Project Management Leadership and Skills:

Planning and Control

Final Assignment

Case Study
House Renovation

By

Sousi Qasabian
Student ID: @00534660

26 August 2018

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 Abstract
Construction business appreciates the Project Management methods as a capable tool
for turning its organizational strategies into activities and making it essential to support
the Project. The case study discusses three major resources that have a positive effect on
our project, ‘House Renovation’, those recourses are; Project Schedule, Risk Assessment,
Leadership, and Motivation. This paper is divided into three parts and covers our case study
from a project management perspective and aims to meet the obligation for a successful
project. Part one of this paper discusses the Project schedule based on the critical path,
explains the uses of the method for having a realistic project. Part two of the essay
discusses the Risk Management logic, strategies, and opportunities. Part three
discusses the connection between the Leadership and motivating the employee, Kevin
in our case study.
Introduction

Project Management in the construction business is experiencing a revolution in

generating great new ideas. New techniques are coming into existence effecting project
management by saving time and cost. There are eight elements for a Project success;
planning, team motivation, risk management, critical success factor, business
circumstance, being realistic, avoiding scope creep and project closure time. Success
elements of a project differ from project to another; hence, it is vital for any business to
identify the factors that will have influent on the success of the project before beginning
the project. The aim of this study is to discuss the success or failure of the House
Renovation project from different perception within limited time and limited recourses.
Three different stages of a project to be discussed in this essay; Project Schedule, Risk
Assessment and Leadership and Motivation, given that this report provides an indication
of the nature of the project and explore the factors that would add value to the project
success.
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 Tables of Contents

1. Introduction 4
1.1 Aim and Objective of the study 4
2. Network Diagram 4
2.1 Definition of Critical Path 5
2.2 Network Diagram and Critical Path 5
2.3 Advantages in using critical path analysis 7
2.4 Discussion if the project is realistic 8

3. Risk Management 9

3.1 Definition of Risk Management and Risk Control 9

3.2 Risk Relevant and risk table with appropriate risk control 10
3.3 Risk Scope, impact and probability 10
3.3.1 Qualitative Analysis 11

3.4 Risk Opportunities and ways categories the strategies 12

3.5 Project Risk Management Strategies for Opportunities 13

4. Leadership and Motivation

4.1 Definition of Motivation 13
4.2 Definition of Leadership 14

4.3 Leadership Theories 14

4.4 Motivation Theories 15

4.5 Conclusion on ways to motivate Kevin 18

5 . References 19

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1. Introduction

According to Duncan Haughty, there are eight elements for a Project success; planning,
team motivation, risk management, critical success factor, business circumstance, being
realistic, avoiding scope creep and project closure time. Success elements of a project
differ from project to another; hence, it is vital for any business to identify the factors that
will have influent on the success of the project before beginning the project.

1.1 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this study is to discuss the success or failure of the House Renovation
project from different perception within limited time and limited Recourses.
Three different stages of a project to be discussed in this essay; Project Schedule, Risk

Assessment and Leadership and Motivation, given that this report provides an indication of the

nature of the project and explore the factors that would add value to the project success.

2. Network Diagram with Clearly Critical Path marked

2.1 Definition of Critical Path

The Critical Path is an important component for a Project schedule, by using network

diagram and specifying, tracking and knowing the activities assigned to the Project, it will

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give the manager a clear picture to determine the priorities of each task and to control the

deadlines required for each action.

During the float time, a delay of an action can exist without having a delay in tasks, float time

is the earliest and the latest start time of an activity and between the earliest and latest finish

time of an activity.

2.2 Network Diagram and Critical Path

The network diagram and the critical path of the project is significant as the duration
of the project is planned as well as the start and finish date of each activity is clearly
defined beside the budget of the project.

Before creating the network diagram for our case study, there is a need to determine the

dependency of each activity as well as defining the activities that have no Immediate

predecessors (activity A and B in our case). After defining the activities that have no immediate

predecessors, there is a need to define all the activities that have the first act as immediate

predecessor (C, D, G in our case study), afterword as a Project Manager, it’s a must to continue

with the same techniques with the rest of the activities (E, F, H, I, J, K, L in our case study). After

adding all the activities to the diagram, we need to specify the different critical path we have and

to calculate the days required to finish the project. By analysis of the different path in our

diagram network, our critical path will be the lower path which is path number 2 (highlighted in

orange) which requires 23 days to finish the house renovation.

