Managing Projects in Africa -  - E-Book

Managing Projects in Africa E-Book

0,0
11,99 €

-100%
Sammeln Sie Punkte in unserem Gutscheinprogramm und kaufen Sie E-Books und Hörbücher mit bis zu 100% Rabatt.

Mehr erfahren.
Beschreibung

This special issue of the Project Management Journal presents a collection of six articles on managing projects in Africa. Providing a window into the important project activity taking place there, these articles extend both the empirical and theoretical understanding of the African project context and contribute to improving practice. Each article makes a unique contribution to either our understanding of the African project context or project management in general, and sometimes to both. After an introduction to the African project context at the start of the 21st century, the articles explore: * three different countries as well as multinational projects; * for-profit, public sector, and development aid projects; * infrastructure and information and communication technology; * project governance as well as project management; and * partnering challenges.

Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:

Android
iOS
von Legimi
zertifizierten E-Readern

Seitenzahl: 295

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Bewertungen
0,0
0
0
0
0
0
Mehr Informationen
Mehr Informationen
Legimi prüft nicht, ob Rezensionen von Nutzern stammen, die den betreffenden Titel tatsächlich gekauft oder gelesen/gehört haben. Wir entfernen aber gefälschte Rezensionen.



Contents

Cover

Copyright page

From the Editors

Africa’s Project Context at the Start of the 21st Century

Summary of Articles

Contributions

References

PAPERS

Project Management Trilogy Challenges in Africa—Where to From Here?

Introduction

Background to PM Trilogy Challenges

Addressing PM Trilogy Challenges—Where to From Here?

Conclusion

References

Linking Policies to Projects: The Key to Identifying the Right Public Investment Projects

Introduction

The Research

Projects in Developing Countries

What Links Policies to the Right Projects?

Improving Governance of Public Investment Projects in Developing Countries

Factors That Could Affect the Implementation of a Project Governance System in Developing Countries

How Are the Right Projects Identified Through a Project Governance System?

Conclusion

References

Project Management for Development in Africa: Why Projects Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It

Introduction

What Are International Development Projects?

Project Management in International Development

International Development Project Management Problems and Traps

International Development Project Management Problems

International Development Project Management Traps

Contribution of Project Management to International Development

An Agenda for Action

An Agenda for Research

Conclusion

References

Managing Political Risks of Chinese Contracted Projects in Libya

Introduction

Literature Review

Contracted Projects as China’s Major Presence in the Libyan Economy

Political Risks in Libya

The Political Risk Assessment in Libya for Chinese Contracted Projects Since the Crisis Erupted

Countermeasures of Chinese Contracted Projects to the Libyan Crisis and the Effects of Political Risks on Chinese Constructors

Conclusion

References

Governance of Public Investment Projects in Ethiopia

Introduction

Context and Economic Development in Ethiopia

Literature Review

The Research

Research Design and Procedure

Data and Analysis

Results and Discussion

Conclusion

References

Appendix

Project Management Training Curricula at South African Public Universities: Is the Balanced Demand of the Profession Sufficiently Accommodated?

Introduction

Background to the EPSRC Study and Other Related Literature

Research Methodology

Research Results

Discussion

How Can Curriculum Changes Ensure That the Training of Project Managers in South Africa Sufficiently Accommodates the Balanced Demand of the Profession?

Possibilities for Further Research

References

Cover to Cover

Fundamentals of Project Management, Fourth Edition

Increasing Project Flexibility: The Response Capacity of Complex Projects

Business Driven Project Portfolio Management: Conquering the Top 10 Risks that Threaten Success

Project Success: Critical Factors and Behaviours

Calendar of Events

September 2012

October 2012

November 2012

SeminarsWorld® Events

PMI-Supported Events in the Latin America and Asia Pacific Regions

Project Management Journal Guidelines

Authors’ Guidelines

Avoid Use of Commercialism

Editing Your Paper

Manuscript Format/Style

References, Footnotes, Tables, Figures, and Appendices

Graphics and Illustrations

Submission Policy

Review Process

Project Management Journal

MISSION

The mission of the Journal is to provide information advancing the state of the art of the knowledge of project management. The Journal is devoted to both theory and practice in the field of project management. Authors are encouraged to submit original manuscripts that are derived from research-oriented studies as well as practitioner case studies. All articles in the Journal are the views of the authors and are not necessarily those of PMI. Subscription rate for members is $14 U.S. per year and is included in the annual dues.

