Project Management: Success Factors, Lessons Learnt and Recommendations

This article evaluates the success factors, lessons learnt and recommendations for project management using Salisbury House project as an example. It also highlights the skills required to become a successful project manager. The article emphasizes on the importance of comprehensive planning, risk management, intelligent people, strong project closure and open communication for successful project management. The recommendations include maintaining proper interaction with stakeholders, feasibility estimation, creating detailed work plan and holding wrap up meetings. The article concludes with the reflection of the author on the skills required to become a successful project manager.

Project Management

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................1
Success or failure factors.............................................................................................................1
Lessons learnt..............................................................................................................................3
Recommendations........................................................................................................................5
REFLECTION.................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Project management could be defined to execution of methods, skills, experience, processes
along with knowledge with the hope of achieving particular objectives of project as per
acceptance criteria in determined parameters (Cerdeiral and Santos, 2019). It has final
deliverables which are constrained to finite budget as well as timescale. It is aimed for producing
an end commodity or service which would have certain effect on change for benefit of
corporation which instigated the project. Projects requiring formal management produces
something that are new, tangible or intangible, require change management and have finite
timespan. For the assessment, Salisbury House (SH) project is taken into consideration for
investigation. University of Wales Trinity Saint David London campus has recently acquired a
new building block that is Salisbury House which is located in Kennington business park. It is to
create additional rooms of teaching for ever growing number of students along with
administrative offices for key staff to man centre. The building block entails classrooms,
kitchenette, reception space, administrative office student lounge, lecturers’ office addition to
toilet facility.
The assessment included critical evaluation of the project by highlighting critical success/
failure factors, lessons learnt and recommendations. It also comprises reflective report that
highlight skills required for acquirement in order to become successful project manager.
MAIN BODY
Success or failure factors
Salisbury House (SH) project includes acquisition of new building block by the University
of Wales Trinity Saint David London campus for creating additional teaching rooms for ever
growing number of students together with administrative offices for staff. In the new building
block, UWSTD London campus comprises of variants of facilities for staff and students. In the
project, success factors are as mentioned:
Comprehensive planning: Within a project, having detailed plan generally sets ball rolling
in favour of success of project from start (Cicmil, Crawford, and Richardson, 2017). In aspect to
Salisbury House (SH) project, comprehensive planning is one of factors that leads to success as it
guides future actions of team members. Through comprehensive planning, project managers
present a vision for the future with long-range goals as well as objectives for all tasks. It provides
1

details about the requirement of resources and acts as a warning system. In case of any type of
lapse in project, warning signal provide clear visibility related to what is expected.
Comprehensive planning help team members to meet essential deadlines together with stay well
organised in achieving end deliverables.
Management of risk properly: It is one of popular fact that projects do not go in same
manner as they are planned. There are projects that fails and certain fail spectacularly because of
risks which arise during project. In aspect to Salisbury House (SH) project, management of risks
in proper manner resulted in success as project manager creates risk log with an effective plan of
mitigation for tackling risks which have possibilities to arise during working of the project.
Project managers of Salisbury House (SH) project ensured that all stakeholders were informed
about associated risks with building expansion of campus. The manager informed about risk log
as well as mitigation actions when they occurred (Melo, Salerno and Brasil, 2020). When
something uncertain happened, team involved in the project resolved risks effectively with plan
that was already set in location. It provided the team confidence at the time of facing project
risks as well as ensure with project progression.
Intelligent people: For making the project successful, capable people are required in the
team. It is determined that a project can derail at any point of duration. In association to
Salisbury House (SH) project, project staff together with stakeholders are seen as key success
factors as they share enthusiasm as well as commitment with others in group. In the project, team
shared similar visions for project together with aim for success. While completing working,
project manager of Salisbury House (SH) project faced complex trouble due to uncertain
situations. Effective leadership style resulted in gaining distinct exposure of situations to
facilitate building of positive working environment that send project spiralling towards success
(Eriksson, Larsson and Pesämaa, 2017). Within the project, project manager assigned right job to
right person and ensure that all performed well that resulted in success of project.
Strong project closure: In all projects, it is crucial to have strong closure. In Salisbury
House (SH) project, project manager was with the university and agreed with clients to set strong
closure that acted as a key success factor. Project delivery, testing addition to release
confirmation were agreed on together with signed off. In Salisbury House (SH) project, certified
project manager on board drives success of project in terms of budget, schedule, quality, scope
2

