CASE STUDIES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

1. CASE STUDIES IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT Lecture 6 Development Project Planning SUMMARY

2. Overview • Discipline: Development Planning • Project Cycle Management • Planning & Implementation Approaches & Tools • LOGICAL FRAMEWORK ANALYSIS • STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS • MONITORING & EVALUATION • Critique of Project Planning and Cycle Management

3. References • Rondinelli, Dennis (1983). “ Designing Development Projects: the limits of comprehensive planning and management”, in Development Projects as Policy Experiments, Methuen, London, pp.65-88(Chapter 3) • Sagasti, F (1988). “National Development Planning in Turbulent Times: New Approaches and criteria for institutional design”, World Development, Vol. 16, No.4, pp.431-448 • Dale, Reidar (1998) “Perspectives and Variables of Evaluation” in Evaluation Framework for Development Programmes and Projects, Sage Publications, London, pp.39-84 (Chapter 2) • Roche, C. (1999) “ Designing an Impact Assessment Process” in Impact Assessment for Development Agencies: Learning to Value Change, Oxfam, Oxford, pp.37-61 (Chapter 3)

4. References • Cracknell, B.E. (2000) “Project Cycle Management: A Basis for Effective Monitoring and Evaluation” in Evaluating Development Aid. Issues, Problems and Solutions, Sage Publications, London, pp.93-125 (Chapter 5) • Taylor, L. (2001) “ Good monitoring and evaluation practice. Guidance Notes”, unpublished notes, Performance Assessment Resource Centre (PARC), Birmingham, UK (http://www.parcinfo.org) • Thomas, Alan and Tim Allen (2000) “ Agencies of Development” in Allen and Thomas (eds.) Poverty and Development into the 21st Century, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp.189-216 (Chapter 9)

5. “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there”

6. Development Planning • Immanent vs. Intentional • Development as Vision • Positive or Negative • Development Administration/Management • Structure • Agency and Agencies • Institutions • Trusteeship • Reductionism: power and capacity

7. Plans, Programmes, Projects • Plan: a statement of anticipatory decisions, their interrelations and the criteria employed in making them (Sagasti) • Programme: usually a long-term series of interventions, sometimes with no defined end point • Project: a discrete activity aimed at specific objective with a defined budget and limited timeframe

8. Project Cycle Management • Credibility • “Ownership” • Efficiency • Monitoring and control • Formalised contingency planning • Despite rhetoric…the approach requires some form of “blueprint” to ensure adherence to budgets and timeframes

9. Revisiting Reductionism: Project Approach • Scientific Management • Simplifies and reduces management to a series of inter-related and quantifiable components • Inputs • Outputs • Outcomes • Defined processes and relationships • In spite of serious flaws, the approach is inherent in all development practice

13. Generic Project Cycle

14. Project Cycle Stages: Identification • Problem Analysis • Stakeholder consultations • Preliminary feasibility study • Identification of funding agencies • Consideration of possible approaches • Site consultation • Possible Outputs • Concept note/paper • Proposal • Preliminary feasibility report

15. Project Cycle Stages: Appraisal • Appraisal (ex-ante) • Full feasibility study • Baseline study, needs assessment • Possible outputs • Needs assessment report • Baseline data • Detailed set of indicators • Amended proposal • Logframe • Project plan, GANTT chart etc.

16. Project Cycle Stages: Negotiation and Approval • Negotiation with finance provider • Possible outputs • Project memorandum • Signed contract

17. Project Cycle Stages: Implementation and Monitoring • Team selection and activation • Person specification/job allocation • Interviews and selection • Terms of engagement • Lines of responsibility • Briefing • Monitoring: systematic documentation of performance indicating whether project is performing as intended • Implementation of project management regime • Regular reports, meetings, workshops

18. Project Cycle Stages: Evaluation and Closure • Obtain “ sign off” from project participants • Ex-post project evaluation • When possible to assess full effects • External evaluator may be necessary/appropriate • Document lessons learned • Formulate recommendations for next phase • Submission of completion report and evaluation • Donors may reserve right to demand concluding activities

