Case Study Analysis Sample

Case Study analysis

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Overview of the Project

In following report, analysis of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport has been undertaken as case study to analyze the stakeholders of the project and their influence on the project as whole. A project’s success and failure may also be influenced by the misbalance of power within the stakeholders and certain conflicts which may arise later in the project. Therefore, followed by the stakeholder’s analysis, this report also focuses on the key factors leading to the failure and success of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport. Since, a project could be successful or failure but there should be certain factors which can be termed as reasons for the failure of the project. Hence, this report critically analyzes those factors that could have failed the project. In addition to, analysis of the challenges faced by the project and how these challenges were addressed would be conducted. This would allow to analyze the potential reasons for not addressing the challenges and that what mistakes were made during the project journey those turned as core factors for the failure of the project.

Berlin Brandenburg Airport was a one of largest Airports construction in the Europe which was constructed in Germany. It is considered one of worst failure of project in the history of project management as the Airport was initially planned to be constructed and be operational by October 2011 but till then the project could not be completed though numerous times opening date was announced by the authorities but it did not happen until 31 October 2020, which is exactly 9 years delayed project and it was also over three times of its original budget (Fiedler and Wendler, 2016). A project is deemed to be failure if it does not meet with the definition of project success stated by Sedlin, Beckmann and Tan (2020) that “The success of the project is that it is completed on-time, on given budget, provides expected value; but if the project is terminated, did not complete on time and within given budget and/or does not provide the intended value then it can be termed as project failure”. Based on the basic definition of the project management, it can be determined that there are various complications associated with the project as the success and failure of the project is determined by means of its completion and on budget completion. In this regards, the following reports investigates and critically analyses the associated stakeholders, reasons for the failure and also challenges being faced by the project management team and how these challenges were addressed.

List of Stakeholders and Their Influence

Table 1 Stakeholders Analysis

            There are four types of stakeholders those needs to be managed based on their power and interest in the project. In case of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport, different types of associated project stakeholders have been identified and categorized based on their power and interest as follows

Monitor (Low Power and Low Interest)

            The low power and low interest stakeholders include the architects, construction companies, small constrictors, employees and labors associated with the project. Since, the interest of theses stakeholders was low and they also did not have power as well, hence, they were only minimally communicated about the plans, architects or any other latest changes into the project concerning schedule and timetables and other small matters which are necessary for the lower level labors (Bubalo and Daduna, 2011). Therefore, during the project all information which was important for these stakeholders was shared after approval from major stakeholders.

Keep Satisfied (High Power and Low Interest)

            These stakeholders are high power and low interest, where they can have a significant influence over the project as they could halt the operations over the further notice and can also point issues and require investigation or explanation. However, these stakeholders are in low interest due to the fact that there were no frequent direct visits paid by these stakeholders. Hence, their power was high but still the interest was low. For instances, the aviation authority was involved in the construction of the airport rather than having a constant monitoring since they ask for the reports frequently which makes them far away from the project (Geraldi and Stingl, 2016). In addition to, another stakeholder with high power and low interest is the FBB supervisory since it does not involve into the project directly but could affect the project as whole as they had control over everything. Hence, the failure of the Berlin Brandenburg Airport can be attributed to the lower interest of the stakeholders given the fact that they could not effectively manage and monitor the project as the initial planning and approval was provided by the Aviation authority and FBB supervisory board could not successfully complete the project on time.

Manage Closely (High Power and High Interest)

            The government, project manager and executive team of the project falls in the category of the high power and high interest. These stakeholders have a direct role in the project and these stakeholders needs to be fully engaged and satisfied with the project. However, since the project could not be completed on time and in given budget, hence it can be stated that it is failure to satisfy these stakeholders. Meanwhile, if these stakeholders are not satisfied with the project then this can be one of the reasons behind the failure of the project (Beria and Scholz, 2010). However, an effective communication and project management techniques could be the reason why stakeholders could not be managed which led to the failure of the project.

Keep Informed (Low Power and High Interest)

            The stakeholders including media, public, international community and aviation industry falls under the category of keep informed and low power and high interest stakeholders. These stakeholders need to be kept informed from time to time as the announcements were also made multiple times to keep these stakeholders informed as they had a great interest in the project. As the only source of the information for these stakeholder was from the project itself (Schwarz, 2012). These are the stakeholders as media covers the news, people were excited to have new airport in the country, international community for being tourists to visit the largest airport of Europe and aviation industry as they were to use once its completed and operational.

