By Reggie Brown, PMP
A basic understanding of project management can help any team effectively create a plan, organise activities, and train others to complete simple to very complex projects.
Improvements in self-esteem become evident when individuals start to internalize that they are capable of achieving. Repeated successes, as a result of learning and applying the correct methods of Project Management practice, ensure sustainability.
What is Project Management?
Project Management is a set of processes used to ensure that various elements of work are coordinated, that all the work that is to be accomplished is understood by those on the team, and can be completed within the constraints of time, budget, and resources.
Risks should also be identified and managed. Assumptions should be documented as they can quickly become risk factors. Communication of progress to all stakeholders on a regular basis is strongly advised. These updates should be documented and reported.
What is a Project?
We complete projects throughout our lives. Most times we work on projects and do not even realise it. A project must meet two basic requirements:
- It must be temporary (have a distinct start and finish).
- It must have an end result, a deliverable. Something must be created as a result of the effort.
What is a Project Manager?
The Project Manager is the person responsible for achieving the project’s objectives. The project sponsor or stakeholders will usually assign this person to the project.
The Langa Wendy House* Project
Eighty pupils, drawn from Langa Township in South Africa attend the LEAP Science and Math School and are given intensive schooling in maths and science. This select group of previously disadvantaged youths are provided with a unique educational opportunity that will prepare them for university and great careers later.
A group of 10 of these students participated as the project team to build a Wendy House.
Since the container project was a resounding success, it was time to reassemble the Project Manager and some of the project team members to start considering another project. Some of you may recall from the article I wrote in 2005 for allPM Today that the LEAP students converted a used container into a study facility a couple of years ago.
During this project initiation phase we considered several projects, including additional renovations to the container, rebuilding of the perimeter fence, construction of a Wendy House, and implementation of a tunnel farm. The team settled on the construction of the new Wendy House.
* Wikipedia Definition: … In South Africa, Wendy houses are normally pre-fabricated timber sheds which are delivered by a small truck….The name originates from the character of Wendy Darling in J. M. Barrie's play, Peter Pan. Wendy was injured soon after her arrival in Neverland, so Peter Pan and the Lost Boys build a small house around her where she had fallen.
Planning
The planning process is so critical to ensuring project success and unfortunately many projects do not spend enough time in this phase. The plan begins and follows the path that is defined in planning.
During planning we agree that we would build a Wendy House with electricity that contained beds for 2, shelves, table with chairs, couch, kettle, bath, heater, and a fan.
This project was undertaken to:
- Transfer Project Management Skills,
- Transfer carpentry skills, and
- Serve as a dormitory for LEAP students who study late at night at the container (safer to stay than to walk home)
The project was scheduled to be completed within 3 weeks at a cost of 15, 000 Rands (1 USD is approximately 7 rands). The project was sponsored in part by the Signal Hill Rotary Club. Out of scope, but for consideration for later, was landscaping, including bushes, trees, and a walkway.
Execution
The site where the Wendy House was to be constructed sloped in such a way that water did not runoff adequately. It was decided that we would build the house on a pole foundation to deal with this site condition.
To assist the team with the layout, excavation, and setting of the poles, we engineered and constructed a setting template.
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This template was constructed by me in my wood shop at home in sections and then was assembled by the project team at the site.
This assembled template was dragged to location and squared up to locate the holes for the poles. Then it was removed, to facilitate the digging of the holes and then replaced to serve as a guide for the setting of the poles.
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The project was completed on time and ready for the ground breaking ceremony that was scheduled and attended by the sponsors. The budget of R15, 000 was also honoured.
As I stated in my previous article, Charles Osgood wrote the following, which for me symbolizes the power and possibility of our life skills project management initiative:
“A man once found an eagle’s egg
And put it in the nest of a barnyard hen.
The eagle hatched and grew up with the rest
Of a brood of chicks and thought
He didn’t look at all the same.
He scratched the earth for worms and bugs
And played a chicken’s game.
The eagle clicked and cackled, he made a chicken’s sound.
He thrashed his wings, but only flew a few feet off the ground.
That’s high as chickens fly, the eagle had been told.
The years passed and one day when the eagle was quite old
He saw something magnificent flying very high
Making great majestic circles up there in the sky
He’d never seen the likes of it. “What’s that?” he asked in awe, while he watched in wonder and amazement at the grace
And beauty that he saw.
“Why that’s an eagle,” someone said. He belongs up there. It’s clear. Just as we-
Since we are chickens- belong earthbound down here.” The old eagle just accepted that- most everybody does.
And he lived and died a chicken, for that’s what he thought he was.”
It’s projects like this construction of the Wendy House -- projects that are properly planned and executed, completed on time and within budget --that are enabling students to find the eagles in themselves,and to not remain in the lower state and status they would otherwise have assumed they were in.
And now, in keeping with this month’s theme of Green Project Management I’d like to take a minute and introduce our next project, The Tunnel Farm.
The cultivation of vegetables within the protection of plastic tunnels was first practised in South Africa during the early seventies. Tunnel farming refers to the method of growing plants in sand and gravel, or in liquid with added nutrients, but without soil.
The tunnels protect the plants from the harsh South African elements, but it is the human intervention that plays the critical role in the management of the crops by ensuring the smooth running of all the crucial factors such as climate control and irrigation.
The project is green due to the construction of a tunnel with a drip irrigation system to grow vegetables. This method uses very little water.
We hope to be starting on this project with our LEAP students in about six months, and will keep our awareness on Green PM as we proceed. I will also follow up with another article when that project is completed.
© 2008 allPM.com
Reggie Brown is a managing Consultant, IMVUSA Project Management Solutions, based in Cape Town South Africa. He has 20 years of project management experience specializing in IT, Construction, Supply Chain, and Petrochemical (downstream).
Publisher’s note: Reggie has a great desire to teach disadvantaged youth project management life skills in a way that has a huge impact on both their lives and their projects, and he is doing a great job of it. We thank you for your ongoing contributions, Reggie.