The project involves the construction of Drainage systems at Bear Creek as a result of a weak drainage system in Texas. The weak drainage system results in flooding, pollution of clean water, infrastructure inefficiency, and mass destruction of property. The goals of the project are to curb flooding, create a system that is economically scaled and effective, integrate environmentally friendly materials, and provide a reliable, efficient, and safe drainage system for the public. The major funders of the project include the federal government, which will provide ninety percent of the amount required, the local government who will offer nine percent and beneficiaries who will give the remaining one percent of the necessary amount. The drainage system in the Bear Creek project requires management in both material management and product lifecycle. The project will incorporate a centralized line of communication through the project manager while utilizing a functional model as the project management structure. The employees and partners involved in the project will be working permanently to increase commitment and loyalty. The project will cost approximately 2.7 billion, taking eighteen months to complete the entire project with milestones to gauge the progress and make corrections where appropriate. Therefore, the Drainage System project aims to eliminate economic and social challenges that affect life quality and profitability in Texas.
Challenges and Recommendations
The major challenge that will affect the project is the time allocated for its completion, considering that some factors such as hurricanes may affect the fulfillment of various tasks with the given period. In project management, the monitoring and evaluation committee's role is to ensure resources are utilized appropriately as per the budget ( Rasnacis and Berzisa, 1 ). Moreover, the committee uses the milestones set to gauge employees’ and project performance; thus, the time factor is essential in controlling the project. However, completion of tasks can be affected by various scenarios, such as the availability of raw materials and natural disasters such as hurricanes. Regarding this, natural factors beyond human control might affect the project operation, influencing the monitoring and evaluation team to give a negative review on the project performance. Therefore, the provision of milestones effects and interventions by a natural factor such as hurricanes make it impossible for the project to meet deadlines, influencing the monitoring and evaluation team give a negative review on performance. In dealing with the time shortage as a result of interruptions, the management should consider negotiating with the monitoring and evaluation team on factors that require that must be put into consideration when evaluating milestone achievements. This move will ensure a time allowance for interruption despite setting a milestone for project execution.
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Inadequate skills are another challenge that might be incurred in project execution, as a result of limited money to hire acquired skills. In project management, the management team should concentrate on the workforce, although the acquisition of a highly qualified workforce is expensive ( Rasnacis and Berzisa, 1 ). This assertion implies that the project might face a limited workforce in the execution of activities that require individuals with specific skills. Highly qualified skills need high remuneration, whereas it is also expensive to hire influencing the project to operate with persons with inadequate skills. Relating to this, for successful project completion while marinating quality and standards, an organization should have adequate skills. Therefore, inadequate skills might be among the challenges that the project will face in the execution phase. The major contributor to insufficient expertise in the project results due to a lack of enough funds to employ highly skilled personnel. There the management should consider talking with the funders, federal government, and local government on the advantages of hiring qualified staff although high amount require to be invested in workforce
Lack of adequate resources might affect project execution, control, and closure phase as a result of understating the budget. Moreover, statistics indicate that there has been a tremendous increase in the world's population, considering the populace was 2.5 billion in 1950, whereas, by 2019, there were 7.7 billion people. In the majority of cities and countries, transport systems have been upgraded to meet industrial and technological improvement, although some traditional designs are still in existence. Considering that human is to error, the project funders require the management to stick to the budget influencing the operations to be affected in case of depletion of resources. In this respect, depletion of resources is a common challenged that might be experienced in project execution, control, and closure. In dealing with the challenge, the management team should agree with the funders to get extra funds in case of depletion of resources. This move will ensure there is always to get more support when the need arises, in turn avoiding stagnation of the project as a result of resources shortage.
Managing Project Performance via Earned Value Management (EVM)
Earned Value Management (EVM) involves the performance metrics that can be utilized to manage projects since it gives room for comparison between the completed and the planned work. In this respect, the EVM aids in answering several questions such as, what has been achieved, is the project on schedule and is it within the budget ( Schumann, 2 ). Therefore, the Earned Value Management technique can be utilized to control project’s cost and time performance and predict the final project expenditure and duration. Additionally, the tool helps in generating early warning signals, thus facilitating in dealing with problems and exploiting opportunities. The three key metrics involved in EVM include Earned Value (EV), Planned Value (PV), and Actual Costs (AC). The parameters can be compared to make conclusions on the project’s performance on the projects in progress.
