Lean Project Management for FIFA World Cup 2018

This essay discusses the implementation of lean project management for FIFA World Cup 2018, including identification of root causes of problems, continuous improvement plan, required resources, and competencies.

Running head: LEAN PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Lean Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
In any kind of project management lean thinking is very necessary and that is what leads
to a lean project management. The way of delivering a project with having a lean thinking is
what is called lean project management. For a project like arranging the FIFA World Cup 2018
the main focus would be related to the management of the entire process having control over the
overall working of every section included in the project according to proper ethical standards as
well as the working standards (Anholon & Sano, 2016). Lean project management for FIFA
World Cup 2018 would not only focus on delivering the entire project on time but would also
have the concepts of lean project management included in it that would help in meeting the
expectation of the customers for indulging into the concept. This event is such a massive
magnum opus that it receives International focus including millions and billions of people
therefore the standard of operation that needs to be delivered in this case should be much higher
related to what project management usually does. Since this project involves International
attention this would require a huge amount of dedication to see to it that every aspect of the
project management is being handled in a subtle as well as a elaborative way.
Thus, the entire lean project management on such issues and important world sporting
event like the FIFA World Cup 2018 few points would be elaborated on as per the lean project
management. This would include some aspect of the Sporting event such as the voice of the
customer or VOC, the critical to customer requirements or CCR and the critical to quality
parameters or CTQ. The entire implementation of the lean project management on this event
would depend on these factors as well as the identification of the root causes of the problem
according to the factors, the ways by which continuous improvement should be implemented for
the lean project management in FIFA 2018, and the ways by which competencies should be

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maintained in this process. Thus this essay would have an idea about the implementation of lean
project management on a gigantic sports event like FIFA World Cup 2018 and identifying the
elaborative processes with respect to PMBOK, Prince2 and Lean Six Sigma.
Identification of the root causes of the problem
VOC: The voice of a customer is a concept that is related to the aspect of gathering on
the requirements of a project that a client has specifically pointed out. The main problem for
figuring out the voice of customer in case of FIFA World Cup 2018 is its massive spread
(Brioso, 2015). The way by which FIFA World Cup 2018 has spread over the entire world it is
not easy to collect the requirements of every customer from all around the world as well as
process them in the same project. Gathering of data is extremely important in this matter
however since this extension of this event is so vast that data gathering can be a bit problematic
in this matter. However customers are also important in lean thinking behind a project
management. There are different risk factors associated with wrong gathering of data.
CCR: Critical to customer requirement in lean project management can be related to a
customer requirement that has direct involvement in the standardization of the FIFA World Cup
2018. This is a specific portion where a customer requirement is subjected to changes during the
turn of events of the entire sport (Cooper, 2017). FIFA World Cup 2018 has a physical span
around the entire world and also the time frame during which the matches are going to take place
are more than three or four months therefore it is quite natural that the requirements of customers
will change from time to time according to the progression of the event. It can also be seen that a
vast project like FIFA World Cup 2018 should maintain a standard operation which is related to
these changeable customer requirements. For CCR, every stakeholder related to FIFA World
Cup 2018 would be involved and play a major role for the project delivery according to the

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standards. The stakeholders play a major role in data gathering for the initial requirement of
every customer so that the satisfaction level of the customer can be elected directly from the
initial point to the end point (Furterer, 2016). This means that this aspect of lean thinking of
project management for FIFA World Cup would implement gathering of data from the initiation
of the games to the last day of the games so that the level of satisfaction can be measured.
CTQ: This is a factor are an aspect of FIFA World Cup 2018 when quality of service is
measured according to what is provided to the customers. In this case two factors are generally
involved which is serving the client and evaluation of that service (Basu, 2017). For this matter
lean project management and Six Sigma needs to be implemented so that the quality of the
parameter can be assured in this case.
• Choosing the mitigating application of the problems with appropriate tools and
techniques
As per the lean thinking behind the project management for establishing a successful
FIFA World Cup 2018 there are few concepts from the different project management experts that
should be implemented in this case (Conforto et al., 2016). These concepts can we stated as
below as the mitigation processes:
Identification of the need of the customer: It is very essential that the needs of the
customer be identified at the first stage. For this particular phase the stakeholder of FIFA World
Cup 2018 organizing committee would come into view for registering what the customer
actually wants from the organizing committee (Hattab & Hamzeh, 2015). Throughout the entire
event it may happen that the requirements of a customer is subjected to few changes. This would
mean that what the customer previously wanted can absolutely with discard it or it may need a

