(a) what do you understand by project management?(b) why is project management a useful approach in development today
According to Umar J. Nsereko, A project is a set of planned activities designed to achieve specific objectives with in a given time and budget framework.
Projects have become important instruments of development i.e. social and economic change and growth in the quality of life of a targeted population.
Projects are principle means of mobilizing resources for development, since most donors frustrated with the bureaucratic structures, corruption wastage of time through endless meetings, Paperwork, have turned to project so that they tie resources to specific time.
Projects are effective means of translating plans and policies into specific courses of actions. They can be used to channel development to specific beneficiaries and to particular locations.
Projects are popular among political leaders who are anxious to have something visible to show to their electorate to win their support.
According to Cleland (1998), a Project is a mutual effort using a collection of resources in an orchestrated way to achieve a joint goal.
Projects have got the following characteristics:
They consume resources such as money, people, and equipment.
Each project must have a well-defined objective for example, constructing a 5 story Apartment complex by December 2007 at Makerere University.
Projects have defined beginning and end points. That’s to say, people involved in project management in most cases move from one project to the next as opposed to staying in one job. For example after wiring a health facility, an electoral engineer can be assigned another project of wiring a manufacturing facility.
Projects involve several professionals, i.e. combined efforts of a variety of specialists. Instead of working in separate offices under separate managers, Project participants work closely together under the guidance of a Project manager to complete a project.
Each project is unique because it’s carried out only once, is temporary and (in almost every instance) involves a different group of people. Projects start when the first person goes to work and end when the last person’s work is finished.
Specific time, cost and performance requirements bind projects. Projects are evaluated according to what they accomplished, at what cost and how much time they took. These three aspects highlight one of the primary functions of project management: balancing the trade- offs between time, cost and performance while ultimately satisfying the customer.
Project work consists of several stages commonly referred to as Project cycle. According to Forsberg et al (1996), A Project cycle is an orderly sequence of integrated activities performed in phases, leading to success. This cycle reorganizes that projects have a limited life span and that there are predictable changes in level of effort and focus over the life of a project. A number of project cycle models exist and are unique to a specific industry or project for example, a new software development project may consist of five phases which include, definition, design, code, integration /test and maintenance. A standard Project cycle has five stages which include; project Identification, Preparation, Appraisal, Implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation and are discussed in detail bellow:
The project identification stage ultimately provides the justification for the birth of a project. It is at this stage that fundamental questions are answered. Is there a real requirement for the project? What is the need? Is it worth?
At the project identification stage, the conceived idea or the identified need is subjected to further research. The project team generally must engage in considerable analysis and negotiation in order to determine the appropriate requirements.
Project preparation stage: Here the project idea is turned into a properly prepared plan or proposal. Also the problem which the project is intended to solve is clearly defined and the objectives both broad development goals and specific objectives are outlined. Project goals must be specific, measurable and attainable. This provides the rationale for the project which puts a persuasive argument for selecting the project.
Appraisal stage: This is the process of analyzing the project proposal in a way that enables making decision whether to go a head or abandon it.
Cleland and king (1998) call this the definition phase. In this phase the cost, schedule, performance, resource requirements and whether all elements and sub systems will fit together economically and technically are assessed and determined. The definition stage dictates that one stops and takes time to look around to see if this is really what is wanted and how best to achieve it before resources are committed to the implementation of the project.
Implementation stage: This is the phase where the plan to meet the customer’s needs is put into operation. At this stage funds are disbursed to get the project set up and running. A major priority during this stage is to ensure that the project is carried out in a way and within the period that was planned.
Monitoring and evaluation stage: This entails determining whether the project is on course considering the objectives it is meant to achieve and making adjustments where necessary. The purpose of monitoring a project is to learn as much as possible about what is happening in the project’s environment now.
Monitoring and evaluation of projects provides the project team or any interested stakeholder with a clear picture of the project status. This enables them to act on their options and opportunities.
According to J.W Cusworth and T.R Frank, Management is the process of getting work done through other people by use of human resources, material and time to achieve objectives.
Project managers are concerned to achieve specific objectives through the efforts of other people making up the project team.
According to Harold Kerzner, Project management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals objectives.
Project management involves other items such as: definition of work requirements, quality of work, and definition of resources needed; project monitoring, tracking progress, comparing actual to predicted, analyzing impact and making adjustments.
Successful project management can be defined as having achieved the project objective with in time, cost, at desired performance /technology, and utilizing the assigned resources effectively and efficiently.
The project management process has two dimensions which include technical and social diversions. The technical dimension consists of the formal, disciplined, pure logic parts of the process and this dimension includes planning, scheduling and controlling projects.
The socio cultural dimension centers on creating a temporary social system within a large organizational environment to combine the talents of a divergent set of professionals working to complete the project.
This is aimed at stimulating team work and high levels of personal motivation as well as capacity to quickly identify and resolve problems that threaten project work.
The project management process consists of five – steps which include:
Defining the project’s goals;
Planning how the project manager and his/her team will satisfy the triple constraints (goal) of performance specification, time schedule and money budget.
Leading- Providing managerial guidance to human resources, surbodinates and others that will result in their doing effective, timely work.
Monitory – measuring the project work to find out how progress differs from plan in time to initiate corrective action. (This often leads to replanning which may force a goal definition or change, with a consequent need to change resources).
Completing – making sure that the job that’s finally done conforms to the current definition of what was to be done and wrapping up all the loose ends such as documentation.
Project managers have many responsibilities in the execution of projects such as planning, scheduling, monitoring and controlling. However they are unique because they manage temporary non repetitive activities and frequently act independently of the formal organization. In this regards, their functions include the following:
They are expected marshal resources to complete a defined project on time, on budget and with in specifications.
They are the direct link to the customer and must fulfill the customer’s expectations while staying within the project specifications.
They direct co-ordinate and integrate the project team which is often made up of part-time participants loyal to their functional departments.
They are responsible for performance (frequently with too little authority). They must ensure that appropriate trade –off are made between the time, cost ad performance requirement of the project.
Unlike their functional counterparts, project managers generally posses only a small proportion of the technical knowledge to make decisions instead, they must orchestrate the completion of the project by including the right people at the right time to address the right issues and to make the right decisions.
Evolution of project management:
Project management evolved out of World War II and US department of defense projects and has been in practice from 50-5000yrs. These projects required organizations to break the existing functional boundaries and find new ways to accomplish complex work. Resources from a variety of skill areas had to be drawn together towards a common goal. Objectives were carefully outlined including performance criteria, schedules and budgets. The foundations were set for modern Project management.
Only well financed organizations could afford to integrate information into software applications. Only massive projects could be evaluated against heuristic measures. Only organizations supporting massive capital spending efforts could afford fulltime project managers dedicated solely to the advancement of projects. So Project management was a preserve of a small cadre of individual who a lone possessed the dark secrets of network diagrams, Monte Carlo analysis and earned value interpretation.
These public and private organizations included: the construction industry which took on modern project management trappings with network diagrams, work break down structures (WBS) and Gantt Charts; Aerospace and pharmaceutical industries; technology firms and communication industries.
However the statusquo has changed, software become progressively more affordable and organizations began to test project management to see how well it could function. Today organizations of virtually every description practice project management and are taking full advantage of certified professional project managers and project management professional who were once locked into their respective areas of expertise, are now branching out and becoming more skilled as generals.
DEVELOPMENT:
Development is not a homogenous concept. No country or part of the world is developed the world is still developing and different people have come up with deferring definitions of development.
According to Joseph Stiglitze (1999:1) Development is the transformation of society, a movement from traditional relations, ways of thinking and methods of production to more modern ways. Stiglitze argues that a characteristic of traditional societies is acceptance of the world as it is (natural form). The modern perspective recognizes change i.e. societies and individuals can take action for instance reduce mortality, increase lifespan and increase productivity.
According to Mansell and When (1998:8) Development is a situation which involves economic growth, increase in percapita income and attainment of a high standard of leaving.
Project management approaches as discussed above are useful and have played a great
Role in development today as discussed bellow:
Many modern projects consider time to be equal or more important than money. In this regard, project management is an effective time saving practice especially if used from the commencement of the project and the project manager given some measure of control at the set. This can be achieved in various ways justifying the rationale for using Project management approaches in development as follows ways:
As the project evolves project managers track the activities which are a head of or behind schedule. They must take in upon themselves to review failure and successes taking home the lessons learned from each. This helps them to follow their plans in a bid to achieve the objectives leading to development.
They save time for upper management as well, serving as buffers between the executive suits and members of the project team. Team members may sometimes feel the need to address issues with the upper echelon of the organization. Although project managers can’t universally resolve such concerns, they can shield upper management from some of the day-to-day issues raised by the team members leading to easy conflict resolutions, calm working environment superior performance and hence development.
