Elements of Project Management

Excerpts from the Introduction: The project is the prototype activity of economic and social development. Any creation of new development capacity will usually take the form of a project or a cluster of projects. A project of any complexity involves different disciplines and requires collaboration among several institutions. Specialist knowledge and specialized functions have to be integrated in ways that are appropriate for the project, so that it is not enough to have competent engineers, economists, agronomists, administrators as seen from the point of view of each discipline separately. A project is often planned by one set of individuals and carried out by another group. But planning and implementation are intermingled in varying degrees during the life of the project, so that an understanding of the whole project is required by all contributors to the project. In the face of a crucial need for integrating the various aspects of a project, there is a prevailing tendency for planning and implementation to be separated in a number of ways - by discipline, organization, level of organization and by stage. Such fragmentation can easily prevent the integration that is necessary for a successful project. There is an urgent need for processes which integrate and coordinate the efforts of separate contributors to a project. Training may be one of the most important means of integrating and synthesizing these diverse contributions. Another important tool for achieving integration is a common and meaningful framework which is shared by all who participate in project activities. This paper attempts to provide such a framework. Hopefully this will facilitate collaboration among different disciplines, organizations, levels of organization and those in charge of different stages of the project.