The Scenario:

You are the Project Director of a public listed Property Development company that is about
to embark on the development of a new township in Sungai Buluh, Kuala Lumpur. The 15years project, which is a joint with the Selangor state government, covers the total
development area of 700 hectares of ex-palm oil estate land. The development, which will be
carried out in 6 phases will comprise of the development of amongst others; 16,000 units of
mixed residential properties (link-houses, apartments and bungalows and semi-detached
houses), 600 units of business and office units (in the form of 5-storeys linked office
buildings and schools (4 primary and 3 secondary schools), together with the supporting
infrastructure facilities such as roads, drainage, public parks and amenities. 50 hectares of
the land is reserved for a commercial centre and shopping complex, which will be built in
phase 5 of the project.
Your company plans to undertake the project by utilizing the services of sister construction
and construction related subsidiary companies within the group. Your Managing Director has
requested you to organize the project implementation team.
The Task:
Q1.
Mindful of the need to get the coorperation of the rest of the project stakeholders
(contractors, consultants, clients, sub-contractors, etc) to work towards the project success,
critically discusss the challenges of managing the teams and working groups within the
project and suggest the approaches that managers of the project should take in dealing with
these challenges.
Q2.
To move the project forward, you need to select and appoint the individual managers
for the project teams (project managers, construction managers, quantiy surveyors,
engineers, architects and site managers) in the project. The Human Resource Department
have shortlisted the list of potential candidates, all of whom have the required professional
qualifications and experience. Critically discuss the considerations that you will seriously
consider in selecting these managers to ensure that these teams are led by capable leaders.
Q3.
Your Board of Directors believe that the most effective way to manage these teams is
to manage them using Scientific Management. To get the performance required these
project people must be manage using the carrot and stick approach. Discuss if you believe
that your Board Of Directors are right.

Format for the marking scheme:

Introduction/structure of the report

The theoretical framework underpinning your discussions
Your critical discussion on the subject
Suggestions and conclusions
References
Language and writing
Total

10%
25%
30%
25%
5%
5%
100%

Project Director is accountable for the successful delivery of infrastructure

programmes and projects and must take full responsibility for compliance with
mandatory policy and guidance and the appointment of suitably qualified,
experienced and trained project team members

Introduction
Projects to design and construct buildings can involve large numbers of people, and on
major projects many thousands of people. The structure and composition of the project
team tends to change through the duration of the project; some team members might only
have a very brief involvement, brining specialist knowledge or supplying specialist
components during a particular phase, whilst others, such as client sponsors, project
managers or lead consultants may be involved for many years.
Structure
It is crucial that project teams are structured properly from the outset, and that team
members are selected carefully to give the project the best prospects for success. However,
as there is often some doubt about whether a project will actually proceed during the initial
stages of business justification and feasibility studies, proper attention is not always given to
defining the project team.
The composition of the project team may change through the duration of a project and may
include many members, but an indicative, outline structure for a traditional project is shown
below:

It is important that roles, responsibilities and reporting mechanisms are clearly defined in
appointment documents and communicated to other project team members. In addition,
where project team members are accepting risk for delivering part of the project, this must
be properly understood and defined (for example, planning risk on design and
build projects).

A roles and responsibilities matrix can help identify the roles required, what actions
individuals and groups will need to take, whether there are any gaps, and what additional
resources may be needed to complete the project. An assessment can then be made as to
whether any required resources exist within the current organisation or whether
new appointments will be required. As the project develops, a responsibility assignment

matrix can be created to set out in more detail which specific tasks are assigned to which
individuals.

Collaborative practices

Successive reports about the UK construction industry have described it as fragmented and
adversarial, with a tendency to adopt a single-discipline mentality, not in the best interests of
the client (see Government Construction Strategy, the Latham Report and the Egan Report).

For consultants to work effectively as a team however, they should adopt collaborative
practices as early in the project as possible. This can include procurement routes (such
as partnering), clarity of organisation, co-location, financial motivation (such joint 'pain or
gain'), problem resolution procedures and information management procedures
(see collaborative practices for more information). The requirement to adopt such practices
should be included in appointment documents.

Establishing collaborative practices is of particular importance on building design and

construction projects, as they are likely to involve bringing together large numbers of diverse
disciplines, many of whom will not have worked together before. They are also likely to
involve the co-ordination and integration of a great deal of complex information. Failure to
establish clear and efficient project-wide procedures and collaborative practices can be
disastrous.

This has become increasingly true as project structures have evolved from straightforward client- consultant - contractor relationships to more integrated structures with
complex financing arrangements, early engagement of the supply chain and the introduction
of sub-contractor andsupplier design. The increasing adoption of building information
modelling is likely to accelerate this trend.