For Milestone Two, you will have the opportunity to examine the planning measures used in the project, assess the budget of the project, and identify major project risks and corresponding control tact

Project Analysis

Darlene Ames

QSO 645

Milestone One

Project Analysis

Summary of the Key Project Details

The English National stadium and Wembley was expected to cost approximately 757 million pounds, and was scheduled for completion towards the beginning of 2006. The project was led by the Football Association and was supposed to be delivered by its subsidiary, which is the Wembley National Stadium Limited. The public sector contributed approximately 161 million pounds towards the cost of the project. However, the Football Association later on requested for more public funding in 2001. This resulted in a comprehensive assessment of the financing and viability of the project, as well as the corporate governance and accountability arrangements. These issues should have been addressed at the outset of the project before any public funds were allocated. While the project was eventually completed in 2006, it underpins the need to explore why projects fail.

There are many causes of project failures or delays. They include poor planning, insufficient clarity on the objectives and deliverables of the project, as well as lack of clear understanding of the dependencies (Camilleri, 2012). Furthermore, the project was not completed within the stipulated timeframe due to insufficient resource allocation, ineffective risk analysis, as well as lack of buy-in from stakeholders. Like other mega projects, the Wembley project failed due to poor understanding of the priorities. The leading cause of project failure is poor planning. The project team might have underrated the complexity of the National Stadium project. As a result, they failed to plan ahead of time on how to complete the project deliverables. In order to understand the degree of complexity of the Wembley project, it is important to ensure that the teams involved in the process are spread across the whole project.

The Wembley scenario provides sufficient proof that projects can stall due to inadequate support from both senior management and stakeholders. Instead of adding more funds, leading stakeholders who provided monetary support for the construction of the stadium raised concern over the accountability of the money that was used during the first funding. Projects invariably develop needs for resources that were not initially allocated (Camilleri, 2012). Therefore, arguments and disagreements between functional departments over the command of these resources are often common. In the absence of direct support of champions in senior management or stakeholder group, the project is almost certain to lose the resource battle. Also related to insufficient support is having the wrong project leader. Individuals with proper leadership skills and managerial capabilities are the right candidates to manage a complex project.

What was In-Scope and Out-of Scope for the Project?

In-Scope

The scope of a project refers to the deliverables, client work packages, outcomes, as well as human and financial resources. The extent of details of the project scope is dependent on the project magnitude. This implies that the larger and more sophisticated the project is, the more detail the definition (Meredith & Mantel Jr, 2011). The scope of the project should also take into consideration the timeline and resource constraints. The most important aspects of the project scope entailed the construction of a new 90000-seat ultramodern stadium. This facility was meant to be utilized for various activities, including football and rugby games. The facility was also supposed to be constructed in a way that supports concerts and private events. In addition, the project was meant to have a 50-eyar design life span, and be functionally and have functional and architectural significance. Another important aspect of the scope included the need to put in place sufficient ventilation system that would reach all parts of the pitch. Lighting systems were also supposed to be incorporated into the entire design and architecture.

What was Out of Scope?

While the initial scope was to incorporate football, rugby, and athletics in the game stadium, some elements that were out of scope were introduced. Examples of areas that were out of scope include: removal of a hotel form the project, and extension of hospitality suites. Furthermore, the project team decided to make changes to the northern part of the stadium. Change of scope is one of the major causes of project failure. The ideal situation is where the project scope does not change. Nonetheless, this might not be realistic. The project scope identification is not a static procedure but a dynamic one. Therefore, the need for reevaluation of the project scope is often critical in many stages of the life cycle of the project.

Stakeholders

1. Impacts on Stakeholders

The key stakeholders for the construction of the Wembley stadium included: the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, London Development Agency, as well as the Westdeutsche Landesbank. Apart from these key stakeholders, the project as supported by Sport England, Wembley National Stadium Limited, as well as Football Association (House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, 2004). Before major changes in scope were introduced, these stakeholders contributed a total of approximately 757 million pounds. However, with the introduction of new scope and request for additional funding, these stakeholders had to dig deeper into their pockets to contribute more funds. This affected them financially. For instance, while the public sector initially contributed a total of 161 million pounds, it was requested to add pump more funds into the project.

1. Recommendations

In order to address these challenges, various steps should be taken. First, the project team should examine the work or efforts needed to generate the outputs. This will ensure that the resources in human and financial terms are generally determined. Moreover, the project team should clearly define the scope and time in a realistic manner so that the project cannot go off the budget.

References

Camilleri, E. (2012). Project success: critical factors and behaviours. New York: Gower

Publishing, Ltd, https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/benefits-realization-management-project-success-9653

House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts. (2004).The English national stadium

project at Wembley. Eighth Report of Session 2003–04, https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmpubacc/254/254.pdf

Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr, S. J. (2011). Project management: a managerial approach. New

Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, http://honestyets.pbworks.com/f/Project+Management+-+A+Systems+Approach+-+10thEd.pdf