Project Management: Project Failures Sydney Opera House
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: PROJECT FAILURES
Sydney Opera House
CONTENTS
Introduction p.3
History p.3 – 4
Stakeholders p.4 – 7
Stakeholder classification p.5
Stakeholder Power/Interest Grid p.7
Causes for project failure p.8-10
Lack of risk management p.9
Unrealistic timescale and Cost escalation p.10
Recommendations p.10 – 14
Risk Management p.11
Forecasting p.11 – 12
Stakeholder Engagement p.12 – 14
Conclusion p.14
References p.15 - 16
Introduction
For this assignment the project chosen to critically analyse its failure is the Sydney Opera House.
Critically analysing its failure and its consequences and identifying bad project management procedures made me look into this project intensively and evaluate it as a project failure with a “happy end”.
This assignment will be divided in three main parts which are History where it will be explained what the Sydney Opera house is and what was the purpose of the project, a Stakeholders section where the key stakeholders will be identified and discussed, a Project Failure section identifying what bad management procedures were taken and for last there will be a Recommendations section recommending new procedures to avoid an over budget and over timed project, which this is part of.
For the architect - Jorg Utzon – it is his “masterpiece”, to Australia as a country it is their representative monument as World Heritage (Design5 final report 2010). Although project manager and client are now “happy” with the final product it can still be considered as a project failure due to a huge overrun budget and over timed project with consequences that are still being repaired, almost 40 years later.
History
In 2003 Utzon is awarded with the Pritzker, the architecture’s “Nobel”. It was said of Sydney Opera House (from now on in this assignment also known as ‘SOH’) that it is one of the great iconic buildings of the twentieth century (Murray, P. 2004). It
Sydney Opera House
CONTENTS
Introduction p.3
History p.3 – 4
Stakeholders p.4 – 7
Stakeholder classification p.5
Stakeholder Power/Interest Grid p.7
Causes for project failure p.8-10
Lack of risk management p.9
Unrealistic timescale and Cost escalation p.10
Recommendations p.10 – 14
Risk Management p.11
Forecasting p.11 – 12
Stakeholder Engagement p.12 – 14
Conclusion p.14
References p.15 - 16
Introduction
For this assignment the project chosen to critically analyse its failure is the Sydney Opera House.
Critically analysing its failure and its consequences and identifying bad project management procedures made me look into this project intensively and evaluate it as a project failure with a “happy end”.
This assignment will be divided in three main parts which are History where it will be explained what the Sydney Opera house is and what was the purpose of the project, a Stakeholders section where the key stakeholders will be identified and discussed, a Project Failure section identifying what bad management procedures were taken and for last there will be a Recommendations section recommending new procedures to avoid an over budget and over timed project, which this is part of.
For the architect - Jorg Utzon – it is his “masterpiece”, to Australia as a country it is their representative monument as World Heritage (Design5 final report 2010). Although project manager and client are now “happy” with the final product it can still be considered as a project failure due to a huge overrun budget and over timed project with consequences that are still being repaired, almost 40 years later.
History
In 2003 Utzon is awarded with the Pritzker, the architecture’s “Nobel”. It was said of Sydney Opera House (from now on in this assignment also known as ‘SOH’) that it is one of the great iconic buildings of the twentieth century (Murray, P. 2004). It
References: Mitchell, K. (2002), “Collaboration and information sharing: an ROI perspective?”, The Public Manager, Vol. 31 No. 1, pp. 59-62 Lock, D., Project Management, 5th edn Nicholas, J. M., Management of Business and Engineering Projects. Prentice Hall, 1990. J.K Pinto, J.E Prescot, Variations in critical success factors over the stages in the project life cycle Journal of Management, 14 (1) (1988), pp. 5–18 Kerzner H., In search of excellence in project management David I. Cleland, Lewis R. Ireland (2006). Project Management: Strategic Design And Implementation. 5th edn. McGraw-Hill Professional. pp.17-35. Peter Murray (2004). The Saga Of Sydney Opera House: The Dramatic Story Of The Design And Construction Of The Icon Of Modern Australia. Bedford Park: Taylor & Francis. p3-18. Office of Government Commerce, CP0015/01/05, 2004 Field, Tom 15, 1997, Vol. 11, 2; pg. 54, 6 pgs. Lynda Bourne and Derek H.T. Walker Visualising and mapping stakeholder influence RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia (2003)