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little changes. Therefore it is really essential that the exact needs and requirements of the
customer be identified so that any problems can be mitigated.
Identification of the drivers: Drivers are the effective tools in a project management
methodology that makes sure about the strong points that have been implemented in the entire
project and pointing out the weak points that may be discarded or is subjected to a little change.
This is identified when the value of the services provided to the customers are qualified. For
example it can be said that during the run time of FIFA World Cup 2018 if the organizing
committee is asked by the customers for a certain thing that is not deliver to them properly that
can be identified as the weak point in the project management methodology and in future during
the runtime of the project can be discarded (Irina et al., 2016). In the similar way the factor due
to which a requirement of a customer is thoroughly mat can be given more focus on so that they
may be enhanced further so that a standard would be maintained for the entire sporting event.
Requirement relating to the management of the identified sectors: It is not a very
intelligent idea to give away the customer everything they want. FIFA World Cup 2018 not only
houses Sporting event but it has a number of sponsors and different organizing committee is
coming together to host the event from different industries (Sohi et al., 2016). Therefore if a
customer wants to make use of all the resources of the event at once it may be first given a
proper thought about and then the services should be provided to the customers. If the customer
cannot be provided the service they should also be clearly stated about the reasons why the
particular services cannot be handed over to them.
• Assumptions made
The assumptions that are made for the lean project management of FIFA World Cup
2018 are as follows:

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 The data obtained from the clients as per the requirements and the entire event are
certain.
 The actual requirement of the customers are stated by the stakeholders and high
official of the organizing committee of FIFA World Cup 2018.
 There has been a long of complaint setup that steps the problems that the
customers had with the organizing committee about different products and
spanning over the entire period of the runtime of FIFA World Cup 2018
(Dabestani et al., 2017).
 The data has been gathered from different sectors according to the requirement of
the clients even from the venue of the Sporting events and the players included.
 There is an open end for the need of communication between the customer and
the organizing committee of the FIFA World Cup 2018.
Continuous Improvement Plan
• Problems identified
The main identified problems in managing the project for FIFA World Cup 2018 certain
points have been gone through.
First and foremost the spread of the entire FIFA World Cup 2018 is much more
compared to the organized FIFA world cup in the previous times (Sunder, 2016). The number of
sponsors that the event has gathered is much more but still it was seemingly becoming less
because of the implementation of so many clients that the organizing committee have to serve.
Therefore size of the entire event including the clients the financial sponsors and the time span of
the event had been a major factors where problems has been identified. These are the reasons due

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to which the organizing committee had found it difficult to any lean project thinking in the entire
project plan.
• Actions Taken
Focus on the customer: The maximum focus is given on the customers because they are
the only priority in this case. As per the stakeholders of FIFA World Cup 2018 the concerned it
can be stated that they also want to first and foremost focus on the customer so that the entire
project would take on a specific requirements needed to please those (Tenera & Carneiro, 2014).
And according to lean project management as well it is quite justified that a customer needs to be
focused on since it is there requirements that set the standards for the entire event.
Focus on the value: It needs to be focused entirely on the value especially when
delivering the customer requirements for a massive event like FIFA World Cup 2018. This is
because for the CTQ process measuring the value of the services provided to the customers is
absolutely necessary (Holweg & Maylor, 2018). The services that are provided to the customer
needs to be of top class value because FIFA World Cup 2018 is an international event and it grab
the attention of the people all around the world. For this reason the services that are provided to
the customers are tallied with the ability of the organizations and according to that the best
possible services are been provided to the customers almost according to what they have asked
for (Machado et al., 2017).
Agility: It is also important that all the services that have been provided to the customers
and the methods by which they are being performed be absolutely Agile and flexible. Agility
depends on changing the entire methodology of a particular task according to the requirements of
the client. Since it has been mentioned earlier that FIFA World Cup runs through the entire
world and over a span of a very long amount of time it is quite natural that the requirements of a

