Successful transport decision-making - Osmose

Project management in the transport decision-making process
Vol 1 - Table of Contents
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(i) Identify suitable individuals and
form project team
Once job specifications have been prepared, the core project
management team and the specialists required at the early
stages of the project can be appointed.
Particularly for the core team, it is important to consider not
only the technical requirements of each task, but also the
overall mix of skills across the team, and the ability of
appointed members to work together as a group - and with
key officials and local politicians.
The specialists that are appointed should have previous
experience of similar projects, particularly for the more senior
posts, although in some cases it is useful to include expertise
from other project areas, in order to benefit from new skills
and different experiences from other areas.
(B) ESTABLISH CORE TEAM
(ii) Agree organisational structure
and procedures
At the start of the project, one of the first priorities is to agree
a detailed organisational structure, covering both the project
team and its formal relationships with other key individuals
and organisations.
The core team needs to be clear about their individual
responsibilities and reporting lines. The latter covers not only
whom they report to within the project team, but under what
circumstances external approval needs to be obtained (e.g.
for particular expenditure or a course of action) and how this
is to be obtained.
It is also important to set up administrative procedures,
covering the commissioning of work, the payment of invoices,
and the monitoring of progress - including procedures for
handling any problems that may arise.
(iii) Resource project team
Contracts need to be signed with each member of the core
project team, and ancillary staff recruited.
Before the project team can begin work effectively, they need
to be provided with office space and facilities, computer
equipment and communications, administrative back-up, and
authorisations to procure necessary services and products.
In some cases, organisations provide funding one year at a
time. This is potentially very inefficient, as it leads to
uncertainty and low morale among the project team, and to
inefficiencies in the procurement process. To avoid this, a
commitment of funding in principle should be obtained for the
duration of the project at its outset.
(i) Prepare specific plans/strategies
Once the core project team has been established and funding
secured for the project, it is necessary to prepare a series of
more detailed plans and strategies, in the form of a master
Project Management Plan and a series of Topic Plans and
Strategies.
These should itemise, for each topic, what needs to be done
at each stage of the project, by when and by whom.
In addition to the detailed planning of the project itself (e.g.
traffic calming scheme, bus priority scheme), detailed plans
need to be prepared for various aspects of external relations,
covering the fuller development of the engagement, media
and marketing strategies that were prepared in outline form as
part of the Scoping stage.
(C) DETAILED PREPARATION
(ii) Estimate detailed resource
requirements
Having prepared detailed plans for the key topics at each
stage of the project decision-making process, the next step is
to prepare detailed estimates of resource requirements. This
is necessary both to confirm the total project resource
requirements, and to ensure that external products and
services are ordered in sufficient time to guarantee their
delivery at the point they are required.
This, therefore, requires a fine disaggregation of the various
types of resource inputs required at each stage of the project,
including different type of materials and services, and the
various professional skills required (e.g. legal specialists,
quantity surveyors, site contractors, construction firms).
(iii) Determine potential risks and
barriers
All projects involve certain potential risks and uncertainties,
both in relation to the broader environment in which the
project operates (e.g. financial markets, political situation) and
the execution of the project itself (e.g. unexpected problems
arising from ground conditions, or adverse media reactions).
Some of these can be minimised by the way in which the
project is managed and financed, while in other cases the best
solution is to prepare contingency plans, so that any problem
can be addressed with minimum delay.
Risk management procedures should be applied to identify
potential sources of uncertainty and risks as well as their likely
causes, and then prepare countervailing or contingency plans,
as appropriate.
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