Introduction – Case Background
The Regency Plaza is a hotel complex that comprised of 300 rooms and approximately 96 luxury condominiums. The project building was the combined structure of steel and concrete, which made the structure solid and reliable for mass capacity. The regulatory of the project, the Regency Hotel Group owns and regulates 24 luxury hotels that are situated in the prominent urban cities globally. They regulatory charges $550 each night for rooms and the Regency Plaza is the first condominium project of the entity.
Discussing the role of Kris Hodgkins, the regulatory hired her services that were accountable for designing, construction, and marketing of the condominium project. Besides consumption of her services, the group had appointed external resources for marketing consultancy, architecture expertise, and project coordination.
The bidding process of the project initiated by evaluating various options. The Senior Management took cost plus contract, guaranteed maximum price contract (GPM), etc. into their considerations, which ultimately selected a fixed sum contract. After evaluating the bids for a month, the regulatory decided to contract Kelly Constructions since they placed the lowest bid of $157 million along with affirmation that project will conclude three months earlier.
The project was anticipated to be the most lucrative investment for the Regency Hotel Group since the resource alignments, role definition of each resource, and strict monitoring with the compliance were not compromised. As result, the quality and project reliability were promised to the target audience with maximum tendency. However, the conclusion stage of the project and marketing activities were exposed to various disputes and challenges that actually tested the project management skills and decision-making abilities of Hodgkins as a Project Manager for the Regency Plaza.
Discussion
Initiation of Problems
The condominium project faced various challenges during the conclusion stage. Due to the direct influence of the Senior Management, the project faced series of changes in design. Besides the delay in the completion, the cost of project was increasing subsequently to the changes. Kelly Constructions were facing difficulties with the compliance of cost management and professional relationship started to weaken significantly. Paul Grogan was unable to maintain the balance with resource allocation and became alienated with the work. The subsequent effects were found on other activities.
The subsequent effect of insufficient workforce was highlighted on the marketing activities of the project. The delay in completion was restricting the regulatory to initiate with the marketing activities of the project, which resulted in 30 soled pre-units out of 96. It must be notified that each issue was interconnected and influencing the succeeding activities.
Lastly, the personalization in the structure enforced by the customers was another challenge throughout the project conduct. The entity could not risk the reputation by denying the personalized requirements of the customers since Hodgkins felt that public relations (PRs) and word-of-mouth are two critical elements of successful marketing campaign. Hence, the critical situation during the completion of the project demanded an effective role play from Hodgkins as the project manager.
Final Evaluation of the Project – A Success or Failure
In personal opinion, the project is a confirmed failure due to various reasons. First, the time management has been a disaster throughout the conduct. Constant changes in design have disturbed the alignment of the tasks significantly. Consider myself as a project manager, I would focus on detecting the “critical paths” in order to control the time factor. According to Reh (2016), Critical Path in the project management refers to the focus on essential tasks that could halt the conduct potentially. Billows (2016) stated that critical paths are used in order to decrease the durations. I would tend to detect such paths immediately during the initial conflict and conduct the marketing activities in a prompt manner.
Second, the regulatory has outsourced various activities unnecessarily that resulted in conflicts of interests and underutilization of resources. As result, the project encountered severe misallocation at the stage of conclusion (Zucker, 2014). As a project manager, I would enforce the regulatory to eradicate false dependencies and utilize the primary resources through effective role definition. However, the elimination was not detected throughout the case, which is another concrete affirmation of project failure.
The project was also subject to shaving days due to multiple involvements of different entities. The involved regulations have clearly cheated the Parkinson’s Law that states that time pressurizes the tasks to complete (Kasier, 2012). As an active project manager, I would follow the law and assign reasonable spans for each task. This would increase the pace of task execution among each team by creating subliminal pressure. Hence, Parkinson’s Law would institute a synergy impact in completing the task with maximum effectiveness. Henceforth, the critical insufficiencies in managing the Regency Plaza condominium projects affirm the failure.
Essential Skills Required for Project Manager
In personal opinion, a project manager should exhibit few skills to prove effectiveness for the designation. First, the manager must have an ability of project risk management, which refers to identification, classification, and mitigation of risks in a systematic manner (IRM, 2016). Unfortunately, Hodgkins was not able to identify the risks that Regency Plaza was comprising thru the conduct. Second, Hodgkins was lacking the skills of project leadership that was necessary for regulating a large-scale project like Regency Plaza. Hodgkins was not having any interpersonal activity, clear vision, competence, and teambuilding attributes as a project leader (Marsh, 2013). Lastly, project closure was another key attribute that project managers should comprise. Hodgkins failed to show her involvement in final examination of scope, indexing of tasks, and formal cessation with the customers (Dwevedi, 2012), specifically the Millers. Hence, Hodgkins was not a suitable resource for the handling the project as a manager.
Conclusion
The Regency Plaza was the first condominium project for Regency Hotel Group. The project was subject to various fluctuations in deadlines and conducts that resulted in severe mismanagement of resources and role disputes. Hodgkins was appointed as the project manager but failed to demonstrate and institute basic traits of a project leader. According to a personal evaluation, the project is an ultimate failure due to over deployment of resources, weaker manager, and lack of project scope. Specifying the lacking in manager, she was not an ideal choice for the designation due to poor risk assessment, feebler leadership skills, and undefined approach to the project disclosure.
References
Billows, D. (2016). Project Schedule - How To Finish Earlier. [online] 4pm.com. Available at: http://www.4pm.com/shorten-the-project-duration/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2016].
Dwevedi, P. (2012). How to close a project?. [online] Simpli Learn. Available at: http://www.simplilearn.com/how-to-close-a-project-article/all-resources [Accessed 29 Aug. 2016].
IRM, (2016). Project Risk Management. [online] Institute of Risk Management. Available at: https://www.theirm.org/training/all-courses/project-risk-management.aspx [Accessed 29 Aug. 2016].
Kasier, D. (2012). Parkinson's Law. [online] Fluent Time Management. Available at: http://www.fluent-time-management.com/parkinsons-law.html [Accessed 29 Aug. 2016].
Marsh, F. (2013). 10 Great Leadership Skills of Project Management | AboutLeaders.com. [online] About Leaders – Leaders Making a Difference. Available at: http://aboutleaders.com/10-great-leadership-skills-of-project-management/ [Accessed 29 Aug. 2016].
Reh, F. (2016). Critical Path Project Management (CPM). [online] The Balance. Available at: https://www.thebalance.com/critical-path-project-management-cpm-2276128 [Accessed 29 Aug. 2016].
Zucker, A. (2014). 4 Ways to Shorten a Project Schedule - ProjectConnections. [online] Project Connections. Available at: http://blog.projectconnections.com/project_practitioners/2014/12/4-ways-to-shorten-a-project-schedule.html [Accessed 29 Aug. 2016].
