Project Management Report: Heathrow Terminal 5 - MMN224935 Analysis

This report examines the project management of the Heathrow Terminal 5 project, focusing on its scope, planning, implementation, and risk management. It analyzes the project's critical success factors, deliverables, work breakdown structure, schedule, budget, and constraints. The report evaluates t...Read More

Running head: HEATHROW TERMINAL 5
Project Management: Heathrow TERMINAL 5
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................2
2. Project Plan......................................................................................................................2
2.1. Scope.........................................................................................................................3
2.2 Critical Success Factors.............................................................................................4
2.3. Deliverables..............................................................................................................4
2.4. Work Breakdown Structure......................................................................................5
2.5. Schedule and Resource.............................................................................................5
2.6. Budget.......................................................................................................................7
2.8. Constraints................................................................................................................7
2.9. Priorities....................................................................................................................7
3. Implementation................................................................................................................7
3.1. Evaluation of the practices with Project Management Methodologies....................8
4. Project Risk......................................................................................................................9
5. Conclusion.....................................................................................................................11
6. Recommendations..........................................................................................................12
References..........................................................................................................................13

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1. Introduction
Management of a large project is generally subjected to application of a wide number of
project management methods, tools and techniques. Management of the large projects are
subjected to management of the stakeholders, change requests, resources and similar other
considerations so that it can be delivered as per the set time. The report will discuss the
implementation of a large project, Heathrow Terminal 5 (Davies, Dodgson and Gann 2016.). The
project will discuss the implementation approach that is being considered for finishing this
project on time. The risk linked with this mega project will be identified to address the
uncertainties linked with the same (Davis 2014). The terminal 5 is exclusively used as one of
global hubs linked with International airlines Groups that are served by the British Airways. The
project plan that will be prepared will provide an idea of the implementation approach and the
scope considered for the execution and completion of the said project (Zerjav, Edkins and Davies
2018.). The aim of this terminal is to handle 35 million passengers in a Year. The undertaken
project has a high economic value and therefore, understanding the risks and uncertainties linked
with this project should be identified and mitigated. The following sections discusses the
implementation approach that is undertaken to complete this project of high economic value.
2. Project Plan
A project plan is a project document that contains the details of professional project
management approach that are followed in execution of a particular project. For the current
project, that is London Heathrow Terminal 5, a detailed and a well-structured plan was prepared
to complete the project within the set deadline (Eduardo Yamasaki Sato and de Freitas Chagas

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2014). The project plan identifies the scope, deliverable, the success factor and the estimated
budget of the project.
2.1. Scope
Defining the project’s scope is crucial for development of a working plan for an
identified project. For the London Heathrow Terminal 5 airport project, the scope was to provide
an efficient customer service and a quality airport to the Heathrow airport’s passengers (Cullen
and Parker 2015). The airport that was developed was capable of accommodating more than 30
million passengers who are assigned with different modern modes of transportation. The in
scope considered for execution of the project is indicated as follows-
1. Development and constructing the main terminal building
2. Development of two satellite building
3. Development of the road infrastructure
4. Development of an air control tower of 87 m high.
5. Sixty aircraft stands
6. Twin river dimension
7. Multi storey car parking
8. Development of the needed scope infrastructures
The out of scope requirements of the project are indicated as follows-
1. Constructing the runway in the terminal

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2. Maintaining the terminal after handing over the same to BAA
The above paragraphs identifies the in scope and the out of scope considerations of a
project.
2.2 Critical Success Factors
It is essential to identify the critical factors that contributes to the management and finish
of a particular project. The factors that will determine the success of this particular project are
indicated as follows-
1. The exhaustive planning activities were completed as per plan and this is one most
significant success criteria of the project (Davies and Brady 2016.).
2. The Earthworks linked with the project are to be completed as per plan, which is a
major success factor for the project.
3. The rail and road infrastructure projects are completed as per plan.
2.3. Deliverables
The main deliverables of the project are indicated as follows-
1. Delivery of an environmental friendly terminal-5 building (Davies, Gann and Douglas
2009.)
2. Enhancement of the capacity of the passengers
3. Development and delivery of modern air traffic control tower

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4. New spur road links to M25 motorway will be delivered to reduce the traffic
congestion.
2.4. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The WBS of the project is indicated as follows-
Figure 1: Representing the Work breakdown Structure
2.5. Schedule and Resource

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The schedule and the resource requirements of the undertaken project are illustrated in
the following Gantt chart-

