BUSINESS PROCESS MODEL OF THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PROCESS: A CASE STUDY OF WATER SUPPLY CONTRACTOR IN VIETNAM

By

Nguyen Thanh Tung

Abstract

In a developing national like Vietnam, the infrastructure system has not completed to support the demand of people in the country. Thus, the government of Vietnam has invested a huge of money to build and upgrade the infrastructure system. However, the infrastructure project are usually delayed and cost overrun, especially water supply system project. Almost those projects are delayed and cost overrun because of lack management, detail planning and schedule. Besides, a lot of water supply projects, those have built recently, got suffer design or construction fails due to lack of appropriate equipment and material, management skills or financial source. All the causes were led by inappropriate project managements and the tasks delivery during whole life of project. However, there is no research to find out the business process model of project management and the tasks delivery during whole life of water supply project.

Concerning the above issues, the research concentrated on three main objectives: (1) To map the business process model of project management in water supply projects; (2) To study efficient tasks delivery and find out the main cause of the inefficient tasks in water supply projects; (3) Suggest the solution and recommendation for making work being more efficiency.

 Executive summary

Rationale of research

This research has been conducted to develop business process model for water supply project contractors.

Objectives of study

To map project management tasks in water supply projects and efficient tasks delivery in water supply projects.

To find the problem in the process providing solution for making efficient process.

Methodology  

The study will start with the problem statement that was defined by study the practical statement of water supply projects in Vietnam. And then, the literature review of project management process during construction and business process management are studied to find out the main activities and its tasks to support the next stages of the research. During Data collection stages, the typical case study is collected from Vietnam.

Findings and conclusion

• The business process model of project management in water supply project of contractor

The business process model of project management in water supply project was mapping to help understand the business process of contractor. In which, the management tasks map illustrated the activity of contractor from bidding process to project handover. Furthermore, the relationship between each tasks and the input and output of each tasks were also found out and described on the map. Besides, the individual group and person who have responsibility for each task also were determined. It helped the researcher could see the mistake and inefficiency of each tasks or progress come from where and who have the responsible for them. To draw the model, a lot of interviews have done with key people of project to get the detail information supporting for the mapping work.

• Inefficiency tasks delivery of contractor in water supply project

According the case study, the project delayed in a lot of work section and cost overrun.In this study, the researcher had determined at least seven inefficient processes as following:

1. Inefficiency of estimation process.

2. Chose wrong the construction teams, subcontractors.

3. Shortcoming of preliminary processes before executing the project.

4. The inefficiency of executing on site of subcontractors and construction teams.

5. Lack of management and observation of Site management Board

6. Inefficiency of observation and inspection from Planning and Economic Dept.

7. Inefficiency of payment management, Inefficiency of doing final document works

In which, the executing on site of subcontractors and construction teams was the most major process that significantly affected time, cost, quality of project. In this process, every mistake and error occurred that led a lot of delay and cost overrun in the project.

• The main Causes of inefficiency in project management of contractor in water supply project

After analyzing project document and discussing with key person, the researcher found out some main causes that led the project got problem during bidding, construction and handover process. It includes:

1. No concrete regulations on contract management among main contractor, subcontractors and construction teams.

2. Conflicts of responsibilities

3. Lack of qualified staff and labors

4. Inappropriate work planning of subcontractors and construction teams

5. Contractor’s poor site management

6. Inadequate experienced construction teams and subcontractors

7. Problem with subcontractors

8. Lack of implementation equipment and material

In which, inappropriate work planning of subcontractors and construction teams were one of the most popular cause in the case study.

Recommendation and solution to improve the efficient project management

To improve the efficient project management, some recommendation and solution were provided to deal with the problem remaining in each process. All recommendation and solution were suggested after not only discussing with experts and key person in the project but also finding from journal and book to get the best solution. The researcher had recommended and proposed the solution for each inefficient process or task to improve the efficient project management of contractor.