Masaryk University Faculty of Economics and Administration MASTER THESIS

Masaryk University Faculty of Economics and Administration MASTER THESIS BA. Isaac Tetteh Brno, 2014

Masaryk University Faculty of Economics and Administration Use of Project Management Methods Master thesis Author: Isaac Tetteh: (4038353) Brno, 2014 Supervisor: Ing. Petr SMUTNÝ, Ph.D.

Masaryk University Faculty of Economics and Administration Department of Corporate Economy Academic year 2012/2013 ASSIGNMENT OF DIPLOMA THESIS For: Tetteh Isaac Field: Business Management Title: Use of Project Management Methods P r i n c i p l e s o f t h e s i s w r i t i n g: Objective of the thesis: The aim of the thesis is alternatively either to: a) analyze the course of actions of a real-life project and assess its effectiveness, or b) to create a plan for a new real-life project and prove its feasibility and effectiveness. This is to be done with the use of correct project management methods. Approach and methods used: The thesis will consist of two parts: Theoretical part will contain research of possible methods and their evaluation with respect to the project solved in the second (practical) part of the thesis. The second part will consist of application of chosen method(s) onto a particular project. This part will include analysis and economical assessment. Self-study and research of suggested as well as other relevant literature and resources will be an integral part of the work process. Author is expected to define the problem and identify methods to be used to reach the aim of the thesis.

The extent of graphical works: according to the supervisor's guidelines, the assumption is about 10 charts and graphs The thesis length without appendices: 60 70 pages List of specialist literature: Advanced project management: best practices on implementation. ISBN 0471472840. CROW, Jeff. Applying project management in the workplace. 4th ed. Portland: Blackbird Publishing, 2003. 301 s. ISBN 0-9660469-3-5. Project Management (with MS Project CD Rom). ISBN 9780273704324. MINTZER, Rich. The everything project management book: tackle any project with confidence and get it done on time. Avon: Adams Media Corporation, 2002. xii, 289 s. ISBN 1-58062-583-5. Diploma thesis supervisor: Ing. Petr Smutný, Ph.D. Date of diploma thesis assignment: 1/11/2012 Submission deadline for Diploma thesis and its entry in the IS MU is provided in the valid Academic Calendar. Department Head Dean In Brno on 1/11/2012

Abstract Project management has become crucial in the management of organizations, be it profit or nonprofit oriented. Today, many organizations largely depend on projects to achieve their strategic objectives. However, the success of these projects is to a large extent depends on the knowledge, skills, tools and techniques apply by the project manager. Facing resources constraints, organizations find ways of utilizing the limited available resources to achieve the most result by coordinating and managing those resources with possible maximum efficiency. Non-governmental organizations (NGO s) though not profit making organization as such, play a major role in national development in both developed and developing countries and more often than not, depend on projects in carrying out their activities. This thesis is set to examine how the general application of project management tools and techniques can help NGOs (though non-profit making organizations but also face resources both human and capital constraints) carry out these projects effectively and efficiently. Key Words: Project, project management, project management methods, Non-Governmental organization, business development.

Statement I hereby declare that this Diploma thesis, Use of Project Management Methods is entire my own work and has not been taken from the work of others except that such work has been cited and acknowledged according to legislation, internal regulations of Masaryk University and internal management acts of Masaryk University and the Faculty of Economics and Administration. In Brno,... Isaac Tetteh

Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank God for having seen me through this work, without Him nothing could be achieved. My profound gratitude goes to my supervisor and mentor, Ing. Petr SMUTNÝ, Ph.D., his patience in his mentorship contributed tremendously to the success of this work. His support and advice could not be overemphasized. My deepest appreciation goes to the management of Women in Progress, who made data available for this work. I would also like to thank my parents, Mr. and Mrs. Quaye for their encouragement and support, physically and spiritually. Finally, let me say thank you to all my friends who contributed in one way or the other to get this work done.

Special Dedication I dedicate this thesis to the memory of my late grandmother, Mad. Aba Amponsah, whose support and inspirations has brought me this far. Her good parental care to me has invaluably contributed in many ways to my academic achievement. May her soul rest in perfect peace!!!

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Contents Chapter 1: Introduction... 15 1.1The objective of the thesis... 16 1.2. Methodology... 16 Chapter 2. Overview of project management... 17 2.1. Some terminologies use in project management... 18 2.2. Project environment... 19 2.3. The role of project manager.... 21 2.4. Project lifecycle... 21 2.5 Managing the constraints... 23 Chapter 3. Project management processes... 24 3.1. Project Initiation... 26 3.1.1 Project Overview Statement.... 27 3.1.2. Project Stakeholder management... 28 3.1.3 Project requirement collection... 30 3.1.4 Developing Project Objective... 31 3.2. Project Planning Process Group... 32 3.3. Project Execution Process Group... 33 3.4. Project monitoring and controlling process group... 33 3.5. Project Closing Process Group... 34 3.6. Project Management Knowledge Areas... 35 Chapter 4. Project Integration Management.... 35 4.1. Developing project charter... 36 4.2. Developing project management plan... 37

4.3. Direct and manage project.... 37 4.4. Monitor and control project work... 38 4.5. Perform integrated change control... 39 4.6. Close project or phase... 39 Chapter 5. Project Scope Management.... 39 5.1. Scope management plan.... 40 5.2. Project scope definition... 41 5.3. Work breakdown structure... 41 5.4. Validate Scope... 43 5.5. Project Scope Control... 44 Chapter 6. Project Time Management... 44 6.1. Network Diagrams... 46 6.2. Critical Path analysis... 47 Chapter 7. Project Cost Management... 49 8. Project Risk Management... 51 8.1. Project Risk Identification... 51 8.2. Risk assessment... 52 8.3. Risk Responses... 53 Chapter 9. Project management in the NGO sector: A case study of Business Development by Women in Progress Ghana... 55 Introduction... 55 9.1. Brief background of the NGO... 56 9.2. The Project Initiation... 56 9.2.1. Identification of stakeholders... 56 9.2.2. The Project Requirements Collection... 58 9.3. The Project Planning... 59

9.3.1. The Project Scope Definition... 60 9.3.2. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)... 61 9.4. The Project Time... 62 9.5. The initial Project Budget.... 63 9.6. Project Risk Planning... 64 9.7. Project Realization... 65 9.8. Project Result... 65 9.9. Analysis of the Project Planning and Realization... 66 9.10. Analysis of the Result... 75 9.11. Recommendations... 78 9.12 Conclusion... 79 References:... 80 Appendix: Calculation of Critical Path... 82 Figures: Figure 1. Cost and staffing levels across a generic Project life cycle 22 Figure 2. Impact of Variable Based on Project Time.23 Figure 3. The scope triangle 24 Figure 4. Project management process groups...25 Figure 5. Example of project overview statement...28 Figure 6. Stakeholders power/interest grid: Source...29 Figure 7. Example of WBS of a simple house project....43 Figure 8A. Activity-on-node....46 Figure 8B. Activity-on-arrow..47

Figure 9. Example of critical path of a project...49 Figure 10. Probability/impact chart.....53 Figure.11. Stakeholders power/interest grid....68 Figure 12. Critical path analysis of the project...70 Figure 13. Risk probability/impact chart.74 Tables: Table 1. The 7-S of project management...20 Table 2. Project stakeholders...57 Table.3. Initial project budget estimate 63 Table 4. Project scheduling 70 Table 5. Actual project budget. 75

Chapter 1: Introduction Project management has been in existence since time immemorial, from the construction of the ancient Egyptian pyramids to the industrial revolutions of 1760 s through 1840 s in Europe a nd the United States. However, the term project management was not used until the 1950 s when some companies begun to create tools and techniques such as the Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) by the US defense contractor, RAND and Critical Path Analysis by the chemical company, Du Pont for the planning of their production activities, and the later establishment of project management professional institutions (IPMA 1965 and PMI 1969). Today, the advancement of technology with the application of computer software in project planning have made project management an important means of addressing problems or taking opportunities, making the discipline even more attractive to many individuals and organizations in the performance of their activities. Project has therefore become integral part of modern organizations, both profit and on-profit oriented. However, the success or failure of an organization in achieving the project s objectives is to a large extent depends on the knowledge and skills of the project manager (the person assigned by the sponsor to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives). This thesis is to examine the general application of project management methodologies in the NGO sector by analyzing the effectiveness of this application in the course of action of a reallife-project in the NGO sector. The thesis has been divided into two main parts. In the first part, I will be reviewing some selected project management literatures that will help in the analysis of the second part by way of choosing the best possible tools and techniques which will help analyze a chosen project as a case study. In the second part, I will be analyzed and assess a project, Business Development which was carried out by an NGO, Women in Progress in Ghana. The aim of the project was to help develop a group of local women entrepreneurial abilities. Even though this project was like any other project that is carried out by profit oriented organizations, incidentally, it was carried out by an NGO. In this thesis, I will be analyzing the course of action, thus the project management 15

processes and project management knowledge areas that were applied to execute the project by the project manager and her team. Like projects carried out by profit-oriented organizations, NGOs projects also face resource constraints, both human and capital which requires proper management effort to enable a successful results. Ironically, there are increasingly failures in the execution of majority of these projects due to a number of reasons, chiefly amongst them, lack of proper project management methodology. 1.1. The objective of the thesis The objective of this thesis is to analyze the course of actions of a project, business development, a Ghanaian based NGO s project, and assess the effectiveness of the methodology used to carry out the project. Where appropriate, possible suggestions would be made as to how similar projects can be improved in the future by a rightful selection of project management tools and techniques. 1.2. Methodology The thesis is divided into two main parts. In the first part, secondary source of materials will be used by way of reviewing some selected Project Management literatures to determine a generic methodology that is applicable in project management irrespective of the project kind. In the second part, a comparative analysis of the reviewed literatures and the NGO s project under review will be made regarding the use of project management methodologies. This will give us a clearer picture as to whether a proper project management methodology was used from the project initiation, planning through its closing bearing in mind, there is no single way of managing projects. 16

