Online Reporter
Stephen Mukoyi
When people hear the words Project Management, many immediately think of large construction projects, information technology systems, engineers sitting around conference tables, or complicated project plans filled with charts and spreadsheets.
But project management is much simpler—and much more relevant to our everyday lives—than many people realise.
In fact, almost everyone has managed a project at some point in their life. Planning a wedding, building a house, organising a family event, opening a business, conducting a funeral, renovating a home, implementing a new banking system or even planning a holiday can all be considered projects.
So, what exactly is project management?
What is a project?
A project is a temporary undertaking designed to achieve a specific objective.
There are three important words in that definition: temporary, specific and objective.
A project has a beginning and an end. It is undertaken to achieve something specific, such as constructing a house, launching a new product, implementing a computer system or organising an event.
This distinguishes a project from normal day-to-day operations.
For example, a supermarket selling groceries every day is an ongoing operation. However, if that supermarket decides to open a new branch in another city, the establishment of that branch becomes a project. Once the branch has been opened and successfully handed over to the operational team, the project comes to an end.
So, what is Project Management?
Project management is the disciplined process of planning, organising, coordinating and controlling resources to achieve a defined objective within agreed constraints.
These constraints typically include time, cost, scope and quality. In simple terms, project management is about answering some very basic questions: What are we trying to achieve?
When must it be completed?
How much will it cost?
Who will do the work?
What could go wrong?
How will we know that we have succeeded?
These questions sound straightforward, but failure to answer them properly is one of the major reasons projects fail.
Consider building a house
Imagine that you decide to build your dream home.
You have a vision of what the house should look like. Perhaps you want four bedrooms, a double garage, a modern kitchen and a swimming pool.
That vision is the beginning of your project.
You will need architectural drawings, a budget, contractors, materials, approvals and a construction schedule. You will need to determine when the foundation should be completed, when the walls should go up, when roofing should start and when the house should be ready for occupation.
You will also encounter risks.
The price of cement may increase. A contractor may fail to deliver. There could be delays in obtaining approvals. Materials may become unavailable. Heavy rains may disrupt construction. Your budget may prove insufficient.
Someone, therefore, needs to coordinate all these activities and make sure that the house is delivered according to the agreed requirements.
That is project management.
The same principles apply whether the project is a $50 000 house or a multimillion-dollar banking transformation programme.
Projects do not fail only because of money
One of the biggest misconceptions about projects is that they fail because there is not enough money. While funding is important, projects can fail for many other reasons.
A project may have an excellent budget but fail because the requirements were poorly defined. It may have highly qualified technical people but fails because there is poor communication. It may have a brilliant project manager, but fail because senior management does not provide timely decisions.
Projects can also fail because stakeholders are not properly engaged, risks are ignored, responsibilities are unclear or changes are introduced without proper control. For example, imagine starting construction of a house without agreeing on the design.
Halfway through construction, the owner decides that the kitchen should move to another part of the house, the garage should become larger and two additional bedrooms should be added.
These changes may appear small individually, but they can have significant consequences for cost, time and quality. This is why project management places significant emphasis on scope management and change control.
The importance of planning
There is a popular saying: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
In project management, planning is fundamental. A good project plan does not necessarily guarantee success, but poor planning almost certainly increases the chances of failure.
Planning involves breaking the project into manageable activities, assigning responsibilities, estimating costs, determining timelines, identifying dependencies and considering potential risks.
For example, you cannot paint the walls of a house before the walls have been built and plastered. Similarly, in an information technology project, you cannot properly test a system before the system has been developed and configured.
Some activities depend on others being completed first. A project manager must therefore understand these relationships and develop a realistic sequence of activities.
The human side of project management
Project management is not only about schedules, budgets and software. At its heart, it is about people. A project may involve executives, managers, technical specialists, suppliers, consultants, regulators, customers and ordinary employees.
These people may have different expectations and priorities. A successful project manager must therefore be able to communicate, negotiate, resolve conflicts, motivate teams and bring people together around a common objective.
Consider a wedding
The bride and groom may want the perfect wedding. The caterer is concerned about the food. The photographer wants sufficient time for photographs. The venue has its own rules. The guests expect the event to start on time.
Someone has to coordinate all these moving parts. That person is, in effect, a project manager.
Risk management: Thinking about what could go wrong
Another important principle of project management is risk management. Risk management does not mean expecting everything to go wrong. It means identifying what could go wrong and preparing appropriately. If you are organising an outdoor wedding, for example, bad weather is a risk. You cannot control the weather, but you can prepare an alternative venue or tent. If you are implementing a banking system, a risk could be that an external supplier does not deliver an important component on time. The project team can reduce the impact by monitoring the supplier, establishing milestones and having contingency arrangements. The principle is simple:
Do not wait for a problem to happen before thinking about it.
Why project management matters to Zimbabwe
Project management is particularly important in a developing economy such as Zimbabwe, where organisations must often achieve more with limited resources.
Whether we are constructing infrastructure, implementing digital government services, developing financial technology, upgrading hospitals, establishing businesses or implementing new systems in banks, the ability to manage projects effectively has a direct impact on the value that organisations and the country obtain from their investments.
A project that is delivered late, significantly over budget or without achieving its intended benefits represents more than an administrative failure. It can mean lost opportunities, wasted resources and reduced confidence.
Good project management therefore contributes directly to organisational performance and economic development.
Project management is for everyone
Perhaps the most important message is that project management should not be viewed as a discipline reserved for people with the title Project Manager.
The principles can be applied by entrepreneurs, students, parents, community leaders, managers and professionals in virtually every field.
Before starting something important, ask:
What exactly are we trying to achieve?
How much will it cost?
When should it be completed?
Who is responsible for what?
What could go wrong?
How will we measure success?
These simple questions can make an enormous difference.
Project management is ultimately about turning an idea into a reality in a structured and controlled manner.
An idea without execution remains an idea.
A project provides the structure for turning that idea into something tangible.
And effective project management provides the discipline that helps ensure that the journey from “we should do this” to “we have successfully done it” is managed deliberately, responsibly and successfully.
In our next discussion, we can go deeper into the project management journey—from project initiation and planning, through execution and monitoring, to closure and benefits realisation—and examine why some projects succeed while others fail.
________________________________________
Disclaimer
This article was written by Stephen Mukoyi, a highly experienced Project Management Professional, in his own personal capacity. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views or position of his employer, clients, professional associations or any other organisation with which he may be associated.
