A Review on Standards, Practices and Future Prospects of Project Management in a South African Context (original) (raw)
Related papers
This research paper identifies and analyses the most important fundamentals to improve project management performance in South Africa. Many important factors were identified in this study such over 60% of participants have a certificate to none formal project management education, which compromise the quality of any project, and increases the number of project failures in the country. Furthermore, project managers face many challenges from community participation within the project, project creeps, and political influences to getting the right team members for the project on board. Therefore, it is recommended that a partnership between Project Management South Africa (PMSA), higher education institution, public and private sectors should work together in bringing about standard requirements to practice as project managers and standard performance for practicing project managers. This study can be used in the draft of policies regulating the project management industry as well as when developing project management curriculum at higher education institutions, as it points out the fundamentals to improve project management performance in South Africa.
A Framework for Good Governance in Project Management in South Africa
The South African Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2012
In the context of predicted positive economic growth in South Africa for the next three years, the economic landscape could well be characterised by a growth in investment in South Africa. Some of the investment will be underpinned by infrastructure projects by state-owned enterprises. To access the funding required for these projects, South African entities may find themselves competing for investor funding. If South Africa and its corporations are to access international financing, it is important that the overall business environmentand the project environment in particularis well governed. This article presents a framework that South African corporations can use to determine the governance structure and governance practices that apply to a project environment, within the context of broader corporate governance based on the second King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa.
Approaches to project management in Africa: implications for international development projects
International Journal of Project Management, 2003
This paper investigates the applicability and relevance of project management approaches, tools and techniques in Africa. Project management is a field of practice that promotes a normative approach to the management of projects. It is codified in standards, tools and techniques, based primarily on experiences of practitioners in developed Western economies and relies extensively on assumptions of economic rationality. Such approaches are embodied in project management knowledge and practice guides of professional institutes (e.g. Project Management Institute and Association for Project Management) and occupational standards for project management endorsed by Australian and United Kingdom governments. The guides and standards have attracted considerable attention in developing and emerging economies, and from agencies concerned with international development, as they seek guidance in improving project performance and more effective use of resources. Using Africa as a case study, thi...
Strategic Project Management: Contemporary Issues and Strategies for Developing Economies
2015
Editors: Corlane Barclay and K.M. Osei-Bryson. Based on expert practitioners’ contributions from across the globe including Brazil, Jamaica, Malaysia, Pakistan, Thailand, the United Kingdom, and the United States, Strategic Project Management: Contemporary Issues and Strategies for Developing Economies offers modern experiences, best practices, and tools for individuals and teams working in projects spanning diverse environments in developing economies. The book answers the questions: what are the issues and challenges experienced in "developing" countries and how can effective project management practices address them? It then presents strategies and sustainable solutions. The book covers the foundations of project management, highlighting particular strategies that may resonate with organizations across the globe, particularly developing economies. It includes dialogue on project success criteria and performance evaluation techniques, stakeholder management, program and portfolio management, managing knowledge in projects and case studies across industries such as ICT, education and law. In addition, the book showcases: Diverse perspectives and experiences in the effective management of projects from the developing economies The importance of project maturity through the adoption of sound strategic project management principles Application of project management standards and practices in specific domains Emerging tools and techniques that can enhance the management of different types of projects Opportunities for future research and collaborations
The lack of Professional Project Management Practices (PPMP) particularly in developing countries has led to low productivity and poor quality of work. Though professional project management is an evolving discipline, the application of effective construction project management techniques in many developing countries still constitute a serious challenge. This research therefore seeks to ascertain, through literature, factors affecting the professional project management practice in developing African countries. The study identified lack of knowledge, high bureaucratic, political, and economic constraints, leadership, and organisation culture, misunderstanding of the PM concepts, and lack of appropriate software as the emerging constraints to the development of professional project management practices. Finally, PPMP require a broad knowledge base and skills. The need for organizational learning and more rigorous training for managers and staff are thereby recommended.
