Investigation of Project Management Process at Katz Office Fittings

This report investigates the project management process at Katz Office Fittings and provides recommendations to improve productivity and address internal issues. The project involves the fit-out of a medium-sized IT building for 200 employees. The report discusses the findings of the investigation and suggests hiring a new project manager, improving communication, and ensuring skilled contract workers.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive Summary
This aim of this report is to investigate the business process of the project undertaken by Katz
Office Fittings. The project undertaken by Katz Office Fittings involve a fitting project of a
medium sized IT building for nearly 200 employees. The company will provide furnishings,
electrical infrastructure, plumbing, telecom infrastructure and data infrastructure. During the
investigation of the project activity by Adler Services Australia which is a project
management consultancy, numerous internal issues where discovered in the project activity.
The project was found to be moving ahead of the set schedule but is working completely off
the process set. This lead to additional problems in the project team. Therefore, the report
provides recommendations which will definitely reduce the identified issues and enhance
project productivity.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Discussion..................................................................................................................................3
Recommendations......................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
Reflection...................................................................................................................................8
Bibliography...............................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
This report discusses the working about Adler Services which is a Project
Management Consultancy. The project management consultancy company is engaged by
Katz Office FitOuts. Katz Office Fitouts are currently undertaking the fit-out of a medium
rise IT office building somewhere in Sydney suburb. The project management company
investigates the current standing of the project taken undertaken by Katz Office and the
significant findings of the investigation are discussed here in this report. The report discusses
the findings of the investigation which will help the organization to improve productivity and
performance of the project team who are responsible for the development of the medium rise
IT office building. The advices provided by the consultancy company are taken into account
to bring about changes in the working and flow of the project.
Discussion
Adler Services Australia is a project management consultancy. The same consultancy
firm is contacted by Katz Office Fitouts who have currently undertaken the fit outs of
medium –rise IT office building somewhere in the suburbs of Sydney. For the medium rise IT
office building, Katz company formed a team involving it own employees and contractors,
the team is lead by a project manager who are working on the task. Katz Office Fitouts have
fallen into trouble with their team manager leaving the company abruptly to join an overseas
company. The resignation of the project manager from the company has put the company in a
pit hole. Alder Services is given the responsibility to conduct an investigation in the working
process of the project and report the same directly to the board of Katz Office Fitouts. Jim
Katz is the owner and chairman of Katz Office Fitouts. For the smooth working and flow of
the project there is an urgent requirement to improve the performance of the project team.

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The blueprint of the building consists of four stages. The design is so done to
accommodate around 200 people. The division of people on each floor is made clear with
each floor housing 50 people. The floors for each level is of five hundred square meters. Katz
Office Fitout is responsible for doing all the fit outs of the building from level 1 to level 4.
The fittings include plumbing, electrical infrastructure, telecom and data infrastructure and
furnishings. After all the fittings are done, two hundred employees of Walfisch Software
which is a software company will be relocated into this building.
The project manager before leaving the company has left behind very little tangible
record for investigation. The records which are gathered are of small quantity and hardy is
reliable for investigation. The beginning of the investigation involved interviewing the
stakeholders and staffs to understand the current situation and standing of the project. The
interviewing of the staffs and stakeholders lead to the revealing of critical information about
the project. The budget of the total fitting accounts to $1.2 million. The budget assigned for
the project is sufficient to complete the project. The scheduling of the project came out into
the open. The original completion plan had the schedule to complete the project in four
month with work commencing from 1st of March. The project was expected to be completed
by the end of June that is by 30th June. If gone by the current schedule, the ground floor
should have been completed in recent time. The first floor should have been fifty percent
completed by now and the second floor should also been half completed. Only the top floor
should have been left for completion. The investigation revealed that only 75% of work was
completed on the ground floor. Both the first and second floor was 25% complete. The top
floor was 50%complete. It can be clearly understood from the investigation that the work is
not progressing according to the set schedule, but the work is ahead of schedule. Further
investigation showed that by far $675,000 has been spent on all the fitout that has been used.