and many more. All the practices of project manager results in establishing strong project closure
leading to successful deliverables.
Open communication: In success of a project, open communication is significant factor. In
aspect to Salisbury House (SH) project, when entire team was performing in accordance to
particular schedule. It is significant that team was well informed in all project aspects. The
project manager of the project was more honest in what to be delivered as well as when to be
deliver (Goel, Ganesh, and Kaur, 2020). With effective and open communication, various types
of undesirable developments were prevented and discovered earlier. In this, project manager
implemented and used formal communication processes including meetings, documents, etc and
informal processes. It offered opportunities for workforce involved in the project to come
collectively outside official meetings to exchange information for reaching success.
Lessons learnt
In the project, it is learnt that project management is an unique process entailing set of
coordinated addition to controlled practices having start and end dates, generally undertaken for
attaining a goal conforming to particular requirements comprising constraints of resources, time
as well as costs. It is planning, execution along with monitoring project activities with the hope
of meeting objectives and producing quality deliverables as per expectations of stakeholders
(Hasan, Rameezdeen and Baroudi, 2019). Objective behind project that is Salisbury House (SH)
project is to arrange facilities in form of additional teaching rooms and others for students and
staff within University of Wales trinity Saint David London campus. It is also learnt that without
effective project management, issues about having project completed on time could be faced. It
is complex to build accountability within team along with harder to keep team on same page.
In project management, planning whole project in advance is crucial for achieving
success (Jugdev, Mathur and Cook, 2018). Without project planning, there are less chances of
success. In context to Salisbury House (SH) project, project planning guide in tracking progress,
emphasising on the team on objectives, attaining buy-in and performing better. It is effectual for
documenting planning assumptions, facilitating communication among stakeholders as well as
document approved cost together with schedule baseline. Proper implementation of project is
possible through planning which helps in acquiring new building blocks for offering additional
facilities to students and staff nearby to University of Wales Trinity Saint David (UWTSD)
London campus.
3

In has been learnt in project management assessment that it is significant to make certain
assumption for making project tasks on track. For Salisbury House (SH) project, assumptions
include access to all resources needed in project completion with certain specialised equipment.
Working in the project are made as per set budgetary amounts and there is no change in material
costs. Human resource management performs key function in achieving end results of projects
(Lai, Deng and Chang, 2019). In Salisbury House (SH) project, major roles played by human
resource management includes providing project team with development, building project plan,
holding official project kick-off meaning and conducting project debrief.
In project management assessment, communication plan is another learnt lesson.
Communication plan is effective way for keeping stakeholders addition to team aligned with
smooth running. In any project, for example, Salisbury House (SH) project, effective
communication matters as breakdown occurs when objectives and goals are not aligned, right
tools are not created and emails get lost. When project manager develops an effective
communication plan with organisational stakeholders, it enhances the chances of constructing a
new building properly (Rodríguez-Rivero, Ortiz-Marcos, and Lozano, 2020).
Budget is another lesson learnt in project management. Project budget comprises total
projected costs required for completing project over defined time period. It includes labor costs,
operating costs together with material procurement costs. In Salisbury House (SH) project,
budget is important as it assist in establishing expenditure expectations along with essential to
get approval, ensure that funds are ready at right duration and measure performance.
While working on managing the project that is Salisbury House (SH) project, it is learned
that every project has certain categories of risks associated that can make project complete
failure. Risk analysis entails examining the ways in which outcomes and objectives of project
might change because of impact of risk occurrence. Risk analysis together with management is
key practice in project management that ensure that least number of surprises arises when project
is underway. Properly management risks help in accomplishing higher profits addition to
developing better relations with stakeholders and opportunity of expansion. In the project of
Salisbury House (SH) project, risks associated are health and safety hazards, technological risks,
cost risks, labor shortage and productivity issues. In order to mitigate the risks, project managers
are ready with mitigation practices such as assume or accept the risk, controlling and
transference. Project management methodology acts as set of principle which guide people or
4

