Megaprojects: A Comparison Of Heathrow Terminal 5 And Denver International Airport

Analysis on the components of project portfolio management and how those components impact project managers.
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Key challenges related to the projects

Megaproject is a concept that involves an investment of over 1 billion of currency for the development of physical infrastructures. These physical infrastructures are mostly involved with the movement of information, resources and people within locations or buildings all around the world (Flyvbjerg 2014). The following report would provide a critical comparison between the developments of such megaprojects of the Heathrow Terminal 5 and Denver International Airport based on the ways that these projects were handled.

This would include the comparison of the key challenges to the projects and based on that how can these two projects be differentiated. This comparison would take the resources, the people and the processes into consideration. Further, the assessment of the role of a project manager would be presented for both the projects in handling the project and supporting the reasons behind the approaches taken towards handling these approaches.

Key challenges related to the projects

Any megaproject deals with major issues regarding finances as a project is only declared as a megaproject when the finances rise over 1 billion of the country currency (Project Management Institute 2017). Managing the entire process including the resource and the people involved within the project within the given budget is the biggest challenge involved with a megaproject.

In both the cases for Heathrow Terminal 5 and Denver International Airport, the challenges had been in the project being termed as a megaproject and the huge scopes it had made with the pre-planning of the projects. The Heathrow Terminal 5 was a complex project estimated on a budget of 4.3 billion GBP by the year 2002 (Davies, Gann and Douglas 2009). On the other hand, the Denver International Airport was estimated to be completed on a budget of 2.7 billion USD to be completed by the year 1995 (Montealegre and Keil 2000).

Both the projects had too many underlying companies supporting the physical development of the airports that has been found to facilitate a huge number of customers. Thus, the project had already become a huge one and mostly, and thus, both needed to be handled carefully based on the project resources, the project progression process and the people needed to be managed for the process.

Difference between the two projects based on the challenges considering the resources, the people, and the processes

The differences between the two megaprojects of Heathrow Terminal 5 development and the Denver International Airport development were based on how the project was being managed depending on the resources, people and processes. Both the projects focused on developing their automated baggage systems.

Project Resources: Both the projects involved a huge sum of money and the project management for both of them required handling the project based on the available resources. The DIA megaproject failed to assess the required resources for the project and thus it was soon found to go beyond the estimated budget. The DIA megaproject was already 16 months behind schedule and by that time had amounted 300 per cent over the estimated budget (Evans, Haury and Stricklin 1993).  On the other hand, Heathrow T5 project had done prior research in adequate resource management and was successful in the handling of the project resources within the budget of 4.2 billion GBP.

Difference between the two projects based on the challenges considering the resources, the people, and the processes

People Management: DIA megaproject failed to acknowledge the management of people in the project whereas Heathrow T5 development faced initial problems within the understanding of respective works of the people at the time of the automated baggage system launch but they managed to revamp the management of people and trials were initiated before assigning the people with their respective works to make them clear any doubts about their responsibilities.

Process Management: DIA never managed to set up a trial of the project before the launch of the automated baggage systems but the Heathrow T5 megaproject did set up a trial before the project process was initiated to understand the risk associated with the project (Szyliowicz and Goetz 1995). This helped them to manage the risks within the project and thus, during the final progression of the project processes, they were all eliminated.

Assessment of the project manager’s role in both projects

In case of the DIA megaproject, the project manager had a major role to play which had been missed out on. The DIA project went over the estimated budget and the time to complete the project was also delayed (Meredith et al. 2015). On the other hand, Heathrow T5 initially had problems in the software handling the automated baggage system and the mismanagement of staff, but they were eliminated at the final project execution. Following is the key roles that the project managers had missed out on in the DIA megaproject:

Time and cost scheduling: Handling the time and cost scheduling is the first and foremost responsibility of the project manager as it is the foundation of a project. The funding bodies and the companies associated with the projects are also affected with this.

Resource management: The over budgeting of the project and the faulty development of the software was due to the inability of the project managers to handle the resources of the project (Szyliowicz and Goetz 1995). It is necessary that a project manager takes monitoring of the resources used to make sure that they are used for the right purpose and at correct amounts.

Management of people: The major problem that had occurred in the DIA megaproject development had been the mismanagement of staff after the opening of the automated baggage system due to misunderstanding in responsibilities. It is also the responsibility of the project managers to manage the human resource workforce and make sure that they are aware of their respective responsibilities, especially in a megaproject.

It is required that the project manager utilized an analytical approach that would suffice the problems in the megaproject so far.

Supporting reasons behind choosing these approaches

Rather than using the Rational Model for the handling of the megaprojects, it is suggested that the project manager utilized Analytical approach keeping the risks and uncertainty in the project in mind (Flyvbjerg 2014). This would have maintained clarity of facing an immediate risk and adapting measures to mitigate them. The risk mitigation strategy would be also included in the time and cost scheduling plan, the people management plan and the resource handling plan. In this way the projects could have been more efficient while execution.

Conclusion

Therefore, it can be concluded that after critically evaluating the situations of the failure in handling the megaproject Denver International airport, it can be said that there were problems in the handling of the entire project based on the resources, people and budget management. This has been analyzed after a critical comparison between the developments of such megaprojects on the ways that they were handled, which were rectified during the management of the project for the Heathrow T5 development, making it a successful project in spite of having initial trial setbacks.

The comparison of both the projects were done to understand the reasons behind the failure of DIA and the success of Heathrow T5, that included the comparison of the key challenges to the projects and based on that how can these two projects be differentiated. This comparison took the resources, the people and the processes into consideration. Further, the assessment of the role of a project manager had been presented for both the projects in handling the project and supporting the reasons behind the approaches taken towards handling these approaches. The conclusion has thus been formulated.

References

Davies, A., Gann, D. and Douglas, T., 2009. Innovation in megaprojects: systems integration at London Heathrow Terminal 5. California Management Review, 51(2), pp.101-125.

Evans, G.S., Haury, R.F. and Stricklin, G.M., 1993. The Denver airport: Managing a megaproject. Civil Engineering, 63(5), p.70.

Flyvbjerg, B., 2014. What you should know about megaprojects and why: An overview. Project management journal, 45(2), pp.6-19.

Flyvbjerg, B., 2014. Megaproject planning and management: Essential readings, vols 1-2. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Meredith, J., Mantel, S., Mantel. and Shafer, S. (2015). Project Management: A Managerial Approach, Ninth Edition International Stud. 9th ed. John Wiley & Sons, p.147. 

Montealegre, R. and Keil, M., 2000. De-escalating information technology projects: Lessons from the Denver International Airport. Mis Quarterly, pp.417-447.

Project Management Institute (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. 6th ed. Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, USA: Project Management Institute. 

Szyliowicz, J.S. and Goetz, A.R., 1995. Getting realistic about megaproject planning: The case of the new Denver International Airport. Policy Sciences, 28(4), pp.347-367.