Project Management: Crossrail Project Case Study Evaluation Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Crossrail project, focusing on its project management aspects. It begins with an executive summary defining project management and its importance, followed by an introduction and background of the case study, highlighting the project's scale and complexity. The detailed discussion covers the project's division into subprojects, the use of a waterfall methodology, and the various stages of project management including requirements, design, implementation, verification, and maintenance. The report further examines the challenges faced, such as budget increases and delays, and concludes with an evaluation of the project's fulfillment of standards, offering insights for project management practitioners. The report is intended for the Association of Project Management (APM), UK, and provides a critical evaluation of the project's management processes, challenges, and outcomes.

Running Head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University

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Executive Summary
A project is defined as a group of activities that are conducted in order to reach a specific and
predetermined outcome. On the other hand, project management is the process by which the
execution of the activities in the project is controlled in such a way so as to ensure success of the
project. Using the theories, concept and knowledge of project management, the Crossrail Project
of UK has been discussed in this report. The Crossrail Project is a large scale project in UK
involving the construction of a new Crossrail network from Reading to West Abbey through
Central London. The report discusses how the general standards have been fulfilled by this
project and what knowledge can be gathered by taking this project as example.

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Table of Contents
Introduction and Background of the Case Study.............................................................................3
Detailed Discussion of the Case Study............................................................................................4
Critical Evaluation of the Case Study..............................................................................................9
Assistance of Chosen Professional Organisation..........................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................13

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Introduction and Background of the Case Study
Project Management is a huge field of knowledge and skill involves managing various
activities or ventures of different scales in a systematic method. There are also a large number of
aspects of any project in addition to the execution of the activities in the project. Each aspect of
project management is important in its own right and affects the project differently. Hence, while
managing a project, all these aspects are to be considered with similar priority and it is to be
ensured that all these aspects are favourable for any chosen project (Meredith, Mantel Jr and
Shafer 2017). Some these aspects of project management include scope, budget, time,
stakeholders, communication, risk, quality and others. This particular report is for Association of
Project Management (APM), UK describing the main aspects of project management the
organisation focuses on and some gaps in the policies and standards developed by the
organisation. This report is intended for the internal purpose of APM only and does not require
involvement of external parties like researchers and clients.
The chosen project case for the analysis in this report is the Crossrail Project, new
railway line development project that is currently underway in UK. The railway network will
connect Reading to Abbey Wood by passing through important locations like Heathrow Airport,
Central London and others. It is one of the most grandest scale projects that are currently
underway as the total required to complete the project is 10 years (estimated) and the total budget
of the project is around £18.25bn. The entire project involves a number of different work
requirements that include construction of tracks, installation of electrical supply line for running
the trains, construction of new stations and refurbishment of some new stations, construction of
tunnels, installation of signals and other associated systems, construction of control rooms and

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installation of computers for keeping track of running trains. Since these activities require
different types of field work expertise, Crossrail UK, the parent organisation for the project had
rolled out multiple contract system, each contract requiring the party to complete one particular
work order like construction of track or construction of station. Hence, various construction
companies have been hired for the project and each company is currently working on the specific
work order provided to them with the contract.
Detailed Discussion of the Case Study
The case study under focus is the Crossrail Project that is being conducted by Crossrail
UK, a UK based company that constructs and operates Crossrail network in the UK. In this
particular project, a new network is currently under construction from West Abbey to Reading
through central London. There will be a total 41 stations en route and the entire Crossrail system
will run underground. It is evident from these details that the scale of the project is huge and
without suitable and precise project management plan, Crossrail UK would not have been able to
conduct the entire project over the period of 10 to 12 years and a budget of £18.25bn. In addition
to the scale of the project, this particular project is also extremely complex in nature, requiring
expertise of various domains of work in order to complete the entire work in the project. The
domains of work required in this project include construction, excavation, track installation,
electrical, electronic and various others (Fleming and Koppelman 2016). As a result, it is not
possible for Crossrail UK to conduct the entire project on its own as it is not an organisation
from construction industry, neither it has sufficient expertise on each domain mentioned. Hence,
in order to manage the entire project, the company has first divided the entire project into
subprojects based on the domains of work. These subprojects are as follows.

