Planning and design phase

Planning and target phase quality OF PROJECT MANAGER AND TEAM MEMBERS The initial phase of the Sodor devise tough the formation of the t anoint squad and the nomination of the throw up carriage. throng 12 is do up of 4 Nigerians and 1 Vietnamese which reflects a multicultural group with each nationality possessing peculiar individual(prenominal)ity traits. The objective of the first run across was to nominate a Project Manager and to define and agree on ground rules for protrude squad meetings. To ensure equal participation of on the whole group outgrowths, it was agreed that the rotational vomit cookr system give be adopted whereby each exclusive in the group would go as the cat managing director for 1 week each passim the 5 week duration of the Sodor image. It was agreed that meetings will be schedule 3 times a week by the project manager lasting no more than 2 hours each. At each meeting, special tasks is assigned to each squad member to be submitted at the succeeding(prenominal) meeting day.CONTRACTOR SELECTION CRITERIAThe contractor selection criteria adopted by the squad up is the Trade-off technique. This technique designs a scoring system to assess specific attributes of the various contractors and lets a numerical output, the highest of which represents the best contractor prime(prenominal). The example up of this technique tind the best possible contractors to manage the various stages of this project.MANAGING CONFLICTSSome of the conflicts experient by the theme 12 police squad in the focusing of the Sodor crude terminal overwhelm police squad members attitudes Some of the team up members lack pauperism and commitment to participate in the project team. This is manifested as absences from team meetings, fresh comings to team meetings, and lack of verbal contribution to team discussions. This issue was turn to by the project manager in charge who spoke with the team members concerned.Choice of Contractor s The proposal to use Trade-Off for contractor selection was ab initio resisted by some team members who where in favour of using a more subjective technique. It was closingly accepted after an appraisal of the objectiveness of Trade-off was done by the proponent.CONSTRUCTIONCHANGE CONTROL tot anyy changes which include Contractor changes, Scope, Cost, and schedule changes proposed by the project frequent passed by dint of a Change concern process which begins with a cerebrate school term by the project team on the costs and benefits of adopting the change. The changes agreed on by the project team is then reflected on the Gantt chart. Due to the weft of contractor selection technique, the changes proposed by the project sponsor during the project lifecycle had a minimal impact on the echt cost and schedule.CLOSE breakThe close out process involved a polish of the final Sodor terminal project design to confirm setting, cost and schedule deadlines rush been met. The le sson learned document was then prep ard which showed the various conflicts that occurred throughout the project and how they where managed by the team in order to provide lessons for the future. The final project image was then presented to the project sponsor and the assembly 12 team was deformed by the project manager.INTRODUCTIONTeam spiel has been found to be an indispensable ingredient responsible for the victory or failure of projects. The effective use and management of teams for projects has been noted to be a key determinant for how self-made a project will be however, the effectiveness of a team depends on the ability of the team members to interact appropriately with one some other to produce a common output.DEFINITIONHoegl(2004) define teams as a social interaction amid two or more race within an organization who sh ar a common task. Teams set out besides been described as a group of people who hold themselves reciprocally accountable to each other and who wor k together to achieve a common purpose(Scholtes et al,2003). The above definitions take into account the fact that for a team to exist, certain basic ingredients need to be in place which include mutual accountability, constancy of purpose, and a shared responsibility for success or failure. The benefits of teamwork in project management johnnot be overemphasized. Teams jockstrap in the mobilization of diverse resources to a project as compared to that achieved by a bingle individual. Church(1998) similarly noted that teams provide the flexibility to use the mobilized resources thus destiny to continue with the project in the event of a particular individual being indisposed. Perhaps the greatest value of teams in managing projects rests with the ability of teams to provide a synergy of the efforts of the individual team members whereby the results achieved is greater than the arithmetic center field of the contributions of the individual members to the team.FACTORS THAT AFFE CT TEAM EFFECTIVENESSTeam size and choice of members Hackman(1987) suggested that there is no ideal team size for a project. Furthermore, the team size chosen is dependent on the scope of the project. In contrast, Hoegl(2003) proposed that ideally a project should be reduced to a level where the work package go off be managed by a team of among 3-6 people. This helps to avoid the confusion that may arise from Too many Cooks despoilation the broth. The choice of team members also plays a role in determine team success. Trent(2003) proposed that the membership of a project team should be made up of people with the right skills and competencies to tackle the particular task at hand. A set of objective criteria should be used in choosing the members of a project team.Team leadership Trent(1996) suggested a direct relationship between leadership effectiveness and team effectiveness. The results that a team produces depends largely on the calibre of the leadership. Teams that lack a st rong and effective leadership are more standardisedly to fail(Zenger et al,1994). The effectiveness of a leader depends on the possession of skills, experience, and the will to assume responsibility for the team performance.Resource handiness The availability of resources plays a major role in the ability of a team to produce results. Peters and OConnors(1980) postulated that the availability of specific resources can either promote or interfere with a team effectiveness. The resources needed by a team to be effective varies depending on the project scope. It may include financial, Human, and environmental resources.Establishment of clear goals Zander(1980) postulated that teams with clear and measurable goals perform better than teams with stuporous goals. This is as a result of the use of clear goals by teams as a baseline through which team results can be measured. Furthermore, the use of clear and concise goals also helps the team in prep for what they can achieve within a particular timeframe.Reward and Recognition The relationship between appropriate reward structures and team effectiveness cannot be overemphasized(Bullock and Lawler,1984). ontogenesis a reward system that focuses on the entire team rather than individuals help