Project Management Case Study: Sydney Light Rail Project Analysis

This case study examines the Sydney Light Rail project from a project management perspective. It begins with project selection, focusing on the light rail initiative in Sydney aimed at reducing traffic congestion. The report details the project's background, including its objectives, scope, and the involvement of the NSW transport government. It then evaluates and recommends the most suitable project delivery method (design-bid-build), financial contract (lump sum), and procurement method (competitive). The analysis includes justifications for each selection based on the project's specific requirements and constraints. Finally, the assignment includes a discussion of risk management, outlining potential risks and mitigation strategies for the project.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Project management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Selection of project....................................................................................................................2
Background of project................................................................................................................3
Recommendation of best project delivery method.....................................................................4
Evaluation and recommendation of best financial contract.......................................................5
Evaluation and recommendation of best procurement method..................................................6
Risk management plan...............................................................................................................7
References................................................................................................................................11

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Selection of project
Project management is presented as a practice that involves few steps for completing
a project. To execute the project management practice, it needs a project on which the
practice can be evaluated. For executing such a particular project, it needs to follow few steps
involved in project management practice and the steps are such as initiating, planning,
executing, monitoring and controlling and also closing (Kerzner 2017). To evaluate a project,
initially it requires to monitor the steps of initiation in which the identification of project as
well as testing of feasibility study or permission approval from the higher authority etc. are
needed. After the initiation phase, the project needs to ne planned through planning stage. In
this stage, it involves the defining of the project deliverables or objectives as well as making
of project schedule. In this phase, it requires to allocate the project activities among the
project team members. The third stage relates with the execution phase in which most of the
part of the project executes. After the execution phase, it requires to tracking the performance
of the project through the monitoring and controlling phase (Meredith, Mantel Jr and Shafer
2017). In this phase, mainly the testing procedures of the project takes place. The closing of
the project must done through the closure phase of the project.
In this following report, it needs to discuss various aspects of the project management
and therefore a selection of project is required. The following report particularises a project
which is oriented with the light rail project in Sydney. The NSW transport government take
the responsibility of this light rail project through the route of Circular Quay to Kingsford and
also Randwick over the George street in CBD (Heagney 2016). The actual motive of this
project is to diminish the transportation congestion in Sydney. However, the Sydney is
considered as a popular city for its quality of life as well as job facilities. Due to these
population, there takes place traffic congestion due to inconvenient transport services. The

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execution of this light rail project ensures most of the people for providing encourage for
going their corporate offices or businesses. With the help of this light rail project, almost 300
people can travel at one move during the peak hours which helps to reduce the congestion of
Sydney (Walker 2015). To execute this project, the NSW transport government authority
needs the timeline up to 2020.
Background of project
The project is established on a particular scenario of the light rail project in Sydney.
The NSW transport government takes over this project and has decided for completing this
project within the timeline of 2020. The actual intension of this project is to decrease traffic
related congestion occurring in Sydney. Moreover, the Sydney is considered as a popular city
for its quality of life. Therefore, in this location, due to having several number of job
opportunities, most of the people are attracted towards this city. For that, in this location, the
population is increased day by day. On the other side, the inconveniency of the bus services
take place in this location. Therefore, it introduces the traffic congestion which is considered
as one of the vital concern for the city of Sydney.
Thus, the NSW transport government authority has decided to initiate a project by
which the traffic congestion decreases (Mir and Pinnington 2014). This light rail project has
been routed from the location of Circular Quay to Kingsford and also Randwick over the
George Street in CBD. As per the analysis of the meeting, it has decided that the route of this
light rail will go in front of office area or shopping malls or other crowded locations. This
transport authority introduces the light rail project along with the bus services. This light rail
services is more reliable for the people of Sydney because the availability of this light rail is
normal and this services is also convenient for the huge population of Sydney. The light rail
provides their services to 300 people almost at one direction (Harrison and Lock 2017). To