Conversely, Project managers also serve as shields for team members against the executive intervention in instances where some higher levels managers like intervening in team-members’ performance (and from the project manager’s authority). Project managers save team-members’ time by serving as communications conduits. This leads to innovation, Creativity of the members and hence development.
A project manager simply assigned to monitor tasks and oversee personnel performance has no opportunity to maximize the project schedule. He/she can quickly identify impending schedule delays as well as causes for those delays which could dilute the resource pool or modify the project approach mid stream. The project manager therefore saves the organization extra costs such that the project is executed within the budget limit. The efficiency and effectives displayed in this regard leads to development.
Project managers are supposed to be brought in at the very beginning of projects so as to plan the project on which they work, outline the work to be done and then work to that plan. In developing the schedules, the project manager has the opportunity to establish what time –saving workaround will function and which time saving approaches are overly optimistic.
The time saving practice of Project management helps in meeting deadlines, taking on other projects to get money; effective performance is achieved due to planned activities, customers’ expectations are met as well as the objectives of the project as preset, thus making project management a useful approach in today’s development.
Project management can save money if the project manager is allowed to pursue such basic practices as: planning, resource deployment, tracking, use of resources and project close out. These can be explained in detail as thus:
Planning: planning costs are the lowest costs an organization incurs during the project life cycle. Virtually, all project cost models, begin with a low, smooth slow gradient during the planning phase
Careful and extensive planning allows for intelligent use of resources later on. It also allows for more thorough reviews of the project. This indicates the project is moving as preplanned in a bid to achieve the intended objectives which suggests development.
The project plan must be made early and based on sound business judgment. If the business plan is weak, it will lose integrity because the project will be evaluated against a false model throughout its lifecycle. If the plan is not realistic, it can’t be used as a barometer for project success. Without a clear, well defined plan there can be no honest baseline. Without an honest base line, there can be no objective evaluation of project success without an objective evaluation of what constitutes project success; success (or failure) can never be achieved.
However, if the plan is sound and maps to reasoned business judgment, the chances of successes improve significantly leading to attainment of the set goals and hence project success leading to development. Thus the need to use project management as a useful approach to attain development today.
Effective deployment of resources: With the current increase in downsizing and corporate efficiency, each individual must be encouraged to broaden his or her knowledge by participating in a broader portfolio of project for personnel development. Although training on-the-job- development are still broadly applied, the project manager takes on the responsibility of a mentor to foster personnel development. Although functional managers have the knowledge and skills to build insight with in their functional areas, project managers encourage great cross- functional understanding and capability. This therefore makes project management are useful approach in personnel development in order to achieve effective deployment.
Tracking project progress: “That which is not tracked does not exist” is a maxim long supported by project managers. Early identification is touted as the key to effective risk management as well as effective cost management. Usually, project problems often turn into small-scale project on their own; therefore early identification of those problems allows for greater planning. Better planning means lower overall cost for implementation. Tracking also encourages increased accountability from all project participants. This leads to team work in order to achieve project objectives, thus justifying the rationale for using project management approaches in development today. For instance in Uganda, the scourge of bird flu is being tracked through media sanitization by the Ministries of health and Agriculture on how to handle it (prevent, control, contain) to keep the population and poultry safe before it gets into the country. This makes project management a useful approach in development today.
Deployment of reserves: Project managers who have been granted assess to reserves/contingency accounts reduce or eliminate the tendency to build padding into the project budget at the work – package or cost-account level. Reserves allow project managers to manage problems by applying funds as appropriate. Organization that establish reserves provide managers with a valuable tool to identify specific problem areas and respond accordingly. This helps to address catastrophes and economically eradicate /handle them because their cost was budgeted for in the plan (contingency account) this therefore makes project management approach useful in development today.
ÆÁProject closeout: By ensuring a thorough effective closeout, project managers save organizations large sums of money. Project termination is a key role of a project manager and ensures that all parties involved are a ware that the project has drawn to a close. This prevents team members from lingering beyond their time as well as saving the organization resources from being drained. This leads to cost effectiveness, efficiency hence development of the organization thus making project management a useful approach in development today. For example in the 2002 National Census exercise in Uganda, Enumerators’ training was schedule for two weeks and the enumeration exercise lasted for one week as was communicated by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics and by the end of that time, all the enumeration exercise was closed thus avoiding extra costs.
Project managers have the opportunity to build high performing teams by showing a clear sense of direction, responsibility, well defined project objectives and the potential for significant accomplishment, which motivate people to work as a team leading to superior performance hence development. High performing teams are developed by the project manager in the following ways.
Selection and recruitment of project members: In organisations where project managers are given virtual carter blanche to select whom ever they deem necessary, they normally ask for volunteers among and team members to work on a project. This builds personal commitment to the project and such commitment is essential to maintain motivation when the project hits hard times and extra effort is required. This guarantees labor supply through out the course of the project leading to increased out put hence development.
Naturally, individuals with the necessary experience, knowledge and technological skills, problem solving ability, credibility, political connections, ambition, initiative and energy drive are considered for project implementation and completion. Such personnel will yield superior performance thus making project management a useful approach in development today.
Conducting project meetings (kick off, status, reports, problems solving and audit meetings): These provide an important form for communicating project information, an ample opportunity for informal interaction among members during breaks, meals and evening activities. Such informal interaction are critical for forming relationship and also model how the team is going to work together to achieve the objectives of the project leading to development.
Developing a team identity to which participants become emotionally attached. This’ attained through team meetings, common location of team members, team names and team rituals. Members see they are not working alone, they feel they are part of a larger project team and project success depends on the collective efforts of all the team members. Timely gathering of all project participants help define team membership and reinforce collective identify leading to superior performance.
For example project team names or logs such as Celtel Making life better when put on stationary, T-shirts can be used to advertise the project as well as strengthening team identify leading to superior performance hence development. This justifies why project management is a useful approach is development today.
Creating a shared vision: A vision is an image a project team holds in common about how the project will look at completion, how they’ll work together and/ or how customers will accept the project.
Project managers act as catalysts and midwives for the formation of a shared vision for a project team. Members are inspired to give their best effort, shared vision unities professionals with different back ground and agendas to a common aspiration. Members are motivated to subordinate their individual agendas and do what’s best for the project as psychologists Robert Tritze put is it “In the presence of greatness, pettiness disappears”. Members get focused and communicate less tangible priorities thus making appropriate judgment calls.
A shared vision for a project fosters commitment to the long term and discourages expedient responses that collectively dilute the quality of the project. This leads to efficiency, effectiveness in the process of achieving the vision and development as well. This makes project management a useful approach in development today.
Managing project reward system is another responsibility of a project manager. This encourages team performance and extra effort. This is done through letters of commendation for excellent team members’ performance. These letters can be sent to their supervisors and be placed in members personal files. Also public recognition for out standing work especially for superlative workers, desirable job assignment for good work, flexibility i.e. being willing to make exceptions to rule. This yields superior performance making project management a useful approach to development to day.
Managing the decision making process: Most decision on a project don’t require formal team meeting to discuss alternatives and determine solutions. Decisions are made as part of the daily interaction pattern between project managers, stakeholders and team members. Project managers consult team members, solicit ideas, determine optimum solutions and create a sense of involvement that builds trust and commitment to decisions. This happens with complex problems that require the input of a variety of different specialists and also when strong commitment to the decision is needed and there is a low probability of acceptance if only one person makes a decision. For this reason, project management is becomes a useful approach in development today.
Project managers manage conflicts within the project team that occur during the life of the project. The disagreement could be over priorities allocation of resources, quality of specific work, solutions to discovered problems which hinder group performance. However some of these conflicts are functional i.e. further project objectives and performance.
In some instances, absence of conflict can course problems where members are reluctant to voice objections because of compressed time pressures, self doubt or desire to preserve team harmony. This hesitation robs the teams of useful information that might lead to better solutions and avoidance of critical mistakes.
Project managers need to encourage healthy dissent in order to improve problem solving and innovation through asking tough questions and challenging the rationale behind recommendations; they can also orchestrate healthy conflict by bringing people with different points of view to critical meetings.
They can legitimize dissent within the team by designating someone to play the role of devil’s advocate or asking a group to take 15 minutes to come up with all the reasons the team shouldn’t pursue a course of action. Functional conflict plays a deeper role in obtaining a deeper understanding of the issues and coming up with the best decision possible. Project managers can model an appropriate response when someone disagrees or challenges their ideas. This helps to handle conflicts and improve performance hence justifying project management approach as useful in development today.
Employees’ growth: The project manager takes on a great deal of responsibility for his/her members. He accounts for their time, as he/she proves that something has been accomplished through an individual’s participation in the project in so as to garner resources for the next project, the individual member must be served as well. Individuals must have a sense that they contribute to and participate in the success of the project. To accomplish this, the project manager must ensure that team members are working in the same direction, that they have contribution to make and are implementing against those goals. Where team members serve more than one boss, the project manager unifies that direction. Although functional managers may determine which team members are assigned to the project, the project manager validate those determination before and during implementation. Team members feel valued motivated and yield to superior performance making project management a useful approach to development today.