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 Construction of each station including some major stations on the route
 Underground excavation and tunnel building
 Construction of the railway tracks of tunnel building is complete
 Construction of electrical sub-stations for supplying power for the Crossrail
network
 Installation of electrical connections throughout the route including supply power
line for the trains
 Installation of signals and control systems
 Installation of amenities at the stations for the passengers
 Implementation of IT (computers and telecommunication devices for
communication, ticket booking and others)
Once these subprojects were specified, Crossrail UK invited tenders from large
construction companies based in and / or operating in UK to bid for each subproject with
reasonable amounts. Once the tendering process was complete, contracts were awarded to the
best bidders for conducting each of the subprojects specified. This process was undertaken in
order to ensure proper distribution of work to each of the respective stakeholder groups (in this
case, the sub-contractors can be considered as stakeholder groups for the project).
Following the chain of events described above and the details of the project management
process undertaken by Crossrail UK, it can be said that they followed waterfall project
management methodology through the course of the project from the start till now. Since the
project is not complete yet, the information regarding the project management process from the
entire project is not available but the project management process followed until now can be
discussed and analysed.

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Requirements – The first stage of project management methodology as per the waterfall
model is the requirements phase i.e. in this phase, the requirements of the entire project are
specified, set and forwarded to the project manager for analysis. The project manager, along with
the project team, analyses the entire project requirements and develops the project plan as per the
specifications (Kerzner 2017). The nature of project plan depends on various specifications in the
requirements like time frame, budget, scope and others. Similarly, in this Crossrail project, once
the project was announced by the Government, the Crossrail authority conducted meeting with
all the representative stakeholders to develop the requirements of the project. The project was
proposed around 2006–2007 and the requirements were developed by 2008 when it was
officially approved by the UK government.
Design – The next phase of the project management methodology as per the waterfall
model is the design phase. In this phase, the entire layout of the project is developed including
planning and design. For software projects, the basic architecture design of the software is
developed whereas in the construction projects, the blueprint of the entire building / structure is
developed along with the project plan for the entire project work (Schwalbe 2015). In this case,
during the design phase, the route was first designed by connecting important locations on the
map along the proposed route and the plan was developed including major decisions regarding
placement and number of stations, underground tunnelling, electricity supply, control system and
others. For this project, the design was completed by 2009 when the authority received approval
to begin construction work.
Implementation – Implementation in project refers to the main execution phase of project
i.e. the phase in which the project is executed according to the plan developed previously. With
time, the project slowly comes into reality from the plan or design that has been developed for

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the same. This phase is considered to be the most vital phase of project management as the entire
work of the project is done in this phase (Heagney 2016). Any issues, problems, changes and
unforeseen incidents can lead to major problems for the parent organisation in terms of finance
and other factors. The project manager or any other stakeholder who is in charge of controlling
the project needs to monitor the progress of the project on frequent basis in order to ensure the
project is in the right path as per the plan. There are certain inevitable issues like scope creep or
unforeseen incidents that result in setback for the project. In these cases, the project manager
needs to identify the primary issues causing these setbacks and develop suitable change
management plan for the project. Before implementing the changes, it is required to analyse the
short and long term impacts of the changes on the project and also the organisation as a whole.
Moreover, these changes in the project also involve additional cost and time and hence, unless
the changes are absolutely required, they need not be implemented in the project (Harrison and
Lock 2017). For the project under focus, there were several issues arising at various stages of the
project including dispute over property en route, ground unsuitable for excavation, changes in
design and others. As a result, various changes were implemented in the Crossrail project at
various points of time. These in turn have resulted in the increase in budget from £15bn to
£18.5bn that can further increase depending on the changes that may get implemented at a later
stage of the project. Furthermore, the initial deadline of the project was set at mid-2019 but it
was pushed back to late 2020 due to the changes in the project that resulted in additional time for
the project. However, these changes were necessary for the success of the project, which is
currently under late stages of construction and will delivered next year after completion of all the
works.

