Project Implementation: Monitoring, Follow-up and Risk Management

1. SESSION # 5 MODULE 4: PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION by: Navuth YA, Consultancy Team Member

2. V. Project Monitoring and Follow-up 1. Introduction; 2. Time management; 3. Risk management; 4. Cost management; 5. Issue management; 6. Quality control management; 7. Procurement management; 8. Change management; and 9. Cross cutting issues.

3. Introduction Definition: • Monitoring and follow-up mean periodic checking of project implementation progress of works against the target laid down in order to ensure timely completion of the project. Project monitoring and follow up can help keeping track of project implementation process and checking the project progress against time, resources and performance schedules during the execution of the project and identifying lagging areas requiring timely attention and action to be taken.

4. Purpose of project monitoring and follow-up: • Project monitoring and follow-up helps to provide constructive suggestion and useful information as follows: • Rescheduling the project if the project implementation runs behind the schedule; • Re-budgeting the project with appropriate funds from one budget heading/item to another in order to avoid expenses under unnecessary heading; • Re-assigning the staff if necessary, shifting the staff from one area to other, recruiting temporary staff to meet the time schedule; • Analyzing the situation in the community and its project implementation; • Determining whether the inputs and resources are well utilized in the project implementation; • Identifying problems and challenges facing community, project implementation and finding solutions to the problems encountered; • Ensure that project activities are carried out properly by the right people and on time.

5. Importance of project monitoring and follow-up: • To provide project team, project managers, decision makers and other key stakeholders with regular feedback on project implementation progress, results and early indicators of the problems to be addressed; • To better informed key decision makers, the public and other key stakeholders; • To help project manager verify whether the project activities are happening according to the planning and whether means are used in a correct and efficient manner. • To collect and analyze data to compare how well a project is being implemented against expected results; • To provide useful information for internal use and help project managers to identify program weaknesses and take action to improve them accordingly; • To promote transparency and accountability within the organization, society and government. • External and internal stakeholders will have a clear sense of the status of project, programs and policies.

6. 2. Time management Definition: • Time management is a process how to control and monitor time spent against project to be implemented. To ensure the project deliverables can be produced on time, the project manager is required to have a clear time management process to record, monitor and follow up project activities implementation against time spent accurately. Objectives of time management: • Calculate the total time spent undertaking each task as well as the total staff cost of undertaking each task in the project; • Enable the project manager to control the level of resources allocated to each task; • Identify the percentage of each task completed as well as the amount of outstanding work required to complete each task in its entirety. • Provide a communication system and technical support to project team and conduct project oversight on time to ensure the project is successfully implemented as planned.

7. Benefits of time management: • Ensure the project activities implementation is completed with specific time and resource limitations based on the approved project work plan; • Allow project manager to take action on time based on the extent of deviation from the project work plan; • The project deliverables/desired results are achievable based on defined overall project purpose and log frame; • Ensure the issues emerged from project activities implementation can be addressed on time to enable the project is smoothly run and successfully executed as scheduled. Actions taken in time management: • Staff log in and out; • Timesheet; • Overall work plan and log frame; • Contracted service/consultancy work; • Ordinary and extraordinary meeting; and Field visit/spot check.

8. 3. Risk Management Definition: • A risk management is a process used by project manager to ensure that every risk is formally identified, quantified, monitored, avoided, accepted, transferred and/or mitigated in a timely, efficient and effective manner during the execution of the project. Objective: • To understand and recognize the variety of risks that may pose a direct and imminent threat to the project’s success; • To make a reasonable assessment of the probability and impact of the risk; and • To design better management responses and controls to counter the risk to enhance project success.

9. Benefits: • The data and information resulted from monitoring and controlling on risk management will provide the project management team a better ability to focus time and effort on the critical risks and as well as a benefit in designing their response actions to protect project implementation from being failed. Types of Risk: • Strategic/reputation risk, • Financial/economic risk, • Political risk, • Legal risk, • Security risk, • People risk, • Environmental risk, and • Technology risk.

