PROJECT MANAGEMENT

GENERAL ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

With the term project management, we define the knowledge and skills, tools and management processes we need to implement the planned project successfully. Effective cooperation of the established project team and good project planning are important in implementing a project.

The development of society requires organisations to adapt and respond to changes in the environment increasingly faster and to increase their efficiency. One of the ways that have been successfully established as an instrument for responding to changes is project work.

An increasing amount of activities are carried out according to the principle of project management, and the further development of project management is inevitable, and our public contracting authorities are also adapting to the circumstances, especially because the co-financing of infrastructure and/or the provision of services in the public interest by the European Union takes place under the project work method. Projects that are the result of cooperation between the public and private sectors are especially rewarded. Mastering the skills of project management is, therefore, becoming an inevitable career skill and a skill that the team of the Institute for Public-Private Partnership is also developing. In particular, these skills are useful to us in projects when clients or providers lack these skills themselves and need support in this area to successfully realise the project.

TYPICAL PHASES OF A PROJECT

Project management takes place in several phases, which are necessary for the implementation and completion of the planned project, and the definitions of project phases often differ between authors. Here are the "typical" phases that appear in several authors:

1. Start of a project:

• Analysis of the situation, needs and stakeholders;
• Outline of the project;
• Defining the purpose, goals, scope, expected results, plan implementation tactics and expected benefits;
• Establishing the operation of the project group and the project office, dividing the roles of the project group;
• Drafting of documentation.

2. Project implementation planning:

• Planning activities, their sequence, resources and implementation options;
• Supervision and supervision plan during the project;
• Plans by project segments;
• Implementation plan and required resources, financial plan;
• Anticipating risks;
• Planning information and communication during the duration of the project.

3. Project execution:

• Acting in accordance with the strategies and policies of the set project, realisation of the outlined methods and tactics, implementation control and evaluation, examination of critical factors, as far as necessary, control and inclusion of possible changes;
• Performing on-the-spot control, checking intermediate results, examining the time spent compared to the plan, costs, quality, potential risks, submission of on-the-spot reports on the work performed;
• Testing performance, progress and adaptation according to the project progress and needs.

4. Closure of the project

• Submission of the final report, together with the financial part, within the prescribed deadline and in the required format and taking into account the prescribed content;
• Inclusion and explanation of activities performed and results achieved;
• Attachment of evidence of activities performed and results achieved.

For the effective implementation of the project from start to finish, it is necessary to carry out several phases of the project, which are identified above and include, in particular, the organisation in the form of the preparation of activities and the necessary resources in an interconnected manner in a goal-oriented project process, the coordination of the project and, accordingly, the coordinated operation of all activities towards the common final goal, controlling in the form of checks on the progress of work and the achievement and monitoring of intermediate and final goals, as well as evaluation and assessment by monitoring and interpreting the achieved results of the set project.

It should be noted that, in principle, project management takes place according to the cycle presented above, but in practice, rarely or exceptionally, the project is realised without deviations from the project implementation plan. Therefore, professional management and thus the ability to coordinate on-the-spot and adapt to actual circumstances and intermediate results for the actual implementation of the project is of decisive importance.

In project management, it is necessary to define exactly how the work will be carried out, to study the interaction between the set tasks and to determine the responsibility of individuals for a certain segment of the project.

TASKS OF THE PROJECT MANAGER

The project manager is responsible for the effective start-up and execution of the project and performs the following tasks in particular:

• Planning intermediate goals;
• Limitation and definition of partial tasks;
• Workflow planning;
• Personnel planning for project implementation;
• The organisation of project implementation;
• Assessment of funds for the implementation of the project;
• Setting deadlines;
• Planning the method of project financing.

In the framework of project management, integration management, management of content and scope and control over them, time planning of activities (term plan), cost management, quality management, human resources management and risk management and control over them are carried out.

During the actual implementation of the project, it is necessary to consistently carry out control because only in this way can we immediately determine the actual deviations of the project criteria from the planned ones. If deviations occur during implementation, it is necessary to immediately adjust the project implementation plan to correspond to the situation. During supervision, we check all project management indicators, as this is the only way to ensure a timely response.

DEVELOPMENT OF ORGANISATIONS

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

At the Institute for Public-Private Partnership, we pioneered another challenge – we strive to bring urgently needed knowledge to Slovenia.

SUPPORT IN PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION AND MANAGEMENT

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Activities in the fields in which the Institute for Public-Private Partnership operates are mostly project-based – the establishment of public-private partnership.