Analysis of Project Governance and Management: Federation Square

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the Federation Square project in Melbourne, focusing on its project governance and management practices. It begins by exploring various project management methodologies and the challenges organizations face in applying them, particularly concerning organizational culture and strategy. The report then delves into the importance of project governance as a subset of corporate governance, emphasizing its role in establishing oversight frameworks, accountability, and communication protocols. The core of the analysis examines the Federation Square project through the lens of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) framework, assessing its performance across key areas such as scope, human resource, cost, time, quality, communication, stakeholder, and integration management. The report highlights both the successes and failures of the project, pinpointing areas where project management principles were effectively applied and where shortcomings led to conflicts and inefficiencies. The analysis underscores the significance of clear scope definition, effective stakeholder engagement, and balanced decision-making to achieve project objectives. The report concludes with a comprehensive evaluation of the project's governance, offering insights into how to improve project outcomes through better alignment with corporate strategies and rigorous application of project management best practices.

Federation Square (Melbourne)
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Federation Square (Melbourne)
The field of project management field exhibits numerous project management methodologies
(MULLER, 2009). More often than not, these methodologies are not applicable to all types of
projects an organization carries out or wishes to undertake or rather to the complexity and
dimensions of an organization’s projects. An organization usually finds it very difficult to make
use of those methodologies that exist in the market, formed from the knowledge and experience
of external consultants. This is because these methodologies are not formed on the basis of
organization’s important aspects such as the organizational culture, model, experience and
history.
Therefore, a gap exists, in many organizations, as far as governance of organizational project
activities is concerned. Surveillance of organizational project activities, in many organizations is
no longer possible due to the fact that there is no limitation of organizational strategies to
maximization of production results. Moreover, most organizations have switched their concerns
towards addressing several market changes and improving organizational image, in relation to
social responsibility and sustainability, changes which may only be attained through such
activities as projects, programs and portfolios. For the organization to achieve a success in
creating a good public image through sustainability and social responsibility, it should attain
success in its implemented projects towards that strategy. Thus requires proper and adequate
project management governance model that can coexist with the said organization’s governance
framework (LESTER, 2013).
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Projects and programs are the tools for implementation of corporate strategies. Therefore, it
becomes a necessity and serious concern for an organization to develop effective project
management governance, established within the corporate governance framework.
Project governance can be regarded as a subset of corporate governance (FINK, (2016). Project
governance is very important as it lays out the oversight framework for the project, highlighting
the requirements for undertaking particular project activities. This framework gives information
on how accountability to resources is determined and names the persons accountable for what
resources, setting the controls, communication framework and the requirements for reporting in
relation to the project processes. Project management serves a primary role to deliver the project
objectives on time and within the set budget. Moreover, project governance aims to help the
organization achieve its objectives effectively (OCHIENG, PRICE, & MOORE, 2013).
According to INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON PROJECT ENGINEERING (2011),
corporate governance is concerned with; ethics, accountability, risk management, performance
and effectiveness, roles and responsibilities, decision making, and disclosure and transparency.
Project governance should bring out clearly, the relationships existing between all the internal
and external groups that are involved in the project process. It should also explain proper
information flow to all the stakeholders of the project. Additionally, ensure that the issues
encountered within each and every project is appropriately reviewed and make sure the
attainment of required project’s directions and approvals at each project stage appropriately
(INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON PROJECT ENGINEERING , 2011).
Project Governance versus Project Management
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Federation Square (Melbourne)
There is no clear distinction between project governance and project management. However, on
the traditional basis, management is focused on the current and internal organizational aspect that
is, efficiency. On the other hand, governance is focused on effectiveness, that is, the dual
demands of the future and external requirements.
The project management governance framework depends on the corporate governance
framework and the project mix available in the organization. It is impossible to develop a unique
project management governance framework. Effective project management governance must be
aligned to organization’s strategies and address the following: controlling process; competencies,
communication process, methodologies, roles and responsibilities and decision making process
and levels (KYRIAZOGLOU, 2012).
The Federation Square project, under the Victorian Government, began in the year 1998. It was
led by Jeff Kennet. The project was approximated to take six years to complete, engage over
five thousand people and its approximated cost was $467million, but would eventually be
condemned by the public.
Development of effective project management framework
According to MULLER, (2009), Continuous improvement and maintenance of the project
governance framework is necessary in order to receive and analyze project management metrics
across the project life cycle. A typical project management framework would constitute of three
steps that correspond to organizational increasing focus on project management, with each step
being divided into three forces that impact and determine the quality of the project management.
