Project Management Report: Colorado VA Hospital Project Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of the Colorado VA hospital construction project, which faced significant challenges including cost overruns, ineffective scope management, and communication breakdowns. The project, intended to expand healthcare services for veterans, suffered from issues such as the adoption of an unsuitable contracting approach, lack of cohesive decision-making, and inadequate oversight. The report highlights the importance of stakeholder management, the use of project metrics like Planned Value (PV), Actual Cost (AC), and Earned Value (EV), and the prevention of scope-related problems. It also examines the impact of different courses of action and improvements, emphasizing the need for timely decisions, adherence to budgets, and effective communication to ensure project success. The report concludes by referencing various sources to support its findings, offering a comprehensive overview of the project's failures and potential solutions.

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Project Management
Name
Institution

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Introduction
Primarily, the Colorado VA hospital construction project was aimed at servicing the expanded
medical needs of the veteran community, the project has experienced cost overruns, management
wrangles, and ineffective communication which has stalled the full implementation of the
project. Some of the problems facing the construction would have been avoided had there been
effective communication between the stakeholders, and contractors, choosing a simpler design
and sticking to the plan . However, steps are underway to complete the project despite the
setbacks.
Project Objectives
Noteworthy, the construction project was meant to replace and expand the hospital facility
to cater for the medical needs of the veterans (Mathews, 2016). Also, the project was aimed at
providing expanded and convenient health care services for veterans, both male and female
within Coloroda and its neighbor states.
Problems due to ineffective scope management?
Noteworthy, ineffective management of Colorado VA hospital has lead to high cost of
construction way above the allocated budget thus resulting in delayed completion
(Olinger,2015).Due to a defective leadership, aesthetics pricing was overpriced. Despite being
aware of the overpriced costs, the management team did not heed to counsel thus the huge cost
overruns on the project (Matthews,2016).Following leadership shortcomings of the management
team, the construction project will be completed outside the allocated time frame and at
overpriced costs(Mathews,2016).

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Formerly, the project was priced at $604 m but its estimated to cost $1.7 bn. Further, there is
a funding deficit following the overpriced costs of the construction project. The dilemma of
inadequate funding could mean halted construction which denies the veterans timely use of the
facility. Moreover, the use of the IDC method proved difficult to implement due to lack of
precedence in constructing VA facility. The discord between the management and the
contractors slowed down the construction process for two years due to inability to decide on the
scope of the project(Deam,2014) thus halting the process when the contractor was released from
contractual obligations.
Why these problems occurred.
Due to the adoption of the IDC approach by the construction agency despite lacking sufficient
knowledge in the approach led to the lagging behind of the project (Olinger,2015).Further,
failure to heed the warning of the adopting the IDC approach contributed to the failure of the
project. There was no cohesiveness and uniformed decision-making among the management of
the VA Hospital which delayed the making of vital construction decisions. Moreover, also, the
project was being controlled by a designer and not the project Executive for the Hospital which
led to deviations from the project plan.
Further, there was overpricing and lack of price control being exercised by the VA
management team. Also, ignorance of the forewarned high pricing by the management group led
to the untimely construction project .Following discord between the workers and the VA
officials, the construction process did not run smoothly .Further, the oversight role of the
Congress on the project was ineffective and impotent thus the project proceeded without
accountability and control. Also, the untimely cooperation between contractor and designers on

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the IDC Contract created some disharmony and wasn’t timely as it came after the project was
underway.(Matthews, Olinger and Migoya,2015).
Importance of Stakeholder management in Project Success.
In my view had all the stakeholders partaken in the management of the project, there
would be timely completion of the project due to timely decision-making and scrutiny of
the budget all the stakeholders were involved ,a suitable construction design would have
been agreed and adopted, the budget would have been checked and no overpricing
instances would have happened. Also, had the management and stakeholders been
cooperative with each other the project would have been completed within the stipulated
time and procedure.
According to Info works, the involvement of stakeholder in projects leads to proper
utilization of resources and offers clarity of decision made by stakeholders which is
necessary for project success(Lesser,2016).Primarily, stakeholder management aids
project success in the event that there cooperation.Also through stakeholder management,
risk management, mentorship, support, and expertise is available and necessary for
steering success of a project.However, defective management of stakeholders could lead
to project failure.
Project Metrics
Primarily, the planned value (PV) metric is used to measure cost estimates of the
project and helps management and stakeholders work within the allocated budget. Also,
through the Actual Cost(AC) performance metric, the VA management would have been
able to identify their excessive expenditure in time and corrected the
situation(mavenlink,2017).Additionally, through the Earned value(EV) performance

