Challenges and Strategies in Managing International Housing Projects

This report analyzes the management of housing projects, specifically focusing on a case study of the East Timor Housing Project managed by Kate Greenwood, an international project manager at The ATA. The report examines various strategies for project monitoring, including comparing actual progress against the project plan and conducting surveys of occupants to assess satisfaction. It also delves into financial performance measurement using profit and loss accounts and regular stock-taking to mitigate losses. Furthermore, the report highlights the importance of risk management, identifying potential challenges such as economic instability, technological limitations, and energy deficiencies. The study emphasizes the need for effective stakeholder communication, adapting the information shared based on stakeholder interests and linguistic considerations. The report concludes by summarizing the key strategies and challenges faced in managing international housing projects, emphasizing the importance of resourcefulness and adaptability in achieving project success.

Running head: MANAGEMENT OF HOUSING PROJECTS
Management of Housing Projects
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Introduction:
Project managers today are under continuous pressure to monitor and track projects. The
pressure to monitoring the projects is further intensified when the project managers have to
ensure that the available resources are not over-exploited. They also have to manage the financial
and risk aspects of the projects. The managers in order to achieve these three objectives have to
implement innovative methods (Bilau, Witt and Lill 2015). The projects management in today’s
world have to ensure stakeholder intimation which adds to the monitoring pressure. The
challenge is intensified further when the project monitoring report has to be presented before an
international stakeholder audience which do not use English as their main language. The aim of
the paper would be visiting these challenges from the point of view of Kate Greenwood,
international project management, The ATA which is a small construction project management
company based in Australia.
Analysis:
Kate, international project management, The ATA in order to monitor the progress of the
East Timor Housing Project should implement several methods so as not to over-strain the
limited resources of the ATA which is a small scale housing company with operations in both
Australia and overseas. The first method which Kate would utilize to monitor the progress of the
project would be measuring the actual progress of the project against the predetermined project
plan. The project plan would show the project milestones which have to be achieved and the
timelines associated with each milestone (Grabovy and Orlov 2016). Drawing a comparison
between the actual project execution and the standard project execution plan would show the
progress levels achieved. For example, if the standard time set of installations of solar panels as
per the standard project plan is 2 months and the actual time taken is 4 months, this would show

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that the function (installation of solar panels) was not executed within the time. This would mean
that the execution of milestone was not carried out efficiently. The step can be justified on the
grounds that the monitoring the execution of the housing projects on the basis of the
predetermined project plan would not require investment of any additional resources. This is
because unlike Australia, East Timor is an extremely poor country and as a result lacks the
technological to support highly advanced project monitoring operations (Li et al, 2016).
The second method which Kate can implement to monitor the East Timor housing project
would be conducting a survey of the occupants. The ATA can survey the occupants of the
housing projects to gain information like the actual levels of utilities the latter is enjoying after
occupation. For example, the occupants would be asked whether they are actually being able the
use the USBs provided, whether they are being able to meet their energy requirements with the
30 meters of wires provided for wiring their properties and whether they are actually being able
to use the solar panels used. If the occupants give positive response, this would mean that
housing projects have been executed efficiently (Kwofie, Afram and Botchway 2016). The
method of conducting occupants’ survey would relieve the project managers from conducting
expensive project monitoring operations. Thus, the first advantage of the method lies in the fact
that it would be economic and would not require investment in expensive project management
facilities. The second advantage of the method would be that it would actually enable the
company to measure that level of customer satisfaction which would actually show the level of
efficiency of the project management. However, it can be pointed out that the customer
satisfaction cannot be considered as the levels of technical efficiency achieved in the project
management (Grabovy and Orlov 2016). The second disadvantage of using outcomes of using
customer surveys of measuring the efficiency of housing project execution in East Timor would

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require investment in acquiring software to analyze the survey results in order to present them
before the management of the company namely, The ATA. This would lead to increase in the
cost of project though by a small limit.
The rejected project monitoring methods include implementation of advancement project
management technology and deployment of more supervisors. The rejection of the two methods
can be justified on the grounds that they would create pressure on the financial resources of the
ATA.
Kate would be required to implement methods of tracking the financial performance of
the resources used. The international project manager would compare between the amounts
invested towards the execution of the East Timor housing project and the revenue generated
using profit and loss account. This would enable Kate to measure the profit generated from the
project during a certain period of time like a month. The advantages of the method lies that it
would enable Kate measure the inflows of cash against the outflows of cash. The manager by
monitoring the costs incurred towards the project would be able to monitor the efficiency of
project execution. For example, if Kate observes that the costs of project execution are increasing
at higher percentages compared to the increase in the profit earned, this would mean that project
execution lacks efficiency. This means that the project manager needs to take steps to reduce
costs which would automatically boost the profit percentage earned (Kuzmina and
Cherednichenko 2016). The second advantage of using profit and loss account is that it would
enable the management of the ATA take steps in case the profits go down compared to the costs
incurred. The second method which Kate would implement in order to measure the financial
outcome would be stock taking on regular basis. Kate in the third video mentions that the island
of East Timor is prone to heavy rainfall. Considering the fact that housing projects commence

