Project Implementation

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Process whereby “project inputs are converted to project outputs”. May be looked at as:

v  Putting in action the activities of the project.

v  Putting into practice what was proposed in the project document (that is, transforming the project proposal into the actual project.)

v  Management of the project or executing the project intentions.

v  Implementation usually done by implementing agency(organization) that prepared the project and received funding for it.

After you have carefully planned your project, you will be ready to start the project implementation phase, the third phase of the project management life cycle. The implementation phase involves putting the project plan into action. It’s here that the project manager will coordinate and direct project resources to meet the objectives of the project plan. As the project unfolds, it’s the project manager’s job to direct and manage each activity, every step of the way. That’s what happens in the implementation phase of the project life cycle: you follow the plan you’ve put together and handle any problems that come up.

Other organizations that participate in the implementation of the project; by way of collaboration, say by according good working relationship, extending technical advice or seconding their staff to the project are referred to as co-operating agencies. The implementation phase is where you and your project team actually do the project work to produce the deliverables. The word “deliverable” means anything your project delivers. The deliverables for your project include all of the products or services that you and your team are performing for the client, customer, or sponsor, including all the project management documents that you put together. The steps undertaken to build each deliverable will vary depending on the type of project you are undertaking, and cannot therefore be described here in any real detail. For instance, engineering and telecommunications projects will focus on using equipment, resources, and materials to construct each project deliverable, whereas computer software projects may require the development and implementation of software code routines to produce each project deliverable. The activities required to build each deliverable will be clearly specified within the project requirements document and project plan. Your job as project manager is to direct the work, but you need to do more than deliver the results. You also need to keep track of how well your team performs. The implementation phase keeps the project plan on track with careful monitoring and control processes to ensure the final deliverable meets the acceptance criteria set by the customer. This phase is typically where approved changes are implemented. Most often, changes are identified by looking at performance and quality control data. Routine performance and quality control measurements should be evaluated on a regular basis throughout the implementation phase. Gathering reports on those measurements will help you determine where the problem is and recommend changes to fix it.

APPROACHES TO PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Top-down approach

Implementation mainly done by agencies from outside the community with limited involvement by the beneficiaries.

Bottom-up approach

Beneficiaries implement the project. Outside agencies may provide the financial resources and technical assistance.

Collaborative participatory approach

Both top-down and bottom-up approaches to project implementation are applied in the process.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PHASE INVOLVES:

The implementation phase uses the most project time and resources, and as a result, costs are usually the highest during this phase. Project managers also experience the greatest conflicts over schedules in this phase. You may find as you are monitoring your project that the actual time it is taking to do the scheduled work is longer than the amount of time planned.

Project activation

This means making arrangements to have the project started. It involves coordination and allocation of resources to make project operational.

Project operation

This is practical management of a project. Here, project inputs are transformed into outputs to achieve immediate objectives.

PROJECT OPERATION AND MAINTENANCE

Operation and maintenance

·         To attain value and maximum returns, the district/municipality or the beneficiaries organize for the facility to have the project properly managed and maintained regularly.

·         An operation and maintenance manual is prepared by the contractor and handed to the district / beneficiaries.

PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION PLAN (PIP)

If PIP is not carried out during the project design process and embodied in the project documents, it is carried out at the project activation stage.

PIP is concerned with:

v  What activities can produce expected project outputs?

v  What is the sequence of these activities?

v  What is the time frame for these activities?

v  Who will be responsible for carrying out each activity?

The following methods may be used to answer the above questions:

v  Gantt chart

v  Critical Path Method (CPM)

v  Project Evaluation and Review Techniques (PERT)

v  Simple formats

WHAT IS A GANTT CHART?

The Gantt chart is also referred to as the progress chart. A graphical representation of the tasks and resources needed to complete a job. It is a chart showing the timing of project activities using horizontal bars. It is one of the techniques of project scheduling, which depicts the frequency of activities and determines the period of time for implementation.

