Time management
Time management should not be wasted in any given time. Time is the most valuable resource in a project. Time is key in project management because it’s not only the time but it’s the time management of the project team as a whole. Scheduling is one the simplest ways of managing a project time. The goings-on in a project are projected and the durations are decided based on the resource utilization for all activities. There also different steps of the time management process. For time management in a project time you will need to identify activities. High level requirements should be broken down into high level tasks. Another important step in project time management is duration and effort estimation. The estimates are always about the time or duration, this key step would have to be completed with high accuracy. There are a lot of estimations tools in place so people running a project should select the most suitable one. When all activity estimates are finished, the critical path of the project has to be clearly identified to overall determine how long the project will be completed.
To create a precise schedule key parameters previously explained are required such as activity sequencing, duration of each activity and resource requirements for each activity are vital factors. If this step is implemented manually, it would very time consuming and will affect the project planning time. There are numerous amounts of software packages such as Microsoft project that can help develop reliable project schedule. The schedule should include a Gantt chart to visually monitor any activities.
The time management of creating the Burj Khalifa would have been probably the most challenging tasks that a team has come across in construction history. The size of this project was on such a massive scale that issues inevitably occurred. The Burj Khalifa took 2,192 days for all construction to be completed. Different types of events occurred when construction was being taken place, work was speeding up as the project started with a good growth stage during 2005-06 till level 50 was accomplished. It took a very long time to build another 50 levels as the Burj Khalifa was undoubtedly rising with the building crew maybe experiencing challenges arising to it. The construction was slowed down in September 2007 as level 150 was accomplished. After that stage it took around 7 months to finish the top most floor of the Burj Khalifa. The building was 838 metres o above the ground which is a great achievement.
There were many complications that had a bad effect on the time management of the Burj Khalifa. The whole Burj Khalifa project took 5 years and 4 months to be completed. There were many negative issues which delayed more than one year in completing the project. One issue was pumping concrete. Many officials stated that pumping the concrete to the height of 828 metres was the hardest area of constructing the building. The project team used two of the world’s biggest pumps to supply concrete for constructing the building. Dubai’s climate conditions delayed the construction period. Temperatures in Dubai reached up to 50A Celsius, working with concrete would have been carried out at cooler night hours. Dubai climate conditions made it very difficult to pump, pour and even set concrete. Because of the climate conditions concrete could not be done during the day.
Labour strikes were a factor that delayed construction. Workers building the Burj Khalifa went on strike twice during the 2192 day span of its construction. Workers made massive riot outside the Burj Khalifa demanding a pay rise. Some labourers made complaints of being paid as low as $4 per day and were also ordered to work 12 hours a day for 6 days a week. Construction of the Burj Khalifa was halted due to the fact 2,500 workers rioted causing around £500,000 worth of damages.
The Dubai economic crisis was major factor in delayed project time of the Burj Khalifa. Dubai’s developed economy saw a downturn. People had lost a lot of money as they saw the real estate market go down. Build projects had suffered a lot from the economic downturn. One of the projects happened to be the Burj Khalifa project. UAE’s construction projects, totalling $582bn. These projects were either put on hold or even cancelled.