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Acknowledgement

Contents
Acknowledgement........................................................................................................... 2
Introduction.................................................................................................................... 4
Critical Review of the Group organization and the Management of the Project.................................5
Appraisal and Discussion Evaluating My Teams Project from the Start to the Close-Out and how we
Worked as a Project Team.................................................................................................. 6
Session 1.................................................................................................................... 6
Session 2.................................................................................................................... 6
Session 3.................................................................................................................... 7
Session 4.................................................................................................................... 7
Section 5.................................................................................................................... 7
Session 6.................................................................................................................... 7
Discussion of how various Project Management Techniques were utilized.......................................8
Initiating the Project......................................................................................................... 9
Planning the Project.......................................................................................................... 9
Closing down the Project................................................................................................. 10
Conclusion................................................................................................................ 11
Bibliography................................................................................................................ 12
Appendices.................................................................................................................. 13

Introduction
Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques for
managing project activities to meet the set requirements. A project is an individual or
collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned and designed to achieve a particular aim or a
temporary endeavor, which is undertaken to create a unique product or service. It may also be
defined as a planned undertaking of related activities to reach an objective that has a beginning
and an end. In as much as projects may be created to determine or define a feasibility alternative
solution to problems, they are mainly established to solve specific type of problem.
Our group was presented with the Konza City, a Kenyan Government project included in
the vision 2030 as a case study and tasked with the responsibility of using project management
skills to coordinate the planning, procurement of project resource, and execution of the project
that would lead to the successful construction of a technology city. The city should have all the
necessary amenities ranging from schools, Business process outsourcing, convention centers,
malls, hotels, offices, hospitals, and homes all in a central location. The proposed city will be
situated in Makueni County, which is approximately 63 Kilometes from the city of Nairobi. The
main project sponsor is the Kenyan government through the ICT board (KENYA: Vision 2030
Implementation, 2008).

Critical Review of the Group organization and the Management of the Project
The group comprised of seven members. Before making our hands dirty with the details
of the project, it was decided that for each week, a project execution committee would be made
of the seven project members and led by a rotational project manager who will be tasked with the
overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring,
controlling, and closure of a project,(Anantatmula, 2010) within the week and ensure proper
coordination of progress review meetings either using teleconferences, WhatsApp, and skype
group chats and calls. He coordinated the team in coming up with timelines for each and every
deliverable within the week and then acted as the gate keeper to ensure that the necessary tasks
and executions within the week were attained. For instances where there was no registered
progress, he would coordinate project review sessions to ensure the necessary actions are taken
by the team. The manager took minutes for the project meetings, ensured theyre circulated in
time and put the entire team in check and aligned to the desired project executions.
In as much as the approach helped the team attain all the project deliverables for all the
tasks at an above average rating according to me, I believe great success would have been
registered if the project initially came up with an outline of the project management best
practices, which would then govern project executions through the project. This would enable the
team come up with some requirements to establish project chatter or contract which would be
used by the respective project managers through the tasks. The project chatter would outline
what needs to be accomplished within the various week, enable the team to make decisions on
how the project was going to proceed, enable the team get a good grasp and focus on the
statement of the business need, how the need was recognized and how it was planned, stipulation
of the project purpose, project risks, identification of project resources and technologies ,
definition of success indicators and tie all this to the role and responsibilities of the project team
members which would be followed by the definition of the resources and an indication of who
and what will fill them.
Nonetheless, the team managed to come up with well-defined goals for the project, which
helped the members stay focused on course, breaking the individual sessions work into smaller
sub tasks, and assigning the various tasks to the respective members enabling each group
member to gain confidence from not only a leadership perspective but also a project member
perspective. The project manager for the week organized a final review of the overall tasks
undertaken by the individual team members, gave each task appraisals from different
perspectives and once certain that everything was completed as desired by the entire project
execution committee, it was presented for assessment. He then ensured the following items are
saved in a dedicated folder for the weekly group tasks:
Minutes outlining details for all the weeks meetings
Updated MS Project document
Outlined tasks for the week as assigned to the various project members
Details outlining shortcoming for the previous week
Any other documentation, information or references used to deliver the project
tasks for the week.
After the periodic assessment, the project manager of the week would then complete the
last session of ensuring shortcomings from the group session that he managed have been taken

care of before handing over the project team to the project manager of the following week. This
would then allow for a few minutes session to review and appraise the performance of the
project manager of the week against the initial aims of the project. What went well? What were
the problematic areas? Was the project delivered in time and within the budgets and if not, what
were the sticking points which would then enhance proper project leadership by creating an
atmosphere of trust, building a good team, spelling everything out for the team upfront,
monitoring and giving feedback, keeping communication open (Hedman and Valo, 2015) and
keeping the end goal clearly in mind.