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Verification – This phase is started once the execution is complete and the final end result
of the project is handed over to the authority and / or the project manager. During this phase, the
project manager is assigned with the duty to verify the end result of the project i.e. to check
whether all the requirements have been or not (Walker 2015). Along with the project, a project
report document is also handed over that is helpful for the project manager to check and verify if
all the project processes specified earlier have been followed and fulfilled. The same procedure
needs to be followed for this project once the construction works are completed
Maintenance – This particular phase is mostly required for the projects in which a
particular system or structure is delivered to be used on a long term basis e.g. software or a
building. Maintenance plan needs to be developed in order to ensure the developed structure /
system is well managed and maintained for continuing the functioning of the same (Kerzner
2018). For this project, detailed maintenance plan needs to be developed once the project is
completed and delivered. The maintenance plan should be extensive in nature and should include
all aspects of the Crossrail network including the tracks, tunnels, stations, control system, signal
system, electrical supply and others.
As per the latest update posted by Crossrail UK, the project is currently under the last few
stages of construction and the entire project is set to be handed over by the contractors by mid-
2020. When the construction works are completed, the project report document will be
developed, which will be handed over to the authority and based on the report, the project will be
evaluated (Marchewka 2016). Maintenance will be required for the entire Crossrail network and
suitable staff must be hired accordingly. Further discussions in the next part of the report will be
regarding the project management processes followed in the project and the critical analysis of
the project in terms of project management knowledge that has been specified by the APM.

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Critical Evaluation of the Case Study
Considering the importance of Crossrail network in UK, the benefits of the new Reading-
West Abbey line to the society in UK, especially in the area within the route where people travel
on daily basis for office, schools, colleges, tour and other purposes. At the same time, the
Crossrail network will be a good source of revenue from tickets of the passengers commuting
daily. In other words, the project will bring great economic and social values that are further
enlightened as follows.
Economic Value – The Crossrail network once completed is expected to bring about a
great deal of economic value to the society. The Crossrail will be a good source of revenue for
the Government from tickets and other sponsorship costs. In addition, the Crossrail will be a
cheap and fast mode of transportation due to electricity run trains and hence, the ticket prices
(single travel, monthly tickets and others) are expected to be very reasonable that will satisfy all
types of travellers. Due to this approach, it is expected that the project will bring a great deal of
economic value to the society.
Social Value – The Crossrail trains will be run at high frequency to clear the rush of daily
passengers. The use of high speed electric driven trains will help fast commute of daily
passengers and will also reduce the load on the buses, cars and other vehicles used by the daily
passengers during the rush hours. Due to the high speed travel, good convenience and zero traffic
blockages, the Crossrail project is expected to provide great social value as well in addition to
the economic value.
However, these benefits will not be realised to the full extent if sufficient sustainable
development does not occur during the project. One of the keys to success of a large scale project

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is the sustainable development over time keeping in mind the opportunities for the social and
economic growth (Turner 2016). Furthermore, the organisations conducting the large scale
projects also have certain corporate social responsibilities that they must fulfil along with the
project itself. In this case, the sustainable development process includes the following factors.
Environment Friendly – Most of the large scale projects now focus on the most
environment friendly methods for sustainability and this project is no different. For this project,
while the underground construction work will definitely harm the environment to some extent,
several measures can be undertaken to ensure the negative impacts on the environment are
minimised (Binder 2016). These measures include use of environment friendly material
resources, less sound and vibration producing machineries for excavation works, proper dumping
of the wastes generated during the project and others.
Design – In technical based projects, the design aspect contributes significantly to the
sustainability of the project. For large structures or railway networks and similar projects, proper
design can lead to sustainability of the project and improper design can lead to complete failure
of the project (Fewings and Henjewele 2019). In this case, the designs of the route, underground
tunnels and stations will play significant part in the sustainability of the project.
Crossrail UK is an organisation that aims to provide high quality Crossrail services to the
people, for fast, cheap and uninterrupted travel, especially during the peak rush hours. Hence, it
the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the company to ensure the services are provided as
promised and also provide additional benefits for various levels and types of passengers like
school children, college goers, foreigners and others. Crossrail services do not require to think