The four paths in our network diagram below is 1. A,C,H,E,I,J =28,2. B,D,H,E,I,J=23,3.
B,D,H,F,I,J=24,4. B,D,K,G,I,J=26 and our critical path is path number 2 ( 23 days ).

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2.3 Advantages to the property developer in using critical path analysis to plan
the House Renovation.
Identifying Critical Path in planning the house renovation is important and is used and
accepted for planning and coordinating work, it classifies the necessary tasks and
activities that control the completion of the project as well as recognizing the activities
depends on the completion of the other tasks, also it classifies the critical and non-
critical tasks with the objectives of preventing time deadline of each activity.
There are many advantages of using critical path analysis in our renovation project, such as
having understanding in controlling and determining the start and end time of each activity,
monitoring tasks and predict completion date of each phase as well as anticipating problems
faced during the project to find a solution accordingly, it allows to determine the critical and non-
critical tasks as well as defining the activities that depend on other activities, finally Critical Path
analysis is important to support the planning schedule and monitoring the activities to finish the
project in a timely manner and within the limited budget.

2.4 How realistic is the idea of using only two workers to complete the project given the

deadline of six weeks?

After using the critical path method and reviewing activities as mentioned above, using two

workers is realistic for our project and the work can be done in less than 30 days which is the

time limit of the project (5 days*6 weeks =30 ) if there is no delay from any of the workers.

From the network diagram method above and specifying the critical path, two workers will start
their duties at the same time, working on different activities, act one and act two. Worker 1
requires 8 days to finish the first act and worker 2 required 4 days to finish second act, after
finishing from act two, the second worker will move to act C which requires 7 days, by then,
worker A will have done from act A and moves to activity D, which requires 6 working days,
during that time worker 2 will have been finished from act C and moves to act E one day before
worker 2, the total days for each worker till activity D will be 14 days, after that each worker
moves to another activities, supposedly worker 1 moves to act F and worker 2 moves to act G,
worker 1 will finish from act F and move to act H one day before worker 2, once worker 2 finish
from act G, he can move to the activity I were 5 days work is required, while worker 1 can move

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to activity J which requires only one day, after that, worker 1 can move to the last activity,
while worker 2 would have neen done from activity J four days before workers 1.

Below is a table explaining the movement of the employees between different

activities, taking into consideration that worker 1 and worker 2 are different and
individual workers, as each activity requires a specialized and qualified employees.

Activity Dependenc Duration Worker A Worker B

y ( time needed
to compete )
Substantial repairs to the --------- 8 days 8
roof (A)
Internal structural work --------- 4 days 4
(B)
Electrical work B 7 days 7
(C)
Plumbing B 6 days 6
(D)
Installing a new Kitchen H 3days 3
(E)
Installing a new bathroom H 4 days 4
(F)
Garden A.B 5 days 5
(G)
Plastering C.D 4 days 4
(H)
Internal decoration E.F 5 Day 5
(I)
Fitting carpets I 1 day 1
(J)
Outside Paintwork AB 5 days 5
(K)
Total Days 28 24

Worker A and Worker B working on 6 weeks project

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3. Risks Management

3.1 Definition of Risk Management and Risk Control

Risk Management is challenging, and significant aspects used to identify, analyze

and treat the risks of any project, yet, disregarding the risk of a project can cause
failure of the project in the future.

Risks may be readily obvious to the project manager, while others can take
more rigor to discover, but are still expected and predictable.

Risk Control is a type of risk management that involves implementing policies,

procedures, and mechanizations to reduce risk, risk control is used by Risk
management as one method of treating the identified risks.

3.2 Risks relevant to this project and risk table showing how to manage these

risks with appropriate risk controls.

In our case study, there are few risks related to the project that needs to be identified, monitored,

controlled and handled. Negligence of those risks can cause the failure for our project by not

meeting the deadline, recruiting unqualified employees, unsatisfactory of the stakeholder etc.

