Sri Lanka Institute Of Development Administration School Of Postgraduate Studies

MPM m - Project Management Program 2009/2011

Issues in Application of Project Quality Management - Based On Sri Lankan Projects Experiences Gajaba Perera-Gunawardena Management Consultant Abstract: Project Quality Management has become a serious concern as accountability for project funds raised locally, or burrowed from International Development Agencies, has become a key issue in the socio-economic development process of the developing world. A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service of pre-defined quality within a specific time frame and a budget. Project Management differs from other forms of organization management due to the high risk environment grounded in the triple constraints inherent to the former. A has a defined time ; a multi-disciplinary team; constraints of cost, time and quality, and a scope of work that is unique and involves a higher degree of uncertainty. Majority of the projects experiences deviations from the original project design in terms of the key constraints commonly known as triple constraints. Therefore, the essence or the main purpose of Project Management is Management of Deviations from the Scope, Budget and the Timeframe while maintaining desired quality of the deliverables. Any project, which had not experienced any deviation from the original design, cannot be considered a successful project. It speaks of nothing but defective project formulation. This should not be a license to legitimize project failures or incompetent management. The preposition is that project management should be redefined as the systematic management of deviations to achieve objectives in the optimum levels of productivity ensuring the desired quality in a high risk and uncertain environment. Introduction: It is true that Sri Lanka is going through a rapid process of comprehensive economic and social development. The rate of growth is relatively and remarkably high. What does it mean? It means higher levels of productive activity and performance. For some reason or other, some of us still have a pessimistic outlook on these achievements, and, unfortunately, wrapped in an aura of backwardness fail to see the strides, instead are overwhelmed by some degree of malfunctions in the process. Most of the development activities are organized in projects of varying sizes, values and time spans. It is difficult to conceive a successful project which has concluded on time, within the budget, and the original scope. If you find this rare example, it is safe to conclude that the project is more a failure than a success. It shows that the project design has been unrealistic in terms of the triple constraints. The attempt is not to give license to ineffective project management or not to review where things have gone wrong. A critical review of issues and problems in Project Management is highly desirable but also imperative to augment the iconic endeavors to make Sri Lanka the Miracle of Asia. The message is clear. There are various issues and problems in Project Management, from the perspective of achieving the desired results within a given period. As defined A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.1 In further elaboration of the nature of a project, within the framework of this definition, Christ Everett viewed a project as having these basic characteristics: A project is generally defined as a program of work to bring about a beneficial change and which has a start and an end; a multi-disciplinary team; constraints of cost, time and quality; and a scope of work that is unique and involves uncertainty.2 There is certainly no need for remorse and despair. A Project will certainly have to respond to the dynamic changes in scope, the budget and time. All managers are working in dynamic environments; not only the project managers.
1. 2, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), Project Management Institute, 2003. Chris Everett, The Association for Project Management (http://www.spottydog.u-net.com/guides/faq/faq.html, Chris Everett (email:projects@spottydog.u-net.com)

Figure 01

Project Management is inherently risk- pruned due its inherent constraints and uncertainty caused by the dynamic environment gajaba

Dynamic Environment Causing Uncertainity

Scope

Quality Management

Cost

Manage

Time Scope

This is obviously difficult than achieving the pseudo-successful rating by ignoring the essential changes in the three basic constraints in project management. A project is launched to satisfy an unfulfilled need in the environment. Box 1 Project specification compliance = success? Not always

In his outstanding book Agile Project Management, Jim Highsmith offers two examples that emphasize the point. The movie Titanic, from a project management perspective, was a huge failure over budget, over schedule, and plagued by unforeseen risks that threatened to derail the project at every turn. Motorolas Iridium project, which spent billions of dollars launching satellites into orbit in order to make telephone service available worldwide, was a great project management success. Yet the market is the ultimate judge, and the project management compliance of Motorolas venture didnt save the project from failure, nor did the project management disaster (no pun intended) of Titanics production taint the films appeal to the public. The lesson that project managers should learn from these examples is that compliance with project specifications does not constitute project success; in the ultimate analysis, only business results matter. Stated another way, the largest risk in any project is not that it will deviate from plan; its the risk that the final outcome wont fulfill the real need. Predictive methodologies, such as the techniques championed by the Project Management Institute in its PM Body of Knowledge, can add tremendous value, especially for projects for which we have a historical basis to look to for precedent. For truly innovative projects, in which any prediction is little more than guesswork and for which well be inventing never-before-seen products, we need 3 to look for a new approach.

3. Donna Ritter | Communications Management, Project Management | PMBOK (http://certifedpmp.wordpress.com/category/project-management/)

Project Quality Management: The main objective of Project quality management is to ensure that the project complies with the requirements of for which it was designed. Project Quality Management provides the framework to ensure that the project objectives are reached as planned. There is a substantial haziness and confusion regarding the distinct point on which project quality management activates should commence. Project quality management should evolve with the project concept and grow parallel with the development of the project. Figure 2 Integrated quality Management Model showing iterative process in the Project Life Cycle and Key functional areas gajaba

Identification

Scope
Management

Communications Management

Issues Management

Closing
Time
Management

Management

Quality Quality Manement

Planning

Cost
Management

Implementing

Main issues in Project Quality Management in Sri Lanka 1. Distortion of the Concept of Project Quality Management

