Components involved in project planning for result based monitoring and evaluation of any project.

Introduction

According to the PMI, project planning is a procedure that involves the strategic management of the processes related to the project, generally known as “Knowledge Areas”. Consider project planning as the process of building the project’s navigation map which will guide you step by step through all the areas of interest, showing you the right path to a successful project

Monitoring: Is the type of evaluation performed while a project is being implemented with the aim of improving the project design and functioning while in action. OR Is the continuous assessment that aims at providing all stake holders with early detailed information on the progress or delay of the ongoing assessed activities .It is an oversight of the activity’s implementation stage. It is purpose is to determine if the output, deliveries and schedule planned have been reached so that action can be taken to correct the deficiencies as quickly as possible (OECD, 2002).

Evaluation; is the studies of outcomes of project change in income housing quality, benefit distribution, cost effectiveness etc. Or is the systematic and objective examination concerning the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency and impact of activities in the light of the specified objectives. The idea in evaluating project is to isolate errors not to repeat them and to underline and promote the successful mechanism for current and future projects. An important goal of evaluation is to provide recommendations and lessons to the project managers and implementation teams that have worked on the projects and for the ones that will implement and work on similar projects (OECD, 2002).

Components involved in project planning for result based monitoring and evaluation of any project.

Planning and Defining the Scope: The first thing to do is to develop a clear scope statement as the project’s foundation. The whole project will be built upon this and after that you can subdivide the major project objectives into clear and manageable deliverables (OECD, 2002).

Developing the Schedule: This requires a series of several procedures in order to create the project schedule that involves: Identifying and cataloguing the activities that must be performed to produce the various project deliverables, analyzing the sequence of activities and documenting any interactivity dependencies. Estimating all the work periods needed and how long it will take to complete individual activities. It is also useful to design a Milestone List, which lists the most important deliverables as way points, which will help you to evaluate the progress of a project (OECD, 2002).

Resource Planning: This includes the determination of resources (people, equipment, materials, etc.) and the quantities necessary to carry out the project activities, the development of a cost approximation of the resources required to complete the project and the cost budgeting and the allocation of the overall cost estimation to individual work packages (OECD, 2002).

Quality planning: You should identify the quality standards relevant to the project and determine how to achieve them (I FAD, 2002).

 Organizational Planning – WBS (Work Breakdown Structure): Here, you should identify, document and assign project roles and responsibilities among the staff and set the reporting relations. The next step is Staff Acquisition, or getting the needed human resources assigned to and working on the project. A useful tip is to form clear and manageable work packages that correspond to the individual work performed by each of the staff and create a document which will serve as a reference point for managing project progress (I FAD, 2002).

 Setting a Communications plan, This involves configuring the information and communications needs of all the stakeholders (who needs what information, when will they need it and how they will get it (Salazar L, 2011).

 Risk Management Planning, is one of the most important components of a project plan and decides the approach and plan for risk management in a project. In other words, it is the safety net of each project and involves the following processes: Identifying key risks likely to affect the project and documenting the characteristics of each. Performing a Qualitative Risk Analysis of the project’s risks and conditions in order to prioritize their effects on the project objectives. Running a Quantitative Risk Analysis, measuring the probability and impact of each of the risks and estimating their impact on the project’s objectives. Develop a Risk Response Plan, building up a mechanism to strengthen contingencies and reduce any threats to the project’s objectives from risk (IFAD, 2002).

Readiness; Assessment should be conducted to determine whether prerequisites for result based monitoring and evaluation system are in place (IFAD, 2002).

Agreed on outcomes to monitor and evaluate; outcome to monitor should be agreed through participatory process identifying stake holder concern and formulating them as outcome statements. Outcome should be disaggregated and a plan developed to assess how they will be achieved (Rogers P, 2009).

Selecting key performance indicators to monitor outcome; this should be selected through a participatory process considering stake holder interest and specific needs. Indicator should be clear, relevant, economical, adequate and monitarable (UNDP, 2002).

Setting baseline and gathering data on indicators; Baseline data on indicators should be established as a guide by which to monitor future performance. Important issues when setting baselines and gathering data on indicators include the source, collection, analysis, reporting and use of data (Salazar L, 2011).

Planning for improvement; This is when you plan on how we can achieve and improve the projects it involves the target related to the Performance targets should be selected to identify expected and desired project, program me or policy result. Factors to consider include baseline, available resources, time frames and political concerns. A participatory process with stake holders and partners is important (Rogers P, 2009).

Monitoring for result; This includes implementation and results monitoring as well as forming partnerships to attain shared outcomes. Monitoring system need ownership, management, maintenance and credibility. Data collection needs reliability, validity and timeliness (Rogers P, 2009).

Using evaluation information to support a result based management system. Evaluation provides information’s strategy, operation and learning. Different types of evaluation answer different questions (Salazar L, 2011).

Conclusion

All the project management plan components listed above are to be gathered together to form a cohesive and coherent document that includes all the phases of the life cycle of the project. Hence, it is essential to share this document with all the stakeholders of the project, to read through it, communicate any unclear points, exchange opinions, negotiate and make all the necessary alterations so as to share a finalized version with all involved.

Once your project plan is complete, the document can be used to resolve issues and identify your progress as the project moves forward. In other words, a good plan is essential for delivering a successful project.