The risks that can affect our house renovation can be summarized into five risks;
plan risk, resource risk, schedule risk, maintenance risk, supply risk.

Below is a simple risk table identifying the risks management and the outcome of those risks

on the project as well as categorizing how risk control can be implemented to mitigate risk.

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Risks Outcome Proposed Risk Target Date
control and Action
to migrate Risk
Planning Risk Fail to meet the Manager to have 6 weeks
requirements of the project back up plan
and be rejected by the
stakeholder
Schedule Risk Project or task to take Identify the 6 weeks
longer than scheduled appropriate critical
path of the project
Recourse Risk Failure of secure sufficient Recruiting 6 weeks
resources such as workers, qualified and
budget specialized
workers to finish
work on time and
with the limited
budget
Maintenance Risk Equipment failure on a Regular 6 weeks
structure line Maintenance for
the equipment and
maintaining
backup
Supply Risk Lack of material during the To obtain goods
project for project and buy 6 weeks
them in bulk in
advance before
starting the project
Project Risks outcome and Risk
Control 3.3 Risk scope, impact and probability

Risk scope at a project level is considered construction method based on certain contributing
factors (Category types). Risk impact and probability are the main two mechanisms of the
Risk analysis. Recognizing impact against probability is standard to categorize and prioritize
risks, however, risks impact level on the project objective defers from one to another, some
risks may have a high impact on the project while others may have a moderate impact on the
project, as well as some risks can occur on occasional and other arise more frequently.

There are different methods used for analyzing risks management impact and
probability; Sensitivity analysis, Monte Carol Simulations, Expected Monetary
analysis and Qualitative analysis, which will be used in our case study.

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3.3.1 Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative methods for risk assessment is easy method and relatively quick in
practice and cost effective and performed without analyzing the project schedule. The
Qualitative analysis is not an exact and accurate estimate of risk; however, it provides
an expressive result and frequently with sufficient information for planning responses.

There is a need to define the risks with their property and impact, afterward to calculate
exposure of each risk by multiplying probability with impact (Risk Score= Impact x
Probability). The most challenging aspect of performing qualitative risk analysis is
defining the rating scales to manage the project risk effectively and in timely manner,
since risk categories may have higher weight than others, depend on the importance of
the risk in our project, for example, planning risk has high effect on the House
Renovation, while maintenance risk has lower impact and affect in our project.

Below is Qualitative Risk Analysis for our case study, approximating that the
probability of planning risk is the highest as well as its impact on the project and taking
into consideration that organization defines its risk edges, low, moderate and high.
These thresholds can differ between projects.

Risks Probability Impact Risk Score

Category ( P*I)
Planning Risk .9 .9 .81
Schedule Risk .7 .9 .63
Recourse Risk .5 .5 .25
Supply Risk .3 .9 .27
Maintenance .1 .5 .05
Risk

Impact level and values used in the risk scoring calculation

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Probabilities P*I
.9 .09 .27 .45 .63 .81
.7 .07 .21 .35 .49 .63
.5 .05 .15 .25 .35 .45
.3 .03 .09 .15 .21 .27
.1 .01 .03 .05 .07 .09
Impact .1 .3 .5 .7 .9

Probability and Impact Analysis

From the analysis above, first two probabilities highlighted in red (planning Risk and
Schedule risk) has the highest impact and highest risk score. Probability x highest
impact: this is a very common qualitative risk scoring calculation in which the highest
impact score for all of the impact is used to calculate the risk score.

3.4 Opportunities available and ways categories the strategies?

After identifying the risks of the project as mentioned above, it's critical to identify the
opportunities of a project, as its related to risks. Opportunities are indefinite, but a
promising event which can have a positive impact on the project objectives, saving cost
and other resources of the project, it’s the ability to identify and manage risks that
others cannot, as well as taking action, its recognized as positive risk response
strategy. Most of the project managers ignore the Project Risk Response Strategies for
Opportunities as they concentrate on the risks and threats which is not correct, there is
a need to give an equal importance for risks/threats and opportunities.

