BEN610: Post-Project Review: Burj Khalifa Project Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive post-project review of the Burj Khalifa, examining its successes and challenges. It delves into three key areas: time management, cost management, and quality management. The time management section discusses labor strikes and their impact on project timelines. The cost management analysis addresses the economic crisis in Dubai and its effect on the project's budget. The quality management section explores the difficulties of pumping concrete to extreme heights and working in high temperatures. Each section outlines the issues, how they were managed, the successes or failures, and the lessons learned. The report emphasizes the importance of stakeholder identification, cost planning, risk assessment, and quality management planning to avoid similar setbacks in future large-scale projects. The conclusion underscores the importance of adhering to project management methodologies to mitigate risks and ensure timely project completion.

BEN610: Project Management Principles
Assessment 1: Post Project Review
(Burj khalifa, Dubai)
Name of University:
Student’s name:
Dated:

Table of Content
Introduction................................................................................................................................................3
Description of the project.....................................................................................................................3
Project successes.................................................................................................................................3
Project issues........................................................................................................................................3
Three main focus areas of the issues................................................................................................4
Time Management Issue.........................................................................................................................4
What was the issue..............................................................................................................................4
How the issue was managed..............................................................................................................4
Success or Failure................................................................................................................................4
Lessons Learnt......................................................................................................................................4
Cost Management Issue..........................................................................................................................5
What was the issue..............................................................................................................................5
How the issue was managed..............................................................................................................5
Success or Failure................................................................................................................................5
Lessons Learnt......................................................................................................................................6
Quality Management Issue......................................................................................................................6
What was the issue..............................................................................................................................6
How the issue was managed..............................................................................................................6
Success or Failure................................................................................................................................6
Lessons Learnt......................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion and Recommendation..........................................................................................................7
References................................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
Description of the project
Burj Khalifa was renamed from Burj Dubai and is situated in Downtown Dubai, UAE (Vinod,
2015). Its total height is 829.84 Metre and has 162 floors; it was designed by ‘Skidmore, Owings
& Merrill’ and developed by ‘Emaar Properties’ with an investment of 1.5 Billion USD. The
construction activities started on September 21, 2004 and completed on January 4, 2010.
Project successes
Burj Khalifa has many awards on its name, it is the only man made building which has made
numerous world records, like:
July 2007: tallest building in whole world, after 141 storied completed
September 2007: free-standing tallest structure, after 150 storied completed
April 2008: man-made tallest structure, after 160 storied completed
September 2010: it received the award of ‘Best project of the year’
Project issues
For the construction of the Burj Khalifa, around 22 Million man-Hours were used with 60
companies from every corner of the world (Essays, 2013). So the problem is bound to happen
and the project was delayed by around 1 year. It took 5 years & 4 months to complete the
project.
Three main focus areas of the issues
In this current report we shall discuss on the issues which were faced during the construction
phase of Burj Khalifa, how it was managed and then what we learnt from the failure. Three main
focus points shall be the time management issues, cost management issue and the last would be
the quality management issue.

Time Management Issue
What was the issue
During the construction phase due to various reasons the project got delayed. There was a labor
strike in March 2006 and November 2007, around 2500 labors went to strike and even
vandalized many properties; this has halted the whole construction work at site. Their demand
was to raise the basic pay from $4 for 12 working hours and unhealthy & unhygienic atmosphere
of labor camps respectively.
How the issue was managed
Governments forced the labors to join the construction work or they may be penalized according
to local laws. As per any sources it could not be defined, that how much it impacted the time
schedule, but it is obvious that it has impacted the work and can be considered as a major setback
in timely completion of the project.
Success or Failure
Since there was strike, so any strike has only result that is ‘Failure’. Moreover, since it was left
unresolved, so the anger remained inside the labor and obviously the productivity could have got
impacted and resulted in delay. After the threatening also when the strike was not finishing then
the local government assured of increasing their basic pay and the labors resumed the job. But
due to such issues the prestigious project got so much delayed.
Lessons Learnt
So the lessons learnt from the above discussed issue is that, we must always perform the
‘Stakeholder Identification’ (Markwell, 2010) and identify their needs and expectations well
before the start of the project, so that the issues can be addressed since the beginning of the
project itself to avoid any delay of work after the project initiated.
Like in current case, if the local government or any consultant would have done the stakeholder
analysis or at least considered labor as their stakeholders, then they could have arranged for the
wellbeing of the labors at the labor camp area and even fixed a higher rate of wages and awarded
the contract to the contractors accordingly. Then this problem could have been avoided and the
building could be completed on time.

