The Challenges of the Burj Khalifa Project: Cost Management and Success

Burj Khalifa's construction project faced financial challenges due to economic downturns, resulting in increased costs of raw materials and aluminum prices. This led to a budget overrun and failed to generate the expected economic value as initially planned. Despite this, the project successfully achieved its design objectives and became a landmark for Dubai, attracting visitors and boosting the country's economy.

STRATEGIC PROJECT
MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background of The project .............................................................................................................3
Standard criteria...............................................................................................................................4
Critical identification of the criteria.................................................................................................5
Critical evaluation............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
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INTRODUCTION
Strategic project management is the process of handling complex projects significantly. It
looks upon the factor that how the entire proposal can give benefit to the organization. It uses
business strategies and project management techniques effectively in order to accomplish the
objective of project. Present report is based on the case study of Burj Khalifa, Dubai. It is the
world's tallest building which is famous for its construction planning and designing. Current
assignment will discuss the standard criteria in this section and critically identify its
appropriation (Carbonell, 2015). On the basis of entire proposal, final conclusion will be drawn
at the end of study.
BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT
Burj Khalifa is the world's tallest building of Dubai located in the Middle East of third
largest oil producing country. It is currently known as Burj Dubai. Engineering team has
designed an excellent model for construction of the tallest building that has made Dubai a
popular destination from visitors’ point of view. Height of roof is approximately 828 meters
which has made the record of world's tallest building. Construction of this building was started
by builders in the year 2004 (Choplin and Franck, 2014). Exterior designing completion has
taken time of five years for this project. It was government’s decisions to build the largest
building to gain international recognition in the entire world. Constructor has given the name to
this building of Burj Khalifa to give honor to the president of United Arab Emirates Mr. Khalifa
bin Zayed Al Nahyan. The height of building and design of this project has broken all previous
records of this industry. Approximately 110000 tons were used by the team for the construction
of concrete and more than 22 million man hours have been used for the completion of this
project. It is man made tower which has residential apartments, entertainment facilities,
commercial offices etc.
Main aim of construction was not just to build world’s tallest tower but it was designed to
gain achievement.. Architecture design of this project is amazing and technically, it is made up
with mixed structure concrete and steel frame. To keep it secured and safe, designers have
adopted Y-type plan shape for the tower (Baker and Pawlikowski, 2015). The project is having
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all aspects which have not been applied before this construction. It has made this building unique
which is the main criteria of project management.
Height of top is approximately 828m, thigh of tip is 830m and occupied floor is 585m.
Apart from that, total area of tower is 465000m2. Engineers were majorly concentrating on
minimizing the wind forces on building. Buttressed core system is being used as the structure for
construction of building (Palmer, 2016). Lateral load resisting system is the unique feature of this
building. It consists of high performance and it is linked with the exterior reinforced concrete
columns. Thickness of core walls are from 1300mm to 500mm. Floor framing systems are being
used in the construction, climbing framework system (ACS), Rebar pre fabrication as well as
coloum proceeding methods are being used as technologies for the construction of Burj Khalifa
tower. The construction of building is unique and has used advanced technologies for
constructing world's largest building (Russo and et.al, 2013).
STANDARD CRITERIA
Project's success can be judged by measuring the standard criteria. By evaluating these
aspects, one can measure that whether project is successful or getting failed. Generally, project
managers avoid this area because if they think about the failure then they may get demotivated.
Construction of Burj Khalifa was started in the year 2004 and it was completed in 2009 in
the month of October. Starting and end date is the major factor that decided success or failure of
project. Initially, project managers have decided to couplet the tower in 57 months. Apart from
that, team has completed this project within stipulated time duration (Tang and et.al, 2016).
Project has also adopted a “3 day cycle” technology with an aim to raise the entire construction
one story per three days. While constructing this building, managers have used innovative
techniques that have not been used earlier in construction of any building.
Main objective of construing Burj Khalifa was to make more money and attract more
visitors towards Dubai. Entire planning was done by the government of Dubai. They wanted to
utilize the resources well in this project and gain monitory benefits by constructing this building.
Aim of this project was achieved at the end of year 2009. It has given with new recognition to
the country and many visitors take interest to visit such place (Alotaibi and Sinclair, 2015). It has
increased the tourism business of nation and foreign reserves have been increased after
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construction of this tower. It was an amazing experience for the travelers to visit such tallest and
well-designed building. Tower has entertainment and luxurious facilities for the guests that
attract more travelersin the country. It has helped in the economic development of country so that
goal of government has been achieved with this project.
Another standard criteria for Burj Khalifa building is to complete the project within
stipulated budget. Government has allotted funds to construction companies for constructing the
tower. Schedule and plan is the major factor that can help in identifying the actual success of
project (Barclay and Osei-Bryson, 2015). Meeting quality is another standard criteria that can
help in measuring the success of construction. Government of Dubai has allotted funds to
companies to build a tower. But, sometimes, due to lack of budget, companies fail to use highly
expensive machinery that reduces the quality of product which was expected with the final
project.
Alignment of the project is another standard criteria that defines the success or failure of
project. It includes collaboration of team members, capabilities of the team, focus on risk and
priorities, etc. As it is a building construction project, so managers need to think upon the
security and safety of building and guests those who live at this place. Therefore, they do not get
harm in any critical situation (Too and Weaver, 2014). Sometimes, due to changes in weather,
tower can get damaged. It can cause physical harm to the audience those who are present at that
time or are available near the place.
Team and customer satisfaction is another standard criteria that is needed to be looked
upon at the time of measuring success of project. It is necessary that final project will meet their
expectations otherwise, it would considered to be failed (Serra and Kunc, 2015).