Project Successes and Failures

            In accordance with the industrial reports and previous literature, various key factors have been identified which have been termed as reasons for the failure of the project. Meanwhile, referring to the primary definition of the project success and project failure then it can be determining that any project which cannot be delivered on time, on budget and intended value then it can be stated as failure of the project. Similarly, Berlin Brandenburg Airport project can also be termed as project failure as it could not be completed on time and was also over the budget, where as per the Anokhov (2020) project was delayed for nearly a decade and over three times its original budget. Meanwhile, those failures can be attributed to the different areas of the project and those areas have been critically analyzed.

The ownership of the project was changing significantly as sometimes CEO was changed, Chairman was changed and also contactor executives as well. This rotation of the stakeholders was constant change of ownership and affected overall project. Furthermore, the main contractor of the project went to be bankrupt such as IGK-IGR and this was termed as reason for the delay in the project. The roles of the project stakeholders were not defined properly and stakeholders at some extent were ignored completely (Wagner, 2016). One of the example is that public living near the airport complained that noise of the airport was too much for them to bear. Hence, lack of considering the all stakeholders into the project plan can be considered as immature. Furthermore, another major area is scope management as the its beginning of the project all requirements and information is collected but in case of this project no such requirements and information was collected. For instances, if all information was collected then complain regarding the noise would not have been received. Meanwhile, all planning of the project was imperfect as there was no proper scope defined for the project and work-break-down structure was also incomplete.

At stage of the monitoring and controlling, the scope kept on changing again and again as the requirements of the stakeholders changed with respect to the quality problems, safety and fire problems. The budget was spent significant in order to cover up the failure of the fire system and after which the fire system was accepted by the regulatory authorities. Due to undefined scope, problems in changing stakeholders and ignoring the external stakeholders led to issues into the overall schedule of the project (Luke et al., 2017). Hence, changes into the project’s stakeholders led to changes original schedule and if any problem emerged the project was again delayed. For instances the failure of the fire system at the project was due to the unqualified fire system designer which led to a defective system and failed during the testing phase.

Since, the fire system failed due to the unqualified designer and in the same way the whole wiring of the airport was found to be a dangerous which was then replaced again to avoid any loss of lives when airport is operational. This reveals that there were no effective quality management practices during the project. Because the lack of the quality management can only be a reason for not having expected quality through which the failures could have been avoided at the initial phase. Therefore, it can be determined the all major issues were ineffective management of quality, schedule, and also ineffective management of risks to which project was exposed to (Wijk, 2011). For instance, the risks were not initially identified, stakeholders were not involved for the planning for the potential risks, and also there was no tolerance criteria based on which the cost overrun and schedule could have been handled.

Challenges faced during the project and Mitigation

            The project faced numerous challenges and all these challenges were managed latter when cost overrun and project was out of schedule and these mitigations could be explored as follows

·       First of all, the undefined project scope was broadened after a several failures and issues occurred with the project. This defined as clear project statement based on which the whole project was carried out and also the complete work-break-down structure was created followed by the list if resources required and all technical assistance, requirements and information was also gathered to avoid any further issues in the work.

·       The cost of the project had increased more than three times than it was originally planned and this was all due to ineffective planning, lack of information and requirements before the decision makers and lack of involvement of all stakeholders into the project. Therefore, the cost of the project was controlled by means of involving all stakeholders into the project meetings and constant and effective communication between the stakeholders. Since the monitoring of the project increased hence the overall cost of the project was also controlled.

·       Communication is a key reasons for the failure of the projects as if there is lack of communication between the stakeholders then this tend to affect overall project and determine the success or failure of the project. As the communication improves majority of the problems are addressed on the spot and this was also in this case where the communication was enhanced which controlled majority of the issues in the project. For instances, the early communication, frequency meetings and strong coordination between the stakeholders mitigated the chances of the rescheduling, lack of control, qualities issues, cost overrun and further delays in the project as well.

Role of Innovation in Project Delivery

Discussion of Innovations Adapted in the project

In accordance with the argument of Marciszewska Bergel and Hoszman (2016) it has become highly complex and difficult to manage the large projects as the number of the stakeholders increases the complexities and complications rises in the project. In such scenario the innovation can be easy based on the fact that different peoples and groups bring different skills, expertise and experiences to the project and contribute to the overall project as whole. However, as per Luke et al., (2017) the innovation has been defined as a product or service that could be made commercially successful. So, a product or service which has been made successful can be stated as innovation but at the same if the innovation is referred into the project management then it can be a process, procedure or technique through which a traditional approach becomes inefficient and ineffective.

            As innovation is not product of any specific field or is not patent of anyone including company or individual, hence this remains an open but it only takes place when level of complexity increases and need for the innovation is needed. Hence, during the innovation is only achieved when need exists or problem occurs which cannot be solved through traditional approaches. Similarly, the innovation can also be found in the Berlin Brandenburg International Airport where the project innovation was one of the only the project itself as it was initially planned but it could be completed on time (Marciszewska, Bergel and Hoszman, 2016). In addition to, the only innovation in the project was that it was uniquely designed airport throughout the Europe and was also largest airport which tend to serve a large number of peoples and reduce the delays.