professionals in organising the projects for ensuring optimum performance (Zhang, Liao and
Chen, 2020).
Recommendations
To project managers of Salisbury House (SH) project, some of recommendations are as
follows:
 Maintain proper interaction with stakeholders: In a project, it is significant for
managers to build and maintain proper interaction with stakeholders. For managers of
Salisbury House (SH) project, it recommended to maintain interaction with stakeholders
that are students, staff and many more to analyse requirement of additional building
blocks. With this, project managers are able to analyse requirements of all involved
stakeholders and make necessary changes in practices that improves probability of
attaining successful deliverable.
 Feasibility estimation: In association to Salisbury House (SH) project, project managers
are recommended to conduct evaluation of various aspects of project comprising
technical, operational and organisational feasibility. With this, project managers will be
able to identify together with assess risks relevant to project and develop effective
strategies for mitigation purposes (Zhong, Zhou and Hu, 2018).
 Creating detailed work plan: In a project, having work plan is essential to attain success.
To project managers of Salisbury House (SH) project, it has been recommended to create
detailed work plan that serves as start point for all involved people because it elaborates
roles and responsibilities of all parties for checking off project tasks addition to meeting
deadline. While creating a work plan, managers are required to include job
responsibilities, essential information, deadline at centralise place which is easily
accessible for involved people.
 Holding wrap up meetings: When project is completed, managers are required to hold
wrap up meetings along with reflect on successes and failures. To project managers of
Salisbury House (SH) project, it has been recommended to hold wrap-up meetings as it
acts as wider opportunity for discussing what things went wrong in addition to the ways
things can be bettered in future. With this, work management could be improved in
Salisbury House (SH) project.
5

REFLECTION
The career of Project Management is demanding jobs involving plenty of variant of work
with high salaries (Zhou, Irizarry and Lu, 2018). While working in Salisbury House (SH) project,
I analysed that the profession of project manager comprises organising, planning together with
executing projects while carrying out practices within restraints such as schedules and budgets.
In Salisbury House (SH) project, I was incharge to lead teams, communicate with stakeholders,
define goals and seeing the project through closure. Throughout the lifecycle of project, I as
project manager was responsible for staying on schedule, documenting project progress,
assessing risks, managing project resources, planning cost and sticking to budget. In order to
become successful project manager, I need to acquire following skills:
Negotiation skill: It is termed to inherent quality which assist parties to agree to common
logical solution. In a project, from managing resources to dealing with conflicts, to engaging
suppliers, leading meaning constantly participating in negotiations. To become successful project
manager, I need to acquire negotiation skill to keep parties involves together with work for
unified goals at all durations. It all depends on situations at hand that as a project manager, I will
select to apply distinct kinds of negotiation styles. With acquisition of negotiation skill, I will be
able to apply persuasive techniques for encouraging solutions addition to avoid damaging
relationships at workplace.
Scheduling and time management skill: For a project manager, scheduling skill is key for
proper functioning (Rodríguez-Rivero, Ortiz-Marcos and Lozano, 2020). By acquiring
scheduling skill, I will adept at juggling multiple schedules addition to anticipate roadblocks
prior they occur as this would enhance my chances for delivering successful projects. Similarly,
time management skill is also key for me to acquire in order to work as successful project
manager. It is determined by me that effective time management starts with building well
defined project plan. At fundamental level, project plan captures requirement of project and
project scope, although sequencing resources addition to activities will go to long way in saving
money as well as time.
Risk management skill: The skill is termed to the ability for identification addition to
planning for potential risks (Goel, Ganesh and Kaur, 2020). To work as most productive project
manager, acquisition of risk management skill will enhance by competence for identification of
risks at outset of project along with develop mitigation plans for uncertain events. The skill will
6

