Analysis Of Communication And Conflicts In Scottish Parliament Project: Essay On Manager-Sponsor Relationship.

You need to imagine that you  are Paul Curran, who was involved in the Scottish Parliament Project as a Project Manager between 17 January 1999  and January 2002, as a Senior Project Manager  between January 2002  and  June 2004; and finally as a Project Director from 21 June 2004 until the completion of the project. It is Spring 1999 now and the architects have just submitted incomplete Stage 3*  (Stage D- Developed Design) designs with no cost information. Even the brief has not been revised!

You have been talking to your employer (Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body- SPCB) about the need to be firmer with the EMBT[1] & RMJM[2] team to deal with the rift between them. Your discussions were mainly with Mrs Doig (the Project Sponsor). This rift has been causing severe delays in the delivery of the design information. Your employer agreed with your points regarding the need to: 

• make sure that the PM function is not by-passed; and decisions are not made between the Client and the architect; and 
• use your expertise to technically scrutinize the designs. 

However, they have continued to make decisions directly with Enric Miralles. This puts you in a position where you have responsibility but limited power to manage the design process!

You need to:

1. analyse the strained relationship between the Project Sponsor (Mrs Doig) and the former project manager (Mr Armstrong), who preceded you and who was responsible for the delivery of the new Scottish Parliament Building;
2. by using literature on the emergence of conflict, its stages, different types of conflict, provide a brief background to this conflict;
3. prepare for a negotiation between yourself (remember you are pretending to be Paul Curran) and the Project Sponsor so that the problems she had with Mr Armstrong are not repeated;
4. in preparation for this negotiation:

• identify your issues and their true priorities, i.e. irreconcilable, neutral, negotiable; and
• assume the Project Sponsor's (Mrs Doig's) and your employer's (SPCB) issues and their true priorities;

5. explain how you identified these issues and justify your decisions;
6. communicate 1-5 in a case analysis

The relationship and the process of negotiation is important between the project sponsor and the project manager. The improper communication between the project manager and the project sponsor can lead to the misunderstandings and the failure of the project can be happened. In this paper the failure of the project regarding the construction of the Scottish Parliament will be discussed. The main cause of the failure of this project is indicated the improper communication between the project sponsor and the former project manager. The analysis of the whole situation and the communication between the different stakeholders in this project has been discussed in this paper. This will help to identify the main problem during the negotiation in this project. Apart from that this discussion would help to indicate the  factors those are needed to be avoided during the project negotiation between the project manager and project sponsor.

In 1997 , the political situation needed to establish a parliament house. In order to do this the initiative had been taken. Initially the client for this construction was the Secretary of State for Scotland until 1999. In 1999, June the responsibility of the client had been transferred to the Scottish parliament Corporate Body.  This corporate body is assisted by Holyrood progress group. The designing team are EMBT and RMJM. Apart from the cost consultant, construction manager have been appointed for the compilation of the project. In both cases the appointment has been done very carefully.

The main problem regrading this project is associated with the communication problem from the different aspects. The main objective of this paper is to evaluate the significance of the communication between the project sponsor and the project manager in the successful compilation of the project. In this case the examples and the references can be drawn from the project regarding the construction of the parliament building of the Scotland.

The case of the construction has identified some of the problems from the point of view of the project communication. The analysis of these different aspects can be helpful to identify the contradictions  regarding the way of working along with the roles and responsibilities of the project manager Mr. Armstron and the project sponsor Mrs.Doig.

The main responsibility of the project manager is to identify the place where the construction of the building can be done in a proper way. However, in this case the client of this project is the Scottish parliament Corporate Body. This body is controlled by the government of the Scotland. However, the choosing of the Holyrood as the site for the construction was not proper as  for the environmental constraints. The project manager was aware of this fact. However, the client has chosen the site despite of the natural constraints as the budget for buying the site was reasonable. In this case the role of the project manager and the project sponsor has contradicted. The project manager wants to choose the best site for the development of the construction , however the project sponsor was concerned about the cost of the project.

