Project Management Capacity Research Articles

통합적 접근법 실현을 위한 ODA 정책과제

Purpose: This research aims to identify policy tasks for international development cooperation (ODA) projects in order to implement an integrated approach and evaluate them. In this context, the paper redefines the definitions and classifications of integrated approaches, explores methodological changes, and evaluates the potential for mainstreaming.
 Originality: An integrated approach has been emerging at a time when ODA projects have been packaged or enlarged, emphasizing a holistic and comprehensive perspective. This study aims to derive practical concepts shaped by discourse and consensus among experts in the field.
 Methodology: The policy agenda for integrating ODA projects is identified through a Delphi survey involving 30 distinguished experts in the field of international development cooperation. The survey assesses the importance, urgency, and feasibility of each agenda item.
 Result: External factors are more urgent compared to internal factors, but they are not considered more important or highly feasible. The high-priority policy tasks include facilitating adequate discussions on supply and demand between donor and recipient countries (partner countries), enhancing cooperation with relevant departments/agencies in recipient countries, and improving the project management capacity of Korean specialized institutions.
 Conclusion and Implication: These results are expected to contribute to the development of related policies and program design based on the integrated approach. Furthermore, this research can contribute to the formulation of relevant national policies and enhance the national brand.

Significant factors affecting the Vietnam Roads Infrastructure Construction Cost Overrun - A Review

Cost overrun represents a significant challenge faced in construction projects, particularly in the realm of transportation infrastructure. The investigation into the causes of cost overruns in such projects has garnered substantial attention from both academics and the general public. Various studies conducted globally have identified diverse factors contributing to cost overruns. This article undertakes a critical review of the literature on cost overruns in construction projects, encompassing cases from different countries with a specific focus on Vietnam. The aim is to identify and comprehend the primary potential causes of cost overruns in construction projects across various geographical contexts, providing insights into both commonalities and distinctions within the identified factors. According to the findings of this study, the ten identified factors encompassing Delay in site clearance certificates, Change Management, Delay in Payment, Extension of the project implementation schedule, Construction Material Price Fluctuation, Effects of inflation and price slippage, Poor construction site management, Poor project management capacity of the investor, Poor financial capacity of the investor, Geological complexity are deemed highly influential and warrant close scrutiny during the implementation of projects in Vietnam. The insights gained from this study will serve as invaluable recommendations for active entities within the construction industry to adopt a more holistic approach to project management, cost control, and cost overrun management. By addressing quantitatively these factors in the forthcoming research, organizations in construction industries in Vietnam can effectively minimize project costs overrun in the future.

Defining suitable Safe System projects: The experience of the SaferAfrica project in five African countries

When dealing with road safety in Africa, one should bear in mind that road safety problems need to be seen in their context as the solutions proposed to address them. While it is relevant to consider international good practices, African stakeholders should become owners of the interventions addressing their problems and take the responsibility for developing and implementing the appropriate solutions, taking advantage of suitable technical assistance, if needed. Based on these considerations, in this paper, a presentation is made of the process used in the European research project SaferAfrica to define suitable Safe System projects in Africa. This project aims at supporting policymakers and stakeholders with evidence on critical risk factors, related actions, and good practices drawn from high-quality data and knowledge. In the project, road safety and traffic management capacity reviews at the country level were carried out in five countries (Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Tunisia, Kenya, and South Africa), following the World Bank guidelines. After conducting such a capacity review, these guidelines recommend the preparation and implementation of Safe System projects, “stand-alone, multisector initiatives targeting high-risk corridors and areas, with outcomes large enough to be reliably measured.” In SaferAfrica, this approach aims at facilitating the implementation of Safe System projects in the considered countries, by identifying detailed short-term improvement plans and producing contextualized terms of reference for some interventions per selected country. These interventions are remedial, they address high-priority concerns and demonstrate the viability of high potential gains within current administrative and legislative frameworks. To design interventions suitable to the existing context, the transferability audit tool was adopted within a “participative” process, involving all possible interested parties, from the institutions to NGOs. Results from the process are presented and discussed.

The Contributions That Development Projects and Project Management Have Made to Human Development – A Study of Trinidad and Tobago

This study addresses the problem of countries struggling to achieve national development despite investing in development. It aims to identify the fundamental driver of development in these scenarios by exploring the empirical impacts of investment into development projects and public sector project management capacity on Human Development in Trinidad and Tobago. 28 annual (time series) observations were gathered from available secondary data for the Human Development Index and Public Sector Project Implementation Rate in Trinidad and Tobago and analysed using multiple and simple linear regression. The results revealed that expenditure on public sector projects positively and significantly impacts on the Human Development Index. It also suggests the need to find a more effective indicator of project management capacity than the one which the Government of Trinidad and Tobago relies upon.