Appraisal and Discussion Evaluating My Teams Project from the Start to the Close-Out
and how we Worked as a Project Team.
Session 1
At the inception of the assignment, we were grouped into a group of seven students. We
knew upfront that we were going to have a session per week and hence in our initial meeting, we
decided that we are going to have a rotational project management role for each of the project
members per week. The rest of members served as part of the project executive committee and
were granted responsibilities by the project manager of the week. It was decided that we shall
have one center of control which will be executed by the project manager of the week for
instance on the first week. We also decided that we shall have few minutes to deliberate on
matters arising every day after class. However, any matters arising were addressed using
WhatsApp chat group or conference calls. The following tasks were assigned to the various
project team members.
Member Name
Weeks Task
Anthony M.
Coordinate the creation of the initial project plan using MS project
Tony O.
Coordinate the creation of the initial cost model
Duncan K.
Taking minutes
Richard S.
creation of the initial project plan using MS project
Colman M.
Project manager
Erick W
creation of the initial project plan using MS project
Isaac W.
Creation of google drive folders and ensure all the relevant tasks are
saved on the older
In as much as tasks were well assigned as above, we could not deliver the assignment
within the stipulated timelines. We however learnt our lessons, realized that its all about
sacrifice, and we decided to change the approach and through our class representative, managed
to negotiation for an extension of timelines. In as much as we had all those things done, we were
still not able to deliver everything, a few items were still missing and hence realized the
importance of having an external person to the project as a project reviewer. Nonetheless, we
were better prepared for the next session.
Session 2
We started the next session by making sure all the issues indicated in the initial session are
review corrected. We had our cost model which had been done in Excel updated on the project

and we were set to go. We deliberated trough the tasks and they were assigned to the respective
project members. Some of the key deliverables at this stage were;
Vendor selection process
Utilization of the vendor selection criteria in one above to do the actual selection
Update of the Ms Project documented with the selected vendors
Update the cost model with the actual details as per the vendor selection outcome.
Documentation of items to be considered during the vendor selection process.
At this stage, we all had a chance to get typical simulation of the actual project resource
project procurement process, constraints that are involved at this stage and what can be done to
mitigate the constraints. We realized that a typical mistake that may be done by anyone during
the vendor selection process is to regard cost as a key resource which in some cases is never an
issue. This was later corrected in the following session.
We also had a chance to appreciate the kind of elements that need to be put into consideration
while doing an environmental impact assessment. I realized that the project stakeholders are not
only the project sponsors but also anyone or anything that will be affected by the project or the
project can have an effect. This also gave us a chance to acknowledge the fact that there exist
negative stakeholders for any project at any time and it is the responsibility of the project
manager to neutralize such stakeholders.
Session 3
Most of the work had been done at this stage; however, we had same changes on the cost
model and the project plan due to some information presented to us. We had an idea of the
project flow, had our critical path e.t.c. This session exposed us to the practicalities of changing
items or project cause in the middle of the project. We managed to address all the shortcomings
from the previous sessions. There was utilization of updated information from the purchase and
procurement people to update the project plan to take account of the new information to update
the cost model to reflect the cost model.
Session 4
We addressed all the shortcomings from the previous sessions. We addressed the slippage
time to the various vendors according to their rating. This however never affected us since we
had selected the vendors that had the best ratings. Our project plan and the cost model were not
changed from the previous one because we were on cause in everything including the time.
Section 5
At this stage, we could not make any decision or changes because all the vendors selected
were not affected by the information provided. We however addressed a rating issue that hadnt
been correctly pointed out from the previous session. Project status on MS project had also not
been included and we updated it in our document.
Session 6
This was the final session of the project which involved project closure sessions. Post
closure reviews and project sign offs to close the contracts for final payments. The project

progress was compared to the previous baseline plan to ensure all the modifications are factored.
The completion was 146.6 weeks, which shows it was successful because it is below the set
target of 190 weeks.
The sign off documents below were created by the project manager of the week and
circulated to the respective stakeholders.

Project Name
KONZA CITY
Project Start Date

Project End Date


1ST JUNE 2017

15 June 2016
Project Sponsor(s)

Title

Department

Government of Kenya

GOK

ICT AUTHORITY

Project Manager

Title

Department

Tony.

MR.

IT

Division
Division

In a nutshell, I think I had the best team and we really made the best decision just at the
right time. This can be attributed by the fact that most of the future changes neither affected our
project plan nor the vendors selected and hence the cost model. We were able to organize and
plan the project well from a procumbent perspective, resource mobilization perspective and time
perspective. In a rating of 1 to 10, I would give ourselves do to the fact that there was a lot of
help accorded to us from our peers. However, I believe we will get a rating of above 8 if we were
given the same assignment again.