PMI is a nonprofit professional organization whose mission is to serve the professional interests of its collective membership by: advancing the state of the art in the leadership and practice of managing projects and programs; fostering professionalism in the management of projects; and advocating acceptance of project management as a profession and discipline. Membership in PMI is open to all at an annual dues of $129 U.S. For information on PMI programs and membership:

Project Management Institute, 14 Campus Blvd, Newtown Square, PA 19073–3299 USA; Tel: 11-610-356-4600; Fax: 11-610-482-9971; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: www.PMI.org; Toll-free: 1-855-746-7879 (United States), 1-855-746-7879 (Canada), 1-800-563-0665 (Mexico)

PMI Asia Pacific Service Centre, Singapore; Tel: 165 6496 5501; E-mail: [email protected]

PMI Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) Service Centre, Lelystad, The Netherlands; Tel: 131 320 239 539; E-mail: [email protected]; Toll-free Numbers: 00-800-7464-8490 for Austria, Belgium*, Bulgaria*, Czech Republic*, Denmark, Estonia*, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia*, Lithuania*, Luxembourg, Malta*, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia*, Slovak Republic*, Slovenia*, Spain, Sweden*, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Vatican City; 00-800-4414-3100 for Cyprus, Greece; 131 320 239 539 (toll number) for Andorra, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Moldova, Monaco, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Ukraine.

Editor Christophe N. Bredillet, PhD, DSc, MBA, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Publisher Donn Greenberg; [email protected]

Wiley Executive Editor Isabelle Cohen-DeAngelis;[email protected]

Product Editor Roberta Storer; [email protected]

Project Management Journal Associate Natasha Pollard; [email protected]

Publications Production Supervisor Barbara Walsh; [email protected]

Book Review Editor Kenneth H. Rose, PMP

Contributing Editors Lisa M. Fisher Linda R. Garber

PMI India Service Centre, New Delhi, India; Tel: 191 124 4517140; E-mail: (membership-related queries): [email protected]

Other Locations: Beijing, China; Shenzhen, China; Montevideo, Uruguay; Bengaluru, India; Sydney, Australia; Porto Alegre, Brazil; Mumbai, India; Washington, DC, USA. See www.pmi.org/AboutUS/Pages?Customer-Care.aspx for contact details.

The Project Management Journal (Print ISSN 8756-9728); Online ISSN 1938-9507 at Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) is published six times a year by Wiley Subscription Services, Inc., a Wiley Company, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774.

Copyright (c) 2012 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the publisher, or authorization through the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923; Tel: (978) 750-8400; Fax: (978) 646-8600.

The code and copyright notice appearing on the first page of an item in the journal indicates the copyright holder’s consent that copies may be made for personal or internal use of specific clients, on the condition that the copier pay for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. The per-copy fee is to be paid through the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying, such as copying for general distribution, for advertising or promotional purposes, for creating new collective works, or for resale. Such permission requests and other permission inquiries should be addressed to the Permissions Department, c/o John Wiley & Sons, Inc, 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774; Tel. (201) 748-6011; please visit http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions for more information.

NONMEMBER SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION

Personal rates: For print in the US, Canada, and Mexico, $135.00, rest of world, $159.00; electronic, all regions, $135.00; and for print and electronic, in US, Canada, and Mexico, $150.00, rest of world, $174.00. Institutional rates: For print in the US, $365.00, in Canada and Mexico, $405.00, and rest of world, $439.00; electronic, all regions, $365.00; and for print and electronic, in the US, $423.00, Canada and Mexico, $463.00, and rest of world, $497.00. Claims for undelivered copies will be accepted only after the following issue has been received. Please enclose a copy of the mailing label or cite your subscriber reference number in order to expedite handling. Missing copies will be supplied when losses have been sustained in transit and where reserve stock permits. Please address all subscription inquiries to Subscription Manager, Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint, One Montgomery Street, Suite 1200, San Francisco, CA 94104-4594; Tel. (888) 378-2537, (415) 433-1767 (International); E-mail: [email protected].

