Step 7: Project leadership

The key elements to the successful implementation of projects are sound planning, strong leadership and constant monitoring and involvement in the project.

In general project fail because:

• planning becomes an objective in itself
• planning is an isolated process and does not take into consideration what is occurring in the rest of the company and in the broader external context.
• failure to analyse needs properly
• failure to estimate resources accurately
• impose plans as a top down process
• failed to recognise that it is inherently a political process

This last point is particularly important - and for good project planning and implementation , the manager is required to manage a set of relationships associated with the project. These include:

• Relationships with senior management to ensure that the project is in line with company principles
• Relationships with the "clients" to ensure that their needs are truly being heard and acknowledged
• Relationships with the actors - the people who are going to be responsible for making the project happen - e.g. the Occupational health nurse, the Health and Safety representatives
• Relationships with suppliers of goods and materials.
• Relationships with all support staff e.g. stores, finance and administration.

The qualities of a good manager as discussed earlier apply equally to the qualities required by a good project leader.

Evaluation and Monitoring.

Monitoring of the project usually occurs against the Performance indicators, Gantt chart and Budget. The Gantt chart is a very useful monitoring instrument. This is a visible and transparent "information system"which can be used by all involved in the process to monitor activities and the general progress of the project. The resource plan and budget is also useful in determining what resources and how much is required and has been expended.

The most important monitoring and evaluation tools are the objectives and performance indicators. In the final assessment it is these two tools that will assist in evaluating the success of the project.

It is important to note that any deviations from the original project plan must be assessed to determine impact on the timelines and budget - and where necessary adjustments must be made timeously.

Ongoing budget monitoring - Variance analysis

If the project is set to continue over some time it is useful to develop a budget that is broken down on a monthly basis. This will allow you to monitor expenditure against budget on an ongoing basis rather than wait until the end of the project to discover an over or under expenditure. Using variance analysis on a monthly basis it is possible to identify cost drivers and main areas of over expenditure in order rectify the problem. Undertaking a variance analysis depends upon the reliability and accuracy of the available financial systems. The table below sets out the information that can be derived from a monthly expenditure report and set out to look at areas of variance - over or under expenditure.