Chapter 2. Overview of project management Questions have been raised as to why much attention be paid to Project management? Is project management different from general management of an organization? There are a lot of similarities, but there are enough differences to treat project management as a discipline separate from general management. Projects are more schedule-intensive than most of the activities that general managers handle (Lewis, 2007). The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines project as a temporary endeavor undertaken to produce a unique product, service, or result (PMI, 2013, p. 3). This means that a project is done only once. If it becomes repetitive, it s ceases to be a project; it then becomes operation (a routine activity). A project have definite starting and ending dates, and budget, a clearly defined scope of work to be done, as well as specific performance requirements that must be met. A project is a time and cost constrained operation to realize a set of defined deliverables (the scope to fulfill the project s objectives) up to quality standards and requirements (IPMA, 2006, p.13) It can also be defined as a unique process, consisting of a set of coordinated and controlled activities with start and finish dates, undertaken to achieve an objective conforming to specific requirements, including the constraints of time, cost and resources (ISO, 2003, p. 2). Per definition, project has certain characteristics that differentiate it from general management. It is design to create something unique which has not been done before and is to achieve a specific objective of an organization. According to Maylor, every project is unique; that is the exact project has not been performed before. The project has a degree of novelty, in terms of time, place, and team carrying out the task, product, service or the result being provided. Temporary: meaning the project does have a beginning and an end, and requires a group of people to carry out the task. Focused, which means that the task of the project is to deliver a particular product, service or result. 17

Project involves risk, which means that there are elements of uncertainties which need to be managed by the project manager and his team to accomplish a project. Project also faces resources constraints. That means that, there is always a limited resource which requires maximum management effort to achieve efficiency in results (Maylor, 2010). 2.1. Some terminologies use in project management The following terminologies are associated with project management and are often use by professionals of project management. Work breakdown structure (WBS): is a deliverable oriented decomposition of a project into smaller components. Stakeholders: Any individual or group with an interest in the project process or outcome, (Maylor, 2010, p. 77). Triple constraints: this is managing time, cost and other resources of a project in a way that will keep the project scope in a balance. Baseline: approved plan for a project or schedule in the project. Activity: individual works that constitute the project. Duration: The numbers of minutes, hours, days, months, or years use to complete an activity in a project. Milestone: selected key events on the project base on their importance The life cycle of a project: the series of phases or activities that a project passes through from the beginning to the end. Scope: this is all the works that constitute the project 18

Program: a group of related projects managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits and control not available from managing them individually (PMI, 2013, p. 9). Project portfolio: a collection of projects or programs and other work that are grouped together to facilitate effective management of that work to meet strategic business objectives (PMI, 2013, p. 9). Process: set of interrelated or interacting activities which transforms inputs into outputs (ISO, 2003, p. 2). 2.2. Project environment This is the general environment in which the project is taking place. There are a number of factors that affect the product, service or result of a project and those factors can be grouped into internal or external. These factors are used to scan the project environment in order to identify those elements that can influence the progress of the project. External factors: there are a number of ways in which project external environment can be analyzed by individuals and organizations. One way to do so is the use of SLEPT (social, legal, economic, political, and technological) to analyze or assess the project environment so as to identify the elements that are likely to affect the smooth execution of the project. Socially, the life style of people where the project is taking place is always important to the success of the project. For example, projects like that of the NGO s are likely to secure the necessary support and funding if the people are development oriented. If the legal system of the environment in which the project is being carried out is transparent then stakeholders have confidence that project will not delay due to potential litigation and partial judgment that will bring the project to a standstill in case some individuals or groups stand against it. 19

Projects are usually successful where the political environment is quite stable. Projects that are carried out in environments where there is political instability are less likely to materialize due to potential political upheavals which may render the project environment unsafe for project team to work. Technology has become much important in project management as many individuals and organizations now depend on computer software to plan their project schedule, budget etc. With the advancement of communication technology, project team members are able to communicate easily through e-mails, phone calls, text messages etc. Internal factors: The internal factors that affect projects were adopted form the original 7-S developed by McMcKinsey and Co., management consultants. Analysis of these elements can help project manager understand the project internal factors that can influence the outcome of the project. See the table below. Table 1. The 7-S of project management. Source: (Maylor, 2010, p. 28). 20

2.3. The role of project manager According to Lewis, the primary responsibility of the project manager is to ensure that all work is completed on time, within budget and scope, and at the correct performance level (Lewis, 2007, p. 24). That means that, the role of project manager is to get the work done at efficient and effective way by meeting the requirements of the sponsor. This is done by coordinating the resources (both human and capital) in a way that will yield maximum results. It is not the role of the project manager to do the actual work, but to plan, direct, monitor, and control the work such as managing the stakeholders especially the project team members, try to gear up motivation among the team so as to get everybody giving in the best to successfully get the job done. That is, the project manager must have people skills. The project manager must understand the mission and vision of the organization first, then they must see how the project they are managing meshes with the organization s mission, and they must steer the project to ensure that the interests of the organization are met (Lewis, 2007, p. 27). In addition to management skills, the project manager has to exercise leadership role for a successful completion of a project. According to Parker, Leadership is the art of getting others to want to do something that you believe should be done (Packard, 1962, cited in Lewis, 2007, p. 29). This means that as the project manager deals with the administrative aspects such as budgets, schedules, logistics etc. he also plays the leadership role that will get his team work on the project with enthusiasm by motivating and giving them the necessary authority to carry out their various functions. 2.4. Project lifecycle Like everyday activity we do as humans which has to be taking through some processes in order to come to a conclusion point at a certain stage, projects also goes through certain process in order to deliver the product, service or the result for which the project is being undertaking. The life cycle of a project is the series of phases or activities that the project passes through from the beginning to the end, which are usually sequential. In their fifth edition, the PMI identified certain stages that a project passes through during its life cycle. These are: starting the project, 21

organizing and preparing, carrying out the project work, and closing the project as a whole (PMI, 2013). These processes form the lifespan of a project irrespective of its size, nature or location. See Figure 1 below. Figure 1. Cost and staffing levels across a generic Project life cycle. Source: (PMI, 2013, p. 39). The stages are related to the project cost and staffing in most cases. Generally, cost and staffing levels are low at the beginning of a project, reaches its peak as the work is being executed, and declines as the project comes to an end. This means that at the initiation and the planning stage the risk of the project is relatively low and gets higher at the implementation or execution stage. Hence, the earlier changes are identified and fix, the lower the cost to the project. It is therefore important that at the initiation and planning stages, opinions, request and demands of all stakeholders are considered in order to minimize the risk of future changes resulting from demands of a stakeholder, see figure 2 below. 22

Figure 2. Impact of Variable Based on Project Time. Source: (PMI, 2013, p. 40) The risk of the project decreases over the life of a project as decisions are reached and deliverables are accepted by stakeholders, (PMI, 2013). However, it is important to note that some projects are much more expensive at the initial stages as more resources and time are needed to plan than the actual execution. 2.5 Managing the constraints There are five parameters that influence a project, and the success or failure of a project is to a large extent depends on how these parameters are managed. Wysocki identified five constraints that every project faces in its life cycle. These are: Scope, Quality, Cost, Time and Resources. These constraints form an interdependent set - a change in one constraint can require a change in another constraint in order to restore the equilibrium of the project. In this context, the set of five parameters form a system that must remain in balance for the project to be in balance (Wysocki, 2009, p. 10). Figure 3 below shows the project scope triangle. 23

Figure 3. The scope triangle. Source: (Wysocki, 2009, p. 13). All these five constraints need to be managed in a manner that a change in one which at all times results in a change in one or more parameters is held in balance. For example, future requests by a stakeholder or a resignation of a key team member without an immediate equal replacement will results in the imbalance of the scope triangle which will automatically affect the end product or result of the project. Chapter 3. Project management processes The project management institute (PMI) defines project management as the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements ' (PMI, 2013, p. 47). This means that project management is all about managing resources efficiently and effectively in order to get a project completed successfully. The PMI identified some five process groups that form the building block for any project life cycle. These process groups are as follows: Initiation process group Planning process group 24

Execution process group Monitoring and Control process group Closing process group Each of these processes takes place at least once in the life cycle of every project. It is important however, to note that whiles this is in the case of a single phase project, some or all of the process groups may be repeated in projects that are executed in two all more phases (Wysocki, 2009). Figure 4 below shows the five processes. Figure 4. Project management process groups. Source: (PMI, 2013, P.50) This is the generic life cycle of every project irrespective of size or complexity. The initiation process is the definition of a new project or a new phase of an existing project by way of obtaining authorization to plan the project. The planning process is the establishment of the project scope, definition of the objectives, as well as the determination of the required actions that are needed to be taken to reach the objectives of the project. Executing process group is the activities that are performed to enable completion of the work defined in the planning stage. 25

Monitoring and controlling process group are the processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes (PMI, 2013, P.49). Closing process group is the activities that are needed to be performed to finally bring the project to a closure. In addition to the five process group, the PMI identified ten knowledge areas that a project manager must be familiar with for a successful implementation of a project work. These knowledge areas are: Project Integration Management, Project Scope Management, Project Time Management, Project Cost Management, Project Quality Management, Project Human Resources Management, Project Communications Management, Project Risk Management, Project Procurement Management, and Project Stakeholder Management (PMI, 2013, p.60). 3.1. Project Initiation Project initiation is the first stage of every project, after the individual or the organization has recognized the need to carry out a project for a specific purpose. This Process Group includes all processes related to answering the question what do you need to do? (Wysocki, 2009, p.28) It consist of such processes of initial scope definition, identification of stakeholders, (both internal and external), as well as the selection of project manager. All this information is captured in the project charter and the stakeholder register (PMI, 2013). According to Wysocki, project initiation, which he calls project scoping consists of recruiting the project manager, eliciting the true needs of the client, documenting the client s needs, negotiating with the client about how those needs will be met, writing project overview statement (a one-page description of the project), gaining senior management approval to plan the project (Wysocki, 2009). The mission of every project is to achieve a vision which is the needs of the sponsor of the project. These needs must be clearly defined but as it usually turns out to be, the project sponsor may not have a clear definition as to what exactly the problem or opportunity is. It is therefore 26

important that, as many stakeholders are included as possible in the definition of the project scope from the very onset to enable as much as stakeholders requirements captured even though these may change as the project progresses. This helps minimize the risk that some stakeholders raising concerns or new demands later in the project that are likely to have negative impact on the whole project. At this stage, it is important also to evaluate alternatives to determine the feasibility of the project by way of making clear descriptions of the project objectives, including the reasons why a specific project is the best alternative to satisfy the sponsor s requirements. The documentation for this decision may also contain the initial project scope statement, deliverables, project duration, and a forecast of the resources for the organization s investment analysis. (PMI, 2013) 3.1.1 Project Overview Statement. This is an output of condition of satisfaction which is a structured conversation between the sponsor of the project and the project manager that seeks to clearly define what the project is all about. The POS is a short document (ideally one page) that concisely states what is to be done in the project, why it is to be done, and what business value it will provide to the enterprise when completed (Wysocki, 2009, p. 91). The project overview statement document seeks to get the approval from the necessary authorities to proceed to the next stage of the project which is the planning stage. It clearly states the Problem or opportunity, Project goal, Project objectives, Success criteria, Assumptions, risks, and obstacles of the project. See example of project overview statement below. 27

