12 Mar 2018

Stringent monitoring and mentoring of government developmental projects is critical in ensuring projects sustainability and timely completion, Innolead Consulting managing director, Mr Oabona Kgengwenyane has said.

Speaking at the Project Management breakfast session, Mr Kgengwenyane explained that great project management meant much more than keeping project management’s iron triangle in check, delivering on time, budget, and scope.

He said project management was important as it ensured there was rigor in architecting projects properly so that they fit well within the broader context of government strategic frameworks in ensuring that projects goals closely align with the strategic goals of government.

Mr Kgengwenyane stated that there was a positive impact that reverberated beyond delivery of the end product due to proper and professional projects management.

He said as policy implementers on the ground, civil servants were key stakeholders to spearhead and coordinate on how best the private sector could implement such projects that would deliver real value to the citizens.

Without project management, he said a team could be like a ship without a rudder, which was moving, but without direction, control or purpose.

“With a project manager in place, there is no confusion about who is in charge and in control of whatever is going on in a project. 

Project managers enforce process and keep everyone on the team in line too because ultimately they carry responsibility for whether the project fails or succeeds,” he said.

He therefore encouraged government to invest on project management skill development so as to have effective project managers that would be able to ensure smooth government projects implementation.

 Most projects, he said would properly take longer than initially anticipated, but a good project manager would be able to analyse and balance the available resources, with the required timeline and develop a realistic schedule. Ends