Project Management Plan Of Pibara Regional Council – Analysis

Introduction Of Project

Discuss about the Project Management Plan of Pibara Regional Council.

This report is a result of analysis of project plan for affordable housing project by regional council of Pilbara (PRC). PRC covers Project scope, Assumptions, Milestones details, Risk Management, Communication Management, Cost details in the project plan.PRC working for building around 400+ beds affordable housing within the deadline of 18 months. PRC include public and private association to make smooth execution of project.

AS a part of the report we will examine project plan established on all components of PMP. A good Project Management plan essentially covers stakeholder management, Schedule and cost management, Risk Management, Communication management and change management.

Below are the key areas that should analyzed for Project Management Plan:

• PMP gives details about the developments, principles, and process required for project.
• It briefs about how the project will be recognized, measured and secure during and after development.
• PMP provides the Outlines roles and responsibilities.
• Identify all stakeholders and contributors of the project, measures and suitable process. (Bjarne 2007)

Pilbara Regional Council (PRC) starts planning with Blue Zoo that is the firm of Western advisory in Australia in 2010. PRC address the issues of affordable housing in Pilbara. They both work together over 12 months to find various alternative models to resolve the issue of affordable housing.

The association of PRC and Blue zoo identified two potential models and they initially discussed with a local investor and global procurement organization. After further investigation and discussion local investor option was selected as most appropriate method. (Young, 2005) Since this time:

• An appropriate strategy and investment been created.
• Commercial associates also been sourced.
• Secured provisional for financing equity and debt for private-sector.
• The cases for business have been created for the Port Hedland town.

The project will now all set to begin with pending endorsement of the Port Hedland town and the land availability, the subject of this business case. (Brown, 2014)

This affordable housing project execution was based on the public-private partnership model. In this model private sector will fund the project for land servicing and construction and undertake to operate under government guidelines for a period of up to 40 years. This investment will be repaid by the rent receipts and NRAS payments.

PRC build a project plan to execute the project. This project plan helps PRC and other associate stakeholders to achieve the goals of project with all risk factors initially identified with the mitigation plan. The project management plan supports the project stakeholders for accepting the project scope in the beginning of project with identified risk that are linked with project at any time during the project execution. (Cattani, 2011)

Below are the details that can be collected by the stakeholders from project plan:

Serial No	Sections
1	Scope of the project
2	Deliverables and project milestones
3	Tasks with details of start and end date
4	Details of Resourcing and cost and time
5	Project risks and their impact
6	Details of cost concerned in the Project
7	Plan of communication

Audiences of project plan are the stakeholders as in the current scenarios these are as below:

Serial No.	Stakeholder	Accountable to know Cost	Cost provider
1	Pilbara Regional Council	Yes	Yes
2	Town of Port Hedland	No	No
3	National Australia Bank	Yes	Yes
4	Blue Zoo	Yes	No
5	Construction Company(s)	Yes	No
6	Facilities Manager(s)	No	No
7	Individual Communities	No	No
8	Social Services Providers	No	No

Out of these PRC, Blue Zoo and NAB are the key stakeholders. Key stakeholders are the individual or group whose input directly or indirectly impact the project cost or deadline. (Casey, 2010)

Background of Project

The affordable housing project plan has below structure:

Serial Number	Sections covered
1	Project summery
2	Scope and evaluation that covers project background, objectives, deliverables, assumptions and stakeholders details
3	Project budget and cash flow
4	Risk  Analysis
5	Communication and procurement plan
6	Governance

PRC captures maximum critical areas and after analysis it came to now that PRC did not captured change management plan and the communication  plan suggested by the PRC did not covers the frequency ,mode of communication with stakeholders required for each type of communication. Following are the areas that PRC did not cover or poorly covered. (Dennis 2007)

Serial Number	Project management area not covered or poorly covered
1	Project Risk Management is poorly captured as Mitigation plan is not well defined.
2	Project Resource management is not captured
3	Communication plan did not capture frequency, Communication mode and stakeholder associated with that
4	Change Management is not captured
5	Work break down structure is missed

The project plan that developed by the PRC captured every critical area except change management, resource management and work breakdown structure. PRC has done good stakeholder identification with the roles clearly defined in the project but communication and risk management poorly defined.

Work breakdown contains the entire task that to be performed as a project. Most of the people used to maintain these task in Microsoft project or excel after assigning the start and end date with resource and cost information. Stakeholders of the project or project Manger have to just open the Microsoft project file for tracking the status at any period of time. We can identify the critical and dependent tasks with in project tasks. The Microsoft project file will support further the project manager and stakeholders for identifying the over allocated resources and project cost details. With the help of WBS also helps stakeholders to make project execution fast by adding additional resources in case of non dependent tasks that can be run parallel. Microsoft project also help in seeking the project slack and a project manager can use that slack to perform additional task to make project execution smooth and help in completing the project on time. (David 2006)

