Project Management: The Scottish Parliament Building - Assignment Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT: THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT BUILDING I. Introduction It took three-and-a-half years delay and £300 million over budget before theScottish Parliament Building became fully operational. This historical landmark is now the home of the newly devolved government of Scotland, and where the Scottish Parliament takes its seat to provide rooms for offices of the MSPs, or Members of the Scottish Parliament. Before the approval of the change of government through a referendum in 1979, Scotland was remotely governed by the Parliament of Great Britain. The 1970s saw the growth of the Scottish National Party which was one of those that pressured for the formation of the official parliament. During this time, the Conservative Party of the United Kingdom made no efforts to oppose the Scotland Act of 1998. The success of the 1997 referendum for the establishment of a Scottish Parliament provided grounds and opportunity for the appointed Secretary of State to secure a site for the Parliament Building. The people of Scotland, the general electorate, politicians and statesmen felt that the building should not just be an ordinary building. They saw and felt the beginning of a new government and a new nation going progressively in the new millennium. This was to be a landmark that will show the national identity of the Scottish people. But there were problems and barriers created by politicians, the media, and the people who were too anxious to see a new house for their new government. Finding for a permanent site was even more controversial. There were already problems before it had to be started. It was initially called the Holyrood Project. It was late in completion with an over budget, and hounded by controversies. The original proposed budget was estimated at £50 to £55 million in 1998. The Scottish Constitutional Convention which was set up in 1989 proposed for a Parliament with 129 members. Donald Dewar, who formerly held the position of Labour Party Chief Whip, was appointed Secretary of State for Scotland by Prime Minister Tony Blair. Mr. Dewar was tasked to see the completion of the Holyrood Project, from the start of construction until it was to become fully operational. There were four site options for the proposed Parliament building and Ministers received feasibility studies along with their cost estimates. The debate over devolution of the Scottish government was distracted over the issue of the site. The proposed site for the Regent Road/St Andrew’s House reached £65 million, not counting fees and VAT. Leith site reached £59 million, also not counting fees and VAT. Haymarket was a bit lower with £53 million, not counting fees and VAT and acquisition costs, an additional of £6 million. The Holyrood site was the lowest. II. An analysis of the reasons that explain the delays or cost increases encountered during the project First, there was a comparison among the proposed sites. Secretary Donald Dewar’s decision seemed to narrow down to two options, the Regent Road and Holyrood. The Holyrood option was chosen because it had the lowest price at £50 to £55 million for a 16,000m2 area, and it was reasonable at March 1998 rates, while the Regent Road cost. During this time, area was the determinant factor of the DLE costing. The Holyrood costing was based on a building which had an area of 20,070m2 while Regent Road had an area of 24,806m2. In other words, there was a disparity between the two costing. The Report to Secretary Dewar summed up all the costing as follows: in 20 years Regent Road would cost £188 million while Holyrood would reach a cost of between £155 – 175.5 million. These estimates included the site costs, the estimate building cost, VAT and other fees, the consequential estate costs, and so forth. Officials and Ministers concluded that the Holyrood site was realistic. Another cause for delay was the selection of the architect. Secretary Dewar announced that the architect for the Scottish Parliament Building would be chosen through a competition, and the basis for the selection would be architectural quality, design that can provide easy access, value for money, and other important significant details in architecture that would portray the real hopes and destiny of the Scottish people. (Chapter 4 – 4.4) When the bases of the competition for the choice of architect were announced, it was clear from the start that the cost of the building was not anymore an important consideration. This is because quality and speed of construction were now the primary emphasis. And the architect who would be chosen after the competition would have to base his work on the quality and immediate completion of the project. The competition took several weeks to be completed. The winner was announced only on 30 March 1998. Mr. Armstrong, the consultant Project Manager, set his time frame, which he wanted to prove as realistic. The time frames were very late, to say the least. The choice of the designer was to be announced on July 1998; the Scheme Design was on October 1998, and the start was to be on the first of April 1998. It wasn’t realistic considering that the completion date was to be on the onset of the new millennium. (Chapter 4: 4-9) The design competition, according to Dr. John Gibbons, was to find a designer rather than to find a design for the building, which was cheaper and it would allow a discussion of value management process between the designer and the Scottish Parliament. This was a contradiction to Secretary Dewar’s final decision that the basis for the competition was “to select the best design for a new Scottish Parliament” (SE/3/207-208 - Press Release – ‘Design Competition for New Parliament’, 16 July 1997, as cited in Chapter 4 of The Rt Hon The Lord Fraser’s Report, 2004). A brief survey of the designs came out that Architect Enric Miralles’s designs were favored by the people of Scotland. The tender was won by the Bovis Company. The selected architect and the Project Manager, Mr. Armstrong, had some differences and a growing tension which allowed for some delays in the completion. Mr. Armstrong complained that he was being bypassed. The architect reasoned out that it was necessary. III. An analysis of the relationship between the problems identified and the role of project management The decision to apply construction management for the Holyrood Project was a crucial point. There are advantages and disadvantages for the choice of construction management. First, construction management places a lot of risk on the part of the owner or client than the contractor. This is emphasized in Chapter 6 which provides focus on ‘Construction Management’. Traditional management is opposed to construction