Project Quality Management

The report focuses on the major quality issues faced in the Denver Airport project management and provides recommendations to overcome future quality issues. It analyzes the failure of the automatic baggage system and identifies key quality issues. The report also discusses the lack of quality in design, implementation, and project planning.

Running head: PROJECT QUALITY MANAGEMENT
Project Quality Management
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Abstract
The report is prepared to focus on the major quality issues that are faced in the Denver
Airport project management and based on the identified issues a research is thus conducted.
Based on the research, the key quality issues that led to the failure of the automatic baggage
system of the Denver Airport is thus identified and further analysis are done on the quality
issues. Different tools and techniques are recommended at the end of the report by which the
future quality issues of any project management can be overcome to reach the intended goal
of the project successfully.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Research Framework..................................................................................................................3
Objective of the research........................................................................................................3
Quantitative research..............................................................................................................4
Qualitative Research..............................................................................................................5
Information gathered about Denver Airport Automatic Baggage System Failure................5
Analysis after the findings.........................................................................................................6
Reason identified for the lack of quality issues.........................................................................9
Recommendation on the key quality issues identified from the case study...........................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................10
References:...............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
The Denver International Airport started its construction in the year 1989. The airport
is located about 25 miles far away from the Denver downtown, Colorado in the United States.
The initial aim of the Denver Airport was to build the world’s largest automated baggage
system. The construction of the project covered a total land area of about 140 km square and
was estimated to handle the capacity of 50 million passengers every year. In the year 1992,
the top project managers analysed the situation and suggested that the implementation of the
airport wide integrated baggage system may result in a drastic change in the efficiency of the
automated baggage system that was planned. This report is prepared based on the case study
of Denver Airport Automatic Baggage Failure issue where the main reason behind its failure
was lack of quality in its design. The report aims on identifying the common quality issues
that are faced in the Airport Baggage System Failure at Denver Airport. The desired outcome
is availed after using certain research methodologies. The research practices that are taken
into account are qualitative and quantitative research methods. The scope of this research
aims at pointing out the importance of quality management in every project so as to deliver
project objectives as expected. The thesis statement that is established in this research paper
is that maintaining quality is an important factor for every successful project planning and
thus needs to followed with utmost care.
Research Framework
Objective of the research
The objective of this literature review is to clearly identify the issues in project quality
management that are often faced by project managers. The information collected for the
report is critically assessed and utilized to provide a detailed summary as provided in the
review. The analysis of the collected information is done in terms of the desired objective that

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is intended to achieve from the above literature review. The analysis of the quality issues and
the possible ways to overcome the issues are clearly identified by all possible ways of
research methodologies.
The research is carried out based on different research methodologies, the created
knowledge and the thorough investigation of the research problems. For the above-mentioned
topic we had used two important methodologies which are as follows:
Quantitative research
This research methodology is totally based on numbers. The aim of the research is to
measure the amount as well as comparing the values with the past researches providing future
aspects which can be projected in the future implementations. This research deals with the
development of mathematical models that is meant to provide to pertain the process of the
research (McCusker & Gunaydin, 2015). The method of measuring includes the relation
between the empirical observation and the mathematical expressions obtained from the
quantitative relations from the research method. The quantitative information that are
collected for this report includes the various data quantitative data that are collected to
analyse the situation of the failure case of automotive baggage system at Denver airport.
From the case study information has been gathered that the Denver automated baggage
system was first meant to test about 7000 bags but when the system was tested it was seen
that the bags were loaded wrongly causing jamming of the system. From the report it is seen
that major of the project failure reason was based on the miscalculation that was done from
the beginning of the project.

