget that was prepared for the refurbishment of roads within the Brisbane city council is provided in Appendix 2. As per the budget, it is identified that a total budget of around $1,531,824. The budget that is prepared for the project uses bottom-up estimation for the project. Bottom-up estimation was used for the refurbishment of road projects as this estimation method is considered to be accurate in comparison to other budget estimation methods. The high accuracy of the budget estimation is because the team members are involved in estimating the piece of work for which they are responsible. As the budget uses bottom-up estimation, it is identified that the developed budget was very much flexible, and therefore it can deal with any types of challenges or uncertainties of the project quite well.
The project stakeholders who are hired during the refurbishment of the project are mainly recruited based on their skills and expertise. The stakeholders are highly skilled and have managed all the work of the project quite successfully in a proper way. The stakeholders who are recruited for undertaking the work of the project are mainly showcased in Appendix 3. The stakeholders who are assigned not only helps in providing requirement based on information from the industry but also helps in understanding the risks of the project, both positive and negative, for uncovering as well as reducing the risks associated with the project and, as a result, the project work gets accomplished within the assumed time and budget (Derakhshan, Turner & Mancini, 2019).
The communication plan matrix, which is prepared for the refurbishment of the project, helps the entire team to remain updated regarding all the information of the project, and as a result, the entire team can be able to work as per the updated information. The communication plan matrix, which was used for updating the project team, is provided in Appendix 4. As per the communication plan matrix, the project team members communicate or attend the meeting so that they have a detailed overview of the current project status and can work accordingly. The initiative that the entire project team takes for communicating details helps in avoiding conflicts during the project and further enhances collaboration among the project team for accomplishing the goals and objectives of the project quite successfully (De Nadae & Carvalho, 2019).
The risk register that is prepared for the refurbishments of roads within the Brisbane city council is provided in Appendix 5. The risk register acts as a risk management tool during the project and has identified the potential setbacks associated with the entire project. The process helps in collectively analyzing, determining as well as solving risks before they create a negative impact on the progress of the project. The risk register that is used for the project provides all the details regarding the project, including impact, probability, risk description, responsible person, and mitigation techniques which not only help in analyzing the risks but also help in mitigating the potential risks (Amoah & Pretorius, 2019). With the help of the risk register, the project team successfully managed all the risks that occurred during the progress of the project, and as a result, the work and activities of the project were successfully achieved without any obstruction.
Detail Specific Theories and Framework
During the progress of refurbishment of road projects, a number of risks, as well as issues, are identified. The project team uses a risk identification-based procedure that helps in determining risks that can obstruct the progress of the project and further creates obstruction in achieving the project objectives. The project team had used different types of methods in order to identify the types of risks that affect the project. The risk identification methods include brainstorming, project plan review, root cause analysis as well as SWOT analysis (Dandage, Mantha & Rane, 2019). By using all the methods, the project team identified risks like budget shortfall, schedule slippage, poor quality of materials as well as improper allocation of an experienced team, and it is identified that such risks can impact the refurbishment of the road project. This helps in providing a clear idea regarding the risks to the project team so that they remain prepared for dealing with such risks during the project.
After identifying the risks during the refurbishment of the project, the project team focuses on analyzing each of the risks for determining the impact and consequences of each risk. After analyzing all the risks, the project team gets a proper idea regarding the impact of each of the risks and accordingly prioritizes them for minimizing the negative impact of each of the risks (Heravi & Gholami, 2018). The risk analysis helps in anticipating as well as reducing the effect of each of the identified risks, and this reduces adverse events on the project.
Risk prioritization is done by the project team to successfully prioritize each of the risks based on their impact and consequences on the project. Based on the priority, each of the risks is marked as per their priority, and the risk manager evaluates each of the risks based on their priority so that none of the risks can create any critical negative impact on the project. Setting priority to each of the risks generally helps in guiding the project team so that they can work on mitigating or minimizing each of the risks quite well (Sami Ur Rehman et al., 2020).
After prioritizing each of the risks, the project team undertakes the work of risk monitoring and control as it helps the project team in keeping track of the identified risks for successfully monitoring the residual risk and for ensuring successful execution of the project. It also helps in successfully evaluating the effectiveness of minimizing the project risks. The project team utilizes the risk audit method for successful monitoring and control of the project risks (Al Mhdawi, Motawa & Rasheed, 2020).
