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Ldp604 Project Planning Design and Implementation Revision Exam Questions
Ldp604 Project Planning Design and Implementation Revision Exam Questions
away request cards often included in trade publications. Other Literature Sources
World Wide Web: Searching the Internet can lead to websites belonging to vendors,
manufacturers, consultants, design companies, professional organizations and
educational centres, to name a few. Almost every organization of one type or
another has a website and the information that is often provided on these websites
is remarkable. Information found on the Internet is often more current than what is
published, and often provides an e-mail address to which questions and requests for
additional information can be sent. As anyone can create a website, caution should
be used when utilizing information that it has been obtained from a reputable
source. Sources of Ideas & Information Sources of Ideas & Information.doc Page 5 of
9 V0.0 Brochures: Marketing publications available from competitors or for related
products can sometimes provide valuable information. People as Idea and
Information Sources An extremely valuable source of ideas that often gets
overlooked is people. It is truly amazing the viable ideas that can come from not
only subject experts, but also the most unlikely sources including the person sitting
next to you on the plane or a small child. Designers should never be afraid to ask
others for ideas. Even if someone does not have any solutions to offer, they may
know where to locate information or a person who can provide information. This is
called networking and can be one of the most powerful tools in business today.
Colleagues: Colleagues are usually a very approachable source of ideas. They may
be people within the same company, contacts within other organizations or former
classmates. Consultants: Consultants are generally people who are experts in a
certain area. Although mostly paid for there expertise, many willingly will answer
questions and provide information as long as it is not in conflict with their
commitments and doesnt require a great deal of time. Consultants can generally be
located through word-of-mouth, professional directories, yellow pages, educational
institutions or the Internet. Vendors: Although vendors typically are interested in
selling their product, many value the development of relationships and will therefore
often be a willing source of ideas and even samples. Vendors are an excellent
resource as they often are current in technology and have the opportunity to visit a
variety of companies where they can view different ways of doing things.
Customers: Customers are an excellent source of ideas. Often they have conducted
their own research before committing to working with a team of designers on a
specific project. They may have seen similar products in use and have ideas on
different concepts that could be employed. Lead users: These people are those
that had a need for a product long before the general population. Lead users have
often created adaptations or invented their own solutions to satisfy their
requirements until a new product comes along. Friends/family: Many designers
find ideas for projects when casually talking to friends and family. Sometimes people
who have little knowledge of the technology or the specific problem to be solved
may look at things from a different perspective and propose creative solutions.
Sources of Ideas & Information Sources of Ideas & Information.doc Page 6 of 9 V0.0
Organizations as Idea and Information Sources Government: There are numerous
sources within all levels of government both within Canada and other countries such
as the United States. Many departments, including the Transportation and Safety
Board, the National Bureau of Standards and the Department of National Defence,
have standards and guidelines based on extensive research. Engineering
organizations throughout the world make extensive use of the Military Standards
produced by the U.S. Department of Defense, many of which can be accessed
through libraries or downloaded from the Internet. The National Technical
Why projects fail around the world? : The Reasons and Concern
By
USA, Western European Countries, Canada, and Japan build their infrastructure first then their Economy
took giant leap. Just see how the Metro Railways are planned; just see the multi terrain but multi-lane
highways were planned and built, just experience the fastest trains like TGV from France and Bullet Trains
from Japan. In fact, China is supposed to be the over heated Economy due to infrastructure build up and
timely completion of the best projects like multiple flyovers and express ways in many cities and the giant
projects like three Gorges Dam. Also, nobody can forget the Stadiums and infrastructures that were built
to convene the Beijing Olympics 2008.
Similarly, Mexico, Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, everywhere the infrastructures build up
is timely and phenomenal.
However, there are 200 countries around the world, where such Projects add value to their infrastructure.
Also, today, many countries are on the verge of infrastructure collapse due to non execution of well
planned projects or if there are few projects then they lack the political-will to complete it. However, it is
certain that construction activities are a non stop phenomenon around the world.
Hence we analyzed few projects in different parts of world, successful projects as well as projects those
were failures. We observed that many projects in underdeveloped and developing countries were not
completed on time. No one realized that by doing so they had wasted time and human efforts and money.
Later on we carried out a proper analysis.
Finally, we came to the conclusion that for starting a Civil Engineering Projects in these countries,
following are the basic considerations for its successful completion.
