Exercise 3

Schwalbe P.112 - Chapter 3, Ex 5

Read an article about a recipient of PMI's Project of the Year award, such as the Salt Lake City Organizing committee mentioned on PMI's Web site. Write a one-page paper summarizing the project, focusing on how the project manager and team used good project management practices.


Link to source article:
"PMI® Case Study, Quartier International de Montréal: 2005 PMI Project of the Year" (PMI, 2006),
http://www.pmi.org/PDF/Case_Quartier%20International%20Montreal.pdf


The Quartier International de Montréal (QIM) was a massive urban revitalization project that comprehensively restructured a large portion of Montreal’s city center from the ground up.

The QIM team used standard project management techniques to coordinate the project’s many complex activities, plan for risks, and accommodate last-minute changes to the project plan by the City of Montreal. As a result, the QIM project was completed within budget and schedule, and won the PMI's Project of the Year award.

The project

Montreal city features a large business district and the Old Montreal town center, joined by an expressway that was not only unattractive, but impeded the potentially lucrative flow of pedestrian traffic. The QIM project's goal was to revitalize these two areas by covering the expressway to create 27 additional hectares land for business, cultural and pedestrian use - increasing traffic and revenue for both the quarter and the city. The team was to complete the project within a five-year time frame, US$90 million budget.

Outstanding project management practices

The QMI team succeed in applying many standard project management techniques:

• Integration management - identifying challenges and resolving methodology during project planning. Developed a detail plan allowing inevitable changes which are highly possible with a project of this scope and complexity. Each phase of the project had built in flexibility to accommodate unforeseen changes, which enabled the project to meet stakeholder needs at the time of request, mitigated the possibility for complaints.
• Quality management - created an outline of the QIM team's principles as initiatives, which provided a point of reference as well as a benchmarking tool throughout the cycle of the project. The team also included quality provisions in the contractors’ and employees’ mandates, and required that all professionals produce prototypes for original deliverables and conduct external testing for all stages of construction.
• Human resource management - established a professional development committee to encourage quality work and support employee morale.
• Communication management - Website, newsletters, mobile exhibit, informational DVD,daylong team meetings are developed to help communications between the team and all stakeholders.
• Risk management - an exploratory dig helped mitigate the risks associate with the project; provisions are included in the risk management budget in anticipation of potential problems.
• Procurement management - mediation and arbitration clauses are included in procurement contracts to create a framework for disputes, helped to avoid making compromises that would not benefit the project.

Outcome

With such good practices of project management, QIM attained a highly remarkable success that both public and private partners almost completely realized their ROI, and 100% satisfaction rate is gained from both users and the city government. The project lauded with international accolades received 17 awards in total.

Reference

PMI, Project Management Institute (2006). PMI® Case Study, Quartier International de Montréal: 2005 PMI Project of the Year. Retrieved August 25, 2007, fromhttp://www.pmi.org/PDF/Case_Quartier%20International%20Montreal.pdf