Project management meets customer needs: Customer expectations are established from the very fast contact. Every meeting, word, appearance, element of presentation, connection between the organization and the customer, works together to generate expectations and helps to further establish those expectations. For example, a project manager walked into a client’s site wearing Khaki slacks and a Polo shirt. Because the company had a dress code of business casual, no one said a word or thought anything of it. Several months later, a new project manager took over who arrived in a suit and a tie. The new project manager was quickly assaulted with questions about his attire and whether it represents a shift in the relationship with the project organization The project organization is responsible for establishing customers’ expectation. If the first project manager had always worn a suit and a tie, no one would say anything to the second. Similarly, had the second project manager came to work dressed casually, there would have been no questions asked. Establishing expectation leads to consistence easy projections and planning to address the conditions on time in an economic way which yields superior performance hence making project management a useful approach in development today
Project managers build customer loyalty: Most daily customer expectations are built by the project management and project manager’s teams. customer expectations can be created by the project manager if for example, he/she shows willingness to introduce minor changes at no cost and ensure that there is effectives communication a cross the organization as far as the major tenets of the relationship are concerned. However, the expectations determine the succession or failure of the project organization. If the customer sees consistency in the way the expectations are managed, both organizations benefit. The project teams pursue a unified vision, while the customer benefits by knowing what will and will not work in dealing with the project. The earlier and clearer the project manager’s relationship with the customer can begin the more effective the project manager can be. This necessitates effective planning and accurate forecasting thus making project management approach useful in development.
The primary reason for using project management is to provide an organizational design and a strategy to bring an organizational focus to these adhoc activities needed to effect changes in an organization. Modification of organizational products, services and processes is required to accommodate the inevitable environmental changes that affect all enterprises to day. An organization today that wants to remain competitive in providing it’s customers with continually improving products services and organizational processes has no choice but to choose Project management concepts and processes.
Project management concepts and processes can be used to support an organization’s crisis management strategies. Crises can arise from such mishaps as plane crashes, toxic chemical spills, hostage taking, product liability, law suits, poisoned products, natural disasters such: as storms, earth quake etc for example.
On 17 January 1994, a 6.8 magnitude earth quake struck the Los Angeles area centered in the San Fernando Valley. After a full extent of highway damage was determined, coordinated planning started to respond. Construction crews immediately started the design effort. Detours were worked out with participating agencies. A governor’s task force was organized consisting of affected agencies which met regularly to co-ordinate and evaluate progress. Project management played a key role in restoring the free way systems. Progress was tracked daily and innovative contract procedures were developed. With in 6 months, four major freeways were restored. The use of crisis control model consisting of logical control in preparing for and resolving a major crisis is highly recommended. project management and crisis management skills can be combined to deal more effectively with crisis situations. This makes project management approach a useful approach in today’s development
Project management is increasingly used to support company factories operations. The entire field of manufacturing systems technology is changing rapidly. Material requirements planning, Total Quality Management, Computer aided design, flexible manufacturing system etc are some of the primary new technologies that have been developed to support manufacturing operations. The pace of technology in manufacturing systems continues to advance and will result in “system” changes which will impact manufacturing as well as supporting functions in the enterprise such as financing marketing and after sales maintenance and support. These changes create a multidisciplinary environment in modern companies which should solely be organized a long traditional functional entity. Contemporary factory managers need a management philosophy that allows them to bring an organizational focus to the management of resources in the factory that are dedicated to change to the creation of something that doesn’t currently exists but that’s needed to remain competitive in the global manufacturing environment. This should draw heavily on the concept and processes of project management. This therefore makes project management approaches useful in development to day.
Project management can improve or create something for an enterprise that did not previously exist. It can also be used to deactivate an existing venture such as the closing of a plant, liquidation of a business, acquisition of a new business, and merger with another enterprise or shutting down of a segment of a company’s market. For example, in Chrysler cooperation, project management has become a means for the clean-up, demolition, reuse and/or sale of former manufacturing facilities. The cooperation in `1990 initiated a centralized team strategy to manage deactivations. project management template included decision process to deactivate planning activities, plant shutdown and clean up, asbestos abatement, building clean up, demolition subsurface clean up and final disposition, health and safety consideration. Project driven strategy to address the above helps to maximize the return on investment. Chrysler officials have been successful in all the above and accord this to project management processes justifying the usefulness of project management approach in development today.
An adhoc under taking is a project out of the ordinary, something different from a normal routine affair in the organization and these could include: a major reorganization, a take over threat by an unfriendly suitor, a crisis such as serious product failure, legal action or other non routine occurrences that seriously threaten the integrity of the enterprise; any unfamiliar undertaking that is of critical importance to the enterprise such as new product or market development, new business venture, acquisition of another company. These unique opportunities or problems are generally project oriented. Work on these opportunities is usually scattered in the organization yet it’s all interrelated, for various functional groups have to provide different disciplines to support the undertaking. Project management handles such opportunities well such that resources can be marshaled and closely controlled this makes project management approach useful in development today.
The use of robots to perform simple repetitive manufacturing tasks reliably at a relatively low cost can also be facilitated by project management concepts and processes. The typical robot system takes up to 12 months or more to go through a life cycle of a concept design, fabrication, installation, debugging and start up. The use of a project manager such as an industrial engineer to define robot tasks, establish operating parameters, designing and interfacing of the human/material/ robots system provide for a means to integrate different disciplines to support a common objective. A project team led by an industrial engineer including representatives from engineering, maintenance, production control, manufacturing, management, safety, labor reporting, accounting etc can effectively address the issues involved in setting up robots for use in the factory. This team can also address the issue of what will happen to the employees who are displaced by robots and how the supporting functional elements of the factory will be realigned to support the use of robots in the changed factory operation. This therefore makes project management approach useful in development today.
Depending on the size, when an undertaking requires substantially more resources (such as human resource, financial resource equipment) than are normally employed in the business, project techniques may be indicated. Even though the functional elements for the end product are discernible in the organizations, the diversity and complexity of the task easily can overwhelm a department. In these cases, project management provides a logical approach to the organizational relationships and problems encountered in the integration of the work.
For example the move of a company such as Uganda Manufacturing Association from Lugogo show ground to Jinja town. This may appear to be a simple operation but the complex development and correlation of plans, the co-ordination required in constructing the new site and the task of answering numerous inquires about the new site easily can swamp the existing organizational structure. These difficulties are compounded by the fact that the company must continue its normal operation during the period of the move. In such a situation managing the move along traditional lines would be difficult if not impossible. Project management can be used to manage changes in major infrastructure of societies making it a useful approach in development today.
Market change: Many firms and organizations that operate in a turbulent market normally characterized by continually changing products, rapid technological innovations and rapid changes in the values and behavior of customers and competitors need to use project management as part of their competitive strategy. Such conditions place a premium on innovation, creativity, rapid response and flexibility. These heterogeneous dynamic markets require a management system that can flourish in the ambiguity of changing objectives and goals with the life cycle of many projects placing varying demands on management and professional support. These rapid market changes require an organizational approach that permits flexibility in the use of resources. In this case project management provides flexibility in the use of resources in the following ways.
In the short term, the project team provides for flexible use of key technical resources both people and facilities (functional ‘fief doms’ don’t have to be reorganized to move the talent from program to program to meet fluctuating demands)
For the long term, the team expands the avenues for business benefit from broadly applicable strategic investment (A pattern of shared resources and shared responsibilities obviates the “traditional technology transfer” issue altogher)
Through the program management dimension, the team establishes mini general managers (project managers) who are extension of the general manager for a subset of the business, but without imposing the inflexibility and communication isolation of the functional resources that are characteristic of self contained business segment department
This makes project management approach useful in development today.
Another decision criterion for establishing a project is the degree of interdependence between the departments of the organization. If the effort calls for many functionally separated activities to be pulled together, and if these activities are so closely related that moving one affects the others, project techniques are needed.
For example if a new product is to be introduced and developed, early planning would require sales forecasts to be completed before plans for manufacturing processes, industrial facilities, special tooling and marketing could be developed. Sales promotion also can’t be completed until the marketing research points the direction for the promotions. Performance and technical specification as well as the many interdependencies between the production, marketing, finance, advertising and administration groups must be resolved. Provisionism can’t be tolerated.
If no agency can pull all the separate parts together, if the functional groups fail to make credible estimates, or if the plans submitted by different departments cannot be reconciled, then the activities need the singleness of purpose of project management. This makes it a useful approach in development today.