Figure 5. Example of project overview statement. Source: (Wysocki, 2009, P.94) The simplicity of project overview statement makes it easier to work with as authority can quickly read and decide whether there is any merit for further consideration of the proposed project. If the POS makes sense to the authorities, they give the green light for the project manager to proceed to the project planning stage, otherwise they may quickly reject it before time and other resources are wasted. 3.1.2. Project Stakeholder management Project stakeholder is any party with an interest in the project process or outcome (Maylor, 2010, P.77). Thus, those individuals, groups, or organizations which are actively involve or are interested in the result of the project. Stakeholder management is crucial to the success of every project in every organization, and engaging the right people at the right time is very important to 28

its success. Most projects have more than one stakeholder or stakeholder group, presenting the project manager with a major challenge that of resolving their often divergent and potentially conflicting requirements (Maylor, 2010, p. 77). And more often than not, a project success depends on project manager s ability to manage these conflicting interests. Maylor identified three categories of project stakeholders: Internal team which includes people and groups that are directly involved in the project and are the most important to be managed. Core externals those entities outside the project but are important to its success, and The rest of the world those individuals and groups who are not directly connected with the project but require monitoring. There are three steps in doing stakeholder analysis in a project. The first step in the Stakeholder Analysis is brainstorm among the project team to determine who the stakeholders in the project are. This is by way of thinking of all the people who are affected in one way or the other by the project, and whose influence or power affect the end result of the project. After identifying all the stakeholders in the project, the project manager then prioritize them by mapping them out on stakeholder Power/Interest Grid, in order to classify them by their power and interest in the project. See example below Figure 6. Stakeholders power/interest grid. Source: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newppm_07.htm#sthash.cvapcf6g.dpuf A stakeholder s position on the grid shows his or her importance in the project: High power, 29

interested people are the people the project manager must fully engage and make much effort to satisfy. High power, less interested people: Project Manager must do his best to keep them satisfied, but not so much that they become bored with Project Manager s message. Low power, interested people: keep these people adequately informed, and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are raise by them. Low power, less interested people: again, these people must be monitored, but need not to be bored with excessive communication. Finally, the Project Manager needs to understand the key stakeholders in order to know how they are likely to react to the project. He also needs to know how best to engage them in the project and how best to communicate with them so as to attract their support. The Project Manager s ability to carefully follow this procedure can go a long way to help him manage stakeholders for the success of the project. 3.1.3 Project requirement collection Requirements are those things that define deliverables and that the project manager should discover before planning. It helps define the product or service that constitutes the deliverable of the project and is the basis to determine what is really the needs of the client of the project. Being able to clearly identify project requirement indicates that the sponsor and provider, in this case, the project manager clearly understands what result the project should produce. It takes both the sponsor and the project manager to identify those requirements. It is important that as a project manager, you are able to clearly identify what the true needs of the client are from his or her wants. This can be done by using requirement gathering tools such as prototyping, interviews, facilitated workshops, group creativity techniques, group decisionmaking techniques, questionnaires and surveys, observations, and business cases. 30

3.1.4 Developing Project Objective The purpose of developing project objective is to clearly define the end product or result of the project by defining it in such a way that everybody (stakeholders) understands it the way it is. One way of doing this is to use the SMART strategy. The acronym SMART stands for: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Oriented. Specific: Specific seeks to answers the questions what is to be done, and how will you know it is done? It is also meant to describe the results of the work to be done and description is written in such a way that anyone reading the objective will most likely interpret it the same way. Measurable: Measurable answers the question how will you know it meets expectations of the stakeholders? As well as defines the objective using evaluative terms such as quantity, quality, frequency, costs, and deadlines, etc. It refers to the extent to which something can be evaluated against certain standards. Achievable: Achievable answers the questions can the person doing the work do it? Does the person have the experience, knowledge or capability of fulfilling the expectation? It also answers the question can it be done giving the time frame and resources? Relevant: Relevant answers the questions, should it be done and why, and what will be the impact? Is the objective aligned with the organization s strategic plans? Time-oriented: Time-oriented answers the question, when will it be done? It refers to the fact that an objective has end points and check points built into it. This gives the project manager and his team a sense of urgency in the whole project (Wysocki, 2009). Seeking answers to these questions helps the project manager determine whether or not the project is feasible and that it should be carried out or not. 31

3.2. Project Planning Process Group According to Wysocki, the planning process group includes all processes related to answering the question how will you do it? (Wysocki, 2009, p. 29). These processes are as follows: Defining all of the tasks in the project, estimating how long it will take to complete each tasks and the entire project, estimating the resources required to complete the work, estimating the total cost of the work, sequencing the work, building the initial project schedule, analyzing and adjusting the project schedule, writing a risk management plan, documenting the project plan, gaining senior management approval to launch the project (Wysocki, 2009). In their fifth edition, the PMI describes the planning process group as those processes performed to establish the total scope of the effort, define and refine the objectives, and develop the course of action required to attain those objectives (PMI, 2013, p. 55). This process helps develop the project management plan and the project documents that will be used to carry out the entire project work. This means that the planning Process Group is use to determine the strategy that will enable a successful completion of the project. The planning process group produces the project management plan and other project documents as an output which contains the details of the project scope, time, cost, quality, communications, human resources, risks, procurements, and stakeholder engagement. However, as the actual implementation takes place, it is likely that the initial plan will change which requires necessary updates to suite the intended result. It is important therefore, that at this stage the project manager and his/her team involve all the necessary stakeholders for the purposes of getting as much requirements as possible from them. By so doing the stakeholders are most likely to accept the end product or result as they will be aware of what the project is likely going to produce. The project plan needs approval from the appropriate authorities to enable it proceeds to the execution stage. 32

3.3. Project Execution Process Group The PMI defines the execution process group as those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project specifications. This Process Group involves coordinating people and resources, managing stakeholder expectations, as well as integrating and performing the activities of the project in accordance with the project management plan (PMI, 2013, p. 56). It is at this stage that many changes do occur to the initial project plan which requires the necessary updates to meet the project specifications. This includes changes to expected activity durations, changes in resource productivity and availability, and unanticipated risks. These changes usually affects the project management plan in such a way that it may require further analysis and actions which can lead to a change to the project plan. It is worth noting that, it is at this stage that the major part of expenses of the project occurs and the responses to the new changes affect the deliverables of the project negatively or positively depending on how the project manager response to those changes. 3.4. Project monitoring and controlling process group The Project Management Institute in their fifth edition defines, the monitoring and controlling process group as those processes required to track, review, and orchestrate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes (PMI, 2013, p. 57). By monitoring and controlling the project, the project manager is able to identify all deviations from the project management plan and take corrective measures so as to meet the intended end product or result. This process group consists of: Controlling changes by recommending corrective or preventive action in anticipation of possible problems, 33

Monitoring and comparing the ongoing project tasks against the project management plan and the project performance measurements, and Influencing those factors that could circumvent integrated change control or configuration management so only approved changes are implemented (PMI, 2013). The monitoring and controlling process gives the project manager and the project team a holistic picture about the project, helping them identify the areas that demand major attention and where there is the likelihood that the project may inter into problems, corrective or preventive actions are taken to bring the project into compliance with the project management plan. Again, this can result in updating of the project management plan which may require approval from the necessary stakeholders. 3.5. Project Closing Process Group This is the final stage of a project where all the necessary activities are carried out across all the project management process groups to officially bring the project to an end. This is done to make sure that all the defined activities are completed within all the process groups to formally conclude that the project is complete. The PMI identified the following as the activities perform to bring a project to a closure: Obtain acceptance by the customer or sponsor to formally close the project or phase. Conduct post-project or phase-end review. Record impacts of tailoring to any process. Document lessons learned. Apply appropriate updates to organizational process assets. 34

Archive all relevant project documents in the project management information system (PMIS) to be used as historical data, Close out all procurement activities ensuring termination of all relevant agreements, and Perform team members assessments and release project resources (PMI, 2013). The above processes are done irrespective of whether or not the project was fully completed. In instances where there is termination or conciliation of a project the necessary closing procedure must be taken to document the reasons why the project was terminated. 3.6. Project Management Knowledge Areas As I mentioned earlier, the PMI in their fifth edition identified ten project management knowledge areas that project managers should be familiar with in order to carry out their projects successfully. These are: Project Integration Management, Project Scope Management, Project Time Management, Project Cost Management, Project Quality Management, Project Human Resources Management, Project Communications Management, Project Risk Management, Project Procurement Management, and Project Stakeholder Management. For the purposes of this work, our discussions will be focused on project integration, scope, time, cost, and risk. However, that is by no means to undermine the importance of other knowledge areas in project management (PMI, 2013). Chapter 4. Project Integration Management. Project integration management is a project management knowledge area that includes the processes and activities needed to identify, define, combine, unify, and coordinate the various processes and project management activities within the process groups. It involves making choices regarding resource allocation, making trade-offs between and among competing objectives and alternatives, and managing the interdependencies among the knowledge areas. This includes activities needed to manage project documents to ensure consistency with the 35

project management plan and the overall project objective. According to the PMI (2013) Project Integration Management includes the following processes, Develop project charter Develop project management plan Direct and manage project execution Monitor and control project work Perform integrated change control Close project or phase. 4.1. Developing project charter The project charter develops a document that formally authorizes a project or phase and document initial requirements that satisfy the stakeholders' needs and expectations. This is done by the project manager working with other stakeholders to create the document that formally states the project and its purpose. It documents the business needs, assumptions, constraints, and the requirements of the product, service, or result that the project is intended to achieve. It establishes agreement between the project sponsor and the performing team, which in the case of external project a formal contract is signed to that effect. For internal organizational project, the charter is still used to establish internal agreements to ensure efficient delivery. Inputs of the project charter include project statement of work, business case, agreements between requesting and performing teams, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets. 36

