Chapter Four

Project Implementation

Contents:
4.1Organization
4.1.1 Line and Staff Organization
4.1.2 Divisional Organization .
4.1.3 Matrix Organization
4.2 Project Planning
4.3 Project Control
4.4 Human Aspects of Project Management
4.5 Pre-requisites for successful Project Implementation.

Introduction:
A project implementation phase of a project provides wide scope for consultancy and
engineering work, first and frameset in the field of project management. This chapter,
concerned with various issues relating to project management is divided into five
sections.
4.1.Form of Project Organization
4.2 .Project Planning
4.3 .Project Control
4.4 .Human Aspects of Project Management
4.5 .Pre-requisites for successful Project Implementation.

4.1. Forms of Project Organization:

The traditional form of project organization is not suitable for project work for the
following reasons.
i) It has no means of integrating different departments at levels below the top
management, and
ii) It does not facilitate effective communication, coordination and control, when
several functional department, with different professional backgrounds and
orientations are involved in the project work under time and cost pressures, which
often call for overlap, at least partial, of the development, design, procurement,
construction, and commissioning work.

The type of Project organization is determined by the authority that is given to the
persons responsible for the project, the project organization may take one of the
following three forms;
4.1.1. Line and staff organization
4.1.2. Divisional Organization
4.1.3. Matrix Organization

4.1.1 Line and Staff organization:

In this form of organization, a person is appointed a with the primary responsibility of
coordination the work of the people in the functional departments; such a person referred
to commonly as the project coordinator, acts essentially in a staff position to facilitate the

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coordinator, acts essentially in a staff position to facilitate the coordination of line
management in functional departments. The project coordinator does not have authority
and direct responsibility of the line management. He serves as a focal point for receiving
project related information and seeks to promote the cause of the project by rendering
advice, sharing information and providing assistance. He may gently coax line executives
to strive for the fulfillment of project goals. Deprived to exert leadership and feel unsure
of his role. His influence would depend on his professional competence, closeness to top
management, and persuasive abilities. Clearly this is a week form of organization, which
may be employed mostly for small projects it is certainly not suitable for large projects.

4.1.2. Divisional Organization:

Under this form of project organization a separate division is set up to implement the
project, headed by the Project Manager. This division has its complement of personnel
over whom the project manager has full line of authority. In effect, this form of
organization implies the creation of a separate goal oriented decision of the company
with its own functional departments. While the project manager still has the problem of
coordinating the inputs of the organizations involved in the project, he has total formal
control over the division he heads.

Advantages:
 A very strong form of project organization.
 It facilitate the process of planning and control
 It brings better integration of effects and strengths the commitment of project
related personal to the objective of the project.
 It considerably improves the perfect of fulfilling the time and budget targets.

Limitations:
 It may entail on inefficient use of resources of the firm.
 It may result in an unnecessary duplication of specialist in the company.
 It may difficulty to achieve higher degree of specialization.

4.1.3 Matrix Organization:

The matrix form of organization, the third form of project organization, seeks to achieve
the twin objectives of efficient use of resources and effective realization of project
objectives, at the cost of greater organizational complexity of course.

In a matrix organization, the personnel working on the project have a responsibility to

their functional superior as well to the project manager. This means that the authority is
shared between the project manager and the functional managers.

The authority and influence of the project manager are across the traditional vertical line
of command while the personnel maintain the departmental affiliation and are responsible
to their functional superiors; they are responsible to the project manager as well.
Limitations:
 There is dual subordinations

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  Responsibility and authority are not commensurate
 The hierarchical principle is ignored.

4.2. Project Planning:

Project involving few activities, resources, constraints and inter relationship can be
visualized by the human mind and planned informally. However, when a project crosses
a certain threshold level of size and complexity, informal planning has to be substituted
by formal planning, without effective planning there may be chaos.

4.2.1.Functions of planning:
Planning, a vital aspect of management serves several important functions.
i. It provides a basis for organizing work on the project and allocating
responsibilities to individuals.
ii. It is a means of communication and coordination between all those
involved in the project.
iii. It includes people t look ahead.
iv. It instills a sense of agency and time consciousness.
v. It establishes the basis for monitoring and control.

