The Project Management Plan (PMP) is considered as an approved and formal document used for the purpose of proper management of execution of project (Sabyasachi, 2017). It documents the actions essential to define, prepare, integrate as well as coordinate various planning activities. It defines the manner of execution, monitoring, control and closure of project as well as elaborated progressively through updates during the course of project (Business Insight Ltd, 2018). In this report, taking into consideration, relevant and reliable project management, the document of project will be critically analyzed as the format of a professional report. It will then be handed to the client or manager in order to exemplify how the project should be managed through to completion as PMP is considered a significant document for achieving positive project outcomes as well as is generally used to achieve commitment from sponsors or client and enable taking such decisions to be taken with confidence (ProjectManagement.com, 2018).
In this report, the proposal prepared by local government will be analyzed from the point of view of a professional project management plan. The report will provide critical analysis of all the major sections of the PMP along with theoretical framework regarding what should be included in every particular section of the project schedule. The report will majorly discuss the project under the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) and will inform if all the recognized areas covered by various Project Management Bodies of Knowledge have been included in the project or not, on the basis of which, recommendations regarding what changes should be made to the PMP will be provided.
Project Background
In July 2013, the State Government announced the proposed structural reform changes to the borders of the local governments, under which, City of Swan was to be merged with Shire of Mundaring. To achieve the purpose, the proposals were prepared by local governments under Schedule 2.1 of the Local Government Act to be provided to the Local Government Advisory Board (LGAB), in which, the nature, reasons and effects of proposal had been outlined. The proposal had been submitted in October 2013 and presentations were also made by individual local governments to the LGAB on 4th March 2014 in order to provide information related to the preference of reform.
The proposal submitted by LGAB included proposal of Shire of Mundaring for the merger of Mundaring and Swan, joint proposal of City of Swan with Town of Bassendean suggesting merger of Swan, Mundaring as well as Bassendean along with the proposal of Minister for Local Government for modification of boundary of City of Swan in order to incorporate Shire of Mundaring. Before release of Orders by Governor till August 2014, the LGAB has planned to provide recommendations to the Minister. It was agreed by the Combined Executive of city of Swan and Shire of Mundaring to prepare for the formal transition into a new local government body assuming that reform in the form of merger of boundary modification will probably occur considering both the organizations irrespective of the nature of Governor Order. Thus, the Transition plan prepared will be a blueprint for the reformed local governments within a single new entity. The strategy to deliver this project utilizes three-phase approach in which, Phase 1 will be review, Phase 2 will be Interim and Phase 3 will be Transition.
Contents of PM
Project Cost Management
It should include the processes essential to ensure the completion of project within the approved budget. The major processes included in this section are resource planning, cost estimation, cost budgeting as well as cost control (Project Managemet Institute, 2000). In the process of resource planning, the determination of people, equipment and materials will be determined along with the quantities to be utilized in order to perform project activities. The cost estimation is to develop an estimate of the costs of resources required to complete the project activities. The cost budgeting is to allocate the overall cost estimate to the individual work activities. The cost control is to control the changes to the budget of the project.
The reform project includes the initial costs under direct as well as indirect costs, in which direct costs are related to the consultants, contracts and materials along with the salaries of internal employees and backfilling. Indirect costs include salaries of internal employees related to the project. It is in line with the resource planning process of the PMP under which, people, resources and materials have been determined. Further, the cost management plan has provided the cost estimates offer transition planning, which involves cost estimates process of the PMP.
The cost management plan has included allocation of overall budget to individual work activities i.e. direct costs for consultants under which, costs estimated for Local Implementation Committee facilitator, combined executive facilitator, IT consultancy, HR consultancy, and accommodation as well as catering. The indirect costs also included staff opportunity costs for two consecutive years from 2014 to 2016. The start-up costs had been planned to be paid under grants to the local governments but further applications will be made to access the funding after the release of guidelines. However, the project cost management should also have included the impact of project decisions regarding costs of products being used in the project, which is also known as life-cycle costing (Ray, 2017). This costing technique is used to reduce costs and time, improve quality and performance as well as enhance decision making.
