QUESTION 1In this question we have to talk about the different engineering project we have faced in the work place and how the investment profiles help the project management.
The other topic is how to assess the economic feasibility of engineering projects in my organization. I should give example from my work to show how these things happen in real life.MY WORKI work in roads and transportation authority of Dubai. It is abbreviated to RTA and is an integral part of transportation and the infrastructure of Dubai. The authority regulates all traffic and transportation related works and projects for the city of Dubai.THE LOGO AND TRADEMARK FOR RTAIt was established by the Dubai government to be a key authority in the government to regulate the transportation and traffic of the Dubai city.
It has played an integral part of the overall development that is still increasing in Dubai as many projects are overseen by this authority and many more projects are in the process of happening since the authority has had many successes. With the technological forward thinking and improvements of the authority as well as using state of the art technologies to perform the task with efficiency and high productivities, Dubai is now called a smart city and is widely known to be one of the top most smartest cities. RTA has had much success in past years and this is due to its innovative projects and project ideas that are still in the works. RTA uses project management and many more resources to make sure the project success has high probabilities and the project is done in efficient ways.
RTA has high standards of projects that have to be implemented. The city of Dubai is now competing with the likes of New York, London and even Paris or Milan. It is important for the city to have a thriving and exquisite transportation system that works efficiently and has very high success and standards. The authority has constantly set new benchmarks and high standards to make sure they stay on top of the destinations people around the world want to go to. Many new projects are shown as examples in the following figures:THE TRAIN THAT HELPS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE EVERY YEARTHE CANAL AND OVERPASS PROJECTENGINEERING PROJECTS SELECTION AND MANAGEMENT:Engineering projects stem from many successful ideas but do not always become a reality due to different aspects and situations that take place in the work environment. That is why engineering project management is created and used to make sure that all the projects that are chosen take place in good environments since they are managed properly. The main idea is that management of anything can improve the situation and that is true also for the engineering project realm.Engineering projects are projects that use extensive engineering skills to be completed.
For example building roads and transportation networks for the RTA are very engineering extensive projects that can only be done with engineering consultants who have the knowledge base to take on this kind of massive projects or minor ones. Major projects are not so different form minor ones as their management is done in similar ways however, a major project is more complex and has many more ideas and executions are required more than that of the minor project which can be small in scale or just has and uses few people to make sure it is completed.The basics behind project selection and project management are more complex since they take a lot of time to complete.
However, with the time, costs overall of project decrease and overall revenue increases since everything is very well managed.Project selection depends on many criteria and for RTA is should meet the high standards and the criteria that the authority has set. This includes how the management of costs, risks, and time and project practicality take into effect.For example, with cost of a project increasing with the world in crisis at the moment and with the oil prices low, it is very difficult to continue old projects rather than start new ones. However, to start newer projects there has to be definite pay back of large proportions for the RTA to take them into consideration. For example the hyper loop project or the Dubai canal project.
Both are very important and innovative based projects that require lots of man power and hours of labor on end to complete them. These projects went through large deliberate work on how to properly manage these projects and make sure project success was met swiftly and project was found to be actually useful and exquisite to the public and the world.From the other side, the risk that a project brings up are very problematic and can create many more issues and problems. Not disclosing the project, but RTA does go through many projects on a daily basis to improve the life and quality of ride for the residents of Dubai and RTA make sure that the city and its residents drive smoothly and there are no problems met in the wake of high traffic and accidents are kept to the minimum with maximum effectiveness. This is quite sure for the transport and traffic department as they make sure that the Dubai residents have a safe trip and that law breakers are penalized. Transportation in Dubai can be done by many methods.
People use buses, trains, taxis to work, leisure or any other thing they need transportation for. THE BUS IS A VERY USEFUL WAY OF TRANSPORTATIONTime and practicality is very important to every project that RTA tackles. The closure of roads for construction for the Dubai canal project has been very detrimental for the residents of close by areas. And this means that RTA has to work even more hard to ensure that everything goes accordingly.