HOW TO DETERMINE A GANTT CHART?

Determine the parts or implementation phases of the project and the sequence in

which the associated activities shall be carried out Then estimate the amount of time required for each activity List the activities that can be carried out at the same time and identify those to be carried out sequentially

HOW TO CONSTRUCT A GANTT CHART?

Time represented on the horizontal axis, and activities on the vertical axis. Bars are entered to indicate the time period allocated for each activity and the state of progress at any particular point in time.

MONITORING

Monitoring relates to tracking the project progress, outputs and deliverables as per the defined programmed/project plan.

1.      Looking into the process, going towards the target, right selection of beneficiaries

2.      Procedures are being followed according to the work plan

3.      Meeting our target or not (target monitoring), activity monitoring

4.      Continuous info collection/analysis/reporting for decision making

5.      Program is going in right direction as planned in the project document

Systematic recording of:

v  Observations

v  Information gathering

v  Analysis

v  Documentation

v  Reflection and

v  Action……….re-planning

Monitoring Tools

v  Staff meetings – Weekly, Monthly, Annual

v  Partners meeting/Learning Forums (Surveys)

v  Participatory Reviews – Stakeholders

v  Monitoring and Supervision Mission (Self/Donors/Joint)

v  Progress reports/Statistics

Goals for monitoring

v  To ensure that inputs, activities and outputs proceed according to plan

v  Determine whether the inputs are optimally utilized

v  Ensuring all activities are carried out by the right people and in time

v  To provide record of inputs, activities, and outputs

v  To warn of deviations from objectives

v  To assist managers in making decisions

v  Monitoring should take place at and be integrated into all stages of the project cycle

EVALUATION

Evaluation refers to assessment on achievement of business objectives and benefits defined for the project. Evaluations involve identifying and reflecting upon the effects of what has been done, and judging their worth. Their findings allow project/programme managers, beneficiaries, partners, donors and other project/programme stake holders to learn from the experience and improve future interventions.

An important goal of evaluation is to provide recommendations and lessons to the project managers and implementation teams that have worked on the projects and for the ones that will implement and work on similar projects. Evaluation includes: Judging, appraising, determining the worth, value, or quality of a project to make necessary decisions. In terms of:

v  Relevance

v  Effectiveness

v  Efficiency

v  Sustainability

v  Impact

FORMS OF EVALUATION

Formative evaluation

Evaluation intended to improve performance, most often conducted during the design and/or implementation phases of projects or programs.

Summative evaluation

A study conducted at the end of an intervention to determine the extent to which anticipated outcomes were produced.

EVALUATION PROVIDES INFORMATION

Strategy: Are the right things being done?

v  Rational or justification

v  impact

Operations: Are things being right?

v  Effectiveness in achieving expected outcomes

v  Efficiency in optimizing resources

v  Client satisfaction

Learning: Are there better ways?

v  Alternatives

v  Lessons learned

TYPES OF EVALUATION

1.      Participatory evaluation

Evaluation in which representatives of agencies and stakeholders work together in designing, carrying out and interpreting an evaluation.

2.      Process based evaluation

An evaluation of the internal dynamics of a project, its policy instruments, its service delivery mechanisms, its management practices, and the inkages among these.

3.      Outcome based Evaluation

it facilitates the asking if the organization is doing right activities to bring about the expected outcomes

4.      Goal based evaluation

Evaluating the extent to which projects are meeting predetermined goal / impact

QUESTION 2:

Quality control of promotion materials in the petroleum industry

Quality:

refers to the sum of the attributes or properties that describe a product. These are generally expressed in terms of specific product characteristics such as length, width, color, specific gravity and the like. To be meaningful in an industrial sense, these characteristics must be quantitatively expressed in terms, that can be objectively measured or observed.

