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Assignment On Heathrow 5
Assignment On Heathrow 5
Assignment On Heathrow 5
ITS Assignment:
Study focused on Heathrow Terminal 5 project failure
DABO Dieynaba
DEAB Mohammed
GINESER Sabit
NAGRANI Sumit
SLEPOV Artem
SILVA Lenin
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
1. Literature review
1.1Types of complex IT project
2.4 Consequences
3. Analysis
5. Work plan
CONCLUSION
INTRODUCTION
Complex IT systems are integral to the functioning of our society. They contribute to the
design, production and delivery of innumerable products and services that we encounter as
we live, learn, work and play, and their significance will inevitably increase in coming years
(BCS Report).
Yet horror stories of colossal IT project failures hit the headlines what seems like a daily
basis, as illustrated by the news cuttings on the inside cover. This is partly responsible for the
perception, which is to some extent supported by evidence, that the success rates of IT
systems project are disappointingly low. (www.bcs.org)
Executive Summary
IT is difficult to manage and can be very costly when things do not go as planned.
Indeed, a high proportion of IS development projects fail completely or fail to meet
some of the original targets for features, development time or cost. Many of these are
related to economic issues such as:
1. Literature review
This part of the report contains all research that we have done to let us know more about
Information Technology System, before focusing on IT project. It develops existent types of
IT project, the characteristics of an IT project, some reasons of IT project failure given By
BCS and complemented by the Office Government of Commerce (OGC), and finally some
studies to underpin given reasons.
There are five types of Complex IT project based on Intricacy and Unpredictability.
4. Edge of chaos projects:-When managing complex projects, in the “edge of chaos” zone, it
is important to bind team`s decision making together by propagathy a co-hesive set of
common values and fostering a common vision of the ultimate purpose of the undertaking.
5. Informed leadership: - When managing complex projects, is the glue that binds the
different elements of the complicated project together. The project manager needs to display
excellent situational leadership skills.
1. Lack of constraints
IT projects are not subject to the laws of physics and the associated constraints in the same
way as, for example, civil engineering projects. This can produce a perception that anything
and everything is possible with IT.
2. Visualization
3. Flexibility
A related problem for IT projects, also stemming from the intangible nature of software, is
abuse of the perceived flexibility of software. The inability to visualise the boundaries of
what is possible or practical in IT contributes to time and budget over-run, thereby increasing
the chance of project failure.
4. Complexity
5. Uncertainty
Uncertainty can also cause problems in implementation of the specified system and it is
possible to exceed even today’s colossal computing capability.
6. Software and failure
Since software is pure logic, it has no physical degradation mechanisms which can cause it to
fail. In principle, this makes software very attractive – intuitively, once the designers have got
it ‘right’, it should work correctly, indefinitely. In reality this idealistic state is never achieved
and all complex IT systems have a propensity to fail.
7. Supporting of change.
The majority of IT projects are undertaken to deliver some kind of business or process
change. In some cases, IT systems will be introduced to enable a major business
transformation; in other cases they will be automating an existing process.
Lack of clarity:
This is one of the major reasons for the failure of the projects. Lack of clarity between Roles,
Responsibilities and Requirements of the people cause project to fail. This was the reason for
the failure of Heathrow terminal 5. There was lack of poor training to their staff and during
the inadequate training days prior to the opening, any staff questions were bounced back
with ‘I don’t know’ and ‘it will be cleared on the day’,(www.bbc.co.uk)
This was one of the factor that lead to the failure of Heathrow terminal 5.There was a poor
communication gap between project sponsors to developers which lead to poor infrastructure
of terminal 5 where there was no proper toilets for the people and the building was not
completely finished and there was some painting works left out at the time of opening of the
terminal. (Personal experience of Mr.Vikas)
This is one of the important reasons for the failure. Poor designing of the project and the
implementation of the designed project. Many of the lifts
Using unsuitable technologies in the project causes failure of the project. At the opening of
the airport the management of the airport introduced the biometric system and it failed
because ‘the data is encrypted immediately and destroyed within 24 hours. It does not include
personal details nor it cannot be cross reference with any other data base’. (www.google.)