management. In the traditional one, the design comes first; it has to be completed first before the client and the contractor agrees on the other details of the project. But within the parameters of construction management, design to include tendering and actual construction can be done simultaneously; they overlap. (Chapter 6, 6.1 of the Holyrood Report) Constructions are fixed under the traditional one. The system of construction management made the costs for the construction to go up. Prices of materials had also gone up from the 1998 prices. There are other personnel to be hired during this process which add to the cost of the construction. But construction management provides speed of construction, but under the traditional one, construction is limited to the fixed price agreed between the contractor and the owner/client. With the application of construction management as the procurement vehicle, the project management had to adapt to different environmental situations as the project progressed. Expertise of the project team was of paramount importance. It had to work as a collaborative team because there were many factors to be considered. Unlike in the traditional one wherein the entire job of construction depended on the contractor. The situation necessitated additional expertise from consultants to ensure quality and to minimize cost of construction. According to Mr. Colin Carter of Gardiner & Theobald, who was asked of his expertise during the Holyrood Inquiry, there is a lot of risk on the part of the client in the procurement vehicle chosen in the Holyrood Project. Mr. Carter argued that there is speed in construction management. The client and the project team can make changes while the project is going on. But the disadvantages are numerous, such as, the greater risks involved; there are many trade packages or subcontracts that should be managed or administered; the need for an effective and expert project team; and other management issues. Until 1998, Mr. Armstrong held the position of Project Manager. The flow chart for the entire project management became a complex flow of responsibilities with the project owner coming from the Steering Group of civil servants who provided important decisions. This flow chart followed the traditional model, but the construction management procurement vehicle was based on a new model which is mostly contractual basis. IV. Project Management The literature on project management deals with design and technology management, skillfully managing the political forces that have stakes of the project, the cost-benefit of the project, and the different strategies to arrive at a successful project management. (Morris, 1997, p. 18) Project management is how to be able to successfully carry out a task from the start up to the end of its schedule set up by the owner or client. Project management involves managing an activity which can be about a project at work, at school, or at home. Largely, it connotes project management in business or organization. Practically, no organisation operates without a project or activity; this project has to be managed by a well-trained manager, who knows how to act in situations that require immediate and precise decisions. Project management is a major area of concentration in organisations – successful managers know what project management is all about. Project managers occupy a unique position within an organisation because they supervise both special and regular projects and activities of the organisation. In a manufacturing plant, productions and operations are linked to project management and is the process by which goods and services are created. Operations management deals with decision making related to productive processes to ensure that the resulting goods or services are produced according to specifications. Effective project management is getting the right things done on time (Larson and Drexler, 2009, p. 1). “The primary aim of the project manager is for the result to satisfy the project sponsor or purchaser and all the other principal stakeholders, within the promised timescale and without using more money and other resources than those that were originally set aside or budgeted” (Lock, 2007, p. 1). When we plan a project, we can save a lot of efforts by making some basic decisions before going to begin to enter task or resource data. We have to establish calendars or milestones. The project relies on some calendars that are established for each project and for some project resources. We start by opening the project calendar and use this to establish working and nonworking days and to set the number of work hours per day. Working days or work hours per day must be set for the team members and make a resource calendar for them. Knowledge, teamworking and management have to go hand in hand (Koch, 2004). Van Meel (1993) emphasized the importance of planning and control for project managers in handling projects. Twenty per cent of a project manager’s time should be concentrated on planning while 80% deals with control. Sleezer and Swanson (1989) suggested that an effective process management plan and a process management record should be available for project management. In other words, project management has been reinforced or heightened with the emergence of high technology tools. With constant changes and the demands of effectiveness and efficiency, project managers should have adequate planning, controlling, and communication expertise. Looking at the various projects and activities of organizations, we find project management to be interesting and something worthy to carry along as we pursue future endeavours and careers. Not only is the topic fruitful and important to project managers but to any member of an organisation or to anyone involved in a profession that involves diversity and a lot of projects and activities. We manage or follow our managers who are leaders. Understanding the concept and methods of project management enables us to be a part of the success of any project. The key to the success of the project is the manager’s understanding of the knowledge and skills in a particular project, coupled with teamwork and close coordination with the project staff. An important part of the literature on project management is an emerging field of discipline which has gained attention in management and which is now a part of engineering and construction of projects; it is what they call value management or value engineering. In the UK, value management has been used in construction projects. Applying this in construction projects can reduce costs, minimises unnecessary costs, and places a lot of significance on ‘valuing’ the different parts of the construction project. The principle of value management involves maximising value and minimising the use of resources