Project Management- Bellfield Railway

[Name of the Student]

Project Management- Bellfield Railway

Introduction

This paper explores the concept of project management in a holistic context. The proposed project of the renovation and re-opening of a conservation area nature walk (Bellfield Railway Walk) needs to be clearly looked at from all points of view. Generally, project management is distinguished from the general management of corporations by the mission-oriented nature of a project. A project organization will generally be terminated when the mission is accomplished. According to the Project Management Institute, the discipline of project management can be defined as follows:

''Project management is the art of directing and coordinating human and material resources throughout the life of a project by using modern management techniques to achieve predetermined objectives of scope, cost, time, quality and participation satisfaction''.

By contrast, the general management of business and industrial corporations assumes a broader outlook with greater continuity of operations. Nevertheless, there are sufficient similarities as well as differences between the two so that modern management techniques developed for general management may be adapted for project management.

The basic ingredients for a project management framework may be represented schematically in Figure -1. A working knowledge of general management and familiarity with the special knowledge domain related to the project are indispensable. Supporting disciplines such as computer science and decision science may also play an important role. The representation in Figure -1 reflects only the sources from which the project management framework evolves.

Figure 1:  Basic Ingredients in Project Management

Specifically, project management in construction encompasses a set of objectives which may be accomplished by implementing a series of operations subject to resource constraints. There are potential conflicts between the stated objectives with regard to scope, cost, time and quality, and the constraints imposed on human material and financial resources(Wysocki, 2011: 47). These conflicts should be resolved at the onset of a project by making the necessary tradeoffs or creating new alternatives.

Estimate the Time and Cost for the Entire Project

A sound estimate starts with a work breakdown structure (WBS). A WBS is a list of tasks that, if completed, will produce the final product. The way the work is broken down dictates how it will be done. There are many ways to decompose a project into tasks. The project can be broken down by feature, by project phase (requirements tasks, design tasks, programming tasks, QA tasks, etc.), or by some combination of the two. Ideally, the WBS should reflect the way previous projects have been developed

Once the WBS is created, the team must create an estimate of the effort required to perform each task. The most accurate estimates are those that rely on prior experience. Team members should review previous project results and find how long similar tasks in previous projects took to complete. Sources of delays in the past should be taken into account when making current estimates.

Wideband Delphi Estimation

The Wideband Delphi estimation method was developed in the 1940s at the Rand Corporation as a forecasting tool. It has since been ...