Prior to launching adequate testing is required if they fail to do so the entire project going to
be failed which is the same thing happened in Heathrow terminal 5.The baggage handling
system at the Heathrow airport`s new terminal 5 launched on 31st march 2008 and had
spectacular failure with 15,000 items of luggage reported lost on the first day and touched
nearly 30,000 luggage in just 4 day as a result a estimated loss to British Airways was £50
million and hundreds of flights were cancelled and many passengers have been stranded and
struggled overnight.(www.google.com)”Thousand of items luggage are piled up at the
Heathrow airport due to faulty equipments.”(bbcnews)
Inability of the IT organisation to measure the results and manage the process:
The main factor for the failure of any IT projects would be the lack of ability of the
organisation to manage the entire process and to measure the results. A lot of organisations
do lack the capability of effective and efficient management which acts as a prime source for
the success of any operational activities. The problems were more mundane that employees
arriving for working could not find their way to car staff car park and other reason was that
the road signs were apparently not clear outside the terminal for the people to get to airport
and staffs were given wrong directions once the people are inside the airport. (bbc)
In the contemporary business world there is a scope towards change which place a vital role
in determining the organisation success. Any organisations that are not able to adapt and react
for the changes occurring are destined to be a huge failure. It’s the same in the case of any IT
projects as technology is the main factor that drives change. In the above case of Heathrow
terminal 5 the lack of ability to respond for the changes played a vital role in its failure. The
management of the Heathrow airport failed to provide proper service for the disabled people.
(business times)
This means any organisation handling a project would experience a failure if it’s not able
to identify, define and overcome any problems and it was the case for the failure of Heathrow
terminal 5. From the above examples we have cleared defined the exact reasons for the
failure of the project, even though the entire process was backed up by testing facilities the
management were not able to identify the above stated problems and hence this in turn lead
for the failure of the project.
1. Lack of clear link between the project and the organisation`s key strategic
priorities, including agreed measures of success.
5. Lack of understanding of and contract with the supply industry at senior levels
in the understanding.
6. Evaluation of proposals driven by initial price rather than long term value for
money.
6. Inaccurate estimate 08
7. Miscellaneous 14
Factors Rank
Technology incompetence 5
Lack of resources 6
Unrealistic expectations 7
New technology 10
2.1 Background
The beginning of the project terminal 5 construction began in September 2002 after 13 years
of planning and 4 year public inquiry with the cost of the project is £4.5billion. The project
included 7000 workers and 2 million man-hours. The airport had it opening on March 14,
following months of trails involving thousands of members of the public. The terminal opens
for business with the landing of British Airways flight BA026 from Hong Kong at 4:50am on
27 March 2008. Terminal 5 represents an enormous investment in buildings, systems,
technology, systems, and human processes. The sheer physical size of the project is
impressive. From the official:
Terminal 5’s technical complexity matches its physical size. According to the British
Airports Authority (BAA), “It has taken 400,000 man-hours of software engineering just to
develop the complex system, and coding work is set to continue even after the initial
installation begins.”
Originally designed for the automotive industry, the lean model is popular in
manufacturing circles as a process management philosophy that focuses on
standardising processes in order to reduce costs and time waste and improve
efficiency. T5 has many qualities that are similar to a factory, in that it aims to
eliminate waste, simplify and streamline processes, create flow and create a culture
of continuous improvement.
Terminal 5 is the springboard for ambitious plans to upgrade and modernise London
Heathrow airport. Its extra capacity will cut the congestion and by relocating airlines
at the other terminals it will be able to cut transfer times for millions of connecting
passengers. It will also be able to start work on replacing the ageing Terminal 1 and
2 with a brand new one, Heathrow east, whilst Terminal 3 and 4 will be extensively
updated. That will mean a better journey for everyone of Heathrow`s 67 million
passengers a year. The new terminal will accommodate 30 million passengers each
year. BAA says the check-in process has been simplified and baggage dropping
facilities made faster. The terminal is designed to handle 35 million a year. It also
has 1 miles of baggage conveyor belt.