Quality is a blend of:

•         Fitness of purpose, adequacy of functioning and reliability, for the price paid

•         Design and manufacturing characteristics tailored to meet customer’s requirements during service

•         Availability when required

QUALITY CONTROL:

 Those activities which assure that quality creation is performed in such a manner that, the resulting product will in fact perform its intended function. Assurance that the product characteristics selected will achieve the intended result and assurance that, items produced contain the specified characteristics.

Quality control is a management system for initiating and coordinating: Quality development, quality maintenance and quality improvement in the various departments of design and manufacturing, for achieving the twin objectives of:  Economical production and customer.

OBJECTIVES OF QUALITY CONTROL

v  It is to provide products which are dependable, satisfactory and economical

v  To ensure economic production of products of uniform quality acceptable to the customer

v  Aims at preventing the defects rather than detecting the defects

NEED FOR QUALITY

v  Increased productivity

v  Reduced cost of repairs

v  Increases loyal customer base

v  Better profits

ENSURING QUALITY:

v  Control of engineering quality

v  Control of purchased material quality

v  Control of manufacturing quality

v  Actions supporting the product after delivery

QUALITY CREATION:

 Those activities involved in the selection of the specific characteristics, required to achieve the desired quality and the processing or fabrication of materials to conform to the specific characteristics selected.

•Quality creation involves almost all organizational elements of the enterprise and is the basic objective towards which most activity is directed.

INSPECTION

The act of determining conformance or nonconformance of the expected performance is the

function of inspection. By inspection, a manager seeks to determine the acceptability or non-acceptability of the parts, products or services.

The basis for inspection is usually a specification which is called inspection standard. Inspection is made by comparing the quality of the product to the standard.

WHEN TO INSPECT

Inspection is desired at

v  Finished products and parts to know that correct parts are to be assembled or products are right when shipped,

v  Before an expensive processing,

v  The output of automatic machine periodically so that possible errors are confined to small quantities, and

v  Before an operation that can’t be undone, for example, in mixing paint.

QUESTION 3:

THE LOGICAL FRAMEWORK APPROACH (LFA)

The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is a methodology mainly used for designing, monitoring, and evaluating international development projects. The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is a systematic planning procedure for complete project cycle management. It is a problem solving approach which takes into account the views of all stakeholders. It also agrees on the criteria for project success and lists the major assumptions.

Variations of this tool are known as Goal Oriented Project Planning (GOPP) or Objectives Oriented Project Planning (OOPP). The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is a highly effective strategic planning and project management methodology with wide application. The Logical Framework Approach (LFA) is an analytical process and set of tools used to support project planning and management.

HISTORY OF LFA

•         Developed in response to poor planning and monitoring of Development projects

•         The first logical framework developed for USAID at the end of 1960’s

•         GTZ was responsible for the development of ZOPP or Zielorientierte Projekt Planung• NORAD made a significant contribution in 1990 with their handbook.

KEY FEATURES OF LOGFRAME

The LOGFRAME MATRIX is a participatory Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation tool whose power depends on the degree to which it incorporates the full range of views of intended beneficiaries and others who have a stake in the programme design. It is a tool for summarizing the key features of a programme and is best used to help programme designers and stakeholders

SUMMARY OF THE LOGICAL FRAMEWORK INTERVENTION LOGIC

•         Goal: The higher level objective towards which the project is expected to contribute (mention target groups)

•         Purpose: The effect which is expected to be achieved as the result of the project.

•         Outputs: The results that the project management should be able to guarantee (mention target groups)

•         Activities: The activities that have to be undertaken by the project in order to produce outputs.

 

SUMMARY OF THE LOGICAL FRAMEWORK ASSUMPTIONS AND PRECONDITIONS

Assumptions

•         Important events, conditions or decisions outside the control of the project which must prevail the goal.

•         Important events, conditions or decisions outside control of the project management necessary for the achievement of the purpose.

•         Important events, conditions or decisions outside control of the project management necessary for the production of outputs.

