Methodologies and Principles of Project Management in Developing Countries

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Methodologies and principles of project management in developing countries
Suggestions to solve the challenge
Conclusion
References

Introduction

A Project constitutes a set of activities, which must go through a harmonious execution within the established standards to realize some final overall objectives. The set of activities normally have time constrains attached to them (Frame 2003, p.51: Johnson 1995, p.41: Lewis 2006, p.7).

According to the Project Management Institute (2008), Project management “…is a methodical approach to planning and guiding project processes from start to finish” (p.3). The streamlining of the processes then follows by following five stages sequentially: initiation, planning, executing, controlling and closing (Weiss and Wysocki 1992, p. 61).

Systems development life cycle (SDLC) constitutes one of the methodologies that aid in guiding the process of project management. Some of the SDLC approaches include “Waterfall model, fountain model, rapid application development (RAD), synchronize and stabilize, spiral model, build and fix and joint application model” (Jacobson 1999, p.11).

Some means of pictorial representation of project process are also crucial. To this end, Gantt charts, PERT, and CPM techniques are vital. The project management community experiences challenging times when it attempts to transfer the methodologies and.project management principles globally especially to the developing countries.

Methodologies and principles of project management in developing countries

Developing countries significantly differ in levels in terms of project management. These countries face various issues that dictate how fast they adopt the modern methodological approaches such as web based project management principles in their management of projects.

Social and political systems, inadequate financial support, and cultural blocks among others play significant roles in delaying the process of transfer of the principles and the methodologies. As Nghi (2005, p.4) notes, one can mitigate such difficulties by a “successful project implementation provided through effective transfer of project management expertise from more industrialized countries of the world”.

As a way of example, over the last two decades, Vietnam has recognized the need of effective project management principles: If at all, it has the success of its projects implementations at heart especially with its intents of experiencing a full industrialization by 2020.

Unfortunately, project management community seems concerned that, Vietnam and the developing countries in general, “have received project management technology from developed countries and international organizations with limited results” (Nghi 1998, p.39).

I feel that despite the opening of doors welcome the principles of free and competitive market forces to drive the economic policies that aim at orienting the economies in the developing world, challenges persists in the transferring of the modern technologies of project management.

Developing countries are in a state of acceleration of strategies engineered to promote rapid realization of their modernization and industrialization goals. To achieve this, projects of all kinds must go through a through execution.

According to Nghi (1998), a challenge exists in an attempt to meet this dream due to “frequent contradictions in terms of project planned completion dates and existing available capabilities resulting in realistic project plans and scheduled completion forecasts (Nghi 2005, p. 23). As revealed, inadequate knowledge of project management principles and the exchange of ideas ail the developing world.

Due to a shallow professional training on project management at higher institutions of learning, a vacuum exists when it comes to meet efficient and effective contractor’s management.

“Lack of suitable training materials and piecemeal training in modern project management body of knowledge mostly in the mode of fire fighting covering such areas as, international procurement and selection and evaluation of development projects” (Nghi 2005, p.2) serves to aggravate the challenges.

The absence of teamwork spirit, propagated by momentary ambitions and interests and by what I may call over reluctantly to change from the old systems of administration such as rigid vertical structures of organizations, which qualifies as a major blow to market economies, remain vital if noted by the project management community.

Inferring from the identified concerns of global project management community, I find it necessary for the developing countries to seek the incorporation of every project management facet in their operations.

This follows in their attempt to meet modernization and industrialization goals to develop the desired capacity to manage projects of all natures efficiently and effectively (Gray & Larson 2010, p.32: Larson 2009, p.25: Meredith & Mantel 2008, p.19).

This is attainable through, “successful project management training being impaired by problems indentified in each area associated with the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) (Stackpole 2009, p.13)”. One can directly correlate some of the problems to the environment of the open market. By deploying the guidelines of PMBOK, one can focus the probable mitigation strategies upon identifying the problems.

Suggestions to solve the challenge

In line with the guidelines of PMBOK, developing countries experience problems when it comes to time management, scope management, cost management, integration management, quality management, human resource management, risk management, procurement management and communication management during planning and execution of the projects.

For countries like Vietnam seeking admission into WTO, “intensive personnel education and training need to be carried out to support efficient implementation of projects in the problematic areas to meet the stringent WTO era requirements” (Schwalbe 2009, p.5).

This way, the developing countries can prepare themselves proficiently to receive the much needed professional help as well as the transfer methodologies and principles of project management from the already industrialized countries.

As Kerzner (2009) observes, I suggest that the challenges met by the project management of the developing countries can be dealt successfully “if projects managers of the developing countries can start with an honest appraisal of their countries capabilities in project management and actively seek support from their senior ,management, senior business executives and organizational decision makers” (p.67).

Before this, an evaluation of their current project management systems is necessary to unveils barriers to adoption of successful, efficient and effective management procedures such as corruption.

Conclusion

Developing nations experience an ever-increasing need of incorporating strategies that would see them develop the capacity to manage complex projects especially in the advents of globalization.

Despite the fact that they all have one major aspiration: dependency on the developed countries capacity to transfer their knowledge on project management methodologies and principles, such nations evidently remain at different stages in their development of effective and efficient project management systems.

Proper project execution strategies remain the key requisite endeavors for achieving progress in the global business, characterized by open and free market economies, which form the pillar for cute global investments and trades. Therefore, the developing countries have a major obligation to ensure that they orient their systems to benefit from the developed countries technological state.

Consequently, developing counties like Vietnam and the rest should anticipate benefiting from the mechanisms of ‘project management knowledge transfer’. However, as I have observed in the essay, transparency seems a crucial catalyst for this process, as it has the ability to satisfy all stakeholders involved in their projects.

Coping and inculcating modern project management procedures, as established by PMBOK and the transfer of project management methods and principles from the developed countries will definitely see the developing countries achieve the much-deserved maturity in project management.

References

Frame, J., 2003. Davidson, Managing Projects in Organizations: How to Make Best Use of Time, Techniques and People. New Jersey, NJ: Jossey-Bass.

Gray, F., & Larson, W., 2010. Project Management: the Managerial Process. Boson: McGraw-Hill.

Jacobson, I., 1999. The Unified Software Development Process. New York: Addison Wesley.

Johnson, J., 1995. Program Smarter, Not Harder: Get Mission-Critical Projects Right the First Time. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Kerzner, H., 2009. Project Management: Project Management: A System Approach To Planning, Scheduling and Controlling. New York, NY: Wiley.

Larson, E., 2009. Requirements Management Part 1: Requirements Planning. Minneapolis, MN: Watermark Learning, Inc.

Lewis, J., 2006. The Project Manager’s Desk Reference. Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Meredith, R., & Mantel, S., 2008. Project Management: A Managerial Approach. New York: Wiley.

Nghi, M., 2005. Global Project Management for Market Economies: An Asian Pacific Perspective. China: Pan-African conference XXII, Shanghai.

Nghi, M., 1998. Project Management in a New Market Economy. California, USA: PMI Congress, Long Beach.

Project Management Institute. 2008. A Guide to the Project Management, Body of Knowledge. New York, NY: PMI.

Schwalbe, K., 2009. Information Technology Management. Boston, MA: Course Technology.

Stackpole, S., 2009. A Project Manager’s Book Forums: a Companion to the PMBO Guide. New York: Wiley.

Weiss, J., & Wysocki, R., 1992. Five-Phase Project Management: A Practical Planning and Implementation Guide. New York, NY: Basic Books.

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