Tools such as expert judgment the use of individual or group with specialized knowledge in that area, which can be the project manager and his team or obtained from the organization s own units, consultants, stakeholders, professional associations, field experts, and so on. Other tools such as facilitation techniques including brainstorming, and meetings can be used. 4.2. Developing project management plan This is the documentation of the actions necessary to define, prepare, integrate, and coordinate all subsidiary plans in the project. It is an important document in project management that defines the basis of all the tasks that need to be performed in the project. It contains the following subsidiary plans according to the PMI: scope management plan, requirements management plan, schedule management plan, cost management plan, quality management plan, process improvement plan, human resource management plan, communications management plan, risk management plan, procurement management plan, stakeholder management plan, among others. It has inputs such as project charter, outputs from other processes, enterprise environmental factors, and organizational process assets. Tolls used to develop the project management plan are expert judgment and facilitation technique. 4.3. Direct and manage project. This is the act of performing the actual work in the project which is defined in the project management plan in order to attain the goal of the project. It is at this stage that the project manager takes the necessary actions to implement the defined activities in the project plan as well as the approved changes that occur in the initial plan. It is also at this moment that the project manager takes corrective and preventive actions to ensure that the project objective is achieved according to the plan. 37

During the direct and manage project process, the project performance data which contains information about the completion status of the project is also generated and communicates to the appropriate stakeholders regarding the completion status of the project. Direct and manage include but not limited to activities such as perform activities to accomplish project objectives, provide, train, and manage the team members assigned to the project; obtain, manage, and use resources including materials, tools, equipment, and facilities, establish and manage project communication channels, both external and internal to the project team, generate work performance data, such as cost, schedule, technical and quality progress, and status to facilitate forecasting, manage risks and implement risk response activities, manage stakeholders and their engagement, collect and document lessons learned and implement approved process improvement activities. Some of the tools and techniques used for direct and manage project work are: expert judgment, project management information system, and meetings among stakeholders. 4.4. Monitor and control project work Monitor and control project work is the means by which activities in the project are track, review, and regulate in order to determine the progress of the work being done to meet the performance objectives defined in the project management plan. This enables the stakeholders understand the current state of the project, whether the project is being carried out within the defined scope of the project. It involves activities such as comparing the actual performance of the project against the project management plan, assessing performance to determine whether any corrective or preventive actions are needed so that the necessary actions can be taken, identifying new risks and analyzing them to enable appropriate response being taking, maintaining an accurate, timely information base concerning the project s result. It is also about providing information about progress and status, providing forecasts to update current cost and current schedule, and monitoring implementation of approved changes. Tools and techniques used are: Expert judgment, meetings, analytical techniques, and project management information system. 38

4.5. Perform integrated change control Perform integrated change control is the process of reviewing all change requests, approve changes, and manage changes to the Project Management Plan. It enable the responsible individual such as the project manager or the project sponsor or in the case where there is change control board to review and consider all requested changes by any stakeholder and either approve or reject them. It is important to note that these changes if approved affect other aspects of the project such as cost, time, resources as well as the quality of the end result and therefore could result in changes in the entire project management plan leading to changes in the overall objective of the project. Hence it should be done with caution by the responsible person. Some tools and techniques used for integrated change control are expert judgment and, meetings. 4.6. Close project or phase This is the act of finalizing all activities across all of the process groups to formally bring the project to an end. It involves activities such as documenting the lessons learned, formally ending all project work as well as releasing resources of the project for other projects or activities (PMI, 2013). It is at this stage that the work being done is measured against the project plan to ensure that all the planned works were carried out. It is worth noting that, this process is done even if the project was terminated to justify why the project has to be terminated. All documented lessons are archived for future reference and it becomes asset to the organization. Tools and techniques used to close project or phase are Expert judgment, analytical techniques, and meetings among the appropriate stake holders. Chapter 5. Project Scope Management. Project scope refers to all the work involved in creating the product, service or result of the project and the processes used to create them. In their 2006 edition, IPMA defined project scope 39

as setting the project boundaries so far as the project deliverables are concern and this done by way of trying to identify in details, all the works to be done as compares to project initiation stage, in order to give clearer view about the entire project (IPMA, 2006, p. 58). Project scope management therefore includes all the processes involved in defining and controlling what is or is not included in a project. The main objective of scoping the project is to ensure that the project team and stakeholders have the same understanding of what product, service or result will be produced by the project and what processes will be used in achieving that goal. These processes include the following: Scope planning: Deciding how the scope will be defined, verified, and controlled. Scope definition: Reviewing the project charter and preliminary scope statement and adding more information as requirements are developed and change requests are approved. Creating the work breakdown structure (WBS): Subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller, more manageable components. Scope verification: Formalizing acceptance of the project scope. Scope control: Controlling changes to project scope as and when they occur (PMI, 2013). 5.1. Scope management plan. The scope management plan is a document that includes descriptions of all the activities needed to complete in the project, creation of the WBS, verify completion of the project deliverables, and control requests for changes to the project scope. The key inputs in this process include the project charter, preliminary scope statement, and project management plan. Tools and Techniques for scope planning include standards, meetings as well as expert judgment. 40

5.2. Project scope definition Project scope definition is the process of developing a more detailed description of the project s product, service or result. The main purpose of the scope definition is to clearly describe the boundaries of the project taking into account the requirements from all the stakeholders in the project. Clearly describing the boundaries and getting the stakeholders agreeing to it is very important. Therefore, the defined scope of the project usually included in the contractual agreements between the sponsor and the service provider in the case of external projects. Even in internal projects this is still import between the sponsor and the project team. In the project scope definition, it is important that the elements within the scope and out of the scope are well defined in order to clearly understand what should be under the project control. Hence, it is important the project manager and his team identify more elements in detailed and divide them between what is within scope and out of scope. Project scope statement is the document use for this purpose. The preliminary scope statement, project charter, organizational process assets, and approved change requests provide a basis for creating the project scope statement. Tools and techniques used for scope definition are expert judgment, product analysis, alternatives generation, and facilitated workshops (PMI, 2013). 5.3. Work breakdown structure The work breakdown structure (WBS) is a deliverable-oriented grouping of the work involved in a project that defines the total scope of the project. According to Kerzner, a WBS is a productoriented family tree subdivision of the hardware, services, and data required to produce the end product (Kerzner, 2003, P.396). This family tree structure tries to capture all the work of the project in an organized way into tasks that are defined, estimated and tracked. 41

It is a fundamental document that provides the basis for planning and managing project schedules, costs, resources, and changes. The root of the tree is labeled by the name of the problem or opportunity to be addressed. Project scope statement and project management plan are the main input for creating a WBS and it serves as input to the following key project management activities: Cost estimation and budgeting, resource planning, risk management planning, and activity definition. Tools and techniques used for work breakdown structure are decomposition, and expert judgment and it has output such as scope baseline and project documents updates. The scope baseline contains project documents such as project statement of work and the WBS dictionary. The WBS dictionary contains detailed information about deliverables, activities, and scheduling information of each component in the WBS. The following information are contained in the WBS dictionary: code of account identifier, description of work, assumptions and constraints, responsible organization, schedule milestones, associated schedule activities, resources required, cost estimates, quality requirements, acceptance criteria, technical references, and agreement information. (PMI, 2013). See figure below for a simple WBS of a house project. 42

Figure 7. Example of WBS of a simple house project. Source: (Norman, Brotherton, Fried, 2008. P.30) 5.4. Validate Scope This is the process of formalizing acceptance of the completed project deliverables. This is to ensure that a product, service, or result meets the needs of the sponsor or customer and other identified stakeholders in the project. It is important to note the difference between validate scope and quality control. Whiles validation of scope is concerned with acceptance of deliverables by external entities such as the project sponsor or customer and other stakeholders, quality control is the evaluation of whether or not a product, service, or result complies with a regulation, requirement, or specification, which is purely internal process. Some of the tools use for this process is inspection group decision-making techniques 43

5.5. Project Scope Control The project scope control is the process of influencing the factors that brings about project scope changes by way of controlling the impact of those factors. This is to ensure that all requested changes and recommended corrective actions are processed through the project integrated change control process. Scope control manages the actual changes to the scope management plan so as to reduce or eliminate project scope 'creep' - adding more features to the already approved project scope as a result of poor requirement collection (Wysocki, 2009, p. 13). Tools and techniques used for scope control are change control systems, configuration management, and variance analysis - technique for determining the cause and degree of difference between the baseline and actual performance. Chapter 6. Project Time Management Project time management is one of the most if not the most important aspects in project management since it forms the bases upon which all activities in the project are scheduled. It is the process of planning and controlling the amount of time needed to finish a specific activity in a project. That means that, it includes both planning and controlling components of project management. The planning component provides time estimation for both the duration of a project activities, that is, how long will it take in terms of clock time to complete the task, and the actual effort or labor time required to complete the task. The duration is used to estimate the total time needed to complete the project (Wysocki, 2009). It means that, project time management is about scheduling the activities in the project in order to determine when an activity will have to start and finish, and the resources needed to complete that activity. The most important thing in project time management is how the scheduling is done. In their 2006 edition, the Association for Project Management defines project schedule as the process used to determine the overall project duration and when activities and events are planned to happen. This includes identification of activities and their logical dependencies, and estimation 44

of activity durations, taking into account requirements and availability of resources (APM, 2006, p. 36). Project scheduling takes into account issues such as the entire duration needed to complete the project, the early and late start dates i.e. earliest and latest date that an activity can start and finish without delaying the completion of the project, float or slack which is the time an activity can be delayed without delaying the entire project completion. The PMI in their fifth edition identified seven time management processes that can be followed for a successful completion of a project. These are: Plan Schedule Management: The process of establishing the policies, procedures, and documentation for planning, developing, managing, executing, and controlling the project schedule. Define activities: This is the process of identifying and documenting the specific actions to be performed to produce the project deliverables. Sequence activities: The process of identifying and documenting relationships among the project activities. Estimate activity Resources: The process of estimating the type and quantities of material, human resources, equipment, or supplies required to perform each activity. Estimate activity Durations: The process of estimating the number of work periods needed to complete individual activities with estimated resources. Develop schedule: The process of analyzing activity sequences, durations, resource requirements, and schedule constraints to create the project schedule model. Control schedule: The process of monitoring the status of project activities to update project Progress and manage changes to the schedule baseline to achieve the plan (PMI, 2013) 45

By carefully following these processes, the project manager is able to come up with a plan such as network diagrams like the CPM, or PERT both of which try to capture the sequential and parallel relationships among project activities (Lewis, 2007, p.71), and shows the interdependencies of the activities in the project. This is used as a guide to the project manager and his team to carry out the project work. 6.1. Network Diagrams Network diagrams are important tools which are used to show the sequence in which project works are carried out. It tries to show which activity needs to be performed before which, and how certain activities depends on the others. Examples below show activity-on-node, and activity-on-arrow diagrams. Figure 8A. Activity-on-node. 46

