Harambee University

Faculty of Business & Economics

Department of Project Management

Course Name: Project Identification, Design

and Implementation
(MPM 621)

By: Ejarra Batu (PhD & PhD Scholar in Project Management)

nanatibatu@gmail.com
Ejarra Batu (PhD) 2020
 Key points to be covered
1. Origins and meanings of project
2. Project Characteristic features
3. Project life cycle
4. Project initiation/Identification/Preparation
5. Project selection
6. Project Logical Framework analysis
7. Project sustainability analysis
8. Project Implementation
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 Chapter One:
Origins and meanings of project
Projects have been described as:
• "The cutting edge" of development,
Projects embody
 The policy choices flowing from development
objectives and
 Acts as the vehicle or the medium of the
described social changes.
So, Projects are one of the several instruments to
achieve particular objectives in a process of
development
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• What is a Project?

• A project is a temporary endeavor with a

defined beginning and end (usually time-
constrained, and often constrained by
funding or deliverables), undertaken to
meet unique goals and objectives,
typically to bring about beneficial change
or added value.

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 Cont…
In general, a project is a specific activity with specific starting point
and specific ending point intended to accomplish a specific objectives
and with a pre-determined input resources.
Examples of some projects:
• Developing a new product or service
• Building a bridge, road, railway, or other structure
• Writing a soft ware
• Installing a new manufacturing process
• Publishing a book
• Developing a new marketing plan
• Obtaining an MBA degree
• Planting a garden
• A wedding plan
• Constructing a house
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• Establishing a plant or designing a car or new machinery etc;
1.2. Typical characteristic features of a project:
1. Are unique in nature.
• They do not involve repetitive processes.
2. Have a defined timescale.
• Projects have a clearly specified start and end
date within which the deliverables must be
produced to meet a specified customer
requirement.

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 Cont…
3. Have an approved budget.
Projects are allocated a level of financial
expenditure within which the deliverables are
produced, to meet a specified customer
requirement.
4. Have limited resources.
At the start of a project an agreed amount of
labour, equipment and materials is allocated to
the project.

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 Cont…
5. Involve an element of risk.
Projects entail a level of uncertainty and
therefore carry business risk.

6. Achieve beneficial change.

The purpose of a project is typically to improve
an organization through the implementation of
business change.

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 1.3. Broad Classification of project
• Projects can be classified into two
broad groups:
1. Industrial and
2. Developmental.
• Each of these groups can be further
classified considering:

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 1. Industrial Projects (Commercial Projects)
Provide goods or services for meeting the growing needs of the customers and
providing attractive returns to the investors/stake holders

Industrial project are grouped into two. Categories

1. Demand based projects
It’s designed to satisfy the customers’ felt as well the latent needs such as:
 Complex fertilizers,
 Agro-processing infrastructure etc.

2. The resource/ supply based projects

take advantage of the available resources like:
 Land,
 Water,
 Agricultural produce,
 Raw material,
 Minerals and even
 Human resource. Ejarra Batu (PhD) 10
 Cont…
Examples of resource based projects include:
Metallurgical industries,
Oil refineries etc.
Examples of projects based on human resource
(skilled) availability include projects in:
IT sector,
others.

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 2. Development projects
• Development projects are undertaken to facilitate
the promotion and acceleration of overall
economic development.
• Development projects cover sectors like:
Irrigation,
Agriculture,
Infrastructure
Health and
Education.

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Ejarra Batu (PhD) 13
 Types and classification of projects
Projects can be categorized according to type of
activity, location, time, ownership, size and need.
1. According to Type of Activity:
Industrial projects
Non-Industrial projects
2. According to Location:
National projects are those set up in the national
boundaries of a country
International projects are set up by the government or
private sector across the globe.

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 Types and classification of projects
3. According to Completion Time:
Normal projects
Crash projects .
4. According to Ownership:
Public sector projects
Private sector projects
Joint sector projects

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 Types and classification of projects
5. According to Size: This depends on
investment on plant and machinery
requirements
small,
medium and
large.
6. According to Need:
New balancing,
Expansion,
Modernization,
Replacement,
Diversification,
Backward integration and
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Forward integration projects.
 Differences b/n Project, Program and
Operation

• Projects Versus Programs

• A Project Versus Operation (Operational/Business

As Usual Activities)

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 Project Program
Narrow in scope Wide in scope; can comprise
many projects as components.

Specific and detail Comprehensive and general

Differences

More precise and accurate in Broader goal related to

its objectives and features sectoral policy

Possible to calculate the Difficult to calculate costs

costs and returns and returns
Similarities

• Have purpose/ objectives

• Require input (financial, manpower, material)
• Generate output (goods and/or services)
• Operate over space and time
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 Feature Projects Operations
Purpose Attain objectives and Sustain the
terminate organization
Time Temporary Ongoing
Unique product, service, or Non-unique product,
Outcome result service, or result
Key Differences

Dynamic, temporary teams Functional teams

formed to meet project needs generally aligned with
People
Generally not aligned with organizational
organizational structure structure

Varies by organizational Generally formal,

Authority structure direct line of authority
of
Manager
Generally minimal, if any,
direct line authority
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 Chapter Two:
What is Project Management?

