Balfour Beatty plc

Balfour Beatty plc, a construction business headquartered in the United Kingdom but with offices in Asia, Ireland, the United States, and Canada, plans to undertake a construction project to assist concrete industries in operating efficiently. The construction sector appears to be characterised by a variety of issues, the most of which stem from the fact that various construction materials have to be sourced from different companies. This makes it hard for constructors as they have to undergo long processes to organize for mixers and other construction materials and ensure they reach construction stations. On that note, Balfour Beatty plc intends to develop and launch an application which will connect mixing stations, mixers as well as producers of construction materials (Balfour Beatty website 7). This app will make construction operations to be easily executed.

Business Objectives and Success Criteria

The main aims of the project include:

To increase the revenue of the company from $8,530 million as in 2016 to $10,000 million by the end of 2017.

To reduce the operating income from $67 million as in 2016 to about $ 50 million by the end of 2017.

To increase the net income from $24 million as in 2016 to about $30 million by the end of 2017.

The success of the project will be measured by calculating and finding out the percentage increase in revenue and net income and the percentage decrease in operating income (Richardson 67). On the same note, when a significant percentage increase is achieved in revenue and net income, the business will have attained its objectives (Cooper 34). The factors that have the greatest impact on achieving this success include good relationship between contractors, mixer companies and producers of construction materials and the level of technology used by these parties.

Stakeholders

For the construction project, the main stakeholders include the construction stations, the producers of construction materials and mixers companies.

Stakeholder Major Benefits Attitudes Win Conditions Constraints

Project Sponsor: Ministry of Planning, Development & Reform The returns from the project will be high since transactions on construction operations will be conducted (Shtub et al., 6). effectively. The sponsor will be impressed by the project because the project will fill the gap which was there in the market. Elimination of challenges faced by construction stations when it comes to accessing different construction. materials Problems in marketing the product and making it known to the target market.

Project Manager: The chief contractor Balfour Beatty plc Increase demand in construction services and contraction materials. Positive attitude since customer satisfaction will easily be achieved. Attraction of big market share by the organization due to high demand of construction materials and construction services. Problems in convincing the target customer base to use the app.

User Class #1: Building contractors Ease in accessing building materials. Satisfaction due to ease access of building materials. Ease in conducting construction transactions. Problems in using computerized gadgets such as smart phones and therefore the app due to age factor.

User Class #n:

Road contractors Ease in sourcing and being delivered with construction materials Will be impressed by the provision of a platform where transactions on construction operations will be easily conducted. Ease in conducting construction transactions. Problems in using computerized gadgets such as smart phones and therefore the app due to age factor.

User Class 3: bridge contractors Ease in conduction all transaction which involves construction. Become loyal to the company since their expectations will be met, Ease in conducting construction transactions. Problems in using computerized gadgets such as smart phones and therefore the app due to age factor.

Vision

Balfour Beatty plc is a construction company which intends to develop and launch a construction application which will help construction stations, mixers, producers of construction materials connect easily and conduct business transactions (Halstead 23). The app will help mitigate the problems which have been in the construction industry regarding difficulty in sourcing construction materials from various destinations. With this app, it will be easy to place order for various construction materials at the same time.

Project Scope

Scope of the initial product release Planned growth strategies for subsequent releases Exclusions Limitations

Easy construction transactions.

Good relations between construction stations, mixer companies and producers of construction materials.

Convince clients who are mixer companies, companies producing construction materials, construction stations into using the app.

Uniform growth of the entire construction industry.

Attract a large market share in the construction industry.

Making the platform minimize input cost in the construction industry. There are no options to analyze the products online are not available.

To use the App internet will be required.

Smart phones, laptops and other internet enables gadgets are required to use the app.

The app can only be used in the construction industry.

Assumptions and Dependencies

AS-1: The assumption that was made when the project was being conceived is that all people in the construction industry use smart phones (Turner 77).

DE-1: Notably, the project must rely on smart phones and the internet for it to be successful.

DE-2: All parties in the construction industry should download the app.

