Project Closure Report for Melbourne-Brisbane Inland Rail Project

This document is a Project Closure Report for the Melbourne-Brisbane Inland Rail Project. It includes an executive summary, project performance summary, follow-on actions, lessons learned, financial status, schedule performance, achievement of scope, and variances from the original business case. The report also provides insights from the project manager and project summary. The document is 3000 words long and is part of an assignment for a course on Project Integration Management.

Assignment 3: Individual Project Closure
Report
Weighting: 30%
Submission Details: Submit through Turnitin Link below
 An electronic copy of this report is required.
 Any documents created in Excel or Microsoft Project must be included in
the final file uploaded.
 Please use the Project Closure Report template provided, as the basis of
your assignment.
Task:
Develop a Project Closure Report with a focus on:
1. An executive summary that clearly and succinctly describes the
performance of the project and any outstanding actions.
2. Provides details of the performance of the project cost, time and scope
compared to the planned baseline.
3. Provides a perspective from the Project Sponsor and Project Manager on
the performance of the project.
3,000 words (maximum).
In addition, provide a minimum 250 words on what you have learned during
this course.
Scope:

This assignment will assess your understanding of the process, value and
outcomes of completing a formal closure of a Project, using the principles
identified in Project Integration Management.
The assignment should compare the completed project against the planned
baseline (e.g. what you would expect in the Project Management Plan). Some
other key points to remember...
 Section 1: The Executive Summary should be 1 page and summarise the
key elements of the other parts of the assignment. The Project Overview
(Section 1.1) should provide a description of the project and what it was
intended to achieve. Project Performance Summary (Section 1.2) should
summarise Section 2, and in particular Sections 2.1, 2.2 and 2.3.
 Section 2: Is the key part of the assignment and will show how well the
project performed. You will need to create the final data (e.g. cost, time,
scope and variances etc) for your project to be able to compare it with
the planned baseline.
 Section 3: Is a written perspective of the project: you will need to write
from the perspective of both the sponsor and the project manager. The
sponsor will be interested in the quality, cost and timeliness of the
solution; also does it provide the basis for the expected benefits? The PM
will be interested in the performance against baselines (time, cost,
scope) and also the performance of the team and lessons that have been
learned.
 Section 4: Is what you have learned from the course: make sure you
cover the whole course content.
Criteria by which your assignment will be marked:

 The standards by which the assignment will be assessed include an
understanding of principles and referencing these.
 There will be penalties for exceeding the word limit. Quotations do not
count in the words counted.
 The objective of these questions is for the participant to consider the
theoretical material supplied and attempt to apply it to a real project
example. Therefore, evidence of having read and understood the
material is important.
Marks will be given for the comprehensiveness of the content, evidence of
additional reading, referencing these readings in the answer, and application.
In answering these questions try and state principles as well as detail. Just
reproducing PMBOK (especially cutting and pasting diagrams) is not enough!
Template
Project Closure Report

Melbourne-Brisbane Inland Rail Project

Table of Contents
Executive Summary..........................................................................................................................6
Project Performance.........................................................................................................................7
Project Reports...............................................................................................................................10
What I Learned...............................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

Executive Summary
Project Overview
The project is based on the development of a continuous inland freight corridor starting from
Melbourne to Brisbane. This freight corridor is expected to reduce the load of the freight highway
and will also enable high speed transportation of freight between the two cities.
Project Performance Summary
The project has been performing significantly well although there have been some significant
variances from the estimated data that have been published in the business case. The variances have
been noticed in the budget and the schedule as there have been some variations from actually
estimated values but the variances have been manageable and the project work have been
progressing satisfactorily.
Follow-on Actions
Follow-on actions are required to check the budget and time spent on the project in order to ensure
there is no major overshoot from the initially estimated values. During estimation, the values are
generally considering with some buffer – the follow-on actions are required to ensure the project
does not cross the buffer limits at any point.
Lessons Learned
This project has provided significant lessons in developing ideas regarding complex project
management. The selection of the project has been made to ensure there is sufficient scope for
complex problem solving and also get access to the data of a real world project so that the data
evaluation does not require hypothetical data or assumptions.