Using project process design teams in simultaneous work increases the probability of close interaction among workers in different specialties such as: processing, manufacturing, marketing, procurement. Team work a cross disciplines helps to ensure that everything that can influence the success of the new product or service in the market place is considered. With suitable senior management involvement and surveillance, a final core values is added to the development of new businesses. The importance of interdependence is clearly demonstrated in using product process design teams. These provide an opportunity of getting the product or service to the market sooner as well as ensuring more systems consideration in the strategic management of the enterprise. Further more, organizational resources are used more effectively and efficiently, people working on the team sense a higher degree of ownership with the product or process being developed,
The composition of the team with people having different background and coming from different disciplines in the organization provide an enhanced check and balances in the design and execution of strategies for the product service or process being developed,
Time (money) is saved and profits attained when the product or service is introduced earlier into the market. This makes project management approach useful in development today
Sharing resources: Project management makes sense when increasing professional specialization and its attendant higher costs lead to the need to share professional resources through out the organization. It makes sense when there are critical or scarce resources; when, in the ebb and flow of the lifecycles of modern business products and services, its difficult to keep a professional workforce fully and effectively employed or when certain type of professional skills are in short supply. Project management techniques can be utilized to share resources potentially reducing both direct and indirect costs and delivering needed results. for example in order to share resources, justice Ogola the a high court Judge as well as Mutebile the governor of bank of Uganda were used to investigate the mismanagement of the global fund in Uganda due to scarcity of resources to employ a probing commission.
The need to safeguard the organizational reputation is another crucial determinant in the decision of whether to use project techniques. for instance if a failure to complete a contract on time and with in cost and performance limits would seriously damage the company’s image and result in customer and stock holder dissatisfaction, then the case for using project management is strong. A company’s financial position can be seriously damaged if its performance on a contract fails to meet standards. In the case of government contracting, the company faces a single, knowledgeable customer and failure to perform satisfactorily can be catastrophic in terms of obtaining other contracts with the government. This makes project management approach useful in development today.
Project management is no panacea, but it does provide the means for effective use of resources in adhoc efforts. Project managers who see their role as that of integrator generalists, responsible for meeting time, cost and performance objectives can do much to lessen the dangers inherent in an adhoc undertaking. Project management concentrates into one person the attention demanded by a complex and unique undertaking which will affect the enterprises reputation. In this case project management approach is useful in development today.
Project management techniques can be used depending on the importance of the project to the enterprise. Managers may not want to place it in the bureaucracy’ of the organization, where it might become lost in the daily operational workings. When an adhoc activity has high risk and uncertainty factors then the use of project management techniques may be required
If an emerging problem or project is viewed as a potential building block in the design and implementation of future strategies for the enterprise then project management techniques are required. A new product line requires financing, design development and production clearly an opportunity for project management particularly if the emerging opportunity constitutes an effort that is too large to manage in a “business as usual” approach or if the product is very important to the company’s future business, if such an emerging product carries high risk and has an apparent direct relationship to the company’s objectives then project management is usually required. All the above justifies the usefulness of project management approach in development today.
Projects are an opportunity for enterprises to complete goals that lead to accomplishing their objectives and ultimately their mission that could be held by the larger organizational unit-the department, division or the corporate entity and provide a focus for organizational resources to be applied against the organizational problem or opportunity so that an enterprise’s goal can be attained. This also makes project management approach useful in today’s development.
Promoting participative management: Project management can be used to provide an opportunity for an individual to take an idea and see that idea through to a successful product or service. Some companies recorganise the value of individual initiative and organize their corporate structure and management philosophy to accommodate the entrepreneurial abilities of individuals as one manager put it that:
“If you put fences around people, you get sheep. if you want the best from people, give them all the room they need to grow and all the responsibility they can handle.”1
For example, In 3M company, anyone who invents a new product or promotes an idea when others lose faith, or figure out how to mass- produce a product economically, has a chance to manage that product as though it were he’s or her business, with a minimum of constraints from higher management. This practice is called divide and grow and it’s intended to keep 3M a company of entrepreneurs. The new product enterprises are broken into self sustaining units, each with considerable responsibility for its future. These ideas, developed into small projects managed by a team of professionals may grow into departments and then into divisions with in the corporate organizational structure. truly 3m, organizational deign and operating philosophy emphasis project management which in turn supports their corporate mission as they state:” we are in the business of building businesses.’ This shows how project management approach is useful in today’s development.
However project management approaches can be detrimental to development today in the followings.
Projects are composed of many professionals with varied skills interests, personalities and unpredictabilities. These professionals tend to misdirect or divert the project from the present direction to various directions. This is due to personal aspirations and interests, various parochial interests by different components of the organization and also many projects being carried out simultaneously. This misdirection causes short falls in performance leading to ineffectiveness and inefficiency hindering progressive development
Much as project mangers have some degree of flexibility in how to control their projects in that, they can establish their own policies, procedures, guidelines and directives provided they conform to overall company policies, they can’t establish certain administrative requirements such as: promises to functional employees concerning promotion grade, salary, bonus, overtime, responsibility, future work assignment. These items can only be administered by line managers. The project manager at most may recommend through writing to the line manger a superior performer, but can’t do much to elevate the personnel performance status.
The project manager may remain a puppet manager and this demotivates him/her and hinders progressive performance.
Project managers are forced to “negotiate” with upper level management as well as functional management for control of company resources. In these negotiations, project managers may often be treated as out-siders by the formal organization. These negotiations belittle them, rid them of integrity and may demotivate them leading to ineffective performance.
Some project management position are too demanding and require a lot of time to accomplish thus making project managers workaholic with inadequate time to attend to their families and friends. The following characterize workaholics: They take work with them from office to home and on vocations, have no time to rest, or relax, at 5:00pm, they consider the working day only half over and every Friday they think that there are only two more working days until Monday this is detrimental to social development.
Long range planning may suffer as the company gets more involved in meeting schedules and fulfilling the requirements of temporary projects.
Project priorities and competition for talent may interrupt the stability of the organization and interfere with its long range interests by upsetting the normal business of functional organizations.
Shifting people from project to project may disrupt the training of new employees and specialists. This may hinder their growth and development within their field of specialization
Most projects require a lot of funds which most developing countries can’t afford. In the end, they may seek for foreign aid which is normally tied with conditions(high interest rates) which hinder development in their countries. Foreign personnel may implement a project which doesn’t tailor to the needs and local conditions of the recipients but instead leads to siphoning of resources to the donor Country leading to miss directed development. Poverty Eradication Programs in Uganda exemplifies this.
Effective project implementation requires adequate skilled personnel with good remuneration. Most developing countries can’t afford these. In the end, unskilled personnel are employed, coupled with corruption and nepotism. Projects go beyond schedule; some are terminated while others are never completed. For instance The global fund project was temporarily suspended due to massive corruption by the Project Management Unit. This hinders development in these countries.
However, if the above problems are addressed as below, project management can be a useful approach to development today.
Project managers should emphasize project objectives over and above team members needs and objectives to avoid loosing track, job specification for each team member should be stipulated and the project cycle should be strictly followed. This will help to achieve the project objectives hence development.
The project manager should be entrusted with adequate authority and resources in order to effectively execute his work. He/she should delegate some of his work to capable team members as well as encouraging division of work such that he/she reduces his/her workload. This will make the project manager more effective in his/her performance leading to development.
Developing Countries should develop integrated self sustaining economies through mobilizing local resources: to implement projects, set up well equipped training institutions to train project personnel and adequately remunerate skilled personnel. The curriculum should be revised to fit the Countries’ requirements, corrupt officials should be prosecuted to stop the vice, and recruitment procedures should be strictly followed so as to place the right people to the right jobs. These will help improve performance leading to development.
In conclusion: Most project management approaches have greatly improved the production process and have for a long time been recommended for development up to date. However some of the approaches as well as outcomes of these approaches have been detrimental to development however if the suggested recommendations are implemented then to a great extent project management approaches can be useful to development today.
Bibliography
Cleland David I (1999) PROJECT MANAGEMENT Strategic design and implementation McGraw-hill 3rd edition international edition printed in Singapore
Harold Kerzner PROJECT MANAGEMENT
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO PLANNING, SCHEDULING AND CONTROLLING 2nd edition CBS publishers and distributors India
Cliffor Gray and PROJECT MANAGEMENT. A COMPLETE
Erick Larson GUIDE TO EVERYDAY MANAGEMENT
Curtis R cook and FIELD GUIDE TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Carl L Prilchard (1998) Van Nostrand Reinhold international thank son publishing company
Milton D Rose
Nan JR (1998 )SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGEMENT T Step by step Appoach with practical examples 3rd edition John wiley and sons IncU.S.A
Umar J Nsereko ( 1998) PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT Quality information centre Kampala Uganda
Robert Kreitner(1995) MANAGEMENt 6th Edn
Haughton Mifflin company U.SA. Project Management Today a complete
J.W Cusworth and T-R Franks (1993)MANAGING PROJECT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES long man UK group ltd
Projects have become important instruments of development i.e. social and economic change and growth in the quality of life of a targeted population.
