Successful transport decision-making - Osmose

T2: Establishing the project management team
Vol 1 - Table of Contents
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Who are the staff involved in the
transport management team?
Staff are an integral part of any project. The process of
managing people within a project is one of the most important
concepts of project management.
The delivery of successful project management and
engagement activities requires a high level of skill on the part
of all people involved in the process. Good skills influence the
project outcomes at many levels. For transport projects there
are four key groups that play an important part in delivering
quality outcomes. These groups have different roles and
responsibilities in the project process:
Project manager
Project team
External consultant
Project champion
Aims
The main roles of the people involved in a transport project are:
Identifying, tracking, managing and resolving project
issues;
Proactively disseminating project information to all
stakeholders;
Identifying, managing and mitigating project risk;
Ensuring that the solution is of acceptable quality;
Proactively managing the scope of the works to ensure that
only what was agreed to is delivered, unless changes are
approved;
Monitoring and collecting information to give a sense of
how the project is progressing and whether the
deliverables are acceptable; and
Managing the overall work plan, to ensure that work is
assigned and completed on time and within budget.
Useful hints
Power struggles and lack of initiative are common
problems; try to avoid this by creating a project team that
works together, towards achieving common goals;
Symptoms of an ineffective team include cautious or
guarded communication, lack of agreement, use of
personal criticism, malfunctioning meetings, unclear goals
and low commitment;
A productive team is characterised by common
commitment, specific performance goals, the right size and
right mix of people, a common approach and mutual
accountability; and
Approaches to building effective teams include careful
selection, training, creating a sense of purpose, open
communication and special team building techniques.
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In practice
Ile de France, France
An Urban Transport Plan for the Ile-de-France region was signed in
December 2000 after several months of preparation. It includes
measures to decrease car traffic, encourage the use of public
transport, minimise the impact of freight transport and organise
parking facilities/policies. A project manager, called the Committee
Manager, was appointed to organise and facilitate steering and
technical committee meetings which were used to discuss local
and/or technical issues.
Madrid, Spain
A major consideration in the preparation of the MetroSur bus
network redesign process in Madrid was the involvement and
engagement with stakeholders. However this involved
considerable time and resource implications and caused obstacles
to the project management process. To overcome these obstacles
an external contractor was commissioned to conduct the
engagement work. The external contractor was particularly useful
as they were able to contribute additional time and skills to those of
the project team.
Graz, Austria
The city-wide 30/50 kph speed limit in Graz was an unprecedented
measure which raised legal and technical issues that were exploited
by a strong political opposition. Problems, however, were solved by
well-organised project management. The project group consisted of
key decision-makers and experts from relevant subjects such as
law, city planning, road construction, transport, and marketing. All
were carefully chosen and motivated supporters. They established
a discussion circle with regular meetings where they anticipated all
foreseeable problems and prepared a solution in time. The factors
of success were:
The direct link of the management to the political level. The key
decision-maker and project manager, acted as a project
champion.
The smoothing of the bureaucratic process. The project
champion became head of the key departments of the city
council. This ensured that managerial decisions could be carried
out effectively.
Examples of marketing campaign for Graz.