Project Management - Assignment PDF

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Comparison between management of Heathrow T5 project and the Denver project
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Table of Contents
Key challenges related to the projects.............................................................................................2
Heathrow T5 Terminal project....................................................................................................2
Denver International Airport project...........................................................................................2
Key differences between the two projects.......................................................................................3
Resources.....................................................................................................................................3
People..........................................................................................................................................3
Process.........................................................................................................................................4
Assessment of Project manager role................................................................................................4
Role of Project manager in the projects.......................................................................................4
Handling of challenges as Project Manager................................................................................5
Approach for handling challenges...............................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................7

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Key challenges related to the projects
This section illustrates on the key challenges associated with Heathrow T5 terminal and
Denver International Airport project.
Heathrow T5 Terminal project
The project was undertaken to open up Terminal 5 within Heathrow Airport for
increasing the annual capacity to 95 million of passenger from 67 million. This project was
complex in nature and had a numbers of challenges associated with it as it was a mega project.
The project is considered to be failure due to lack of proper project management skills. One of
the major key challenge was that it is the largest as well as complex project being undertaken by
the British Airport Authority (Davies, Gann and Douglas 2009). Another challenging task related
to this project was accessing the ways as well as conditions of the site as those were physically
constrained and logically challenging. A special system was integrated that consisted of many
different technologies thus it was a challenging task to handle such system. The risk of cost
overruns as well as time required for integration of new technology was also a major constraint
in this project.
Denver International Airport project
This project was undertaken to develop an automated Baggage handling system which
was to be the world’s largest but it is now only a classic story due to failure of the project. The
major reason behind failure of this project was that the key decision makers underestimated
complexity of the project. The project was undertaken to the design the most complex system
that has been ever attempted (Montealegre and Keil 2000). The complexity of the project was not
recognized properly as well as the risks associated with the project led to delay in initiation of

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the project. The process of bidding requests as well as design and system construction was
delayed thus there was little time left for completion of the project. Hence, there was insufficient
time and miscalculation led to exposure of the project towards extensive levels of pressure on
schedule.
Key differences between the two projects
Resources
The failure of the baggage handling system in Heathrow T5 terminal led to chaos and
thus resulted into cancellation of flights and there was a huge pile of baggage accumulated. The
Resource Management systems (RMS) was not able to properly allocate the baggage handlers
for loading and unloading in flights. Thus, it led to failure of the system and loss of reputation of
the Heathrow Airport (Gil, Miozzo and Massini 2012). Further, there was also unavailability of
the proper resources required to design and develop the Heathrow Airport T5 terminal. This
project involved both construction as well as information system development hence there was
involvement of both IT resource and Construction resources.
The Denver International Airport also faced the same issue with baggage handling system
as the project was initiated late than the estimated schedule which led to failure of the project.
The baggage handling system was designed and constructed with extensive levels of pressure on
schedule as there was little time left to the complete design of the system (Swartjes et al. 2017).
This project involved only IT resources as it was undertaken for only developing the baggage
handling system.

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People
The Heathrow T5 terminal project was a megaproject that consisted of groups and
different facilities. There was involvement of the various people related to the project as it
consisted of both Construction as well as IT infrastructure development. The construction
workers were involved to complete the airfield infrastructure as well as the facilities within the
new terminal. The IT people were involved for designing and development of the automated
baggage handling system (Winch 2007). The British Airport Authority was the major
stakeholder of this project as it was undertaken by them to increase their annual capacity of
passengers.
In the Denver International Airport, there was involvement of only IT people as it
comprised of only developing an automated baggage handling system. The management of the
Denver International Airport were the major stakeholders as they were involved with making
decisions and completing the project.
Process
In the Heathrow T5 terminal project, a System Integrated Model was developed for
handling the project. BAA (British Airport Authority) played a major role in this project and had
the responsibility of managing as well as governing the project throughout the entire project
lifecycle.
In Denver International Airport project, there was no such development of model or
specific approach to handle the project. In fact, the management was not even able to estimate
complexity of the project which led to delay in starting the project.

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Assessment of Project manager role
Role of Project manager in the projects
Heathrow T5 project
 Recruitment of skillful employees, identification and management of
stakeholders.
 Development and detailing of the plan for project along with deliverables.
 Handling of issues within the project.
 Ensuring achievement of project scope along with monitoring the progress and
performance of project (Govindarajan 2015).
 Defining team structure for project to the organization.
 Identifying the contractors and closing the project.
Denver project
 Review with customers to determine the requirements.
 Preparing scope statement and planning for management of changes in scope.
 Preparing a suitable organization structure for the project.
 Handling of communication and stakeholder management (Montealegre and Keil
2000).
 Identification and management of risks.
 Determining suitable contracting services and closure of the project.
Handling of challenges as Project Manager
As a project manager, the challenges can be handled by proper estimation of complexity,
evaluation of risks and proper management of resources such that allocation is done suitably to

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complete the project within estimated time and budget. A special management approach will be
develop for managing the challenges associated with such megaprojects.
Approach for handling challenges
The special management approach will help in successful completion of megaprojects
like Heathrow T5 project and Denver project. The mentioned approach will be developed by
integrating the required processes with stages of project lifecycle that is initiation, planning, and
execution along with monitoring and controlling.
The approach will consider the various aspects of project management along with the
constraints involved with complex projects that is cost, time and scope (Lopez, Mascione and
Liu 2017). The approach being considered for handling of the challenges associated with the two
projects will also help to handle the processes required for closing of project along with
designing, procuring resources, construction and testing the operational readiness. Thus, the
chosen approach will ensure success of such complex projects with proper management.

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References
Davies, A., Gann, D. and Douglas, T., 2009. Innovation in megaprojects: systems integration at
London Heathrow Terminal 5. California Management Review, 51(2), pp.101-125.
Eduardo Yamasaki Sato, C. and de Freitas Chagas Jr, M., 2014. When do megaprojects start and
finish? Redefining project lead time for megaproject success. International Journal of Managing
Projects in Business, 7(4), pp.624-637.
Gil, N., Miozzo, M. and Massini, S., 2012. The innovation potential of new infrastructure
development: An empirical study of Heathrow airport's T5 project. Research Policy, 41(2),
pp.452-466.
Govindarajan, A., 2015, January. A soft computing framework to evaluate the efficacy of
software project management. In Intelligent Systems and Control (ISCO), 2015 IEEE 9th
International Conference on (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Lopez, R., Mascione, D. and Liu, H.J., 2017. Management of issues in the delivery of airport
infrastructure within Western Australia. Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers-
Management, Procurement and Law, 170(5), pp.207-217.
Montealegre, R. and Keil, M., 2000. De-escalating information technology projects: Lessons
from the Denver International Airport. Mis Quarterly, pp.417-447.
Swartjes, L., van Beek, D.A., Fokkink, W.J. and van Eekelen, J.A.W.M., 2017. Model-based
design of supervisory controllers for baggage handling systems. Simulation Modelling Practice
and Theory, 78, pp.28-50.

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Winch, G.M., 2007. Managing project stakeholders. The Wiley guide to project, program, and
portfolio management, pp.271-289.