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A paper presented to the International
Seminar on Project Management for Developing Countries, September
4 to 6, 1991, in New Delhi, India. The audience was made up of
mostly construction people, but much of the following content
could equally apply to large projects in other areas of application.
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Why Conduct a PMA?
A project management appraisal should be viewed as a useful, constructive
and necessary diagnostic tool available for augmenting the capability
of the sponsoring organization's project management team. It can
be used to provide information ranging from an informal enquiry
to an extensive analysis of the effectiveness of every aspect of
the project management process. In the latter context it can be
conducted to ferret out common failings of many project management
arrangements. Some of these common failings include:
- Management on the project may be unable to see the forest for
the trees.
- Decisions may be being unduly biased by contractual commitments
already in existence, rather than being made in the best interests
of the final project results
- Decisions may be similarly biased unduly by corporate policy
- Short term political expediency may be overwhelming (Crisis
management)
- Key individuals on the project may be under the influence of
some form of illegal pressure
- Management on the project may simply be naive, inexperienced,
lack sufficient training in project management skills, or otherwise
ill prepared for the difficult tasks at hand
PMA can therefore be used to:
- Identify the strengths of current practices in a project management
organization, or on an existing project
- Establish how various groups within the organization perceive
the organization's effectiveness in managing projects
- Examine the effectiveness of project communication and documentation,
and clarify the relationships between project scope, quality,
time and cost
- Identify barriers to better performance, or critical skills
needed by project managers or their supporting teams to increase
their effectiveness
- Identify sooner specific aspects which require improvement and
hence speed the achievement of results
- Provide for an exchange of ideas, information, problems, solutions
and strategies with project team members, and thus develop a plan
of action for carrying out improvements
- Help to create a supportive environment focusing on project
success, and the professional growth of project team members
Thus, by conducting a PMA in a timely and favorable manner, potential
difficulties can be identified and brought out into the open for
appropriate corrective action. Better still, potential problems
may be circumvented altogether, if the concept and timing of a PMA
is built into the project plan from the outset.
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Project
Management Appraisal