            The creation of an innovation process could also be stated as innovation but there was no such as innovative process in this project as it is considered a failure until today and years to come as it has been considered one of worst failure of the projects. The company which was given contract of the whole project FBB due to its reputation into the market and has been considered one of the largest contractor throughout the Europe with highest success rate. However, the ineffective planning, frequent change of stakeholders, and ineffective allocation of resources were few of the major reasons why project failed in worst case scenario.

Impact of Implementation of innovations on the project delivery

            The project can be stated as failure once it is not completed within given time period and over the provided budget and this was also in case of Brandenburg Airport. Based on the lessons learned from this case, it can be determined that innovation is a competitive advantage that could help the project managers and contractor company to achieve a greater value than expected from the project. However, for this purpose it is critical that there should be an effective project management strategy as to avoid any issues that could delay the project and lead to cost overrun (Baiden and Price, 2011). Hence, an effective communication, scope management and cost management is required to avoid any issue in the project. In order to bring an innovative ideas and processes within the project is considered critical within the organization based on the fact that there are various complications that could ruin overall purpose of the project. In this regards, it has been stated by Gledson (2016) that project must have a clear scope statement and a highly professional team but at the same time involvement of the all stakeholders is critical and monitoring is exceptionally placed to supervise the project beautifully and professionally.

            Since, a project can be successful if it is managed effectively so for this purpose the innovation is critical for the project as well in order to ensure project delivery successful. Meanwhile, again referring to case of the Berlin Brandenburg International Airport (BBI) it can be determined that there was no such innovation that could have been used to avoid any rescheduling and cost overrun, even the stakeholders involved into the project were also not in communication with each other (Anokhov, 2020). However, as stated earlier there was no innovation the project than project’s design and capacity to manage the passengers. But this cannot be considered in the innovation of the project and also lack of the innovation can also be stated as another reason for the failure of the project. Hence, it can be stated that if there is no innovation into the project than it can be major failure as case of Brandenburg airport has been analyzed and thus innovation is critical for the success of the project.

References

Fiedler, J. and Wendler, A., 2016. Berlin Brandenburg Airport. In Large infrastructure projects in Germany (pp. 87-145). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.

Sedlin, T., Beckmann, V. and Tan, R., 2020. Public participation and airport development: the case of the site selection for berlin Brandenburg airport (BER) in Germany. Sustainability, 12(24), p.10535.

Bubalo, B. and Daduna, J.R., 2011. Airport capacity and demand calculations by simulation—the case of Berlin-Brandenburg International Airport. NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking, 12(3), pp.161-181.

Geraldi, J. and Stingl, V., 2016. From Visions of Grandeur to Grand Failure: Alternative schools of descriptive decision theories to explain the Berlin Brandenburg. In EURAM 2016 (p. 2298). Academy of Management.

Beria, P. and Scholz, A.B., 2010. Strategies and pitfalls in the infrastructure development of airports: A comparison of Milan Malpensa and Berlin Brandenburg International airports. Journal of Air Transport Management, 16(2), pp.65-73.

Schwarz, R., 2012. Europe’s New Gateway: Berlin Brandenburg Airport. International Airport Review, 16(2).

Anokhov, I.V., 2020. The impact of limited rationality on the creation and management of complex infrastructure projects: The cases of Heathrow and Berlin-Brandenburg airports.

Wagner, D.N., 2016. Breakin’the Project Wave: Understanding and avoiding failure in project management. PM World Journal, 1(1), pp.1-21.

Luke, R., Savage, C.J., Jenkins, A.K. and Fransman, L., 2017. The failure of transport megaprojects: lessons from developed and developing countries.

van Wijk, M., 2011. Airport City models: Copy and Paste? Conditions for success and failure of interregional learning. In Proceedings of the Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies Vol. 8 (The 9th International Conference of Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies, 2011) (pp. 424-424). Eastern Asia Society for Transportation Studies.

Marciszewska, E., Bergel, I. and Hoszman, A., 2016. Failed Assessment of Mobility Needs–‘White Elephant’Airports. Journal of Management and Financial Sciences, 9(26), pp.79-95.

Baiden, B.K. and Price, A.D., 2011. The effect of integration on project delivery team effectiveness. International Journal of Project Management, 29(2), pp.129-136.

Gledson, B.J., 2016. Hybrid project delivery processes observed in constructor BIM innovation adoption. Construction innovation.