Project Quality Management is not an isolated element in Project Management. Though it is treated as an area of specialty due to a numerous tools and techniques associated therewith, it is a reiterative project activity going through and across from the beginning to the end of the project cycle. Another pitfall is to consider that quality refers only to the deliverable product or service. This is a myth. Quality refers to the total process of producing and release of the deliverable. This distortion is exceptionally well evident in the majority of Quality Plans, their quality assurance and, control documentation. They are conspicuously silent on the three constraints. There is no recognition of quality of Scope, Cost and Time Management components. Environmental pressures and impacts directly attack one or more elements in the triple constraints. It is because of this ground level reality that project management functions cover six (I could be more) Key Functional areas as shown in Figure 01. It is a mandatory prerequisite to recognize and accept the need to integrate quality management with the three key constraints. This will guard the project manager against drifting towards firefighting, than managing. The need to recognize quality in respect of all activates and processes leading to the production of the deliverable is not a convenient option but a mandatory prerequisite for successful project management. 2. Constant change in the project Scope

Scope change is more a rule than an exception. Sometimes substantial scope changes are forced on the project. In most of the cases, the project management is not consulted by the implementing or the executing agency. Such changes could have devastating consequences on the cost, time and quality, unless timely adjustments are made effectively and efficiently. It is a fallacy to expect the project management to accommodate substantial changes without corresponding changes in the cost and time elements. As has stressed earlier, this is where the skill and the acumen of the Project Manager are tested. This where the other associated skills in issues management, cost management and time management become functionally imperative. The project management should manage the deviations in the optimum level of productivity without endangering the objectives. In doing so, he may change the time and cost considerations effectively. It should be noted that scope changes are a common prevalence in the medium and short term project cycle. The Project Management should endeavor to discourage such changes at the source, failing, should appropriately manage with necessary adjustments in the project plan and relevant constraint elements 3. Quality of the Deliverable:

In the majority of projects, especially in those related to infrastructure development, the Construction Supervision and Contract Administration Consultant is contractually responsible for administering the Quality Assurance Plan submitted and agreed upon the parties, The Quality Assurance Plan should be a part of the Quality Policy and Plan. Only an exceptionally few Consultants implement this function diligently. They are more comfortable with hiding behind Monitoring and Evaluation of the contract than employing an integrated approach. Most of them advance the fallacious argument that Quality Assurance is a contractual obligation of the Contractor. Managing Quality would have been part of the consultants mandate, had the contract been on the Quality Control Format. This is an extremely unprofessional and uncouth stance, which should be severely condemned and rejected. It is mandatory to identifying the obligations of the consultant in supervision, monitoring and evaluation and administering the Quality Assurance Plan agreed upon with the Contractor. The consultant should be made to report to the project management his repose to the QAP submitted by the Contractor, the agreed test regime and schedule, procedure dealing with non-conformity, etc. The project management should formally establish a dedicated Consultancy Services Monitoring Unit, chaired by the Project Manager. The rationale is that if the consultancy services are properly monitored, the consultant would perform his functions better. One of the most self-defeating practices employed by most in project management is to trail behind the Consultant, to monitor the contractors performance, allowing the consultant to slumber in to complacency and inefficiency in the performance of the contractual obligations. Obsolesce of the procurement process The most widely practised procedure is selecting the lowest responsive tender/offer. This procedure is adopted to maintain the highest level of probity and transparency. The process covering appointing procurement entities, technical

and financial evaluation, negotiation, and award normally take a long period, close upon one year. This is further compounded by the need to obtain approvals for each and every step in the process. This generates intense pressure on project duration. Sometimes the process, however, diligently followed to maintain probity and transparency may end up with selecting a cheap, but not effective contender, which would lead to multitudes of problems in the implementation process. Caution should be made here that high price does not need not necessarily vouch for high quality. Lowest responsive price should not be the exclusive criterion for selection of Consultants and Contractors. Their inadequacy and inefficiency may cost more than what is saved. 4. Proliferation of the work load without providing resources

This is the other side of the scope change, which usually emanate from the Implementing and Executing Agencies. It is not uncommon for the funding agency, due to hind sight or otherwise, to require new service procurement in the form of independent evaluation. It may be a short term assignment, the recruitment process somewhat similar. The drain on the budget may not be heavy, but it is still a drain on contingencies. Finally, when the need to draw from physical and price contingencies or unallocated funds arises, the funding agency would block it, causing immense hardship on the project management. 5. Absence of Project Monitoring Tools

All foreign funded projects are formulated by project Specialist. Most of these projects do not have a basic result oriented evaluation as the base for monitoring desired benefits. This is a serious drawback. After the project appraisal and formulation by the funding agency, the Ministry of Finance, the implementing, and executing agencies throat it down the project management. This is one of the main reasons for subsequent unscheduled procurements triggered by the funding agency. These problems are inherent in project management in Sri Lanka. What a project manager could do is to Be Prepared like a Boys Scout or a Girl Guide

Conclusion: The objective of Project management is the systematic management of changes/ deviations to achieve objectives in the optimum levels of productivity ensuring the desired quality in a high risk and uncertain environment. Project Quality Management It is a mandatory prerequisite to recognize and accept the need to integrate quality management with the three key constraints. Be vigilant of managing deviations/changes to prevent t drifting towards firefighting, than managing. The need to recognize quality in respect of all activates and processes leading to the production of the deliverable is not a convenient option but a mandatory prerequisite for successful project management. The main problem in Project Management arises from change of scope. The challenge of the project management is to manage such change in terms of constraints and the snowballing effect. . The term Quality, should not be narrowly construed to mean the quality status of the deliverable. It should encompass the total outcomes of the project life cycle and processes. Quality Management is a reiterative process running through and across the project life cycle. Responsibility of quality assurance should not be left to the contractor. The Consultant should be made contractually responsible for administering g the quality assurance plan. Project management should establish a dedicated unit to evaluate and monitor Consultants performance than being obsessed with chasing the Contractor. The Project Management, as much as possible, should guard against proliferation of the workload at the instance of the funding agency. Project Management, or otherwise, in the final analysis, management means problem solving and decision making. Therefore, an effective manager should be prepared to accept the above challenges.