guide me to spot projects in trouble, analyse fewer surprises, access to better quality of data for
decision making and maximise opportunities of success.
Problem solving and critical thinking skill: In career or discipline of project management,
critical thinking skill could provide advantage from learning. Despite of being reactive, I believe
successful project managers are proactive as well as uses the skill for navigating through
ambiguous projects. With acquisition of these skills, I will complete projects by remaining
objectives, evaluating options without bias together with analyse facts to solve complex issues in
the path of delivering results within budget and on time.
CONCLUSION
The mentioned information concludes that project management reduces workload, improves
productivity, assist in creating optimised methodology, improves collaboration, enhances
customer satisfaction and resolves problems. Success factors based on a project are
comprehensive planning, management of risk properly, intelligent people, strong project closure
and open communication. Managers of project are recommended to maintain proper interaction
with stakeholders, feasibility estimation, creating detailed work plan and holding wrap up
meetings. For making career as project manager, it is important to acquire skills such as
negotiation skill, risk management skill, scheduling and time management skill, problem solving
and critical thinking skill.
7

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Cerdeiral, C. T. and Santos, G., 2019. Software project management in high maturity: A
systematic literature mapping. Journal of Systems and Software. 148. pp.56-87.
Cicmil, S., Crawford, L. and Richardson, K., 2017, April. Exploring the complexity of projects:
Implications of complexity theory for project management practice. Project
Management Institute.
de Melo, J. C. F., Salerno, M. S., and Brasil, V.C., 2020. From open innovation projects to open
innovation project management capabilities: A process-based approach. International
Journal of Project Management. 38(5). pp.278-290.
Eriksson, P. E., Larsson, J. and Pesämaa, O., 2017. Managing complex projects in the
infrastructure sector—A structural equation model for flexibility-focused project
management. International journal of project management. 35(8). pp.1512-1523.
Goel, A., Ganesh, L. S. and Kaur, A., 2020. Project management for social good: A conceptual
framework and research agenda for socially sustainable construction project
management. International journal of managing projects in business.
Hasan, A., Rameezdeen, R. and Baroudi, B., 2019. Empirical study on implications of mobile
ICT use for construction project management. Journal of Management in
Engineering. 35(6). p.04019029.
Jugdev, K., Mathur, G. and Cook, C., 2018. Linking workplace burnout theories to the project
management discipline. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business.
Lai, H., Deng, X. and Chang, T. Y. P., 2019. BIM-based platform for collaborative building
design and project management. Journal of Computing in Civil Engineering. 33(3).
p.05019001.
Rodríguez-Rivero, R., Ortiz-Marcos, I., and Lozano, S. A., 2020. Applying the strategic
prospective approach to project management in a development project in
Colombia. International Journal of Project Management. 38(8). pp.534-547.
Zhang, Q., Liao, P. C. and Chen, W., 2020. Influence mechanisms of factors on project
management capability. Journal of Management in Engineering. 36(5). p.04020045.
Zhong, Y., Zhou, Z. and Hu, H., 2018. Uncertainty analysis and resource allocation in
construction project management. Engineering Management Journal. 30(4). pp.293-
305.
Zhou, Z., Irizarry, J. and Lu, Y., 2018. A multidimensional framework for unmanned aerial
system applications in construction project management. Journal of management in
engineering. 34(3). p.04018004.
Zhang, Liao and Chen, 2020)(Zhong, Zhou, and Hu, 2018)(Zhou, Irizarry, and Lu, 2018)
8