Various technologies were utilised in the Terminal 5 project to match its size, from the most
basic one up to the most complex. These followings are some examples of High
Technologies used in the project :
JETSTREAM
A single 3D computer model was created that BAA and its project partners will use to design, build and
ultimately maintain the terminal building. JetStream is used as a process checker and to view, review, detect
clashes and extract information from the single building model. JetStream has allowed BAA to refine their
procedures to avoid and detect clashes at the design stage.
Jet streams are fast flowing, narrow air currents found at the tropopause, the transition
between the troposphere (where temperature decreases with height) and the stratosphere
(where temperature increases with height), and are located at 10-15 kilometers above the
surface of the Earth. They form near boundaries of adjacent air masses with significant
differences in temperature, such as the polar region and the warmer air to the south.
FINGERPRINT
A fingerprint is an impression of the friction ridges of all part of the finger. A friction ridge
is a raised portion of the epidermis on the palmar (palm) or digits (fingers and toes) or plantar
(sole) skin, consisting of one or more connected ridge units of friction ridge skin.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fingerprint
Heathrow Terminal 5 is not the first in the UK where domestic and international passengers
will share a departure lounge. But it is the first UK airport where the operator wanted to
fingerprint everybody in a "count them all in, count them all out" process.
It has been forced to suspend plans to fingerprint domestic travelers in the Terminal 5 after
confusion over the legality of the scheme.
It has been extended the use of an innovative taxi management system, which makes use of
RFID technology, in anticipation of future demand for four-wheeled transportation elsewhere
once passengers have landed at Heathrow's Terminal 5 when it opens for business in March
next year.
The technology, created by Steria, was already in use at Heathrow's existing terminals
and coped with more than 60 transactions a minute through 95 interfaces. The aim of the
technology's extension into the new terminal is to reduce waiting times by more effectively
managing and tracking taxi movements. This is achieved by using handheld devices to
monitor taxis equipped with RFID tags that identify both the vehicle and its driver.
This data is transmitted back to the system's headquarters via a wireless network.
TETRA-G TECH
TETRA-G technology from Team Simoco has been deployed in the digital communications
service in the Terminal 5, in what will be the single largest TETRA network dedicated to
commercial use in the UK.
The TETRA-G based communications service has been installed by Air Radio, and is an
addition to its existing portfolio of systems at London Heathrow Airport. Known as AR-en –
the Enhanced Network from AirRadio – the digital system will enable customers at the
world’s busiest international airport the opportunity to maximise the use of data applications
for operational processes over a private business radio network.
A barcode reader (or barcode scanner) is an electronic device for reading printed barcodes.
Like a flatbed scanner, it consists of a light source, a lens and a light sensor translating optical
impulses into electrical ones. Additionally, nearly all barcode readers contain decoder
circuitry analyzing the barcode's image data provided by the sensor and sending the barcode's
content to the scanner's output port.
BIOMETRIC
Biometrics refers to methods for uniquely recognizing humans based upon one or more
intrinsic physical or behavioral traits. In information technology, in particular, biometrics is
used as a form of identity access management and access control. It is also used to identify
individuals in groups that are under surveillance.
T5 relied much more on passengers using online check-in or self-service kiosks when they
reach the airport. To the end there were 96 self-service kiosks, 140 customer service desks
and 96 fast bag drops.
Passenger flows have been optimized so that queuing at the airport will be kept to a
minimum. British Airways have plans to move towards 80% of its passengers using online or
self-service check-in.
3. Project Analysis
To analyze the T5 project, we have decided to use the “Ishikawa” analysis which will help us
to find out where were situated major problems encountered.
Before stating the analysis of major causes of T5 failure, let consider this following
illustration to see where problems were situated in the Terminal 5:
All numerated areas explicated below:
1. 0400 – Both passengers and staff have trouble locating car parks
2. 0400 – Delayed opening of check-in results in very long queues
3. 0442 – First passengers arrive early but wait an hour for luggage
4. All morning – clogged conveyor leads to long wait for luggage
5. 1630 – Baggage system failure; all check in at TS suspended
6. 1700 – After long queues form at “fast bag drop” desk, BA suspends check-in of all
luggages into hold.