Postmaster: Periodical postage paid at Newtown Square, PA 19073 USA and at additional mailing offices. Send address changes to Project Management Journal, 14 Campus Blvd, Newtown Square, PA 19073-3299 USA.

Reprints: Reprint sales and inquiries should be directed to the Customer Service Department, Gale Krouser, c/o John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774; Tel: (201) 748-8789; Fax: (201) 748-6326; E-mail: [email protected].

MANUSCRIPTS

All manuscripts must be submitted electronically via the journal’s Manuscript Central site (http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/pmj). Questions regarding submission guidelines and manuscript status should be sent to Natasha Pollard ([email protected]).

All manuscripts submitted to the journal via Manuscript Central are assumed for publication and become the copyright property of PMI if published.

*Use the toll number (131 320 239 539) from mobile phones in these countries.

© 2012 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

“PMI” the PMI logo, “Making project management indispensable for business results,” “PMI Today,” “PM Network,” “Project Management Journal,” “PMBOK,” “CAPM,” “Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM),” “PMP,” the PMP logo, “PgMP,” “Program Management Professional (PgMP),” “PMI-RMP,” “PMI Risk Management Professional (PMI-RMP),” “PMISP,” “PMI Scheduling Professional (PMI-SP),” and “OPM3” are registered marks of Project Management Institute, Inc.

The PMI Educational Foundation logo and “Empowering the future of project management” are registered marks of The PMI Educational Foundation. For a comprehensive list of PMI marks, contact the PMI Legal Department.

From the Editors

Christophe N. Bredillet, PhD, DSc

Project Management Academy, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

Guest Editor: Janice Thomas, PhD

Project Research Institute, Faculty of Business, Athabasca University, Canada

Guest Editor: Jacob Musila, PhD

Program Director, Faculty of Business, Athabasca University, Canada

This special issue of the Project Management Journal (PMJ) presents a collection of six of the best papers presented at the International Academy of African Business and Development (IAABD) conference held on May 17–20, 2011, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Africa is definitely one of the most promising areas in the field of project and program management with regard to long-term development (GDP growth) and research and education dynamism (International Monetary Fund, 2012).

And as mentioned in African & Global Economic Trends (African Development Bank Group, 2012):

Growth in Africa moderated in 2011, as a result of weakening external demand and compounded by the political turmoil and social unrest afflicting North Africa. However, these negative impacts were partly offset by the robust performance of other subregions in Africa, which benefited from high commodity prices and the relatively steady pace of world trade. Aggregate GDP growth for the continent in 2011 resulted from the higher growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (5.1%), particularly the West Africa and East Africa subregions, which recorded growth of 6.2% and 6.0% respectively. (p. 5)

Christophe N. Bredillet

This special edition of PMJ focuses on managing projects in Africa. We are very pleased to be able to provide a window into the important project activity taking place in this part of the world. As editors we come to this endeavor from very different backgrounds. One of us grew up in Canada, has never been to Africa, and until last year had no idea that there are a total of 54 countries on the continent (Janice). One of us grew up in Africa, is a professor of economics, and now stays connected to his roots through the IAABD activity (Jacob). One of us grew up in France and, at the time of this special edition, was living and working on project management educational activities in Africa (Christophe).

