PPMP 20010 - Executing and Closing Projects: Sydney Opera House Report

This report provides a critical analysis of the Sydney Opera House project, focusing on the significant cost and time overruns that plagued its execution. The report examines the project's initial plans, budget, and timeline, contrasting them with the actual outcomes. It delves into the various control systems employed, such as cost, schedule, scope, and quality controls, evaluating their effectiveness in mitigating the issues. The analysis identifies key factors contributing to the project's failure, including poor planning, financial problems, land acquisition delays, and inexperienced contractors. Furthermore, it assesses the responsibilities of the project execution team and their impact on the overruns. The report also explores the relationship between various project problems and proposes recommendations, such as using project management software and agile project management methodologies, to improve future project outcomes. The conclusion highlights the importance of proper budgeting, time management, and the use of project management tools to avoid project failures. The report references several studies and articles to support its findings and recommendations.

COST AND TIME
OVERRUN
CASE STUDY OF SYDNEY AUSTRALIA’S OPERA HOUSE
PROJECT

INTRODUCTION
• Sydney Australia's iconic opera house is a study in the failure project of Australia
• The project plan is four year timeline with a budget of AU$7 million, but actual budget
is AU$102 million with 14 years to complete (Sydney opera house failed project 2017).
• Failed due to cost and time overrun
• Analyze of project management actions to take better control the project and
stakeholders in order to increase the chance for successful delivery

RANGE OF USED CONTROL SYSTEM FOR
COST, SCHEDULE, SCOPE AND QUALITY
• Calculate and control time and cost outcomes for project work
• Lessen business expenses for increasing profits and starting with the budget processes
• Cost control is a key significant factor to maintain and grow the project profitability
• Schedule project control leads to measure the project progress and compare to plan progress
on timely and daily basis (Fleming and Koppelman 2016).
• Scope control is required monitoring and controlling entire process group so that the work is
controlled on time (Nicholas and Steyn 2017).
• The control system for quality is required to maintain a better quality of the construction
materials

ANALYSIS OF REASONS EXPLAIN THE COST AND TIME OVERRUN ENCOUNTERED DURING
THE PROJECT
• Poor planning
• Financial problems
• Delay in land acquisition
• Unexpected ground conditions
• Shortage of the construction materials
• Inexperienced contractors
• Underestimation of construction cost

PROJECT EXECUTION TEAM COULD BE HELD RESPONSIBLE
OF THE INCURRED TIME AND COST OVERRUNS
• Not included documentation of potential processes and collaborated to get the project
goals (Love et al. 2015).
• Training is not provided to the project team members
• The team is not provided framework of the project activities
• The project team cannot provide detailed planning moreover implementation
• The project execution team cannot conduct the meeting to start the phase of project
execution and control (Zhou, Goh and Li 2015).
• The project execution team is not acknowledged the project outputs

ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN
THE PROJECT PROBLEMS
• The construction industry is consisted of greater impact on economy of the countries
• It is a sector which can provide ingredients for development of the economy
• Schedule overrun is when the project gets delayed beyond the expected project time
to complete the work (Wu et al. 2017).
• Delay in acquisition of the land along with site handover is main reasons for the
overrun of project cost in the pre-execution phases
• Due to lack of resources assigned for the project work, the project is not completed
within scheduled project time

ANALYSIS OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
ACTIONS
• The project control is processes where the project manager can cooperate with the
management staffs carry out to control the project work based on progress, quality as well
as critical concerns of the project work
• Project meetings is conducted to manage the project team accomplish with the project goals
as well as project objectives (Zhou, Ghou and Li 2015)
• From the project management software, Gantt chart is developed which can provide
graphical illustration of the project schedule
• Help to plan the project
• Coordinate along with track the project tasks within scheduled project plan

CONCLUSION
• The project work is required to have proper budget and time before
requirements of the business is completed
• The project work is viewed as failures which can overshoot the budget as well
as time
• The project is failed due to change in the organization’s priorities, inaccurate
estimation of project needs and change in objectives of the project
• Use of project management software such as MS project is designed for
managing project resources like materials and subcontractors which will avoid
details of production processes

RECOMMENDATIONS
• Use of project management software
The construction project team should use of project management software like
MS project to schedule entire project plan
• Agile project management
It should overcome with change requirements, change in project timeline and
change in project budget

REFERENCES
• FLEMING, Q.W. AND KOPPELMAN, J.M., 2016, DECEMBER. EARNED VALUE PROJECT MANAGEMENT. PROJECT MANAGEMENT
INSTITUTE.
• LOVE, P.E., SMITH, J., SIMPSON, I., REGAN, M. AND OLATUNJI, O., 2015. UNDERSTANDING THE LANDSCAPE OF OVERRUNS
IN TRANSPORT INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS. ENVIRONMENT AND PLANNING B: PLANNING AND DESIGN, 42(3), PP.490-
509.
• SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE FAILED PROJECT 2017. SYDNEY OPERA HOUSE FAILED PROJECT - WHAT CAN YOU LEARN?.
[ONLINE] BLOG.BEYONDSOFTWARE.COM. AVAILABLE AT: HTTPS://BLOG.BEYONDSOFTWARE.COM/LEARNING-FROM-FAILED-
PROJECTS-SYDNEY-OPERA-HOUSE [ACCESSED 27 JAN. 2019].
• WU, Z., NISAR, T., KAPLETIA, D. AND PRABHAKAR, G., 2017. RISK FACTORS FOR PROJECT SUCCESS IN THE CHINESE
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. JOURNAL OF MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT, 28(7), PP.850-866.
• ZHOU, Z., GOH, Y.M. AND LI, Q., 2015. OVERVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF SAFETY MANAGEMENT STUDIES IN THE
CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY. SAFETY SCIENCE, 72, PP.337-350.

THANK YOU…