Select a sector of interest.

Carry out research to find

examples of project success and failure from the
sector. Are there any common themes? What do
you think are the likely pressures on project
managers with the sector? Prepare 2 slides to share
your findings with the class.

Thanks for your efforts with last weeks essential

activity!
A number of interesting examples provided

Essential Activity

Projects in the news

Rosetta end of a space probe. Would you like to work
on a thirty year project?
The garden bridge project London Mayor suspends
construction over funding concerns.
Hinckley Point gets the go ahead

18Billion
New (?) technology
EDF (France) and CGN (China)
Appear to have guaranteed return on investment
But is it worth it?
2

The Iron Triangle

Dr Peter Flett
peter.flett@strath.ac.uk
GH895

Lecture 2
What makes a successful project?
The iron triangle
Being a project manager
Project failure
The PMBOK knowledge areas
Learning from past projects

From Lecture 1

What makes a successful project?

Completed on time
Completed within budget
Project output meets original
expectations
The iron triangle

Even though quality is

mentioned as one of three key
measures of project success, its
management is hardly ever
covered.
Turner, R. (1993), The Handbook of ProjectBased Management: Improving the

Or is it something it different?

Meet Expectations: Sydney Opera House

is half an opera house better
than no opera house?.....No theatre
in the world has a more spectacular
exterior and more beautiful
surroundings yet no opera house
in the world is less suited to its
name
Interior was not suited for opera
Yet now synonymous with Sydney
and Australia

Within Budget: Sydney Opera House

1956 Gov ran a
competition to design an
opera house
Original estimate of project
cost $7m (Aus)
Financed through Lottery
Opened in 1973 final cost
$107m (Aus)

On Time: Thames Barrier

Started 1974
Construction planned to take
4 years but actually took 8
years
In first 2 years only 50% of
scheduled work for that period
was completed
Completed in 1982
Industrial relations problems,
construction difficulties, design
changes

Scottish Parliament Building

Lecture on Scottish Parliament Building coming up soon

Being a project manager

A project manager must manage themselves and their workload
This involves:
Working with project teams temporary and often complexity due to structure and
culture
delegation
co-ordination rather than control
Avoiding or refusing excessive demands
Dealing only with the most important activities
Avoid micro-management
Avoid the ostrich
Maintain a positive attitude and enthusiasm
Being fair

Seeing the wood and the trees

Self accountability a key facet in Project

Management
Tom Peters57 calls projects the ultimate accountability models
Project teams have both internal and external customers that
creates accountability.
Real internal and external customers breed high
accountability.
Project teams are held responsible for results (and always
understaffed by design).
Characterises the differences between project teams and
committees.
Having a designated project leader with the commensurate
skills that go with it.

Peters, T., (1992), Liberation Management, Macmillan London, p208-214

Self accountability a key facet in Project

Management
Peters believes that Project management turns out
mostly to be about mastering paradox and project
managers usually possess the following key
qualities:
Responsibility for the project from start to finish.
Responsible for coordination and concept
championing.
Responsibility for costing, technical details and
design.
Have direct contact with the client and be a
project champion in there own right.
Prefer personal communication as opposed to
and convening
meetings.
Peters, T.,paperwork
(1992), Liberation
Management,
Macmillan London, p208-214

Project Failure
Nearly any project manager you ask will have some experience of projects that have failed
or have been abandoned
Nearly all project managers will say they think their organisation could improve the way
they manage projects.

Individuals learn but do organisations?

Riis* claims that more effective learning could deliver a drastic
increase in the effectiveness and efficiency of project
management.
Why do large public sector projects repeatedly fail?
Taurus, NHS It for Health, Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh
Trams
But then how do you define failure or success? Financial? Social?
*Riis, O. (1993) Lean project management
International Journal of Project Management Vol 11, No 1, pp.3-419

Project Management Institute Guide to the PMBOK

The subset of Project Management body of knowledge that is

generally accepted
Structured in 5 Process Groups divided into 39 processes
Processes are divided into 9 knowledge areas
http://www.pmi.org/

9 Knowledge Areas
1. Project Integration Management
2. Project Scope Management
3. Project Time Management
4. Project Cost Management
5. Project Quality Management
6. Project Human Resources Management
7. Project Communication Management
8. Project Risk Management
9. Project Procurement Management
Will this lead to better project management
and better project managers?

Managing Scope
The purpose of scope management is to ensure that
adequate work is done (but not unnecessary work) so that
the projects purpose is achieved.
Define:
Purpose of the project
Scope of the project
Objectives of the project
Tools might include use of work
breakdown
structures
Not to
do more than
is needed
(WBS), milestone plans etc.but there is a balance to keep the
customer satisfied.

Managing Quality
Making sure you give the customer the quality that is laid down
in the contract although this maybe not the same as meeting
the customers expectations of quality and might not be enough
to keep in business !
Tools might include: use of specifications, standards, review
systems, performance measures, change control systems

The economic imperative

for quality is then
essentially quite simple.
The imperative is survival
for the individual
organization and
ultimately the total
economy

Beckford, S.

Managing Time
Time planning, estimating,
scheduling, control
Tools might include: Gantt charts,
network analysis, critical path analysis

Managing cost
Cost estimating and delivering to plan.
Tools include target costing, forecasting, expected cost
vs. actual cost, Net Present Value (NPV) Internal Rates of
Return (IRR), Payback methods

In your own time

Identify all the stakeholders* for the Rio 2016 Paralympics. Consider how they
might judge the success of such a venture.
Now imagine yourself as a project manager, employed by the The
International Paralympic Committee and tasked with making sure that all the
stakeholders expectations are met. What would be your iron triangle
challenges and priorities?
Deadline: upload to Myplace before next Mondays lecture
*remember this will not just include the athletes and audience

What makes a successful project?

Completed on time
Completed within budget
Project output meets original expectations

Benefits Management:
Benefits management is the
identification, definition,
planning, tracking and
realisation of business
benefits.
Association of Project
Management
http://knowledge.apm.org.uk/bok

For further
consideration
Following on from last weeks activityconsider how
the project you are looking at might be measured.
Can you find out anything about how the project
manager reported on progress?
If not, put yourself in the role and think how you
would report and what you would measure.
Think about what success would look like to the
various stakeholders.
Success is not always defined by money

Deadline:nextMondayslecture

Reading

Maylor Ch 4
or

Kerzner Ch 1
Please note there is a lot written about project success and failure so please
feel free to read other texts, journals (e.g. IJPM) on this topic.

Revision questions
1. Time, cost and quality
completion) have been
performance measures.
appropriate and how is this

(as measured at project

widely used as project
When
might
this be
a limited approach?

2. What are the implications for a project manager being

told that the cost of the project was the most important
objective for them to achieve?
3. Research benefits management. Is it complementary
or compatible with the iron triangle?