This special edition was born out of a conference dedicated not to project management but to conducting and teaching business in Africa. The project track was added to the conference program after a chance discussion between Jacob and Janice at a graduation ceremony, and it drew a full slate of interesting papers and a very dynamic discussion. In consultation with Christophe, we recognized the opportunity to build these papers into a special edition for PMJ. We requested submissions from the best conference presenters and advertised to academic readership of both PMJ and the Journal of African Business. Three reviewers examined each paper—two of whom focused on the project management content, while the third reviewer focused on the African context. The goals of the review process were to help the authors transition their papers from conference papers (where necessary) to full PMJ submissions, to ensure that the project management papers provided enough contextual background so that we could see how the African context becomes an actor in the project endeavor, and that the non-project management papers connected their research to ongoing discussions in the project management literature.

We selected six papers that extend both the empirical and theoretical understanding of the African project context and contribute to improving practice. The authors of these papers include some that may be known in project management ranks (Ika, Haavaldsen, Klakegg, and Rwelamila); others that have, to this date, never set out to write a project management paper (Zhang and Wei); and a couple of new scholars just beginning to contribute in this specialized area of project management research (Louw and Shiferaw). Each paper that was selected makes a unique contribution to either our understanding of the African project context or project management in general, and sometimes to both. Before we review the papers and topics, we will provide a short introduction to the African project context.

Africa’s Project Context at the Start of the 21st Century

Africa is far larger than most people imagine—because most of us do not study the continent, and the maps we use are not proportional. The continent of Africa is home to 54 countries and contains much of the remaining natural resources in the world. To put the size of Africa in perspective, Africa is three times the size of the United States and 120 times the size of the United Kingdom, and it could contain more than 11 billion football fields. In these 54 countries, there are 2,000 languages in 4 language families in use. To put it bluntly, Africa does not easily lend itself to generalizations.

In the early part of the millennium, Africa made significant progress in real economic growth. Huge natural resource reserves combined with needs in infrastructure, urban development, health, communications, technologies, agriculture, transportation, and education have transformed the continent into one of the world’s strongest engines of economic activity. Underlying Africa’s impressive growth is, among other things, the development and implementation of hundreds of various types of projects (in this paragraph, “projects” refers to “projects, portfolios, and programs”) ranging from complex multilateral aid projects to business-led projects. China, India, and a few Middle Eastern Gulf nations are financing a record number of projects across sub-Saharan Africa. Investment commitments by these emerging financiers jumped from less than US$1 billion per year before 2004 to US$8 billion in 2006 and US$5 billion in 2007, according to the World Bank.

Major projects in Africa generally involve multiple stakeholders, including governments, international organizations, local and international financial institutions, private companies, nongovernmental organizations, and local communities, to name just a few. These multiple stakeholders are known to have different and often divergent interests as well as different power standings. The decision to undertake some of these projects and their implementations are heavily influenced by historical and geopolitical factors that link African countries to some of their traditional European and North American allies. The growing presence of China and India in several African countries is also shaping the design and management of projects in Africa. Managing projects in Africa can be particularly complex given the involvements of these multiple stakeholders and their historical, geopolitical, and economic relationships and the cultural differences between Africa and some of its major trading partners.

While Africa is a huge laboratory of different project activities in a very specific context, there are surprisingly few published works that investigate the management of projects in Africa. The purpose of this special issue is threefold: (1) to highlight what we know about projects and project management in Africa; (2) to explore what research from this particular setting and these types of projects has to tell us about project management practice in general; and (3) to identify the research needed to improve our understanding and practice of project management in Africa.

Summary of Articles

The articles in this issue can in no way cover the complexity and diversity of projects in Africa. However, we do believe that these articles should be enough to open our eyes to some of the challenges and opportunities to learn from projects in this new context. We hope that these articles will both contribute to and trigger a rich agenda that explores the impact that this particular context exerts on projects and project management. The articles included in this special edition explore:

three different countries as well as multinational projects;

for-profit, public sector, and development aid projects;

infrastructure and information and communication technology;

project governance as well as project management; and

partnering challenges.

The first paper, by Rwelamila and Purushottam and titled “Project Management Trilogy Challenges in Africa—Where to From Here?” provides an overview of project challenges from the perspective of scholars and educators working there. Drawing from five separate research projects to explore the origins of the specific challenges facing African project managers (8 out of 10 are accidental project managers; organizations are fragmented and archaic; and the project management curriculum is outdated), the authors make recommendations on how to address these challenges.