•         Important events, conditions, decisions outside control of the project management necessary for the start of the project.

LOGICAL FRAMEWORK APPROACH (ANALYTICAL PROCESS)

Before starting with the activity design and the construction of the logframe matrix, it is important to undertake a structured analysis of the existing situation. LFA incorporates four main analytical elements to help guide this process:

1. Problem Analysis: involves identifying what the main problems are and establishing the cause and effect relationships which result in, and flow from, these problems

2. Stakeholder Analysis: having identified the main problems and the cause and effect relationship between them, it is then

3. Analysis of Objectives: objective trees should be prepared after the problem tree has been completed and an initial stakeholder analysis has been undertaken. This will give an image of an improved situation in the future.

4. Analysis of Strategies: comparison of different options to address a given situation

LFA steps (remember, it’s systematic!)

1.         Stakeholder analysis

2.         Problem analysis

3.         Solution analysis

4.         Strategy analysis

5.         Logframe matrix

6.         Activity scheduling - Timeline

7.         Resource scheduling – Budget

Logframe approach vs logframe matrix

•           The approach is a process, made up of steps

•           The matrix is one of the steps, and an output of the LFA

•           Do not confuse the matrix for the approach

•           The matrix is only as good as the work put in to the preceding steps

•           The (participatory) process can be as important as the product

The LFA creates work up front, but this provides a strong framework for your project

The next slide demonstrates how the LFA fits into the project management cycle

STEP 1. STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS

v  Obtain different points of view

v  Gain collective knowledge

v  Get “Buy-in”

Types of stakeholders:

v  Target group

v  Beneficiaries

v  Donors

v  Implementation groups

v  Government / NGOs / Private sector

STEP 2. PROBLEM ANALYSIS

v  The Problem Tree tool:

v  Will never replicate the complexities of ‘reality’

v  Helps document the core problem and all the causes and effects of a problem

v  Helps people explore and think through a problem

v  Leads to the development of a solution tree

STEP 3. SOLUTION ANALYSIS

v  Reframes the problem tree into a solution tree

v  The core problem becomes the purpose (or core objective) of the project

v  Negative statements are rephrased into positive statements

v  Cause-effect relationship becomes means-end

v  Articulates pathways to achieve the purpose

v  The solution tree should reflect a theory of change based on evidence (stakeholder input, past practises etc.)

STEP 4. STRATEGY ANALYSIS

Review the different pathways in the solution tree against a set of criteria:

v  strategic objectives and priorities

v  complementarity with existing or planned projects

v  lessons learnt from previous projects

v  preferences of key stakeholders

v  benefits to the target group

v  cost efficiency and technical feasibility

v  environmental, social and economic impacts

v  Select one of more solution pathways to form your strategy

STEP 5. LOGFRAME MATRIX

v  Displays the key elements of a project design and their relationships to each other

v  Generally, looks like a matrix with 4 rows and 4 columns

v  Should provide enough detail for someone to understand ‘how’ the project will work

v  Helps identify project risks (through assumptions)

v  Documents measures of success through indicators and sources of verification.

v  Facilitates project analysis, and guides project implementation and monitoring and evaluation

Logframe matrix

STEP 6. ACTIVITY SCHEDULING TIMELINE

Process to create a list of all activities required to deliver project outputs and results

Steps:

1.         List all project activities from logframe matrix

2.         Break activities into two or more manageable tasks

3.         Identify responsibilities (who)

4.         Determine the timeline of activities (when)

5.         Determine key milestones

STEP 7. RESOURCE SCHEDULING BUDGET

Process to create a budget and list of resources required to deliver project outputs and results

Builds on the activity schedule. Steps:

1.         Copy the activities from the activity schedule

2.         Identify the inputs or resources required to support the activities

3.         Identify amount of resources required and cost for each resource (#, $)

4.         Determine who will pay for it (a donor, your organisation)

5.         Calculate the total project costs and determine when the funds are needed

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