Chapter 1: Project Management Concepts

Chapter 1: Project Management Concepts

A project is a plan to achieve a goal through unique set of interrelated activities while using resources; characteristics that define a project better are outlined as follows:

1.      A project has clear objectives

2.      A project is carried out through a set of interdependent activities or tasks

3.      Resources are required in order to undertake a project

4.      It has to have a life span

5.      A project may be a unique or one-time endeavor

6.      A project has a donor

7.      A project involves a degree of uncertainty

Examples of a project include:

Building a house

Planning a wedding

A birthday party

Providing and delivering agriculture seeds and inputs to refugees

Designing and producing a newsletter

The successful accomplishments of the project objective could be constrained by the following 8 factors such as scope, quality, schedule, budget, resources, risks, customer satisfaction and stakeholder support.

The project life cycle has four phases, initiating, planning, performing and closing. In the initiating phase projects are identified and selected, they are then authorized using a document referred to as project charter. The planning phase includes defining the project scope and identifying resources and risks, a schedule and budget all which make a baseline plan  for doing the project work. In the performing phase the plan is executed and activities are carried out to produce all the project deliverables and to accomplish the project objective. In this stage work is monitored to ensure that activities remain on schedule and budget.

The closing phase is the final stage of the project and it involves activities such as collecting, making final payments, evaluating and recognizing staff, documenting lessons learned and archiving project documents.

Project stakeholders are individuals or entities involved in, or who may influence, or may be affected by a project. For example stakeholders for an agriculture project that distributes seeds or fertilizers would be the Ministry of agriculture, the district agronomists and mayors because they may have a take on the decisions taken in regard to the project, the locals who directly benefit from the project etc… Stakeholders should be identified earlier in the project life cycle.