successful project management - Commonwealth of Learning

?? Activity
Suggest a project from Learner Support, Course Development or Administration in
a DE set up.
1. Draw a table of the milestones to be achieved (see Table 4A).
2. Use the Definitive Estimate and come up with a budget for your project.
3. In your organisation, which of the two types of estimating the budget is
commonly used, and why?
It will be clear from our discussion that project cost management is central to your
role as manager of a project. My experience in one of the projects was that a parttime
writer was writing a certain course. She was submitting individual units through
the team member who was coordinating that course. She finished the writing and
was paid for the job. Later, internal editors discovered that the writer had copied
whole chapters from a textbook, to the extent that the module could not be released
for use because it had violated copyright issues. The writer was no longer willing to
re-work the material, so the project manager was compelled to engage another writer
and pay him/her the same amount.
You will notice that there probably were a number of weaknesses in the monitoring of
the project by the project manager. The lapse led to additional costs that were not
budgeted for. This, I am sure shows why project budgets can be overrun.
Change Management
When the Ministry of Transport of your country carries out a project to build a bridge,
the objective is to bring change in real time. It is tangible change that involves
construction of a structure where either there was no bridge at all and cars could not
cross during the rain season, or there was a structure that could not carry heavy
vehicles. Similarly, in distance education, any project within the several areas already
listed is aimed at bringing change of one form or the other. Change affects people
and ushers in new ways of doing things. Naturally, therefore, people perceive change
differently. Some welcome it, while others resist it. It is, therefore, important for the
project manager to note that change management is an area for which the need for
knowledge cannot be overemphasised. The stakeholders of the project and the
project team will be striving to come to terms with change implications.
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