WSU 2018

UNIT 5
PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION, MONITORING AND EVLAUATION
5.1. 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 departments, 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;
5.1.1. Line and staff organization
5.1.2. Divisional Organization
5.1.3. Matrix Organization
5.1.1. Line and Staff organization:
In this form of organization, a person is appointed 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
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.

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5.1.2 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 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
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 be difficult to achieve higher degree of specialization.
5.1.3 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

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

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5.2. 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.

5.2.1. Functions of Project 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 forces people to look ahead.
iv. It instills a sense of agency and time consciousness.
v. It establishes the basis for monitoring and control.
5.2.2. Areas of Project 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.

5.2.3. Project 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 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, budgeted and controlled.

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 Assignment of responsibility for work element to project personnel and outside
agencies.
 Development of control and information system.
5.3. 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.
1. Regular monitoring of performance and
2. It motivates project personnel to achieve project objectives.
5.3.1. 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. There are three reasons for poor control of projects.
- Characteristics of the project: Most of the projects are large, complex
- People Problem: The lack of experience, training, competence and inclination to
control projects.
- 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.

5.3.2. Project 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 by employing an analytical
framework based on the following terms.
a) 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.

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b) BCWP: (Budgeted Cost for Work Performance) this is equal to the sum of the three
components (i) Budgets for work packages actually completed (ii) budgets applicable
to the completed in process work and (iii) overhead budgets
c) ACWP: (Actual Cost of Work Performed). This represents the actual cost incurred for
a accomplishing the work performed during a particular time period.
d) BCTW: (Budgeted Cost for Total Work). This is simply the total budget for the entire
project work.
e) 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 monitored 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)
5.4. 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.
To achieve satisfactory human relations in the project setting, the project manager must
successfully handle problems and challenges relating to;
 Authority
 Orientation
 Motivation
 Group functioning
5.5. Pre-requisites for successful project implementation:
Time and cost overruns a project is 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 are 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.

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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.

2. Sound Project Organization: A sound organization for implementation of the projects is

critical to its success; the characteristics of such an organization are;
i. It is led by a competent leader
ii. The authority of the project leads and his team is commensurate with their
responsibility
iii. Adequate attention is paid to the human being in the project
iv. System and method are clearly defined
v. Rewards and penalties to individuals are related to performance.
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,
- Develop comprehensive time plan.
- Estimate meticulously the resource requirements
- Define properly inter-linkages between various activities of the project.
4. Advance Action:
Advance action on the following activities may be initiated (i) acquit ion of land (ii) securing
essential clearance (iii) identifying technical collaborators (iv) arranging infrastructure
facilities (v) Preliminary design of engineering (vi) calling of tenders.
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.

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6. Judicious equipment tendering and procurement
Overdependence 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 mean delays and higher
uncertainty about the must be sought which moderates the outflow of foreign exchange
and provides reasonable fillip to the development indigenous technology.

7. Better contract Management

Since a substation portion of a project is typically excused though 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 contracts must be ensured
 Proper discipline must be inculcated among contracts 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
 Help should be extended to contractors and supplier when they have genuine
problems
 Project authorities must retain latitude to off lad contracts to other parties well in
time where delays are anticipated
8. Effective monitoring
In order to keep a tab on the progress of a system monitoring must be established. This
helps in;
 Anticipating deviations form the implementation plan
 Analyzing emerging problems
 Taking corrective action
In developing a system of monitoring, the following points must be keep in mind.
 It should focus sharply on the critical aspects of the project implantation
 It must lay more emphasis on physical milestones and not on financial forgets
 If must be kept relatively simple. If made over complicated, if 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.

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 Project Monitoring and Evaluation System

The basis of project monitoring systems is to track actual progress against planned
progress at any given time. This covers financial progress (monitoring of actual expenditure
against budgeting expenditure) as well as the progress of project activities. Monitoring systems
should be considered alongside the implementation plan because it is the targets set out in this
plan which forms the targets for monitoring. The whole system is therefore often referred to as
an “integrated planning, implementation and monitoring system” (IPIMS).

