Approach of Project Leadership

The new Royal Adelaide hospital offers is an advanced hospital that provides a complete clinical care. The new Royal Adelaide Hospital project is the seventh most expensive building in the world. However, the project could not be delivered on time and was 18 months behind the schedule. The project could not be completed within the set budget. The project had blown out of the planned approach mainly because of improper project management and issues with the collaboration among the project team members (New Royal Adelaide Hospital report, 2015). The construction of new Royal Adelaide Hospital although began on February 2011, and was set to be finished in April 2016, the project could not be finalized on time leading to the project missing two sets of completion deadlines. Thus, delays in the project resulted in increase in project cost leading to the building been of the costliest in the world. The report will be evaluating the project leadership, risks, project performance, commissioning steps and operational issues associated with a project.

The new Royal Adelaide hospital (nRAH) faced certain issues with the project leadership. Leadership is an important aspect of successful completion of any project. The nRAH project however, had certain issues associated with leadership. The operations Board of new Royal Adelaide Hospital lead the nRAH project. The transition to the operational commissioning was considered to be a significant issue associated with the leadership style followed for the project implementation. Choice of an appropriate leadership style is needed in order to mandate successful completion of the project (Müller, Pemsel & Shao, 2014). The new Royal Adelaide Project was complex and a number of leadership styles was followed while implementation of this project.

The choice of an appropriate leadership style helped in accurate quality integration in project management function. The quality was integrated in the nRAH project with the help of a proper quality management system. The quality control measures were taken for delivering a product of accurate quality (Krohwinkel, 2015). The quality control measures although could not work as effectively as expected, resulting in project delays, a high quality hospital facility could be developed in the end.

The nRAH project was complex and therefore faced a number of risks in its implementation stages. One of the most significant risks that the project faced was unforeseen delays.  The project was associated with a risk that is associated with cost, complexity, resource allocated and the scale of the project (Larsen et al., 2015). The project was 18 months late that resulted in extension of the contractual completion date by 76 days, which is one of the major risks assessed in the project.

For management of risks, the project committee of nRAH project team developed a strategic risk register. The risk register helped in better identification and classification of the risks associated with the nRAH project. The presence of an updated risk register helped the project team in mitigation of the most critical risk. The presence of a risk register helped in better communication of the risk nature and their mitigation approach to the project team.

Project Risk and Risk Mitigation Strategy

The project management team of nRAH project was able to manage the supply chain of nRAH project. The project was implemented by making use of a PPP contract. The project management team lead by SA government implemented the project by establishing connection through the local health network (Demirel et al., 2017). This helped in providing a state-wide service while the new RAH project was being implemented. The supply chain management software includes the distribution centre for the SA health requisitioning the purpose and the associated functions for logistics and health and support services.

However, the project aced a number of difficulties in integration of the control process and quality management in supply chain network of the nRAH hospital. The difficulties in integration of control process and supply chain management were mainly faced as a result of project budget overrun.

The leadership process followed in the project could successfully integrate quality in the project delivery process. The nRAH project leadership integrated quality in the project process by focussing on a state wide and evidence based model. The leadership model ensures appropriate quality check and quality control in management and delivery of the project. The SA Health Partnership Pty Ltd took a number of initiatives for integration of quality in the system.

The tools that might have been used for effective project management includes accurate scheduling tools along with the contract management framework and contract management plans (Cruz & Marques, 2013). These project management tools are associated with certain complex functions. These tools helped the project team in management of the deliverables of the project along with quality control and quality management (Domingues,  Zlatkovic & Roumboutsos, 2014). The management of these contractual requirements helped in fulfilling and managing the requirement of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital project.

Opportunities for improving the best practise of the project were there. The contract management practise was one of the best practises in contract management practise. As identified earlier, there were a number of risks associated with the project that could not be addressed (Heagney, 2016). Thus, it can be said that the risk management practises of the project could have been improved along with the improvement in project leadership style.

Infrastructure Support System 

The infrastructure support system associated with the project was supported by the State Government as the State Government provided additional electrical supply of the nRAH. For development of the electrical infrastructure, a total budget of $3.4 million was allocated by State Government.

Measuring the performance of nRAH project is essential as, performance measurement is a critical factor that helps in optimizing the performance of a project. For this, appropriate definition of project performance is essential. The nRAH project defined performance by appropriate status reporting and measuring the project progress. Appropriate project monitoring was essential for management of the project performance risk.

There were certain risks associated with the project performance. The uncontrollable delays hampered the normal performance of the project. The project was complex in terms of time, scale and cost. Therefore, monitoring and control of project performance risk was essential. The nRAH project monitored and controlled the project performance risk by ensuring regular quality checking and quality control (Guo et al., 2014). The progress update was regularly communicated to the team members in order to manage the major risks associated with the performance of the project.

Management of Supply Chain

In order to manage the supply chain associated with the implementation of nRAH project, the project team established connection with the local health network in order to continue providing state wide services. In order to appropriately monitor and manage the performance of supply chain, the project team with the help of SA government selected appropriate tools such as appropriate contract management framework. Apart from that, the project team of nRAH project assigned monitoring responsibilities to chosen members of the team in order to manage the performance of the supply chain of the project.

There is a strong relationship between the approaches to the procurements and actual performance of the infrastructure project. PPP project procurement was followed for implementation of this project that largely hampered the infrastructure project’s actual performance (Chhokar,  Brodbeck & House, 2013). Since the project was large and complex, the choice of PPP contractual agreement between the State and SA Heath Partnership Pty Ltd was appropriate. Although the project was delayed by 18 months, the PPP contractual agreement and Sate funding helped in successful implementation of the project.