Discussion of how various Project Management Techniques were utilized


As a team, we decided not to follow the traditional project management approach of
undertaking a project effort or assigning the project and the necessary resources to a carefully
selected individual then assumed they were using some form of project management. We decided
to use the application of a collection of tools and techniques to direct the use of diverse resources
towards the accomplishment of the unique, complex, one-time task within time, cost, and quality
constraints (Dalcher, 2014).
Employing the project management techniques helped the team in minimizing disruption
of routine activities for instance class work by placing under a single command all of the skills,
technologies, and resources needed to realize the project.
The project management process typically includes four key phases: closing the project,
executing the project, planning the project and initiating the project (Frame, 2014).

Initiating the Project


Techniques relating to this phase include;
1. Establishing the project initiation team.
We started by a formal project meeting where it was agreed that for the execution of the
weekly projects, we shall have a project execution which will be led by a rotational
project manager from one group member to another giving each member an opportunity
to take up the role of a project manager. In as much as all the members were to be
involved in the entire running and executing the project team, resource allocation was
mainly led by the weekly project managers who would make any necessary calls to
govern the project execution.
2. Establishing the project initiation plan.
As part of the first meeting, we agreed on the activities required to organize our team
while working to define the goals and scope of the project. This included setting times for
periodic review discussions, an agreement on how to collaborate and where to store
project documents, agreement regarding when to schedule a conference call, what to do
to mitigate risk situations etc.
3. Establishing management procedures.
As a team, we agreed that we shall use WhatsApp, Skype, and conference calls as a
means of communication and reporting procedures (Anantatmula, 2008. Each member
was to have a chance at least on a week to take the role of the project manager where
he/she will guide reporting procedures, coordinate task assignments and roles, managing
change procedure and how project funding and billing will be handled. He would also
coordinate with the overall project team for situation where we could not make progress
due to internal knowledge/technical gap within the project members.

Planning the Project


Techniques relating to this phase include
1. Describing Project Scope, Alternatives, and Feasibility.
At the onset of the project, the project manager of the day led the project team in
understanding the project scope, technical and functional feasibility. The team would then
understand how complex the project was and we all purposed to explore all possibilities
to ensure successful execution of the project from a project management perspective
(Levin, 2014). Through the discussion, the team seeks to answer the following questions.
o What problem or opportunity does the project address?
o What results are to be achieved?
o What needs to be done?
o How will success be measured?
o How will we know when we are finished?
2. Divide the Project into Tasks.
Through the respective tasks and sessions, the project manager of the day started by
helping the team to divide the project into tasks also known as work breakdown structure.
These tasks would then be assigned to the individual project members and the necessary
reviews taken to ensure desired task execution.
3. Estimating Resources and Creating a Resource Plan.

10

4.

5.

6.

7.

This helped to gather and arrange resources in the most effective manner (Savelsbergh,
Havermans and Storm, 2016).
With proper use of this technique, we were able to get the best service providers for all
the tasks and; hence, the many changes towards the end didnt affect us much.
Developing a Preliminary Schedule.
In this step, we were able to simulate the assignment of various time estimates to the
activities in the work break down structure. This helped us get an indication of the project
start time and end time. We also managed to limit our project completion time at some
points to within 190 weeks and later 146.6 weeks.
Developing a Communication Plan.
The idea here was to outline the communication procedures between management, team
members, and the customer.
We were able to establish a communication procedure that was going to govern the
communication mode between the project members. In as much as we were holding
virtual meetings, the communication was effective and enabled us to push through to the
end. We however could not manage to simulate direct engagement with the customer.
However, with the current technology age, I believe the customer would be able to fit into
the communication mode that we had agreed on during the inception of the initial
session.
Creating a Preliminary Budget.
We were able to simulate the creation of the project budgets. This was simulated through
the creation of the initial cost model and the subsequence update of the cost model to
simulate the actual numbers.
Setting a Baseline Project Plan.
We also manage to use this project technique. This basically helped us meet the timelines
indicated in the various sessions and reduce it to have it aligned to the respective
timelines indicated in the various sessions.

Closing down the Project


Techniques relating to this phase include;
1. Closing down the Project.
All the interested parties were notified of the project completion status. Sign off
documents were circulated and signed to authorize service providers final payments. All
project management documentations and records were also finalized and a final review of
the project conducted.
2. Conducting Post Project Reviews.
Post project review was conducted, all the feedback was received and we could actually
point out the specific areas that if they were done differently we could attain good results;
however, our efforts deserve a good rating.
3. Closing the customer contract.
The final activity was to ensure that all contractual terms of the project were met.
Sign off documents were circulated for sign offs, an indication that all the respective
project contracts would be closed.

