Project Cycle Management Training Handbook - CFCU

22
An aid to
thinking
Project Cycle Management Training Handbook
Garbage-in;
garbage-out!
The logframe should thus not be seen as simply a set of mechanistic
procedures, but as an aid to thinking. The logframe must also be seen
as a dynamic tool, which should be re-assessed and revised as the
project itself develops and circumstances change. It should be used to
provide structure and purpose to project planning and budgeting
without being perceived as an inflexible and constraining blueprint.
By bringing stakeholders together during the analysis phase, to
discuss problems, objectives and strategies, the LFA encourages
people to consider what are their own expectations, and how these
might be achieved. By stating objectives clearly and setting them out
in a ‘hierarchy of objectives’, it then provides a means of checking the
internal logic of the project plan, ensuring that activities, results and
objectives are linked. Planners are forced to identify the critical
assumptions and risks that may affect project feasibility, and to
specify the indicators and sources of information that will be used to
monitor and evaluate the project. All of this key information is
brought together in one document that provides a useful summary.
While the LFA has proven to be a useful planning and management
tool, it is not a comprehensive tool and does not guarantee project
success. The process is time-consuming and requires considerable
training in the concepts and logic of the approach. Planners are
required to summarise complex ideas and relationships into simple
phrases that may be unclear or meaningless. All too often the
caricature “fill-in-the-boxes” approach is used to complete the
logframe matrix during project design, leading to a poorly prepared
project with unclear objectives and a lack of ownership of the project
among stakeholders.
The Logframe itself consists of a table, or matrix, which has four
columns and (in its most basic form) four rows. The vertical logic
identifies what the project intends to do, clarifies the causal
relationships and specifies the important assumptions and
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