Monitoring systems should:

 At all times be concerned with future progress.
 Be simple and cost effective.
 Be able to detect deviations quickly and accurately.
 Be verifiable.
When designing a monitoring system, the project formulation should keep the following points
in mind:
 Identify key personnel or informants for the monitoring information. These could
include line mangers, accountants, contractors and suppliers etc.
 Indicate frequency of data/information collection time. Remember that data is only
effective once it has been processed.
 Identify responsibilities for data processing. Assign also responsibilities to act on the
result of these data.
 Try to attain the right combination of speed and accuracy. Sometimes a trade-off
has to be made between the two, with information that is extremely accurate leading to
delays in taking effective remedial action.
 Make sure that the monitoring system only intends to processes that data which is
necessary. Monitoring information increases workload so it is important that only the
most essential data is requested for processing.
Monitoring systems in themselves are ineffective unless they are linked to an effective control
system which will allow the manger to take swift and effective action to remedy any
deviations from the implementation plan.
Systems concerned with implementation measure the project’s effectiveness in
converting inputs to outputs; while monitoring systems concerned with operations
measure the project’s effectiveness in converting outputs into immediate and wider
objectives.
Information acquired through monitoring systems can be divided into three categories:
 Monitoring of physical progress
 Monitoring of financial progress
 Monitoring the quality of project outputs.

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1. Monitoring Physical Progress:

The primary purpose of physical progress monitoring is to ensure whether project activities are
on schedule. This can be achieved through milestone (target) monitoring and time chart
monitoring.
- Milestone monitoring involves the use of project milestones which were identified as
part of the project implementation plan. The actual date on which these milestones were
reached can be entered in table form or on the Gantt chart. Milestone monitoring provides
a retrospective record of project progress, but it is unable to provide us with information
about activities which are still in progress.
- Time chart monitoring is a method which is used to anticipate whether or not milestones
will be reached on schedule.
When dealing with physical progress of an activity there are three possible scenarios:
 Activity outputs can be quantified as a single number. This is relatively simple to
monitor. For example, if the activity was to print a certain number of textbooks then
both the physical target and progress to date can be expressed in terms of this single
number (for example, 250 books printed out of a target of 1000).
 Activity outputs can be measured and valued. This is the case with the construction
of buildings and roads. Progress towards meeting physical targets should be expressed
as:
Once physical progress has been monitored for all ongoing activities, it is possible to plot this
information against the implantation plan in the form of a bar chart.
2. Monitoring Financial Progress:
This involves comparing actual expenditure against the financial plan (budget) produced
as part of the implementation plan. The project must therefore have a cost reporting system in
place to enable a comparison of actual and predicted costs. It is unwise to rely on existing
accounting systems to provide this information as these systems are liable to be slow and to
categorize expenditure using different methods to those desired by the project manger.
As many authors note “public sector mangers will need to take particular care that they keep
a measure of overall spending of the project against overall budget……managers are not able
to spend above each year’s authorized budget, so that cost over-runs are met by delaying
implementation, or reducing the scope of the project to compensate.”
Once the manger has access to accurate cost data, it is possible to utilize this information in the
process of project cost control. Using the following relationship can do this:

Cost of work to date = Cost of work remaining

Value of work to date Value of work remaining

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The information gained through this calculation can then be entered in tabular form.

3. Monitoring The Quality Of Project Outputs:

This involves ensuring that outputs are delivered according to specification. This is normally
done through a system of direct inspection and supervision. A formal agreement between the
implementing agency and the project owner that project outputs are satisfactory is known as
‘signing-off’. Each project will have its own quality assurance features in operation and it is
important that the quality control aspect is not overlooked during project design.

 Evaluation

Evaluation is the structured process by which a project activities and achievements are
assessed and understood. It provides information for those who are involved in the project
such as managers, promoters, funders and/or policy makers. Evaluation in addition to
quantitative questions attempts to answer also qualitative questions. Evaluation could be
ongoing (mid term), terminal or ex post. A good evaluation system in a project from the outset
may assist the project implementers in identifying difficulties that hinder the progress as
planned and avoid repeating mistakes in future endeavors. It is therefore, crucial to identify the
main actors for the evaluation exercise during the project formulation.

The preliminary function of evaluation after project completion is to use data on the
performance of projects in such a way that new projects can learn from experience.

 Project Sustainability

A project is sustainable if its net benefits continue throughout the life of the project at a level
sufficient to meet the predetermined objectives. Sustainability is, therefore, the ability of a
project under consideration to continue operation or provision of services and/or production
without interruptions for the period under design. It also includes the managerial and technical
capacity and capability of the project personnel in the operation and running of the project to
meeting its desired objectives.

The aim of any development project is to meet its predetermined objectives/goals on

sustainable basis. If the project formulators fail to consider what will happen upon completion
of the project’s implementation phase, then however well implemented, the project is liable to
encounter serious problems in providing the required services and/or production.

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