70 days, 8000 miles and passing by 95% of the UK's population. How do you start to plan what is essentially a small part of a huge world spectacle? This article will hopefully help give you an insight into the project management world, looking at what your main concerns should be, how to plan and what to expect.
The event that was the Olympic torch relay brought an entire nation out onto their front door steps to take part. The event took 70 days and involved a distance of 8000 miles and was within an hour of 95% of people in the UK. Numerous social media posts involved people posing with the famous torch.
This torch will have been one of many and a small example of project management and contingency planning. Whilst the flame may be taken from Mount Olympia, the relay involves using multiple torches, with back up torches on standby for when one inevitably goes out. The relay was a enormously high profile event, having to adhere to a strict time schedule. It could not afford to have any slip ups.
For a project to be a success, the project manager must have a clear idea of what project management style they should use. Whether it be PRINCE2, agile, scrum, waterfall or spiral. This will dictate how they lay out the project. For example with PRINCE2 a clear description of the problem, requirements, project steps, resources. The manager must have a focus on justification, a defined organisational structure for the project team, a planning approach based on the product and an emphasis on dividing the project into manageable stages that are easy to control.
As well as this, they need to be able to accommodate for issues that are out of their control. What if there had been another issue with volcanic ash grounding flights? How would they get the torch over to the UK in time for the relay?
Another issue is can you really on aspects that are external to the project? For the Olympic Games, the Olympic committee put their faith in G4S to provide security for the games. G4S were unable to provide the man power that they promised in the contract. Inducing a scramble to ensure enough security was present at the games. The gap was plugged but at an additional cost.
Project Management of The Olympic Games may be a huge step from anything you the reader may be involved in. But it is still important to appreciate that as project manager; you must try and cover all your bases. Ensuring that firstly you have carried out sufficient planning, so you are left with less chance of being surprised. Secondly you must identify risks and look at how to mitigate them. Finally be prepared for things to go wrong! Not everything will go to plan and it will be your original preparation and set up that will help determine the success of the project.
10 Reasons why projects stall and/or fail
1. Absence of support and commitment from senior management
2. Leadership lacks competence and knowledge
3. Planning is unrealistic or inadequate
4. Training and communication is not consistent across the project team
5. When implementing a new system, complex business processes are not tidied up
6. requirements are not clearly defined and are susceptible to change
7. Requirements management and alignment of the project to the business needs is lacking
8. Lack of effective architecture, preventing the determination of priorities and functionality releases
9. Lack of appropriate skillset from core project team
10. Not addressing risk identification and mitigation up front, making contingency planning an afterthought
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