It is also observed that PRC build a good Project scope with all assumptions linked to it and on the same time PRC captured risk for the project with mitigation but for a good risk analysis we should not only categorize and assign risk level but also we should have a good mitigation plan with responsible person and make a RACI chart out of it. For example PRC mentioned one risk as Land availability which is a high risk for the project as whole project depends on this,PRC simply mention that land service can be factored into financial model as mitigation steps but the information is not complete as who will do that how this will accomplish if this risk occur then whom to contact what is plan of action. So we can say we should have more detailed risk analysis so that when it actually occurs we ensure the smooth delivery of project. Below are the points which would get covered under risk management: (Elizabeth, 2005)

Nature of Venture

Furthermore Communication plan is also incomplete for example PRC mentioned that they will responsible for any communication between Town of port Hedland and NAB will responsible to communicate with investors, planning authorities, design and construction teams and facilities managers. For a good project plan we should indentify the regular project status meeting between internal teams and at least 1 monthly project review meeting with all stakeholders. We should also mention the mode of communication for these meetings or emails.

Change management plan is a key section for any project to ensure smooth delivery. Everyone knows that there are situations come during the project execution that it is required to make some adjustments or changes to execute the project from predefined tasks. To accommodate these changes we should have a proper change management plan agreed and implemented as a part of project plan. Normally a change management plan consists (Frame, 2003)

• what change we are going to implement
• why certain change is required
• what will the impact on current project status
• Who is responsible to approve
• When it will required to incorporate

Project Management plan have below section that should have in every project plan

As a part of analysis of the project it comes to notice that PRC has missed some important details that can be useful to ensuring smooth execution of the project. Following are some key sections that should be consider as a part of project plan. (Joseph, 2003)

A project scope has a sentence that explains the project objective with assumptions, constraints and Milestones including deliverables. PRC developed the project plan to implement the need of affordable housing. PRC captures the project scope and Milestones of the project. Project Scope helps stakeholders to understand the objectives and requirements. We describe on what basis we formed this project plan under Assumptions and what is the understanding with the requirements. (Kerzner, 2010)

Management of the Schedule is a key section that is required for any of the Project plan. It developed with the needs of other sections such as communication and risk requirement, deliverables, cost and resource management. The project schedule would hold of the owner of the project and stakeholders for accomplishing the objectivities of the project within approved cost and an estimated timeframe. This schedule is the outcome of the work breakdown structure that required to be made as a part of project task based on the objectives. (Larson, 2009)

The cost management of the project is the process to calculate the cost required to complete the project with each task of project. PRC has total cost estimated as 84M for the project and additional cost of 2500$ will be provided by NAB in case of requirement. Cost management plan covers the flow of cost with total estimated cost and the accountable resource for cost provider. (Levin, 2010)

Project Management Plan

The Quality Management in the project has the process that is required to ensure that project will induce the needs for which this will get originate. It holds all the actions of entire function management that set up the aims, responsibilities, apparatus and policy quality policy them by means such as system of quality inside the system, assurance and improvement, planning and control over quality. PRC did not include any quality plan and control that is required for smooth delivery. (Lewis, 2006)

To make any project victory it is necessary to analyze and recognize the risk at early stage of project and we should intended mitigation in case of its event. PRC captures the risks identification, impact with its mitigation plan. Risk Management helps every associate of project to address all type of risk for a agreed project with its mitigation plan so that when it really occur we follow the plan and get it resolved without impact on project schedule and cost.PRC covers the risk with its levels and mitigation plan. (Lencioni, 2005)

• Make Risk administration some portion of your task: The standard of the principal is crucial to get accomplishment of undertaking administration of risk. In the event that you don’t really install administration for risk in the task, you can’t profit from this methodology.
• Identify chance prior: The initial phase in task hazard administration is to distinguish the dangers that are available in your venture. This requires a receptive outlook set that spotlights on future situations that may happen.
• Communicate about Risk: A great methodology is to reliably incorporate danger correspondence in the undertakings you do. On the off chance that you have a group meeting, make venture chances part of the default motivation (and not the last thing on the rundown!). This shows dangers are imperative to the venture administrator and gives colleagues a “characteristic minute” to talk about them and report new ones. (Ireland, 2006)
• Consider both the Threats and Opportunities: Project dangers have the negative undertone: they are the “awful folks” that can hurt your undertaking. However cutting edge hazard approaches likewise concentrate on positive dangers, the task opportunities. These are some of questionable occasions that valuable to your task and association. These “great folks” make your task speedier, better and more productive.
• Ownership for clarifying problems: The following stride is to clarify who is in charge of what danger! Somebody needs to feel the warmth if a danger is not dealt with appropriately. The trap is straightforward: allot a danger proprietor for every danger that you have found. The danger proprietor is the individual in your group that has the obligation to improve this danger for the undertaking. The impacts are truly positive. (Marcum, 2008)

Significant Risk	Risk(s)	Persons at risk	Likelihood	Impact	Risk Score	Current controls in place	Additional controls required to eliminate risk or reduce as far as practicable	Estimated completion date

Communications management is the organized planning, implementing and monitoring of all the type of communication within an organization, and between organizations. Good communication plans have at least 1 weekly internal meeting with 1 monthly review with stakeholders. Communication plan also includes the frequency and mode of communication with deliverables of each communication in predefined table format in project plan for example below is the communication sample plan