Although there were issues in the collaboration of the project team, the new Royal Adelaide Hospital project had an integrated project team for project implementation. The integrated project team of SA government and SA Health Pty Ltd helped in monitoring and managing the performance of the nRAH project.

There is a strong link between team building and team performance. Accurate team building helps in understanding the potential of the team members, which in turn helps in allocating appropriate task to the members of project team. This helps in enhancing the effectiveness of the project team in delivering the project. Increase in effectiveness of the project team in turn helps in improving the team performance and therefore, appropriate team building improves the performance of the project (Nicholas & Steyn, 2017). The issues in team building in nRAH project largely hampered the performance of the project and increased the issues and complexities of the project.

There were issues in the management of nRAH project that increased the complexity of the project. The nRAH project had a number of opportunities for improving the approach of project implementation. The project needed improvement in cost and schedule estimate that resulted in project being delayed for 18 months.

The improvements that can be suggested for the project include effective project planning and scheduling by making use of project scheduling tools. The project had complexities mainly because of its size. Subdivision of the project and accordingly, the sub division of the project team could have helped in better project monitoring and control. Apart from that, the project needed appropriate control which was lacking in the implementation approach followed by the new Royal Adelaide Hospital project team.

The nRAH project followed State operational Commissioning activities. The commissioning activities were achieved after the commercial acceptance of the project. On achievement of the commissioning activities, the state became liable to pay quarterly service payments to Project Co. The project commissioning was done by State who was responsible for authorizing the project implementation.

1. Understanding the project requirements
2. Achieving the commercial acceptance by nRAH
3. Checking the clinical requirements
4. Completion of the Commissioning.

Integration of Quality

Contract Handover and Sign Off: The project leadership team played a significant role in management of contract handover and project sign off (Burke & Barron, 2014). The project leader monitored project handover and ensured appropriate project evaluation prior to the client sign off.

Infrastructure Maintenance Issues:  The new Royal Adelaide Hospital faced a number of maintenance issues. In management of the issues associated with the project, the project leadership played a significant role by promptly reporting the issues to the top management.

Strategic Planning of Maintenance: The efficient leadership of nRAH project helped in strategic planning for maintenance of the project by ensuring development of an appropriate project plan which was followed in project implementation.

For maintenance management, the project made use of significant tools and techniques. This involves development of a risk map and mitigation of risk according to the severity of risk identified. Appropriate Risk management is considered to be an effective technique for maintenance management.

The methods or techniques that were used for management of the critical infrastructure asset are as follows-

1. Continuous Monitoring of the asset
2. Value analysis of the assets  
3. Risk management of the infrastructure Asset
4. Mitigation of the risks

The safety and security issues associated with the nRAH project are needed to be evaluated. There are certain operational issues related to the project which include failure of delivering the project on time and incompetency of delivery of the project within the set budget. The nRAH project team did not have any strategy for identifying the safety and the security threats associated with a project.

The project identified the security threats by implementing proper risk management process while the project was in the implementation stage. Since it was a construction project, there was a number of security issues associated with the project. As a response to the issue, the nRAH project team managed a separate risk management team for identification and categorization of the risks associated with the project.  I think that there was an issue with the project leadership that resulted in increase in the issues associated with the safety and security management (Bolden, 2016). The techniques that were used in safety and security management in nRAH project include development of safety manuals and monitoring of the safety of the workers in the construction site.

Conclusion 

The report discusses the project associated with the construction of new Royal Adelaide Hospital. The case study analysis had been a great help for analysing the role and responsibilities of a project manager which will in turn help in development of professional career. Analysing the major risk in the project and finding their mitigation approach was an essential consideration of the report. The report discusses the leadership styles, risks, project performance and project sign off details of the new Royal Adelaide Hospital. The report further identifies the major risks associated with the new Royal Adelaide Project and the steps taken by the project team in the management of this project. Thus it can be concluded that the new Royal Adelaide Hospital project is important as it is related to sustainable development in healthcare network and system in SA region.

References 

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Cruz, C. O., & Marques, R. C. (2013). Flexible contracts to cope with uncertainty in public–private partnerships. International Journal of Project Management, 31(3), 473-483.

Demirel, H. Ç., Leendertse, W., Volker, L., & Hertogh, M. (2017). Flexibility in PPP contracts–Dealing with potential change in the pre-contract phase of a construction project. Construction Management and Economics, 35(4), 196-206.

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Guo, F., Chang-Richards, Y., Wilkinson, S., & Li, T. C. (2014). Effects of project governance structures on the management of risks in major infrastructure projects: A comparative analysis. International Journal of Project Management, 32(5), 815-826.

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Krohwinkel, A. (2015). A configurational approach to project delays: Evidence from a sequential mixed methods study. Journal of Mixed Methods Research, 9(4), 335-361.

Larsen, J. K., Shen, G. Q., Lindhard, S. M., & Brunoe, T. D. (2015). Factors affecting schedule delay, cost overrun, and quality level in public construction projects. Journal of Management in Engineering, 32(1), 04015032.

Müller, R., Pemsel, S., & Shao, J. (2014). Organizational enablers for governance and governmentality of projects: A literature review. International Journal of Project Management, 32(8), 1309-1320.

New Royal Adelaide Hospital report: November 2015. [pdf] Available at: https://www.audit.sa.gov.au/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=lKSniN7sYQk%3D&tabid=283&portalid=0&mid=959&forcedownload=true [Accessed 25 Nov. 2018].

Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and technology. Routledge.