Rice Loans and People’s Organisations in the Rural Philippines

This descriptive study introduces community-managed rice loans, as implemented by people’s organisations in the rural Philippines. Projects addressing low income and food shortages are by no means new to the development sector. Development agencies, nonprofit organisations, and local governments have implemented such projects to address immediate food shortages and threats of hunger. Less explored, however, is the potential of rice loans as intermediate solution, not only in terms of food provisioning but also in strengthening communities’ organisational structures and capabilities. This study explores such possibilities by focusing specifically on community-managed rice loans as implemented in the Philippines’ regions of Nueva Ecija and Isabela and supported by a local nonprofit, Outreach Philippines Incorporated (OPI). It discusses how rice loans provide communities with an alternative option for accessing affordable food and how these rice loans operate in the context of community development. The analysis of programme proposals identified three components integral to rice loans’ implementation and ongoing operations. These include specific organisational structures, clear operational processes, and well-defined policies and systems. We argue that these components are the building blocks of not only successful project implementation but also the strengthening of participating organisations’ project implementation and management capacity.

Critical Factors to Achieve Sustainability of Public-Private Partnership Projects in the Water Sector: A Stakeholder-Oriented Network Perspective

A key challenge in the management of the public-private partnership project is to understand the critical factors for sustainability performance as well as their complex interaction. Majority of existing studies focus on identifying general factors without consideration of specific context of individual sector. To bridge the gap, unique characteristics of water PPP projects are taken into consideration in this study where the relationship among critical factors to achieve sustainable performance is analyzed from a network perspective. Stakeholder-associated factors and their interrelations were identified via extensive literature review and structured interview, and the social network analysis (SNA) method was employed to recognize the critical factors and their interactions in sustainability achievement of water PPP projects. As a result, seven stakeholder groups and 18 critical factor nodes were identified and further classified into four challenges when achieving sustainability. These challenges are (1) promoting ecological awareness and responsible citizen behaviour; (2) project construction quality; (3) ecological designs and technology innovations; and (4) project management capacity. These findings provide the stakeholders of water PPP projects with useful references for mitigating the risks and facilitating efforts to achieve better sustainability performance.

Pemenuhan Kapasitas Manajemen Pengawasan dan Pengendalian Penyelenggara Infrastruktur Jalan: Studi Kasus Balai Pelaksanaan Jalan Nasional (BPJN) XV Manado

This research was aim to analyzed the increasing management supervision capacity and project control and technical competence of human resources in Ministry of Public Works and Housing in project supervision and control division. Data was collected through interviews of three parties, which are: the supervisor of the activity organizer, the main controller of the activity and the implementing organizational unit. In addition, data was also collected by examining relevant documents at the Ministry of Public Works and Housing. The results of this research indicate that the capacity of the project supervisory and control management and technical competence in managing roads in the Ministry of Public Works and Housing have not yet been fulfilled. To fulfill the project management and supervision management capacity, four main factors are needed: Improving the Quality of the Independent Supervision System in Works Unit (Satker) and The National Road Implementation Agency (BPJN),. The re-organization of The National Road Implementation Agency (BPJN), of the Directorate General of Highways., Improving the quality of Human Resources (HR) Directorate General of Highways, Ministry of Public Works and Housing., To improve the quality of construction service providers (contractors and consultans). This research contributes to the improvement of the project’s supervisory and control management capacity so as to reduce the problematic packages each years, those that are late, unfulfilled quality and pass the fiscal year.Keywords: implementation of national road infrastructure, supervision and control.

Critical factors impacting interdisciplinary university research teams of small size

Purpose This study aims to explore key factors influencing the work of interdisciplinary university research teams of small size. Design/methodology/approach This is a multiple-case study of four interdisciplinary university research teams of small size in which science and/or engineering was an important component. Findings Data analysis revealed 17 critical factors classified into five groups. Although some factors were more influential than others, it was rather multiple factors at various levels of analysis, and not a single factor, that influenced the work of research teams. Another important finding was the identified need to develop project management capacity of university researchers. The study also revealed two strategies, conditioned on the availability of funds, that small university research teams use as a way to adapt to situational demands and research opportunities. Originality/value Although previous research examined various aspects pertinent to the work of industry research teams and large research groups, empirical research into interdisciplinary university research teams of small size has been limited.

A CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW ON IMPROVING PROJECT COST MANAGEMENT PRACTICE AND PROFITABILITY OF DOMESTIC CONTRACTORS

Construction cost management is the most important function for project success, and the construction project performance is generally expressed in terms of cost and its variance from the budget. However, it has not been effectively used due to the presence of a large quantity of data with many complex interrelationships. Construction firms, being project based organizations, have to develop their project management capacity in order to accomplish firm and project objectives successfully. Hence contractors need to focus on project cost management process. The study presents the limitations, drawbacks and shortcomings of each project cost management functions related to current practices of domestic contractors, which need to be improved for achieving the predefined project objectives and the profitability of contractors along with the proposed improvement recommendations, through critical literature review.

Success, Gaps and Challenges of Power Sector Reform in Ethiopia

Ethiopia faces chronic power problems including insufficient generation capacity, low connectivity and poor reliability of transmission and distribution all of which constrain development. The Ethiopian power sector reform is necessitated by poor technical and financial performance of the power sector. The reform was initiated during 1997 just like any other Africa country due to deregulation of the power sector market in the world which aimed to increase the technical and financial performance of the sector. The government initiative to reform the power sector was backed by world bank by transforming Ethiopia Electric Light and Power Authority (EELPA) into Ethiopia Electric Corporation (EEPCO) in order to give the utility to work in business mind rather than as simple service sector. The main reason for powers sector reform is inability of state own vertically integrated utility to mobilize sufficient capital for the electricity sector development and expansion and waiting of federal government yearly allocated budget to perform its planned tasks. It is found that as most sub Saharan African countries including Ethiopia is in its initial steps of power sector reform even though there are some work done regarding corporatization, electricity amendment, management contract and tariff setting for independent power producers. The reform resulted in significant progress in connectivity and creating independent regulatory agency but failed to bring unbundling, encompassing independent power producers and improving transmission and distribution reliability. This article is based on country study by the author reviewing the status of power sector reform with special emphases on the success, gaps and challenges of the sector. The result of this study shows that power sector reform in Ethiopia has mixed result that gaps and challenges override the success due to weak institutional structure, weak project management and low skill capacity of human resources to implement the reform as intended, government inability to finance the reform process and the country still position itself at level-2 out of level-5 of maturity level of power sector reform.

Examining the Performance of NGO Projects in Fragile States - The Case of World Vision South Sudan Program

The present study summarizes the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the research project “Examining the Performance of NGO Projects in Fragile States - The Case of World Vision South Sudan Program.” The purpose of this research is to assess the performance of projects in fragile states in terms of time, cost, scope, quality, and customer satisfaction. As cost and schedule are believed to comprise 2/3rd of the cost-schedule-quality equilibrium, the performance analysis was focused on time and cost elements. The motto of World Vision South Sudan (WVSS) is excellence in execution. The results of literature review, analysis of project performance data, organization’s level of project management maturity and customer satisfaction indicate that 80% of the past projects were completed behind schedule with 46% under spending and 39% cost overruns. Likewise, over 60% of the projects failed to achieve one or more deliverable objective. Consequently, only 15% of the projects ended on budget and on target. The earned value analysis also shows that 67% of the ongoing projects were behind the schedule. If the remaining project activities implemented at the current pace, over 60% of the projects will end far behind the schedule with US $15-20 million additional cost per year. Moreover, 99% of the project managers had no formal project management training or capacity. Furthermore, about 55% of community, local government & partner UN/NGO representatives were dissatisfied with WVSS’s project performance. Project implementation phase is the most challenging part of the project cycle often weighed down with uncertainties. Therefore, it is highly recommended that organizations operating in fragile contexts equipped with comprehensive project management capability and business process/operational excellence to ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget with expected quality standards. Besides, projects must adapt flexibly and innovative ways of working in difficult environments in order comply with accountability standards and commitments to beneficiary communities, donors and other key stakeholders.

Critical success factor analysis for effective risk management at the execution stage of a construction project

Despite the importance of proper risk management during the construction execution stage, the current studies mainly focus on risk management at the planning stage. In order to effectively manage risks and accomplish a project success, it is instrumental to manage and mitigate risks at the execution stage where the most of risks are actually occurred. Hence, this research aims to identify the most critical success factors for effective risk management at the execution stage of a construction project. A mixed method was adopted to identify the priorities among various success factors for risk management through a questionnaire survey, and follow-up interviews were conducted to retrieve more insights and lessons learnt from construction professionals. Total 55 construction professionals responded that a) Project management capacity; b) knowledge and experience; c) early involvement of contractors and d) socio-cultural forces are the most critical success factors for successful risk management during the execution stage. This research identified the critical success factors and its relative importance expected to provide a means for the construction professionals to prioritise critical success factors for risk management at the execution stage, and it will serve a risk management supporting tool to make a proper plan and decision on risks.