Apparently, the project resembles the Uber model project

Constraints

Dimension Constraint

(state limits) Driver

(state objective) Degree of Freedom

(state allowable range)

Features An application which connects construction stations, mixer companies and companies producing construction materials (Kerzner 68). To ensure efficiency in the construction industry. 70-80% of high priority features must be included in release 1.0.

Quality High quality App. Extensive options and easy to use. 90-95% of user acceptance tests must pass for release 1.0, 95-98% for release 1.1.

Cost The input cost is about $50 million. Low input which should translate to high input. Budget overrun up to 15% acceptable without executive review.

Schedule The project to be launched and implemented for three months Release 1.0 to be available by 10/1, release 1.1 by 12/1 95% and above when it comes to adherence to time and time management.

Staff maximum team size is 6 developers + 4 testers Competent IT team to develop and launch the app. 100 % competent team.

Milestones

Event or Deliverable Responsible Individual Target Date

Project charter approved The CEO of Balfour Beatty plc 1st November 2017.

Project plan completed The IT team

10th November 2017.

Project plan approved Project and organizational analysts.

14th November 2017.

Project team assembled The project manager.

15th November 2017.

Project execution initiated The project manager and the It manager in the project.

Project execution completed The projects team. 15th February 2018.

Customer acceptance The organizational marketing team

Project closed out The project manager. 28th February 2018

Business Risks

Risk Probability Impact Mitigation

Competition from companies which supply construction materials to their clients (Larson, and Clifford 98). 80 percent Affect positioning of the product. Extensive marketing.

Problems in convincing clients to use the App in the market 70 percent Affect the returns Conduct objective marketing.

Implementation issues 30 percent Increase the input cost Ensure a competent marketing team.

Resources

Resource Description and Source

Monetary resources Used to source all organizational assets.

Human resources Used to execute all projects operations.

Computers Used to control and support the application

Company’s website Used to monitor the proceedings of the application (Meredith, and Samuel 102)

Training cost The training is used to offer training program to the project team prior to the commencement of the project to ensure competency.

Approvals

Approval Decision:

( Approved, development of detailed project plan is authorized

( Approved, project execution is authorized

( Approved, but project is on hold until future notice

( Revise charter and resubmit for approval

( Charter and project proposal are rejected

Role or Title Name and Signature Date

Project sponsor: should sign to shows that she will finance the project as agreed in the pact.

Stephanie Ncube 1st November 2017.

Project manager: Should sign to indicate that he will oversee the entire project

Gemini Dunn 3rd November 2017.

Project supervisor: should sign to show that he will assist in managing the project.

Malik Dwayne 10th November 2017.

Project analysts: should sign to affirm that she will monitor the project throughout its execution (Pinto 54)

Pauline Latifa 10th November 2017.

Quality assurance officer: should sign to show that she will examine the project to ensure that it is of high quality and is conducted according to the set standards.

Dorin Brown 10th November 2017.

Revision History

Name Date Reason For Changes Version

Stephanie Ncube 5th November 2017. To ensure that the entire project operations are in line. 1.0

Gemini Dunn 15th November 2017. To ensure cooperation among all the officials of the project 2.0

Works Cited

Balfour Beatty website: Burj Mall Dubai“. Balfourbeatty.com. 10 May 2010. Archived from the original on 16 April 2008. Retrieved 17 April 2011.

Cooper, Dale F. Project risk management guidelines: Managing risk in large projects and complex procurements. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2005.

Halstead, Richard . ”Shake-up will see BICC change to Balfour Beatty“. The Independent. London. 2012

Kerzner, Harold. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.

Larson, Erik W., and Clifford Gray. Project Management: The Managerial Process with MS Project. McGraw-Hill, 2013.

Meredith, Jack R., and Samuel J. Mantel Jr. Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons, 2011.

Pinto, Jeffrey K. Project management: achieving competitive advantage. Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2007.

Richardson, Sarah (9 August 2006). ”Balfour Beatty issues notice to Birse shareholders“. Building.co.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2011.

Shtub, Avraham, Jonathan F. Bard, and Shlomo Globerson. Project management: Engineering, technology, and implementation. Prentice-Hall, Inc., 2004.

Turner, J. Rodney. Handbook of project-based management. McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing, 2008.