How a project is regarding its practicality is very important for the standards of the RTA. How it long it will take is also very important as seen and experienced by older projects. Projects also take a certain network and follow a certain path to become completed with the perfect management.
As we have learned, project management for engineering projects basically go through many stages for the system to become complete. These stages include but is not limited to the following points and figures:1. Planning2. Analysis3. Design4. Implementation5. Testing6. Handover In these different stages all the ways of completing the project are managed.
In the planning stage the idea is planned on how to make it into a real life prototype and how the project should be designed. Then a thorough analysis is done on the final plan so as to figure out how to design the prototype. Then the engineering will design the prototype and come up with the best possible way in order to fulfill the constraints and make a prototype. Then the implementation and testing phase come where the project idea is realized and tested upon to make sure it can meet the requirements of the client and this is all done by the contractor and the sub-contractors before they handover the project at the end to the RTA.INVESTMENT PROFILES:The investment profile of an engineering project is what explains and discusses its probability of success. The profile contains all the things that are important for the project to happen and become completed and make a success. The higher management of our company the RTA makes decision like for project selections by first checking with the Dubai government and its leaders and checks on the project management profile.
The profile will show and is supposed to satisfy the requirements of the investors who in this case are the government or other government entities connected to RTA. It is very important for many engineering consultants to first check and over check the project investment profile to make sure how it will look to the investors. The project includes how the costs and profits and revenues will look like once it starts and how long it is projected to take in time. FEASIBILITY STUDIES:What means by feasible is that what can happen without any problems. A feasible project is that that can happen and can start without any mishaps and issues. For a project to be feasible it has to meet many criteria. For example for RTA the selection is very important and the feasibility study is also done to see if the project will meet the standards of the RTA and the Dubai government. This is a vital step in any project and includes many details that are to be discussed.
More details will be shown using infographics below in figures. In the feasibility studies the criteria that are check are similar to that discussed above when selection between projects section. This feasibility study however includes those and many more depending on the area of work and the company that is doing them. QUESTION 2:In this question we are required to answer what we know about the different ranking investment alternatives used with examples from my work and give a discussion. I will also like the previous question provide infographics to illustrate my discussions and ideas.RANKING INVESMENT ALTERNATIVESThe idea of ranking investment alternatives discussed here are mainly taken from the lecture slides and understanding with what has been previously learned in other courses and lectures. The process of ranking projects for checking which are best project to be done and which should be avoided is an idea that helps manager manage the tasks of projects where most project and ideas cannot be completed.The ranking is done in many ways.
All the criteria depends on the company or the client. For example, RTA uses strict criteria through which they are using the ranking methods. They use cash flows as well when showing the project profiles to the investors. Mainly the ranking process is done by the consultants and higher management who discuss this with the finance department and other departments to make sure if the project is first feasible or not and then rank it among the other projects that should be done or not.Mainly the priorities and the vision the country and more specifically the city is heading in is very important as to decide whether what criteria is used in order to rank the projects.For example, all the projects that go through the funnel and are accepted for starting are those that are very important and have been given the funding and the go ahead from the government leaders.
Otherwise small projects like improving roads and improvements on quality of ride and traffic or transportation and life improvements overall are done more quickly and need only the heads up of the head engineers and consultants who will work on the projects as leaders. However the best way to proceed in those projects are selected using some of the ranking investment alternatives methods shown in the slides.In the lecture we talk about cash flows and how the cash flow can show present, past and future values of costs and revenues. We also discuss the MARR and rate of return calculations that can be added to account for many different ideas and how to rank the projects. In RTA, we more so rank the different ways a project can take place as we request quotations from contractors. This is because the RTA does not do themselves many projects and neither do the RTA need to rank projects in that kind of scale.
Needless of that, the following figures show some examples of ranking investment alternatives: REFERENCES1 Road and transportation authority of Dubai. (2017) Retrieved from: https://www.rta.ae/wps/portal/rta/ae/about-rta2 Road and transportation authority of Dubai. (2017) Retrieved from: https://www.rta.ae/wps/portal/rta/ae/about-rta/news-and-media/AllProjects/
