University of Exeters Business School Construction Project

Turner & Townsend was mandated to oversee the construction of University of Exeters Business School. The construction project was estimated to cost the university about 13 million. The period of construction was 21/2 years. Turner and Townsend were a part of the bigger construction team, and their main duty was to manage the project in terms of allocated timelines and finances. In the management of this project, Turner and Townsend aimed at developing a structure that will meet the expectation of the universitys administration as well as the students. Therefore, it was upon the project managers to research on the best methods towards this end as well executing the ideas that were forwarded by different stakeholders in the project. Exeter University is a globally recognized institution of high learning, and all its facilities and systems are compliant with international standards. In line with this provision, Turner and Townsend worked hard to ensure that this project too, was streamlined with the institutions global rankings. Therefore, the business had to provide world-class educational and social facilities for students and the universitys teaching fraternity. The core competences of the project management team were collaboration, consultation and teamwork.

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One of the resources at the disposal of the project management team was man-power. The delivery team was composed of Turner and Townsend management staff alongside a host of other interested parties like the university administration, architects, quantity surveyors, and civil and structural engineers. The preliminary stage in the construction was drawing of a project execution plan that was subdivided into smaller plans for easy implementation and follow-up the budget allocated for the project was 14 million. The main challenge was communication breakdown that was mitigated by dispute resolution mechanism. Other challenges included budgetary deficit, delayed timelines, and design modification. Nevertheless, Turner and Townsend succeeded in the delivery of assignment within the articulated terms in the contract agreement.

Among the project management principles and concepts that are applicable in this case study include time, communication, cooperation, coordination, conflict resolution, conflicting interests, project sponsorship, and challenges. In project management, time is of paramount importance. In fact, the central aim of managing a project is to ensure that it is completed in the allocated time. There are various tools that are used in the time management of a project, but the most common one is the Gantt chart. A Gantt chart details all the activities to be undertaken n the course of the project against their anticipated time of execution. The chart serves as a guide in the construction process, and informs the project managers of the progress made so far and the time covered. The time covered for the construction of the University of Exeters business school was exactly here years. It is indicated in the case study the construction of the structure took half a year more than the allocated time. This delay was probably unforeseen in the creation of the project execution plan, and it was likely caused by the need to modify the building at an advanced stage f construction. Frequent disagreement and conflict of interest among the stakeholders could also lead to the delay observed.

Project sponsorship entails the conception of a project idea, the funding of the project and the overall oversight of the project from start to the end. A project sponsor is a person, an institution, or a group of individuals who perform the roles described above. A project sponsor works in close collaboration with other project stakeholders. These stakeholders are the people who will gain or lose from the project. the stakeholders include project sponsors plus other parties that are involved in both technical and non-technical activities in a project. In the construction of the University of Exeters Business School, the project sponsor was the Universitys Management Board. Other stakeholders in the project were HLM architects, Turner and Townsend project managers, BAM as the contractors, Hoare Lee as the consulting Engineers, and Opus International as the civil Engineers.

Other project management concepts depicted in the case study was coordination. Coordination in project management is only successful if clear routes of communication are established. Communication in such a setup includes consultation, advising, correcting, and even rebuke. Rebuking, however, should not be born put of malice and ill-feelings, but rather on constructive and corrective dialogue. The project stakeholders also applied proactive dialogue. This kind of dialogue offers a chance to predict an oncoming disaster or delay and allows the stakeholders to mitigate it before it happens, or to sufficiently prepare for it. In case of a hitch I te communication and coordination, a conflict more often than not ensues. A conflict brings disagreement which might elevate to chaos. Therefore, proper dialogue and conflict management strategies like compromising offers a level ground and promotes continuity of the project. In the construction of this magnificent building, there were challenges that the delivery team encountered along its way. The team overcame these challenges through dialogue, resilience and enacted commitment to its goals.