CRITICAL FACTORS INFLUENCING IMPLEMENTATION OF ROAD PROJECTS IN KENYA

Purpose: The Purpose of the study was to establish Critical factors influencing implementation of road projects.Methodology: The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population of the study was all the road engineers, middle managers in department of KRB. The sample size was 188 respondents. Data collected was cleaned, pretested, validated, and coded, summarized and analyzed using statistical package of SPSS V23. The study findings were presented using graphs, histograms, bar charts and pie charts. Conclusions were derived based on the P.value and the coefficient of determination. Results: The study found that the key significant determinants of sustainability of water projects in Machakos County were capacity of the project management, government policies, monitoring and resource support. The study concluded that project management capacity had the greatest determinant ofsustainabilityofwater projects in Machakos County, followed by resource support, then monitoring while government policy had the least determinant of sustainability of water projects in Machakos County.Contribution to policy and practice: The study recommends that the government should advocate for proper planning with involvement of the benefiting community and timely implementation with the required results. This can be done through making of a policy by the ministry demanding for the practice of the same by the involved organizations. The project committee should set up financial structures considering both rising of funds and dissemination of the same in relation to operating and maintaining of the project. This can be done through learning and training on the same. The study also recommended that water beneficiaries and management should be sensitized to improve their knowledge on conservation and protection of water facilities.

DETERMINANTS OF SUSTAINABILITY OF WATER PROJECTS AT MACHAKOS COUNTY IN KENYA

Purpose: The study sought to establish the determinants of sustainability of water projects in Machakos County, Kenya. Specifically, the study sought to establish the effect of project management capacity, government policies, resource support and monitoring on sustainability of water projects in Machakos County Kenya. The study was guided by Project Management Competency Model, Policy Theory, Resource Based View Theory and Program Theory.Methodology:The target population comprised of 244 water projects in the county implemented by the county government, national government community and non-governmental organizations. The unit of observation was water project managers. A descriptive research design was adopted in the study. The study applied Yamane sampling formula to derive a sample of 151 respondents to be involved in the study. The study used quantitative data that was collected from respondents using 5-point Likert scales questionnaire with closed ended questions. Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used. The study findings were presented through tables and figures.Results: The study found that the key significant determinants of sustainability of water projects in Machakos County were capacity of the project management, government policies, monitoring and resource support. The study concluded that project management capacity had the greatest determinant of sustainability of water projects in Machakos County, followed by resource support, then monitoring while government policy had the least determinant of sustainability of water projects in Machakos County.Contribution to policy and practice: The study recommends that the government should advocate for proper planning with involvement of the benefiting community and timely implementation with the required results. This can be done through making of a policy by the ministry demanding for the practice of the same by the involved organizations. The project committee should set up financial structures considering both rising of funds and dissemination of the same in relation to operating and maintaining of the project. This can be done through learning and training on the same. The study also recommended that water beneficiaries and management should be sensitized to improve their knowledge on conservation and protection of water facilities from mismanagement and destructions. Community members should be involved in the determination of the water sale rates. County governments and the general management of the water projects in Kenya should ensure that the local community members are trained to do minor repairs.

Comparison of Efficiency and Satisfaction Level on Different Construction Management Methods for Public Construction Projects in Korea

Selecting appropriate construction management method in construction projects based on owner’s project management capacity can be a make-or-break element. Given the accelerated change in the construction environment, the need for an efficient project management of public construction projects is ever more important, as is the need to select an appropriate construction management method. However, most public project owners find it difficult to select construction management method that perfectly coincides with their capacities or project characteristics since they lack information on the efficiencies of various construction management methods. Under this context, construction management method is usually selected for the sake of convenience or to comply with regulatory requirements. As such, this study aims to provide a basis for project owners to select the most appropriate construction management methods for the projects concerned by analyzing the efficiency of various methods currently applied to domestic public construction projects and also by comparing and analyzing the degree of satisfaction of project participants under each construction management method. In terms of allocated manpower and costs, the inspection supervision method and the construction supervision method incurred additional costs of 42% and 52%, respectively, compared to the direct supervision method. In addition, as for time spent processing tasks, other supervision methods took more time than that of the direct supervision method leading to the conclusion that the direct supervision method appeared to be the most efficient construction management method.