Projects are principle means of mobilizing resources for development, since most donors frustrated with the bureaucratic structures, corruption wastage of time through endless meetings, Paperwork, have turned to project so that they tie resources to specific time.
Projects are effective means of translating plans and policies into specific courses of actions. They can be used to channel development to specific beneficiaries and to particular locations.
Projects are popular among political leaders who are anxious to have something visible to show to their electorate to win their support.
According to Cleland (1998), a Project is a mutual effort using a collection of resources in an orchestrated way to achieve a joint goal.
Projects have got the following characteristics:
They consume resources such as money, people, and equipment.
Each project must have a well-defined objective for example, constructing a 5 story Apartment complex by December 2007 at Makerere University.
Projects have defined beginning and end points. That’s to say, people involved in project management in most cases move from one project to the next as opposed to staying in one job. For example after wiring a health facility, an electoral engineer can be assigned another project of wiring a manufacturing facility.
Projects involve several professionals, i.e. combined efforts of a variety of specialists. Instead of working in separate offices under separate managers, Project participants work closely together under the guidance of a Project manager to complete a project.
Each project is unique because it’s carried out only once, is temporary and (in almost every instance) involves a different group of people. Projects start when the first person goes to work and end when the last person’s work is finished.
Specific time, cost and performance requirements bind projects. Projects are evaluated according to what they accomplished, at what cost and how much time they took. These three aspects highlight one of the primary functions of project management: balancing the trade- offs between time, cost and performance while ultimately satisfying the customer.
Project work consists of several stages commonly referred to as Project cycle. According to Forsberg et al (1996), A Project cycle is an orderly sequence of integrated activities performed in phases, leading to success. This cycle reorganizes that projects have a limited life span and that there are predictable changes in level of effort and focus over the life of a project. A number of project cycle models exist and are unique to a specific industry or project for example, a new software development project may consist of five phases which include, definition, design, code, integration /test and maintenance. A standard Project cycle has five stages which include; project Identification, Preparation, Appraisal, Implementation and Monitoring and Evaluation and are discussed in detail bellow:
The project identification stage ultimately provides the justification for the birth of a project. It is at this stage that fundamental questions are answered. Is there a real requirement for the project? What is the need? Is it worth?
At the project identification stage, the conceived idea or the identified need is subjected to further research. The project team generally must engage in considerable analysis and negotiation in order to determine the appropriate requirements.
Project preparation stage: Here the project idea is turned into a properly prepared plan or proposal. Also the problem which the project is intended to solve is clearly defined and the objectives both broad development goals and specific objectives are outlined. Project goals must be specific, measurable and attainable. This provides the rationale for the project which puts a persuasive argument for selecting the project.
Appraisal stage: This is the process of analyzing the project proposal in a way that enables making decision whether to go a head or abandon it.
Cleland and king (1998) call this the definition phase. In this phase the cost, schedule, performance, resource requirements and whether all elements and sub systems will fit together economically and technically are assessed and determined. The definition stage dictates that one stops and takes time to look around to see if this is really what is wanted and how best to achieve it before resources are committed to the implementation of the project.
Implementation stage: This is the phase where the plan to meet the customer’s needs is put into operation. At this stage funds are disbursed to get the project set up and running. A major priority during this stage is to ensure that the project is carried out in a way and within the period that was planned.
Monitoring and evaluation stage: This entails determining whether the project is on course considering the objectives it is meant to achieve and making adjustments where necessary. The purpose of monitoring a project is to learn as much as possible about what is happening in the project’s environment now.
Monitoring and evaluation of projects provides the project team or any interested stakeholder with a clear picture of the project status. This enables them to act on their options and opportunities.
According to J.W Cusworth and T.R Frank, Management is the process of getting work done through other people by use of human resources, material and time to achieve objectives.
Project managers are concerned to achieve specific objectives through the efforts of other people making up the project team.
According to Harold Kerzner, Project management is the planning, organizing, directing and controlling of company resources for a relatively short-term objective that has been established to complete specific goals objectives.
Project management involves other items such as: definition of work requirements, quality of work, and definition of resources needed; project monitoring, tracking progress, comparing actual to predicted, analyzing impact and making adjustments.
Successful project management can be defined as having achieved the project objective with in time, cost, at desired performance /technology, and utilizing the assigned resources effectively and efficiently.
The project management process has two dimensions which include technical and social diversions. The technical dimension consists of the formal, disciplined, pure logic parts of the process and this dimension includes planning, scheduling and controlling projects.
The socio cultural dimension centers on creating a temporary social system within a large organizational environment to combine the talents of a divergent set of professionals working to complete the project.
This is aimed at stimulating team work and high levels of personal motivation as well as capacity to quickly identify and resolve problems that threaten project work.
The project management process consists of five – steps which include:
Defining the project’s goals;
Planning how the project manager and his/her team will satisfy the triple constraints (goal) of performance specification, time schedule and money budget.
Leading- Providing managerial guidance to human resources, surbodinates and others that will result in their doing effective, timely work.
Monitory – measuring the project work to find out how progress differs from plan in time to initiate corrective action. (This often leads to replanning which may force a goal definition or change, with a consequent need to change resources).
Completing – making sure that the job that’s finally done conforms to the current definition of what was to be done and wrapping up all the loose ends such as documentation.
Project managers have many responsibilities in the execution of projects such as planning, scheduling, monitoring and controlling. However they are unique because they manage temporary non repetitive activities and frequently act independently of the formal organization. In this regards, their functions include the following:
They are expected marshal resources to complete a defined project on time, on budget and with in specifications.
They are the direct link to the customer and must fulfill the customer’s expectations while staying within the project specifications.
They direct co-ordinate and integrate the project team which is often made up of part-time participants loyal to their functional departments.
They are responsible for performance (frequently with too little authority). They must ensure that appropriate trade –off are made between the time, cost ad performance requirement of the project.
Unlike their functional counterparts, project managers generally posses only a small proportion of the technical knowledge to make decisions instead, they must orchestrate the completion of the project by including the right people at the right time to address the right issues and to make the right decisions.
Evolution of project management:
Project management evolved out of World War II and US department of defense projects and has been in practice from 50-5000yrs. These projects required organizations to break the existing functional boundaries and find new ways to accomplish complex work. Resources from a variety of skill areas had to be drawn together towards a common goal. Objectives were carefully outlined including performance criteria, schedules and budgets. The foundations were set for modern Project management.
Only well financed organizations could afford to integrate information into software applications. Only massive projects could be evaluated against heuristic measures. Only organizations supporting massive capital spending efforts could afford fulltime project managers dedicated solely to the advancement of projects. So Project management was a preserve of a small cadre of individual who a lone possessed the dark secrets of network diagrams, Monte Carlo analysis and earned value interpretation.
These public and private organizations included: the construction industry which took on modern project management trappings with network diagrams, work break down structures (WBS) and Gantt Charts; Aerospace and pharmaceutical industries; technology firms and communication industries.
However the statusquo has changed, software become progressively more affordable and organizations began to test project management to see how well it could function. Today organizations of virtually every description practice project management and are taking full advantage of certified professional project managers and project management professional who were once locked into their respective areas of expertise, are now branching out and becoming more skilled as generals.
DEVELOPMENT:
Development is not a homogenous concept. No country or part of the world is developed the world is still developing and different people have come up with deferring definitions of development.
According to Joseph Stiglitze (1999:1) Development is the transformation of society, a movement from traditional relations, ways of thinking and methods of production to more modern ways. Stiglitze argues that a characteristic of traditional societies is acceptance of the world as it is (natural form). The modern perspective recognizes change i.e. societies and individuals can take action for instance reduce mortality, increase lifespan and increase productivity.
According to Mansell and When (1998:8) Development is a situation which involves economic growth, increase in percapita income and attainment of a high standard of leaving.
Project management approaches as discussed above are useful and have played a great
Role in development today as discussed bellow:
Many modern projects consider time to be equal or more important than money. In this regard, project management is an effective time saving practice especially if used from the commencement of the project and the project manager given some measure of control at the set. This can be achieved in various ways justifying the rationale for using Project management approaches in development as follows ways:
As the project evolves project managers track the activities which are a head of or behind schedule. They must take in upon themselves to review failure and successes taking home the lessons learned from each. This helps them to follow their plans in a bid to achieve the objectives leading to development.
They save time for upper management as well, serving as buffers between the executive suits and members of the project team. Team members may sometimes feel the need to address issues with the upper echelon of the organization. Although project managers can’t universally resolve such concerns, they can shield upper management from some of the day-to-day issues raised by the team members leading to easy conflict resolutions, calm working environment superior performance and hence development.
Conversely, Project managers also serve as shields for team members against the executive intervention in instances where some higher levels managers like intervening in team-members’ performance (and from the project manager’s authority). Project managers save team-members’ time by serving as communications conduits. This leads to innovation, Creativity of the members and hence development.