The first force: What Can Be Done? – The project manager identifies what he or she can
undertake based on his or her education and experience. The organization’s project managers
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should have effective education and development, towards the concerned projects. This enables
the organization to carter for both the technical contextual and behavioral competencies of the
project management.
At the initial step, the development of its own methodology and training of all the project
managers, project sponsors, team leaders and project support staff, depending on the needs, is
required of the organization.
The second step, with the main aim being certification of the project managers by an independent
system, helps to improve the organization’s project management credibility. Finally, the third
step, being advanced training, could be considered to be for market recognition. This helps in the
alignment of the project managers’ career with the higher certification system levels.
Force 2: What Should Be Done?- determines how the task of project management should be
carried out by the manager, adaptation and use of the project methodology, consideration of
project specialties and the necessary project management resources to be used by the manager.
This force addresses the demand of the project sponsors with regards to specific project
management practices.
The first step under this force relates to the organization’s attention to the project sponsorship.
This regards giving the sponsor group a clear understanding of the project management area.
This helps to make sure there is an effective and efficient use of project management processes.
At step two, the organization develops linking structures in order to improve and support project
management. And finally the last step is concerned with the organization making comparisons to
their project management capabilities versus their competitors using benchmarks. It also entails
incorporation of continuous improvement process.
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Federation Square (Melbourne)
Force 3: What is done? – How the project management is performed, complying with the
organization’s policies and methodologies is determined.
At the first step, there is need for the organization to make sure that revisions are carried out in
order to get the knowledge of what is being done. Such review may include project audits, health
checks or formal reviews.
The second step concerns the addressing of the project managers’ attitudes and approach towards
their work. The aspect of communication and team work with sponsors, their teams and the
stakeholders is also addressed.
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) framework
PMBOK provides standards for project management. Through a baseline concept, it divides
project management into six basic steps that form the project governance framework or checklist
by the PMBOK. These are: human resources management; cost management; communications
management; scope management; project time management; and quality management (
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library). These basic functions of governance can further be
divided into topics and subtopics based on work breakdown structure, depending on the
respective project type under consideration.
Applying the PMBOK framework to Federation Square (Melbourne)
To highlight the gaps in project governance and address the required project management
principles, the case study of Federation Square project (Melbourne), is used. We shall analyze
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Federation Square (Melbourne)
this case study in relation to project management governance and address the areas where the
project managers got it right and those that they did not perform according to the correct process.
Project Scope Management
The Federation Square project, out of its very aggressive schedule, to be finished by the
federation centenary, started construction before the completion of its elements of design.
Therefore, the project commenced before the full scope of the project was understood. As a
result of this, a great change to the project scope was realized when by the attempt of the Bracks
government, during the construction, to modify one of the four shards.
Thus, the delivery of the Federation Square project would be hindered by this and other scope
management issues. It is clear that the Federation Square project neglected the importance of
defining clearly, communicating appropriately and enforcing the scope of the project with all
external stakeholders, so as to avoid adverse effects on other areas of knowledge (EDWARDS,
2009).
Project Human Resource Management
There was an effective planning, acquisition, development and management of a team of human
resource by the Federation Square’s project human resource management, as depicted by the
faster acquisition and deployment of both internal and contracted personnel, considering the big
size and complexity of the project.
Moreover, the project adapted to the increase in staffing requirements, caused by changing
circumstance, through modification of shift cycles and engaging the services of additional
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Federation Square (Melbourne)
contractors, a requirement for effective project human resource management (KLIMOSKI,
2014).
Additionally, the project manager also exhibited effective team management and development.
The manager also organized a group photo, to boost the workers’ morale, when he sensed that
the workers had lost momentum in the project.
Project Cost, Time and Quality Management
It is the responsibility of the project manager to ensure there is balancing of the project cost, time
and quality objectives (WILSON, 2015). At the commencement of the Federation Square
project, it had a clear goal of giving out a high quality end design. But this goal shifted from
quality to time towards the finalization of the project. This goal shift dismayed the architects who
were focused to achieving the original high quality design and it was such a hard decision for
them to make, considering the consequences of stakeholder management. However, this goal
shift became a necessity to see the project meet its scheduled targets. Thus, the project manager
here had to go through a decision making process to balance project cost, time and quality
WILSON, 2015).