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Qualitative Research
This mode of research deals with the collection of data and then analysing and
interpreting them after observation (Flick, 2018). This research reflects the definitions,
symbols and characteristics that are needed for the research (Chowdhury, 2015). The
qualitative data that are collected from the case study of Denver airport includes unexpected
quality issues in the electrical, mechanical and software systems.
Information gathered about Denver Airport Automatic Baggage System Failure
Quality issues of a project can also arise due to the lack of proper control over the
tools and techniques used in the project implementation (De Neufville, 2014). The failure
case of the automatic baggage system at Denver airport is one that is caused especially due to
quality issues. Some of the unexpected added factors like the failure of the software used,
mechanical and electrical factors led to the de-functioning of the automatic baggage system at
the airport.
According to Varajão et al. (2014), the reports published about the failure of the
Denver Airport Baggage System, the failure of the project started from the fundamental
calculations that are done in the beginning of the project. The automatic baggage system was
not included in the project design of the airport which was later found that the construction of
the system is too tough to be done in the packed environment of the airport. The time
constraint is another major factor that led to the failure of the project that is the project was
done only in a time span of 21 months. The management of the project did not keep any
backups like cart or something in case the project fails.
According to Demirkesen & Ozorhon (2017), the constraints that contributed in the
failure of the project were the lack of quality in the design and lack of proper implementation.
The entire project of Denver airport baggage system failed due to the lack of the project

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quality framework. According to any project management it should follow certain project
management frameworks such as SCRUM or Prince 2 or Extreme project management.
However, the airport management system did not follow any of these methods to ensure the
planning stage of the project and the testing process of the project.
Besides all these key constraints that led to the failure of the automatic baggage
system, the project management team also failed to point out the necessity of shifting the
organisational responsibility with that of the change in the technology. Failing to do so, led to
the failure of the entire project planning from the beginning. This delay in setting up of the
correct strategy led to the failure of implementing an integrated system into the automatic
baggage system in the airport of Denver.
Another key finding of the failure case study of the Denver Airport baggage system
is that there was problem regarding the acceptance of changes that are requested in the
project planning of the entire system. Among the major changes that were requested during
the project planning includes implementation of ski equipment racks that the entire team
refused to accept. Also, proper servicing of the carts was also not maintained by the project
team members. All these issues led to the rise in various troubles and the team ultimately
failed in providing the planned integrated strategy within their automatic baggage system.
Analysis after the findings
The Denver International Airport is billed and regarded to have the most efficient
baggage handling system. Yet the airport management had encountered a huge failure within
their systems. According to published reports, it was found that there were many kinds of
failures that resulted from software, electric and mechanical based failure within their
baggage systems. The internal management system at the Denver International Airport had

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also stated that the failure within their internal system had mostly started with any kind of
miscalculations that were made within the project (Johnson, 2019). Some of the problems
included fundamental miscalculations within the project such as the complexity of the entire
project.
There was further analysis that led to the following kind of discussions about the
primary cause of the failure. Among the various kind of conclusions drawn from the analysis,
the most important kind of constraints that were derived and which had led to the incident of
failure of the baggage systems are:
1. The primary cause of failure in the systems is that the automatic baggage system
was never included during the initial design plan of the project. During the initial designing
of the project plan, the airport authorities and the technical team were not concerned about
including them within the project plan. The design of geometry for the airport that was in the
construction phase was too constricted and had thus led to restriction of the automatic
baggage system to fit within the airport (De Neufville, Budd & Ison, 2016). As the automatic
baggage system was not included within the initial project plan, the entire system had to be
forced in the airport infrastructure at the later phase. This system was fitted within the
boundaries of Denver airport. It was thus put within an underground tunnel that would have
to connect the terminal and the concourses.
2. The other important constraint that led to the failure was the scheduling of the
project was too tight. The schedule for the project was too fixed and the entire team had to
complete the infrastructural work within the fixed timing (Burge & McCall, 2015). The entire
tight schedule had made it extremely hard to test the automatic baggage system for a
minimum time period of six months. This further resulted in delaying of the period of making
corrections. There was also no form of a backup system such as carts or trucks that would be

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able to cope up with the high form of expected baggage management system (Flouris &
Oswald, 2016). Another problem that was faced in this aspect was that there were no such
access roads that would be able to link the check-in and the aircraft.
Hence, from the analysis drawn from the huge failure at the airport, it could be
discussed that several levels of miscommunication within the consultants, project team and
city could have not been controlled or well-maintained during the design of the airport
system.
Analysis of the Project planning of the Denver Airport Automatic Baggage System
According to PMBOK, for any project, proper project planning plays a vital role for
the successful outcome of the project. There are different project management tools which
includes the following features like planning or scheduling, Collaboration, Documentation
and Evaluation. In case of Denver airport, none of this project planning were done properly.
First of all, the project planning and scheduling of the automatic baggage system went
through several delays and thus the cost of the project also increased. Several delays in the
project scheduling led to the increase in the debt to up to $271 million.
Second factor is communication or collaboration. This vital part of project planning also was
not followed properly in case of Denver Airport Automatic Baggage System project.
Communication measure between the project team members and other consultants were not
well defined and controlled properly. For example, when the filters in the electricity were
planned within the project, one of the workers under the project cancelled it without the
knowledge of the other project team members. Also, there was lack in the leadership of the
project management of the automatic baggage system of the project. After the death of the
main project manager who was the main lead of this project, a new project manager was

