INF70005 Strategic Project Management: Research and Reflective Report

This report delves into two critical project management issues: flexibility and adaptation in megaprojects, and project risk management, drawing insights from international speakers and academic theories. It uses project management theory to understand the complexities of managing megaprojects like China's One Belt One Road initiative, highlighting the importance of contingent planning and risk mitigation. The report also explores risk management theory to address potential losses in projects due to macroeconomic factors and policy changes. Key learnings include the significance of managing projects within allocated time and costs, considering macroeconomic influences, and maintaining contingent plans to minimize risks. The analysis uses examples like the OBOR project to illustrate the practical application of these theories, emphasizing the role of project managers in ensuring successful project execution and stakeholder value creation. The document is contributed by a student and available on Desklib.

1. List clearly the two chosen project management issues / topics from the chosen
international speakers. Explain why you chose them:
The two chosen project management issues or topics are ‘Flexibility and Adaptation in
Megaprojects’ and ‘Project Risk Management’. These two projects would be used to conduct
the research.
The two projects chosen namely, ‘Flexibility and Adaptation in Megaprojects’ and
‘Project Risk Management’ have been chosen because they are interrelated. Sanchez-Cazorla,
Alfalla-Luque and Irimia-Dieguez (2016) opine that the mega projects are required to boost
economic development of nations. This is because the outcomes of mega projects are assets like
roads and bridges which enable movement of goods and human resources from one country to
another as well as within countries. Mega projects owing to the dynamic macroeconomic
influences like changes in government laws and technological advancements, face several
challenges or risks in smooth commencement. Thus, it can be pointed out from this discussion
that the companies undertaking mega projects have to be flexible in planning to adapt to these
macroeconomic changes. Flyvbjerg and Turner (2018) strengthen the argument by mentioning
that mega projects attract immense numbers of risks which have significant influences on these
projects.

2. For the first issue / topic, identify at least one academic theory to deepen your insights
into the issue. Briefly introduce [and reference] your chosen academic theory. Justify your
choice.
The chosen theory for the topic, ‘Flexibility and Adaptation in Megaprojects’ is project
management theory. The theory deals with undertaking and execution of projects within a
predetermined cost and within a predetermined cost.
Kerzner and Kerzner (2017) in their book titled ‘Project management: a systems
approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling.’ introduce the term project management
describing it as the ‘art of creating the illusion that any outcome is the result of a series of
predetermined, deliberate acts when, in fact, it was dumb luck.’ This introduction of the
theory of project management can interpreted in conjunction with the article named ‘Earned
value project management’ authored by Fleming and Koppelman (2016). The article mentions
that the main aim of project management is to execute projects so as to create value to the
stakeholders like the principle (usually government bodies) and the public in general. It can be
pointed out that project management consists of predetermined acts or steps which go into
execution of the projects which value for the stakeholders. Project management consists of
initiating, forming strategies or plans, execution, management and closing of the projects to
create value for the stakeholders as mentioned in the second articles. This introduction of the
project management theory is substantiated by Kerzner and Kerzner (2017). They mention on
page 3 on their aforementioned work that project management consists of five steps namely,
project initiation, project planning, project execution, project monitoring and control and project
closure.

The choice of the theory namely, project management can be justified on the grounds that
it is the basic theory which comes into play while undertakings and execution of projects.
Demirkesen and Ozorhon (2017) mention that efficient management and execution of projects
require integration of several steps. Thus, it can be pointed out that management of mega
projects require integration of several steps. In other words efficient project management plays a
key role in mega projects. This discussion justifies the selection of project management as the
theory to conduct research in the first article chosen.
Using your chosen theory to explain how this helps you to gain deeper insights into the first
issue.
The chosen namely, project management theory has helped in gaining deeper insight into
the first issue namely, ‘Flexibility and Adaptation in Megaprojects’. Brookes and Locatelli
(2015) opine that mega projects are projects which involve costs over $1 billion. These projects
are undertaken to derive developmental benefits of more than countries or huge areas in a single
countries. Mega projects take years to construct and span over large areas. Hu et al. (2018)
mention that the mega projects impact several stakeholders of different countries. The mega
projects are so huge that it is impossible for single project management companies to manage the
entire project efficiently. Thus, it is evident that efficient management of mega projects require
participation of a large number of project management companies. Mok, Shen and Yang (2015)
opine that mega projects involve several groups of stakeholders like several project management
companies and their respective stakeholder groups. Grabovy and Orlov (2016) strengthen the
argument by mentioning that mega projects traverse several countries and thus their key
stakeholders involve several national governments as well. Thus, it can be pointed out that
efficient management of the mega projects are important to ensure protection of interests of the