Quality Management
The significant characteristics of project quality management are; project quality planning,
quality control and quality assurance (ROSE, 2014). For Federation Square project’s case, the
quality planning factor was not clearly undertaken. However, lack on continuing quality
assurance was exhibited clearly in some areas of the project. By the architects walking around
checking on the progress of the project, it led to the adoption of a micromanagement style,
creating conflict with the rest of the team members, since this was not a systematic quality
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Federation Square (Melbourne)
assurance approach. This would have been avoided by implementing a quality assurance that is
robust and systematic. Also, the project did not clearly undertake quality control process.
Project Communication and Stakeholder Management
There was so much conflict in the Federation Square project. For instance, the clash between the
architects’ creative vision and the constraints of money and time experienced by the builders; the
conflict between the project management and the Bracks Governments regarding the mid project
scope change; and the internal conflict between the project manager and the architects with
regards to deadline generation for the opening day. By the project manager communicating
internally with the project team and externally with the project stakeholders, it would be easy to
avoid these conflicts.
The project manager’s failure to engage actively, and manage the conflicts situation towards
making sure that each stakeholder’s needs were heard and where possible met, resulted into the
project failure to implement such aspects as integration, project scope and stakeholder
management (https://www.pmi.org/learning/library).
Project Integration Management
It was a requirement for the Federation Square project manager to make decisions to balance the
various stakeholders’, such as the builders, architects and the government, requirements, against
the few resources allocated to the project. For example, the Federation Square making a decision
on the Open day, without considering the need of the marketing department for a fixed date, that
provided enough lead time for the arrangement of public events, advertising, catering and other
services (HELDMAN, MANGANO, & FEDDERSEN, 2016).
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Federation Square (Melbourne)
Additionally, it was important to give the architects a schedule that is dynamic; this would have
helped in protecting the project quality in case technical difficulties arose in the construction
process. Also, by the Project Manager announcing the date, his decision was an attempt to
consolidate and unify all the involved stakeholders’ requirements. The project manager may
have preferably used such techniques as the project quality, cost and time frame to make the
decision on the announcement of Open Day. For an effective decision outcome, the project
management ought to have applied integration management techniques.
Project Risk Management
Risk management techniques help in identifying the risks associated with a given project
(HIDSON, 2012). By failing to employ risk management techniques, the Federation Square
project progressed with two high risk areas. These were; awarding the tender to inexperienced
architects and pursuing a very complex project design within a tight schedule. The project risk
manager failed to identify strategies for mitigating these risks. It would have been possible to
reduce the risk levels to project outcomes by identifying, specialization and monitoring of the
risk levels and risk mitigation strategies.
Project Procurement Management
According to the project procurement management process, as highlighted in, GUTH, (2016), the
Project Procurement Management was a successful activity undertaken by the Federation Square
project. This was seen in the approximation of the required workforce to complete the project,
the rapid process of tendering, awarding of the project and the project management. These
enabled the project to remain on schedule in the early phase of its design and construction.
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Federation Square (Melbourne)
Despite the latter half of the project being affected by changes in project scope and schedule, the
project remained a good model as far as procurement management of contractors is concerned,
as it is vital to completing of a project successfully.
Conclusion
From this case study, we are able to identify the areas where project governance requirements
such as project scope management, project integration management and stakeholder management
were not conducted effectively. It further demonstrates the resulting effect that this had on the
project completion.
By successfully applying project human resource management, procurement management, and
cost, quality and time decision making basis led to the project that, despite being late and
exceeding the budget, brought about a structure that is iconic to the Central Business District of
Melbourne.
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REFERENCES
EDWARDS, G. T. (2009). Get that project management job!: Master the job interview and get
hired. Atlanta, Ga, Blue Crystal Press.
FINK, D., (2016). Project Risk Governance: Managing Uncertainty and Creating Organizational
Value. Routledge.
GUTH, S. (2016). Project procurement management: a guide to structured procurements. North
Charleston, SC, CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
HELDMAN, K., MANGANO, V. & FEDDERSEN, B. (2016). PMP Project Management
Professional review guide: updated for the 2015 exam.
HIDSON, D. (2012). Practical Project Risk Management: The ATOM Methodology. Oakland,
Berrett- Koehler Publishers, Incorporated. http://public.eblib.com/choice/
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS ON PROJECT ENGINEERING. (2011). Selected proceedings
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KLIMOSKI, R. J. (2014). Advancing human resource project management.
http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=72662.
KYRIAZOGLOU, J. (2012). Business management controls: a guide.
http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=50896.
LESTER, A. (2013). Project Management, Planning and Control. Elsevier Science.
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