Essay: Construction Tunnel And Underground Works - A Project Management Case Study.

Selection of Parties for Framework Agreement

Question:

Discuss About The Construction Tunnel And Underground Works?

Project management refers to the structured process of planning, organising and controlling varied activities associated with the project. The present report is based on case study of the DIY outlet which is planning to expand by adding six new outlets in the coming three years. In this regard, project plan has been prepared to focus upon the requirement related to completion of the project in the successful manner (Advantages and Disadvantages of Critical Path Method, 2017).  Furthermore, the risk associated with the project has also been explained along with appropriate solution applied for the same. In addition to this, a framework agreement to select the franchise party has been explained.

Which parties the franchise should enter into ‘framework agreements’ with, in order to achieve the key objectives on all locations and ‘builds’. Explain which parties would be independently selected to suit each location

In order to enter into the framework agreement for franchise party, project management will look over the key objectives. The first objective for the DIY is to reinforce the franchise brand image with the help of physical appearance of the outlet. For this purpose, marketing agent is hired so that physical appearance can be improved to a great extent. On the other hand, finance advisor will be hired who aids to meet the objectives related to the good stakeholder’s management and budget control. This would be effective for an organization to integrate all stakeholders and influence them to cooperate in the development and growth of the DIY (Besner & Hobbs, 2008). However, risk identification related to franchise will be handled at the end of project manager only. It leads to address the risk by taking the corrective actions and supporting management in determining the successful completion of the project. In addition to this, construction firm would be hired to increase the turnover as fast as possible (Jacobs, Chase & Lummus, 2011).

The mentioned parties would be selected independently to suit each location. For example, marketing agent of London is hired for one outlet of the DIY whereas finance advisor for the respective location will be hired who can deal with stakeholder management and budget strong related activities. Apart from this, one project manager would handle risk associated with each project by maintaining clear communication with all related parties (Kerzner, 2013). However, the location would be considered at the time of selection of parties through which it becomes easy to reduce overall risk associated with the project. Moreover, a team of architecture from each location of six DIY outlets is selected so that stores can be opened without major issues in the process. Therefore, franchise parties are selected as per the requirement and key objectives of the project. This proves to be effective in utilizing the limited resources in the right manner and meeting the expectations of all related stakeholders (Larson & Gray, 2013). Thus, all the parties should be considered for the framework agreement. This leads to achieve the long as well as short-term objectives of the business and start its operation in short time span.

Procurement Methods Used under Project Management

There are different procurement methods used under the project management which facilitates corporation to handle the respective task and start the operation of the business in relatively less time span. These methods consist of open tendering, request for quotations and single-source. The open tendering assists corporation to advertise locally by selecting the suitable franchise. Further, time and resources should be employed in order to get the advantage of the open tendering method (Meredith & Mantel Jr, 2011). On a critical note, the complexity of the supply chain might affect the operation or performance of the six outlets of DIY. For this purpose, restricted tendering can be used in which suppliers supply the required material for the respective outlet of DIY. It is also known as the selected tendering in which suppliers follow the certain guidelines to supply the quality products and services (Turner, 2008). On the other hand, request for quotations is another method in which selected material can be ordered by the business. It would be effective for a corporation to get the desired material in order to start six DIY outlets. At last, single-source is another method whereby situation related to the emergency can be handled.

The below-mentioned flowchart has been referred by taking into account the primary and secondary. For this purpose, primary stakeholders such as management, shareholders and employees who are actually involved with the project are considered. This communication flow chart assists management of DIY to construct the similar kind of outlets at each location. In this regard, project management should have information related to resources requirement, timeline and design of the layout (Ward & Chapman, 2003). Owing to this, regular communication is necessary which is made possible by using several modes of communication such as Email and mobile phone etc.

On the other hand, meetings are conducted between the project staff and manager along with other related staff of the project. At this juncture, all the information is passed to the manager who can effectively guide staff members and ensure the design all the stores in the same manner (Chapman & Ward, 2003).

Table 1: Risk Register

 According to the analysis of the overall case, it has been found that six outlets of DIY consist of several types of risks and huge time are needed for the completion of the overall project. For this purpose, critical path method and Gantt chart have been applied (Stevenson & Hojati, 2007).  The Gantt chart consists of several activities associated with the project so that project manager can accordingly divide the task among all the staff. It would be effective to allocate the resources and time for each activity involved in the project (Raz & Michael, 2001). The application of critical path method facilitates to reduce overall time taken in the project.

Risk Management and Critical Path Method

The below mentioned gantt chart is showing all the activities covers under the project. It reflects that project will be started from the month of September and last till 2020 September. However, application of critical path method reduced overall time and resources to a great exent.

The critical path method is showing that activities covers under the project are as follow =1+2+3+4+5+6+9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+18+19+20=104 weeks. This is because activity 7 and 17 are completed simultaneously with other project activities. It proves to be effective in saving the resources of DIY project.

Conclusion

The aforementioned report concludes that project management techniques help companies to reduce the time consumed in the project. It would be effective for business to integrate all the resources and complete the expansion project. It can also be concluded that risk associated with the project can be reduced with the application of suitable techniques such as critical path method. The management of project should access the cost-effective supply chain management so as to get the resources at lower cost. At the same time, staff associated with the project should be skilled and competent who can effectively accomplish the given targets on right time. Moreover, technological innovation can be applied in the process of the project whereby a manager can easily track all the activities. In addition to this, training initiatives should be taken to enhance the skills and knowledge of personnel so they can work with integrity.

References

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