Case Study On Baggage Handling System Project Information Technology Essay

This module is given us the knowledge to develop our own ability to lead a project team and also the roles as project manager to control the project task where the management within given budge ,time and resources to make a project success.

Project Management

Project Definition

A temporary and one-time endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service, which brings about beneficial change or added value

Project Management

The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements, Organizing and managing resources so the project is completed within defined scope, quality, time and cost constraints.

The very first thing of a Project Manager is always about Time, Cost and Scope as below figure

PM Triangle

Five Step of Project

According to Robert K. Wysocki (2003) traditional Project Management can be devise to 5 phases as Defining, Planning, and Executing, controlling and Closing.

The Project definition : Scope ,Business Goal Budge

The Project Planning : Resources, Risk Management, Breakdown of Work ,Establishing of Schedule of Work ,Project team management, Cost management

The Project Execution : Work completion, Manage Risk Organization Chart ,Communication Plan

The Controlling Process :Quality Planning, Monitor of Progress

The Close-Out: Release people, Lessons learned, Accounting

Case study on Baggage Handing System Project

BHS Project Definition

Baggage handling system project mean all components, installation materials, interfaces and other components, all necessary hardware, software, installation coordination and construction supervision of computers/PLC, controls and control hardware and software, management and support services required to implement the work and supply a fully functioning system as described on the signed Contract documents by client.

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One million project awards by the company to built the whole Baggage Handling System including Mechanical and Control System for the airport logistic to transfer and screening the baggage during the flight arrival and departure. Deadline to finish the project is one year after contract signed.Project team will be set up for this project.

Mechanical installation complete mean when the conveyor, walkway, handrail, toe plate, side guards, drip pan, gap pan, motor/drive components, reducer/gear are correctly mounted in place.

Electrical installation complete mean when control stations, Estop, sensors, beacons, motors, groundings are correctly mounted in place, wired and terminated.

Scope of Work

Scope of Works or the statement of works means the whole of the work to be executed in accordance with the Contract, including variations provided for the Contract by client.

Work under the Contract mean any work the Contractor is or may be required to execute under the Contract and includes variations, remedial work and Temporary Work.

Temporary Work means any work required in the execution of the Contract but not forming part of the Works

Activity involve for BHS project

Marketing & Contract Handover to Project

Design Phase (Mechanical & Electrical Control)

Purchase for Electrical and Mechanical

Fabrication for Mechanical

Electrical preparation

Delivery to Site

Mechanical installation

Electrical installation

High Level Control Interface for System

Test & Commissioning

Client Approval and Handover

Operation Trial Period

Project Completed

Warranty Period (DLP)

After Sale Services (O&M or R&M Contract, Spare Part Sale)

Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)

Work breakdown structure (WBS) is a process for defining the final and intermediate products of a project and their relationships (accessed 05 Jan 2013).

The Work Breakdown Structure provides a hierarchical structure of decomposing project fulfillment into smaller manageable activities for detailed schedule development along with cost estimating and control. A detailed WBS shall comprise of breakdown of work activities, resource estimates, activity duration estimates and cost estimates. It is an essential tool for planning and executing the project.

Use the WBS to define the work for the project and to develop the project’s schedule. BSH Project Work Breakdown Structure as Figure below

Project Planning

Define the project objective

Graphically portray the activities – in the form of network diagram

Estimate the cost and time for each activity.

Calculate a project schedule and budget to determine whether the project can be completed within the required time, and with the available resource.

Resource Management

Resources are of three types, Work resources, Material resources and Cost resources

Work resources complete tasks by expending time on them. They are usually people and equipment that have been assigned to work on the project

Material resources are supplies and stocks that are needed to complete a project.

Cost resources are strictly cost; no time, no quantities-just dollars. Expenses, such as travel or fees, increase the project price tag, but they aren’t associated with work or material resources.

Resource costs will be multiplied by duration to calculate project costs. This is the important roles for project manager to control the project budge to close the project. Many issues are always happen to project to use the limit resource to fulfill the requirement by client, as a project manager, who must make sure the right resource was assigned to right place as right time. At the same time, project manager must use some technique tools to monitor the progress of the project. Next part we are going to discuses about the tools for project manager to control the process.

Project Management Methodology and Techniques

A project methodology can be thought of in the same terms as a recipe for cooking. It identifies what will be required and how these ingredients will be combined together to produce the perfect meal. In short, a methodology comprises of the following components

Documentation – such as project initiation and scoping documents

Technique – a set of standard project management techniques required to plan and control the project (Critical Path Analysis, Risk Management Procedures etc)

Sequence- the order in which the stages will be performed

Overview – a picture of how the documentation and techniques fit together

The application of structured project techniques during the development and implementation of a new information system helps to impose discipline on the process of the integration of activities within each of the stages which, in turn helps to ensure success. The purpose of this can therefore give the organisation the opportunity to:

Divide the project into smaller and easier to manage stages

Measure the progress in terms of time, costs and quality

Take corrective action if required to bring the project back on track

Allocate the resources to the project

PERT and CPM

Program Evaluation and Review Techniques which is PERT (Maylor, 2010) is a technique that use project network for planning and coordinating large-scale projects to handle uncertain activity times. Critical Path Management (CPM), is a network chart, is a planning and management method used for scheduling a set of project activities.