Earned Value (EV), Planned Value (PV), and Actual Costs (AC) are primarily the Earned Value Management metrics that can be utilized in managing project performance. Earned Value can also be identified as Budget Cost of Work performed (BCWP), and it involves quantifying the work completed up to a particular date ( Schumann, 2 ). Planned Value is also referred to as Budget Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS), and it includes the addition of the permitted budget for every level, including specific contracts, milestones, and precise phrases. Therefore, the total planned Value (PV) should be equivalent to the Budget at Completion (BAC). On the other hand, the Actual Cost (AC) includes the implemented budget, which is commonly known at the end of the project.
Plans to Properly Close the Project when it is over
Project closure is the final project management phase that involves various elements such as housekeeping, project review, and close-out report. Project housekeeping tasks include the activities that wind down the project, which consists of accepting sign-offs, archiving records and all documents and returning project resources ( Larsen et al., 3 ). Regarding this, one should consider maintaining proper documentation for activities during the entire project period. This documentation helps in making future references in case any questions are raised about the project completed. Sign-offs and returning of the project resources borrowed justifies that the scheme is no longer in progress. After closure, no extra funds should be spent on the project; thus, holding resources such as pieces of types of equipment and people will force the project to incur unnecessary costs.
In ensuring proper closure of the project, a project review should be documented to justify its completion. Project review involves collecting feedback from the stakeholders involved in the execution, such as management, monitoring and evaluation team, and suppliers ( Zohrehvandi et al., 4 ). Regarding this, the assessment makes it possible for the file feedback that the project has been successfully completed. Moreover, assessments help capture different views on project success, failures, and possible solutions, providing insight into areas that require improvement in case a similar project is to take place in the future. Therefore, to successfully close the project when it is over, one should consider completing a project review for future reference.
Moreover, for proper closure, one should consider writing the final status and creating a close-out report as evidence that the project has come to an end. The close-out and status report justifies that the project has been successfully completed, meeting its objectives ( Zohrehvandi, 4 ). Regarding this, the goals of the drainage system project were to curb flooding, clean water pollutions, and prevent damages caused by floods as a result of poor drainage. Therefore, in the close-out and final status, one should clearly state whether the goals and objectives of the project have been achieved. In turn, such a report demonstrates that the project has been successfully completed meeting the needs of the beneficiaries.
Conclusion
The drainage system at Bear Creek project aims to curb flooding, pollution of clean water, infrastructure inefficiency, and mass destruction of property, as a result of floods. The goals of the project are to curb flooding, integrate environmentally friendly materials, create a system that is economically scaled and effective, and provide an efficient, reliable, and safe drainage system for the public. In project execution, control, and closure, the likely common challenges are issues to acquire skilled workforce who require high pay, depletion of resources before completion of the project, and failure to meet the necessary time to complete the project. However, the Earned Value Management (EVM) metrics such as Earned Value (EV), Planned Value (PV), and Actual Costs (AC) play a primary role in managing the project performance. In ensuring that the project is properly closed when it is over, one should consider various elements such as housekeeping tasks, completing project review, and writing final status and close-out reports.
Sources
Rasnacis, A., & Berzisa, S. 2017. Method for adaptation and implementation of agile project management methodology. Procedia Computer Science , 104 , 43-50.
Schumann, D. C. 2019. Earned Value Management (EVM) System Description.
Larsen, J. K., Brunoe, T. D., Lindhard, S. M., & Jensen, K. N. 2017. Project Management and Scheduling through National Project Management Phases in Government Construction Agencies. International Journal of Information Technology Project Management (IJITPM) , 8 (1), 1-16.
Zohrehvandi, S., Khalilzadeh, M., Hajizadeh, M., & Cheraghi, E. 2017. Planning project closure phase in combined cycle power plant projects. Procedia computer science , 121 , 274-281.