governments. The article considered from the issue mentions the One Belt One Road, the
ambitious project helmed by the Chinese government to build a network of roads, sea routes and
railway lines. The project traverses across several countries of Asia, Europe and Africa. This
means that successful execution of the project actually requires permission and involvement of
the large numbers of countries of the three continents. The Economic Times, one of the leading
business dailies circulated in India which is also a member to the project reports that several
African countries have been caught in debt due failure of paying back the immense amount of
money they borrowed to support the project. Moreover, in August 2018, the prime minister of
Malaysia withdrew the approval to build the East Coast Rail Link, which is an important part of
the project (Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2019). This means that mega projects like OBOR
are subject to risks owing to change in the macroeconomic factors like political factors in this
case. This means that the companies participating in these projects have to adopt a more flexible
approach towards management of the projects. Thus, it can be pointed out that management of
mega projects attract high levels of risks which the project management companies have to
manage efficiently in order to ensure that the risks are mitigated or at least reduced. Fleming and
Koppelman (2016) can be reiterated here to mention that project management aims to execute
projects successfully so as to ensure value creation to the stakeholders. The article can be
reiterated to point out that changes in external market conditions can create risks before mega
projects thus, hindering the achievement of value creation role of the projects
(Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2019). Kock, Heising and Gemünden (2016) opine that project
management companies in order to deal efficiently with the challenges have to maintain
contingent planning. This article can be discussed by drawing a leaf from the newspaper article
mentioned above (Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2019). The Chinese Government in order to

deal with the challenge it is facing due to lack of cooperation from governments of the African
countries and Malaysian government, should form contingent plan to counteract or at least
reduce the risks which the project is facing due to lack of support from the national governments.
The Chinese Government can approach the Government of India to obtain cooperation to
commence the portions of the projects which involve India. Thus, it is evident that project
management can be applied to not only manage projects but also ensure their management of the
risks so as to complete the projects within specified time limit (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017).
Identify your new learning and explain how this insight will influence you in the future.
The above discussion would bring into light three new important learnings which would
have significant impacts on the future applications of project management. The first learning is
that project management involves in management of the projects so as to execute them within the
predetermined time spans within the costs allocated to them. The second learning is that the
projects execution faces risks due to changes in the macroeconomic conditions like changes in
government decisions and withdrawal of government support. The project mentioned in the
article chosen namely, OBOR shows that the Government of China faced a setback when the
Government of Malaysia withdrew approval for the railway project which is an important
component of the project. The third learning was that the project management companies in
order to mitigate or at least reduce the risks have to maintain contingent plans. For example, the
recommended contingent plan which the Government of China could adopt to proceed with the
OBOR project is approaching New Delhi to allow it to execute the Indian portions of the project.
These three learnings would prove influential in professional project managers (like me)
while managing future projects. The project managers would efficiently adopt project
management steps mentioned by Kerzner and Kerzner (2017). Secondly, while managing

projects of large scale, project managers would take into account the macroeconomic influences
like political factors which may emerge as risk factors to the project. Thirdly, the managers
would always maintain contingent resources and planning to mitigate or at least minimize the
risks which may appear during the course of project execution.
For the second issue / topic, identify at least one academic theory to deepen your insights
into the issue. Briefly introduce [and reference] your chosen academic theory. Justify your
choice.
The academic theory which would be considered in the second article considered namely,
‘Project Risk Management’ would be risk management. Risk management enables project
management companies to mitigate or at least reduce the risks so as to reduce the losses they
cause to the company to the possible extent.
Qazi et al. (2016) introduce the topic risks as the outcomes of interaction of different
elements which are involved in the execution of projects. The authors right in the introductory
section mention the projects lead to creation of new products. The commencement of the projects
are often challenged by changes in macroeconomic factors which result in risks. A leaf can be
drawn out out from the previous article to exemplify the fact described herein. The OBOR, one
of the mega projects floated by China and involving several governments faces challenges due to
lack of cooperation from the Governments of African nations involved and Malaysian
Government (Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2019). This change in political conditions
corresponds to the ‘element’ mentioned by Qazi et al. (2016). These political changes have
resulted in challenges before smooth execution of the project which would lead to time and cost
overrun. In other words, changes in macroeconomic changes result in risks.

The choice of the theory of risk management to explain the chosen article can be justified
on the ground that risk is an inevitable part of project. Iqbal et al. (2015) point out in this case
that risks stem in projects especially, mega projects owing to macroeconomic influences like
government policy changes. These policy changes result in stalling of the projects which lead to
increase in the expenses of the project management companies. Paquin, Gauthier and Morin
(2016) strengthen the opinion that risk management lead project management companies
managing mega projects to ensure successful execution. It can also be pointed out that risks are
indispensable parts of projects. Thus, the role of risks management in management of projects
cannot be deterred. Thus, relationship between project management and risk management
justifies the selection of the risk management as the base theory to explore the article.
Using your chosen theory to explain how this helps you to gain deeper insights into the
second issue:
The chosen theory namely, risk management would help in gaining deeper insights into
the second article chosen namely, ‘Project Risk Management’. Liu et al. (2016) mention that
project risk management is a very important area today because the projects today involve
investment of higher amount of money compared to past projects. The projects today involve
more stakeholders which also include the society. Thus, failure of projects due to hostile changes
in the external environment result in risks to all the stakeholders involved. This also have dire
impacts on the companies involved in the projects. Moreover, bigger projects involve more
number of project management companies. Thus, failure of the projects owing to the risk factors
impact all the companies. Thus, it is has become extremely important for the project
management companies to ensure efficient risk management (Qazi et al. 2016). An analysis of
the articles would point that they enable in gaining deeper insight by pointing out that