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metric it would have been easier to identify the fact that the construction progress was
way above the allocated budget and would have prompted expenditure cost of the
construction project.
Through the incorporation of the Cost Variance metric, the management project
would have known that the project was running way above it budget through actual and
planned budgetary comparisons.
Prevention of scope-related issues.
Noteworthy, had the VA management and stakeholders made collective timely and
decisive decisions, the project would have been successful. Also, had the management
team stuck to the allocated budget and headed the warnings as to the overpricing, the
project would have been completed timely and according to the allocated budget instead
the management ignored these warnings (Office of the inspectorate,2016).Further, had
the management adopted a simpler design for the project, the project would have been
affordably completed within the specified time frame thus the importance of sticking to
the allocated plan and budget.
In addition, communication breakdown between the management and the contractors
would have quickly resolved disputes and made timely project success (Elliot,
2017).Effective communication is key to project success.

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Impact of different courses of action or Improvements
In the event that the management and stakeholders of the VA Colorado Hospital project
undertaken the Planned Value, Actual Cost and Earned value performance evaluations
periodically, the construction project would have been cheaper and completed by now had they
stuck to the plan .Through the above performance metric they would have knowledge of their
excessive spending and rectified it in time. Through proper stakeholder management and
communication, a simpler design would have been adopted and thus easier to implement.
Also, had oversight stakeholders done their job they would have recognized the project
shortcomings and deviations from the outset and possibly prevented the over pricing and made
timely decisions and steps to stick to the plan. Lack of proper communication and control
between the management has resulted into project halt cost runs and continuous suffering of the
veteran community set to benefit from the project by now.

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References
Deam, J.(2014).Long Delayed Colorado VA Hospital suffers another Setback. Los Angeles
Times. Retrieved from http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-VA-hospital-20141211-
story.html
Elliot, D.(2017).Ex- VA chief says he wasn’t told about Colorado Hospitals Ballooning costs.
The Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/15/aurora-va-
hospital-costs/
Lesser, S.(2016).Why stakeholder Management is Important. Infoworks. Retrieved from
http://infoworks.com/why-stakeholder-management-is-important/
Matthews, K.M.(2016).VA. Warned Repeatedly about cost overruns of $1.7 billion Aurora
Hospital. The Denver Post. Retrieved from
http://www.denverpost.com/2016/09/21/aurora-va-officials-warned-repeatedly/
Matthews, K.M., Olinger, D and Migoya, D.(2015).How the VA Aurora Hospital Project
Spiraled out of control. The Denver Post. Retrieved from
http://extras.denverpost.com/aurora-VA-hospital/index.html
Mavenlink.(2017).10 Performance Metric Examples Project Manages can’t afford to Miss.
Maven ink.Com. Retrieved from http://blog.mavenlink.com/the-top-10-performance-
etrics-examples-project-managers-cant-afford-to-miss

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Office of the Inspector General.(2016).Review of Alleged Untimely Care at the community-
based outpatient clinic, Colorado Springs, .Co. Veterans Affairs. Retrieved from
https://www.va.gov/oig/pubs/VAOIG-15-02472-46.pdf
Olinger, D.(2016).Aurora VA Hospital Problems Worsened by untested Contract Type. The
Denver Post. Retrieved from http://www.denverpost.com/2015/06/13/aurora-va-
hospital-problems-worsened-by-untested-contract-type/