Author: Dr. Stephen K. A. Hammond, DBA, FPMP
Lecturer, Institute of Project Management Professionals
Email: stepham_k@yahoo.com
Abstract
Project management has been defined differently by various scholars. Kerzner (2006) sees project management as the process of planning, defining work requirements, and specifying the levels of quality of deliverables, as well as the resources needed, project monitoring, evaluating and making corrections where necessary. According to Kerzner (2006), there has been an increased use of project management over the years by organizations to achieve organizational goals. Qureshi, Warraich, and Hijazi (2009) advised that project management knowledge and practices can be modelled based on individual processes. An analysis of project management research in the allied disciplines reveals an explosion of popularity and a strong interest in project management research (Kwak & Anbari, 2009). This has been widely recognized in the area of design, planning, control, cost and quality of projects across the globe (Ika, 2012; Ika, Diallo & Thuillier, 2010; Moyo, 2009). The strategic management of every organization depends largely on projects and how they have been managed and each project is unique and requires a tailored project management approach (Shenhar & Dvir, 2007b). This necessarily implies that the same project management approach cannot be arbitrarily applied to all projects. The first research question (RQ1) is tied with the assertions above. Thus, the study sought to evaluate how MMDAs manage their projects while considering which project management practices they adopt. Do they have standard project management practices across various MMDAs or do they vary the project management practices based on the source of funding or aim of the project in question?
Key words: project management practices, project failure, critical success factors, donor funded projects, locally funded projects
