Government business and projects/programmes without adequate total cost management, project management and project controls in place, achieving sustainable infrastructural development and economic growth will be a mirage. Most successful business and project outcomes are as a result of applying sound project management principles, such as a good and result-oriented leadership, detailed and proper planning, pinpoint and excellent execution, stringent monitoring and control, and eventually closure.
Organisational project management provides a strategic architecture which starts at the senior management/portfolio level, where programmes and projects are selected and prioritized to best attain corporate and government’s developmental goals. Programme management coordinates and manages a group of related projects towards meeting set goals while project management deals with individual projects which support both the programme and portfolio management objectives. Out-of-alignment programmes and projects are either terminated or are changed mid-course to bring them back in line with the organisation’s vision. More and more companies and government departments and agencies in developed economies are reaping tremendous benefits from their decisions to invest in human capital, time and money to put up organisational project management knowhow, thereby achieving faster turnaround times, reduced costs, greater effectiveness and efficiency, higher competitive advantage and general stakeholder satisfaction in the process.
The change process
The process of change starts from the moment businesses and government departments decide that there is need for change. Following this deliberate decision, a project charter is developed which will include and describe all that is to be achieved by embarking on the project. The charter also includes the description of the high level risks, the likely amount to be spent, the scope and the time to complete the project. Some charters name the project manager upfront while others appoint the manager after it has been issued, just as planning is to start. The immediate task before the project manager is to come up with the project management plan. The project management plan describes how the project is going to be managed, executed, monitored, controlled and closed from the onset to completion. This plan includes the management plans of all the knowledge areas to be covered for the project. They consist of the cost, scope, integration, human resource, communication, risk, quality, time, stakeholder and procurement management plans. For the purposes of this article, I will just touch on some of the processes involved in bringing about the change.
Planning
Planning can well be described as thinking about, a step-by-step conception, orderly course of organising and walking through the tasks and activities needed to reach a desired objective and intent. Planning is a roadmap and strategy with clearly defined milestones and deliverables in realising set goals. The planning process involves the creation, putting together and maintenance of a course of action or document to be followed as closely as possible throughout the lifecycle of what is to be created or achieved.
According to the AACEi (Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering International), planning is the identification of the project objectives and the orderly activities necessary to complete the project (the thinking part) and not to be confused with scheduling, the process by which the duration of the project task is applied to the plan. It involves answering the questions: (a) What must be done in the future to reach the project objective? (b) How will it be done? (c) Who will do it? (d) When it will be done? (e) How much will it cost? Planning is an iterative process and it continues almost throughout the project.
Executing
After planning has been concluded to a reasonable degree, the process of execution begins. Executing is to start and complete the project work as has been outlined in the project management plan and other project documents.
A properly planned project makes execution easier and near flawless. Apart from directing and managing the execution process, the project manager also manages communications, performs project quality assurance, develops human resources, conducts procurement, manages project funds and ensures stakeholders are satisfied with the progress of work. The project manager also has to deal with and solve problems, implement the change control process, do project controls and develop process improvements.
Monitoring and controlling
The monitoring and controlling process has to do with the tracking, measurement, reporting and review of the ongoing progress and performance during execution against what is prescribed in the project management plan and implementing changes through approved change requests. Recommended preventive and corrective actions are also carried out during this process. Some of the activities performed during this process include monitoring and controlling project work, performing integrated change control, controlling risks, procurement, quality, communication, costs, schedule, scope, stakeholder engagement and validating the scope of the project. Most of the project controls work is done during this process.
Project controls is a way of determining if the project is going to be over or under the budget and if it is going to come in ahead of schedule or if there is going to be schedule slippage. The methodology used for this is called the Earned Value Management (EVM). This aspect of the change process is so important that without it the resultant effect is disaster.
Ayodele Akingbade