4.2.2.Areas of planning:
Comprehensive project planning covers the following;
a) Planning the Project work: the activities relating to the project must be spell out in
detail, they should be properly scheduled and sequenced.
b) Planning the manpower and organization: the manpower required for the project
must be estimated and the responsibility for carrying out the project work must be
allocated.
c) Planning the money: the expenditure of money in a time phased manner must be
budgeted.
d) Planning the information system: the information required for monitoring the
project must be performed.

4.2.3.Work -break down structure:

The work breakdown structure, as it name suggests, represents a systematic and logical
breakdown of the project into its component parts. It is constructed by dividing the
project into o its major parts, with each of these being further divided into sub parts. This
is continued till a breakdown is done in terms of manageable units of work for which
responsibility can be defined, thus the work breakdown structure helps in;

 Effective planning: by dividing the work into manageable elements, which can be
planned, budgets and controlled.
 Assignment of responsibility for work element to project personnel and outside
agencies.
 Development of control and information system.

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4.3. Project Control:
Project control involves a regular comparison of performance against targets, a search for
the causes of deviation, and a commitment to check adverse variances. It serves two
functions.
(i) Regular monitoring of performance and (ii) it motivates project personnel to achieve
project objectives.

4.3.1. Reasons for ineffective control:

Effective control is critical for the realization of project objectives. Yet, control of
projects in practice tends to be in effective. This seems to be three reasons for poor
control of projects.
(i) Characteristics of the project: Most of the projects are large, complex understandings
involving many organizations and people.
(ii) People Problem: naturally most of the operational mangers, used to the study rhythm
of normal operations and routine work the lack of experience, training, competence and
inclination to control projects.
(iii) Poor control and information system: One of the factors, which inhibit effective
control, is the poor quality of control and information system. Some of the weakness
observed in the control and the information system are;
a) Delay in reporting performance
b) Inappropriate level of details
c) Unreliable information.

4.3.2. Performance Analysis:

Effective control over a project requires systematic ‘Performance Analysis’. For small
and simple projects, the project managers would do performance analysis for the project
as a whole, or for its major components. As the project business larger and
more complex, performance analysis needs to be done for individual segments of the
projects.

Methods of Analysis:
Performance analysis seeks to remove this subjectivity be employing an analytical
framework based on the following terms.
BCWS: (Budgeted cost for work scheduled) It represents the total of three components (i)
budgets for all work packages, scheduled to be completed (ii) budgets for the portion in
process work, scheduled for the accomplished and (iii) budgets for the overheads for the
period.
BCWP: (Budgeted Cost for Work Performance) this is equal to the sum of three
components (i) Budgets for work packages actually completed (ii) budgets applicable to
the completed in process work and (iii) overhead budgets

ACWP: (Actual Cost of Work Performed) . This represents the actual cost incurred for a
accomplishing the work performed during a particular time period.
BCTW: (Budgeted Cost for Total Work). This is simply the total budgeted unto for the
entire project work.

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ACC: (Additional Cost for Completion) This represents the estimate for the additional
cost required for completing project.
Given the above terms, the project may be monitoring along the following lines;

Cost Variance: = BCWP – ACWP

Schedule variance in cost term: = BCWP-BCES
Cost performance Index: = BCWP/ACWP
Scheduled performance Index: = BCWP/BCWS
Estimate cost performance Index: = BCTW/(ACWP+ACC)

4.4. Human Aspects of Project Management:

A satisfactory human relations system is essential for the successful execution of a
project. Without such a system, the other systems of project management, however sound
they may be by themselves, are not likely to work well, while technical problems can
often be solved with additional investment of resources, people’s problems may not be
amenable to a satisfactory solution on the short span of the project life.

The achieve satisfactory human relations in the project setting, the project manager must
successfully handle problems and challenges relating to;
 Authority
 Orientation
 Motivation
 Group functioning

4.5. Pre-requisites for successful project implementation:

Time and cost overruns a project are very common in all places. Due to such time and
cost overruns, projects tend to become uneconomical., resources are not available to
support other projects and economic developments is adversely affected.

What can be done to minimize time and cost overruns and thereby improve the prospects
of the successful completion of projects? While a lot of things can be done to achieve this
goal, the most important ones appear to be as follows.