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It is clear from interviewing the people that the project was moving well and is well ahead of
time.
There are certain facts that came into knowledge when the staffs and the stakeholder
were interviewed. The staffs have raised certain issues about the project manager Tony
Faultier. Tony Faultier was seen as a completely lazy project manager. He was recognized as
an aggressive and hostile person. The staffs even complained that the project manager bullied
them. He was intolerant in his approaches and was highly impatient. This made situation and
the working of the team complex. There was also communication issue within the team. The
staffs and the stakeholders further added that the project manager believed in an autocratic
style of conducting work within the team. The team suffered for such an approach towards
work. The project manger was unwilling to take additional advice into account. He was
mostly unwilling to consider any suggestion or advice given by his teammates which could
have brought about positive result in the project process. This lead to rise of communication
issues between the team members and the project manager.
Katz Office Fittings have several policies for the employees of the company. The
company rewards its employees if the employees perform beyond their work targets. The
company has a performance based salary for all the staff where the employees receive
bonuses when they work extra and overshoot the set target. The team members were well
aware that the construction work of the top most level should not have started. The team
members even tried to convey the issue to the project manager. But as can be understood,
since he was arrogant, he did not pay head to his team members. The early beginning of work
on the top floor started causing problem for further fitting work. The problem that rose from
the early beginning of the top level work was that, there was a case of accidental leakage
from the plumbing done. The leakage caused additional damage to the fitouts on the first

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floor. The damage on the first floor cause delay in the work process. It was learnt that the
project manger was completely aware of the damage situation, yet he advised his workers to
continue with the work on first floor. Such issues in the communication process affected the
working of the team members and affected the communication line of the team with their
manager. Later it as discovered, that there was an underlying hidden reason behind the
project manager asking his team members to continue with their work on the first floor. The
reason behind the continuation of work on the top floor was that, the project manager, Tony
Faultier was paid a handsome commission by one of the former senior manger of Katz Office
Fitouts to complete the Broad Room which was on the top floor. The senior manager who
was tipping Tony Faultier wanted to use the Board Room on the top floor for some personal
celebration. There were other additional issues which came out in the open during the
interview process. The handful of staffs of Katz Office Fitouts complained that many of the
staffs which were brought on a contract basis did not have adequate training in handling data
cable installation. The contract staffs lacked knowledge and training on the specialized data
cabling required for the numerous fit outs. The errors made by the staffs lead to additional
investments. The reworks which were required due to the mistakes made by the contract
staffs have incurred heavy cost on the company.
On analyzing the situations of the company which came out in the investigation
process, it can be said that the majority of the issues rose was because there was huge
communication gap between the project manager with his team members. The arrogant and
aggressive nature of the team manager made the working of the team complex and he easily
ignored the identified damage in the project process. The construction work on the top level
was damaging the lower floors and yet the project manager did not stop the work and asked
his team to continue the work as he was handsomely commissioned. The communication gap
caused most of the problem in the project activity process. The project was ahead of time but

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was completely off the schedule set. This lead to additional damage in the project plan, which
in turn caused several reworks to be done. The reworks incurred heavy cost on the company.
Recommendations
 The company needs to recruit a new project manager to the current working team.
 The project manager should initiate healthy relationship with the other team mates
and the contractor.
 The project manager should ask the contracting company to send well trained
members.
 The company should finish each level once at a time and work according to the
schedule.
 A primary investigation into the current situation to understand the total damage
caused.
 Error mitigation plan to remove the existing errors and to prevent new errors from
cropping up.
 The project manger should periodically monitor the development of the project,
 The project manager should listen to any positive inputs provided by his team
members.
Conclusion
The analysis of the situation of Katz Office Fitouts showed that the project was
moving way ahead of schedule. But there was numerous underlying process in the project
activity which caused internal issue in the expansion of the project. The major issue in the
project activity was that there was a huge communication gap between the project manager
and the team members. The project manger took no account of the advices given by the team

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members. Additionally, the contract workers were not adequately skilled enough to perform
the task which caused additional bottlenecks for the project. Considering the
recommendations and recruitment of a new project manager who is ready to take into
knowledge the advices of his team member can solve the issue and potentially reduce extra
cost and enhance productivity.
Reflection
On analyzing the project situation of the Katz Office Fitouts, I feel the chief issue in
the project activity process lies in the communication gap that prevailed between the project
manager, Tony Faultier and his team mates. As I have gathered from interviewing the team,
Tony Faultier was quite an arrogant and aggressive man. This stringent nature of the man
lead to communication issues within the team. Tony Faultier never recognized the positive
advice or inputs from his team mates. This nature of his highly agitated the team members.
Additionally the contract workers that were considered for the work lacked basic skills in
performing their task efficiently. This in turn increased the expenditure of the company as
there were multiple reworks in involved. I feel these were the major concerns, which was
effecting the project and the plan to go off schedule also invariably increased company’s
expenditure. To reduce further additional expenditure and smooth running of the project, the
schedule should be strictly followed. I feel with a new management at the helm will enhance
the production process and reduce any additional damage.

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