Question 3

Absolute Quest Viet Pte Ltd. (AQ) has had to close down its new entertainment attraction after only six months due to its inability to attract its forecast number of visitors. The company is keen to understand more about why this particular attraction failed in order to learn from its mistakes and improve on future projects. The chairman of AQ has cited a number of problems that were experienced throughout the lifecycle of the new Entertainment Attraction Project. An extract from his report is given below:

• There was a lack of a detailed plan as to the exact content required by the attraction.
• The contract was given to a contractor recommended by the Finance Director and consequently, no research was undertaken on its suitability.
• Throughout the project there had been an unsuitable management structure and a lack of understanding of the elements of work required to complete the project.

• The targets for the visitor numbers were highly ambitious.
• There had been a major failure to establish sufficiently robust financial management. The cost of the building and its content was 10% over the original budget. AQ believes that this is due to a combination of poor cost estimates originally and poor financial control throughout the project.
• Throughout the project there appeared to be an enormous amount of conflict between the various project stakeholders which made it difficult to manage the timeframe. The project manager spent so much time managing this conflict that project meetings were regularly canceled.

No one in AQ appears to be committed to undertaking post-completion reviews.

The chairman understands that there are a number of project management frameworks that would help in identifying the different issues of project management that need to be considered to effectively manage a project and deliver the desired outcomes.

You are required to write a minimum of 1200 words and answer parts (a) & (b).

(a) Describe, with reference to the stages in the project lifecycle, the steps that could have been taken to avoid the problems being experienced in the new Entertainment Attraction Project, as highlighted in the scenario.

(b) Identify and explain the practices associated with continuous project improvement that could be used to help AQ learn from the mistakes of the Entertainment Attraction Project.