4.5.1 Adequate information: Often project formulation is defiant because of one or

more of the following shortcomings:
 Superficial field investigation
 cursory assessment of input requirement
 Slip shot method used for estimating costs and benefits.
 undue hurry to start
 Deliberate over estimation of benefits and under estimation of costs.

Costs may be taken to avoid the above deficiencies so that the appraisal and formulation
of the project is through, adequate and meaningful.

4.5.2 Sound Project Organization: A sound organization for implementation of the

projects is critical to its success; the characteristics of such an organization are;

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 (a) It is led by a competent leader
(b) The authority of the project leads and his team is commensurate with their
responsibility
(c) Adequate attention is paid to the human being in the project
(d) System and method are clearly defined
(e) Rewards and penalties to individuals are related to performance.

4.5.3 Proper implementation Planning:

Once the investment decision is taken and often ever while the formulation and appraisal
are being done it is necessary to do detailed implementation, such planning should inter
alia, seek to,
a) Develop comprehensive time plan.
b) Estimate metriculosly the resource requirements
c) Define properly inter-linkages between various activities of the project.

4.5.4 Advance Action:

Advance action on the following activities may be initiated (i) acquisition of land (ii)
securing essential clearance (iii) identifying technical collaborators (iv) arranging
infrastructure facilities (v) Preliminary design of engineering (vi) calling of tenders.

4.5.5 Timely availability of fund: Once a project is approved adequate funds must be
made available to meet its requirements as per the plan of implementation it would be
high desirable if funds are provided even before the final approval to initiate advance
action.

4.5.6.Judicious Equipment Tendering and Procurement

To minimize time over-runs, it may appear that a turnkey contract has obvious
advantages. Since these contracts are likely to be bagged by foreign suppliers, when
global tenders are floated, a very important question arises. How much should we rely on
foreign suppliers and how much should we depend on indigenous suppliers? Over-
dependence on foreign suppliers, even though seemingly advantageous from the point of
view of time and cost, may mean considerable outflow of foreign exchange and
inadequate incentive for the development of indigenous technology and capacity. Over-
reliance on indigenous suppliers may mean delays and higher uncertainty about the
technical performance of the project. A judicious balance must be sought which
moderates the out flow of foreign exchange and provides reasonable impulse to the
development of indigenous technology. In any case, the number of contact packages
should be kept to a minimum in order to ensure effective coordination.

4.6.7.Better Contract Management

Since a substantial portion of a project is typically executed through contracts, the proper
management of contracts is critical to the successful implementation of the project. In
this context, the following should be done:
 The competence and capability of all the contractors must be ensured - one weak
link can jeopardize the timely performance of the contract.

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  Proper discipline must be inculcated among contractors and suppliers by insisting
that they should develop realistic and detailed resource and time plans, which are
congruent with the project plan.
 Penalties-which may be graduated-must be imposed for failure to meet contractual
obligations. Likewise, incentives may be offered for good performance.
 Help should be extended to contractors and suppliers when they have genuine
problems-they should be regarded as partners in a common pursuit.
 Project authorities must retain latitude to off-load contracts (partially or wholly) to
other parties well in time where delays are anticipated.

5.6.8. Effective Monitoring

In order to keep a tab on the progress of the project, a system of monitoring must be
established. This helps in:
 Anticipating deviations from the implementation plan.
 Analyzing emerging problems.
 Taking corrective action.
In developing a system of monitoring, the following points must be borne in mind:
 It should focus sharply on the critical aspects of project implementation.
 It must lay more emphasis on physical milestones and not on financial targets.
 It must be kept relatively simple. If made over-complicated, it may lead to
redundant paper work and diversion of resources. Even worse, monitoring may be
viewed as an end in itself rather than as a means to implement the project
successfully.
Chapter Five
Project Monitoring and Evaluation
5.1. Project Monitoring
 Is A continuous process of gathering analyzing & interpreting of information of
the daily use of inputs & their conversion into output
 Is activity monitoring
 Financial & physical monitoring
 Special Diagnostic studies
 Beneficiary participation contact monitoring
 Monitoring is collection, recording, and reporting of information

What do we need to monitor?

