University Assignment: Critical Evaluation of Mattala Airport Project

This report offers a comprehensive critical evaluation of the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport project in Sri Lanka. It begins with an executive summary and table of contents, followed by an introduction that defines the scope of the project evaluation. The report then provides background information on the airport, including its cost and completion timeline. It discusses various criteria for project success and failure, such as the triple constraints (scope, cost, time), commercial success, user requirements, budget adherence, achieving purpose, and sustainable outcomes. The analysis section assesses the Mattala Airport based on these criteria, highlighting its successes in terms of project management efficiency but its failures in commercial viability, environmental impact, and achieving its intended purpose of regional development. The report concludes with suggestions and recommendations, emphasizing the importance of thorough feasibility studies and stakeholder input before initiating large-scale projects. It underscores the time-specific nature of project success and the potential for future success if surrounding conditions evolve.

Assignment 1 - Critical Evaluation of a
Real-World Project
Mattala International Airport
Name of Student
9/4/2017
Name of University

Mattala International Airport
Executive Summary
Every project has some merits and demerits, we cannot ever build a project which has only
advantages and it will definitely have disadvantages for some other sector. Since a lot of funds
are liquidated for some product forms a proect, so the project must be a success from everyone’s
point of view. The project is required to get completed within baseline schedule; cost and
quality, even after the project is over it should generate the desired or expected revenues to fulfill
the financial needs and then it can be termed as a success.
Just for the assessment, the case project (Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, Sri Lanka)
shall be analyzed on the basis of above discussed elaborated steps to decide that whether the
project was a success or a failure. In subsequent portion the airport project shall be thoroughly
assessed and final recommendation would be made on the result obtained.
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Table of content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Brief Introduction.........................................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
Different Criteria of project success or failure................................................................................3
Are these factors enough..............................................................................................................4
Other different criteria for project success...................................................................................4
Which criteria is best suited for the case project.............................................................................5
Analysis of the Mattala International Airport Project.....................................................................5
Suggestions and recommendations..................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8
Appendices......................................................................................................................................9
List of Figures
Figure 1: Triple Constraint..............................................................................................................4
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Introduction
Brief Introduction
The topic ‘critical evaluation of real world project’ is a situation which is common for all
types of the project irrespective of its size and complexity. All projects can be evaluated
by this method. There are different expectations from the project of different people, like
a project manager of the execution organization shall expect to deliver the project within
time to have success; a sponsor shall get the return on investment well from the project to
say it is a project, similarly in this report we shall discuss the different view of looking at
the success or failure of a project.
Background
In current report we shall evaluate the Sri Lanka’s prestigious and heavy costly
infrastructure project the ‘Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport’. This international
airport was opened in 2013 and the project cost was around 209 Million US Dollar
(Smith, 2016). To build the facility Sri Lanka government had to invest around 210
Million US Dollar (News Limited, 2017), but the airport was built before the schedule
completion date (Shepard, 2016). So the mega project was a huge success for the project
management team that it could maintain all the three constraints of the project and deliver
the airport before time. We shall now study the different criteria of evaluating any project
and then apply those criteria to the case study project discussed above and see that
whether this mega prestigious project of Sri Lanka was a success or failure.
Different Criteria of project success or failure
The success and failure of any project has to be noticed from many angles, so from the angle of
project manager of the project or the owner of the contracting company may be different from
the sponsor of client side organization. The conventional methods for taking a gander at the
achievement or disappointment elements of the task are the triple requirements recipe. As
indicated by the triple requirements of an undertaking, the fundamental thought process of the
task administrator and the entire group ought to be to monitor the three things of the venture the
quality or degree, the cost of the undertaking or assets wanted to be utilized for the venture and
the timetable of completion or the time frame of delivering the project (Enterprise PM, 2017), it
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may be the final delivery date or can be the intermediate milestones so that in-between progress
can also be measured (refer figure 1). This technique almost covers all
Figure 1: Triple Constraint
Source: (WordPress, 2011)
the criteria in deciding the success rate of the project management method. Since the whole
project stands on these three pillars (scope, cost and time), so if these are maintained then the
project can be assumed as a success and project manager need to struggle a lot to maintain the
equilibrium between these three factors.
Are these factors enough
As per the author (Pozin, 2012), there are even more factors which can be used to
measure the achievement rate of the task. The creator has now moved out of the crate of
task and the perspective of the temporary worker proprietors or the venture supervisor
and is alluding the accomplishment of the undertaking with success rate as per the
satisfaction level of the team and customers. The customers are the stakeholders who are
looking to earn gain from the project; this gain can be monitory or social.