Figure 8B. Activity-on-arrow Source: (Lewis, 2007, p. 72). In activity-on-node above, task A is done before B, and B is done before D, while Task C is done in parallel with A and B. The work is shown as a box or node, and the arrows show the sequence in which the work is performed. Events are not shown in activity-on-node networks unless they are milestones - points in the project at which major portions of the work are completed (Lewis, 2007, p. 72). In the case of activity-on-arrow notation, the arrow represents the work being done and the circle represents an event. An event is binary; that is, it has either occurred or it has not whiles an activity, on the other hand, can be partially complete. These diagrams aid the project manager to estimate the project in terms of time as to when an activity is to be completed as well as duration of the entire project completion. Network diagrams helps the project manager to determine the critical path, which is defined as the longest series of activities (that cannot be done in parallel) and which therefore determine how early the project can be completed. Because the critical path has no slack, all activities on the critical path must be completed as scheduled, otherwise, the end date will begin to slip which can delay the entire project. 6.2. Critical Path analysis As mentioned earlier, the critical path in a project is the longest series of activities (that cannot be done in parallel) and which therefore determine how early the project can be completed. This means that activities that fall within the critical path must be given more attention as a delay in 47

any of them will cause delay in the entire project completion, hence it is important that at all times, the project manager knows which activities falls within the critical path. This is done by determine the earliest start time (EST) and the latest start time (LST) of each activity. The difference between the EST and LST is the float or slack - the time for which any of the activities in the project can be delayed without affecting the duration of the whole project completion. Firstly, all activities in the project must be identified and the determination of which activity depends on which. With the completion date of the entire project in mind, which is almost always dictated by the project sponsor, the project manager tries to assign duration (for which an activity can be completed) to all activities identified in the project, then try to know the earliest possible date that an activity can start as well as the latest possible date that an activity can start by doing forward-pass and backward-pass analysis. For example, if we want to know the earliest possible time that a current activity can start, we start from the starting node which is always start from time zero and add it to duration of the current activity and that gives us the EST for that activity. In the same manner, if we want to calculate the LST of a current activity, which we usually start from the finishing node, we take the LST of the finish node and substrate the duration of the activity and that gives us the LST for that activity. Having calculated the EST and the LST for each activity in the project, the project manager is able to determine the float by subtracting the EST from the LST of each activity. Activities with zero float or slack indicate the critical path in the project where there can be no delay in those activities. 48

Figure 9. Example of critical path of a project, Source: (Lock, 2007, p. 199). Chapter 7. Project Cost Management Project cost management is one of the most important aspects in project management that require much attention since its mishandling can lead the project into a complete failure. It can affect the end result by either not meeting the performance requirement set by the sponsor or a total cancelation of the entire project if not carefully managed. It is the process of estimating how much the whole project will cost by breaking down the project into component and determining the cost (Mintzer, 2002). This is done by taking into account the entire scope of the project i.e. all the activities needed to be done in the whole project, the materials and equipment involve as well as the labor factors. In his 2009 edition, Kerzner identified some tools and techniques that can be used for project budgeting which includes Recent experience in similar work Professional and reference material 49

Market and industry surveys Knowledge of the operations and processes Estimating software and databases if available Interviews with subject matter experts (Kerzner, 2009). There are two ways that a project budget can be plan according to Mintzer. It can be done either be top down or bottom up budgeting. The top down budgeting is the one which start the estimation of the entire project and then allocate funds to the various areas of the project or from the top management to the lower-level managers. Example could be that of big project from large corporations or government budget for a certain ministry (Mintzer, 2002) On the other hand, bottom up budgeting is a budget is the one which start from the team members of the project and the works they need to do taking into consideration other miscellaneous and make the estimation through to the total budget. The latter is commonly use in smaller project like that of NGO s as it is able to give the project manager a clearer view as to how much the whole project will cost knowing all the tasks that needs to be performed in the project This means that, in order to make a good budget for a project, it is important that the project manager is able to identify all the requirements in the project so that the scope of the project is clearly defined. Failure to identify some items in the project can have negative implications on the project since their acquisition price may be increased as the time draws close as compare to that of those which were adequately researched before purchased or hired. 50

8. Project Risk Management Risk is the unforeseen circumstances that are inherent in human activities which project management is no exception. This may appear to be a broader definition encompassing all human endeavors, in the context of project management; risk can be defined as the uncertainties that may negatively affect the project by challenging the project s constraints or parameters (Mintzer, 2002, p.158). This can result in loss of time, money, labor, or the project as a whole. However, risk can have a positive influence in project as well. At the project level, this may be the development of new capabilities by the organization as a result of the project or unexpected uses for the project outcome. At the task level, an early finish may result in the opportunity for another activity to start early, or for the development of a better way of completing that task (Maylor, 2010, p.219). The unique nature of project makes risk an import aspect which needs to be managed if the project is to be successful. Project manager s ability to identify, assesses, and manages project risks will have a profound impact on the result of the project. Project risk can stem out form within the project, i.e. internal risks which are those uncertainties associated with project time, cost, and quality, or from outside the project, external project risks, which are usually environmental issues. Risk management can be divided into three main components: risk identification, risk assessment, and risk responses. This helps in the analysis by identifying, quantifying and finding a way to manage those risks. 8.1. Project Risk Identification According to Maylor, project risk identification is the process of predicting the key risk outcomes indicators that something is going wrong in a project (Maylor, 2010, p.220). Internal aspects to be looked at when identifying project risks are project time, cost, and quality. Project activities should be analyze in order to identify the critical path in the whole project so that the activities 51

can be managed for a successful result. Mintzer identified the following as some of the causes of risks stemming out from project time: Poor estimation of task durations or the duration of the entire project Improper determination of activity dependencies Not allowing proper time in scheduling for monitoring and testing. There are other risks associated with project cost which includes: improper estimate of cost for resources, uncontrolled spending, etc. others can include: wrong person assigning to a task, and poor communication among team members (Mintzer, 2002, p.171). The cost, if badly estimated can have serious consequences on the project, since underestimation for instance can mean low quality of a project or can result in a complete failure of the whole project. Quality assurance in project process and activities is important to its success. For instance, if some deliverables in the project are being outsource from external suppliers, there is the possibility that such deliverable may not meet the required standard of the project. Apart from these internal risks, there can be other external factors such as legal and health and safety risk issues which requires management effort. Tools and techniques that can be used in risk management include brainstorming among team members, seeking consultants advice, as well as meetings among the appropriate stakeholders. 8.2. Risk assessment This is the process of analyzing the identified risks in the project in order to determine their level of impact on the project. This is by way of assessing the likelihood of that event occurring and its impact on the project by trying to seek answer to questions such as: Is the risk it going to be critical will it cause a total failure of one or more parts of a project? Major will it hold up or increase costs in one or more areas? Minor will it cause inconvenience but not set the project back financially or in time? (Mintzer, 2010, p.23). 52

There are a number of ways by which project risk assessment can be done including qualitative and quantitative analysis. Quantitative risk analysis though minimally used in risk assessment, is the use of mathematical method to determine the likelihood of an event occurring. This takes the form of numerical calculations such as percentage of probability that an event occurring. Qualitative analysis on the other hand, is the determination of the likelihood or the probability of an event occurring and the level of its impact on the project which can be rated as low, medium, or high. This can be done using probability impact chart. See example below. Figure 10. Probability/impact chart. Source: (Maylor, 2010, p.223) Those elements with high probability and impact are critical risk elements that can cause a complete failure in the whole project and therefore need proactive measures such as mitigation to manage. The elements with high probability and medium impact are major and need to be monitored and some actions to manage. And elements with medium probability and low impact or vice versa can be monitored with minimal attention. 8.3. Risk Responses Having identified the risk elements to be managed, some measures are required in order to ensure that the likelihood of those eventualities occurring is reduced or somehow mitigated. This can 53

take the form of corrective action, contingency plans, and reserves. For instance, the risk of a critical activity running late can be reduced either through reduction in the scale of the activity or by ensuring that there is sufficient buffer at the end of the project to deal with the outcome the project being delayed (Maylor, 2010, p. 222). Organizations can avoid project risk by outsourcing foreign contractors to perform certain activities in the project just to transfer the risk aspect of those activities to those contractors, or it can take an insurance policy to cover those risk aspects in the project. Organizations can also conduct some limited trails to ensure that the plan is feasible. 54

Chapter 9. Project management in the NGO sector: A case study of Business Development by Women in Progress Ghana Introduction Project management in the NGO sector is not different from those that are performed by profitoriented organizations. They also face resources constraints which needs some management effort to enable successful results. The generic application of project management tools and techniques is therefore important to NGOs if their projects are to yield good results, and more so since they more often than not depend on donor funds to perform their activities. Therefore, these limited resources need efficient and effective management to enable successful achievements in project goals. This case study is set to analyze a project that was carried out by a Ghanaian based NGO, Women in Progress. The goal of the project was to develop bookkeeping and marketing skills of a group of twenty dress-making women who manage their own small businesses but have little or no knowledge regarding bookkeeping as well as marketing of their products. To achieve this, a one month intensive training was organized by the NGO to that effect. Even though this project was like any other project that is carried out by profit oriented organizations, incidentally, it was carried out by an NGO. The thesis focuses on how the NGO carried out the project, from the project s initiation through planning to its closing processes and the methodology applied to achieve the objectives of the project, i.e. the tools and techniques used from project management point of view. This is done by a close comparison of the methodology used by the NGO to the reviewed literatures in the first part of this work. This will give us a holistic view as to how effective these tools and techniques were applied by the NGO to attain the goal of the project. More attention will be paid to how scope, time, cost, and risk were managed to achieve the objectives of the project. In the end, a short recommendation will be made as to how the NGO can improve upon future projects. 55