The second paper, by Shiferaw and Klakegg, and titled “Linking Policies to Projects: The Key to Identifying the Right Public Investment Projects,” reviews the merits of project governance in linking policies to projects by examining public sector projects in developing African countries. The challenges of governance are here complicated by the targeted funding of aid groups that are sometimes at odds with the needs and policies of the receiving government. The authors explore the role of good project governance techniques to potentially address these conflicts.

The third article, by Ika and titled “Project Management for Development in Africa: Why Projects Are Failing and What Can Be Done About It,” examines the nature and challenges of international development projects and, in particular, four traps to which these types of projects are prone (one size fits all, accountability for results, lack of project management capacity, and cultural). This article concludes by proposing an agenda for action including both practical and research steps to address these challenges and support the design and implementation of these very special projects.

The fourth article, by Zhang and Wei and titled “Managing Political Risks of Chinese Contracted Projects in Libya,” discusses the political risks of Chinese contracted projects in a country experiencing the beginning stages of a political crisis. Exploring the impact of these unpredicted, rapidly emerging risks, and the tangible and intangible losses that these activities have caused, provides us with a window into a specific challenge prevalent in parts of Africa today and into the growing number of Sino-African projects being undertaken on the continent, where China is becoming a major player in many projects.

The fifth article, by Shiferaw, Klakegg, and Haavaldsen and titled “Governance of Public Investment Projects in Ethiopia,” maps the review processes for public investment projects in order to identify the most important challenges for this type of project. Identifying the key priorities of and gaining commitment from key stakeholders are recognized as the most important front-end challenges facing this type of project. While these may sound like familiar challenges, the authors show how these familiar challenges play out in very different cultural and funding models for projects.

Finally, Louw and Rwelamila address the question “Is the balanced demand of the profession sufficiently accommodated?” by examining the project management training offered at three universities in South Africa. Their review of these programs suggests that this training, which they consider to be representative of the programs available throughout Africa, tends to reflect the traditional view of project management as a control technology rather than recognizing the social organization activity of project management. They assert that projects in the African context require this social skill as much or more than any others and they conclude by mapping a way for the curriculum to be revised to incorporate recent research-driven calls for rethinking project management development.

Contributions

The articles in this special edition provide insight to a unique and important project context, highlighting both what is unique about projects in the African environment and what is more common to project work in general. We recognize that this set of articles simply provides an introduction to the challenges and can in no way reflect the magnitude of what we have yet to learn. We hope that this special edition has made you think and opened your eyes to the challenges and opportunities. We look forward to seeing more articles about both the unique aspects of African projects and the generalizable knowledge from attempts to address common project challenges in future editions of this and other journals.

Janice Thomas, Guest EditorPhD, Project Research Institute, Faculty of Business,Athabasca University, Canada

Jacob Musila, Guest EditorPhD, Program Director, Faculty of Business,Athabasca University, Canada

References

African Development Bank Group. (2012, March). African & global economic trends: Quarterly statistical review. Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: Author.

International Monetary Fund. (2012, April).World economic outlook: Growth resuming, dangers remain. Washington, DC: Author.

Project Management Trilogy Challenges in Africa—Where to From Here?

P. D. Rwelamila

Graduate School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa [UNISA], Midrand, South Africa

Neha Purushottam

Graduate School of Business Leadership, University of South Africa [UNISA], Midrand, South Africa

ABSTRACT

While projects are now recognized as a means to achieve competitive advantage in Africa, project management still remains a Cinderella field. On average, 8 out of 10 project managers are accidental or have an inadequate project management (PM) knowledge base; PM training is falling short of some fundamental knowledge areas; and organizations which are supposed to be centered on programs and portfolios are, in practice, project-oriented organizations by default. These challenges are referred to in this paper as “PM trilogy challenges.” Results of five research projects are used in this paper to identify and discuss these issues. Finally, recommendations are made.

