Project Management, the Building of the Three Gorges Dam Essay Example
1. Introduction
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will probably be finished by 2009 and will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. Being the present manager and being appointed by the government at the feasibility stage I am asked to write a report in order to outline the activities required to successfully manage this major project and to ensure that it is completed on time and within budget.
This report will be divided into six parts beginning with an introduction and ending with a conclusion.
At first should the terminology be defined. A project is "a unique set of coordinated activities, with a definite start and finishing point, undertaken by an individual or organisation to meet specific objectives within defined, scheduled costs and performance parameters" (BS 6079-1,200:2, Material of Sunderland 2005, page 5). The individual who undertakes the organisa-tion is usually the project manager. This person plays a special role and is supported by his team.
The project manager leads the project and provides vision, direction and encouragement. The project manager takes lead in project planning to determine the schedule and budgets neces-sary to meet the project objectives and is responsible for delivering the project once the pro-ject has been approved by senior management. The project manager is also responsible for the project support team.
The skills a project manager should have are defined by Richman as people skills, project management skills and technical skills. In the case of such a large project such as the building of the TGD the project manager also needs to have integration skills and great knowledge of the organisation.
All skills mentioned above will be further described within the following sections of my re-port.
Generally there are two basic models to describe a project's life cycle, the generic project life cycle from Burke and the basic project life cycle from Field and Keller. My report is based on the project life
The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River will probably be finished by 2009 and will be the largest hydroelectric dam in the world. Being the present manager and being appointed by the government at the feasibility stage I am asked to write a report in order to outline the activities required to successfully manage this major project and to ensure that it is completed on time and within budget.
This report will be divided into six parts beginning with an introduction and ending with a conclusion.
At first should the terminology be defined. A project is "a unique set of coordinated activities, with a definite start and finishing point, undertaken by an individual or organisation to meet specific objectives within defined, scheduled costs and performance parameters" (BS 6079-1,200:2, Material of Sunderland 2005, page 5). The individual who undertakes the organisa-tion is usually the project manager. This person plays a special role and is supported by his team.
The project manager leads the project and provides vision, direction and encouragement. The project manager takes lead in project planning to determine the schedule and budgets neces-sary to meet the project objectives and is responsible for delivering the project once the pro-ject has been approved by senior management. The project manager is also responsible for the project support team.
The skills a project manager should have are defined by Richman as people skills, project management skills and technical skills. In the case of such a large project such as the building of the TGD the project manager also needs to have integration skills and great knowledge of the organisation.
All skills mentioned above will be further described within the following sections of my re-port.
Generally there are two basic models to describe a project's life cycle, the generic project life cycle from Burke and the basic project life cycle from Field and Keller. My report is based on the project life