Case study

Assume you are a professional project manager working for a project management consultancy called Best Project. The consultancy specialises in challenging projects, such as those that are extremely complex, high risk or have had major problems, and where the client concerned is looking to improve performance. You are used to being put in charge of projects that have previously been managed by somebody else and have run into difficulties, with a remit to improve the performance of the project and achieve the best possible outcome. Best Project has been commissioned by a company called Clean-air Compliance Ltd (CaC), which specialises in the monitoring of noxious emissions from factories and other forms of industrial premises. The company is able to provide on-site sampling using drones, which then followed by immediate chemical analysis and data production showing emission levels for a range of different gasses and liquids ranging from carbon dioxide to mercury solution waste in wash water. With increasing awareness for environmental sustainability, demand for emission monitoring services has dramatically increased. CaC has exploited this trend in demand very successfully and has expanded significantly over the past three years. As part of the expansion programme, CaC initiated the current project that you have now taken over. The company has won a tender for complete factories monitoring in a regional industrial estate and is installing a complete emission sampling and analysis sensors and drones remote control array in this area. The new array will cover the entire northern area of the country and there is a considerable amount of work involved. CaC originally set the project up with an internal project manager in charge. The original project team was completely internal with the internal project manager heading a team comprising representatives of the main functional divisions that will be using the new unit. These include the Sampling Analysis Division, the Flight Division, the Data Processing Division and the Solutions Division. The team also included members from the various support functions, such as IT, and the various centralised functions, such as Finance and Operations. The laboratory processing equipment is supplied by a specialist nominated supplier called TestTubes Ltd and installed by a specialist contractor called ChemLabs Ltd. The drones command equipment is being supplied and installed by CaCs own IT division. The project has been running for around three months now and has hit serious problems. The internal team structure was disrupted when a number of CaCs senior project managers all left at the same time to set up a new company of their own. This left CaC with an immediate shortage of experienced project managers. The company appointed a number of new project managers and promoted some people to junior project manager status, but the result in this case has been poor and the project has gone increasingly over budget and has fallen further and further behind schedule. CaC has become extremely concerned and has appointed you to act as an external consultant project manager taking responsibility for all aspects of the project. The contractors and suppliers, together with the internal project team members, remain unchanged. The only difference is that you now head the team and are responsible for producing the best possible outcome.2 As part of your remit, you are required to examine the performance of the project in detail in terms of time and cost planning and control, and where appropriate, make recommendations as to how the performance of the project can be improved

(a) Discuss the disruption caused when several CaCs team members suddenly left. Advise the company on what should be done in order to improve the remaining teams performance, while using practical examples from your experience or theoretical knowledge. (15 marks)

(b) Discuss the importance of designing and maintaining an effective communications system in project management structures giving generic examples of internal and external formal and informal communication channels.