This document includes a detailed plan for a city development project of constructing a bridge. The reason behind selecting this project is the development and establishing a high standard of living for the locals of the city by reducing their travel time, making commute easy for them, and connecting different parts of the city. Detailed industry analysis is mentioned in the PESTEL analysis section of this document. Mentioned scope and objectives along with work breakdown structure, network diagram, and critical path are illustrated so that a clear insight upon project description can be obtained. Moreover, the project plan clearly understands the impact of stakeholders on the project and suggests responses to each one of the stakeholders according to their respective importance to the success of the project. Since the success of every project or plan depends upon effective communication, a project communications plan is explained as a guide to the project manager and other team members to act upon to maintain transparency at each stage of the project lifecycle.
Figure 1 PESTEL Analysis
Project Selection
Economies around the world have been aiming to grow at a fast pace. With every passing day, an organization from either a private or the public sector contribute their fair share in the development of their economy. One way of doing so is by providing infrastructure facilities to each city of the country so that businesses and households can maximize the utility of resources and consequently add to the development of the economy. The reasons for choosing the construction of a bridge as a project are listed below:
- Traffic jams can be eradicated during busy hours saving time for many individuals for example students can reach educational institutes in timely and workers can reach their workplaces on schedule.
- Commute can be easier and businesses even industries can spread all over the city.
- Tourism can be increased provided there is a better road channel and convenient traveling.
- Connected parts of the city which were otherwise unreachable
Industry Background
According to the research, the global construction industry is expected ad to the global GDP by USD 11093.7 billion by 2024. Of the said number, the infrastructure construction industry is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 4.7%. Although the Covid-19 outbreak has severely damaged the business and consumer emotions towards the construction industry, yet the industry is expected to bounce back within 4-8 quarters (Global Construction Industry Databook Series – Market Size & Forecast (2015 – 2024) by Value and Volume (area and units) across 40+ Market Segments, Opportunities in Top 100 Cities, and Risk Assessment – COVID-19 Update Q2 2020, 2020). A deep insight into the construction industry can be obtained by viewing it through PESTEL Analysis mentioned below.
PESTEL Analysis
Figure 1 PESTEL Analysis
Political Factors
The sustainability of the construction sector highly depends upon a stable and forward-looking political framework (Key report available to understand the construction industry context, 2018). The forward-looking political framework gives a long-term perspective to the construction projects which result in investment in research and development by the government. For our project, funding/financing by the government sector in for of subsidiaries or contracts can take responsibility for the cost management of the project plan.
Economic Factors
The competitive forces in the construction industry are skilled labor, technological know-how, and methodology. The presence of skilled labor who is trained to use the new technology and the defined methodology not only saves the cost of training but also increases labor productivity (Langemeier, 2018).
Social Factors
The social factors of the industry include population growth rate and age profile. The population growth rate has increased over time and has also led to large-scale migration. For the development of every city, it is essential that the infrastructure facilities its population. Secondly, research says that almost 50 percent of the world includes the working class (Kharas & Hamel, 2018). It is understood that the working class needs to commute to their workplaces both conveniently and timely. Hence, the aforementioned factors reinforce or reason for the construction of a bridge.
Technological Factors
The modern construction field is ruled by digitalization and automation of machines and processes. Installed artificial intelligence make the machines think and act like human, the most important aspect of artificial intelligence is that it can rationalize and make the most suitable actions (Frankenfield, 2013) to achieve the project objectives and scope. What is more important than the changing technology is having the means of development and implementation of new technology. Moreover, the use of new materials will have a greater impact on constructing a sustainable structure. In our project, we aim to use the latest technology machines, materials, and processes by procuring the elements to cut down the cost of purchasing.
Environmental Factors
While carrying out a project is required to take the environmental concerns and deal with them responsibly. The entire project lifecycle must maintain efficient water management since water wastage will not only harm the environment but also increase the cost of the project. Moreover, the preparation of land must not lead to deforestation or even as small as one tree. If any unfortunate event occurs plantation replacement must be carried out by the project managers.
Legal Factors
The last external factor in the construction industry legal factors are those which refer to how the law impacts the behaviors of consumers and operations of businesses (Blush, 2016). Before initiating the project, it is important to understand the laws prevailing in the area of construction. For instance, International Labor Organization states laws regarding labor. Some of these state that an adult can work for up to 8 hours per day and 40 hours in the entire week (Labour Law, 2006). Furthermore, the legal processes for acquiring land for construction and taking construction permission from the authorities are also crucial before even starting the project initiation. Our project plans to take off by meeting all the legal obligations and abiding by all laws.
Project
Scope
The scope of this project is to deliver a construction aimed to increase the standard of living of the locals by developing the road and communication channels of the city. Reduced traffic jams and time wastages will collectively lead to a better lifestyle for each stakeholder of the city. The project is aimed at taking care of all the stakeholders at its initiation, development, and finishing stage and hopes to finish in the defined time and allocated budget.
Objectives
Objectives translate the project into concrete, specific and measurable terms (Larson & Gray, 2018). All the objectives of a project must be well communicated to all the stakeholders otherwise a situation of conflict may arise between different levels in the project team hierarchy. The objectives for our project are to
- Construct a high strong bridge that can facilitate heavy traffic.
- Reduce traffic jams by providing an alternative route.
- Increase the standards of living by providing hassle-free and time-saving road channels.
- Complete the project in six months.
- Complete the project within the allocated budget.
Work Breakdown Structure
A work breakdown structure is designed to show how project deliverables can be broken down into small work packages and what level of responsibility is to be assigned to each deliverable (PMBOK Guide , 2017). The work breakdown structure for our project is illustrated in Figure 2.
