PPMP20010 Assessment 3: Critical Analysis of Big W Store Closures

This report critically analyzes the failure of the Big W store closure project, examining the underlying causes of the shutdown of 60 stores. It delves into the inefficient project management strategies, including internal management issues, lack of online presence, and inaccessible store locations, which led to significant financial losses. The analysis explores the control systems used for cost, scheduling, quality, and scope, highlighting the impact of cost and schedule overruns. The report identifies key stakeholders and their relationship to the project's problems, discussing potential actions for success based on project management principles. It concludes that improper design, lack of online presence, and customer demand estimations were the primary causes of the failure, emphasizing the importance of proper contractor selection, budget estimation, and scheduling for project success.

Closure of 60 Big W
Stores
Name of the Student
Name of the University

The Project Snapshot
(Figure 1: The Snapshot of the News
Article)
(Source: Richards et al. 2019)

Introduction to the Project Idea
 The project discusses about the failure of Woolworth in keeping up to
the expectation of their customers
 Woolworth had to shut down their major stores in Australia
 Inefficient project management strategies had been the primary
cause of the shutdown
 Falling profits were the primary cause for shutting down of 60 Big W
stores

Major Issues leading to Project
Failure
 Internal problems within the management team at Big W had led to
problems to the external outlets
 The discount departments had inefficient approaches based on
bringing innovative strategies
 Walmart had initiated the process of purchasing the majority of
stocks at Woolworth (Yamakawa, Peng and Deeds 2015)
 Nearly $800 million loss of profits were the primary reason leading to
store shut down

Major Issues leading to Project
Failure
 Lack of internal business revenue were the primary causes for the
business shut down
 Online shopping strategies were not implemented within the
company
 The gaining of competitive advantage could not be gathered without
the lack of online business presence
 Most of the stores were located at inaccessible areas and were
difficult to be reached by customers

Control Systems used for
Project
 The project control systems refers to the processes of analytical
procedures, data gathering and management
 Control systems are used for having an impact over the cost and time
results
 They also describe the team structure and the appointment of tasks
to proper stakeholders
 Observation over project status can also be described as a beneficial
system of control

Control Systems used for
Project Cost
 The Big W had planned to increase the profit margins by 2.7% till
December
 Cost estimations were been made for boosting productivity
 Lack of online presence were a major issue towards gaining a low
competitive advantage
 A cost management structure needs to be planned based on
controlling the entire budgeting structure

Control Systems used for
Project Cost
(Figure 2: The Cost Management Control System for the
Project)
(Source: Maskell, Baggaley and Grasso 2017)

Control Systems used for Project Scheduling
The certain control systems that could be used for project scheduling are
discussed as:
 Determination of necessary tasks that needs to be included within the
project
 Determination of costs structure long with the aligned project
activities
 The Schedule Variance (SV) and Earned Value Management (EVM)
would also be considered during project scheduling

Control Systems for Quality and Scope
The certain control systems that could be used for quality and scope are:
 Preparing of a scope statement discussing the project vision
 Providing definition of requirements meant for procurement aiming at
successful project implementation (Kamwana and Muturi 2014)
 Maintaining proper communication at all levels
 Creation of cost estimation structure, determining constraints,
assumptions and risks

Analysis of costs and schedule overruns
The cost overruns that might become a part of the project could be
made due to the following reasons:
 Incurring of a best infrastructure at Big W stores would incur a huge
estimation of cost considering every possible factors
 An estimation of $2.7 billion was made at restructuring of the stores
during the process of making lease commitments (Larsen et al. 2015)
 Operation of their business functionalities in reputed shopping malls
would incur a huge sponsorship program