Performance
• Activities and project progression
Time
• Critical path
• Estimations
• Milestones
Cost
• Total project cost
• Activity costs

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Monitoring system creation
Start with the project action plan
Define measurements for cost, performance, and time
Important to remember that you must include all levels of activities
Furthermore, mechanisms for collecting the data must also be in place
Avoid tendency to focus on easily collected data

The monitoring system should also include

Change tracking/control
Documentation processes
Telephone logs
Code storage
Example of measurements
Performance
Activity completion (Subjective reports)
Code errors
Number of bugs
Number of changes
Cost
Different ratios
• Budgeted cost / Actual cost > 1
Time
Project member reporting (Important what increments you use)

Collecting data and reporting

Types of data
Frequency counts
Raw numbers
Subjective numeric ratings
Indicators and surrogates
Verbal characterizations
From where do we get the data
Among many
Economy systems
Project members
Change management systems
MS Project/Project server
Analyzing data
Frequently some sort of post-processing must be done in order to understand the
collected data
Budget breakdowns
Mathematical analysis Etc.
Reporting
Reports

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 Project Status Reports
Time/Cost Reports
Variance Reports
Not all stakeholders need to receive same information
Avoid periodic reports
All involved need to know their status
Report types
Routine
Exception
Special Analysis

5.2. Project Evaluation

 It is the process of reviewing the completed project
 It is to see whether the intended benefits are likely to be achieved
 Assess project out comes & impacts from the prospective both women & men
( have both benefited equally)
 To what extent the project contributed to gender equality &objectives
 It leads to lessons for the design of further project
 It leads to the identification of an associated project ( extension to existing
project)
 Effectiveness (Are we having impact on the problems?)
 Efficiency (Are we using resources efficiently?)
 Relevancy (Is the project still a relevant solution to the problem? Have better
alternatives emerged?)
 Unforeseen (what unexpected events have affected project performance, and
how?)
 Sustainability (Will the benefits of the project continue once the project has
ended?)
 See how the objectives have been met
 Measure the improvement and/or decline of both male and female condition
 The project evaluation appraises the progress and performance relative to the plan
 Purpose is to improve the process of carrying out projects
Evaluation criteria
Original criteria for selecting and funding project
Success to date
Business/Direct Success
Future Potential
Contribution to Organization’s Goals
Contribution to Team Member Objectives
Project audit process
Timing depends on purpose
Three Levels
 general audit
 detailed audit
 technical audit

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5.3. Project termination
Project termination (or close-out) is the last stage of managing the project, and occurs
after the implementation phase has ended. ... A review is then undertaken with the client
and other project stakeholders, during which the project outcomes are evaluated against
the project's stated aims and objectives.

Project termination is sometimes also called project close-out or final shutdown.

During this phase the people involved are acknowledged for their achieved goals and the
work is considered complete.

First lets look at what a successful project is:

"A project is successful when:
 The objectives of the project have been achieved to the full satisfaction of the
users,
 All closeout activities have been completed, and
 All designated interests, including the project's sponsor and/or initiator officially
accept the project results or products and close the project." (Wideman, n.d.)

Why Terminate?
Projects usually are terminated for two basic reasons: project success or project failure.
Senior managers, who “own” the project and who see the project as a building block in
the design and execution of organizational strategy, must create a cultural ambience that
encourages projects to be successful, but also allows a project to fail if it has lost its
strategic fit in the organization’s plans for the future.

However, all project terminations don't necessarily mean the project ended successfully.
Either way though, there are some steps that should be taken.

8 Steps to be Take in Termination Process

 Finalize all outstanding contracts to vendors, suppliers or customers including
final payments (in some cases, according to federal regulations, project-related
revenue that is earned on or before project termination is considered program
income. If it is earned after project termination, it is an external sale.)
 Transfer any responsibilities (if necessary)
 Reassign the project team/ members to other duties
 Release all remaining resources such as materials
 Complete the final accounting on the project such as totally final costs, paying
bills, etc so you can "close the book"/ Close the project book (resolve all
accounting and finance issues)
 Document the results of the project and make recommendations for future
projects (opportunity for learning and anticipating new risks)
 Presentation of the system and approval (or rejection) of the system by the
client according to acceptance criteria set forth in the Project Agreement
 Installation and field testing as applicable

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