Figure 2 Work Breakdown Structure
Milestone
The project schedule along with activities and milestones is illustrated in Figure 3 below.
| Activities | Milestones | Days | |
| 1. Construction Bridge | 158 | ||
| A1.2 | Site Prep | 21 | |
| 1.2.1 | Mobilization | 7 | |
| 1.2.2 | Excavation | 7 | |
| 1.2.2 | Pilling | Site Preparation Milestone | 7 |
| A1.3 | Pile Gaps | 20 | |
| 1.3.1 | Cut-off Piles and Blinding | 11 | |
| 1.3.2 | Formwork and rebar | 3 | |
| 1.3.3 | Concrete | Pile Gaps Milestone | 6 |
| A1.4 | Structural Steel | 30 | |
| 1.4.1 | Erect Steel Frame | 15 | |
| 1.4.2 | Holorib Floors | Structural Steel | 15 |
| A1.5 | External | 8 | |
| 1.5.1 | Cladding | 5 | |
| 1.5.2 | Roofing | External Milestone | 3 |
| A1.6 | Floor Slab | 20 | |
| 1.6.1 | Sub-base blinding | 10 | |
| 1.6.2 | Formwork and concrete | Floor Slab Milestone | 10 |
| A1.7 | Brickwork | 30 | |
| 1.7.1 | External Brickwork | 15 | |
| 1.7.2 | Internal Brickwork | Brickwork Milestone | 15 |
| A1.8 | M and E Services | 5 | |
| 1.8.1 | Plumbing | 3 | |
| 1.8.2 | Electric | M and E Services Milestone | 2 |
| A1.9 | Finishes | 19 | |
| 1.9.1 | Joinery | 7 | |
| 1.9.2 | Plastering | 6 | |
| 1.9.3 | Painting | Finishes Milestone | 6 |
Figure 3 Time Schedule and Milestones
Network Diagram
Figure 4 Project Network Diagram
Critical Path AàBàDàFàHàJ
Stakeholder analysis
The project stakeholders are people who have the probability of gaining or losing something from a project’s outcome. The project has two types of stakeholders: internal stakeholders which are individuals within the project team and external stakeholders which can be referred to as people or groups outside the project team (Chen, 2020). The stakeholders of our project are as follows:
The municipality
The municipality will grant permission for local building constructions and will have a say in the formal planning process. This stakeholder is highly impactful because the approval for the project depends upon them.
The county administrative board
The board is the first instance for appeals in the formal planning process. The project plan will be accepted by the board only then it can have a kickstart.
The national government
The national government is the final level from where the project needs approval (Olander, 2007). After being signed by the national government the project is signaled a good to go and a begin its operations (Johnson, 2016). The national government is as essential for our project as are the other two stakeholders mentioned earlier. Only after being approved by all these three levels of authority can the project be initiated, completed, and finished.
Residents in the vicinity
The residents in the vicinity will be bothered by the noise and air pollution during the time of construction. The health and safety of these residents will be taken care of and they will be given importance by ensuring that noise and air pollution is reduced to their minimum level.
Communication Plan
Communications management aims on making all internal stakeholders aware of the top to bottom activities of the project, its advantages, and constraints (Rouse, 2015). The communications planning process includes identifying the types of information that will flow among the workers and stakeholders, how it is created, its cause and effect, and finally who receives it appropriately. According to the research, 90% of a project manager’s job is spent on correspondence so it’s important to make sure everybody gets the right message at the right time (Zulch, 2014). A formal and well-timed communications plan needs to be applied to ensure that the quality of delivers matches the description mentioned in the scope. To avoid uncertainty, budget, processes and up-to-date status during documentation must be transparent to all internal stakeholders. The communication plan which our project will be following includes guidelines for the entire communication process (see Figure 5). Encoding, medium of transmission, decoding, and feedback form up the communication process (Steps and Components of the Communication Process, 2020) and will all be explained to each project team member in terms of understanding and initiation. The detailed communication plan at each step is explained as follows.
Figure 5 Communication Process
Encoding
In our project, a two-way communication process will be adopted in which the top-level managers would define strategies for the project and its efficiency and filter them down towards the employees through an effective medium to ensure its alignment with the scope. Secondly, the workers themselves can also put in their suggestions or complaints in a critical situation by which transparency would increase and the culture of the project would remain flexible instead of rigid.
Medium of Transmission
The formal hierarchy of the project will be followed by the project managers to send messages. Interior office memorandums will be employed to circulate written information along with the use of electronic mails in case of emergency and urgency. Direct one on one communication can also be initiated by the project manager.
Decoding
The project team members will be given the training to comprehend the flow of information, its intent, importance, and most importantly the content of the messages that will be delivered from time to time. If someone from the team is unable to identify the meaning of a command, request, or order, there will exist special assistance to them for making each point clear at every end.
Feedback
Effectively giving a message is crucial but gaining feedback upon the message is even more important for a healthy communication process (DeFranzo, 2015). Especially for a two-way communication channel gaining feedback from the receiver upon each unit of the message sent fulfills the purpose of communication (Dignen, 2014). The feedback process of the communication channel would be kept open in our project as we aim to have maximum information available for everyone so that everyone could be in alliance with their subordinates or co-workers. There would also exist certain feedback forums and regular discussion meetings will be held with the project team member for getting their feedback. The feedback can be either about in terms of team members’ ideas regarding the project or concerns about their immediate supervisors and the work. On the other hand, the project managers would also be accountable for feedback about the work performance of their respective subordinates.