Project Performance
Financial Status
The Australian Rail track cooperation is working from last 18 months with Pricewaterhousecoopers
to design and implement the Inland business case successfully. Based on both economic as well as
financial perspectives the Inland Rail business case is analyzed. After that a detail economic appraisal
is also conducted to measure the net benefit that may be produced from the delivery of a project.
From the detail project components it is estimated that the project will require a total investment of
$10 Billion and 10 years of time for the delivery of the Inland Rail project. The owners are required
to include an operational maintenance cost as well. Though, the delivered project identifies that, the
project will fail to generate sufficient revenue in terms of Return in Investment (ROI), on the
complete construction of the Inland rail project (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). It is also defined that,
as the project will become an operational one the project cash flow will also be directive as a
positive one. However, in order to cover running maintenance cost and operational cost the
business will receive more than expected and sufficient rate of income.
From the financial analysis of the project it is determined that, the Inland rail project will give
positive outcomes to the project owners and other associates as well. The benefit cost ration is also
been calculated after calculating and comparing the costs and predicted benefits of the programme.
On the other hand, under a wide range of variation it is measured that, the cost benefit ratio for the
project is 2.6. It is also measured that the value of BCR will remain strong even if different changes
occur in terms of cost. The strength of BCR is demonstrated according to the demand variation,
access price, coal price, growth of GDP etc.
For estimating the benefit outweigh 4% of discount rate has been adopted instead of 7%.
Schedule Performance
The project will take around 10 years for its successful accomplishment. As it is a large project
therefore, it should be segmented into smaller parts. The skills and knowledge of the project team
members should be measured and based on that they should be assigned to individual project
activities. It is the responsibility of the project associates to accomplish the project activities within
the assigned timeline and budget. The manager must deliver the project within the assigned time.
Achievement of Scope
It has been identified that from last 18 months the rail track corporation is working with
Pricewaterhousecoopers for developing detail business case for the Inland rail. The railway project
was developed to create connection between Melbourne and Brisbane. This Inland rail needs
significant commercial and economical commitment for the successful implementation (Meredith,
Mantel and Shafer 2017). It is determined that each day the freight task grows and therefore, the rail
network requires measurable growth to meet the project objectives. In order to meet the Australia’s
frequently growing freight challenges or issues it is determined that new standard gauge rail
connection is essential to be established. In order to avoid crashes huge burden rate should be
reduced. The Inland business case that is developed by ARTC gives detail assessment. This
assessment identifies the way following which this project can be successfully implemented. The
business case has identified details problem and vision for east coast corridor including scope,
opportunities, costs and also the confirmed the estimated demand (Kerzner 2018). This business

case has identified the details financial and economical implications. Whether a project is
commercially profitable or not is measured with the help of financial assessment in terms of
feasibility study.
Variances from Original Business Case
It has been identified that both the discount rate of 4% and 7% are respectively measured by the
Inland rail project associates to ensure that which specific discount rate will generate more
commercial revenue after the implementation of the project. Every time it is not mandatory that the
planned cost will be similar to the actual cost. The variations that are identified for the Inland Rail
project is as follows:
Inland rail cost and profit Current value (with a 4%
discount rate)
Current value (with a 7% of
discount rate)
Estimated cost
Capital cost (or investment) 7650 6590
Operational cost 133 66
Proper maintenance cost 793 380
Calculated total cost 8575 7036
Profit
Estimated user benefits 10525 4450
Total induced profit amount 1090 528
Customer outcomes for the rail
passengers
32 14
Improved safety and security
benefits
1828 776
Decreased life cycle cost for
the operators and Inland rail
project owners
1106 550
Residual asset values 7921 833
Estimated total amount of
benefits
22503 7152
Resultants
Current value of cost and
profit
13928 116.10
Cost benefit ratio 2.62 1.02
It has been analyzed that the Inland rail project will boost up the economic and financial structure of
the Australian Government. It will also give positive opportunities to the project owners and
employees as well (Binder 2016). The design and model of the project has identified that, the project
will economically boost up the Australian economy in terms of Australian Gross domestic product by
$16 Billion in the 10 years of construction. The executed program will give job opportunities to
around 16,000 employees and also over the entire period it will give jobs to 700 people. It will
improve the connection within the national freight network. It will also give a better access in the
regional market area. Apart from this, it will reduce the coverall functional and operational market
cost.
Lessons Learned
After learning the Inland business case scenario it has been analyzed that, the project manager and
assigned project team associates are required to adopt the best suited project delivery method and
project development criteria throughput the project development life cycle period. If this is not
possibly implemented as per the project owners choice then the managers and team members will

