Project Mgmt Week 8 DQR
Joel Rymer
Hello Class,
My project analyzes the Wembley Stadium project performance where milestone 3 contained project control techniques, quality auditing tools, and reporting metrics. According to the PMBOK guide, quality is the degree “to which a set of inherent characteristics of a product, service, or result fulfills the requirements” (The Standard for Project Management and a Guide to the PRoject Management Body of Knowledge, Seventh Edition, 2021, p. 47).
The Wembley project was managed by Wembley National Stadium Limited (WNSL). The WNSL was not a project management firm, and therefore did not have established policies and procedures regarding project management. That said, the organization was managing relationships between government and non-governmental entities who made large donations, with the largest being private sector donations (about 80% of total donations). However, because the public sector had also invested in the project, the WNSL ensured that construction contracts protected the donors by transferring all financial risks of costs incurred above initial budget allocation to the construction company, Multiplex.
After the project charter was completed, all stakeholders who made contributions toward the project began making changes to the project’s scope. Multiplex claims that this resulted in over 11,000 changes to the project (Mott MacDonald steels itself for high court battle over Wembley Stadium | Wembley Stadium | The Guardian, 2009). With that in mind, I found that the WNSL did not have a quality process by which to evaluate milestones or any progress toward the deliverables identified in the charter. Further, the WNSL did not adequately control changes to the project, resulting in the 11,000 changes that caused delays with over 300 million pounds over budget.
The first change I would make had I been on the project team is to establish clear governance structure. Additionally, I would create a change management process to be enforced by the team and project sponsor (the WNSL and Secretary of State). These two changes would ensure that 1) the project’s scope is controlled, adding time and resources where needed according to changes, and 2) that the changes were approved by the appropriate authority which limits the degree to which stakeholders could change the project. Further, key metrics for this (and all) projects should include tracking earned and planned value to assess the schedule performance index and cost variance. Those metrics provide leading indicators of project performance that enables the team to quickly identify if quality standards are being met.
References
Hoyle, R. (2009, July 8th).
Mott MacDonald steels itself for high court battle over Wembley Stadium | Wembley Stadium | The Guardian. Retrieved from The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2009/jul/09/wembley-mott-macdonald-multiplex-high-court
Project Management Institute. (2021).
The Standard for Project Management and a Guide to the PRoject Management Body of Knowledge, Seventh Edition. Newtown Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute.
Response –
Jinal Parmar
Wembley Stadium stands as the most famous sporting and entertainment venue in Britain. In September 2002, bulldozers moved to the site of Wembley Stadium to begin rebuilding it. Although the project eventually finished, there were many hiccups along the way that delayed the project. With the creation of the National Lottery in 1994, the funding for sports increased significantly. Sport England was designated to distribute lottery money to sports in England. In December 1996, Wembley was chosen as the preferred site for the new stadium.
A quality audit is a process that determines if the project activities comply with company and project policies (Project Management Institute, 2013). In June 2001, the Department commissioned a review of the project to examine whether the project to develop a new English national stadium could be funded. Mr. Patrick Carter, a businessman who had undertaken a variety of work for the Government, was commissioned to do this review. He delivered his interim report to the Secretary of State in December 2001. In my opinion, Wembley Stadium is not a good example of good quality auditing. The requirements were not set at the beginning of the project and that led to poor management. They also did not do a good job of laying down the quality metrics of the result.
References
Project Management Institute. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide). Project Management Institute, Incorporated.
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