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execute this project, the total amount of money of $500 million is required and for making
the tunnel of this project, it requires to $2 billion. This project introduces some key benefits
including carrying almost 300 people at a time over 45 metre length light rail which is equal
to the five ordinary length based buses. The other benefits relates to reduce the crowding as
well as traffic congestion. For the light rail, the buses are released for providing the services
to the other destinations.
Recommendation of best project delivery method
The project delivery method is a special kind of method by which the project can be
executed. This method tracks the activities of the project owner which literally means that the
project owner individual conducts the project or integrates with other authority for continuing
the project progress (Turner 2016). Within the project delivery method, there are three
diverse ranges of project delivery method by which the project executes. The variation of
project delivery method includes the design-bid-build as well as design-build and also
construction manager at Risk (CM@Risk). This method is mainly incorporates a system
which is utilized by a particular agency in order to organize or making of the financing design
as well as operations and also maintenance services of the project.
Depending to analysis of various project delivery methods, the design-bid-build
method is an approach of delivery method in which the owner employs a designer or engineer
for designing the project and after completion of the designing part, it requires to hire a
construction contractor who is responsible only for construction part of the project. This
delivery method is considered mainly traditional method and also low cost project delivery
method. On the other side, the design build is another method by which the owner can able to
hire a company or any team through a contract for delivering the project within the right time
as well as cost (Too and Weaver 2014). In that case, this designing and construction both

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parts are to be accounted for the team or the particular company. Another method is
construction manager at risk which defines that the holder of the project hires the
construction manager for executing the project within the certain budget and also timeline. In
this delivery method, it requires to track some criteria in order to choose the construction
manager for the execution of project. The criteria involves the project quality as well as track
record and also cost or achieving of project within schedule timeline.
Making a comparison with this project, the project recommends the design-bid-build
delivery method which incorporates the owner along with the additional engineer or designer
and also construction contractor. However, this project is based on the light rail concept
which includes the transportation service (McNeil, Frey and Embrechts 2015). The
transportation service should be proper because a number of people will travel with the help
of this light rail. As discussed in the earlier section, that this delivery method is traditional
delivery method and also low cost related method. In this delivery method, the total process
of the delivery method is divided into two parts including the designing method and also
construction process. In that case, this project needs the proper perfection and for that it
requires to maintain the designing process of the light rail and also designing process of the
light rail track which is more suitable for the public.
The second thing of this delivery method is the construction process in which the
preparation of the project may be proper. For the construction process, it requires to hire the
construction contractor by which the project may evaluate in a right track. The construction
contractor is accountable for the construction purposes that means the project quality as well
as construction cost and also maintaining the project schedule wise. For that, this light rail
project is taken the design-bid-build delivery method.

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Evaluation and recommendation of best financial contract
The financial contract helps to the project management in order to ensure the payment
terms as well as negotiation pattern or work flow along with the effective service related
levels. Generally the effective contract management helps to keep the relationships between
two contractual parties which ensures the permission for working in the project for mitigate
the project risks. Within the project management, there exists three different kinds of
financial contract including lump sum contract as well as guaranteed maximum price contract
and also cost plus fixed fee contract (Hopkin 2018). The lump sum contract involves a
contract in which the owner can know the estimated the cost for the entire project along with
the project plans and also specifications. With the help of this contract, the owner can
assumed the cost for the entire project. On the other hand, the guaranteed maximum price
contract is one special kind of contract by which the owner can provide the compensation for
the actual cost along with the fixed fee for the ceiling subject. In this case, the contractor is
accountable for the overrunning of the project costs (Lam 2014). In addition to this, the other
kind of financial contract is Cost-Plus Fixed Fee Contract which includes that the contractor
requires to pay for normal expenses along with the additional pay for the services.
According to the case study, this project needs to follow the lump sum contract
because the NSW transport government authority needs to make an estimation of the project
by which the project can be evaluated. In that case, it has assumed that the project needs $500
million for the full completion and additionally, only for the tunnel it requires $2 billion. As a
result, it needs to track the project so that it helps to finish the overall project inside the
estimated cost (Pritchard and PMP 2014). If the project follows the other financial contract,
then it is difficult to complete the project within the assumed cost. For that, it should follow
the lump sum contract for fulfilling the project within the allocated cost assumption.