9.1. Brief background of the NGO Women in Progress is a Non-Governmental Organization which was founded in Ghana in September, 2002 by two American peace corps who had been in the country for their volunteer work. The objective of the NGO is to achieve economic independence for women and alleviate poverty at the grassroots level in Ghana through sustainable growth of small women-owned businesses. The NGO believes that the best way to improve the standard of living for those living in poverty especially women is by introducing innovative solutions to expand women-owned businesses in order to generate new jobs and increase income levels for them. It is against this background that the NGO embarked on this project under review. 9.2. The Project Initiation This is the first stage in the project after the NGO recognized the need to embark on the project to help develop marketing and bookkeeping skills of a group of twenty dress-making women. This includes the process of recruiting the project manager who was tasked to help in defining the main objectives of the project, defining the initial scope of the project, identifying the stakeholders, as well as collecting the requirements of the project. The project was to last for one month. The objective was to train the group on good bookkeeping as well as how to effectively market their product. The project team was made up of a group of volunteers from across the world having accounting and marketing background and participating in the NGO s professional internship program in Ghana. 9.2.1. Identification of stakeholders The project stakeholders were individuals and organizations that were actively involved in the project, or had interest in the result of project. As discussed in the theoretical part of the thesis, there are three major steps in doing project stakeholders analysis: identification of all stakeholders in the project, classification of these identified stakeholders in the stakeholder 56

power/interest grid in order to know the most important stakeholders, and finally the Project Manager s understanding of the key stakeholders requirements and their likely reactions to the project as well as how to manage those needs to get their support for the project. The stakeholders in this project included the NGO itself, which is also the sponsor of the project, the group of twenty dress-making women, who were the main beneficiaries of the project, the project fund contributors which was made up of private individuals, institutions, organizations, and other companies that were interested in the project, the suppliers who supplied the needed materials and facilities for the execution of the project, the government of Ghana which is interested in seeing its citizens strengthen their businesses so that they pay taxes for national development, the media: report on the project, other dress-making women who were interested in the project and would also like to benefit from the same project in the future, as well as the general public. See the table below for the various stakeholders in this project. Table 2. Project stakeholders Project stakeholder Stakeholder s role Classification 1. The NOG To help the women acquire the It is an internal key necessary skills for their stakeholder in the project and businesses the brain behind the project. 2. The project team To impact good bookkeeping Internally key stakeholder. and marketing skills on the women 3. The trainees To receive the ever needed knowledge they require to Internal key stakeholders, they are the main beneficiaries of undertaking their business the project activities. 4. Fund contributors To provide the funds needed They are core external to enable the project to be stakeholders; They are effected. responsible for the financing aspect of the project. 5. Suppliers To make the needed facilities Suppliers are core external 57

and materials available for the stakeholders; they are project. responsible for the project supplies. 6. Government (local and To provide the enabling Rest of the world. national) environment for the project to take place and is interested in its citizens acquiring the needed skills to carry out their business activities so as to create jobs as well as pay taxes. 7. The media To cover the project and make Potential core external it result and impact public. stakeholder, it will broadcast the news about the project. 8. Other dress-making They want to see the success Rest of the world women of the project and would like to benefit from same in future. 9. The general public The public is interested in the Rest of the world success of trainees which will enhance their business thereby creating more jobs. Source: http://www.womeninprogress.org/ 9.2.2. The Project Requirements Collection The requirements are those things that define deliverables and that they should be identified before the project planning phase. It helps define the service that constitutes the deliverable of the project and is the basis to determine what really the needs of the project are. In this project the requirements were collected by the project manager who was also one of the main founders of the NGO which was undertaking the project and her team in collaboration with the NGO, the Trainees and other stakeholders. Taking into account the scarcity of financial resources in the 58

project, the requirements were limited to the very things that were to help finishing the project in the most effective and efficient way, according to the project report. These requirements included: renting of an internet café, where the training was to take place, a projector for power point presentation of the prepared topics by the trainers, hand written note books, markers, and pens for the trainees and trainers, determination of topics to be covered in the training, registration of trainees, the number of days and hours that the training was to last in a week, how a trainee will be given a makeup training in case of absent due to ill health for example, as well as certificates to be awarded to trainees after the training period. The project manager and her team were expected to Designed, Planned, organize, coordinate, monitor, and evaluate the project, as well as report to the sponsor on weekly bases regarding the progress of the project. Project manager was also expected to efficiently utilize the resources committed in the project in order to successfully achieve the goal of the project. Sponsor was required to solicit and make funds and other resources available on time for a successful completion of the project. Trainers and trainees were expected to fully participate in the project throughout the duration in order to fully cover the topics to be discussed in the project. Trainees were expected to know how to document details of transactions of their business activities using excel application at the end of the project. The training was conducted in the form of lectures and discussions with trainees giving the opportunity to ask questions. Tools used in the requirements collections included brainstorming among team members, group decision making among appropriate stakeholders, as well as expect judgment by the project manager and her team. 9.3. The Project Planning Project planning was the most important process in the whole project since inadequate planning could put the project in jeopardy. A careful planning smooth s the project realization within time and cost and helps to meet performance expectations of the project s stakeholders. This project was intended to equip the trainees with the necessary skills to run and expand their businesses 59

within the project cost, time and the resources available. This constitutes detailed planning of the project scope, schedule, costs, stakeholders, communications and procurement. The success of the project is largely depends on how these elements are managed taking into account which of these elements demands more attention given the nature of the project being undertaking. In this project much attention will be paid to cost, time and how the resources were managed to get the job done. 9.3.1. The Project Scope Definition This is the work that needed to be accomplished to deliver the result of the project. The scope in this project was set to cover all the necessary activities that will help finishing the project in the most effective and efficient manner according to the project report. The objective was to equip the trainees with the skills necessary to maintain good bookkeeping regarding their business activities using excel software, as well as good marketing strategies that will help them expand their businesses. The scope of the project was defined to include the following activities: Estimation of how much the whole project will cost, Determining how many days training will take place in a week and how long each lesson was supposed to last Determining the number of trainers that will present the topics of the training. Assigning responsibilities to project team members Securing the necessary materials and facilities for the project such as projector that will be used for power point presentation by trainers, renting an internet café where training will take place, procuring of hand written note books, markers, and pens to be used by trainees and trainers. Deciding on how a makeup lessons will be organized in case of ill health of a trainee Design and prepare the topics to be taught and discussed in the training by the project 60

manager and her team, presenting training topics, monitoring training, reporting training progress, and assessing trainees. Deciding on how trainees will be assessed at the end of training in order to know their understanding of the whole project. Preparation of certificates to be awarded to the trainees after the project. All these sub plans constituted the project management plan, which was to guide the project manager and her team to execute the project. Tools and techniques used in scoping the project included brainstorming among project manager and her team members, as well as meetings among the appropriate stakeholders in the project. 9.3.2. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) In this project, the works that were necessary for the implementation of the project as defined in the project scope were decomposed and presented in a manner that was to give the project manager and her team a clearer understanding of the deliverables in the whole project. The project team which was made up of the project manager, three accounting and two marketing graduates were divided into two groups to handle the entire training. The accounting group was to take the trainees through the bookkeeping lectures. Topics to be covered included teaching the trainees to understand what is good bookkeeping, what their assets and their liabilities are, how to sort all transactions into income and expenses, what are their receivables and payables, keeping all transactions in date order, how to determine profit or loss by comparing total income and expenses, and how to calculate and honor their tax obligations etc. The marketing group was also tasked to teach the trainees the best ways to market their products taking into account the needs of their customers. These will include the need to create a simple website to market their product, putting online videos and photos of their products, how and why they should spend more time on their existing customers, pay more attention to their new and potential customers and make follow ups on their customers in the form of phone calls, messages, 61

emails etc. according to the project report. However, it is important to mention that the creation of a website for the advertising of trainee s products as mentioned earlier was out of scope of the project, they were only to be taught the importance of marketing their products online. 9.4. The Project Time As define earlier in the literature review, project time management is the process of planning and controlling the amount of time needed to finish a specific activity in a project work. In this project, information for the project time management was drawn from the WBS as the main activities needed to be performed to get the project completed successfully. The project was scheduled to be completed in one month with trainees attending lectures five days in a week (Monday-Friday) and will last for four hours. However, given the nature of the work of the trainees (being the owners and managers of their businesses with limited time during the day), lectures were scheduled to be taken place in the evening from 6pm to 10pm. This was because, during the day time, they were busy doing their work as some of them had no full-time employees to assist them in their absence. That means that, each trainee was to attend twenty lectures which were divided into two. The first fifteen lectures were dedicated for the bookkeeping training and the last five lectures for marketing. This was mainly because some of the trainees had little or no computer background and given that fact that excel was the main tool for the bookkeeping training, it required a lot of time, according to the report. It was also planned as a matter of contingency that in case of some reasons such as ill health of a trainee, a makeup lesson will be organized separately for that person so as to enable her catch up with her colleagues and that will take place during the weekends same time as the usual training. It is worth noting that, there was no proper project scheduling in this project as compare to what is discussed in the theoretical part of this thesis. The project was planned based on the number of days that in the opinion of project manager was needed to complete all the activities. As we shall see later in the analytical part, there were three days for the preparation of topics to be discussed, 62

procuring of the necessary materials and renting the training venue, and 20 days for lectures with fifteen for bookkeeping and five for marketing. 9.5. The initial Project Budget. The project budget was based on the necessary activities that were needed to be performed in order to effectively and efficiently complete the project according to the project manager. Having taking all the requirements in the project into account, the total budget of the project was estimated to be GH 6,500, equivalent to 2,708 ( 1 = GH 2.4(+/-)).(Note: Exchange rate was the prevailing rate at the time of the project, September, 2012, and does not reflect the current rate in the country). Due to funding challenges and the fact that the team members were mainly volunteers, the project budget was limited to the very things that were to help achieve the objective of the project, according to the project report. The budget was to cover the renting and usage of computers of an internet café, transportation cost of trainers to and from their office and the training center, note books, pens and markers to be used by both trainees and trainers, a projector for the power point presentation of the prepared slides by trainers, handouts to be used by trainees as a reference material, certificates to be awarded to trainees, small snacks for refreshment after each session and miscellaneous for petty unidentified items which may be needed as and when they may come up. The budget also took into account a makeup training that will be given to a trainee in case of absence due to unforeseen circumstances. See the table below for the breakdown of the total project budget. Table.3. Initial project budget estimate Activity Name Description Quantity Estimate ( in GH ) 1. Facility for training Renting of internet 4hours/day * 20 GH 2,400 63

café with computers. 2. Projector Purchasing of a 1 piece GH 1,800 projector for power point presentation 3. Transportation cost Transportation of 20 days GH 600 trainers from their office to training center 4. Handouts Handouts as learning 27 copies GH 100 material for trainees 5. Certificates To be awarded to 20 pieces GH 200 trainees 6. Snacks Small refreshment for 20 days GH 600 trainees and trainers after each session 7. Other expenses GH 480 (telephone bills, other transportation cost) 8. Miscellaneous Miscellaneous to cover GH 320 unidentified petty items as and when they may come up Total GH 6,500 Source: project report, http://www.womeninprogress.org/. 9.6. Project Risk Planning This is the uncertainties that can negatively affect the project by challenging the project s 64

parameters. It was noted that, there was no proper risk analysis done in this project. As we shall see later in the analytical part, this was one of the reasons why the project was delayed since certain risk elements were not identified by the project manager. The only risk assumptions made were that, the required funds needed to carry out the project may be delayed which may also delay the completion of the project or even affect the quality of the required performance of the project result as some of the responses to the fund raising were only promises. According to the project report, some fund contributors wanted to see plans far advanced before committing financial resources. It was also assumed that some volunteers may not turn out as general elections in the country were approaching for fear of political instability even though the country had witnessed successful elections in the past. There was assumption that, some trainees may be absent and there was the need to plan for a makeup training in that case. Other positive assumptions were that, trainees will acquire the necessary skills needed for their businesses by the close of the project. 9.7. Project Realization As mentioned earlier, the project was planned to last for one month (20 lectures) with a budget of GH 6,500. The project execution took place as scheduled with all the defined activities performed to meet the objective of the project. However, this did not go according to the initial plan as the project manager and her team needed four more days to enable them complete the training. This automatically affected the initial budget as was planned. 9.8. Project Result The objective of the project was to develop bookkeeping and marketing skills of a group of twenty women within the initial scope, time, and cost of the project. This objective was achieved as the report indicates that at the end of the project, all the women were able to record their business transactions with excel. The report also shows that they were able to increase sales considerably after the project. However, this successful result came not without an extra cost. 65