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much about business as it will not have any shortage of passengers and hence, the company can
focus significantly on the CSR aspects.
Assistance of Chosen Professional Organisation
From the example of the project, Association of Project Management (APM) can gather
some information and update its standards and policies with respect to different types of project.
Currently, APM has set some standards and details of project management process along with
information on various types of methodologies that are commonly used in project management.
However, the standards and policies are not strictly followed in many projects depending on the
complexity of the project (Kerzner 2019). In other words, APM mostly focuses on
straightforward projects and project management methods and mostly avoids complex types of
projects. Furthermore, APM generally recommends one single methodology for a particular
project but very often there are complex projects that require more than one type of methodology
in it (Verzuh 2015). Considering the example of the project under focus, the overall project has
been conducted using waterfall model but some activities within the project like development of
IT for the control and management of the Crossrail network will be done using agile model.
Hence, APM should take the example from this project and update the knowledge base as well as
the current standards accordingly. This will also help the future project managers who will use
the knowledge published by APM for managing the projects of the future.
Conclusion
This entire report discusses the Crossrail Project of UK in light of project management
knowledge along with some critical review of the project against APM knowledge and standards.

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The Crossrail network under focus in this report will connect Reading to Abbey Wood by
passing through important locations like Heathrow Airport, Central London and others. It is one
of the most grandest scale projects that are currently underway as the total required to complete
the project is 10 years (estimated) and the total budget of the project is around £18.25bn. In the
entire route, there will be a total of 41 stations and the entire Crossrail system will run
underground through tunnels that are currently under construction. While the scale of the project
is considerably huge, the work requirements are also extremely complex in nature, requiring
expertise of various domains of work in order to deliver the project. The domains of work
required in this project include construction, excavation, track installation, electrical, electronic
and various others. Once the project was announced by the Government, the Crossrail authority
conducted meeting with all the representative stakeholders to develop the requirements of the
project. The project was first proposed in 2007 and the requirements were developed by 2008
when it was officially approved by the UK government. When the project is handed over,
maintenance plan needs to be developed in order to ensure the developed structure / system is
well managed and maintained for continuing the functioning of the same. For this project,
detailed maintenance plan needs to be developed once the project is completed and delivered.
The maintenance plan should be extensive in nature and should include all aspects of the
Crossrail network including the tracks, tunnels, stations, control system, signal system, electrical
supply and others. Finally, it can be concluded that this project serves as a significant example
for gathering of project management knowledge by APM that will help to update its knowledge
base and standards that have long required some updates depending on the natures of projects.

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References
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across borders. Routledge.
Fewings, P. and Henjewele, C., 2019. Construction project management: an integrated
approach. Routledge.
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Heagney, J., 2016. Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Heldman, K., 2018. Project management jumpstart. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and
controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2018. Project management best practices: Achieving global excellence. John Wiley
& Sons.
Kerzner, H., 2019. Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project
management. Wiley.
Lock, D., 2017. The essentials of project management. Routledge.

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Marchewka, J.T., 2016. Information technology project management: Providing measurable
organizational value. John Wiley & Sons.
Meredith, J.R., Mantel Jr, S.J. and Shafer, S.M., 2017. Project management: a managerial
approach. John Wiley & Sons.
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technology. Routledge.
Schwalbe, K., 2015. Information technology project management. Cengage Learning.
Turner, R., 2016. Gower handbook of project management. Routledge.
Verzuh, E., 2015. The fast forward MBA in project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Walker, A., 2015. Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.
Young, T.L., 2016. Successful project management. Kogan Page Publishers.