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Evaluation and recommendation of best procurement method
Based on this recommendation, the discussable procurement methods are such as
competitive as well as negotiated and also best value procurement method. In the first
procurement method, the project owner publishes the project requirements for searching the
tenders in order to obtain best value. Therefore, it is based on the tender based process. On
the other hand, the other kind of procurement method is related with the negotiated
procurement method which induces that the project owner selects a particular contractor
without any formal advertisement or any formal price related competition (Aven 2016). This
procurement method involves the bargaining process for obtaining the best value regarding
the project cost or profit and also performance requirements etc. The third procurement
method is related to the best value procurement method (Bromiley et al. 2015). According to
this method, it involves to find the best value regarding the quality or expertise for the project
rather than the project cost. In this procurement method, the main motive is to achieve the
best value of the project.
Comparing with this case study, the light rail project of Sydney initiates the
procurement methodology of competitive method. However, the NSW transport government
authority publishes the project requirement as a tenders and there occurs a limitation of
companies in an obvious way (Mulley, Tsai and Ma 2018). Some of the companies are
mentioned as Transdev Sydney Pty Ltd, Acciona Infrastructure Australia Pty Limited, Serco
Australia Pty Limited, Pienary Origination Pty Ltd etc. In this project, the project owner that
means the NSW transport government authority publishes such project requirements such
customers’ oriented outcomes during the operation period as well as integration of the design
along with the technical solution and also delivery solutions (Harris et al. 2018). In this case
scenario, this procurement method is too much effective and for that, as a result the project
can achieve almost the success point as pew their requirements.

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Risk management plan
The risk management plan is a set of methods by which the risks of the project can be
identified and for that they can be mitigated. Within the project management, the risks play as
obstacles which may turn the project at disappointed situation (Currie and De Gruyter 2016).
The risk management is deliberated as an indispensable unit of the project management and
also it involves such steps like risk identification as well as risk register, risk matrix and also
risk mitigation strategy. The table shows the following project risks:
Sl No. Risk Description Probability Impact Rank Mitigation
1. Land
related risk
This kind of
risk occurs if
there does
not exist any
accessibility
of land using
(Clifton,
Mulley and
Hensher
2014).
High Very High 2 Before
starting the
project, it
requires to
take the
proper
approval
from the
higher
authority
before using
the land
(Douglas
and Jones
2016).
2. License
related risk
This kind of
risk takes
place if there
is no
approval of
the
environment
operations.
Medium Very High 3 It requires
to take the
approval
from the
environment
related
higher
authority
before
starting this
project.
3. Community
risk
This risk
relates with
the
exceedance
Medium Medium 5 It requires
to use such
techniques
or machines

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of the noise
as well as
vibration
limits.
by which
the project
cannot
create a
huge level
of noise and
also
vibration.
4. Design
related
risks
This risk
occurs due to
the detection
of the defects
in the
designing
phase
(Olesen
2014).
Though the
light rail
project
relates with
the use of the
public
therefore, in
that case, the
designing is
considered as
the main
factor.
Low High 2 It requires
to perfect
the
designing
part,
because the
designing
part is
considered
as the
important
factor
within this
project and
otherwise, it
may cause a
huge
accident.
Therefore,
in that case,
it requires to
do the
designing of
this project
perfectly.
5. Quality risk This risk
occurs if the
project does
not meet
their project
quality as per
the project
requirements
.
High Medium 4 It requires
to do the
project with
a perfection
so that the
minimum
quality
exists
within this
project.
Without the
proper
quality, the

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public may
provide
complaints
which turns
the project
in the
failure
point.
6. Testing
related risk
The testing
related risk
occurs if
there any
dispute
detects in the
testing phase.
The dispute
may cause
the failure of
the project.
Medium Very high 1 It requires
ton procure
the project
so that in
the testing
phase, there
does not
detect any
dispute of
the
performance
of the
project.
However,
the testing
phase needs
to be done
properly
because the
quality of
life depends
on this
testing
phase.
Risk matrix
Probability
V HH 5 1
M 3 2,6

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L 4
V l
V L L M H V H
Impact
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