and reducing unnecessary costs. Value management can be similar to risk management as both involve minimising risk, and enhances the chances of project success with minimum costs. (Dallas, 2006, p. 1) Value management (VM) assembles a project team to carry out the ‘valuing’ process. The team members must include the different stakeholders of the project, who will carry out a workshop to undertake the different steps in the process of value management. The VM study becomes a collaboration effort between the different stakeholders who will provide suggestions, including inputs from the different departments of the organisation and the client, to provide the greatest value for the project. (Kelly et al., 2004, p. 11) Application of Lean Management in Construction Industry Lean production has been an integral part of manufacturing and can be effective in the construction industry. It involves eliminating wastes and simplifies processes and procedures to speed up production (Ballard 1999 cited in Mao and Zhang, 2008, p. 371). Benefits from lean production include elimination or minimization of wastes, reduction of cost of construction, speed up construction, and many other processes of construction are reduced like labor and inventory. Lean production also increases quality of work and removes irregular processes (Mao and Zhang, 2008, p. 371). Lean production is also connected with team working and lean design. It defies traditional criteria of organization or production and management thinking by avoiding waste, slack and redundancies. It is also known as ‘just in time’, referring to work with a short process. Every point in the chain, from the suppliers to the producers and distributors, only delivers on demand, so that capital is not tied up in stock and product refinements that require new parts can be speedily introduced. The system is fast and efficient, with few errors, and this is what lean design aspires to achieve. Team building is applied in manufacturing and production to improve quality and the workplace. It is also related to the Japanese kaizen concept which is known as ‘continual improvement’. Kaizen is applied to design, production and manufacturing, but can be effective to the construction industry. (Contu, 2007, p. 126) V. Conclusion Project management under the system chosen by Secretary Dewar and the project team provided speed for construction, and to say it plainly, made the over budget lower. This is so because if the project team and the contractors agreed on the traditional one, the project could not have been completed, and speed could not have been attained. It could not have been completed by year 2004 in which it became operational. The price uncertainty in construction management is understandable. Prices of construction materials easily go up depending on demand. Nevertheless, there is constant demand of building construction in the UK; prices of construction materials tend to rise. There was no fixed price applied on the entire Holyrood Project. If this was so, then the project could not be completed. The price of construction materials depended on market prices, and not on the contract between the contractor and the owners of the project. Mr. Armstrong, the consultant Project Manager, did not last long in the project. It can be concluded here that the needed knowledge and expertise in project management was absent in the project. This should be one of the recommendations of construction management – an expert project manager. Construction management became very complex. Roles that had to be filled were Project Owner (Mr. Brown); Project Manager (Mr. Armstrong) who was responsible for the day to day operations, and the Project Sponsor (Mrs. Doig). These roles, although specific, were sometimes questionable. Mrs. Doig’s job as Project Sponsor did not fit her qualifications, and she was often questioned for that. The tension growing between architect Enric Miralles and the project manager became one of the reasons for the delay. There were complaints of ‘bypassed’ functions coming from Mr. Armstrong. This was because of the complicated functions and responsibilities of the different stakeholders of the project. Time was of the essence during the planning stage, which was really lacking. The planners were running out of time because of the differences and in-fighting by politicians. There should be more time in construction management to give way for changes in the course of construction. Haste gave way for the Holyrood Project. Finally, the cost of the entire project is not an over budget as is often the criticism from different sectors. It was announced to the public before the start of the project that the final costs would come out after the choice of design and the designer (architect) and the developer. The delay was caused by the continuous squabbling of politicians and the ego-boasting actions of those in charge of project management. WORD COUNT: 2979 References Contu, A., 2007. Groups and teams at work. In D. Knights & H. Willmott (Eds.), Organization Behavior & Management. London: Thomson Learning. Dallas, M., 2006. Value & risk management. UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Kelly, J., Male, S., and Graham, D., 2004. Value Management of Construction Projects. Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publishing Company Ltd. Koch, C., 2004. The Tyranny of projects: teamworking, knowledge production and management in consulting engineering. Economic and Industrial Democracy 2004; 25; 277 [e-journal], Available through: London University Library [Accessed 19 March 2011]. Larson, E. and Drexler, J., 2009. Project management in real time. Journal of Management Education 2009 [e-journal]. Volume XX, 10. DOI: 10.1177/1052562909335860 Leung, M, et al., 2002. Improving satisfaction through conflict stimulation and resolution in value management in construction projects. Journal of Management Engineering, Vol. 18, No. 2 April 1, 2002. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)0742-597X(2002)18:2(68) [Accessed 19 March 2011]. Lock, D., 2007. Project management (ninth edition). England: Gower Publishing Limited. Mao, X. and Zhang, X., 2008. Construction process reengineering by integrating lean principles and computer simulation techniques. DOI: 10.1061/_ASCE_0733-9364_2008_134:5_371_ [e-journal], Available through: Staffordshire University Library [Accessed 21 March 2011]. The Rt Hon The Lord Fraser of Carmyllie QC, 2004. Holyrood inquiry: final report. Available at: http://www.holyroodinquiry.org/FINAL_report/report.htm [Accessed 20 March 2011]. Van Meel, R. M., 1993. Project-based module development (Report No. ISBN-90-358-1241-7). Heerlen, The Netherlands: Centre for Educational Technology and Innovation. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED734212). Read More