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Figure 2: The Schedule and Resources considered for the Project
2.6. Budget
The budget set for the construction and development of the project is £4.3 billion. The
terminal is capable of handling 30 million British airways passengers (Basu, Little and Millard
2009).
2.8. Constraints
The main constraints linked with the project are as follows-
1. Time constraint
2. Budget constraint
3. Operational Issues and meeting the environmental standards
2.9. Priorities
The main priorities of the project is to identify and analyze the most significant risk
linked with the project so that those risks can be eliminated (Deakin and Koukiadaki 2009). The
mitigation of the risks is therefore considered to be a priority for execution of a project in an
effective manner.
3. Implementation
The planning and implementation of the London Heathrow airport was continued for two
decades. The completion of the Heathrow Airport provides the capability of providing with the
capacity for the tenant airlines along with a steady increase in revenue (Clarke and Gribling

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2008.). Similar to the critical and large construction projects, the work of the Heathrow airport
has experienced a slip in the overall completion date of the project. The delays tended towards
the decision of impacting the overall quality of a system. The delays are tended towards the
decisions that has a large impact on the overall quality of a system (Pritchard and PMP 2014).
The slip in the schedule was undesirable for a project of high economic value. The delays in the
opening of the airport had affected the project budget. The delays are not taken lightly by the
project authorities. This is particularly because the demand of the airport authorities were highest
in the summer months and therefore, opening of the terminal in summer was necessary. A six
month delay in opening the airport was a major concern as delay in that time period would
automatically indicate an increase in the revenue along with the loss of cost recovery options.
3.1. Evaluation of the practices with Project Management Methodologies
The schedule and budget issues in a construction project is quite common. Critical
evaluation of the issues that were observed in the Heathrow Terminal 5, relates to the different
project management principles and methodologies that were required to be followed for
successful execution of such a complex project. Time and cost management are two of the most
significant principles related to execution of the project in a crucial manner. The time delay was
a significant risk that were needed to be managed.
Major time issues were faced while the project was in its execution stage. A six month
delay in the project is expected to affect the cost and the budget estimated for the project. A
delay in the execution and completion of the project implicates a nightmare in public relations.
This was an important project and therefore, any issues with the execution time of the project
would affect all the stakeholders linked with the project.

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The schedule issues had a large impact on the normal execution of a project
4. Project Risk
The project risk can be narrated as an uncertain event that has considerable effect on the
deliverables of the said project. The management of risks mainly focuses on effective
examination as well as identification of the risks and the objectives of a project. There are a
number of risk categories that can be linked with a construction project (Aven 2016). These
common risks are strategic risk, operational, financial, compliance risk and the reputation risk
(Serpella et al 2014). The most significant risks that are linked with the Heathrow Terminal 5
project include the risks related to budget and schedule. For effective understanding of the issues
as well as the risks in the said project, a risk register is prepared for effective identification of the
severity of the risk and probability of risk occurrences.
Risk Category Severity Probability Response
Delays in Project
completion
Time High Low Mitigate
The project
going over-
budget
Cost High High Accept
Ineffective lay
out designing
Design High Low Share
Operational
Issues
Operations High Low Avoid

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Table 1: Representing the Risk Register
The risk register identifies the most critical risks linked with the project. The project in
consideration could have faced the time issues and the budget issues linked with the project
however, the probability of the occurrences of the schedule risk is low in this undertaken project
considering that it was finished on time. The time and the budget issues linked with this project
were quite significant in the London Heathrow airport project and therefore, addressing these
two major risks were prioritized while the execution of the project.
In this project, an effective and planned approach of risk management is followed. The
steps that were followed is successful completion of the project are indicated a follows-
1. Identification of the Hazards: The primary step towards management of the project
risk include examination of the major issues that the project has been facing (Kliem and Ludin
2019). One of the risks that is linked with this particular project is management of the time in
development of the London Heathrow airport.
Assessment of the Risks: The step after identification of the risk involves assessment of
the identified risk. In this project an extensive risk assessment process is followed to understand
the severity of each of the identified risk (Van Staveren 2018). The assessment procedure
involves preparing a risk register that helped in easier categorization of the assessed risks and the
issues that the project might face. The risk register in the table 1 identifies the risk’s severity and
issues linked with the undertaken project.
The assessment of the risks further indicates easier examination of the major risks that are
needed to be monitored and control. Reviewing the risk is an essential part of risk management
procedure that is followed in addressing the approach of risk management.

