Nonparticipation In Controversial Business - A Discussion

Project Constraints, Risks and Assumptions

Discuss about the Nonparticipation in Controversial Business.

There are certain scopes and objectives related to the project. The first and most important scope is to arrange the sponsor for funding the project (De Schepper, Dooms & Haezendonck, 2014). Next scope is to ensure the construction of dual carriageway along with three traffic lanes in either direction in the upgraded road. Following scopes are installation of street lighting poles with neon lights and electronic gantry signs all over the main carriageways. These neon lights are the upgraded version of traffic lights. After that comes the new limitation of speed and restriction rules for cyclists, pedestrians and animals near these roads. The restriction rules are developed following only one goal and that is safety and security for public and animals (Kendrick, 2015). Next scopes of the project are to raise the busiest sections of the Burns Road and utilization of freeway style ramps for exiting the highway. The planning of this raise has been done so that it goes over the railway the railway lines not causing any traffic jams near the railway level crossings (Fewings, 2013). Other scopes related with the project are 5 km diversion of the highway near Wiggum Regional Park and construction of 24/7 service station inside the park. The last but one of the most important scope is to relocate the existing power substation and replace it with another suitable electrical substation and depot for maintenance on the residential grounds. High voltage poles have to be removed in this case.

Major benefit that can be obtained from this project is reduction of traffic jams and time delay (Eskerod & Jepsen, 2013). This project will also expand the highway, therefore allowing a swift movement of heavy vehicles. Construction of 24/7 service station inside the Regional; Park will provide the drivers necessary requirements and reduce the amount of stops. 5 Km diversion of the road will reduce the traffic congestion around the intersection of Burns Road and Waylon Way. Neon street lighting and electronic gantry signs will increase driver awareness and visibility. Expansion of the road will increase the commercial activity within the city. Traffic jams will get reduce in congested intersections.

The major risks which are associated with the project are environmental hazards, political issues, discontent among the stakeholders and cost-benefit issues. Increase in taxes and attraction of more businesses are the primary goals of this project and the comparison between project cost and benefit will always be a doubtful subject before the completion of the project (De Brucker, Macharis & Verbeke, 2013). Demolition of buildings and required construction will impact the environment so that is another risk. Political issues can be considered as a risk too. Moreover, discontent among stakeholders in some part of the project is a risk regarding time and money both (Haimes, 2015).

Stakeholders and Their Importance

Project constraints are the restrictions present in the pathway of project action. The general project constraints are risk, quality, cost, resource, scope and time. For the given project time, cost, risks and quality are the major constraints (Burke, 2013). The project will definitely cause environmental hazards so proper measures should be ready. Apart from that the resources are need to be imported from other cities as all the resources are not present within the city. More time the project will linger on, more time delays and losses in commercial transportation will occur (Kendrick, 2015).

Stakeholder is a person or a group of person or even an organisation that takes interest in the business of an organisation. Any business has constant interaction with its stakeholders that either affects the business or affects the stakeholders (Doh & Quigley, 2014). Any business contains three fundamental stakeholders, who are employees, investors and consumers (Moura-Leite, Padgett & Galán, 2014). These stakeholders can be either internal or external depending upon their connection with the business (Minoja, 2012). Investors are the example of internal stakeholders where creditors and suppliers are the example of external stakeholders (Freeman & Moutchnik, 2013).

Stakeholders in this road upgradation projects are the people who are actively involved with the project, directly or indirectly. They are facility owners and users, shareholders, project managers and facilities managers, suppliers, employees, sub-contractors, service providers, legal authorities, community representatives, banks, media, business establishments, general public, government and natural environment (El Abboubi & Cornet, 2012).

Analysing the stakeholders according to their importance, responsibility, integration and interests, a categorization of primary and secondary stakeholders has been obtained. Project managers, general managers, functional managers are the primary stakeholders in the project action plan. On the other hand contractors, suppliers and unions are also directly involved with the project (Davis, 2014). Finally shareholders, employees and legal organisations come into the category of primary stakeholders as the impact of the project will directly upon them (Carpenter, 2014). These stakeholders influence the decisions and direction of the project. And they have contractual relationship with the project. Secondary stakeholders are general public, residents, social and professional organisations, media, local communities and some others. They do not have a contractual relationship with the project but they have interests and they receive the impacts (Lam, 2014).

A grouping can be created among the stakeholders on the basis of their power and level of interests regarding the outcomes of the project. Project manager is the main designer and controller of the project (Eskerod & Jepsen, 2013). Main contractor transform the project model to a reality and sub-contractor follows the orders of main contractor like supplying of materials and other tasks. Financer are main source of funding of project. Shareholders are persons to maintain the cost-benefit structure of the project (De Schepper, Dooms & Haezendonck, 2014). Legal organisations holds the authorities of the project. Social, political and professional organisations become involve in the project activities as they face the Impact. Business is the main objective of the project and the residents and the environment are the ones who are subjected to face the primary impacts of the projects (Minoja, 2012).