9.9. Analysis of the Project Planning and Realization The analysis of this project focuses on the planning, the realization as well as the result, taking into account the generic application of project management methods in the whole processes. This will help us understand the factors that caused the delay in the realization of the project as compare to the initial plan and how those challenges were handled to achieve the goal of the project. This project was supposed to be a very small and simple one which was to be completed within one month with the budget not so much, the realization of the project did not go as was planned and that will be a keen interest to be looked at, by trying to figure out what might have cause those difficulties like those that are more often than not encountered by big projects perform in some profit-oriented organizations. The general environment of the project was conducive. Socially, the people are development oriented and so the general response to the NGO s appeal for funds to embark on the project was positive as the needed fund was raised on time. The project posted no direct treat to any individual or group who might have taken legal action against the project which could delay the entire project making the legal environment conducive for the project. The general economic environment was also good as for instance, there was no rampant inflation that could have interrupted the budget of the project, and even if there was, the time was too short for any serious adverse inflationary influence on the project. Politically, the general atmosphere was favorable for the project to be carried out. Many activities of NGOs usually don t get the support of their governments especially in countries where the government sees the project as an exposure of its weakness to help its citizens. However this project did get full support of the government of Ghana making the project to be carried out without any negative political influence. Technologically, the main tool for the training was the use of Excel to teach the trainees on bookkeeping, and there was available internet café with the required technology to be used for the project. 66

In spite of all those favorable factors, the project s realization faced a lot of challenges leading to a delay in the entire project. The project took more than one month as was initially planned as the project team needed four more days to enable them complete the prepared topics and award the certificates. This automatically caused a delay in the project completion and this affected the initial budget as was planned. This delay was attributed to a number of factors chiefly amongst them, lack of proper project requirement collection. The following are the factors that contributed to the delay in the project. Some major stakeholders were left out during the requirement collection process Lack of proper scheduling to enable identification of the critical activities in the project. Project manager s inability to adequately pre-assess trainees computer knowledge before planning the project Project plan did not contain adequate contingency plans in the event of unforeseen circumstance. Lack of personal computers by the trainees for practicing on their own at home. Some trainees inability to clearly understand the English language being spoken by the trainers. Project manager s involvement in the actual training left her with limited time to manage other important issues arising from the execution process of the project The project requirement collection is very important in every project including the project under review. It was realized at the execution stage that some major important stakeholders were left out during the requirement collection. According to the project manager, the manager of the internet café was not involved in the requirement collection based on which the project was planned; hence some key issues were as well left out in the planning stage. It was crucial for the project manager to know the likely challenges they could face during the training sessions as far as the provision of internet cafés services are concern. However, the café manager was not asked of such pertinent questions such as whether the café has a backup power 67

generator in case of power outage given the fact that the training was to take place in the evenings. If it had, how long does it take for them to switch to the power generator after a power outage? If no, what will be done in case of power cut? These were important questions that the project manager needed to ask and seek answers to before planning the project time. However, these issues were not raised at the requirement collection stage because; proper stakeholder analysis was not done in order to know the influence of the internet café, (the training venue) in the entire project. To enable better understanding of the various stakeholders and their needs, the list of the stakeholders as identified by the project manager and her team could be mapped on the stakeholder power/interest grid. This is by way of classifying the various stakeholders so that their influence and importance in the project are identified and managed for a successful completion of the project. See example bellow for stakeholder power/interest grid base on the above identified stakeholders Figure11. Stakeholders power/interest grid High Power Low Keep satisfied Monitor closely Suppliers The NGO Project fund contributors Project tem Trainees Monitor (minimum effort) Keep informed Other dress-making women The media The general public The government (local and national) Low Interest High Source: author The above power/interest grid shows that the NGO, the project team, and the trainees were the key stakeholders in the project and needed much closer attention so far as their needs were concern. Project fund contributors as well as the suppliers needs were also to be satisfied in order to achieve the project goals. Though their role in the project could not be undermine, the media and the government were to be informed, and some effort minimal though was needed to 68

monitor the general public as well as other dress-making women who would also like to benefit from the same project in the future. As I said earlier, though the project manager was able to identify the stakeholders in the project, there was no evidence showing that further analysis was done to know their level of interest and power over the project. For instance, there was no evidence showing that any analysis such as the stakeholder power/interest grid mapping was done to know how much power and influence each stakeholder had in the project and whose involvement in the requirement collection was necessary. This eventually led to a situation where some major important stakeholders being left out in the requirement collection process. For example, the project manager did not know the influence of the training venue on the project. This contributed to a large extent the delay of the project as soon after the kickoff of the training, there was frequent power cuts and though the internet café had a power generator, it was too old to function well since it takes too long a time for it to be started, and the backup generator itself experiences frequent breakdowns, according to the project report (http://www.womeninprogress.org/). This problem had a negative influence on the project completion since they sometimes had to stop the training halfway due to power outage leading to the entire project schedule being interrupted. It is worth noting that, the project was planned without a proper scheduling so far as project management is concern. Project activities were only divided base on what the project manager considered important and so demanded more attention. As mentioned earlier, the bookkeeping session was dedicated more time fifteen lectures probably the project manager considered it to be more time consuming. There was no proper project management method used to do so such as network diagrams to determine which activities depends on which, and which activities fall on the critical path for which much attention was needed to execute. See below example of how project time could be plan. 69

Table 4. Project scheduling Earliest Start Time (EST) Late Start Time (LST) Float Duration Critical Path EST LST NAME DURATION FLOAT Activity Precondition Duration A preparation of 3 lessons B procurement of 2 materials C Renting of venue 1 D Bookkeeping A, B, C 15 lectures E Marketing D 4 F Assessment E 1 G Awarding certificate F 1 Figure 12. Critical path analysis of the project. 0 0 A 3 0 0 0 0 1 3 3 18 18 22 22 2 3 2 3 24 2 4 Start B D E F G Finish 0 0 2 1 15 0 4 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 2 C 1 2 Source: author 70

The example above shows how the project could be planned to enable the determination of which activities depend on which as well as the critical path in the project. As we can see from the above scheduling, the project could be finished in 24 days. Critical activities in the project were A, D, E, F, and G. This means that, those activities could not be delayed since a delay in any of those activities will result in the whole project being delayed. Activities A, B, and C could be done concurrently. It is important to note that the project was planned to take place from Monday to Friday. This planned was followed in the above scheduling, however, the closing ceremony which is the certificate awarding day fell on Saturday as is usually done in Ghana. The project manager s inability to properly schedule project activities is another indication that proper project management method was not used in the planning process leading to the difficulties in the realization stage. Another major factor that negatively affected the project was the inability of the project manager to adequately pre-assess the computer knowledge of the trainees before planning the project. According to the project manager, she asked some few questions regarding the computer background of the trainees just to determine how much knowledge they had in computer usage, this was done without any proper method, such as prototyping, and the planning was based on their responses which did not reflect when the actual training started. It was later realized that, majority of the trainees had no idea about excel, hence, trainers needed to spend more time than initially planned in the first part of the training which was dedicated for bookkeeping with the use of excel. This of course affected the original project schedule plan. Furthermore, the Project plan did not contain adequate contingency plans in the event of unforeseen circumstances. The only contingency plan that was initially considered in the project was in the case of ill health of a trainee. Meanwhile, it did not consider some important issues that were likely to come up like the case of power problems discussed above which are characterized many developing nations which Ghana is not excluded. There was not enough time buffer to cater for a total cancelation of a lesson in the event of power cut or a heavy downpour which is sometimes also experience in that part of the year in the country. Again this could be attributed to that fact that, there was lack of proper project management method to enable proper planning stemming from such crucial what if questions not being asked at the project planning stage. 71

It was also noted that, lack of proper budgeting was another cause of the delay in the project. There was a major requirement that was not included in the budget due to financial constraint according to the project report. The cost of computers for each of the trainees was supposed to be factored into the project budget to ensure that trainees were well equipped for the training. According to the report, few of the trainees were able to purchase their personal computers as of the time the project was going on and it was realized that such trainees were able to comprehend what was being taught faster than those (majority) who didn t have. This automatically slowed down the project since the project was meant to help them know how to record their business transactions themselves, it was important that trainers repeat themselves as many times as possible so that issues were clearer with trainees before proceeding to the next topic. According to the project manager, they couldn t factor the cost of personal computers which they knew was going to aid the trainees practice what they had been taught at home due to limited financial resources. And because we were working within a slim budget, we could not factor that in the budget even though it could help them practice more in their free time, according to the project manager. This means that, the quality of the project was somehow compromised right from the requirement collection process as this important element was left out in the requirement collection though it was going to help achieve better result. It must be noted that, the probability of some trainees forgetting of what they have been thought within a short time is high which will require that they would have to be retrain by the time they will be able to purchase their own computers for their business. This affirms the trade-off between cost and performance in project management. It also important to mention that, the fact that the trainees were full time self-employees and were attending lectures only in the evenings left them with little or no time at all to practice what they had been taught and that was another factor which contributed to the slow pace at which the project was going as compare to the initial plan. They might have been tired already even before training starts so there was little room for them to coup with what was being taught at lectures. Yet, another reason stated in the project report was the inability of some of the trainees to clearly understand the English language being spoken by the trainers. These were a group of women 72

whom some of them had not completed elementary school and so were struggling to understand the trainers who were mainly foreigners with foreign accent. According to the project report, it was another challenge in the project, though this was anticipated, it was quite different when the project kicked off. It was realized that some of them didn t understand what was being taught and yet were feeling shy to ask questions. It was then difficult for the trainers to smoothly conduct the training as was initially planned since they wanted to make sure that trainees understand them before they proceed. It is worth mentioning the Project manager s role in the execution of this project. She was supposed to be responsible for the managerial aspects of the project. However, it was noted that she was fully participating in the work as a trainer and her involvement in the actual training left her with limited time to manage other important issues arising from the implementation process. Her role of directing, controlling and making the necessary changes as and when they arise might have been sacrificed for the actual performance of the work. One major factor that negatively affected the project was lack of proper risk analysis in the planning of the project such as what is discussed in the theoretical part of this thesis. The only risk assumption made in this project was in the case of ill health of a trainee in the course of the training as well as some volunteers not turning out. However, there were certain important risk elements in the project that needed proper analysis. See below some risk elements in the project and their analysis. Improper budgeting Poor scheduling Poor requirement collection Lack of proper stakeholder analysis Poor pre-assessment of trainees Project manager s involvement in the project Absence of trainee, or trainer 73

