Project Management and Control

Course Description

Numerous projects have caused high additional cost for society both during and after they have been implemented. Any project or program is necessarily part of a highly complex interrelated system, which poses a risk for their success. Projects need to be implemented appropriately as their failure can have far reaching impacts on economies and societies. This advanced course on Project Analysis and Evaluation equips participants with adequate skills to develop and manage analysis and evaluation techniques for effective management of projects.

Who Should Attend this Course?

This course is designed for programme and project management professionals, project leaders, researchers, development practitioners, managers and decision makers who are responsible for organization-level project analysis and M&E in agriculture and rural development projects and programs

Project Management and Control (Pretoria, South Africa)

Learning Outcomes

The course helps participants:

• Deepen understanding of project analysis and evaluation and how these processes integrate with strategic management and project management
• Gain knowledge of the principles and practices of project analysis and evaluation
• Learn how to integrate gender issues in project management
• Further skills in business case analysis
• Strengthen skills in various way of evaluating
• Understand risk analysis and management in projects
• Apply advanced competencies to improve or set up a functional analysis and evaluation frameworks for projects

The Course Covers

Introduction to Decision Analysis

• What is project analysis and evaluation?
• Project analysis and evaluation in strategic management and project management
• Project analysis and evaluation principles and concepts
• Challenges facing project personnel in project implementation
• Project analysis and evaluation
• The need for systematic risk management for decision-making
• Risk and uncertainty on projects
• Option analysis for projects
• Identifying key decision-making factors

Analyzing Project Specifics

• Understanding the project context to assist in decision-making
• Determine stakeholders and their level of influence
• Institutional analysis and assessment of capacity
• Capture requirements
• Determine scope of work

Gender consideration in project analysis and evaluation

• Gender integration during project design
• Gender indicators in projects
• Cross-cutting gender issues
• Role of various projects in addressing gender issues
• Measure of gender outcomes and outputs

Types of Projects:

• Analysis of various types of projects (Case Studies)

Research Approaches Projects

• Research designs
• Data collection techniques and tools
• Data management
• Data analysis
  • Descriptive analysis techniques
  • Inferential analysis techniques

Financial Analysis of Projects

• Cash-flow modelling for project decision analysis
• Financial modelling and project evaluation
• Rate of return computations (IRR)
• Determining the internal rate of return (IRR)
• The risk of not understanding IRR

Project Evaluation

• Evaluation of projects and programs
• The use of M&E in projects
• Integrating M&E with the project management system
• Clarity about what to monitor and evaluate

Impact Evaluation

• Introduction to impact evaluation
• Impact evaluation methods
• Estimation of counterfactual
• • Importance of baseline data collection and analysis early in project life
  • Priority on variables that permit counterfactual analysis
• Types and sources of data
• Participation and stakeholder-orientation at the core of M&E
• Linking project design, annual work plans and budgets, and M&E
• Statistical rigor vs practicality and utility in evaluation
• Attribution in impact evaluation
• Proactive communication and dissemination evaluation outcomes

Aspects of project evaluation

• Technical aspects
• Managerial and administrative aspects
• Organisational and administrative aspects
• Commercial aspect: marketing of outputs and supply of materials and services
• Financial aspects: revenue and cost considerations
• Economic aspects
• Economic analysis of a project
• Financial analysis of a project
• Costs in projects
• Benefits of a project

Project Risk Management

• Uncertainty affecting projects
• Internal and external uncertainty

• • The project’s main stakeholders
  • The operator’s perspective
  • The user’s perspective
  • The financing party’s perspective
  • The project in a time perspective
• The project strategy
  • Project designers tend to be ambitious
  • Motivation for those involved to improve performance?
  • Ambitious objectives help justify proposed projects at an early stage?
  • Probability of success: performance vs ambition

Risk management framework and planning

• Risk identification and assessment processes
• Tools and techniques for managing risk and uncertainty
• Risk response plan development
• Risk response control
• Forecasting risk: possibility that incorrect decisions will be made due to errors
• Successful projects
• • Definition and interpretation of success

TRAINING METHODOLOGY

The training approach is highly interactive. It uses a mixture of presentations by the facilitator and by participant(s), group or individual exercises, use of case studies and role plays. These proven learning techniques enhance understanding and retention of covered issues.