Background of the case

The project manager agrees that the appointment for the project and the tendering for the project are needed to be done accordingly. However, in this case the client of the project has chosen a faster way for the selection, appointment and tendering. According to the project manager the process used for the selection of the designing team is needed to be done methodically which was not followed in this case.

At the initial stage the project had  awell defined document which defines various roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders in the project. However, the project manager has found out that the there were certain changes in the project has been done during different times but no update has been recorded in the document. This leads to the mismanagement of  defining roles and responsibilities of the different stakeholders.

It has been observed that the sponsor or the client of the project has requested a certain change in the requirement . However, those changes were not documented properly. Apart from that the documentation of the requirement lacks proper estimation of the cost of the project. This requirement document does not help the new project manager to understand the revised requirement.

RMJM is based at Barcelona. This company is doing the design for the Scottish Parliament. In this case the cultural differences affect the working progress. The project manager of the project points out that there was very little progress regarding the designing part. It can be said that this miscommunication happened for the improper flow of communication between the offices at Edinburgh and Barcelona.

In order to judge the whole situation different types of conflict and their nature is needed to be evaluated. This can be achieved through this review of literature regarding the conflict in the development of the project.

There are different types of conflicts those can be present in the project development environment. One of the main reason for the conflict is the lack of communication. The lack of communication can be a constraint for the sharing of knowledge between the team members of the project.

The lack of clarity in the different roles of the project can lead to the conflict in project. This can also lead to the mismanagement in the leadership.

The difficulty in assigning the priority of the task is another issue for raising the conflict. This factor is related to the improper leadership in the project. It is the responsibility of the project manager to assign different roles in the management of the project to different stakeholders.

A proper negotiation plan can be initiated between  Paul Curran and the project sponsor so that the repetition of the conflicts may not be happened.

The issues regarding this project have been identified earlier stage. It can be said that the problems regarding the update of the requirement can be documented in a proper way. However, the responsibility of declaring the change in the requirements goes to the sponsor of the project. Keeping and tracking the record of the change and its proper documentation is the responsibility of the project manager.

Analysis

Further appointment  for any role in the project is needed to be followed by certain ru;es and methods. These rules can be determined through a meeting between the project manager and the project sponsor. The project sponsor should update the project manager to inform about the new recruitment. The selection process can be joint venture in this case. Apart from that there should be clarity in the rules for hiring and tendering  in the context of the development of the project.

There are certain problem regarding the selection of the site. However, this choice can not be changed. In this case it is the responsibility of the project manager to carry on the development of the project in such a way so that the constraints regarding the environment of the site can be mitigated.

The selection of the site can not be changed in this stage of the project. So, the choice of the site can be neutral. Apart from that the documentation of the requirement and maintaining the proper communication plan can be done through the negotiation between the project manager and the project sponsor. Maintaining the proper communication plan and the documentation of the requirement have the highest priority.

Selection process for the roles of the project and tendering process is needed to be transparent along with that these processes need to follow certain rules and regulations. This holds the medium priority in the process.

There are some issues and conflicts between the project sponsor and SPCB. The major issue is the lack of communication. In this context the improvement of the communication plan has the highest priority. The proper communication plan will help to solve the problems regarding the missing of the updates regarding the requirements in the project and can maintain clarity.

The issues have been selected and identified through the analysis of the different problems regarding the development of the mentioned construction project. It has been found out the main problem in the project development is the problem regarding the communication. In this context the proposed plan will mitigate the conflict between the project manager and the project sponsor. Moreover this will help to improve the overall communication plan of the project. The modified process will help in the successful compilation of the project.

Conclusion

It can be concluded from the above discussion that there is a lack of leadership and the clarity in the responsibility present for the proper management of the construction project. The project can  deliver the right outcome meeting all the requirements if proper communication between different stakeholders can be maintained in a proper way.  Apart from there should be a clarity in the responsibility for the each stakeholders in the project. Maintaining all these things can lead to the compilation of the successful project.

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