Essay On Project Governance & Work Breakdown Structure For Geelong-Torquay Train Line.

Requirements

Context of project- This project is undertaken as proposal is proposed by infrastructure Victoria for train line from Geelong to Torquay (Pinto, 2014). This proposed project is based on development of infrastructure. This project will discuss the details of business governance such as- objectives of governance, work based system i.e. WBS, governance model which can be beneficial for the project etc.

Requirements- Main requirements of the project are: establishment of roles and responsibilities of project team, project`s relationship is required to be established with the infrastructure development plan as the train line from Geelong to Torquay will be develop, developed organization structure to support the undertaken project, requirement of portfolio management is also crucial for the undertaken project (Khera, Ransom and Speth, 2013).

Challenges- Some of the constraints or challenges associated with the project are: approval of government, conflict can arise between project team members in case of confusion about their duties and responsibilities. These challenges can be hurdle for the project, hence it is required that some plan shall be laid out in order to face the challenges (Integrating Process and Work Breakdown Structure with Design Structure Matrix, 2010).

Project governance canbe defined as a framework which facilitates in effective decision making for project. Emphasis is laid on prime decisions which outline project as well as its direction. The foremost constituents of project governance are: structure of decision making, people within that structure and the information which informs the people about project. The main objectives of governance are-

• Policies, processes, responsibilities, regulations, procedures and functions can be set which is important in defining control of project, portfolio, management and establishment. Therefore, one of the objectives of governance is to set some guideline which is required for management and control of project.
• Work as decision gate as it provides an effective base to make better decisions.
• Reporting is another objective of governance.
• Alignment to objectives of organization (Biesenthal and Wilden, 2014).
• Delegation of authorities to the management or team members of project.
• Other objectives of governance are- implement required change in the business, to run the business as usual.

Governance model can be described as a structure which describes the role of team members of a project and also set a process for making decisions within the project (Teller, and Kock, 2013). Through governance model, rules which are mandatory in order to participate in the project are laid down as well as the process of sharing and communication within the team members of project are also laid down through the governance model. Some of the best practice project governance models are discussed below-

(Teller, et. al., 2012)

 The above model is used by CGS and this model is analysed as best practice model for the organization, as the responsibilities such as- overall governance of members of project team is effectively carried out through this model, interface of customers and project team is also done in better way, overall management for delivery of project, status reporting, internal CGS, and work coordination. This model also carry out some responsibilities which are beneficial for the project such as- coordination calls, status reporting, identification of risk, prepare plans for contingencies and to mitigate risk, freeze scope, vendor management, prepare questionnaire and requirement gathering (Young, and Conboy, 2013).

Challenges

UBUNTU governance model- This model is practiced in the UBUNTU project; it lays emphasis on elucidating the community`s structure as well as the responsibilities allied with each constituent of structure of community (Dedelyuk, 2016). The processes of making decisions within the project are also outlined through this model. In the UBUNTU project, this model helped in segregating the developer information from the information related with the structure as well as the processes for technical management was also documented in clear form.

The term WBS stands for – “Work Breakdown Structure”. A WBS, is a foremost project deliverable which classifies or manages the work of team into manageable sections (Harris, 2011). The WBS provides guidelines to the team members of project about the tasks they would have to do, activities which would be carried out in order, details of the functional or operational as well as other activities which are required for the project are delivered through the work breakdown structure. Some steps should be followed before beginning the WBS such as- Obtaining approval for charter, defining the requirements for project, formation of the core team for the project, asking core team members of the project about listing their work sets under their accountabilities so that can be combined to form the WBS (Hass, 2009). 

Work break down structure for the undertaken project is formed by the core project team by identifying the main well-designed deliverables as well as segmenting the deliverables into sub-deliverables in addition to smaller subsystem. From the perspectives of cost, work or task sets are generally assembled and assigned to a particular department in order to produce effort or work. In the organizational breakdown structure, cost accounts and some of the departments are defined and budgets are also allocated to them in order to produce particular deliverables. Integration of cost accounts from the break down structure of the organization with the break down structure of project would help in tracking the financial progress of the organization as well as the performance of the project would also be monitored (Hydari, 2010).