KEYWORDS: project failures; public sector; private sector; Africa; project management challenges

INTRODUCTION

There is sufficient evidence to strongly suggest that most future growth and successes of public- and private-sector organizations will result from successful development of projects: that generate new and state-of-the-art infrastructure facilities, excellent public domain services to citizens and sustainable policies, which will create a conducive environment for appropriate investments; and new products, services, or procedures. According to Graham and Englund (2004), such projects will also be a principal way of creating organizational change; implementing change and growth strategies will usually also be entrusted to project managers. However, they argue, project success is often as much the results of the organizational environment (with public and private sectors) as of the knowledge and skills of the project manager. Current assessments of various projects (e.g., in Tanzania, South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, and Angola) across the African continent based on various studies (Rwelamila, 2000, 2010a; Rwelamila & Phungula, 2009; Ssegawa & Ngowi, 2009) paint a picture of project failures across public and private sectors supporting Graham and Englund’s (2004) argument. The majority of failed projects depict the following umbrella dimensions:

Inefficient projects

—projects failing to meet budget and schedule expectations;

Weak impact on customers/stakeholders

—projects unable to meet technical specifications, unable to address customer/stakeholders needs, and unable to create projects that satisfy clients’/stakeholders’ needs;

Unsuccessful business/or unsuccessful development strategy

—projects not achieving significant commercial success (private sector) or development programs/projects unable to achieve developmental goals (public sector); and

Unsustainable potential

—projects unable to open new markets or new product lines or help to develop new technology (private sector) and projects unable to contribute toward improving the standard of living or provide better infrastructure or help to create a conducive environment for foreign direct investment.

For most projects, the previously mentioned failed projects umbrella dimensions have resulted in specific issues, which are the opposite of what Pinto and Slevin (1988) referred to as project-critical factors. It is thus important to refer to these issues as African project failure symptoms cutting across all sectors. These symptoms include:

1.Clients’/stakeholders’ dissatisfaction with final products or services—Ultimate intended users or beneficiaries have not accepted what projects have finally delivered.
2.Most of project missions have been archaic—The majority of projects are completed without initial clarity of project goals and general directions.
3.Project-oriented organization synergy (between project-oriented organization management and project coal face management)—For a majority of project-oriented organizations, there is very little willingness of top management to provide the necessary resources and authority for project success.
4.Most projects do not have appropriate schedules and plans—A bar chart seems to dominate as a central scheduling tool; hence, there are no detailed specifications of the individual action steps required for project implementation.
5.Project-oriented organization consultation with stakeholders/clients—For most of the programs and projects, communication with, consultation with, and active listening to all impacted parties are nonexistent or carried out when there are conflicts or public outcry.
6.Project-oriented organization project personnel recruitment and selection—Consultants and project-oriented organizations do not seem to have appropriate plans for recruitment of project managers and core team members, their selection, and training.
7.Project-oriented organization monitoring and feedback—A significant number of projects face late provision of comprehensive control of information at each phase in the implementation process.
8.Project-oriented organization communication—There are a significant number of projects that suffer from nonprovision of appropriate network and necessary data to all key factors in project implementation.
9.Project-oriented organization troubleshooting strategies—Most projects suffer from inabilities to handle unexpected crises and deviations from project plans.
10.Incompetent project managers—Most people who assume positions of project managers are technical experts and incompetent administratively, inter-personally, and technically (project-specific). In some organizations, the key project team members have very little authority to perform their duties.
11.Excessive power and politics—It is common to find high degrees of political activities within organizations and perceptions of projects furthering self-interests of organization members.
12.Negative impact from environmental events—It is common across the continent to find external organizational factors (especially within the public sector) affecting operations of project teams negatively.
13.Urgency is an elusive word—For most of public-sector projects, the perception of the importance of projects or the need to implement projects as soon as possible remain.

