Project Governance Documentation

 

Questions:

Question 1 (2000 words maximum, excluding references)
Critically discuss the following statement: “There is a strong relationship between the adoption of effective and efficient project governance practices and enhanced project performance”.
Question 2
The following activities (see Table 1) have been scheduled for constructing a new hotel within the premises of Hong Kong airport. All task durations have been given in days.

For this assignment:
a) You have to produce a table detailing appropriate predecessor successor relationships for each activity. For this, you are required to use the activity duration times given in Table-1.
b) You have to find the Early Start, Early Finish, Late Start, Late Finish and Slack for each task. For this, you are required to use the activity duration times given in Table-1.
c) You have to find the expected time and variance for each task. For this, you are required to use the activity duration times given in Table-1.
d) You have to construct an AON network to reflect the project of constructing the new hotel within the premises of Hong Kong airport. For this, you are required to use the activity duration times given in Table-1.
e) You have to find the critical path and duration for the project.
f) You have to find the probability that the project will be completed in 1250 days.
g) You have to find the probability that the project will be completed in 1325 days.
h) Write a brief summary on the implications of your analysis. Your summary must inform senior management on the efficacy of your chosen method to arrive at your summary/conclusion. Your summary may include a brief critical discussion on the technique adopted for identifying the critical tasks and slack. It can also include a brief critical discussion on the alternative options. You can also discuss any issue(s) that you think is/are important enough to bring to the attention of senior management.

Part A

Introduction

Project governance is a term that is used often in project management documentation and the definition of the project governance is a very loose one that regards the control and defining of the various stages of the project. The term, being a relatively new one, is often poorly understood by personnel and in many occurrences becomes the cause of project failure or poor performance (Ahola, 2014). The definition of project governance is fluid and the understanding of the terms differs for each project as the different projects have different stages that are instrumental in the project success (Too& Weaver, 2014). For example, the procurement in the construction project and defining the project goals regarding quality or milestones for time and resource specifications are part of project governance and the framework ensuring the accurate definition of goal and its understanding by project staff is regarded as project governance framework. This, on the other hand, is similar to a project in IT industry in vaguest sense, as the important factors of the different projects are different for different industry and the project governance frameworks, therefore, fulfill different roles for different projects. The corporate governance is the actual source of the term and thus the project governance can be easily being identified by the different areas of corporate governance that relate to the different stages of a project. The project governance therefore occupies a role of extreme importance as it is instrumental for the successful completion of a project and the specific governance practices that can be used to achieve this therefore are one of the most important topics in project management research (Biesenthal & Wilden, 2014). This paper uses the established definition of project governance and critically discusses the role of the project governance practices on the performance of the project. Analyzing the statement, “There is a strong relationship between the adoption of effective and efficient project governance practices and enhanced project performance” would therefore be answered by exploring the specific topic in depth.

Critical discussion

There are several functional areas where the advantage of the project governance framework is effectively related to the performance of the project, which establishes the importance of the governance practices as criteria for success in the project goals. The influence of the organization policies and corporate governance is paramount in case of the internal projects where the corporate governance policies of the organization can be used to establish the project outline and definition of the different tasks that are important for the project (Müller & Martinsuo, 2015). The fit of the project governance with the internal governance of the organization, therefore, plays a huge role in the clear definition of the goals and the coordinated effort for the successful completion of the project. Therefore, the fit of the project plan and outline with the overall policies of the organization are one factor that is included in the governance frameworks in the different sectors. This not only helps in defining the communication process but also outlines the roles and responsibilities of an individual and then establishes the goal or achievable standard, which are part of the governance framework as known by the project outline. This is essential for the definition of the project governance and the advantages of the different nuances of the project management process (Samset & Volden, 2016). The governance framework as mentioned before is a fluid concept that is not bound by any fixed definition but the overall scope of the communication, identification and establishment of goals in a specific project are all benefitted by the overall governance framework applicable for a project in a specific industry. Thus, project governance needs to be aligned with the organization corporate governance, which helps in the standardization of the procedures and the setting of goals along with commutation plan to communicate changes and schedule reports of the project plan (Pinto, 2014). Defining the deliverables of a specific project and the communication and coordination framework required for the stakeholder engagement in a project has been long established as an important factor contributing the project success that, in this case, helps establish the interrelation between the governance practices and performance of the project. The essential part of the project governance, therefore, has been relating to the definition of the project and understanding and communicating the overall scope of the project and the individual responsibilities in the tasks required as part of the project governance framework. This helps relate the individual
responsibilities in a manner that is easily understood according to the other organizational practices of a specific organization.

Formation of Project Team

Mainly a project has its unique and basic characteristics of the organizational structure and that should be considered with organizational environment. A typical type of Project structure can take on many forms with having advantages and disadvantages. Project team is basically organized with group of people who are involved in the tasks and having individual objectives, aim and task. Accomplishing a project needs to develop a team first and team consist full and part time co coordinator who will handle the job. A group of people turns into a valuable team to handle the project. Structure is same but work is different. Here in this project the team is formed like this way;