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under open skies, it can be assumed that the rainfall in East Timor leads to loss of building
materials. Loss of materials due to rain leads to high financial losses to the project management
company namely, the ATA. The company has to bear additional costs to replenish the inventory
lost due to rain which adds to the cost of project execution (Zhai, Zhong and Huang 2015). For
example, if the stock taking shows that in the month of January, the amount of materials lost is
50 kilograms while in the month of February the amount increases to 60 kilogram, then it would
mean that the company would likely earn lower profit in January compared to February. The
company in this case would be required to take steps to minimize losses of materials in the
coming periods in order to ensure it is able to generate sufficient profits to diversify the losses
suffered due to the loss (Bertsimas, Kallus and Hussain 2016).
The two strategies to measure the financial performance of the projects mentioned above
namely, profit and account and stock taking suffer from two disadvantages. Implementation of
the two financial management strategies would require investment in expensive software and
manpower, which would add to the cost of project monitoring. The second disadvantage which
the two systems suffer from would be that company would have to incur recurring training costs
in order to train the financial management staff members involved in the East Timor project,
which would add to the salary expenses (Nayak and Pandey 2016). Thus, one can infer that
though the implementation of two methods namely using profit and loss account and regular
stock would lead to the efficient financial
Kate should measure the performance of the risk plan and identifying emerging risks and
other necessities. The international project manager should consider the different risks which the
housing construction projects may face during the commencing and after the execution. Kate
throughout the interview mentions several facts about the East Timor Island which can pose

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threats to the housing projects. Firstly, the country is weak in terms of economic conditions
which means that the residents have limited disposable income to afford expensive housing
facilities. This would give rise to shortage of capital available for commencement of the housing
projects. The second which can arise due to the weak economic conditions of the island country
is shortage of technology. The technological risk can also hinder installation of the solar panels
on the constructed houses (Chatterjee et al. 2018). The third which would the project
commencement would face would is financial risks. Kate also mentions in the interview that the
East Timor Island is deficient in sources of energy which would hinder the plants and machinery
to be used in the construction works from working efficiently. This in turn would lead to breach
of deadlines which in turn would add to the cost of project execution, thus lowering the profits.
Thus, the project would face revenue risks. Kate should identify the risks and form a risk plan to
mitigate or at reduce the risks to the feasible extent. Kate should use risk register which would
show the risks identified. The international manager should use risk matrix to estimate the
likelihood and consequences of the risks identified on the risk register (Qazi et al. 2016).
Kate should use the formal channel of communication to communicate the data
pertaining to the project to the CEO. She should communicate the information to the CEO on
weekly basis. Kate in order to communicate the project related information to the CEO should
substantiate her reports and presents using appropriate documents (Muszynska et al., 2015). For
example, in order to report the financial performance of the project, Kate should substantiate the
report with the profit and losses and stock keeping records. Similarly, while reporting the risks
identified, Kate should provide the risk register and risk matrix. Thus, it is evident from the
discussion that Kate should communicate the information pertaining to the housing projects to
the CEO on weekly basis in form of reports supported with appropriate documents.

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Kate should communicate different types of information pertaining to the East Timor
Housing project to the different categories stakeholders. The type of information which Kate
would communicate would different on the interests of the particular stakeholders (Mok, Shen
and Yang 2015). For example, Kate should communicate the information pertaining to the
progress of the projects to the management of the ATA, which is an internal stakeholder in the
form of reports. Similarly, as far as customers are concerned, Kate should communicate the
expected date within which the housing complexes would be made available to them for
occupancy. Kate in this case should communicate the occupancy related information in the form
of advertisements on the audio visual media as well as on the digital platform. Similarly, Kate
should communicate with suppliers of raw materials the information regarding requirement of
more inventory and expected date of release of credit payments. The appropriate media of
communication which the international project manager would use would be email and hard
copies of intimation letters on the official letterhead of the company namely, The ATA.
An important consideration which Kate should take into account while communication of
project related information to the international stakeholders like customers residing in the East
Timor Island would be that differences in languages of communication prevailing in Australia,
the home country of the ATA and the host country, the East Timor Island. It must be pointed out
that the main official language of communication of Australia is English while the official
languages of the East Timor Island are Portuguese and Tetum (Dfat.gov.au. 2019). Thus, while
communicating with the stakeholders residing in the latter, Portuguese should be incorporated as
the language of communication as well besides English.

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Conclusion:
One can conclude the discussion that Kate, international project manager, The ATA
based in Australia should use appropriate tools to monitor different aspects of the East Timor
Housing projects. She should also ensure that the methods chosen do not strain the already
limited resources of the company. She should compare between the advantages and
disadvantages of the different methods use. It can also be concluded that she should incorporate
these tools while reporting to the CEO of the company on the housing projects. Finally, one can
conclude she should maintain continuous communication with stakeholders, both resident
stakeholders and international stakeholders using appropriate channels and languages.

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