MGT5PLS Project Leadership Assessment Task 2

Project 2:

Thomas is the project manager of one of the Metro Tunnel Projects in Melbourne which intend to free up space in the city loop to run more trains to and from the suburbs, by taking the busiest train lines through a new tunnel under the city of Melbourne. Works to build the massive 9km twin rail tunnels and Uve new underground stations are underway. The project sponsor, Lily Ferro is concerned about this project as she knows that Thomas must work with other relevant projects with different stakeholders in a limited time with a limited budget. More importantly, the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has started impacting ongoing construction projects with workers increasingly not reporting at the sites even as most developers have kept the work on for now. More than 30% construction workers are staying away from work sites due to fear over coronavirus infection and many of them may have returned to their villages or are planning to do so. In addition, as industry players respond to these challenges they are turning to their contracts and we are seeing:

• COVID-19-related notices claiming extensions of time (typically framed as a “generic” force majeure claim).
• COVID-19-related notices claiming extensions of time and cost consequences (typically framed as a change of law, government risk/action or political force majeure claim).
• Notifications to lenders under information covenants in finance documents.
• Drafting to include/exclude.COVID-19 consequences on deals that have not closed or where one part of the deal has closed prior to the COVID-19 outbreak but the other part has not, and the parties are now aware of the issue.
• Consideration of efficacy of time limits on claims notification.
• Review of termination rights based on COVID-19.

All this has made the situation complex, as it is now clear that Thomas project is falling behind other relevant projects. This will certainly increase the project expenses and put other projects on hold for a few weeks. To minimise the risks arising from the above challenges, Lily intends to employ you to lead all these relevant projects. Throughout this new position, you may have to reschedule the Thomas project timeline with your limited budget and prepare your team to adapt to new changes arising from the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. the government restrictions) that will eventually help the project achieve its objectives in line with other projects. So far, you know your sponsor, agrees that you must have a set of plans for complex and uncertain situations and outcomes, balancing dexibility with reliability and accountability and harmonising decision quality against decision speed during rapid changes. Lily is also happy with the new expenses that are necessary to complete the project. You may have to employ new people and/or reduce the number of current employees, which may change the shape of your team across all projects. You may see some staff who are not happy with your changes or Und some other staff interested in your new initiatives. However, you must remember that whatever you do, must help the project planning and implementation.

3. Description of assessment:

During your presentation, please address the following questions:

1. What would be the key leadership challenges for your chosen project? What would be the key leadership challenges for your chosen project?
2. How do you intend to tackle these challenges during different phases of the project’s lifecycle? How do you intend to tackle these challenges during different phases of the project’s lifecycle?
3. After addressing the Urst two questions, would you call yourself a 'team of agile leaders'? why? After addressing the Urst two questions, would you call yourself a 'team of agile leaders'? why?

Make sure you target your presentation to an appropriately senior leadership group. Prepare your presentation as a PowerPoint (PPT) presentation, with roughly 5 minutes per student 5 minutes per student (to a maximum of 20 minutes for the whole presentation 20 minutes for the whole presentation).