CRITICAL IDENTIFICATION OF THE CRITERIA
Above selected standard criteria are appropriate for analyses the actual
performance and effectiveness of his construction. Aim and objective is the main aspect hat
decide the success of the project. If the initially aim is being achieved at the completion of the
proposal so it can be said that project is successful. If this element is not being considered by the
monitoring persons then actual effectiveness of the project can not be judged by them (Walker,
2015). As Burj Khalifais the successful and known building in the Dubai. Before designing or
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planning the project government has focused on getting the monitory benefits and international
expansion of the culture of the nation. At the completion of the proposal if this aim is being
fulfilled and authorities are getting financial benefit or increment of foreign exchange then it can
be said that it has accomplished its goal and objective. Without looking upon this factor
standards can not be measured by the person (Serra and Kunc, 2015).
“ Iron Triangle” is the measuring tool that measure the performance of the project on the
bases of three main factors cost, time and quality. Time and cost is another major standard
criteria for the research proposal. As it is noticed that Burj Khalifa project was started in the year
of 2004 and it finished in the year 2009. The time estimated by the authorities 57 months but the
construction was too lengthy. For evaluating the success of the tower, Iron triangle tool can be
used by the supervisors (Tang and et.al, 2016). Cost is another important element that decides the
actual working of the project and its effectiveness can be measured by this component. In initial
cost of constructing Burj Khalifa building was $876 million dollars. The final cost was
approximately 1.5 billion dollar. It is important for the project manager to find out the root cause
of the issue of increasing the cost. There many be several reasons of increasing cost by the way
mangers can find out whether tower has given success to the country of not. It is found that since
2004 to 2009 there have been tremendous changes taken place in value of currency that is why
prices of raw material gone up (Baker and Pawlikowski, 2015). The planning of constructing
Burj Khalifa tower held in the year of 2004 but in the year 2008 Dubai suffered from economy
downturn. That is why economic value of the currency get down that has raised prices of raw
material. Apart from this prices of aluminum, and cement have been increased that caused a
factor of raising the budget. So it was the valid reason of increasing the cost by this way actual
success of the project can be measured significantly.
Quality is another factor for standard criteria. The main constructors involved in his
project were Samsung engineering and Besix that have used the advanced technologies for the
construction of tower. Mixed reinforced concrete and other techniques were used in this
building. By measuring the quality it can be find out that whether building is capable to survive
the extreme condition of not. This testing is very important by this way engineers can plan the
next activity for improving the quality of the tower (Carbonell, 2015).
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CRITICAL EVALUATION
Success of the project can be measured if project efforts are aligned with the strategic
goal. On the bases of goal criteria it can be evaluated that it has achieved its target. As per
planning of constructing the tower there are all facilities for the traveler, there is availability of
the rooms and commercial space (Choplin and Franck, 2014). That attracts more visitors towards
the Dubai. It has increased the economic value of the country to great extent. It has helped in
gaining the recognition in the entire world. So the project can be said as successful proposal as it
has accomplished its prime objective.
On other hand, on the bases of cost it can be evaluated that initial budget was not
appropriate to successfully completion of the building. Due to economic downturn cost of
purchasing raw material has been increased. And prices of aluminum also has enhanced that has
enhanced the overall cost of the Burj Khalifa. So due to over budget project it is not able to earn
that values which was expecting by the government at initial level. Cost management of the
project was not well in this respect. Initial plan was not enough so it can be evaluated that it has
not gained that much success (Baker and Pawlikowski, 2015).
CONCLUSION
 From the above report it can be concluded that Burj Khalifa has achieved its initial
objective of design. It has been construed as per the planning, in the tower all residential
rooms, commercial space, entertainment facilities are available. There have not been
done any change by the engineers after starting the construction.
 Burj Khalifa projects has achieved its goal of increasing economy value of the country.
After completion many of the visitor come in the country to visit such tallest building. It
has become the landmark and now Dubai is world famous for the tower.
 Project of Burj Khalifa has been completed before one year from its estimated time
duration. So it is difficult to measure its success on the bases of time period.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alotaibi, F. and Sinclair, B. R., 2015. Building tall in the Arabian Gulf: Perception| performance|
place-making. of Architectural Research. pp.394.
Baker, B. and Pawlikowski, J., 2015. The Design and Construction of the World's Tallest
Building: The Burj Khalifa, Dubai. Structural Engineering International. 25(4). pp.389-
394.
Barclay, C. and Osei-Bryson, K. M., 2015. Strategic Project Management: Contemporary Issues
and Strategies for Developing Economies. CRC Press.
Carbonell, A., 2015. Dubai: The Political Project of a New Metropolis. Gulf Cities as Interfaces,
pp.229.
Choplin, A. and Franck, A., 2014. Seeing Dubai in Khartoum and Nouakchott:“Gulfication” on
the margins of the Arab World. Under Construction: Logics of Urbanism in the Gulf
Region. pp.271-284.
Palmer, A., 2016. ‘Is this the tallest building in the world?’A posthuman approach to ethical
dilemmas in young children’s learning projects. Global Studies of Childhood. 6(3).
pp.283-298.
Russo, G. and et.al., 2013. Re-assessment of foundation settlements for the Burj Khalifa,
Dubai. Acta Geotechnica. 8(1). pp.3-15.
Serra, C. E. M. and Kunc, M., 2015. Benefits Realisation Management and its influence on project
success and on the execution of business strategies.International Journal of Project
Management. 33(1). pp.53-66.
Tang, C. and et.al., 2016. Analysis and Design of Curved Support Structures. Sigrid Adriaenssens,
Fabio Gramazio, Matthias Kohler.
Too, E. G. and Weaver, P., 2014. The management of project management: A conceptual
framework for project governance. International Journal of Project Management. 32(8).
pp.1382-1394.
Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.
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