19. Logical Framework Approach (ZOPP) • Zielorientierte Projektplanung • “ a quality-based understanding of planning… founded on a participatory and transparent approach to the planning process, oriented towards the needs of partners and target groups, in which the key elements of a project are agreed on step by step, in teams, with those concerned, and recorded transparently” (GTZ, 2005)

20. Logical Levels of ZOPP and the Project Cycle • Pre-project planning • Ex-Ante Appraisal • Partner Negotiation • Plan Finalization • Implementation • Evaluation • Situation Analysis • Stakeholder Analysis • Problem Identification: Problem Tree • Objectives Analysis • Alternatives Analysis

21. Stakeholder Analysis • Consider appropriate level for analysis • Identify key stakeholders • Analyse interests characteristics, circumstances • Identify patterns of interaction between stakeholders • Assess power (influence) and potential (importance)

22. Stakeholder Analysis

23. Stakeholder Analysis High Potential/Significance/Importance Low Influence High Influence Low Potential/Significance/Importance

24. Project Planning Matrix (PPM) • Logframe, Logical Framework (Analysis), LFA • 4x4 matrix • Ensures clear statement of objectives (distinction between purpose and objectives) • Introduces indicators of progress • Focuses attention on the assumptions and risks involved

25. Logframe

26. Results-Oriented Logical Framework

27. Logic Behind the Framework • IF, THEN TEST GOAL Purpose leads to Goal IF… PURPOSE Outputs lead to Purpose IF… ASSUMPTIONS ARE IMPORTANT OUTPUTS Activities lead to outputs IF… ACTIVITIES INPUTS

28. Logframe • Goal • Development Objective/ purpose/effective objective • A lofty ideal, resulting from development vision • Specific to wider context of the project structure • Beyond control of project but project contributes explicitly to its achievement • Purpose (Objective) • Statement of specific achievement for the project • Within project scope • Should be realistic given available resources • Should be measurable: who will be reached, what change will be achieved, the period in which it will be achieved and where it will occur • Verbs. Adjectives denoting measurable change (decrease, increase, improve, enhance, strengthen

29. Logframe • Outputs and Outcomes • Activities • Inputs • (Objectively Verifiable) Indicators • Means of Verification (substantiation) • Assumptions and Risks

30. CATWOE TEST • Customer for the project (Who pays?) • Agents for the project (who does what?) • Transformation the project intends to achieve • Worldview or major assumption of the transformation (development hypothesis) • Owner of the project (who are the beneficiaries) • Environmental Constraints (natural, social, political, economic) facing the project

31. Performance Measurement (Monitoring) • Monitoring • Input • Output • Outcomes (RBM) • Logical framework approach • Levels of Indicators • Strategic • Sustainability • Attainment • Performance Quality, Quantity, Time

32. Monitoring • Tools: • Progress reports • Team meetings, team briefing reports • Criteria • Relevance to goal/purpose and in-country needs • Efficiency in providing inputs and converting to outputs • Effectiveness – has production of outputs achieved outputs? • Impact – is purpose making anticipated level of contribution to high-level goals • Sustainability – meets present needs without prejudice to future generations’ ability to meet own needs

33. Evaluation: Impact Assessment • Cracknell and Roche • Impact from beneficiaries’ point of view • What do they think is significant? • To whom is it important • Ex-ante and Ex-post • Criteria Efficiency – relate inputs to outputs Effectiveness- extent to which achieved objectives Consistency- methods/approaches with objectives Impact – change to lives/environment

34. Evaluation: Feedback • Lessons Learned • Most useful in development of LFA

35. Trade Offs: Too much project planning? Performance Cost Time Cost Amount of planning

36. Limits to Rational Planning and Systematic Management • Costly and ineffective analysis • Comprehensive planning vs. dynamism of political interaction • Inflexibility and unnecessary constraints on managers Delegation to experts and inappropriate intervention • No involvement of intended beneficiaries in planning and management • Reluctance to engage in evaluation and error detection

37. Constraints • Difficulty in precise definition of objectives and goals • Lack of appropriate or adequate data • Inadequate understanding of social and cultural activities • Weak incentives or controls to guide behaviour • Dynamics of political interaction and intervention • Low administrative capacities