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3.5 Project Risk Management Strategies for Opportunities

There are four strategies that deal with opportunities; however, only three of them are
applicable to our project (Exploit, Accept and Enhance Strategy).

Exploit Strategy: it’s about exploring new technology, certainly to achieve a Project

Opportunities and by accepting this strategy, the Project Opportunities are understood.

Share Strategy: it’s about Project manager sharing cost, resources, and
knowledge with an external organization to benefit the Opportunity.

There is no need to implement share strategy in identifying opportunities in our project

since and there is no other company involved in our case study and we are dealing
only with two employees as the project is relatively small business.

Enhance Strategy: used to increase the Probability and reduce the uncertainty or the
Impact or both associated with a Positive Risk Event.

This strategy can be implemented in our project by training the staff to improve
their work quality which is very essential in the house renovation project.

Accept Strategy: is about doing nothing, for now, just to keep it in the risk register and
evaluate the risks and review it occasionally.

This strategy is useful for our project as by using it the project plan will not be changed
and no changes will affect the Probability or Impact of the Positive Risk Event.

Below is the Strategies for identifying opportunities categories;

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Risks Outcome Opportunity

Planning Risk Fail to meet the requirement Use a new knowledge and skills to
of the project and be rejected reduce the cost
by the stakeholder (Exploit strategy)
Schedule Risk Project or task to take longer Workers to have the skills for the work to

than scheduled achieve their goals (Exploit Strategy)

Recourse Risk Failure of secure sufficient Training people to improve the quality of
resources such as workers, their work (Enhance Strategy)
budget
Maintenance Risk Equipment failure on a Accept, not to take action for now, instead
structure line to have scenario planning ready
Supply Risk Lack of material during the Accept/ to have a scenario planning
project

4. Leadership and Motivation

4.1 Definition of Motivation

The motivation of employees is an important key in our project and has a big influent
in achieving the project goals. Communication with the employees has an unlimited
consequence on the employee and plays a dynamic role in their motivation.

Early recognition of the threatening symbols of our employee Kevin, and addressing them

rapidly, will contribute in encouraging him to increase his performance, according to Micheal

Page, there are 7 common causes that demotivate an employee such as type of contract, short-

term objectives with no career vision, feeling underestimated, no development opportunities,

poor leadership, conflict and unrealistic workload and lack of flexibility at the workplace.

4.2 Definition of Leadership

Leadership is an action to lead, inspire and motivate a group to perform and involve in
achieving the goals of the project. Leaders usually step in time of crises and act
creatively in the difficult situations.

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As a good leader, there is a need to interfere in Kevin's case and to push him to be
motivated with positivity attitude with his team.

4.3 Leadership Theories

Leadership reveals different leadership theories such as;

1.Great Man theory, leaders are born in talent.

2.Trait theory; leads to identifying the important appearances of a successful

leader, mostly implemented in the military.

3.Style and Behavior theory; manager believes that the working atmosphere should
be like an entertaining place, the idea of a manager is not only learning to accept but
also to seek responsibility.

4. Situational leadership theory, this theory confirms that there are many ways for the
manager to lead the team to get best result and outcome, by maintaining a good
relationship with the team members and create confidence for them and giving them
space to think about their task and how to finish it.

5. Transactional and Transformational Leadership; Transactional style of leadership

figures an employee to complete a certain task whereas transformational styles build a
member to become a leader.

Being effective Leader has a lot of advantages for our project such as maximize and exploit

the efficiency of the business to reach to the project goals, handling problems and building the

morale of the staff such as Kevin’s case, as well as providing Guidance to the team, etc.

4.4 Motivation Theories

The case study of Kevin presented identifies a demotivated staff, his demotivated level
could be exaggerated by different needs. Motivation is a necessary aspect and there is
a need to work on motivation of the employee to achieve a successful project.
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There are a few different theories and basic categories of needs that are generally
accepted to motivate employee and to be implemented in practice, such as;

1.Hertzberg’s Two-Factor Theory: the two-factor theory, also known as Herzberg's motivation-

hygiene theory and dual-factor theory, states that there are certain factors in the workplace that

can cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of factors can cause dissatisfaction.