They are similar; the technique involves using network models to trace the links between tasks and to identify the tasks which are critical to meeting the deadlines.

Once we have identified the critical path, any delay on any part of the critical path will cause a delay in the whole project. It is where project manager must concentrate their efforts. Gantt diagram are used to show the critical path in red and PERT diagram to see Network view.

Difference between the CPM and PERT is that, task duration is treated CPM assumes time estimates are deterministic, Obtain task duration from previous projects Suitable for such kind of type projects.

PERT treats durations as probabilistic

PERT: CPM and probabilistic task times

Better for R&D type projects

Limited previous data to estimate time durations

Captures schedule (and implicitly some cost) risk

CPM is useful, despite criticism, to identify the critical path – focus on a subset of the project

Slack is precious apply flexibility to smooth resource/schedules, PERT treats task times as probabilistic which is an Individual task durations and sums of multiple tasks. When we Selective “crashing” of critical tasks can reduce total project cost, CPM and PERT do not allow task iterations.

Critical Chain Project Management

Current Project Management Problem

As the comment issue for project management is summary below for previous baggage handling system project, which are:

No Credible Schedule, Unable to Accurately Predict Milestone Dates During Execution

Critical Path Constantly Changing

Loss of Control, Daily Firefighting, Pulling resources from One Job to Another and Resource Allocation Nightmare

Stress, Frustrated Workers & Supervisors

Projects Get Delayed & Require Heroic Efforts to Finish

Lack of Resources, People, Experience, Skills, Material, Tools

Lack of Supporting Documents

Too Many Scope Changes and too many meting

Too Much Overtime and Budget Overruns

Critical Chain Project Management

Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) is a method of planning and managing projects that puts the main emphasis on the resources required to execute project tasks.

It was developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt. This is in contrast to the more traditional Critical Path and PERT methods, which emphasize task order and rigid scheduling. A Critical Chain project network will tend to keep the resources levelly loaded, but will require them to be flexible in their start times and to quickly switch between tasks and task chains to keep the whole project on schedule.

The Principles of CCPM

Projects Succeed or Fail as an Integrated System, not as a Collection of Discrete Tasks

Systems are Analogous to Chains,Weakest Link is the System’s Constraint

Constraints Can Never Really be Eliminated,Can Move From One Part of the System to Another

All Systems Have a Goal & Necessary Conditions

A System’s Optimum Performance IS NOT the Sum of Local Optima

A System Has Only One Constraint at a Time

All Systems Function According to Cause & Effect

The success to use the CCPM for project manager to hand a project will be

Improve project delivery date reliability

Shorten overall project duration

Provide “early warning” of threats to project delivery

Enable earlier, less drastic responses

Reduce Costs

Reduce Overtime

Reduce Rework

PRINCE 2 Project Technique

PRINCE2 (Projects IN Controlled Environments) is an effective process-based method for project management. PRINCE2 is a process-based approach for managing projects. It helps to work out who should be involved in a project, their role and their responsibilities. PRINCE2 has a set of processes to work through and it explains what information needs to be gathered. The method is the de-facto standard for project management is practiced globally. And it is also the required method for all UK government commissioned projects. PRINCE2 is in the public domain and offers best practice guidance on how to manage a project. It can be principally divided into the following stages:

Starting up the project – occurs only once and creates and evaluates the business case

Directing the project – formal organisational structures will be required throughout the life of the project including the project board and manager, the communication between the stages and the organisation will be continuous

Initiating the project – this stage will identify how the project will be managed, The Project Initiation document will form contract and terms of reference for the project as a whole

Planning – plans relating to project deliverables are continuously produced throughout the lifecycle and of the activity which helps to ensure a consistent approach.

Controlling – creation of documents which help to manage the day-to-day operations and include change control and quality assurance, this will be an iterative process.

Monitoring – there is a need to have a feedback process and take action as necessary, authorisation from the Project Board is required.

Closing – the project time is finite and there will need to be a final sign off procedure by the customer that objectives have been satisfied.

Below figure is the overview of PRINCE2

Risk Management

Risk management, another important point of project management, is present in the framework as well. According to Prince2 description, risk can be denned as uncertainty of outcome”. The goal of risk management is to manage the exposure to risk. For that, the project board has to promote risk management, build up adapted policies, and assess projects status related to their risks.

A Risk (Tom, 2009) can be almost any uncertain event associated with the work. Word in short is,” loss multiplied by likelihood”. Risk management is a process for identifying, assessing, and prioritizing risks of different types. Since the risks are identified, the project manager will need to minimize or eliminate the impact of negative events of project risk.

For this baggage handling system project, Construction site safety management plan is must to be implementing of Risk management to list of all possible risks identified by the project or organization, for each of the risk, includes information such as risk probability, impact, counter-measures and risk owner etc.

Conclusion

It’s good chance to review and deeply think of whole project process and activates in whole company organization about project management knowledge through this module. This assignment also encourages me to think about how to implement Project Management skill to the company in future projects management. After this model, I can recognize the essential characters of Project management and also have ability to address appropriate technologies and management tools to actually organizational issues and also can be leader of project team to plan, control and execute the project as project manager.