FACTORS AFFECTING PROJECT MANAGEMENT CAPACITY AMONG ELECTORAL WORK FORCE IN KENYA

Project Management capacity has been a major challenge in most of the projects in Kenya. Many researchers have tried to highlight the issue, but there is still a huge gap that has not been addressed. This research sought to investigate project management capacity among the electoral work force in Kenya. The research study utilized a case study design with target population being electoral work force within Nairobi County in Kenya. Data was collected from a sample of 39 electoral work force randomly selected from the target population distributed across the constituency. The findings indicated that that majority of the respondent’s rated organization employees having the relevant skills, however there was still a wide gap in relation to management capacity. As a result of the findings above the researcher recommended that Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission needed to put in place a broad research and development department to assist it in studying the local environment and internal environment specific factors which affect project management capacity of its workforce. This is necessary for purposes of creating organizational capacity to manage projects and organizational integration in terms of achieving its mandate through enhancing project planning skills, measuring knowledge on metric performance and having knowledge on risk management.

What role for local organisations in climate change adaptation? Insights from South Africa

With increasing funding directed towards climate change adaptation (CCA) in developing countries, there is a growing need to understand how this support is landing on the ground and impacting on the targeted vulnerable communities. Due to failure of top-down approaches, international organisations such as the adaptation fund are now demanding direct involvement of local actors when funding adaptation actions. Direct access mechanisms have been developed to facilitate channelling fund from the international to local levels. At this level, civil society, public and private organisations have a key role to play to assist adaptation among vulnerable groups. But are local organisations ready to play that role in developing countries? In this paper, we develop and apply a framework to measure adaptive capacity among local organisations. Through extensive fieldwork in South Africa, we assessed the capacity of local organisations to develop and implement CCA projects, and thus access international funds for adaptation. Results highlight key determinants of adaptive capacity and identify areas to prioritise for capacity-building interventions. Key findings include strengthening local organisations’ effectiveness (e.g. resources, project management capacity) and flexibility; raising awareness about adaptation and its links with socio-economic development; and promoting partnerships and knowledge networks as pathways to build adaptive capacity among local organisations in South Africa.

Understanding the nature of Project Management capacity in Sri Lankan non-governmental organisations (NGOs): A Resource Based Perspective

Project Management (PM) capacity can be defined as PM resources and capabilities that are supporting for effective project operations. Using the Resource Based Perspective, the paper aims to explore the nature of PM capacity in NGOs and develops a framework for PM capacity in NGOs. A case study approach and qualitative methods have been applied for this study.For this study, the literature on PM resources and Organisational capacity was reviewed and a theoretical framework was created. This theoretical framework was then explored using four case studies conducted at Local and International NGOs in Sri Lanka. The study identified three levels of PM Capacity: Team PM Capacity, Organisational PM Capacity and Collaborative Social PM Capacity, a Capacity that has not yet been identified in the literature which supports adaptation to the complex, uncertain environments in which some NGOs operate.

Space enterprise strategy guiding-based study on project portfolio management and flow optimization

Project portfolio management (PPM) is the centralized management method, process and technology in multiple projects. When multiple projects in the space industry are implemented, it provides an effective methodology to resolve the problems at the same time such as conflicts among models, decrease in design efficiency, and increase in target deviation. Hence, a PPM dedicated to multiple projects management in space enterprise is presented in this paper. Firstly, an analysis of features and contents in space enterprise portfolio management mode is performed by using PPM based on its specific strategic characteristics. Then, the principle and selection methods of PPM are provided as a reference for the future development of an enterprise. Finally, a multiple-level organization architecture including decision making layers, function management layers and project execution layers is proposed so as to adapt to possible changes in the multiple projects and correspond to the strategic development. As a consequence, a perfect matching mechanism to fit the changes in PPM modes is reached. In addition, the flow chart of PPM is designed and optimized by analyzing the implementation procedure of strategic target and project portfolio life-cycle, which is expected to realize the purpose of improving space enterprise management efficiency, project management capacity, innovation development and economic benefits.

Towards a framework for professional curriculum design

Recent reviews of vocational qualifications in England have noted problems with their restricted nature. However, the underlying issue of how to conceptualise professional agency in curriculum design has not been properly addressed, either by the Richard or the Whitehead reviews. Drawing on comparative work in England and Europe it is argued that vocational and professional curriculum design requires a transparency tool in order to map out the various categories of professional agency and their relationships with each other that need to be taken account of in curriculum design. This tool is not prescriptive but illustrates critical choices that curriculum designers need to make. The categories of agency include: skill, transversal ability, project management and occupational capacity. The further categories of contingent and systematic knowledge are also described, as well as personal characteristics relevant to work (competences). The exercise reveals that certain important categories are not usually taken into account within the English context to the detriment of curriculum design. Some technical issues concerning vocational curriculum design and assessment, such as permeability, levelling, referencing and trust are then discussed.