importance of risk management. It can also be pointed out that project risks do not have negative
impacts on the project management companies alone but on other industries as well. First of all,
the large scale projects are mostly infrastructural projects like construction of roads and bridges.
Roads and bridges facilitate movement of goods and manpower from one part of countries to
another. The roads also facilitate cross border freights. This means that the infrastructural assets
like roads and bridges enable movement of goods. Thus, it is evident that roads and bridges
enable economic development since they enable movement of goods from producers to
consumers. Thus, other words project management companies are responsible for economic
development. The importance of project management companies in ensuring development of
other industries cannot be undermined. Thus, is clear in this discussion that risks to project
management companies or to large scale infrastructure actually effect all the other sectors. Thus,
it can be pointed that this impact on infrastructure project risks to other industries clearly is a
new insight which can be gained by analsying the article. The third insight which can be gained
from the second article is that project risks today do not only affect projects but the market
liquidity directly. This is because most of the global project management companies are public
limited companies which raise capital from the market. Thus, if they incur losses due to risks like
natural calamities, they are not able to earn high revenue. This means they are not able to give
high returns to investors. The investors as a result withdraw capital from the market which in
turn creates scarcity of financial resources in the share market. Moreover, the construction
companies take loans from multinational banks in huge amount to invest in projects
(Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2019). Thus, when the project management companies incur
losses, they are not able to repay the loan. This means that the banks face credit risks and are not
able to recover the amount already lent as loans. Thus, banks suffer from liquidity crunch and

lower their loan disbursement. This in turn creates immense scarcity of capital in the industrial
sector since large companies are not able to borrow sufficient loans from banks. Thus, it is clear
from the discussion that risks to projects or project management companies have severe impacts
on economies as a whole. The risk can tantamount to credit risks and economic downturn thus
inviting government intervention.
Identify your new learning and explain how this insight will influence you in the future.
The new learnings identified from the analysis of the article have been tabulated below.
These learnings would influence managers in managing projects efficiently by forming risk
registers. This would also help managers in tackling risks efficiently. Thus, it can be inferred
from the analysis of these two articles that mega projects are required to be flexible in order to
manage the risks which stem due to changes in the macroeconomic factors. Thus, it can be
established on the basis of the discussion that the two articles chosen are interrelated and can be
studied in conjunction to each other (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). It can be pointed out that the
new learnings would contribute towards making the managers more responsible towards
management of projects. The project managers should keep in mind that impact of the failure of
projects not only on the project management companies employing them but on the stakeholders
as well. For example, owing to faulty risk management strategies, the workers working on the
project sites may meet with accidents. Secondly, owing to inefficient risk management, the
company would not be able to pay back the loan it had borrowed from different banks. This
would in turn create liquidity crunch in these banks (Grabovy and Orlov 2016). Similarly, the
project managers should keep into account that the fact the delay in the project due to
inappropriate risk management would impact the suppliers supplying to the project under
commencement. Thus, in short the analysis of the articles would encourage the project managers

operate in more responsible in managing risks. The project managers would also gain insights on
the impact of risks management on the projects. They should ensure that the risk factors to the
projects are efficiently managed to minimize the amount of losses. The next insight which would
be gained from the analysis would be that the project managers should operate in ethical ways
(Fleming and Koppelman 2016). They should not suppress risks identified for their interest and
bring the same in the notice of the management promptly.

References:
Brookes, N.J. and Locatelli, G., 2015. Power plants as megaprojects: Using empirics to shape
policy, planning, and construction management. Utilities Policy, 36, pp.57-66.
Demirkesen, S. and Ozorhon, B., 2017. Impact of integration management on construction
project management performance. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8),
pp.1639-1654.
Economictimes.indiatimes.com. 2019. Economictimes.indiatimes.com. [online] Available at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/chinas-obor-expectations-look-gloomy-
expert/articleshow/67377396.cms?from=mdr [Accessed 30 May 2019].
Fleming, Q.W. and Koppelman, J.M., 2016, December. Earned value project management.
Project Management Institute.
Flyvbjerg, B. and Turner, J.R., 2018. Do classics exist in megaproject management?.
Grabovy, P.G. and Orlov, A.K., 2016. The Overall Risk Assessment and Management:
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Hu, Y., Le, Y., Gao, X., Li, Y. and Liu, M., 2018. Grasping institutional complexity in
infrastructure mega-projects through the multi-level governance system: A case study of the
Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macao Bridge construction. Frontiers of Engineering Management, 5(1),
pp.52-63.

Iqbal, S., Choudhry, R.M., Holschemacher, K., Ali, A. and Tamošaitienė, J., 2015. Risk
management in construction projects. Technological and Economic Development of
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Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
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front‐end success on project portfolio success. Project Management Journal, 47(2), pp.115-129.
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