The inclusion of such predictions and analyses in the project cost management consist of additional processes as well as various general management techniques which include discounted cash flow, return on investment, payback analysis and such others. The existing project cost management plan included the provision of cost of transition to be factored within the long term financial plan regarding which the decisions were required to be taken throughout the project. It has been found to be essential as per the PMBOK guide as project cost management should consider the information requirement of the stakeholders of the project as different stakeholders might measure cost on project in different manner at different period of times (4pm.com, 2018). Furthermore, there should have been specific mention of estimates and budgets regarding controllable as well as uncontrollable costs that too separately in order to ensure that rewards could reflect actual performance. So, the existing PMP requires the inclusion of control processes within it for effective presentation.
Project Procurement Management
It includes the processes essential for acquiring goods and services from external to the organization in order to attain the scope of project. In this context, procurement planning includes determination of what and when to procure. The joint involvement of two cities in the project required goods and services to be jointly procured by taking the help of external contractors. The goods and services were required to be procured specifically in the form of LG Reform Project and not as part of organizational requirement external to the scope of the project. Another is the solicitation planning which refers to the documentation of product requirements as well as identification of potential sources. The PMP is in line with the requirements solicitation planning process of the project procurement management and allocating of costs between the entities relying on goods and services such as consultants delivering advice, facilitation or training sessions, consultants engaged to review or report on processes and practices as well as for upgraded IT systems and software.
The process of solicitation involves obtaining the quotations, bids, proposals in an appropriate manner (Project Management Institute, 2018). In this project, there has been no such mention of bids or quotations or a proposal. The selection of source includes the selection of potential sellers and contract administration involves the management of relationships with the seller (Project-management-knowledge, 2018). In the existing PMP, the two cities are jointly responsible for procurement process; both the parties are involved in the evaluation of submissions and any kind of variations was to be agreed upon by Mundaring and Swan. The contract closeout is involved in completion and settlement of the contract which include resolution of the items that are opened. This process includes documentation of the contract, procurement audits, contract filing and formal acceptance and closure of the project. The administration of contract in PMP is the responsibility of nominate Principal of the City of Swan and is shared with the nominated officer of Shire of Mundaring.
All these processes in the project procurement processes interact with each other along with the processes of other knowledge areas. Each process might involve efforts from individual or group of people on the basis of needs of project (Project Management Institute, 2013). The PMP has required the assistance from external contractors along with consultancy from the consultants for review and report on processes. In addition, software and IT systems were also considered to be as beneficial for providing external assistance for achieving the purpose of project (softwareresearch.net, 2012). The terms and conditions of the project become a major input for the overall procedure and it should include deliverables, milestones and objectives of the costs. The PMP is aligned with the requirement of a professional PMP in this regard (MyManagementGuide, 2011).
In addition to it, the options of the project team might get limited due to buyer approval of staffing related decisions which is often considered as essential in design projects and in this project plan as well, the approval is required from both the cities along with the approval by the nominated persons from both the regions. One of the major aspects that were not included in the PMP was the project close out phase. The close out phase of the procurement management is an important phase that ensures that all the work has been done completely and in an effective manner.
Project scope management includes all the processes that are required to ensure that the project includes all the important work required to complete the project successfully. The project scope management is associated with defining the project and controlling the project in terms of the aspects that have to be included in the project. (simplilearn, 2017). According to the PMBOK Guidelines the project scope management process includes the following – initiation, scope planning, scope definition, scope verification and the scope change control.
The scope of the Amalgamation project in the PMP is not in line with the PMBOK guidelines. The PMP has defined the scope of the project clearly. The scope of the PMO defines that the project has to deliver the transition plan. (Project-management-skills, 2017). The scope of the project in the PMP also clearly defines the important aspects such as the out of scope and the scope change. However the scope of the project in the PMP has not discussed the strategic plan, historic information and the selection criteria of the project. The PMP also does not include the project charter that is the formal authorization of the project. The PMP however focuses on the constraints and the assumptions of the project.
Project communication Management
The project communication management includes all the important processes essential for timely collection, dissemination and the storage of the information related to the project. Communication is the critical link between the ideas, information and the people important for the overall success of the project (Project Management, 2017). The communication of the project should be highly efficient in terms of the sending, receiving and understand the communication. According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) stakeholder analysis is an essential part of the communication management plan. The information needs of the different stakeholders should be analyzed so that they can be provided the information accordingly (AMP, 2017).