Stakeholder Power Grid and Engagement Matrix

Different stakeholder has variable interests in this project of road upgradation. With the progress of the upgradation the interests still remain variable (Von Meding et al., 2013). Different stakeholders focus on different stage of the project. A power versus interest grid matrix has been prepared for classification of power and interest on the basis on engagement of stakeholders in the project.

They are the most significant stakeholders of this project and control all the matters of the projects. All the decisions like gathering of financial resources, demolition of buildings, construction of dual carriageway, installation of neon street lights and electronic gantry signs, construction of 24/7 service station are made by these stakeholders (Doh  & Quigley, 2014).

These stakeholders requires information of every progress in the project. They possesses high interest in the project but their decision making power is low (Fewings, 2013). Some stakeholders among them have influences on some decision of the project. These stakeholders also faces the direct impact of the project.

To complete a project of road upgradation this big, communication must be maintained among the project sponsors, project managers, stakeholders, government and construction workers. From the perspective of a project manager, communication between the stakeholders and workers are the most important thing, else the project will not proceed accordingly. Any problems should be solved right away as this is the major communication pathway for the city. Main contractor and sub-contractors must be always in touch with the project manager and supervisors (De Brucker, Macharis & Verbeke, 2013). Daily schedule should be followed all the time. Several communication tools can be used in this case like official presentations, newsletters, internet, emails, status reports and others. Construction workers should be well connected with the environmentalists to maintain that environmental hazards remain limited.

Goals of this communication plan is to gather general information, estimation of the efficiency of new transport system, advertisement and public awareness, information gathering regarding impact on nature (Weiss, 2014).

The process of discovery, documentation and management of stakeholders to satisfy the objectives and scopes of the project. Key information of the project is discovered by a lot of information gathering tools. For this case the two tools those have been used are surveys and questionnaire and focus groups.

This techniques are effective to obtain the perspectives of the users. Using these techniques stakeholders are able to understand the viewpoints of the residents and the local businessmen (Moura-Leite, Padgett & Galán, 2014). This method have positive benefits reasonable cost and low processing time, integration of the viewpoints of a large population, low amount of training and other benefits regarding data collection method.

Focus group can be called a portal of homogeneous of heterogeneous stakeholders who can develop ideas for new products or improvisation for old ones. User-base view, the most important factor for a social and economic project can be obtained by applying the principle of a focus group (Fassin, 2012). This method of data gathering is efficient when the target population is large.

Target population includes residents of the whole, businessmen, students, environmentalists, professionals and office workers (Freeman & Moutchnik, 2013). The project management team went to different houses, commercial stores and community centres to gather the data. More than 50 focus group session have been performed.

Information that has been gathered using all the requirement tools are analysed in this section. Almost 70% of the local residents have complained about the traffic jams and gave positive answers for the project of upgradation of the road. Almost 85% of the businessmen have agreed with the upgradation plan as highway 99 is the major commercial route in Homer city. 60% of the environmentalists have agreed with the upgradation project plan despite of the harmful effects on nature. Near about 60% of the members of social and professional organisations are content with the objective the planning of the project. Finally 80% of the financers and 95% of the stakeholders are on the same page in this project.

Major solution strategies of the problems in the projects are discussed here. Gathering of financial resources is the solution to start the project of upgradation highway 99, else known as Burns Road. To complete this objective the major activity will be to gather as many sponsors as possible for proper funding. Next solution is demolition of buildings and subsidiaries in a proper way and a fair compensation to the natives so they can settle down on another place. Next to reduce the traffic jams dual carriageway should be formed along with three lanes in each section and construction of emergency lanes. To maintain the traffic visibility at night and aware the drivers about entry and exit neon street lights and electric gantry signs should be placed where necessary (Bal et al., 2013). To maintain the safety among the residents, animals and cyclists some road limitations and penalties for violating them should be set by the legal department. Busiest part of the road should be raised to form a bridge and this way traffic jam near the railway level crossings can be avoided. To decrease the congestion at the intersection of Burns Road and Waylon Way a diversion of 5 Km should be constructed. A 24/7 service stations should be made beside the highway so that people do not have to move far away from the road to get refreshment or fuel (Doloi, 2012). Lastly an electricity substation and depot for maintenance should be established as soon as possible, replacing the old one.

The major recommendation that can be given in this project is the fundamental objective of the project of road upgradation should not be based the commercial needs of the city. The requirement of the residential and the safety of the environment should be considered as well. Regarding the issues of the stakeholders, it can be said that the project must be start after all the stakeholders can come to a same agreement. The communication process among the project team must be maintained throughout the project. Expansion of the road with construction of more lanes is better plan than digging a tunnel. For safety measurements, appropriate amount of street lights and electrical gantry signs should be placed. Overbridge section of the highway should be properly balanced. Lastly, transportation system should be managed by experience traffic guards to prevent any mishap.

The lessons those have been learned from the project are the utilisation of various methods to analyse stakeholder issues and management, different information gathering techniques help to obtain a common perspective, identification method of objectives and scopes of a project and the insight of the techniques to deal with people from different background, personal and professional.

References:

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