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Risk Control: After assessment of the most significant risks and issues that the project
might face, it is quite critical to have a control on the assessed risks. The Risk control process
was quite strict for this particular project as a risk control manager was assigned for enforcing an
effective control on the entire risk management process.
Reviewing the Risks: Reviewing the risk control mechanism is critically important to
ascertain that the mitigated risks does not return to the project. Reviewing the risks and the issues
that are already addressed can help in controlling the risks that are identified. For example, in
this particular project, the reviewing of the schedule risk helped in effectively mitigating the
identified risks and completion of project on time.
Thus, it can be commented that a critical risk management process is followed in
management of this critical project. Although there were delays in identifying the critical risks,
the most severe risks were addressed and the project could be completed in a successful manner.
5. Conclusion
The report identifies the plan for execution of the London Heathrow airport project. This
is considered to be a project of high economic value and therefore, development of a feasible
plan for the project is necessary. The report provides an idea of the plan that is followed for
execution of the said project. Along with that the implementation approach that is considered for
execution of the London Heathrow Terminal 5 airport project. The issues that have been
identified in the execution of the project involves the budget risks and operational risks that the
project faced. However, the project could be completed on time. The risk management
approaches that were a part of the undertaken project is identified and the methods of project
control are discussed. The assessment of the risks and the issues related to the project have

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provided a view of the implementation processes linked with the project. The project plan
provides an idea of the schedule and the work breakdown structure of the execution process of
the project. The Plan further discusses the resources need and the budget estimation of the
project.
6. Recommendations
On analysis of the project on basis of different project management approaches, certain
recommendations for the project can be proposed. The recommendations linked with the project
are indicated as follows-
1. A more detailed and effective budget estimation was necessary
2. This London Heathrow Terminal 5 airport project is a project of high complexity and
therefore a more detailed planning was needed in execution of the project as per plan.
3. A continuous risk management process was needed for addressing the major risks and
the issues that the project might face. The schedule risk that is linked with the project was
identified much later that leads to considerable delay in the execution of the said project.

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References
Aven, T., 2016. Risk assessment and risk management: Review of recent advances on their
foundation. European Journal of Operational Research, 253(1), pp.1-13.
Basu, R., Little, C. and Millard, C., 2009. Case study: A fresh approach of the Balanced
Scorecard in the Heathrow Terminal 5 project. Measuring Business Excellence, 13(4), pp.22-33.
Clarke, L. and Gribling, M., 2008. Obstacles to diversity in construction: the example of
Heathrow Terminal 5. Construction Management and Economics, 26(10), pp.1055-1065.
Cullen, K. and Parker, D.W., 2015. Improving performance in project-based management:
synthesizing strategic theories. International Journal of Productivity and Performance
Management, 64(5), pp.608-624.
Davies, A. and Brady, T., 2016. Explicating the dynamics of project capabilities. International
Journal of Project Management, 34(2), pp.314-327.
Davies, A., Dodgson, M. and Gann, D., 2016. Dynamic capabilities in complex projects: The
case of London Heathrow Terminal 5. Project Management Journal, 47(2), pp.26-46.
Davies, A., Gann, D. and Douglas, T., 2009. Innovation in megaprojects: systems integration at
London Heathrow Terminal 5. California management review, 51(2), pp.101-125.
Davis, K., 2014. Different stakeholder groups and their perceptions of project
success. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.189-201.

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Deakin, S. and Koukiadaki, A., 2009. Governance processes, labour–management partnership
and employee voice in the construction of Heathrow terminal 5. Industrial Law Journal, 38(4),
pp.365-389.
Eduardo Yamasaki Sato, C. and de Freitas Chagas Jr, M., 2014. When do megaprojects start and
finish? Redefining project lead time for megaproject success. International Journal of Managing
Projects in Business, 7(4), pp.624-637.
Kliem, R.L. and Ludin, I.S., 2019. Reducing project risk. Routledge.
Pritchard, C.L. and PMP, P.R., 2014. Risk management: concepts and guidance. Auerbach
Publications.
Serpella, A.F., Ferrada, X., Howard, R. and Rubio, L., 2014. Risk management in construction
projects: a knowledge-based approach. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 119, pp.653-
662.
Van Staveren, M., 2018. Uncertainty and ground conditions: a risk management approach. CRC
Press.
Zerjav, V., Edkins, A. and Davies, A., 2018. Project capabilities for operational outcomes in
inter-organisational settings: The case of London Heathrow Terminal 2. International Journal of
Project Management, 36(3), pp.444-459.