11

Conclusion
The team faced multiple challenges because it was the first time working together, but
through the help of our lecturer and our peers we were able to achieve the project objectives. A
major aim was to complete the project within 190 weeks, which we were able to attain because
we completed within 147 weeks. The knowledge gained from the project will be essential in
doing any future projects.

12

Bibliography
Anantatmula, V. (2008). The role of technology in the project manager performance model.
Proj Mgmt Jrnl, 39(1), pp.34-48.
Anantatmula, V. (2010). Project Manager Leadership Role in Improving Project
Performance. Engineering Management Journal, 22(1), pp.13-22.
Dalcher, D. (2014). Mastering IT Project Management: Best Practices, Tools and
Techniques. Proj Mgmt Jrnl, 45(3), pp.e2-e2.
Frame, J. (2014). Project Management Tools and Techniques: A Practical Guide. Proj Mgmt
Jrnl, 45(4), pp.e4-e4.
Hedman, E. and Valo, M. (2015). Communication challenges facing management teams.
Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 36(8), pp.1012-1024.
KENYA: Vision 2030 Implementation. (2008). Africa Research Bulletin: Economic,
Financial and Technical Series, 45(7), pp.17915A-17915C.
Levin, G. (2014). Project Quality Management: Why, What and How, Second Edition. Proj
Mgmt Jrnl, 45(5), pp.e3-e3.
Savelsbergh, C., Havermans, L. and Storm, P. (2016). Development paths of project
managers: What and how do project managers learn from their experiences?.
International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), pp.559-569.

13

Appendices
Baseline

14

Project Closeout
Durati
Start
on
Konza Cyber City Group 10 733.13 Mon
- Session 6
days 6/5/17
Mon
Start
0 days
6/5/17
75
Mon
Head Office Work
days 6/5/17
Engineering Design,
16
Mon
Selection of Suppliers &
wks 6/5/17
Contractors
Fri
Board Approval
0 days
9/15/17
88.75 Mon
Materials
days 9/18/17
Water and Sewerage
15
Mon
works: Water Pipes, Valves,
wks 9/18/17
Sewer Pipes, Pumps, Tanks
20
Mon
Electrical Equipment
wks 9/18/17
Laptops, Tablets, Servers 15
Mon
and CCTV Cameras
wks 9/18/17
Computing and Network
Equipment; Datacentre
20
Mon
Equipment, Routers, Switches, wks 9/18/17
Fire fighting
Communication and
15
Mon
Networking Equipment:Fiberwks 9/18/17
optic Materials
Hardware Assembly
10
Mon
Equipment
wks 9/18/17
Mon
System Solutions design
4 wks
9/2/19
System Solutions
Tue
8 wks
Implementation
12/3/19
159.38 Tue
Security Systems
days 4/23/19
Security fencing and Fire
14
Tue
Fighting works
wks 4/23/19
10
Wed
CCTV Systems
wks 7/24/19
10
Fri
Rapid-response System
wks 9/27/19
Task Name

Finish
Fri
4/17/20
Mon
6/5/17
Fri
9/15/17
Fri
9/15/17
Fri
9/15/17
Thu
1/25/18

Predece Resource
ssors
Names

0.00

100%

2,000,000.00

100%

2,000,000.00

100%

0.00

100%

20,291,660.40

100%

Thu
4
1/25/18
Mon
4
12/25/17
4

Mon
4
12/25/17
Tue
11/21/17
Fri
9/27/19
Wed
1/29/20
Tue
12/3/19
Wed
7/24/19
Fri
9/27/19
Tue
12/3/19

% Work
Complete

186,530,267.45 100%

Mon
4
12/25/17

Thu
1/25/18

Cost

4
39
45,40

Matsushita 1,166,664.48

100%

Stockist A 4,499,999.70

100%

IBM
4,124,998.17
(Equipment

100%

IBM
5,499,997.56
(Equipment

100%

Pensou

2,400,001.83

100%

Mindorf

2,599,998.66

100%

HP (Cloud
499,999.51
Solution)
HP (Cloud
999,998.93
Solution)

100%
100%

8,9,34

Electrome

3,199,995.06

100%

9,34,8

Electrome

1,317,645.03

100%

43

Electrome

941,175.02

100%

44

Electrome

941,175.02

100%

15

Cyber City Systems


Commissioning
Testing & Training
Handover
End

56.25 Wed
days 1/29/20
Wed
8 wks
1/29/20
Mon
4 wks
3/23/20
Fri
0 days
4/17/20

Fri
4/17/20
Mon
3/23/20
Fri
4/17/20
Fri
4/17/20

18,41
41,18
47
48

Tokyo
2,399,998.54
Design PLC
Tokyo
1,599,999.02
Design PLC
Tokyo
799,999.51
Design PLC
0.00

100%
100%
100%
100%

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