Infrastructure is a combination of many things which include politics, designs, construction, and finances which depend on a key point which is planning. It is spread across transport –social infrastructure- hospitals, schools, and prisons. Australia has good infrastructure and is still developing as it is in the middle of multibillion-dollar projects around it. Currently it is centered around transport hence dwarfing ongoing social projects. The success or failure of an infrastructure project is determined long before any concrete has been poured or foundation started by the kind of management put in place.
Having comprehensive smart planning sets up a project for success from the start. It helps identify meaningful project goals and objectives and stick to them. These goals adhere to specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound ideologies. Planning is essential to help identify desired goals, reduce risks, and avoid missed deadlines which bring mistrust from the stakeholders and ultimately deliver the required and agreed product. A solid plan for the project will help in executing each phase of the road project smoothly; for instance, the source of raw materials, working hours in a day, the expected amount of work in a day. This can help build confidence in the project from the public and hence the allocation of other tasks. Also, when a team works together towards set goals, it can allow everyone to be on the same page working towards the common shared purpose. Research shows that every minute you spend in planning saves ten minutes in execution; this gives you a 100% return on energy.
Having open and effective communication between the working team and stakeholders. Effective communication is important to keep all team members on one page, avoid confusion, and keep them motivated. The manager in the construction project could set project expectations and ensure that everyone –the working team and the stakeholders – know what is expected of them throughout the project. This will foster a good working relationship between managers and workers which can increase morale, efficiency, and clarity hence reduce misunderstanding which would lead to a wastage of time in redoing the tasks. It can also build trust between workers and stakeholders in this road project.
Having a risk management plan intended for guiding the project management team. This plan allows the managers to identify the project’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats hence it can prepare on how to identify potential risks, mitigate and avoid problems in case they arise. For example, in construction of the roads, the project team can know how the terrain is and prepare on the extra costs that might result for instance drainage construction.. It is also intended to guide the project management team through all the whole process of managing project risks which include steps as risk identifying, risk analyzing, risk responding and risk controlling. Risk is the major cause of uncertainty and hence the ability to manage them will help the team act more confidently on future decision making.
Having unrealistic expectations and deadlines. Chances of error increase with poorly set project deadlines that make use of poorly formed expectations. When deadlines are unrealistic, it leads to poor quality of performance, cost overruns, and loss of respect for the project especially from the public. For example, constructing ten kilometers of road within a week which is impossible and leads to poor quality of roads. Instead of having unrealistic expectations, the team should keep a buffer that gives them the liberty of completing the project without rushing it. Having a buffer will not only reduce the workload of the team members, but will also let them focus on each task in a better way thus better end product.
Lack of cohesion between the team members. This can lead to the failure of a project very easily. For example, a scenario where engineers are going on different directions with the constructors or architects they disagree on the tar to use the results will be negative leading to mistrust and disrespect towards the project. There could be many reasons for lack of cohesion from conflicting interests to personality differences for example, engineers and architects conflicting over the route which a road should follow. Its the role of the managers to unite the team members to achieve a common goal. Unity in the whole team can lead to the success of the whole project as they support and correct one another while performing their duties.
Poor monitoring and risk management. Just assigning roles to team members, leaving them without constantly monitoring the progress, and making them accountable will just lead to project failure. The team members should be accountable for their actions so that they perform their duties correctly. For instance, if constructors are supposed to construct one kilometer in a month, they should be accountable if they are unable to meet that deadline and that will lead them to perform better and deliver better results. Also, not emphasizing risk management can lead to the failure of achieving the set targets and sometimes go way beyond the specified deadlines or budgets. This can lead to mistrust by the public as the project is taking more time than it should.
Lack of a scope document. In the absence of a scope document, tasks can not be assigned and hence monitoring of the performance of the team is not possible. It will automatically reflect in the end the final product for instance; roads that are not to the required standards. Making a detailed scope that highlights all the stakeholder’s requirements is imperative for successful project delivery as it enables all the team members to understand what they have to do and sets a clear direction and objective for them to achieve. For example, in road construction, the materials and machines to be used have to be taken care of. Also, the team members have to know their specific tasks hence avoiding the failure of this project.
In conclusion, successful projects promote teams working on them and help them gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. But for them to be successful, they have to consider the aforementioned factors which include; have a smart plan, emphasize risk management, have a competent team for them to achieve their objectives. Despite the many factors that lead to the failure of a project, many infrastructure projects have been successful in Australia.