A project manager simply assigned to monitor tasks and oversee personnel performance has no opportunity to maximize the project schedule. He/she can quickly identify impending schedule delays as well as causes for those delays which could dilute the resource pool or modify the project approach mid stream. The project manager therefore saves the organization extra costs such that the project is executed within the budget limit. The efficiency and effectives displayed in this regard leads to development.
Project managers are supposed to be brought in at the very beginning of projects so as to plan the project on which they work, outline the work to be done and then work to that plan. In developing the schedules, the project manager has the opportunity to establish what time –saving workaround will function and which time saving approaches are overly optimistic.
The time saving practice of Project management helps in meeting deadlines, taking on other projects to get money; effective performance is achieved due to planned activities, customers’ expectations are met as well as the objectives of the project as preset, thus making project management a useful approach in today’s development.
Project management can save money if the project manager is allowed to pursue such basic practices as: planning, resource deployment, tracking, use of resources and project close out. These can be explained in detail as thus:
Planning: planning costs are the lowest costs an organization incurs during the project life cycle. Virtually, all project cost models, begin with a low, smooth slow gradient during the planning phase
Careful and extensive planning allows for intelligent use of resources later on. It also allows for more thorough reviews of the project. This indicates the project is moving as preplanned in a bid to achieve the intended objectives which suggests development.
The project plan must be made early and based on sound business judgment. If the business plan is weak, it will lose integrity because the project will be evaluated against a false model throughout its lifecycle. If the plan is not realistic, it can’t be used as a barometer for project success. Without a clear, well defined plan there can be no honest baseline. Without an honest base line, there can be no objective evaluation of project success without an objective evaluation of what constitutes project success; success (or failure) can never be achieved.
However, if the plan is sound and maps to reasoned business judgment, the chances of successes improve significantly leading to attainment of the set goals and hence project success leading to development. Thus the need to use project management as a useful approach to attain development today.
Effective deployment of resources: With the current increase in downsizing and corporate efficiency, each individual must be encouraged to broaden his or her knowledge by participating in a broader portfolio of project for personnel development. Although training on-the-job- development are still broadly applied, the project manager takes on the responsibility of a mentor to foster personnel development. Although functional managers have the knowledge and skills to build insight with in their functional areas, project managers encourage great cross- functional understanding and capability. This therefore makes project management are useful approach in personnel development in order to achieve effective deployment.
Tracking project progress: “That which is not tracked does not exist” is a maxim long supported by project managers. Early identification is touted as the key to effective risk management as well as effective cost management. Usually, project problems often turn into small-scale project on their own; therefore early identification of those problems allows for greater planning. Better planning means lower overall cost for implementation. Tracking also encourages increased accountability from all project participants. This leads to team work in order to achieve project objectives, thus justifying the rationale for using project management approaches in development today. For instance in Uganda, the scourge of bird flu is being tracked through media sanitization by the Ministries of health and Agriculture on how to handle it (prevent, control, contain) to keep the population and poultry safe before it gets into the country. This makes project management a useful approach in development today.
Deployment of reserves: Project managers who have been granted assess to reserves/contingency accounts reduce or eliminate the tendency to build padding into the project budget at the work – package or cost-account level. Reserves allow project managers to manage problems by applying funds as appropriate. Organization that establish reserves provide managers with a valuable tool to identify specific problem areas and respond accordingly. This helps to address catastrophes and economically eradicate /handle them because their cost was budgeted for in the plan (contingency account) this therefore makes project management approach useful in development today.
ÆÁProject closeout: By ensuring a thorough effective closeout, project managers save organizations large sums of money. Project termination is a key role of a project manager and ensures that all parties involved are a ware that the project has drawn to a close. This prevents team members from lingering beyond their time as well as saving the organization resources from being drained. This leads to cost effectiveness, efficiency hence development of the organization thus making project management a useful approach in development today. For example in the 2002 National Census exercise in Uganda, Enumerators’ training was schedule for two weeks and the enumeration exercise lasted for one week as was communicated by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics and by the end of that time, all the enumeration exercise was closed thus avoiding extra costs.
Project managers have the opportunity to build high performing teams by showing a clear sense of direction, responsibility, well defined project objectives and the potential for significant accomplishment, which motivate people to work as a team leading to superior performance hence development. High performing teams are developed by the project manager in the following ways.
Selection and recruitment of project members: In organisations where project managers are given virtual carter blanche to select whom ever they deem necessary, they normally ask for volunteers among and team members to work on a project. This builds personal commitment to the project and such commitment is essential to maintain motivation when the project hits hard times and extra effort is required. This guarantees labor supply through out the course of the project leading to increased out put hence development.
Naturally, individuals with the necessary experience, knowledge and technological skills, problem solving ability, credibility, political connections, ambition, initiative and energy drive are considered for project implementation and completion. Such personnel will yield superior performance thus making project management a useful approach in development today.
Conducting project meetings (kick off, status, reports, problems solving and audit meetings): These provide an important form for communicating project information, an ample opportunity for informal interaction among members during breaks, meals and evening activities. Such informal interaction are critical for forming relationship and also model how the team is going to work together to achieve the objectives of the project leading to development.
Developing a team identity to which participants become emotionally attached. This’ attained through team meetings, common location of team members, team names and team rituals. Members see they are not working alone, they feel they are part of a larger project team and project success depends on the collective efforts of all the team members. Timely gathering of all project participants help define team membership and reinforce collective identify leading to superior performance.
For example project team names or logs such as Celtel Making life better when put on stationary, T-shirts can be used to advertise the project as well as strengthening team identify leading to superior performance hence development. This justifies why project management is a useful approach is development today.
Creating a shared vision: A vision is an image a project team holds in common about how the project will look at completion, how they’ll work together and/ or how customers will accept the project.
Project managers act as catalysts and midwives for the formation of a shared vision for a project team. Members are inspired to give their best effort, shared vision unities professionals with different back ground and agendas to a common aspiration. Members are motivated to subordinate their individual agendas and do what’s best for the project as psychologists Robert Tritze put is it “In the presence of greatness, pettiness disappears”. Members get focused and communicate less tangible priorities thus making appropriate judgment calls.
A shared vision for a project fosters commitment to the long term and discourages expedient responses that collectively dilute the quality of the project. This leads to efficiency, effectiveness in the process of achieving the vision and development as well. This makes project management a useful approach in development today.
Managing project reward system is another responsibility of a project manager. This encourages team performance and extra effort. This is done through letters of commendation for excellent team members’ performance. These letters can be sent to their supervisors and be placed in members personal files. Also public recognition for out standing work especially for superlative workers, desirable job assignment for good work, flexibility i.e. being willing to make exceptions to rule. This yields superior performance making project management a useful approach to development to day.
Managing the decision making process: Most decision on a project don’t require formal team meeting to discuss alternatives and determine solutions. Decisions are made as part of the daily interaction pattern between project managers, stakeholders and team members. Project managers consult team members, solicit ideas, determine optimum solutions and create a sense of involvement that builds trust and commitment to decisions. This happens with complex problems that require the input of a variety of different specialists and also when strong commitment to the decision is needed and there is a low probability of acceptance if only one person makes a decision. For this reason, project management is becomes a useful approach in development today.
Project managers manage conflicts within the project team that occur during the life of the project. The disagreement could be over priorities allocation of resources, quality of specific work, solutions to discovered problems which hinder group performance. However some of these conflicts are functional i.e. further project objectives and performance.
In some instances, absence of conflict can course problems where members are reluctant to voice objections because of compressed time pressures, self doubt or desire to preserve team harmony. This hesitation robs the teams of useful information that might lead to better solutions and avoidance of critical mistakes.
Project managers need to encourage healthy dissent in order to improve problem solving and innovation through asking tough questions and challenging the rationale behind recommendations; they can also orchestrate healthy conflict by bringing people with different points of view to critical meetings.
They can legitimize dissent within the team by designating someone to play the role of devil’s advocate or asking a group to take 15 minutes to come up with all the reasons the team shouldn’t pursue a course of action. Functional conflict plays a deeper role in obtaining a deeper understanding of the issues and coming up with the best decision possible. Project managers can model an appropriate response when someone disagrees or challenges their ideas. This helps to handle conflicts and improve performance hence justifying project management approach as useful in development today.
Employees’ growth: The project manager takes on a great deal of responsibility for his/her members. He accounts for their time, as he/she proves that something has been accomplished through an individual’s participation in the project in so as to garner resources for the next project, the individual member must be served as well. Individuals must have a sense that they contribute to and participate in the success of the project. To accomplish this, the project manager must ensure that team members are working in the same direction, that they have contribution to make and are implementing against those goals. Where team members serve more than one boss, the project manager unifies that direction. Although functional managers may determine which team members are assigned to the project, the project manager validate those determination before and during implementation. Team members feel valued motivated and yield to superior performance making project management a useful approach to development today.