be required to give focus on the different knowledge areas as well. It is determined that, in order to
implement the Inland rail project successfully the potential problems are required to be identified by
the project team members at the initial phase to avoid the challenges of overrunning cost and over
allocation resources and over running budget (Joslin and Müller 2015). If all the project knowledge
areas are not appropriately followed by the project team associates then the actual cost will
overshoot the estimated initial budget.
In addition to this, at the project initiation phase, the manager and team members should confirm
the project cost and schedule as well before the initiation of the project. Not only this but also the
project team associates are required to identify the project governing requirements to support the
project. It is learnt that if all the measures are successfully followed then the project manager will
meet the project objectives at the very initial phase. It has been estimated that the total duration for
the implementation of the project is 10 years therefore; the project leader should breakdown the
project according to the 10 year timeline only. In addition to this the financial implication of the
project is also needed to be measured by the Australian government (Hornstein 2015). Besides this
it is assumed that if the project is implemented followed by the required objective, aim and goal
then it will boost up the Australian government. Therefore, the Australian government should also
invest capital for the project delivery. The business case defines that it will deliver a positive ROI in
terms of cost benefit ratio. It will also boost up the Australian economy and will give job
opportunities.

Project Reports
Project Manager
The paper mainly reflects on “Inland Rail Business case” that is mainly developed by ARTC which
further helps in providing the most detailed assessments. It is found that in the business case, the
project manager plays an important role for properly initiating, planning, designing, executing as well
as monitoring and closing the project quite successfully (Todorović et al. 2015). They generally have
a combination of skill including proper ability of penetrating questions as well as detecting unstated
assumptions for resolving the conflicts as well as different types of general management-based skills.
Both the sponsor as well as the project manager plays an important role in managing the quality,
cost as well as timeline of the project in order to achieve the expected benefit from the project that
is mainly undertaken.
Project Summary
The paper mainly reflects on the business case that was prepared for meeting the jurisdictional
framework which generally aligns with the Inland Rail project. Proper analysis reflected that
construction of a new rail line will generally helpful in reducing the nation’s reliance on the road
transport as well as consequence which further helps in reducing the road congestion noise as well
as helps in making the regional areas much more productive (Badewi 2016). It is found that the new
rail line generally helps in providing an opportunity for making the step change within the capacity,
capability as well as interoperability of the national freight rail system. The route of the rail line will
be approximately 1700 km in length that further includes 1100 km of major types of upgrades as
well as enhancements and around 600km of new track with the help of New South Wales and
Queensland. In addition to this, it is found that the existing rail infrastructure will generally be
utilized for maximizing the value from recent investments. The service that will be offered by the
Inland Rail generally helps in prioritizing the freight customers for a road competitive services that
generally helps in offering different types of competitive pricing. The various types of service
offerings were generally developed in proper consultation with the various customers, rail users as
well as rail operators and other types of key stakeholders.
Events that affected Project Performance
The various types of events that affected the performance of the new rail line construction project
are mainly elaborated below:
Freight volume: It is found that the freight volumes on Australia’s east coast are generally forecasted
to more than double by the year 2050 and therefore the existing as well as rail network generally
cope with the increased in freight without making any type of investment.
Limited transport option for suppliers: It is considered as one of the major limitations as it generally
bypasses by some of the Australia’s most productive agricultural regions (Svejvig and Andersen
2015). This generally limits the ability of the suppliers as well as industries for accessing the efficient
transport networks that inhibits the productivity as well as different types of economic growth
within the regional communities.
Higher cost: If the budget that is required for constructing the new rail line is much more than it will
generally create a number of financial issues. It is identified that enhanced cost of the materials as