Work break down structure plays an important role in the success of project as there are lot of benefits deliver through it; as project work can be defined and organized through this structure. Some of the benefits which would be delivered through the WBS are as follows-

• Allocation of budget can be done in proper way.
• Budgets of particular department can also be calculated through the given break down structure of the project.
• Project`s budget and schedule can be developed quickly through allocating cost as well as time estimates into particular section or part of work breakdown structure.
• At the time of execution of project, particular sections within the WBS can be easily monitored in order to identify the cost performance of project.
• Issues as well as the problem areas in specific system of the WBS can also be identified and then plan can be made to mitigate the risk or to resolve the problem (Ren, Xue and Wang, 2013).

Here, a sample for the WBS for the undertaken is given-

Project Governance

Iled 

For a train line from Geelong to Torquay it is required that more emphasis should be developed on the work breakdown structure so that the project could get completed within the deadlines provide and the train services could be availed in an appropriate manner.

It is required that the work should be divided into certain stages unders several departments like legal and finance deportment should ensure that they should manage all the legal and general contracts, they should indulge in route negotiation, should ensure that the land acquisition should be done in a proper manner and various aspects related with the finances and secretarial should be managed by the department (Integrating Process and Work Breakdown Structure with Design Structure Matrix, 2010).

Civil engineers should ensure that earthmoving, drainage; tunnelling and bridges should be prepared in an appropriate manner and within the timeline availed to them.

Likewise work breakdown system is being used in the railway project so that it could be completed within the time limits and in an effective manner.

Gantt. Chart

Factors which lead to success of the project are given below-

• Smart People- To achieve the success in the project it is required or important o place right people in right team. There should be a dynamic team which shall be consisting of suppliers, core project staff, all stakeholders and expert resources. In order to strive for success there should be similar visions and commitment to the group should be high (Pinto, 2014).
• Smart Planning- there should be perfect planning in the project, as comprehensive planning support success of the project.
• Risk and change management- risk in the project shall be identified in proper way and planning should be done to mitigate the risk as well as changes should also be managed in proper way in order to get achieve success in the project.

Strong closure of project is one of the other factors required for success of the project. Ongoing project will consume the resources unnecessarily (Khera, Ransom and Speth, 2013).

A plan to manage stakeholder consist of process to develop some strategies in order to engage the stakeholders all the way through the project`s lifecycle by analysing their interests, requirements as well as potential impact on the success of project (Integrating Process and Work Breakdown Structure with Design Structure Matrix, 2010). 

The above stakeholders plan will help in completing the project in an effective manner, it is required that the to manage the project in an appropriate manner organisation should ensure to provide appropriate services to the stakeholders, prioritizing the stakeholders on the basis of support that is required to them will help in ensuring that all the process of the organisation could get completed within the required time and all the issues related with the work could be resolved (Biesenthal and Wilden, 2014).

References

Biesenthal, C. and Wilden, R. (2014). Multi-level project governance: Trends and opportunities. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), pp.1291-1308.

Dedelyuk, k. (2016). Energy project management system: benefits, principles and risks. Bulletin of NTU "KhPI". Series: Strategic Management, Portfolio, Program and Project Management, 5(1(1173), p.52.

Harris, E. (2011). Strategic Project Risk Appraisal and Management. Strategic Direction, 27(4), pp.112-117.

Hass, K. (2009). Managing complex projects. Vienna, Va.: Management Concepts.

Hydari, H. (2010). Strategic project portfolio management: Enabling a productive organization. Project Management Journal, 41(5), pp.88-88.

Integrating Process and Work Breakdown Structure with Design Structure Matrix. (2010). Journal of Advanced Computational Intelligence and Intelligent Informatics, 14(5), pp.512-522.

Khera, R., Ransom, P. and Speth, T. (2013). Using Work Breakdown Structure Models to Develop Unit Treatment Costs. Journal - American Water Works Association, 105, pp.E628-E641.

Pinto, J. (2014). Project management, governance, and the normalization of deviance. International Journal of Project Management, 32(3), pp.376-387.

Ren, N., Xue, J. and Wang, Y. (2013). The Task Decoupling Study on Work Breakdown Structure of Complex Product. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 411-414, pp.2486-2491.

Teller, J. and Kock, A. (2013). An empirical investigation on how portfolio risk management influences project portfolio success. International Journal of Project Management, 31(6), pp.817-829.

Teller, J., Unger, B., Kock, A. and Gemünden, H. (2012). Formalization of project portfolio management: The moderating role of project portfolio complexity. International Journal of Project Management, 30(5), pp.596-607.

Young, M. and Conboy, K. (2013). Contemporary project portfolio management: Reflections on the development of an Australian Competency Standard for Project Portfolio Management. International Journal of Project Management, 31(8), pp.1089-1100.