Project management meets customer needs: Customer expectations are established from the very fast contact. Every meeting, word, appearance, element of presentation, connection between the organization and the customer, works together to generate expectations and helps to further establish those expectations. For example, a project manager walked into a client’s site wearing Khaki slacks and a Polo shirt. Because the company had a dress code of business casual, no one said a word or thought anything of it. Several months later, a new project manager took over who arrived in a suit and a tie. The new project manager was quickly assaulted with questions about his attire and whether it represents a shift in the relationship with the project organization The project organization is responsible for establishing customers’ expectation. If the first project manager had always worn a suit and a tie, no one would say anything to the second. Similarly, had the second project manager came to work dressed casually, there would have been no questions asked. Establishing expectation leads to consistence easy projections and planning to address the conditions on time in an economic way which yields superior performance hence making project management a useful approach in development today
Project managers build customer loyalty: Most daily customer expectations are built by the project management and project manager’s teams. customer expectations can be created by the project manager if for example, he/she shows willingness to introduce minor changes at no cost and ensure that there is effectives communication a cross the organization as far as the major tenets of the relationship are concerned. However, the expectations determine the succession or failure of the project organization. If the customer sees consistency in the way the expectations are managed, both organizations benefit. The project teams pursue a unified vision, while the customer benefits by knowing what will and will not work in dealing with the project. The earlier and clearer the project manager’s relationship with the customer can begin the more effective the project manager can be. This necessitates effective planning and accurate forecasting thus making project management approach useful in development.
The primary reason for using project management is to provide an organizational design and a strategy to bring an organizational focus to these adhoc activities needed to effect changes in an organization. Modification of organizational products, services and processes is required to accommodate the inevitable environmental changes that affect all enterprises to day. An organization today that wants to remain competitive in providing it’s customers with continually improving products services and organizational processes has no choice but to choose Project management concepts and processes.
Project management concepts and processes can be used to support an organization’s crisis management strategies. Crises can arise from such mishaps as plane crashes, toxic chemical spills, hostage taking, product liability, law suits, poisoned products, natural disasters such: as storms, earth quake etc for example.
On 17 January 1994, a 6.8 magnitude earth quake struck the Los Angeles area centered in the San Fernando Valley. After a full extent of highway damage was determined, coordinated planning started to respond. Construction crews immediately started the design effort. Detours were worked out with participating agencies. A governor’s task force was organized consisting of affected agencies which met regularly to co-ordinate and evaluate progress. Project management played a key role in restoring the free way systems. Progress was tracked daily and innovative contract procedures were developed. With in 6 months, four major freeways were restored. The use of crisis control model consisting of logical control in preparing for and resolving a major crisis is highly recommended. project management and crisis management skills can be combined to deal more effectively with crisis situations. This makes project management approach a useful approach in today’s development
Project management is increasingly used to support company factories operations. The entire field of manufacturing systems technology is changing rapidly. Material requirements planning, Total Quality Management, Computer aided design, flexible manufacturing system etc are some of the primary new technologies that have been developed to support manufacturing operations. The pace of technology in manufacturing systems continues to advance and will result in “system” changes which will impact manufacturing as well as supporting functions in the enterprise such as financing marketing and after sales maintenance and support. These changes create a multidisciplinary environment in modern companies which should solely be organized a long traditional functional entity. Contemporary factory managers need a management philosophy that allows them to bring an organizational focus to the management of resources in the factory that are dedicated to change to the creation of something that doesn’t currently exists but that’s needed to remain competitive in the global manufacturing environment. This should draw heavily on the concept and processes of project management. This therefore makes project management approaches useful in development to day.
Project management can improve or create something for an enterprise that did not previously exist. It can also be used to deactivate an existing venture such as the closing of a plant, liquidation of a business, acquisition of a new business, and merger with another enterprise or shutting down of a segment of a company’s market. For example, in Chrysler cooperation, project management has become a means for the clean-up, demolition, reuse and/or sale of former manufacturing facilities. The cooperation in `1990 initiated a centralized team strategy to manage deactivations. project management template included decision process to deactivate planning activities, plant shutdown and clean up, asbestos abatement, building clean up, demolition subsurface clean up and final disposition, health and safety consideration. Project driven strategy to address the above helps to maximize the return on investment. Chrysler officials have been successful in all the above and accord this to project management processes justifying the usefulness of project management approach in development today.
An adhoc under taking is a project out of the ordinary, something different from a normal routine affair in the organization and these could include: a major reorganization, a take over threat by an unfriendly suitor, a crisis such as serious product failure, legal action or other non routine occurrences that seriously threaten the integrity of the enterprise; any unfamiliar undertaking that is of critical importance to the enterprise such as new product or market development, new business venture, acquisition of another company. These unique opportunities or problems are generally project oriented. Work on these opportunities is usually scattered in the organization yet it’s all interrelated, for various functional groups have to provide different disciplines to support the undertaking. Project management handles such opportunities well such that resources can be marshaled and closely controlled this makes project management approach useful in development today.
The use of robots to perform simple repetitive manufacturing tasks reliably at a relatively low cost can also be facilitated by project management concepts and processes. The typical robot system takes up to 12 months or more to go through a life cycle of a concept design, fabrication, installation, debugging and start up. The use of a project manager such as an industrial engineer to define robot tasks, establish operating parameters, designing and interfacing of the human/material/ robots system provide for a means to integrate different disciplines to support a common objective. A project team led by an industrial engineer including representatives from engineering, maintenance, production control, manufacturing, management, safety, labor reporting, accounting etc can effectively address the issues involved in setting up robots for use in the factory. This team can also address the issue of what will happen to the employees who are displaced by robots and how the supporting functional elements of the factory will be realigned to support the use of robots in the changed factory operation. This therefore makes project management approach useful in development today.
Depending on the size, when an undertaking requires substantially more resources (such as human resource, financial resource equipment) than are normally employed in the business, project techniques may be indicated. Even though the functional elements for the end product are discernible in the organizations, the diversity and complexity of the task easily can overwhelm a department. In these cases, project management provides a logical approach to the organizational relationships and problems encountered in the integration of the work.
For example the move of a company such as Uganda Manufacturing Association from Lugogo show ground to Jinja town. This may appear to be a simple operation but the complex development and correlation of plans, the co-ordination required in constructing the new site and the task of answering numerous inquires about the new site easily can swamp the existing organizational structure. These difficulties are compounded by the fact that the company must continue its normal operation during the period of the move. In such a situation managing the move along traditional lines would be difficult if not impossible. Project management can be used to manage changes in major infrastructure of societies making it a useful approach in development today.
Market change: Many firms and organizations that operate in a turbulent market normally characterized by continually changing products, rapid technological innovations and rapid changes in the values and behavior of customers and competitors need to use project management as part of their competitive strategy. Such conditions place a premium on innovation, creativity, rapid response and flexibility. These heterogeneous dynamic markets require a management system that can flourish in the ambiguity of changing objectives and goals with the life cycle of many projects placing varying demands on management and professional support. These rapid market changes require an organizational approach that permits flexibility in the use of resources. In this case project management provides flexibility in the use of resources in the following ways.
In the short term, the project team provides for flexible use of key technical resources both people and facilities (functional ‘fief doms’ don’t have to be reorganized to move the talent from program to program to meet fluctuating demands)
For the long term, the team expands the avenues for business benefit from broadly applicable strategic investment (A pattern of shared resources and shared responsibilities obviates the “traditional technology transfer” issue altogher)
Through the program management dimension, the team establishes mini general managers (project managers) who are extension of the general manager for a subset of the business, but without imposing the inflexibility and communication isolation of the functional resources that are characteristic of self contained business segment department
This makes project management approach useful in development today.
Another decision criterion for establishing a project is the degree of interdependence between the departments of the organization. If the effort calls for many functionally separated activities to be pulled together, and if these activities are so closely related that moving one affects the others, project techniques are needed.
For example if a new product is to be introduced and developed, early planning would require sales forecasts to be completed before plans for manufacturing processes, industrial facilities, special tooling and marketing could be developed. Sales promotion also can’t be completed until the marketing research points the direction for the promotions. Performance and technical specification as well as the many interdependencies between the production, marketing, finance, advertising and administration groups must be resolved. Provisionism can’t be tolerated.
If no agency can pull all the separate parts together, if the functional groups fail to make credible estimates, or if the plans submitted by different departments cannot be reconciled, then the activities need the singleness of purpose of project management. This makes it a useful approach in development today.