Probability These risk elements could be placed on a project risk chart to enable proper analysis and better understanding of how those events occurred and their level of impact on the project. Figure 13. Risk probability/impact chart. High Medium Low Improper budgeting, Poor scheduling, Poor requirement collection, Lack of proper stakeholder analysis. Possible future re-training Absence of trainee, or Project manager s trainer involvement in the Poor pre-assessment of work trainees Low Medium High Impact Source: author From the above risk probability/impact chart, we can see that lack of proper budgeting, poor scheduling, poor requirement collection, and lack of proper stakeholder analysis were very critical since the likelihood of those events occurring were high and their impact on the project was high as well. The project manager s inability to identify those risk elements contributed to the delay of the project as they negatively influence the project time and cost. Poor pre-assessment of trainees by the project manager was also a major risk in the project and had major impact on the project realization. Absenteeism of trainee and trainers as initially identified by project manager was a minor risk and could not cause any major threat to the project. I must add that, the fact that some trainees finished the training without the personal computers with which they will continuously be using to record their business activities; there is the risk that by the time they are able to acquire one; they might have forgotten what they were taught at the 74

training. This makes future retraining somehow inevitable for some trainees since they will need some refreshment to enable them remember what they were taught. It is also noted that there was lack of proper reporting regarding the status and progress of the project which usually helps the project manager determine whether the project is going according to the initial plan was not followed. But as mentioned earlier, due to her involvement in the actual work and the fact that there were no standard project management processes and procedures being followed rendered the reporting aspects unimportant in the project. This may be partially because the project sponsor (the NGO) which was supposed to receive the report and recommend the necessary actions to be taken was the same entity executing the project; therefore they did not see the need for any such report. 9.10. Analysis of the Result According to the project report, the overall result of the project was successful as the main objective was met by finishing all the activities as defined in the project plan and the certificates awarded to trainees. The report indicates that all the women were able to use excel to record transactions at the end of the project. It also indicates that the women were able to increase sales considerably after the project. However, we are not able to quantify by how much knowledge the women gained and by how many percentage of sales increase after the project since the content of the report was purely qualitative. It is also important to note that, though, the main objective of the project was achieved, and it came not without an extra cost as a result of the above mentioned challenges in the project realization. The cost of the project increased from the initial GH 6,500 to GH 7,260 equivalent to 3,025 from the initial 2,708, some 9% increase of the initial cost. See below the final budget of the project. Table 5. Actual project budget Activity Name Description Quantity Estimate ( in GH ) 1. Facility for training Renting of internet 4hours/day * 24 GH 2,880 75

café with computers. 2. Projector Purchasing of a 1 piece GH 1,800 projector for power point presentation 3. Transportation cost Transportation of 24 days GH 760 trainers from their office to training center. 4. Handouts Handouts as learning 27 copies GH 100 material for trainees 5. Certificates To be awarded to 20 pieces GH 200 trainees 6. Snacks Small refreshment for 24 days GH 720 trainees and trainers after each session 7. Other expenses Other expenses GH 480 (telephone bills, other transportation cost) 8. Miscellaneous Miscellaneous to cover GH 320 unidentified petty items as and when they may come up Total GH 7260, Source: project report, http://www.womeninprogress.org/ From the above budget statement, we can see that the initial cost of renting the facility for the project increase from GH 2,400 to GH 2,880. Transportation cost of conveying trainers and that of Snacks also went up from GH 600 to GH 760 and GH 600 to GH 720 respectively. This may seems insignificant however, it is important to note that, this was due to the fact that, this project itself was a very small project and if it had been relatively bigger with huge budget, the project might not materialized since the organization was depending on donor funds to embark on 76

the project. According to the project report, the difference was raised form the NGO s own coffers to enable them finish the project (http://www.womeninprogress.org/). It can be therefore argue that, the generic application of project management methods is important in all kinds of projects, big or small, complex or simple, profit or non-profit oriented. Project success or failure is to a large extent depends on the project manager s ability to adequately identify the appropriate methods for the planning of the project. Her ability to identify all stakeholders and collect their needs is crucial for a good planning of a project since the project plan is based on the required activities which also form the entire project scope. Having identified all the requirements and determined the scope, it is crucial that the project manager is firm in quoting the cost of the project base on her estimations. This can go a long way to help achieve the objectives of the project at the right performance level and on time. Though, the objective of this project was achieved according to the report, this can be attributed to the fact that this project itself was very small and simple. The difficulties in the project realization could be avoided had proper project management methods been used in stakeholder and requirements analysis and the planning as a whole. As discussed earlier, for instance, once certain key stakeholders were left out in the requirement collection process, it was difficult to take their needs into consideration. This resulted in lack of proper planning in the whole project since the planning itself was done without certain important elements. This reaffirms the fact that had proper methods been used as demonstrated in the analytical part of this work from the stakeholder identification through requirement collection to the planning, the realization of the project could not pose such a challenge as witnessed in the project. 77

9.11. Recommendations Base on the above analysis, the following recommendations are made to the NGO in its future projects of similar kind, bearing in mind the uniqueness of every project. Future project should take into account the needs of all stakeholders by way of doing stakeholder analysis with the use of methodology such as stakeholder power/ interest grid. This will help the project manager to identify all stakeholders in the project as well as determine their level of importance and influence in the project which will help in managing and achieving the objective of the project without many difficulties. Proper scheduling should be made in planning the activities of future projects. Tools such as network diagrams as discussed above can be used to determine early start as well as late start dates of project activities. This will also help in determining the critical activities in the project which will need much attention if the project is to be finished on time. In the future, project manager should quote project cost taking into consideration all the necessary requirements in the project. Under no circumstance should the quality of project be sacrificed for cost as in the case of this project where the cost of computers for trainees was not factored in the cost of the project due to financial constraints. In the case of lack of adequate funding to carry out project, the project should be shelved until the necessary funds are raised to avoid project quality being compromised. Future projects should have adequate contingency plans to cater for unforeseen circumstances such as power cuts as discussed in this project. This will help avoid unrealistic project time planning. Involvement of local people in the project team will be important in future projects given the fact that they can contribute in assessing the likely challenges so far as the project environment is concern. They may have knowledge and experience in the local environment than the foreign team members. They can also give better explanation to the trainees for instance using local language where necessary to enable better understand. 78

In the future, project manager should dedicate her time fully for the managerial aspects of the project. She should not perform the actual activities in the project. This will give her enough time in handling other issues arising from the execution of the project. Where project manager and her team lack expertise in handling certain aspects in the project, they should seek expert advice in that area. Finally, there should be proper risk planning in future project such as what is discussed above. Identification and assessments of all risk elements for proper analysis to determine their influence on the project is important for the success of the project. This could help the project manager to think through how these risk elements can be managed for a successful result. Project manager can use risk probability/impact chart to do this analysis for future project of the same or similar kind. 9.12 Conclusion The objective of this thesis was to analyze the course of actions of a project, that was carried out by a Ghanaian based NGO and assess the effectiveness of the methodology used to that effect, by comparing it with the generic application of project management methods as discussed in the theoretical part of this thesis. This comparison was done and the result did indicate that, the objective of the project was achieved but the realization of the project did not go as was planned and that was as a result of lack of proper planning resulting from improper stakeholder analysis, poor budgeting, lack of proper project scheduling, improper risk analysis among others. This reflects the fact that the generic application of project management methods is true in every project irrespective of the project kind. It also reaffirms Mentzer s title, everything project management (Mintzer, 2002). If future projects of the NGO will follow general application of project management methods as demonstrated and also follow the recommendations above, it can carry out similar projects without many difficulties as it was in the project under review. It can therefore be concluded that the objective of this thesis of analyzing and assessing the NGO s project has been achieved. Future work may be dedicated as a follow-up to find how other projects of the NGO will go should the recommended methods use for that purpose. 79

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Appendix: Calculation of Critical Path Activity A No precondition EST = 0 (EST Start + its Duration = 0 + 0 = 0) LST = 0 (LST D Duration A = 3 3 = 0) Float = 0 (LST EST = 0 0 = 0) Activity B No precondition EST = 0 (EST of Start node + its Duration = 0 + 0 = 0) LST = 1 (LST D Duration B = 3 2 = 1 Float = 1 (LST EST = 1 0 = 1) Activity C No precondition EST = 0 (EST of Start node + its Duration = 0 + 0 = 0) LST = 2 (LST D Duration C = 3 1 = 2) Float = 2 (LST EST = 2 0 = 2) Activity D Precondition A, B, C EST = 3 (EST A + Duration A = 0+3 = 3) LST = 3 (LST E Duration D = 18 15) Float = 0 (LST EST = 3 3 = 0) Activity E Precondition D EST = 18 (EST D + Duration D = 3+15 = 18) LST = 18 (LST F Duration E = 22 4 = 18) Float = 0 (LST EST = 18 18 = 0) Activity F Precondition E EST = 22 (EST E + Duration E = 18 + 4 = 22) LST = 22 (LST G Duration F = 23 1 = 22) Float = 0 (LST EST = 22 22 = 0) Activity G Precondition F EST = 23 (EST F + Duration F = 22 + 1 = 23) LST = 23 (LST Finish Duration G = 24 1 = 23) Float = 0 (LST EST = 23 23 = 0) 82