Project Management: Key Initiatives Case Study

Abstract

Every project faces risk of delays and disruptions, especially the mega/complex projects of today, which have, amongst others, many interfacing parties engaged. Local roads and drainage projects in general, including DN016, can be considered complex projects due to a number of reasons such as, a) working in residential areas, b) deep excavations, c) number of interfacing parties, d) project duration, e) multifaceted identification for the location of existing underground utilities. The contractor decided to use some tools to help minimize the negative impacts of a number of challenges such as, 1) workface planning by dividing the project into 5 zones and start working in free zones for early zone handover, 2) lean construction to minimize the waste, 3) management processes in order to control the known-unknown challenges and risks and to minimize those and 4) Building Information Model (BIM) for the identification of major and minor clashes to the designer in order to resolve them early as to have a smooth construction flow. In addition, the project management team identified both internal and external stakeholders of the project in order to determine the project requirements and expectations of all parties involved. A dedicated stakeholder manager was appointed to identify and manage the stakeholder issues without affecting the project performance. Although major efforts are done in this regard, many stakeholders residing nearby the construction area are negatively affected from the project execution due to the nature of the project and time constraints. The supervision consultant and the client also directly engaged in managing the stakeholders and ultimately impacted the project. However, further delays were mitigated with the implementation of regular stakeholders’ meetings, and work was carried over based on their requirements. Also, the project management decided to have a handing over plan from early stages of the project and to assign a dedicated handing over manager with required resources, and mobilize them very early in the project. The handing over team identified all the handing over procedures and the required documentation with the client.