Cost Management Issue
What was the issue
In November 2009, Dubai had to face an economic crisis and there was a debt of 59 Billion US
Dollar (GKToday, 2013). The construction section alone was having a share of around 22% of
the total GDP, so the crisis had direct impact on the all construction project and Burj Khalifa was
sharing 50% of the total construction value in Dubai. Moreover, the construction of Burj Khalifa
got heavily impacted due to the cause and many contractors even could not pay the labors and
they had to return to their own countries. So, we can understand that how tough the conditions
were for the construction.
How the issue was managed
The crisis was caused due the busting of the economic bubble, mainly the rates of real estates. It
actually happened due to investing more on building highly luxurious facilities and using the
foreign funds to build (China Central Television, 2009). After sometime, Dubai had planned the
restructuring of 26 Billion US Dollars and the foreign investors again gained the confidence and
the crisis ended slowly.
Success or Failure
Since it was an economic crisis so all the stakeholders had to pay for the crisis and they were
also not spared off. It has caused more ‘Failure’ to the project. The project was definitely delayed
due to the crisis.
Lessons Learnt
In large projects like Burj Khalifa which runs for few years with so much of complexity are
always prone to get impacted by any this kind of socio economic issues. So especially for the
large projects, we must always plan the budget well in advance and the financers need to be well
informed about the upcoming events and its expected expenditures. So the ‘Cost Planning’ (Cost
Engineering Consultancy, 2017) and ‘Risk Assessment’ (Watt, 2014)need to be done very
cautiously by considering all probable kind of ‘Risks’ of the project and the overrun budget
should consider the unknown risks and have some risk reserves in the overall project budget to
counter with such unforeseen situations.

Quality Management Issue
What was the issue
Pumping of the concrete slump up to a height of 828 meter was the biggest challenge according
to the construction officials. For resolving it many technical solutions were identified but the
issue remained with the flow of concrete, it pouring rate and setting time etc. all such issue
aggravated after the tower reached 127 meter above the MSL. Here also they had to use world’s
largest pump to generate enough pressure to transport concrete. Moreover due to the extreme
conditions and especially in day time the temperature used to increase up to 500C. Doing
concrete at this high temperature is technically not advisable. Even though there were labors for
all three shifts but in day time they were also not allowed to work.
How the issue was managed
The quality issue with the pouring of concrete due to very high temperature in day time was
balanced by the cool temperature at night. So the concrete work used to be at night time only as
there was no other alternative to the concerting issue.
Success or Failure
Even though this condition was well known to all, but still it had impacted to the project
schedule, as out of three shifts people could only do concreting at night. So it had obviously
impacted the project schedule negatively.
Lessons Learnt
So the lessons learnt from the above quality issue, that we must always have a back-up of all
such issues and need to arrange our work plan accordingly so that the issues which cannot be
avoided and should not impact the project progress. So if we had done the quality planning and
prepared the quality management plan beforehand, then it could have saved from such crisis. As
in quality management plan, first of all the objectives need to be finalized and then the action
plan for the quality control and quality assurance need to be worked out. For developing the
document all the highly influential stakeholders like ‘Project Manager’, ‘Sponsors’ need to be
involved in the process for its proper implementation.

Conclusion and Recommendation
So to conclude the report it can be seen that the three issues had diverted the project towards loss
of time and obviously the money too. Since due to all the above reasons the project got delayed
let it be the major labor strike, the quality issue so only could do in night time or the big Dubai
debt crisis all has contributed to the delay of the project Burj Khalifa heavily by around one year.
We should always learn from the mistakes or the issue, so from this report the learning can be
summarized and a common recommendation should be the proper following of the project
management techniques or the methodologies. Because the techniques learnt here are the ‘Time
Management’, ‘Stakeholder Analysis and Management’, ‘Cost Planning’, ‘Risk Planning’ all
such things should be done well before the starting of the project. So that the appropriate way out
could be defined or the proper arrangements could be built for avoiding the issues. Project
Management Methodologies must be used in all stages of the project.
References
China Central Television. (2009). Dubai World -- A dream built on bubbles. Retrieved August 23, 2017,
from www.cctv.com: http://www.cctv.com/english/special/dubaicrisis/homepage/index.shtml
Cost Engineering Consultancy. (2017, February 23). Cost Management explained in 4 steps. Retrieved
August 23, 2017, from www.costmanagement.eu: https://www.costmanagement.eu/blog-
article/198-cost-management-explained-in-4-steps
Essays, U. (2013, November). Project Time Management Of Burj Khalifa Economics Essay. Retrieved
August 23, 2017, from www.ukessays.com:
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/economics/project-time-management-of-burj-khalifa-
economics-essay.php?cref=1
GKToday. (2013, November 22). What is Dubai Crisis 2009? Retrieved August 23, 2017, from
www.gktoday.in: https://www.gktoday.in/what-is-dubai-crisis-2009/
Markwell, S. (2010). Identifying and managing internal and external stakeholder interests. Retrieved
August 21, 2017, from
https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/organisation-management/5b-
understanding-ofs/managing-internal-external-stakeholders

Vinod, R. (2015, September 4). Burj Khalifa Tower. Retrieved August 23, 2017, from guide2dubai.com:
https://www.guide2dubai.com/visiting/attractions/burj-khalifa
Watt, A. (2014). 16. Risk Management Planning. Retrieved August 23, 2017, from opentextbc.ca:
https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/chapter/chapter-16-risk-management-planning-
project-management/