2019
The civil construction industry among several industries that includes automobile, clothing and textile, food retail, agriculture and tourism is one such industry that significantly contributes to the growth of South Africa’s economy through the provision of much needed infrastructure in the form of buildings and road network among other things. The majority of the civil works in the construction industry are run on a project basis with managers taking a key role in ensuring project completion. This study is based on the construction projects of a South African construction company. The purpose of the study is to assess the effectiveness of the current project management skills and effect on organisational performance. A. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The International Journal of Business and Management, 2016
Project Management Practices in Government Organizations of Developing Countries: A Systematic Review 1. Introduction Since its inception more than 40 years ago, the concept of project management has gained popularity both in the private and public sector (Morris et al., 2012; Crawford and Helm, 2009). While private organizations seem to be more well-informed in utilizing project management practices, the situation is contrary in the latter setting (Rosacker and Rosacker, 2010; Wirick, 2011) plausibly due to the dissimilarity of both sectors. Project management was indirectly introduced into the public sector due to the demand for public organizations reforms by western governments (Baranskaya2007; Crawford, L. et al., 2003). An element in these reforms was the use of private business techniques (such as cost benefit estimates and performance indicators) to tackle government spending costs and improve efficiency in service delivery. This led various public organizations to embark on developmental projects as a means to improve accountability and organizational effectiveness in the public sector (Crawford and Helm, 2009; Arnaboldi, 2004). Some authors claim that other potential benefits of utilizing public projects include the creation of socioeconomic value through effective public service which consequently produces an environment that fosters investment and improves the standard of living of people in a society (Ofori, 2013; Graham and Englund, 2013). In view of this, the concept of project management in public organizations is promoted by various governments. Although, some developed nations such as UK and Australia have a record of achievement in managing government developmental projects (Klakegg et al., 2015), there is still the need for better understanding of project management practices that relate to public projects specifically in developing countries. Public organizations in various developing nations still struggle to understand and implement project management in public projects (Ika, 2012; Rwelamila and Purushottam, 2012; Muriithi and Crawford, 2003) with the expectation of deriving the benefits of delivering projects on time, on budget, within scope and delivering value to the public. The concept of project management has diverse but parallel definitions. It is described by the Association for Project Management as the application of tools, techniques, processes, methods and experience in achieving the desired purpose of a project (APM, 2012). In the same vein, PMI (2013) defines project management as an application of skills, knowledge, tools and techniques to project endeavours in order to achieve the project prerequisites. Kerzner (2013) adopts the definition of the classical approach to management to describe project management as planning, organizing, directing and monitoring of an organization's resources for a temporary purpose that will eventually achieve specific goals and objectives. In general, these definitions all describe project management as 'a
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2019
The construction industry has been identified as the industry which carry out unsustainable practices, and processes, this has led to several countries seeking to incorporate sustainable practices such as sustainable construction, sustainable construction project management to handle the growing concern over climate and environmental issues. Despite the construction industry awareness of these sustainable practices, it has been a problem implementing these sustainable practices. The aim of this study is to identify the barriers that hinder the implementation of sustainable project management in the South African construction industry, as well as drivers that encourages the implementation of sustainable project management. A quantitative methodology approach was adopted for this study, a questionnaire was employed to gather data for this study. A total of fifty-two (52) respondents returned their questionnaires. Findings from this study reveal that a major barrier to implementation o...
The construction project manager in South Africa: analysis of industry-specific knowledge
Acta Structilia : Journal for the Physical and Development Sciences, 2015
Construction project managers in the built environment come from various backgrounds and knowledge bases; therefore, the project managers’ project management set may differ. The type of knowledge required to improve CPD training of project managers thus needs to be determined. This would raise the knowledge levels needed for built environment project managers. The aim of this article is to determine the knowledge needed for the successful management of projects within the built environment. Industry-specific guidelines for construction project management (PMBOK and SACPCMP) were obtained and analysed. Expert interviews were conducted with experienced specialists (n=10) who held a senior managerial position within project management in the built environment. A case study and email questionnaires (n=40) were also analysed to determine the type of knowledge required. Data analysis was done using Microsoft Excel 2003®. Three areas of knowledge were identified, namely project manage...
Journal of the South African Institution of Civil Engineers
The thrust of this paper is to examine management strategies that could engender performance improvement in construction. Using the South African infrastructure sector as the geographical limit of the study, the research reported upon emanates from a quantitative study that was underpinned by the review of related literature. A survey was conducted among general contractor (GC) members of the South African Federation of Civil Engineering Contractors (SAFCEC), consulting engineer members of Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) and selected public sector clients. Based on inferential statistics, selected findings show that inconsistent and inadequate risk allocation and management practices could lead to inappropriate choice of procurement strategy. Inadequate documentation and transfer of experience and performance could also result in limited organisational knowledge, learning and transfer. The lack of delivery management skills within public sector establishments could result i...