MASTE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

MODULE 2: Project Finance – Project Scope Management

Final Assignment
CASE STUDY: THE PETRONAS TOWERS

Student name: Jonatane Samuel Ernesto Simango

Date: August 3rd, 2020

ASSSIGNMENT QUESTION:

Deadline: 03/08/2020 (23.59 – BCN/MAD Time)

ASSIGNMENT:

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Develop a Project Scope Statement, including describing all the final requirements that
the architect Cesar Pelli and his team would have had to come up with during the project.
All those requirements that will have been added after the project´s start will also have to
be identified, so as to be able to clearly identify growth, scope creep, additional elements
added by the constructor and changes or misunderstanding in regards to the project
scope. We are looking to identify the initial scope of the project and the scope finally
approved by the customer. The Project Scope Statement should include a Work
Breakdown Structure (WBS), to be able to visualize graphically the work required to be
undertaken.

Note: You only need to complete the first activity of the three listed in the transversal case
study.

REMEMBER that the Project Scope Statement should contain the following components.

 Product Scope Description – describes what the project will accomplish

 Product Acceptance Criteria – describes what requirements must be met in order
for the project to be accepted as complete
 Project Deliverables – detailed list of deliverables the project will result in
 Project Exclusions – description of work that is not included in the project and
outside of the scope
 Project Constraints – lists limits on resources for time, money, manpower, or
equipment (capital)
 Project Assumptions – describes the list of assumptions the project team and
stakeholders are working under to complete the project

1. BRIEF INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT

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The Petronas Twin Tower are often described as a symbol of Malaysian pride and
modernity, once the tallest building in the world, between 1998 – 2004, the twin tower
remains today the tallest twin tower in the World.
According to the 4th and 7th Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the idea to
build the towers born from the necessity to show Malaysia to the world as a new
developed country. Build the Petronas Twin Tower was a very important project to
Malaysian People.

The Petronas Twin Towers are office buildings composed by 88 floor, 395.000 square
meter and a hight of 451.8m. The construction of the towers, brought several unique and
new challenges for the project team, by the time of completions, it was the deepest
foundation in the world, and the tallest skyscraper build in concrete, facts that made this
towers a real unique engineering project. Beside the technical challenges, time and budget
was also important and limited what took the team to implement an exceptional
organization during the construction phase to meet the 6-year time and the budget of 1.6
billion dollars.

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 2. PROJECT SCOPE STATEMENT

Project Title: PETRONAS Twin Towers Date Prepared: 03/08/2020

PRODUCT SCOPE DESCRIPTION

Initial Product Description: To construct twin towers in the Kuala Lumpur city. The
towers must be modern, tall, the architectural design must express Malaysian culture,
must include a complex of office, shopping mall, cultural and entertainment areas, such as
cinema, event salon, museum, library and related activities The tower must have a parking
with enough parking spaces to serve the users of the towers.
Each tower should have an area to accommodate 4500 occupant and 1500 visitor per day
Added Product Description:
 The towers design must reflect the Islamic religion design.
 The towers must be the tallest skyscraper in the world.
 The design of the tower must incorporate protection against a terrorist attack.
 The surveillance and life system support need to be out of the building in a secret
location.

PROJECT DELIVERABLES
 Planning of the project
 Design of the towers, both architectural and structural
 Foundation of the towers.
 Basement with a parking area.
 Superstructure of the tower 1
 Superstructure of tower 2
 External Facade
 Skybridge connecting 2 towers.
 Fitting the interior decoration
Added Deliverables:
 Pinnacle on the top of the towers.
 Secret location to host the life system of the building

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These deliverables must be in accordance with the criteria of the requirement, namely, the
planning must respect the 6 years timeline, the design need to express Malaysian culture
and the construction must be in accordance with the specification and approved design
and blueprints.

PROJECT ACEPTANCE CRITERIA

 The design must have an Islamic architectural style.
 The tower must be safe and respond emergency evacuation standard.
 The towers must have a total of 395.000m2.
Additional acceptance criteria:
 The building must be the tallest skyscraper in the world.

PROJECT EXCLUSION
 The management of the towers was not considered by the project team, this will be
client’s responsibility.
 The project team did not consider the tender process to hire the main contractor,
this will be the client’s responsibility

PROJECT CONSTRAINT
 Malaysia import steel, if the tower will be built from steel it will overdraft the budget,
so the tower needs to be built with the available material in Malaysia: concrete.
 To build a skyscraper in concrete, a High Strength Concrete grade need to be
design.
 The project needs to be built in 6 years to keep the cost within the budget.
 Kuala Lumpur has heavy rains
 Must have 2 contractors for the project, one for each tower.

PROJECT ASSUMPTION
It was assumed that:
 The plot of the project has enough bearing capacity to host the towers.
 Malaysia does not have enough skill labour to execute the design and construction
of the project.
 The money to build the tower is available.

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3. WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE - WBS

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 4. CONCLUSIONS

The Scope Statement of the Petronas Tower demonstrate that initially the government of
Malaysia did not have a clear requirement of what they wanted to achieve. The ambiguity
of the requirement resulted in a Scope Statement with many omitted requirements which
was added during the implementation of the project. Some addition come from the new
events, like the Oklahoma terrorist attack which brought to the project the necessity of
adjustments.
There is as well an omission on the WBS, some very important deliverables such as
geotechnical report of the plot was neglected and the assumption that the ground was
capable to hold the skyscraper added significant risk to the project.
This case demonstrate how important is a good Scope Statement and as well that
additional requirement can be add to the projects, either by omission on the original Scope
Statement, new event, or new desires.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVnapgO8kOg
2. https://www.petronastwintowers.com.my/design-and-structures/
3. https://www.archdaily.com/105895/ad-classics-petronas-towers-cesar-pelli?
ad_source=search&ad_medium=search_result_all;
4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKM3AQJds3E
5. ULI Development Case Study, Kuala Lumpur City Center, Case No:034009, 2004.