As project managerial/ Leadership, we need to consider the factors that can motivate
Kevin to assist him in minimizing the dissatisfaction and help him to stay motivated at
his work, as well as knowing the cause of his demotivation.

2.Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: according to the psychologist, Abraham Maslow, Humans are
motivated to satisfy five basic needs, those needs are arranged in a grading level. Maslow
method suggests seeking first to satisfy the lowest level of needs, and once it's done, there is a
need to seek to provide each higher level of the essential until we reach the highest level of
needs. This theory is a simple motivation tool for managers to understand and apply, however,
it has some limitation such as lack of sensible sign for practical for some conclusion.

There is a need to use a problem-solving technique (problem identification, definition,

analysis, developing solution, recommendation) equally implementing explanations
between us as project manager and Kevin.

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3.Vrooms expectancy: this theory separates effort (which arises from motivation), performance, and

outcomes. Vroom's theory is entirely consistent with management by objectives.

Motivating Kevin is essential and can be done by notifying him that the more energy he
puts into work, it will increase his performance and likely be awarded.

4.Fifty Theory: this theory was developed by John Adair, his perception is that fifty
percent of motivation comes within the person while the other fifty comes from mainly
the people around us.

There is a need to make sure that Kevin has done his half part in motivating himself, and the

other half part depends on the team around him, however, if his work attitude continued

negative, action in terminating his contract and finding alternative staff will be needed.

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4.5 Conclusion on ways to Motivate Kevin

Effective Communication is a very important key in Kevin’s case to understand his needs,
and to set a clear objectives that help him to schedule his priorities and work towards his
deadlines as well as having a good relationship with the team and be accept the teamwork
and be able to works with them, there is a strong need to understand the cause of Kevin’s
demotivation which can be due to his short-term contract, salary, abuse by the team etc.
Idealistically, the best theory to be implemented on Kevin is Vroom’s expectancy theory as
it focuses on influencing his motivation towards duties to increase his performance within
the team which is likely to be awarded.

From the above, it is obvious that as a project manager, there is a need to practice all
the project management leadership, skills and motivation theories in general as well
and critically evaluating the use of project management techniques learned in leading,
planning, controlling and process management to ensuring a successful project.

With the right team, well-motivated and with available resources, barring any
associated risks and impact to the project implementation; the mitigative
measures/strategies put in place, will ensure the house is renovated within the
deadline of six (06) weeks and within the limited budget.

This study has also exposed that understanding project management based on
project schedule and identifying the critical path, recognizing risk management and
opportunist related to those risk as well as the motivation of employee, can offer new
visions and value-added influence towards project management literature.

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References

Maylor (2010). Project Management, fourth edition. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall.

Duncan Haughey (2009). Eight Key Factors to Ensuring Project Success, retrieved 15 August

2018, http://www.projectsmart.com/articles/eight-key-factors-to-ensuring-project-success.php

Kathy Adams McIntosh (2017) Why Is a Critical Path So Important to the Project Schedule?

2017, https://bizfluent.com/info-8446440-critical-path-important-project-schedule.html, retrieved

15 August 2018.

John Spacey, 2017. Risk Management vs Risk Control, https://simplicable.com/new/risk-

management-vs-risk-controlohn, retrieved 16 August 2018

Tamara Bekifi, Marc J. Epstein and Kristi Yuthas, Managing Opportunities and Risks

http://www.cimaglobal.com/Documents/ImportedDocuments/cid_mag_managing_opportunities_

and_risk_march08.pdf.pdf, retrieved 18 August 2018

Darren Gilbert 2018, Exploring trends and developments in project management today

https://www.dotactiv.com/blog/developing-a-winning-category-strategy, viewed 20 August 2018

Michael Martinez, Project Management Skills, https://www.project-

management-skills.com/about.html, viewed 10 August 2018.

Praveen Malik, Change your Project Risk Management Strategy , viewed 12

August 2018 https://www.pmbypm.com/what-is-your-risk-management-strategy/

Michael Page 2018, seven reasons for employee demotivation, viewed 14 August
2018 https://www.michaelpage.co.uk/advice/management-advice/development-and-
retention/seven-reasons-employee-demotivation

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