The communication plan of the City of Swan and Shrine of Mundaring was effective as it has defined the type and frequency of the communication with the stakeholders with the help of stakeholder analysis. The stakeholder analysis helped in dividing the stakeholders on the basis of their influence and interest (Softwareresearch, 2017). According to the stakeholder analysis it was identified that the employees, CEO’s and combined Executives of the project have to be nurtured, involved and consulted. Local Implementation Committee and Union Representatives have to be kept well informed and minimal efforts are required for the contractors and suppliers. In addition the communication plan of the project also focused on gaining feedback from the stakeholders regarding the project activities. Feedback is an important part of the project management guide.
Scheduling
According to guidelines of PMBOK the project time management is the process that ensures the completion of the project on time. In this it is essential to define the activities that have to be performed for producing the project deliverables. According to the PMBOK there are four major activities included in the project time schedule for managing the time. The activities of the project have to be firstly defined so as to determine the specific activities that have to be performed for obtaining the project deliverables (Projectinsight, 2017). Then the activities should be sequenced along with estimating the duration of the activities. Lastly, the project schedule changes should be controlled.
The time management plan of the City of Swan and Shrine of Mundaring is not effective as it has not focused on all the elements important for managing the time of the project. The project has used the Work Breakdown structure for scheduling the activities according to the priority. The activities in the Work Break down structure are not listed in a sequence that is one of the major drawbacks of the scheduling plan. Then the duration of the activities has not been estimated. The Gant chart has however been used for indicating the time taken by the activities listed in the work breakdown structure. The project plan of the City of Swan and Shrine of Mundaring however supports the improvement methodology (RAID) so as to design the way in which the services have to be delivered (Mindtools, 2017). While sequencing the activities of the project plan the dependencies have not have not been identified. Lastly the strategies to control the changes in the project schedule have also not been identified.
Quality Management Plan
Project quality management plan includes all the necessary processes being used in the project in order to ensure that the project is able to satisfy its purpose. Quality management plan helps the management to analyse its activities on the basis of quality system (Orwig & Brennan, 2000). According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) Guide a quality management plan should include about the quality planning, quality assurance as well as quality control related to the project (Project Management Institute, 2000). One of the major reasons for failure of a project is that it focuses only on written requirements and fails to satisfy the requirements of other stakeholders. Hence, quality management plan is developed in order to ensure that nothing in the whole process of the project goes wrong (PM4DEV, 2016).
The concerned Project Management Plan has been successful in developing quality management plan for the project. The quality management plan has clearly defined that it aims to satisfy the requirements of the project and has also dealt in detail with the main concepts of quality management plan that is quality assurance which ensures quality through the project management processes. Quality control which describes about how the project outputs will be analysed on the basis of quality system and quality improvements which deals with integrating the learning as well as improvements with the project has been mentioned in the concerned quality management plan of the project. The approach of the quality management plan of this project has been influenced by the goals of Local Implementation Committee (LIC), whose main aim is to build a new local government that satisfies the needs of all the stakeholders.
Risk Management Plan
Risk management in simple terms can be understood as the process of identifying, analysing as well as responding to the risks related to the projects. The main purpose of risk management is to reduce the probability of adverse events that can emerge in a project and maximise the positive events related to the project. The main components of risk management include risk management planning (Zwikael & Ahn, 2011), risk identification, qualitative as well as quantitative risk analysis (Iacob, 2014), risk response planning, as well as risk monitoring and control measures. A proper risk management plan has the ability to facilitate the success of the project and hence, large emphasis is given on risk management plan in any project management plan (Junior & Carvalho, 2013).
The risk management plan of the City of Swan and Shrine of Mundaring has included all the possible risks that can be encountered while implementing the project. The risk management plan of this project has also discussed about different risks on the basis of its intensity that is the risk management plan has levelled different risks on the level of high and very high risks. The concerned risk management plan also includes the treatment process for each risk that has been identified in the concerned project. Though, it has been found that the risk management plan has not mentioned about the quantitative as well as qualitative risk analysis which is mentioned in the guidelines of PMBOK. The risk management plan has also mentioned that the plan will be updated on a continuous basis throughout the process of the project but it failed to mention the tool that will be used for risk monitoring as well as the adopted control measures.
