Whose Today’s Guest?
Bruno Mtonga is Results-oriented Development Management professional with over 15 years of versatile career traversing in both the profit and nonprofit (International Development sectors). He has solid experience in Project Management, policy analysis and drafting, evidence based advocacy works including organizational strategic planning.
What is Project Management
Project management is the management of business activities using various tools in order to reach the very completion of a project in a stipulated time frame and achieve all the goals that where set for that period.
Activities involved
The first step involved in project management is registration of the project. In Zambia one can register with PACRA, Registrar of Societies or Ministry of Community Development.
Secondly, there is need for one to have their resources in place and board of directors as your project will be considered as an organization. These board of directors will be there to overlook most of the activities that you will be involved in.
Thirdly there is need to have a strategic plan drafted, this will be a document that gives guidance on what is needed in order to achieve your projects goals. Besides this there is need to also have in place a monitoring and evaluation plan for your project, it will help you track your progress by showing you how well you are doing in a particular area as well as highlight what is going wrong.
This monitoring and evaluation plan will focus on two things:
- Work plan
This a document that contains a list of activities that will be conducted with specific tasks designated to a specific time frame, this can be broken down to a weekly, monthly and yearly plans depending on the type of project you are working on. Having this in place can help you work in a systematic and timely order for your project.
- Budget
You cannot implement a project without one. It is essential and one of the first things that should be considered
Value of Project Management
Without project management it is impossible for one to reach any desired goals. Project Management will be a guide one to move step by step as one seeks to setup a business/organization.
Project Management Tools
As you start your project management journey, it is advisable to invest in simple management tools like Google calendar, this application can be used to schedule for meetings and help you create a work plan. Having such an application at your disposal will help you follow through and avoid missing out on any activity.
Raising Project Management Funds
- Partnerships
Something that’s becoming quite common now at days is partnership, it is possible that you may not have the funds needed for you to carry out your project. You can consider partnering with someone that is like minded, that way you can put your resources together and continue your project development.
- Strategically Choose Your Board Members
Having the right board members in place can be a good source of the resources that you need as they can contribute towards your project.
- Reaching Out to Startup Funders
Draft up your business proposal and have it submitted to venture capitalist firm for review and see whether or not they might be able to invest in your business or organization.
Implementation
Before you get to the actual implementation of your project there is need for one to have already done the planning. This plan is known as the Annual plan and one will need to hold a planning workshop with stakeholder.
This is where the work plan comes in as it will state what activities will be covered and when, it is cardinal that the stake holders are present as they can chip in and tell you whether you’re doing the right thing or not. Once you begin to implement what was agreed on, ensure that from time to time you do call on these stake holders to give progress reports and get their feedback.
Accessing What Has Been Implemented
To assess what has been implemented you will need to develop a monitoring and evaluation frame work plan, it will have indicators and each indicator will be able to show what has been implemented and any other information regarding the project in terms of progress.
Key insights:
- A program well planned is a program well achieved.
- Invest in simple management tools that will help you keep track of your progress.
- Strategically pick your board of directors as they may help you raise the funds you need for your project but also chip in with their expertise.
“A project well planned is achieved”
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