Other different criteria for project success
Pinto and Slevin (1988) has identified many other factors which can decide the success or
the failure of the project (Basu, 2017). The other different criteria are:
Commercial Success: this means that whether the mission and objective of setting
up the project has met or not. This is also an important factor that can be considered to
measure the success or failure of the project. The case project, Mattala International
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Airport Project shall be discussed under this group of discussion which shall provide
information regarding the success or failure rate of the project.
Meets user’s requirement: it means that the top management are satisfied with the
outcome of the project. If the management satisfies with the outcome then the project can
be said as succeeded.
Meet Budget: this section is referring to the triple constraints of the project that is
the scope, time and cost. The project must be done within the scope and without any
change in cost or time as agreed during the baseline scheduling.
Achieve purpose: the personnel who are affected by the project should gain from
the project and then the project can be termed as a real success. This is a critical factor
which shall be mentioned in case of the Mattala Airport project. we shall throw more
light on this topic that whether the surrounding people or the stakeholder’s purpose was
fulfilled or not.
Sustainable outcome: this is a bit broader section which shall also be considered
before considering the success or failure of the project. Sustainable means the project
made should provide a success to its environment and it should be such that it can mix its
outcome with the surroundings. The surroundings requirement can be fulfilled by the
project and the project can also use the surroundings outcomes. Moreover the project
should also be environmental friendly with releasing lesser carbon footprint to be termed
as success.
Which criteria is best suited for the case project
After gaining the different ideas or factors which can decide the success or failure rate of the
project, now let us find the most suitable criteria which can be used for measuring the success or
failure of the project Mattala International Airport. For assessing the success or failure result of
the project let us consider the ‘triple constraints’, ‘commercial success’, ‘achieve purpose’ and
‘sustainable outcome’ are the four parameters against which the project must be assed in coming
part of the report.
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Analysis of the Mattala International Airport Project
The achievement rate of the task. The creator has now moved out of the crate of task and the
perspective of the temporary worker proprietors or the venture supervisor and is alluding the
accomplishment of the undertaking with dense elephant forest (Senanayake, 2015). The airport is
located at the southern part of Sri Lanka. It was built to offload the rush at Colombo International
Airport and the location was selected to cover the few tourist places at near sites. The serving
president of Sri Lanka was planning to build the place and convert it from a typical rural place to
a high-tech modern city, he not only planned to build the massive airport equipped with all
modern technologies and comfort (refer appendix 1) but also few real estate and cricket stadium
too. As per above discussion let the project is assessed under different circumstances:
Triple Constraints: as narrated above, that the triple constraints of the international airport
a mega project was handled so smartly by the project management team members that the
project got completed well before the baseline schedule duration without even consuming
additional cost and resources. Quality of the project was also maintained very fine (refer
appendix 2), the project is equipped with all modern comfort facilities for large number
of people. Hence, the project is a huge success form the project management point of
view.
Commercial success: it is the destinations of the task which should be evaluated for
getting the coveted outcome. The client of the facility one is the customers and other is
the companies engaged in flying are required to be analyzed. The customers’ always kept
complaining about the location of the airport which was surrounded by dense forest and
there are possibilities of wild animal attack too in the proximity, so none of the customers
could move in nearby area whenever they needed to halt there. The flying companies
were facing any accidental threats from the migratory birds and there had been many
such instances of midair collision with group of birds which has damaged the flights. So
environmentally the project is a big failure.
Achieve purpose: the purpose of the airport was to up bring the local society and bring
business and development of the surrounding areas. Which could not happen, moreover
the airport itself could not be run after few months itself. So the project from this angle is
a big failure.
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Sustainable outcome: none of the environment friendly work is executed for the project;
instead the forest, around 2000 hectares land area trees was uprooted and the place was a
habitat for migratory birds. Out of 2000, 800 hectares is used for the phase 1 (Airport &
Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited, 2009). So as per these criteria of the project, the
project is a big failure. The project just destroyed many trees, habitats and animals
without gaining anything and even Sri Lanka is unable to pay the debt to China.