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appointed but he was not that much skilled with the engineering knowledge that was required
for the successful completion of the project.
The third important factor that is Documentation was not at all followed regularly in the
project. All the important documentation that were required for the final report of the project
was not profoundly loaded with data. Like for example, the data that Denver launched based
on the project lacked the details of the Stapleton airports two important airlines. These two
major airlines were responsible for bringing majority of the passenger traffic into the airport
of Denver. As the documentation of the project missed this part, hence they lacked in
developing strategies to control the major rush.
Last but not the least part of the project planning is the evaluation part. At the beginning, the
automatic baggage system of Denver was tested with about 7000 bags. But at the time of
evaluation, the tested bags were loaded wrongly and most of them fell from the carts leading
to the congestion of the whole system. But in spite of this congested situation the system
continued loading more bags which ultimately led to the failure of the project.
Reason identified for the lack of quality issues
While analysing the project case study, it is seen that the lack of development of
strategies including lack of innovation and continuous improvement in the project team is the
main reason that contributed in the lack of quality issues in the project.
Recommendation on the key quality issues identified from the case study
Developing strategies to implement artefacts will simplify the work procedure in a
project team where instead of doing detailed report they can make use of artefacts (De Lucia
et al., 2014). In addition to that, encouraging innovation in a project management team will
help in achieving short term sprint goals instead of long-term ones. Use of impediments in
project team meetings also help in achieving the project goal in a quality way. For attaining a

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successful project, the project manager needs to look at the type of materials that are being
used in the project. He also needs to communicate with the other team members and the stake
holders in order to identify the required time span that is exactly needed for successful
completion of the project with proper quality check. In construction projects, technical
specification control should be carried out. The ISO 9001 standard should be followed in
every project be it in manufacturing or construction industries in order assure the quality of
the project and the materials used in the project.
.

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Conclusion
Thus, from the report it can be concluded that identifying the main issues in the
project failure is a vey complicated task as any such issue may lead to the cancellation of the
project. A project can attain its success by following the main objectives of the deliverables
with proper quality tests. The Project management team of Denver airport did not have
enough knowledge and expertise about planning the automatic baggage system and the
technologies that are involved within the process. Though the senior experts have
recommended some quality issue changes in the project but major of the recommendations
were ignored. The Denver airport baggage system failure went above the time and cost that
was estimated at the project beginning. The airport baggage system project did not meet the
estimated scopes and objectives of the project. The main concept of the complexity of the
loads were denied in the project management which deviated the concept of automatic
baggage system from their project planning.

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Cognition'14 (pp. 313-326). Springer, Cham.
Chowdhury, I. A. (2015). Issue of quality in a qualitative research: An overview. Innovative
Issues and Approaches in Social Sciences, 8(1), 142-162.
De Lucia, A., Fasano, F., Oliveto, R., & Tortora, G. (2014, September). Enhancing an
artefact management system with traceability recovery features. In 20th IEEE
International Conference on Software Maintenance, 2004. Proceedings. (pp. 306-
315). IEEE.
De Neufville, R. (2014). The baggage system at Denver: prospects and lessons. Journal of
Air Transport Management, 1(4), 229-236.
De Neufville, R., Budd, L., & Ison, S. (2016). Airport systems planning and design. Air
transport management: An international perspective, 61.
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construction industry. Engineering Management Journal, 29(4), 258-277.
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Flouris, T. G., & Oswald, S. L. (2016). Designing and executing strategy in aviation
management. Routledge.

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Johnson, K. (2019). Denver Airport Saw the Future. It Didn't Work. Retrieved from
https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/27/us/denver-airport-saw-the-future-it-didnt-
work.html
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