successful project management - Commonwealth of Learning

?? Activity
1. Examine each of the four actions suggested above and critically explain
when each could be used to address typical deviation problems.
2. Table 7A gives a list of project milestones, target dates, and
responsibilities. Identify any two milestones and critique them as
baseline for the course development project.
Stakeholder Management
Duncan Haughey (2009) has defined a stakeholder a anyone who has an interest in
your project or will be affected by its deliverables or output. It is important to
understand the values and issues that stakeholders have in order to address them
and keep everyone on board for the duration of the project.
To exemplify, let us consider a project in which United Nations Centre for Disease
control requests your institution to develop a course for counselling couples on HIV
and AIDS. the project team would be your obvious primary stakeholders. The Chief
Executive will have signed a contract with the Centre, which provides the funding,
and the government of your country will have given concession that the course be
developed so that it can be used in the country. The Ministry of Health will be an
interested party. Your stakeholders will, therefore be:
• The United Nations Centre for Disease Control (the sponsors or fund
providers).
• The Head of your institution who is answerable to the development of the
project.
• Officials of the Ministry of Health who ensure that the course is compliant with
the situation on the ground.
• The targeted patients who are the beneficiaries of the course.
Add any other stakeholders that I may have left out. Project managers should note
that there are two leading causes of project failure, namely:
• insufficient involvement of stakeholders; and
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