Comparison of Megaprojects: Heathrow Terminal 5 and Denver International Airport

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
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1PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Key challenges related to the projects.........................................................................................2
Difference between the two projects based on the challenges considering the resources, the
people, and the processes.............................................................................................................3
Assessment of the project manager’s role in both projects.........................................................4
Supporting reasons behind choosing these approaches...............................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

2PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Megaproject is a concept that involves an investment of over 1 billion of currency for the
development of physical infrastructures. These physical infrastructures are mostly involved with
the movement of information, resources and people within locations or buildings all around the
world (Flyvbjerg 2014). The following report would provide a critical comparison between the
developments of such megaprojects of the Heathrow Terminal 5 and Denver International
Airport based on the ways that these projects were handled. This would include the comparison
of the key challenges to the projects and based on that how can these two projects be
differentiated. This comparison would take the resources, the people and the processes into
consideration. Further, the assessment of the role of a project manager would be presented for
both the projects in handling the project and supporting the reasons behind the approaches taken
towards handling these approaches.
Key challenges related to the projects
Any megaproject deals with major issues regarding finances as a project is only declared
as a megaproject when the finances rise over 1 billion of the country currency (Project
Management Institute 2017). Managing the entire process including the resource and the people
involved within the project within the given budget is the biggest challenge involved with a
megaproject.
In both the cases for Heathrow Terminal 5 and Denver International Airport, the
challenges had been in the project being termed as a megaproject and the huge scopes it had
made with the pre-planning of the projects. The Heathrow Terminal 5 was a complex project
estimated on a budget of 4.3 billion GBP by the year 2002 (Davies, Gann and Douglas 2009). On