Suggestions and recommendations
After studying all the angles or view point from different prospective, it is very clear that the
project build with so much debt from China by Sri Lanka is a big failure and it has become one
of the largest empty international airports in world. The biggest lessons learnt from this massive
failure is that, no project should be initiated and implemented just to fulfill the wish or desire of
making the place modern or better rather the feasibility study of all discipline need to be done to
assess that whether the project will be a benefit or burden of the investor. Always the
information shared by the stakeholders need to be assessed properly before accepting or
rejecting, as the case was, the service president has rejected many advices by the government
agencies to not undertake the project (Daniel, 2016). Moreover from the economist point of
view, all the new ventures or project should be conceptualized if there is demand, so that the
demand and supply ratio can be implemented, then such failure would not have happened. Sine
there is no other industry or scope which can create the demand. If there would have been many
industry or business point around the place, then such situation would not have happened. The
failure project of the time can become success after some time if the surrounding grows up to the
required mark. It can be recommended that none of the factors can decide that whether the
project is a success or failure, the result is only time specific.
Conclusion
This international airport had all good time till it was under development or project phase
because till the completion of project all good news were there, the project got completed before
time. There are very few mega projects which are completed before time and it was one of them.
So up to few months after the implementation the project was seemed to be a big success but
after some time it became the nightmare for the Sri Lankan government. They were unable to
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generate any revenue from the project because none of the flights were operational here and the
debt taken from China was building up above Sri Lanka, now Sri Lanka is looking to sell the
airport to generate money for repaying the debt (Daily Mirror, 2017). So it can be concluded that
none of the project should be made to fulfill ones dream or wish, the entire project must be
assessed first and after clearing all sorts of feasibility analysis only such mega project should be
formalized.
References
Airport & Aviation Services (Sri Lanka) Limited, 2009. Overview of Mattala Rajapaksa
International Airport (MRIA). [Online] Available at:
http://www.airport.lk/mria/about_mria/overview_mria.php [Accessed 3 September 2017].
Basu, R., 2017. Project Success Criteria and Success Factors. [Online] Informa Group Company
Available at: http://www.gpmfirst.com/books/managing-quality-projects/project-success-criteria-
and-success-factors [Accessed 3 September 2017].
Daily Mirror, 2017. Mattala Airport in full throttle. [Online] Available at:
http://www.dailymirror.lk/article/Mattala-Airport-in-full-throttle-122765.html [Accessed 3
September 2017].
Daniel, D., 2016. Government Agency Advised Against Siting Second Airport At Mattala Before
Its Construction Started. [Online] Available at: http://echelon.lk/home/government-agency-
advised-against-siting-second-airport-at-mattala-before-its-construction-started/ [Accessed 3
September 2017].
Enterprise PM, 2017. Triple Constraints of Projects: Quality, Cost & Schedule. [Online]
Available at: http://www.enterprise-pm.com/pmbasics/triple-constraint [Accessed 3 September
2017].
News Limited, 2017. The lavish airport pretty much no one uses. [Online] Available at:
http://www.news.com.au/travel/world-travel/asia/the-lavish-airport-pretty-much-no-one-uses/
news-story/c3e62865b750c68684faf319d55c32a3 [Accessed 3 September 2017].
Pozin, I., 2012. 6 Ways to Measure the Success of Any Project. [Online] Available at:
https://www.inc.com/ilya-pozin/6-ways-to-measure-the-success-of-any-project.html [Accessed 3
September 2017].
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Senanayake, R.M.B., 2015. Surcharge Those Responsible For Mattala Airport Cost. [Online]
Available at: https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/surcharge-those-responsible-for-
mattala-airport-cost/ [Accessed 3 September 2017].
Shepard, W., 2016. The Story Behind The World's Emptiest International Airport. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/wadeshepard/2016/05/28/the-story-behind-the-
worlds-emptiest-international-airport-sri-lankas-mattala-rajapaksa/#336183447cea [Accessed 3
September 2017].
Smith, J.C., 2016. “On paper Sri Lanka has two airports”: Mattala Rajapaska International, the
airport without planes. [Online] Available at: http://www.citymetric.com/transport/paper-sri-
lanka-has-two-airports-mattala-rajapaska-international-airport-without-planes [Accessed 3
September 2017].
WordPress, 2011. Scope, Time and Cost – Managing the Triple Constraint. [Online] Available
at: https://programsuccess.wordpress.com/2011/05/02/scope-time-and-cost-managing-the-triple-
constraint/ [Accessed 3 September 2017].
Appendices
Appendix 1: The empty International Airport
Figure: the empty international airport
Appendix 2: High standard of quality work
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Figure: High quality standard runway
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