Communication  Types	Frequency	Description of defined Type	Mode	Deliverable	Participants
Project status Report	Weekly	Post meeting an email will sent that contains summary about project status meeting with current update and future action plans	Email	Status Report of the Project	Sponsors of the Project, Project Team members and Project Stakeholders
Report review for the Project Monthly (PMR)	Monthly	This will contain all the condition of the team member and project sponsor and also provide metrics for the present project	In-person	Status of the Project and Metrics of the current project	Sponsors of the Project, Project Team members and Project Stakeholders

Procurement management of the Project is the processes required to purchase or obtain products, services from outside the project team or vendors required to execute a project. This plan contains preferred vendor list with the items and price with tentative delivery time. Project team can coordinate with the vendors in case of any product that is not available and need to procure. Project team then compare the list of vendors with price and lead delivery time and quality rating of the vendor.PRC did not capture this thing in their project plan and may face issues at a later stage in case of any product or services need to procure or have to pay higher amount to get things on time. (Martin, 2002)

Change management plan is an important section that normally missed by the manager of the project. PRC should have correct process for the change management in the project plan. This document is formal document that address the required modification requested by the stakeholder at any period of time during execution of the project. This plan explains the need of modification with the impact on current status of project and also covers the cost and schedule part of project with set of Approver(s). These plans also have the change requested date and implementation date of required change. (Meredith, 2008)

• Phase #1: Recognize the needs for any project stakeholder modification: Requestor will near the completed the modification for the demand structure to the venture director
• Phase #2: Log modification in the register of modification demand by Manager of the Project: The task chief will keep up the log of all modifications demands for length of the defined project
• Phase #3: Conduct the assessment of the changes which contains Requestor, Team of the Project and Manager of the Project: The venture administrator will direct an evaluation of the consequence of the modification to cost, hazard, scope and schedule. (Paul, 2005)
• Phase #4: Submit request for change to Board of Change Control Board (CCB) by Manager of the Project: The venture supervisor will near the modification solicitation and examination to the audit for CCB
• Phase #5: Change Control Board choice (CCB): The examiner for CCB proposed modification and decide whether or not it will be affirmed based on all the information that was submitted
• Phase #6: Execute modification by the Manager of the Project: On the off chance that the modification is confirmed by the CCB, the task chief will upgrade and re-benchmark documentation of the project as essential and additionally guarantee any of the progressions are conveyed to the partners and group. (Sanghera, 2009)

Element name	Description of the elements
Priority	A code that provides a recommended categorization of the urgency of the requested change (High, Medium, Low)
Date	The date the CR was created
CR#	Assigned by the Change Manager
Title	A brief description of the change request
Phone	Phone number of the submitter
Submitter	Name of the person completing the CR Form and who can answer questions regarding the suggested change
Product	The product that the suggested change is for
E-Mail	Email of the submitter
Version	The product version that the suggested change is for
Description	Description of the desired change, the impact, or benefits of a change should also be described

SUBMITTER – GENERAL INFORMATION
CR#
Submitter Name
Brief Description of Request
Date Submitted
Date Required
Priority	Low	Medium	High	Mandatory
Reason for Change
Other Artifacts Impacted
Assumptions and Notes
Attachments or References	Yes	No
Link:

Audience of the PMP

INITIAL ANALYSIS
Hour Impact
Duration Impact
Schedule Impact
Comments
Recommendations

CHANGE CONTROL BOARD – DECISION
Decision	Approved	Approved w/Conditions	Rejected	More Info
Decision Date
Decision Explanation
Conditions

Conclusions

As a result of analysis of the project plan offered by PRC we observed that it captured all the necessary areas of project plan management. Project plan document helps us in recognizing the project scope and objectives along with the tasks, associated resource and cost details. PMP guidelines states that the current project plan should focus on communication management along with project schedule, risk management and change management. In PRC project plan project risk are identified correctly but who is responsible to mitigate what steps we need to follow that information is missing.  Similarly communication plan does not cover any information that what type of communication should required what frequency and mode of communication. (Schwalbe, 2009)

There are numerous project Management forms to achieve the project with own pros and cons connected with this. It is compulsory to choose a correct method as per the type of project, size of project and resources involved .(Paul 2005) Most of the project fails because of weak planning so we should consider every minute details of project during planning phase while creating the project plan. (Stackpole, 2009)

After analysis of project plan developed by PRC it was acknowledged that if they select Critical chain Project Management then total project length and cost can be save. Following are some recommendations as follows:

• Change management plan should provide in project plan to accommodate future project modification that may required achieving project goals.
• Communication Plan should have mode of communication, frequency and deliverable for each type of communication with stakeholder involved in the project plan. (Subramanian, 2015)
• Risk Register should get prepared in the plan and maintained and updated at regular interval with all type of risk their impact and mitigation plan steps and associated responsible person.
• Procure management plan should be developed as a part of project plan and help teams in case of any required product or service to be procured at a later stage of project. (Tom, 2013)

References

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