After the successful evaluation of the risk, a proper mitigation strategy for each of the risks is identified so that each of the risks gets mitigated successfully. With the help of a proper risk mitigation strategy, the project team needs to remain prepared for reducing the effects of each of the risks that are mainly experienced by the project team. The project team utilizes four different types of risk mitigation strategy that includes risk avoidance, risk acceptance, risk transference as well as risk imitation (Acebes et al., 2021). Due to the risk mitigation strategy, all the risks get mitigated successfully so that none of the risks creates a negative impact on the progress of the project, and the project can run quite smoothly during the progress of the project.
Project Key Deliveries
A proper review of the project document and project progress report is done in order to successfully carry out the research on the project. Proper project review helps in checking the processes, frameworks as well as tools that are utilized by the project team for the successful accomplishment of the project. The team members who are hired for undertaking the research are quite experienced, and therefore they can be able to undertake the research quite well. Additionally, the project team analyzes the schedule, budget, stakeholder analysis as well as risks associated with the project for analyzing whether the project work is done successfully or not. The research analysis that is undertaken helps in suggesting that refurbishment of roads within the Brisbane city council generally gets accomplished within the assumed time and budget, and the project team successfully manages all the risks and uncertainties that mainly occur during the progress of the project.
After reviewing the project, it is identified that the time and budget that were allocated were accurate; however, some of the changes were done by the client at the last moment, due to which the project experienced risks like schedule slippage and budget shortfall. The project team takes extra initiative in handling such uncertainties so that the project work does not get obstructed. Despite all this, it is identified that the project team has successfully undertaken risk analysis, and as a result, all the risks which can impact the project are identified in the initial stage such that the project team takes extra initiative in handling each of the risks quite well so that none of the risks impacted the project negatively. Furthermore, the project manager also creates a successful project plan which promotes collaboration and teamwork during the progress of the project and further avoids conflicts that mainly can occur during the progress of the project. Moreover, the identification of resources and materials is identified to be less successful as, after analysis, it is identified that the materials that are purchased for the project are not of good quality, and as a result, the project can experience quality-related challenges. However, in order to manage such issues, the project team asks the procurement team to arrange quality materials for the project, and each of the materials that are used is tested before to avoid quality-related challenges during the project.
It is learned from the project that the selection of the project framework must be done as per the size as well as the complexity of the project so that it successfully suits the needs and requirements of the project quite successfully. Additionally, it is also learned that the project team needs to track the schedule and budget of the project on a regular basis so that the project does not experience problems, including schedule slippage and budget shortfall. It also helps the project team to take proper initiative at the right time. Furthermore, it is also learned that risks must be effectively analyzed based on impact and probability so that none of the risks gets ignored during the project and all the risks get mitigated as per the priority that is allocated. Moreover, it is also learned that proper communication is needed during the progress of the project for bringing the team together so that the entire team work in a very much collaborative manner can accomplish the goals and objectives of the project quite successfully.
Budget
The lessons that are learned during the project provide an opportunity to use the skills, knowledge as well as frameworks of project management quite successfully. The lessons that are learned during the project will provide the opportunity of managing the project work in such a different way that the risks and challenges which occur during the present project can be easily avoided in future projects. The lessons provide the opportunity of undertaking future projects quite successfully such that those projects will be successfully accomplished, and the project team can be able to handle risks and uncertainties that occur within the project based on their experience.
The project team achieves experience in successfully undertaking and managing an employer-based project, and as a result of the project, a refurbished road is provided within the Brisbane city council after post-flood in the year 2022. The experience will help the project team in undertaking such types of projects in the near future quite successfully. The knowledge and experience that is achieved can be applied in future projects for successfully undertaking and managing future projects so that the difficulties that are experienced in handling the current project will not be experienced by the project team members of the current project team.
The outcomes or the practical example of the employer-based project is provided in the Appendix for reflecting the correctness of the research and analysis that is undertaken on the refurbishment of road project within the Brisbane city council. The project team showcases WBS, project plan, project budget as well as risk register for the project for showcasing their use and significance while undertaking the project. The findings help in suggesting the outcomes of the project, which showcases that the refurbished project is quite successful.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the entire paper that it is necessary to use proper theories as well as frameworks from the previous studies in order to analyze the success of the project. The paper also discusses the lessons that are learned during the progress of the project for reflecting on how the lessons that are learned during the project benefit the success of the project. The paper also discusses the successful and less successful initiatives of the project and the way in which it impacts the progress of the project. The lessons that are learned and the experience that is gained from the project generally paves the way for the project manager to use those lessons and experience in the coming future. Furthermore, the paper also reflects the benefit of the experience of undertaking and managing a project quite well.
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