All these symptoms represent a significant plethora of bad practices, which need to be addressed if project management is going to remain as a means by which public- and private-sector organizations achieve their objectives in Africa. Project management’s ability to provide organizations with powerful tools that improve their ability to plan, implement, and control their activities as well as the way in which they utilize their people and resources will need to be practiced from the position of understanding its characteristics and what constitute project management best practices.

The authors are convinced that the journey toward understanding project management characteristics and universally acceptable project management best practices should start from addressing the challenges, which have led to the African project failure symptoms described earlier. Hence, they need to address the causes of these symptoms.

Scrutiny of various research reports (for example, Rwelamila, 2010b) and discussions with various key authorities within the public and private sector involved in projects has led to identifying the causes of these symptoms. There are three key causes of the symptoms. These causes are referred to in this article as PM trilogy challenges and include:

the confusion of equating technical specializations with project management competences—the emphasis on technical aspects of projects over sociocultural issues;

inadequacy of project management training programs (both on the job and outside the job); and

a lack of strategic project management in project-oriented organizations.

These causes for project failure are discussed in detail in the following sections and recommendations are advanced toward addressing them.

Background to PM Trilogy Challenges

According to Legum (2002, p. 35), “It is one thing to accept that a volcanic eruption will result in the deadly flow of lava; another to acquiesce in a process that leads to suffering and that can be changed by human intervention.”

In this quote from Legum’s (2002) seminal work A New Economy for South Africa and the World, she refers to the orthodoxy in vogue that the competition between nations and between the individuals is not only inevitable, but will result in the greater happiness of the greatest number. Although her work focuses on economics (the orthodoxy), the same argument can be used when looking at the development of project management as a discipline and how project management has been embraced both from its approach and as a profession in Africa. The same argument could be raised that project management development has centered on “orthodoxy” to the detriment of developing the project management profession and approaches in managing projects. As will be discussed later, the PM trilogy challenges are a result of project management orthodoxy in Africa (all countries in Africa—Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone countries), where project-oriented organization executives, professional voluntary organization leaders, and higher learning institutions leaders have violated authenticity, they stand like the naked emperor (they continue to provide an insufficient project management knowledge base without casting a critical eye on what really happens at a project coal face): they think they are clothed, but everyone else sees the truth. Each of the three project failure causes is discussed and the project management orthodoxy thinking is revealed. Addressing the situation toward solutions is also covered.

The Confusion of Equating Technical Specializations With Project Management Competences

Despite the heightened need for competent project managers in Africa, traditional project management still pervades the project landscape. Traditional project management is often conducted through intuition and experience. In a majority of cases, individuals are appointed as project managers because they have qualifications in the same field as the project’s core business—for example, marketing, finance, power, engineering, IT, or construction. In the latter, for example, it is often the case that an architect or civil engineer is appointed to manage a building or civil engineering project, respectively. The same is true in the banking and IT industries, just to name a few. To emphasize the point, some authors (e.g., Pinto & Kharbanda, 1995; Rwelamila, 2000) have labeled project leaders appointed from such a stable “accidental project managers” because what they consider an accidental “project management” development path.

The traditional arrangement has led to some serious deficiencies and failures. Though no other study has empirically provided a causal link between project failure and lack of project competence, research (e.g., Ssegawa & Ngowi, 2009) has provided a strong indication in that direction. Failures are most often related to a lack of understanding of the underlying issues relating to project management. Literature (e.g., Chartered Institute of Building [CIOB], 2002) has strongly supported the idea of separating technical expertise from the management of a project. Studies (e.g., Gadeken, 1994; Sarna, 1994) have also emphasized that though project management experience is needed in managing projects, if used alone it is insufficient to yield favorable results. There is a strong indication that for a project to succeed, political awareness for getting things done and a sense of wanting to contribute to the mission are of cardinal importance to a future project manager (Rwelamila, 2008). Therefore, there has been a strong call for project management competence as a starting point for achieving project success. But what is project competence?