Human Resources Management
Project Human Resources Management is important in order to ensure the most effective use of the different stakeholders of the project as well as the roles and responsibilities being undertaken by them. Organizational planning, staff acquisition and team development are the main concepts that are reflected under the project human resource management. Human resource management helps to acquire, develop as well as manage the team of the project (Project Management Institute, 2000). Human resource planning is a crucial process and hence it requires utmost care. It is very important to delegate the roles and responsibilities to the concerned stakeholder in order to avoid any ambiguity.
The concerned project management plan has aligned the human resources of both the local governments in order to ensure accountability as well as to make sure that the work is delegated appropriately. The human resource management of the project has discussed about the organization structure of the City of Swan as well as of the Mundaring separately. The human resource management has also discussed about the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder so that ambiguity is avoided as well as performance efficiency can be experienced throughout the life of the project. Same set of roles and responsibilities have been delegated to the members of both the local governments. The main aim of delegating this roles and responsibilities in both the local governing bodies is to make sure that both the local bodies take decisions accordingly and in the favour of the project.
Conclusion
The above report has critically evaluated the Project Management Plan (PMP) of amalgamation of City of Swan with Shire of Mundaring. The findings of the evaluation indicate that the project management was effective but it also lacked some of the major aspects such as in procurement management and the scheduling. The major strengths of the project are as follows: the project has an effective communication plan that focuses on the communicating with its stakeholders on the basis of influence and interest of the stakeholders. The PMP also has an effective quality management that focused on both the quality assurance and quality control. The risk management plan of the PMP also described the various forms of risks on the basis of the intensity. The risks were classified as high level and very high level risks.
In addition the risk management of the PMP also focused on the treatment of the risk. Further, the PMP has an effective cost management that is consistent with the PMBOK guide. The cost management of the PMP used the resource planning process so as to effectively utilize the material, people and the resources in the project. The cost management of the PMP has also provided the estimates of the transition planning that is an important part of the cost management as it involves huge costs. The major weaknesses of the PMP include the lack of contract close out in the project procurement management and the lack of interactivity dependencies in the scheduling plan and the lack of qualitative and quantitative risk analysis .Overall findings of the PMP indicate that there are some changes that can help in improving the PMP and being in line completely with the PMBOK guidelines.
Recommendations
The above evaluation of the PMP plan indicates that the plan is not completely in line with the PMBOK guidelines. Based on the analysis of the PMP, there are some recommendations listed below; these recommendations will help in improving the PMP along with making it in line with the PMBOK guidelines.
Project Cost Management – In order to improve the project management plan and make it in line with the PMBOK guidelines the project should use the Life Cycle Costing (LCC) which is one of the effective economic analysis tools used for selecting the alternatives that can have an impact on the future and pending costs of the project (GSA, 2017). In addition the PMP should also focus on including the control processes in while managing the cost of the project (Mohan, 2017).
Project scope management – The project scope management should focus on determining the scope of the project by including the expert judgements. The expert judgements help in identifying the aspects that can limit the scope of the project. The expert judgement can be received from the consultants, stakeholders, industry groups, professionals etc.
Risk management – The PMP should focus on both the qualitative and quantitative risk analysis process so as to determine all the risks associated with the project. (Extensionrme, 2016). The qualitative and quantitative risk assessment will help in ensuring that all the types of risks have been considered while managing the project.
Scheduling – In scheduling the project, while using the work breakdown structure focus should be on defining the interactivity dependencies so as to determine the obstacles that can lead to time overruns (Smartsheet, 2017). The interactivity dependencies will also help in determining the impact of one activity on the other.
Project procurement – The project procurement phase of the PMP should include the close out phase. The close out phase starts when the deliverables are completed, the phases of the projects are closed or when the project is closed. During the close put phase it should be ensured that the steering committee or the sponsors support the closing phase so as to reduce the implementation risks. The closeout phase also ensures the completion of the project (Procurement Classroom, 2017).
The recommendations given above can help in improving the project management plan discussed above along with making it completely in line with the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide).
References
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Business Insight Ltd (2018) The Project Management Plan (PMP)
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Iacob, V.-S., 2014. Risk management and evaluation and qualitative method within the projects. Ecoforum Journal, 3(1), pp.60-67.
Junior, R.R. & Carvalho, M.M.d., 2013. Understanding the Impact of Project Risk Management on Project Performance: an Empirical Study. Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, 8, pp.64-78.
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