EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (ABSTRACT)
Over the last few years, International Cooperation and the acquisition of funds that translate in development projects have become extremely competitive, to an extent that only highly efficient International Non-Government Organizations (INGO) are considered for competitive bids. Therefore, are required strict quality controls, high competencies, value for money and of course sustainability, because international cooperation funds have also become scarcer.
Plan International, Inc. is an INGO with over 75 of existence in the world that has evolved over the years from a sponsorship-based organization, in which donations from individuals around the world would represent the majority of funds under which the organization would operate. For a project-driven organization; where most of the funds come from institutional grants from multilateral or bilateral organizations, Government and corporate donors, which destine their funds to specific development projects that granted through competitive bids, where thousands of INGOs apply for them.
Insight of this heavy reliance on grants for international development projects, over the last few years, the federation Plan International, Inc. has deployed several grants management guidelines and procedures across the project implementing countries around the world to enhance project management practices, also to standardize them. Unfortunately, the guidelines and procedures are still very general and are hardly ever fully applied in the field offices and most of them still manage their projects their way, with their procedures and processes which most of the times are not fully defined, basically implementing practices which have been partially functional so far. Added to this, despite the fact that Plan International has highly experienced and tenured staff, most of them do not have project management background nor studies in the field. Affecting project quality reflected on poor systematization of information, lack of reliable data on project progress and evolution, basic financial analysis of project investment and uncoordinated monitoring practices.
Plan International, Inc. has been present in El Salvador for over 40 years and is one of the most competitive field offices, implementing around 20 project simultaneously from several donors, which represent a yearly investment of 7.5 million on average. Considering the presented challenges in the organization, added to the increasing demands of donors and the highly competitive market for INGOs; the purpose of this document is to provide the organization with a Project Management Methodology. To improve project management practices, standardize them and provide more specific project management guidelines based on international methodologies, such as the PMBOK® Guide (PMI, 2013). This improved project quality delivery, enhance the organization´s capacity to be more competitive for grants acquisition and reduce management risks due to project management inconsistency, by being able to show clear and systematized results.
The overall objective of this project was to develop a project management methodology for the management of social development projects in the NGO Plan International, with the purpose of standardizing their project management practices. Such general objective was achieved through the accomplishment of the following specific objectives: i) to analyze current project management practices, to evaluate their methods strengths and weaknesses as a basis for improved methodology. ii) To define project management processes for the regular project management activities, to improve Plan International´s project management capabilities. iii) To design project management procedures to create a project management guide to improve project management effectiveness in Plan International. iv) To create project management templates focused on PMI´s knowledge areas that are deficient in Plan International at the moment, to standardize project management practices; and v) to propose an implementation strategy, with the purpose to provide Plan International a clear guide with the required steps to execute the proposed project management methodology.
The methodology used for the project was a combination of several methods including analytical, analytical-synthetic and inductive. In general, this methodological combination allowed the analysis of the object to be studied, in this case. The currently project management practices being implemented and its improvement through the proposed methodology, followed by a decomposition of the object by using the analytical-synthetic method, which provided a better understanding of the object to finally apply the inductive methodology which supported the selection of the best option for solving the problem initially raised.
After developing a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of Plan International´s current Project Management practices, a risk analysis to prioritize knowledge areas upon which an improved Project Management guide could be proposed; it could be concluded that the research was based on real data from the organization´s operations, and that the data collection approaches were the most feasible according to the organizational culture, which allowed to propose a practical and feasible implementation strategy for the proposed Project Management improvements.
Considering that a Project Management System, despite of being needed, can´t be included in the analysis since acquiring it falls out of the scope of work of the PMO, it was recommended to consider its acquisition due to the high volume of projects currently managed. In spite of this, improved quality controls and the implementation of the Project Management guide proposed, will significantly improve the way projects are managed. It is recommended that the weaknesses that were not addressed through an improvement proposal, for not being critical for the current Project Management processes, are reviewed by Plan International later to comprehensively analyze further improvements.
Ultimately, sustainability of the proposed Project Management Methodology can only be achieved if all staff, particularly management, is engaged and committed towards improving Project Management practices and enhancing project delivery quality.