Competence may be defined as a set of characteristic endowments that give an individual the capability to be an effective or superior performer when given a task (Spencer & Spencer, 1993). Project management competence, therefore, is the effective or superior performance by an individual (project manager) when managing a project to successfully achieve its objectives.

There is agreement in literature (e.g., Alam, Gale, Brown, & Kidd, 2007; Crawford, 2005) that competence is a multifaceted construct. The exact list of factors contributing to competence is usually not agreed on. The most common are illustrated in Figure 1. The figure shows that there are four major contributors to competence—namely, knowledge inputs, skills, experience, and continuous professional development (CPD). In this case, knowledge input factors lead to acquisition of skills, and when combined with experience in a conducive work environment, this should lead to competence in project management. It has been suggested, for example, by Baldwin and Ford (1988) and Taylor, O’Driscoll, and Binning (1994) that a knowledge base, appropriate pedagogy, suitable disposition of the trainee, and a conducive and well-endowed training environment are crucial in knowledge acquisition. A project management knowledge base is the information, tools, and techniques that an individual acquires, and by using it on a task, skills are acquired and used toward accomplishing project decisions, processes, functions, and tasks. Through time, experience is gained and competence is increased. However, to remain up-to-date with contemporary work challenges, CPD is required, making the process cyclic (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Factors leading to achieving project management competence.

There is sufficient evidence (Ssegawa & Ngowi, 2009) to suggest that most people in Africa become project managers by accident. The common path to become a project manager across public and private sectors is through expertise in a technical specialty (e.g., marketing, finance, education, economics, engineering, IT, construction, etc.). Eight out of ten project managers have technical skills only and are told to run projects. The best marketing experts are put in charge of marketing programs, the best systems analysts or programmers are put in charge of software development projects, the best engineers are put in charge of product/or infrastructure development projects, and the best architects are put in charge of managing building projects. According to Graham and Englund (2004), the technical part of a project is often the smallest and easiest part. Technical success, they further argue, does not necessarily lead to project success; it is necessary but not sufficient.

As shown in Figure 1, accidental project managers do not have project management knowledge inputs but what may be called “PM bits and pieces” of what is required. Without project management knowledge inputs, what is acquired through skills development and experience remains very minimal, and the consequences are that the majority of these project managers depend on technical knowledge to make decisions, and not their ability to influence or motivate project team members.

In light of this, appointing accidental project managers is not appropriate. Those who appoint project managers need to insist on and assist in the development of individuals with the best aptitude to become successful project managers.

Inadequacy of Project Management Training Programs

The argument for postgraduate training in project management (whether generic or sector/industry-environment–specific) in Africa requires higher institutions of learning to have appropriate programs to train a competent project manager. In order to assess the appropriateness of a project management knowledge base in various project management training programs, Rwelamila (2007a) reviewed various research publications on project management training and practice. As a follow-up to his findings, an intensive synthesis and analysis of literature was carried out and resulted in what could be termed a well-balanced project management course covering seven broad topic areas as indicated in Table 1. The dimensions were used in Ssegawa and Rwelamila’s (2009) study of seven premier project management programs within the Southern Africa Development Community countries as a yardstick for the required knowledge and skills dimensions needed for a competent project manager.

Table 1: Project management curriculum dimensions.

Main Dimensions

Broad Subdimensions

Project Management Coal-face Knowledge PMCK1: Planning techniques (PT)

Ability to put together a project plan—project planning, estimating, and risk analysis techniques.

PMCK2: Behavioral aspects of project management (BAPM)

Team building, motivating team members, and networking (dealing with upper managers, contributing department managers, and other stakeholders)—the core team dynamics and maneuvering through a web of political games.

PMCK3: Controlling techniques (CT)

Project monitoring, project reviews, skills for meetings, project audit techniques, and project closeout techniques.

PMCK4: Organizational issues (OI)

Techniques for managing across organizations when project management has all the responsibility and little authority—issues of organizational structure (projectized, functional, and matrix structures and their dynamics).

PMCK5: Business fundamentals (BF)

Business of the organization; how decisions affect the bottom line, how to run a project as if it were a business.