• The application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to

project activities to meet project requirements and objectives
• Key features include:
– Identifying what is needed or to be achieved (requirements)
– Addressing needs, concerns, and expectations
• One of the primary jobs of a project manager is to
manage trade-offs among time, cost and
performance/scope[ex: •Can reduce time by increasing costs; or Can reduce
performance by reducing costs]

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 Project Constraints that Compete Attention
1. Cost is the budget approved for the project
including all necessary expenses needed to
deliver the project.
• Within organizations, project managers have to balance
between not running out of money and not under
spending because many projects receive funds or grants
that have contract clauses with a “use it or lose it”
approach to project funds.
• Poorly executed budget plans can result in a last-minute
rush to spend the allocated funds.
• For virtually all projects, cost is ultimately a limiting
constraint; few projects can go over budget without
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eventually requiring a corrective
Ejarra Batu (PhD) action.
 Cont....
2. Scope is what the project is trying to achieve.

a) It entails all the work involved in delivering the

project outcomes and the processes used to
produce them.

b) It is the reason and the purpose of the project.

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 Cont...
3. Quality is a combination of the standards and criteria to which the
project’s products must be delivered for them to perform effectively.
 The product must perform to provide the functionality expected,
solve the identified problem, and deliver the benefit and value
expected.
 It must also meet other performance requirements, or service levels,
such as availability, reliability, and maintainability, and have
acceptable finish and polish.
 Quality on a project is controlled through quality assurance (QA),
which is the process of evaluating overall project performance on a
regular basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the
relevant quality standards.

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 Cont...
4. Resources are required to carry out the
project tasks. They can be:
 people,
 equipment,
 facilities,
 funding, or
 anything else capable of definition (usually other
than labor) required for the completion of a
project activity.

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 Cont...
5. Time is defined as the time to complete the
project.
 Time is often the most frequent project oversight in
developing projects.
 This is reflected in missed deadlines and incomplete
deliverables.
 Proper control of the schedule requires the careful
identification of tasks to be performed and accurate
estimations of their durations, the sequence in which they
are going to be done, and how people and other resources
are to be allocated.
 Any schedule should take into account vacations and
holidays. Ejarra Batu (PhD)
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 Project Management Dimensions
The process of project management has two dimensions (“science” and “art” of project mgmt):

Technical Socio-cultural
Scope Leadership
WBS Problem solving
Schedules Teamwork
Resource allocation Negotiation
Baseline budgets Politics
Status reports Customer expectations

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 An overview of Project Life Cycle

• Is the stages through which the project

passes from inception to its completion.
• Is a continuous process made up of
– separate stages each with its own
characteristics and
– complementary stages (phases) and each
setting a ground for the next one.

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 1. Conceptualization Phase
Conception phase, starting with the seed of an idea, it
covers identification of the product / service, Pre-
feasibility, Feasibility studies and Appraisal and Approval.
The project idea is conceptualized with initial
considerations of all possible alternatives for achieving
the project objectives.
As the idea becomes established a proposal is developed
setting out rationale, method, estimated costs, benefits
and other details for appraisal of the stakeholders.
After reaching a broad consensus on the proposal the
feasibility dimensions are analyzed in detail.
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 2. Planning Phase
In this phase the project structure is planned based
on project appraisal and approvals.
Detailed plans for activity, finance, and resources
are developed and integrated to the quality
parameters. In the process major tasks need to be
performed in this phase are
• Identification of activities and their sequencing
• Time frame for execution
• Estimation and budgeting
• Staffing
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 3. Execution Phase
This phase of the project witnesses the
concentrated activity where the plans are put into
operation. Each activity is monitored, controlled
and coordinated to achieve project objectives.
Important activities in this phase are
• Communicating with stakeholders
• Reviewing progress
• Monitoring cost and time
• Controlling quality
• Managing changes
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 4. Termination Phase
This phase marks the completion of the project
wherein the agreed deliverables are installed and
project is put in to operation with arrangements
for follow-up and evaluation.

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Identification  Potential projects emerge from specialists, local leaders and national development strategies.
 Identification of potential stakeholders, particularly primary stakeholders.
 Carry out problem assessment and decide upon key objectives.
 Assess alternative strategies for meeting objective.

Preparation  The technical, institutional, economic, environmental, and financial issues facing the
project studied and addressed —including whether there are alternative methods for
and Appraisal
achieving the same objectives.
 Assessing feasibility as to whether and determining whether to carry out more advanced
planning.
 Evaluation of all of the feasibility studies to determine the ability of the project to succeed

Detailed  The project solution is further developed in as much as detail as possible

Planning

Implementation  The project plan is implemented over a specified time period.

and  Monitoring of project performance with a management information
monitoring system to enable correction of implementation problems as they arise.

Evaluation  On-going and final assessment of the success of the project against
& closure original objectives, to learn
Ejarra Batulessons
(PhD) to help improve future projects. 34