Project performance

General project control process is another governance process that is most elaborate and spans through the entire time span of the project, which is based on the project control mechanisms that conducts ongoing check son the different processes (Joslin & Müller, 2015). The comparison and evaluation of the progress of different tasks against baselines established in the planning process based on resource, time, scope and quality. This assessment has to be continuously done throughout the project and the feedback used to modify the project to ensure compliance with an initial plan (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). As a result, the risk mitigation strategy is another aspect of the project governance that affects the project performance and even the project completion depending on the scenario. The facilitation of the understanding of the project plan along with procedure and project outcome in case of the specific project, therefore, is part of the project governance that can easily be linked with project performance in the specific setting. This part of the project specification affecting the project outcome is established in many types of research and thus needs to be
carried out before the project and deliverables are defined.
This is not separated by any means as the different project components are affected differently by the presence of the project governance framework, which is specific for the different projects. The project governance influences these different project components, which indirectly help in the establishment of the standards in the project outcome and ensure their applicability in the specific organizational setting that is supported by the project governance (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). Thus, the project governance plays an important role in the project success by indirectly bolstering the different tasks related to the project and not only affect the procedural efficiency but also the potential chances of success by ensuring the project tasks are understood by the different project managers and employees.
The governance model as defined in the previous point is an important angle of seeing the project tasks and deliverables but there is a need for moderation as the project governance if too loose risks the project outcome from both time and resource constraints of allocating specific job roles. On the other hand, a too rigorous governance model can affect the enthusiasm of the employees and upset the stakeholders and employees alike. The project risk identification, specifying deliverables and the establishing a communication plan might seem like a task that is not important for project governance but the lack of alignment of these factors from the common organizational practices can affect the efficiency and accuracy of the operations of the different project teams with clearly defined responsibilities (Hjelmbrekke, Lædre & Lohne, 2014). The relationship of accountability of the individuals and teams in a project is intrinsically related to the project outcome and is a factor that is highly responsible for the performance of the project. The accountability needs to be defined and acts as an addition to the allocation of tasks in the governance capacity (Mejía Acosta, 2013). Without clearly defined accountability for the different tasks, the allocation of tasks to the different teams or individuals remains a threat to the project performance. Thus, the communication plan for the coordination of the different tasks needs to be defined. The responsibilities and role of the different individuals and teams in every task and who should be consulted or reported about the progress makes sure the project milestones are achieved in an orderly manner which establishes the relation between project performance and governance. The project planning is highly dependent on the stakeholders and the stakeholders need to be appraised of the different developments within the project management process according to the importance so the reporting structure and stakeholder engagement is also a part of the project governance. This part of the project governance uses the identified stakeholders, judge their importance and control over the project, and classifies them into different categories in order of importance and specific involvement (Joslin & Müller, 2016). This is not part of the project plan but the governance, which uses the organizational role of the stakeholders to define their level of input and engagement in the progress. Through this aspect of the project control, the governance of the project can be linked directly with the performance, which depends on the stakeholder engagement that is controlled and defined by the project governance. The risk management part of the process is probably the most explored aspect of the project governance, which is related to the project success under various circumstances. The identification of the different risks that might affect the project in an adverse way is one of the main constraints of the project management and thus the possible risks for the project which can never be done completely have great significance on the performance of the project in all aspects including the time, resource and quality constraints and specifications. This part of the governance incorporates the organizational change management process into the project management where the risks and their possible impacts are evaluated based on the theoretical comparison and knowledge of the project ecosystem (Zwikael & Smyrk, 2015). Then a consensus from the stakeholders is taken and analyzed based on their importance to form a viable mitigation strategy for every risk that might become a reality. The prioritization of the risks and making provisions for the risk management are therefore are aspects of project governance that can affect the project performance and even challenge the success of the project entirely from one or more of the aforementioned constraints. Accordingly, the risk identification and evaluation might not be considered a part of the project governance but the mitigation strategy and prioritization is definitely part of governance, which would be influenced by the corporate governance strategy of the company undertaking the project (Guo, 2014). As a result, the risk mitigation strategy is another aspect of the project governance that affects the project performance and even the project completion depending on the scenario. Despite these elements of the project management being directly dependent on project governance to ensure project performance and compliance with the project plan, these are not the entirety of the impact of the governance on the project performance and outcome. The effect of the project governance failure is never contained to one aspect of the project as a rule (Biesenthal & Wilden, 2014). Thus if the governance failures often impact several interconnected processes of the project and jeopardize the project success to a higher degree than any single issue.

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Conclusion

The project governance, therefore, is an important part of the project performance and success of the project in the end. The adoption of the best practices of project governance seems like the best way for ensuring the project outcome as the project success seems to depend heavily on the different parts of the project governance. Ensuring performance of the project seems like a task that is immersive so the attunement of the governance with corporate governance policies and practices would benefit the project teams greatly. The significance of the project governance is a part of the project performance management, therefore, can be easily established on the theoretical and process related information presented in the answer. Thus, the statement “There is a strong relationship between the adoption of effective and efficient project governance practices and enhanced project performance” is an accurate description of the role of the project governance on project performance that identifies the scope of the governance on project success. The statement does not specify any specific governance action so the statement can be interpreted in many ways that can be applied in the different circumstances and context for different types of projects. Thus, the statement seems accurate if somewhat vague from a practical perspective.

Part B

a. The procedure is done according to the table in the mpp file it could be found. PROJECT MANAGEMENT .mpp file attached and all the results can be identified by that project chart with capable resources.
b. There are many major tasks included in order to build the hotel. Through this chart, the proper predecessors along with duration of the task could be assumed. This will help the project planners to conduct the overall process. Task A need to done at the beginning, which going to take about 130 days to complete.
c. Following this, task b, task c and task d need to conduct after launching the task a. Task f along with task h is going to be the next task, which is also been stated in the chart. Both tasks need 130 days to complete the procedure. In accordance to the chart, project planners should focus on task i after completing task f and h. task I also going to take near about 130 days.
To be continued..

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