10. Process of risk management: • Management team; • Executive committee; and • Donors.

11. 4. Cost Management Definition: • Project cost management is a process, involving in project cost planning, estimating, budgeting and controlling costs so that the project can be completed within the defined budget approved by development partners/donors. Objectives: • To set the format and standards by which the project costs/expenses are measured, reported and controlled; and to accurately record the actual costs/expenses which accrue during the project life cycle.

12. Benefits of cost management: • Establish the activities and criteria for project planning, estimating, budgeting and controlling costs; • Identify mechanism to be used for financial management and financial reporting to development partners/donors and key stakeholders, including actual costs/expenses, any change and variances; • Identify and keep tracked on project cost performance and related expenses in the project.

13. 5. Issue Management Definition: • An issue management process is a method by which issues that are currently affecting the ability of the project to produce the required deliverables are formally managed. Objective: • Ensure that every issue identified is formally communicated, documented, monitored, reviewed and resolved by the project management team during project implementation. Benefits: • Allow the project manager to assess the level of impact that the issue is having on the project and assign a number of actions to resolve or reduce the issue as appropriate.

14. Process of Issue Management: • The issue process is involved with project management staff and management team. The management team is normally comprised of key staff from each program, including executive director and/or president of the implementing organization.

15. 6. Quality Control Management Definition: • is referring to the quality plan to be implemented whether its project deliverables and results are meeting/responding to the beneficiaries’ needs/problems, expectations and standards & requirements defined in the approved project log-frame. Objectives: • The purpose of quality management is to ensure that the project will meet beneficiaries’ needs and expectations and satisfy key stakeholders, especially development partners/donors. Processes: • Quality definition; • Quality assurance; • Quality control; • Quality improvement.

16. Benefits: • Regularly monitor the project progress towards the delivering of the expected results/outcomes; • Be flexible to adjust the project’s scope, timeline and budget to satisfy beneficiaries, donors and key stakeholders’ needs, expectations, requirements and standards; • Be able to provide technical support to project management staff and motivation towards achieving expected deliverables; • Establish a common communication system between donors/project sponsors, project team and beneficiaries, including key stakeholders to effectively and efficiently implement the project quality plan and ensure the quality assurance plan is achieved as scheduled. • Increase effectiveness and efficiency in the service delivery of the project plan and uphold growth and development in project team to find the way how to ensure quality assurance plan is attainable.

17. 7. Procurement Management Definition: A process of deciding which goods or services are acquired for a project from external suppliers/contractors to which the delivery is in defined timeframe. Objectives: • Ensure that all products/services are acquired within the correct timescales, to the level of quality defined and within the budget cost identified.

18. Benefits: • The monitoring and follow up process will enhance strict compliance with procurement policies and procedures of the implementing organization which can prevent issues that are concerned with nepotism, conflict of interest, potential of corruption. Process: • Controlling the ordering; receipt, review and approval of goods/services from suppliers/contractors as well as managing the overall performance of the suppliers.

19. 8. Change Management Definition: • A process in which the original project’ scope, timeline, resource and deliverables are changed when the project is approved by donors during the project implementation phase. Objective: • Get organization to accept the change, understand the elements of change and properly implement the change.

20. Benefits: • Build commitment to work together with project team and key stakeholders and better understand of the kind of change required in terms of characteristics of change and different approaches; • Control the cost of change significantly; • Help reduce the incidence that affect efficiency of project implementation and maintain organization’s productivity; • Help to monitor and evaluate the organizational structure and implement changes. Processes: • Review change management; • Approve change management; • Implement change management.

21. 9. Cross Cutting Issues Definition: • Cross cutting issues are commonly defined as topics which have a strong impact by nature on all operation in a given field, and therefore, must receive a special attention. Cross cutting issues here are referred to gender mainstreaming, disability and climate change as identified in module two. The focus on these issues in implementation are crucial as they may have a negative or positive impact on project goals and objectives.