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client are subjected to random changes. Thus, the services that are about to be provided to them
would be flexible enough to house the changes that are required when the customers ask for
them.
Visibility: Visibility of the services is the key point for making the services provided to
the customers be quantifiable (Verzuh, 2015). This means that proper recording and monitoring
of the lean project management methodology applied to every customer in FIFA World Cup
2018 need to be documented well and monitored throughout. Only then it will be justified that
what are the clients have asked for and what the organizing body of FIFA World Cup 2018 has
delivered to the clients (Rolstadås et al., 2014). Based on the visibility of the project
management methodologies it can be quantified if the services were valuable or not.
• Resources required
The resources that are required for having a valuable standardized form of lean project
management for FIFA World Cup 2018 has few aspects. All of the aspects that are required as a
resource for the lean Project Management process for the entire sports event focus is entirely on
serving the customer right (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). This is because fall in project management
the soul priority is the focusing on the customers so that they would not be this place during the
entire Sporting event time span. However it is always seen that due to the progression of the
FIFA World Cup and the elimination of different teams and certain other factors the client
requirements seem to be changing every other time. What is it is not only required that financial
sponsors should start investing more but more work force is also needed than usual (Orzen &
Bell, 2016). This is because the amount of people that FIFA World Cup 2018 organizing
committee has to serve to almost take the shape of the entire population of the world. Therefore

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more manpower and more finances are needed as a resource if standard value of lean project
management for FIFA World Cup 2018 needs to be maintained.
Competencies
• Business and Strategic Management
Maintaining a strategic management for the entire business for the organization handling
FIFA World Cup 2018 is one of the core competencies of the entire event. It also works well for
managing the business as well as having a strategic management implementation on the
organization. One of the two most important aspects of FIFA World Cup 2018 is time and
money (Carvalho, Patah & Bido, 2015). The less money the business spend on the event and the
less time it consumes only then it will become competent. Having said that it is to be captain
mind that FIFA World Cup runs through a long time including people from all the corners of the
world and has a you chance of being humongous expensive sport event. Does the organizations
lean project management would make it competent for including less money investing more time
and having more return of investment in less time.
• Technical Management
The techniques applied for the lean project management should be maintained well (Dave
et al., 2016). This is because with the help of these techniques the proper project management
methodology with lean thinking will be applied to FIFA World Cup 2018 to make it a successful
event buy meeting the requirement of the clients as well as making more money for the
organization with the return on investments.

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• Leadership
According to the project management methodologies it can be identified quite well that
leadership is the soul factor which makes an entire project run. This does not only me the work
force of the organizing committee follow orders but also inspires every member included in the
workforce to include their own discretion while following any order or providing services to the
client (Browning & Ramasesh, 2015). Channelizing the workforce in a proper way leading them
to the right direction of providing the customers with the best possible solutions and services is
the leadership quality that is required in this project for handling a massive events like the FIFA
World Cup 2018.
Conclusion
In conclusion it can be said that the entire prospect of having a lean project management
done on a massive event like the FIFA World Cup 2018 would obviously grab a lot of attention
since this is an international sports event. Therefore all the aspects of lean thinking in a business
would most likely be implemented in this case keeping in mind that it should not surpass the
requirements of the customers. Thus, the entire lean project management on such issues and
important world sporting event like the FIFA World Cup 2018 few points is elaborated on as per
the lean project management. This included some aspect of the sporting event such as the voice
of the customer or VOC, the critical to customer requirements or CCR and the critical to quality
parameters or CTQ. The entire implementation of the lean project management on this event
would depend on these factors as well as the identification of the root causes of the problem
according to the factors, the ways by which continuous improvement should be implemented for
the lean project management in FIFA 2018, and the ways by which competencies should be
maintained in this process. Thus this essay would have an idea about the implementation of lean

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project management on a gigantic sports event like FIFA World Cup 2018 and identifying the
elaborative processes with respect to PMBOK, Prince2 and Lean Six Sigma.

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