well as resources in the coming future will generally increase the budget of the project which further
can obstruct the performance of the project due to lack of sufficient amount of budget for the entire
project.
Schedule slippage: Schedule slippage is one of the major issues that not only causes delay in the
project but generally cause slippage in project schedule that further hampers the performance of
the project (Samset and Volden 2016). It is found that for performing well in the project, the
schedule of the project should be tracked on a weekly basis for finishing each of the project activity
within the time that is mainly estimated.
Quality issue: It is found that during the construction of a new rail line project, a number of quality
issues as well as challenges generally can occur within the project. The quality issues that will
generally occur in the project include low quality of materials, improper utilization of quality metrics,
improper acceptance of quality standards and more. Due to quality issue, the performance of the
project can be affected that further creates negative impact on the success of the project.
Team Performance
The performance of the project team has generally been proved quite hard to measure as well as act
as a determinant for high performance team that tend to evade investigators. It is found that the
success of the new rail line construction is totally dependent on the success of the project that is
generally based on individual talent as well as performance of the project team (Meng and Boyd
2017). It is found that highly engaged as well as motivated teams generally perform a high level and
generally works effectively for achieving the objectives of the project. The high-performance project
team generally knows each other and are capable of understanding the weaknesses as well as
strengths of one another. They generally respect as well as care about each other and their generally
believes within the mission as well as objective of the project.
It is found that for achieving the performance within the project team that is mainly engaged with
the new rail line project, it is quite necessary to follow the steps that are elaborated below:
High quality leadership: It is very much important to verify that all the project team members
generally knows what is generally important for both the team and the organization. It is necessary
to took a common goal for properly understanding their contribution in the project.
Handles delays professionally: The delays that work within the project due to interruptions,
technical troubles as well as additional responsibilities as well as unforeseen circumstances can
generally causes a delay within the entire project (Ekrot, Kock and Gemünden 2016). It is quite
necessary to evaluate the severity of the issues so that the issues can be handled by the project
manager effectively
Building better project teams: High performing team for the project must be created that help in
making a project managers life much easier. In addition to this, building team by using proper tips
for improving the performance of the project team is considered to be important.
Project Sponsor
Project sponsor is the individual who generally have the entire accountability for the project. For
undertaking the project of Inland Rail, it is found that the project sponsor generally plays a great role
in managing the budget of the project quite effectively. They heavily get involved in making sure that
the project schedule is on track and for managing the schedule, the project sponsor as well as
manager must review the project timeline effectively (Carvalho and Rabechini 2017). In addition to
this, they also involve in maintaining the budget as well as quality of the project so that the

objectives of the project can be met quite effectively. In addition to this, the sponsors of the project
needs to make sure that the changes within the project will be managed quite effectively such that
they does not create any type of impact on the project and additionally accomplish the project goals.

What I Learned
From the entire project management module, I have gathered significant amount of knowledge
regarding handling and management of complex and large scale projects. When I started working on
this module, I had some basic project management knowledge that I learnt in the previous modules
but this module produced far more complex challenges as the projects involved for study were of
very large scale. I needed to enhance my complex problem solving skills in order to perform various
activities including project plan development, risk management plan, project evaluation and others.
In this particular assignment, I needed to select a real world project that I could analyse this
particular analysis report. I selected a challenging project that has a publicly published business case
with specific details that were required for analysis. I used my project management knowledge to
analyse the project from different perspectives and answer the questions that have been provided in
this assignment. In addition to project management aspect, I also learnt to analyse various aspects of
the project including the identification of factors that can have negative impact on the project.
Accordingly, I learnt to develop plans for managing these issues and help the project to become
successful. Overall, this module has been significantly important for my academic career and will
also help me in my future career as well.

References
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management across borders. Routledge.
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Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage
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