Successful transport decision-making - Osmose

2.3.2 Project management in the transport decision-making process
Vol 1 - Table of Contents
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What is project management?
Project management is concerned with the overall planning and
coordination of a project, from inception to completion. It
ensures that requirements of the decision-maker or
commissioning body are met, by achieving completion on time,
within budget and to the required quality standards.
Project management covers the whole transport decisionmaking
process, and usually structures the project plan
according to a six-stage project process outlined earlier (i.e.
problem definition, option generation, option assessment,
formal decision-taking, implementation, monitoring and
evaluation).
The broad phases involved in implementing project
management are summarised in Figure 4, and explained in
more detail in the following three pages. At the outset of
planning a project, it is important to begin with a scoping phase
(A), in which the whole decision-making process is mapped
out, starting with agreeing the project brief and objectives. Once
the nature, scale and staging of the process have been
determined, it is then time to establish and resource the core
project team (B), who then carry out a more detailed planning
and preparation phase (C), that includes the development of a
series of specific plans and strategies. Only then is the project
team ready to move into the active phase of running the project
(D).
If these preliminary phases are skipped or abbreviated, it is
likely that the decision-making process will not be organised in
a very efficient or effective manner, and that process barriers
are more likely to be encountered which will delay or disrupt the
project.
Project management is often regarded as a specialist discipline
requiring specific highly skilled professionals to undertake it.
While this is true to a certain extent, a scarcity of ‘project
managers’ should not be a barrier to any organisation in
following the basic project management principles outlined in
this handbook.
Broad phases in undertaking project management
(A) SCOPING:
(i) Determine project brief and objectives
(ii) Identify relevant contextual barriers
(iii) Identify specific strategies that need to be prepared
(iv) Identify project stages
(v) Identify resource requirements
(vi) Determine core skill requirements
(B) ESTABLISH CORE TEAM:
(i) Identify suitable individuals and form project team
(ii) Agree organisational structure and procedures
(iii) Resource project team
(C) DETAILED PREPARATION:
(i) Prepare specific plans/strategies
(ii) Estimate detailed resource requirements
(iii) Determine potential risks and barriers
(i) Manage the process
(ii) Monitor input, process and outcomes
(iii) Overcome barriers
(iv) Carry out project assessment
(D) RUNNING THE PROJECT:
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Figure 4 - Project management approach