Well trained? No
Well informed? No
Materials
Are they adequate? Yes*
Equipments
Are all necessary equipments available? Yes*
In quality? Non
Environment
Working conditions
Management ----
Planning No
Testing No
There might be numerous factors that cause the Terminal 5 project failure. These following
are those considered as major reasons of failure:
Training issues: Given the new system’s complexity, staff training and preparation
was clearly lacking. BA acknowledged the critical importance of training in the kind
of business transformation program that T5 represents.
3. Consequences
Dramatic consequences result from failure in management, planning, and testing on this
expensive and complex project. Some of the penalties are numerated and explained below:
This resulted in loss of luggage and substantial delays in delivering right baggage to
right travellers.
2. Car park problems: Among all the other problems, it was reported that terminal staff
had trouble new parking garages, which exacerbated the other issues. Given
everything else, this one’s just icing on the cake.
4. Cancellations: British Airways which was the unique carrier in the Terminal had to
cancel large numbers of its flights.
5. The vital role of the systems architect in major IT projects is frequently not
appreciated and there is a shortage of appropriately skilled individuals.
6. There is an urgent need to promote the adoption of the best practice amongst
IT practitioners and their customers.
7. Basic research into complexity and associated issues is required to enable
the effective development of complex, globally distributed systems.
According to BCS report, our literature review and what derived from our analysis, this is our
findings and recommendations about the Heathrow Terminal 5. We are going to answer the
question: How should they have handled it to avoid unsuccess?
As all major causes of breakdown were centralized in Management and People. Our finding
and recommendations will deal around those two elements to answer the above questions. Let
start by Management
The following are some suggestions about how the Management of the project should operate
to ensure success, they should:
Ask if their expectations of the project, including time-scale and budget, are realistic?
Make sure that the staff can clearly define the business benefit that will be delivered
by the project this must be absolutely comprehensible and defensible,
Throughout the course of the project, ask the staff what worries they most about the
project and what could go wrong. Their answers are likely to be much more
informative than if they are asked whether everything is on track!
Ensure themselves about the skilfulness of People working in the project, their
knowledge of IT and the application of it as well,
Ensure themselves about the understanding of all risks that could emerged from their
decisions,
Ask themselves if they do understand the risks involved with the project?
In the same way, ASK if a recovery mechanism is implanted in the case if something
goes wrong?
People
Have been tested for a longer time
Have been asked feedback in the work they were supposed to do,
All processes should have been described to the People, and make sure that
everything is well known.
5. Work Plan
These Gantt chart illustrates different tasks we have done to complete this assignment.
Forecasted Planning
Work Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Delegate responsibilities
Week 1 starts February,27th 2009
Week 9 starts April,20 th 2009
Conclusion
During our project we had chance to have a look at big business project from IT
point of view. Case study clearly shows us that modern management has to be
aware of IT impact. It has impact on organization, management and operations.
There are many lessons to be learned. Complexity of IT projects requires
professionals in given field. And more then that demand will grow. Maybe it will
grow in hand with Moore’s law. IT cannot be ignored by any layer of management
any more. It has to be integrated part of Planning, Organising and Decision
making. Thus demand grows not only in dedicated IT professionals. But also need
for every manager to increase proportion of IT understanding to other fields. The
extent will wary depending on environment managers work in.
REFERENCES
Websites
http://www.cadmicro.com/categories/BAA.pdf
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/26/bba_fingerprinting_/
http://www.computerweekly.com/Articles/2008/03/05/229723/heathrow-terminal-5-to-make-
innovative-use-of-it.htm
http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=681
http://www.internalcontrolsdesign.co.uk/meltdown/index.html
http://www.buildingtalk.com/news/ech/ech203.html
http://www.christianwolmar.co.uk/2005/04/project-management-at-heathrow-terminal-5/
http://www.abs.aston.ac.uk/newweb/research/CPMP/documents/Projectsfailurefinalprese
ntation.pdf
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/2787186/Terminal-5-chaos-
caused-by-big-projectitis.html
http://www.computerweekly.com/blogs/RFID-blog/2008/04/why-terminal-5s-baggage-
failur-1.html
Books
Management for Information and Technology 4th edition; by Carroll and John
FRENZEL; Thomson Course Technology edition, 2004.