Plan International, Inc. is an INGO with over 75 of existence in the world that has evolved over the years from a sponsorship-based organization, in which donations from individuals around the world would represent the majority of funds under which the organization would operate. For a project-driven organization; where most of the funds come from institutional grants from multilateral or bilateral organizations, Government and corporate donors, which destine their funds to specific development projects that granted through competitive bids, where thousands of INGOs apply for them.
Insight of this heavy reliance on grants for international development projects, over the last few years, the federation Plan International, Inc. has deployed several grants management guidelines and procedures across the project implementing countries around the world to enhance project management practices, also to standardize them. Unfortunately, the guidelines and procedures are still very general and are hardly ever fully applied in the field offices and most of them still manage their projects their way, with their procedures and processes which most of the times are not fully defined, basically implementing practices which have been partially functional so far. Added to this, despite the fact that Plan International has highly experienced and tenured staff, most of them do not have project management background nor studies in the field. Affecting project quality reflected on poor systematization of information, lack of reliable data on project progress and evolution, basic financial analysis of project investment and uncoordinated monitoring practices.
Plan International, Inc. has been present in El Salvador for over 40 years and is one of the most competitive field offices, implementing around 20 project simultaneously from several donors, which represent a yearly investment of 7.5 million on average. Considering the presented challenges in the organization, added to the increasing demands of donors and the highly competitive market for INGOs; the purpose of this document is to provide the organization with a Project Management Methodology. To improve project management practices, standardize them and provide more specific project management guidelines based on international methodologies, such as the PMBOK® Guide (PMI, 2013). This improved project quality delivery, enhance the organization´s capacity to be more competitive for grants acquisition and reduce management risks due to project management inconsistency, by being able to show clear and systematized results.
The overall objective of this project was to develop a project management methodology for the management of social development projects in the NGO Plan International, with the purpose of standardizing their project management practices. Such general objective was achieved through the accomplishment of the following specific objectives: i) to analyze current project management practices, to evaluate their methods strengths and weaknesses as a basis for improved methodology. ii) To define project management processes for the regular project management activities, to improve Plan International´s project management capabilities. iii) To design project management procedures to create a project management guide to improve project management effectiveness in Plan International. iv) To create project management templates focused on PMI´s knowledge areas that are deficient in Plan International at the moment, to standardize project management practices; and v) to propose an implementation strategy, with the purpose to provide Plan International a clear guide with the required steps to execute the proposed project management methodology.
The methodology used for the project was a combination of several methods including analytical, analytical-synthetic and inductive. In general, this methodological combination allowed the analysis of the object to be studied, in this case. The currently project management practices being implemented and its improvement through the proposed methodology, followed by a decomposition of the object by using the analytical-synthetic method, which provided a better understanding of the object to finally apply the inductive methodology which supported the selection of the best option for solving the problem initially raised.
After developing a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis of Plan International´s current Project Management practices, a risk analysis to prioritize knowledge areas upon which an improved Project Management guide could be proposed; it could be concluded that the research was based on real data from the organization´s operations, and that the data collection approaches were the most feasible according to the organizational culture, which allowed to propose a practical and feasible implementation strategy for the proposed Project Management improvements.
Considering that a Project Management System, despite of being needed, can´t be included in the analysis since acquiring it falls out of the scope of work of the PMO, it was recommended to consider its acquisition due to the high volume of projects currently managed. In spite of this, improved quality controls and the implementation of the Project Management guide proposed, will significantly improve the way projects are managed. It is recommended that the weaknesses that were not addressed through an improvement proposal, for not being critical for the current Project Management processes, are reviewed by Plan International later to comprehensively analyze further improvements.
Ultimately, sustainability of the proposed Project Management Methodology can only be achieved if all staff, particularly management, is engaged and committed towards improving Project Management practices and enhancing project delivery quality.
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http://www.uci.ac.cr/Biblioteca/Tesis/PFGMAP1869.pdf
http://www.uci.ac.cr/Biblioteca/Tesis/PFGMAP1869.pdf