Using project process design teams in simultaneous work increases the probability of close interaction among workers in different specialties such as: processing, manufacturing, marketing, procurement. Team work a cross disciplines helps to ensure that everything that can influence the success of the new product or service in the market place is considered. With suitable senior management involvement and surveillance, a final core values is added to the development of new businesses. The importance of interdependence is clearly demonstrated in using product process design teams. These provide an opportunity of getting the product or service to the market sooner as well as ensuring more systems consideration in the strategic management of the enterprise. Further more, organizational resources are used more effectively and efficiently, people working on the team sense a higher degree of ownership with the product or process being developed,
The composition of the team with people having different background and coming from different disciplines in the organization provide an enhanced check and balances in the design and execution of strategies for the product service or process being developed,
Time (money) is saved and profits attained when the product or service is introduced earlier into the market. This makes project management approach useful in development today
Sharing resources: Project management makes sense when increasing professional specialization and its attendant higher costs lead to the need to share professional resources through out the organization. It makes sense when there are critical or scarce resources; when, in the ebb and flow of the lifecycles of modern business products and services, its difficult to keep a professional workforce fully and effectively employed or when certain type of professional skills are in short supply. Project management techniques can be utilized to share resources potentially reducing both direct and indirect costs and delivering needed results. for example in order to share resources, justice Ogola the a high court Judge as well as Mutebile the governor of bank of Uganda were used to investigate the mismanagement of the global fund in Uganda due to scarcity of resources to employ a probing commission.
The need to safeguard the organizational reputation is another crucial determinant in the decision of whether to use project techniques. for instance if a failure to complete a contract on time and with in cost and performance limits would seriously damage the company’s image and result in customer and stock holder dissatisfaction, then the case for using project management is strong. A company’s financial position can be seriously damaged if its performance on a contract fails to meet standards. In the case of government contracting, the company faces a single, knowledgeable customer and failure to perform satisfactorily can be catastrophic in terms of obtaining other contracts with the government. This makes project management approach useful in development today.
Project management is no panacea, but it does provide the means for effective use of resources in adhoc efforts. Project managers who see their role as that of integrator generalists, responsible for meeting time, cost and performance objectives can do much to lessen the dangers inherent in an adhoc undertaking. Project management concentrates into one person the attention demanded by a complex and unique undertaking which will affect the enterprises reputation. In this case project management approach is useful in development today.
Project management techniques can be used depending on the importance of the project to the enterprise. Managers may not want to place it in the bureaucracy’ of the organization, where it might become lost in the daily operational workings. When an adhoc activity has high risk and uncertainty factors then the use of project management techniques may be required
If an emerging problem or project is viewed as a potential building block in the design and implementation of future strategies for the enterprise then project management techniques are required. A new product line requires financing, design development and production clearly an opportunity for project management particularly if the emerging opportunity constitutes an effort that is too large to manage in a “business as usual” approach or if the product is very important to the company’s future business, if such an emerging product carries high risk and has an apparent direct relationship to the company’s objectives then project management is usually required. All the above justifies the usefulness of project management approach in development today.
Projects are an opportunity for enterprises to complete goals that lead to accomplishing their objectives and ultimately their mission that could be held by the larger organizational unit-the department, division or the corporate entity and provide a focus for organizational resources to be applied against the organizational problem or opportunity so that an enterprise’s goal can be attained. This also makes project management approach useful in today’s development.
Promoting participative management: Project management can be used to provide an opportunity for an individual to take an idea and see that idea through to a successful product or service. Some companies recorganise the value of individual initiative and organize their corporate structure and management philosophy to accommodate the entrepreneurial abilities of individuals as one manager put it that:
“If you put fences around people, you get sheep. if you want the best from people, give them all the room they need to grow and all the responsibility they can handle.”1
For example, In 3M company, anyone who invents a new product or promotes an idea when others lose faith, or figure out how to mass- produce a product economically, has a chance to manage that product as though it were he’s or her business, with a minimum of constraints from higher management. This practice is called divide and grow and it’s intended to keep 3M a company of entrepreneurs. The new product enterprises are broken into self sustaining units, each with considerable responsibility for its future. These ideas, developed into small projects managed by a team of professionals may grow into departments and then into divisions with in the corporate organizational structure. truly 3m, organizational deign and operating philosophy emphasis project management which in turn supports their corporate mission as they state:” we are in the business of building businesses.’ This shows how project management approach is useful in today’s development.
However project management approaches can be detrimental to development today in the followings.
Projects are composed of many professionals with varied skills interests, personalities and unpredictabilities. These professionals tend to misdirect or divert the project from the present direction to various directions. This is due to personal aspirations and interests, various parochial interests by different components of the organization and also many projects being carried out simultaneously. This misdirection causes short falls in performance leading to ineffectiveness and inefficiency hindering progressive development
Much as project mangers have some degree of flexibility in how to control their projects in that, they can establish their own policies, procedures, guidelines and directives provided they conform to overall company policies, they can’t establish certain administrative requirements such as: promises to functional employees concerning promotion grade, salary, bonus, overtime, responsibility, future work assignment. These items can only be administered by line managers. The project manager at most may recommend through writing to the line manger a superior performer, but can’t do much to elevate the personnel performance status.
The project manager may remain a puppet manager and this demotivates him/her and hinders progressive performance.
Project managers are forced to “negotiate” with upper level management as well as functional management for control of company resources. In these negotiations, project managers may often be treated as out-siders by the formal organization. These negotiations belittle them, rid them of integrity and may demotivate them leading to ineffective performance.
Some project management position are too demanding and require a lot of time to accomplish thus making project managers workaholic with inadequate time to attend to their families and friends. The following characterize workaholics: They take work with them from office to home and on vocations, have no time to rest, or relax, at 5:00pm, they consider the working day only half over and every Friday they think that there are only two more working days until Monday this is detrimental to social development.
Long range planning may suffer as the company gets more involved in meeting schedules and fulfilling the requirements of temporary projects.
Project priorities and competition for talent may interrupt the stability of the organization and interfere with its long range interests by upsetting the normal business of functional organizations.
Shifting people from project to project may disrupt the training of new employees and specialists. This may hinder their growth and development within their field of specialization
Most projects require a lot of funds which most developing countries can’t afford. In the end, they may seek for foreign aid which is normally tied with conditions(high interest rates) which hinder development in their countries. Foreign personnel may implement a project which doesn’t tailor to the needs and local conditions of the recipients but instead leads to siphoning of resources to the donor Country leading to miss directed development. Poverty Eradication Programs in Uganda exemplifies this.
Effective project implementation requires adequate skilled personnel with good remuneration. Most developing countries can’t afford these. In the end, unskilled personnel are employed, coupled with corruption and nepotism. Projects go beyond schedule; some are terminated while others are never completed. For instance The global fund project was temporarily suspended due to massive corruption by the Project Management Unit. This hinders development in these countries.
However, if the above problems are addressed as below, project management can be a useful approach to development today.
Project managers should emphasize project objectives over and above team members needs and objectives to avoid loosing track, job specification for each team member should be stipulated and the project cycle should be strictly followed. This will help to achieve the project objectives hence development.
The project manager should be entrusted with adequate authority and resources in order to effectively execute his work. He/she should delegate some of his work to capable team members as well as encouraging division of work such that he/she reduces his/her workload. This will make the project manager more effective in his/her performance leading to development.
Developing Countries should develop integrated self sustaining economies through mobilizing local resources: to implement projects, set up well equipped training institutions to train project personnel and adequately remunerate skilled personnel. The curriculum should be revised to fit the Countries’ requirements, corrupt officials should be prosecuted to stop the vice, and recruitment procedures should be strictly followed so as to place the right people to the right jobs. These will help improve performance leading to development.
In conclusion: Most project management approaches have greatly improved the production process and have for a long time been recommended for development up to date. However some of the approaches as well as outcomes of these approaches have been detrimental to development however if the suggested recommendations are implemented then to a great extent project management approaches can be useful to development today.
Bibliography
Cleland David I (1999) PROJECT MANAGEMENT Strategic design and implementation McGraw-hill 3rd edition international edition printed in Singapore
Harold Kerzner PROJECT MANAGEMENT
A SYSTEMS APPROACH TO PLANNING, SCHEDULING AND CONTROLLING 2nd edition CBS publishers and distributors India
Cliffor Gray and PROJECT MANAGEMENT. A COMPLETE
Erick Larson GUIDE TO EVERYDAY MANAGEMENT
Curtis R cook and FIELD GUIDE TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Carl L Prilchard (1998) Van Nostrand Reinhold international thank son publishing company
Milton D Rose
Nan JR (1998 )SUCCESSFUL PROJECT MANAGEMENT T Step by step Appoach with practical examples 3rd edition John wiley and sons IncU.S.A
Umar J Nsereko ( 1998) PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT Quality information centre Kampala Uganda
Robert Kreitner(1995) MANAGEMENt 6th Edn
Haughton Mifflin company U.SA. Project Management Today a complete
J.W Cusworth and T-R Franks (1993)MANAGING PROJECT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES long man UK group ltd
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