BUSI 680 Week 1 Group DB Forum 1 Thread Example

Group Discussion Board Forum 1: Thread

BUSI 680 Advanced Project Management I, Group Discussion Board Forum 1: Thread

Thread by [Student Name]

The forum prompt and the water utility are composites standing in for the course's own; the textbook, Scripture and research cited are real, and the requirements follow Liberty's public course guide for BUSI 680.

Thread

Three years ago, the composite regional water utility where I manage capital projects replaced 18 miles of aging water mains in older neighborhoods. The program finished two weeks early and 3 percent under budget, and the board celebrated it. Six months later, complaints about low water pressure in two of those neighborhoods were higher than before, because the design had not accounted for new housing that was approved during construction. By the measures we used, the project succeeded. By the measure residents cared about, it did not.

Larson and Gray (2018) describe a project as a unique, temporary effort bounded by time, money, resources and performance specifications, and they close the definition by tying it to meeting customer needs. That closing clause matters. The triple constraint of time, cost and scope describes how efficiently a project was delivered, but customers judge projects by whether their needs were met. Shenhar et al. (2001) proposed that project success is multidimensional, with dimensions that unfold over different time frames: first how efficiently the project ran, then what it did for its customers, later what it did for the business and finally how it prepared the organization for what comes next. Our pipe program scored well on the first and poorly on the second.

That does not make efficiency unimportant. Serrador and Turner (2015) surveyed 1,386 projects to test how efficiency, meeting time, scope and budget goals, related to overall project success. They found a correlation of about 0.6, meaning efficiency explained roughly a third of the variation in overall success. Efficiency was neither the only part of success nor a part that could be ignored. A project that finishes on time can still fail its customers, but a project that runs badly late rarely satisfies them.

Large projects show what happens when efficiency is neglected. Flyvbjerg (2014) reviewed research on megaprojects and documented what he calls an iron law: they run over budget and over schedule again and again, often because optimistic estimates help projects win approval. For a public utility spending ratepayers' money, overruns are not just management failures; they are breaches of trust. Our own record includes a treatment plant upgrade that finished 14 months late and 30 percent over its original estimate, and the board still cites it whenever capital budgets come up for a vote.

Scripture holds both dimensions together. In Luke's account, Jesus warns that a builder who lays a foundation for a tower without first estimating the expense may run out of money halfway and be mocked by everyone who sees the unfinished work (English Standard Version Bible, 2001/2016, Luke 14:28-30). Counting the cost is the discipline of efficiency, and it is a form of stewardship. Yet the purpose of the tower is to serve its builder, just as the purpose of a water main is to serve residents. Faithful project management attends to both: honest estimates and real benefit.

For our next program, I would propose defining success in three parts agreed with stakeholders before design begins: delivery within an approved range of time and cost, pressure and reliability targets measured one year after completion and a measure of disruption to residents during construction. That definition would have caught the design gap in our pipe program before the first trench was dug. I look forward to seeing how others in our group define success in their organizations and whether they measure benefits after a project closes.

References

English Standard Version Bible. (2016). Crossway. (Original work published 2001)

Flyvbjerg, B. (2014). What you should know about megaprojects and why: An overview. Project Management Journal, 45(2), 6-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21409

Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2018). Project management: The managerial process (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Serrador, P., & Turner, R. (2015). The relationship between project success and project efficiency. Project Management Journal, 46(1), 30-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21468

Shenhar, A. J., Dvir, D., Levy, O., & Maltz, A. C. (2001). Project success: A multidimensional strategic concept. Long Range Planning, 34(6), 699-725. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0024-6301(01)00097-8