1. Availability of adequate Capital and supporting Financial Management,
2. Availability of sufficient Land as per requirement and proper Land Management,
3. Availability of Raw Materials required for the work in the vicinity and proper Logistic and Supply
Chain Management,
4. Availability of Talent both Skilled and non skilled Man-Power and their Management,
5. Availability of Energy in the zone and Energy Management,
6. Availability of Water in close vicinity and better Water Management,
7. Availability of latest Technology know-how and the Technology Management,
approved capacity of 'A' size. All the arrangements were made accordingly. However, after some time
under some political pressure it was planned for enhanced capacity 'B' without thinking over pros and
cons. The result was inevitable, after 5 years the project was closed, for want of additional resources and
time. In short, there was shortage of water, lack of sufficient electrical energy, non availability of raw
material in that part of country, land acquisition was a big problem, availability of more skilled man power
became a problem, adding fuel were, the non availability of viable roads and advanced technology as the
project was not previewed from time to time for this enhanced capacity. It delayed the project and later
on it was closed for not being viable option.
Inadequate fund flow: It has been observed that some projects have been started with limited financial
resources on some assurance. After investing lot of available cash and loans the further requirement of
fund flow could not be fulfilled and the project remained incomplete resulting in total Failure.
Labour Unrest: Valuable working hours are lost due to causeless labour unrest created by some political
parties or labour unions or people having vested interest. In almost every country on this earth, every
political party has its own labour union or people having support to some ideology. Their demands are
never ending.
The major problem among these people is that they should think telescopically than microscopically. They
should think that if they are BPL (Below Poverty Line) at present moment then after well planned hard
work they could come up as APL (Above Poverty Line). However, ideology and practical never goes hand in
hand and thus, due to continuous strikes and intermittent closure of work, the most valuable man days
are lost and production is affected. It increases the cost of the production on one hand and on the other
hand the workers get fewer wages. The low paid employees thus never recoup and the wages are lost and
they remain BPL from generation to generation.
Bad political influence: Many experts claim that even if all the above points are taken care of well in
advance in some countries like India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, there is no guarantee of showing
political maturity. There are hundreds of examples where the government of "A" political party has
sanctioned and started a project for the benefit of public the government of "B" political party coming in
power will not allot sufficient funds for that project to be completed in time or will stop it which results in
national loss.
Imagine a situation like in Italy where there were 19 governments in 17 years.
Hence, we must state here that, the projects are started in national interest for the benefit of all the
citizens. Hence, they should be completed on time, in the larger interest of public. The political leader
from a particular party, who comes as an administrator should not have interference in it to spoil or stop
but to apply his skill to complete early in a better way to add value in the project and to add in his list of
achievements in place of showing his bankruptcy of political maturity. No one shows maturity that other
political party started this project and our political party has completed it in the interest of nation.
It is the same story, 1950's through 2010, the on job Project Leaders find all kinds of deficiencies as
explained above to complete the project in scheduled target.
Hence this article to alert the government/s and peoples from various nations.
Project Initiation
In the first phase of the project life cycle, the project is defined and established. In moving from a
problem to a project it is important to ask questions such as: Is the problem in your companys
jurisdiction? and Do you have the resources in your budget to fund the project? The project manager
and team also determine the projects preliminary scope during the initiation phase. More often than
not, project team members and stakeholders will continuously alter and sharpen the preliminary
scope into one that is complete and accurate.
Planning
Planning involves identifying and scheduling the work packages or activities necessary to perform
the work; constructing estimates of duration, cost, and resources; developing plans to ensure quality,
manage risks, and control scope; establishing communications and reporting strategies; acquiring
resources, both people and contracts; and integrating these elements into a comprehensive planning
document.
Execution
The phase where the action takes place. Execution involves acquiring and building a project team,
performing work, and producing deliverables. Its important to remain aware of the constraints such
as time, cost, and performance which will drive and limit the project life cycle.
Closeout
During the final phase of the project life cycle, the project is completed and the project team
members transfer deliverables to the next stage or to the customer. The remaining work of the
project team involves releasing resources to other projects, developing lessons learned for future
improvement, and closing out the administrative elements of the project from an organizational
perspective.
Although initiation starts the project and closeout ends it, the other three steps form a loop; planning
leads to execution, which requiring monitoring and control, which feeds back into additional planning.