in improving team motivation and hence its effectiveness. It is a fact that people are motivated to achieve results if they feel that the results provide value to the organization and this value is acknowledged by the organization.SODOR OIL remnantPLANNING AND DESIGNThe need to pay off a aim for the management of the Sodor oil terminal cannot be overemphasized. Grachev et al(2006) using 3M corporation as a case study proposed that a key benefit of cookery upfront for a project is the creation of well defined project goals. The goals help to give direction to a teams project. Other benefits of intend include it helps the team members in the coordination of individual tasks by providing clearly stated assignments. Further more, the project plan also enables the team to exact an overview of the project schedule, costs and constraints which the team can then use as a baseline to measure actual project progress.The planning and design of the Sodor oil terminal started with the identification of the Cost, scroll and Scope goals from the data derived from the Project Sponsor. These goals where then integ footstepd into a ordered structure by the use of the MS Project to produce the Sodor oil terminal preliminary Gantt chart. quadruplicate adjustments to scope, cost, and schedule data was proposed by the project sponsor which resulted in iterative changes to the project plan leading to changes in the project cost and time of completion. The final Sodor oil terminal plan is a comprehensive document showing the actual budget, time of completion, scope of the project, and the approved contractors selected for the project. Christina(2009) proposed that key factors that call for team success at the plannin g and design phase includeWell-Defined Goals The definition of clear project deliverables has been shown to improve the success rate of project teams. Pinto and Slevin(1988) proposed that clearly defined and unified goals is a significant factor that determines the effectiveness of teams and hence the success rate of projects. The goals of the Group 12 team where clearly stated and well defined at the onset of the project which was to deliver a project plan within 98 weeks at no more than the stated project budget provided by the project sponsor.Management Support Pinto and Slevin(1988) suggested that the support focal ratio management gives a team helps in facilitating team success. This occurs by facilitating the bother of resources to the project team hence ensuring their efficiency and helping to remove administrative bottle necks. Group 12 received the support of the project sponsor in the designing of the sodor plan especially with respect to weekly review meetings to asses s the current status of the project plan and proffer ways to bring the plan back on track.Cross-Cultural teams The importance of having duplex individuals from different cultures in a team has been proposed to impact incontrovertiblely on team results(Earley and Mosakowski,2000). Ochieng and Price(2009) also suggested that the effective use of proper communication techniques to cope cultural differences in a team helps in promoting project success. Multiple cultures in a team brings together people with different skills, competencies, and personal attributes dedicated to a common purpose. The multicultural environment of Group 12 provided a pool of diverse ideas derived via brainstorming from which the best possible resolvent was agreed on and translated into the Sodor project plan.Team experience and continuity Pinto and Slevin(1988) suggested that the comprehension of individuals with specific project experience into a team helps in promoting its success. This is because thi s individuals already have a knowledge of the critical factors needed to ensure the success of the particular project from the lessons learned from past projects managed by them. Scott-Young(2009) suggested that the stability of a team throughout the project lifecycle helps in ensuring team success. Stable teams have been shown to maintain the consistency of ideas generation and are not susceptible to the doubt that tends to occur from a team member joining or passing the team(Akgun and Lynn,2000). The use of team members with a wide range of experience managing projects like healthcare, education, and engineering played a key role in the results of Group 12. This is due to the diverse nature of the knowledge pool available for planning the project. The stability of the Group 12 team throughout the project lifecycle also played a key role in the design of the sodor project plan.CONSTRUCTION AND CLOSEOUTHandling Conflicts The absence of conflicts in a team has been proposed to be a pointer to the failure of the team(Saj-Nicole and Damon). The carriage of conflicts and how the conflicts are managed indicates how successful the project team will be. The nature of the conflicts i.e. conflicts relevant to the project scope, serves to provoke a generation of ideas from the project team on the best way to manage the crises. Several conflicts arose during the management of Group 12 an example will be the, Who to choose as the project manager? The way it was managed was to have a face to face meeting with the project team, everybody laying their individual ideas on the table, then arriving at a decision mutually beneficial to everyone which is to have a rotational project manager system with each member of the project team having a taste of the pie of being the project manager for 1 week each. This solution helped during the construction phase of the plan because all the team members felt a sense of belonging and making a positive contribution to the team.Leadership The proposal by Akgun and Lynn(2000) on the positive benefits of leadership continuity to the project team success is largely not applicable to the Group 12 project team. This is because the use of a one leader throughout the project lifecycle will have led to the presence of domineering tendencies being shown by the individual chosen which may affect certain decisions made during the formulation of the construction plan. It will also have led to project team members being made to feel they are not a part of the team. Hence in a shimmer to avoid this scenario, the rotational project manager system was proposed and adopted.Lessons-learned documentation The preparation of the lessons learned document is an essential part of the project team closing phase(PMI,2008). The lessons learned document captures the lessons learned at various milestones in the planning of the project. The final meeting of the Group 12 team was a brainstorming session to identify various challenges we had d uring the creation of the Sodor project plan and how the challenges where managed. completionThis paper details how the Group 12 team managed the Sodor project from design to the closeout phase. It explains in detail the various factors responsible for the success of the team in arriving at the final project plan and also the various challenges Group 12 team had and how those challenges where managed to produce positive results. 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