The Greater Stellenbosch Development Trust

Project Managers: Roles and responsibilities

1. Definition A project manager is the person who takes ownership of a project within the boundaries set by the project committee, the donors and the trustees. While the project manager functions within these margins set by the project committee, donors and trustees, the project manager should also strive to think and act out of the box. This freedom allowed to a project manager usually depends on the quality of trust and understanding the project manager has managed to establish with the trustees, donors and beneficiaries. 2. Responsibilities At the GSDT project managers are responsible to: Develop the project plan Manage and communicate with project stakeholders Manage the project team and project committees Manage the project risk Manage the project schedule Manage the project budget Manage the project conflicts Manage quality

3. Basic elements to manage A successful project manager simultaneously manages four basic elements of a project: resources, time, money, and scope. These elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All must be managed together. There is always a need to manage and balance people, time, and money. However, the fourth element is often the most important. A successful project manager has to manage the scope of the project, as the first and the last task.

3.1

Project Scope: The project scope is the definition of what the project accomplish and the budget of time and money that is available objectives. Any change to the scope of the project has a resources. If the project scope is manager is

is supposed to to achieve these

matching change in budget, either in time or in

to train 100 beneficiaries with a budget of R100, 000 the project

expected to do that. However, if the scope is changed to training 150 beneficiaries, the project manager must obtain an appropriate change in budgeted resources. If the budget is not adjusted, the smart project manager will avoid the change in scope. 3.2 draft Budget, business plan and reports: The project manager must reports to donors, committees, trustees and to beneficiaries,

comprehensively and in time. The project manager must develop a full and comprehensive budget for the project every year for three annual periods and must see that this budget is approved by donors, the project committee and trustees. The project manager must be able to allocate monthly expenses so that the financial statements can be processed every month. The project manager must present a monthly report, comparing the annual budget to the monthly expenses. This report must be presented every month to the committee chairperson for the project. The project manager must also report to fellow workers within the agreed balanced scorecard format. 3.3 Planning: The project manager ensures that the relevant information

is available at the yearly budget and planning meeting in order to set goals for the project for the year. If a project manager manages this process well, with a thought out plan, and ambitious but realistic goals, the project manager will be able to work during the year in a largely independent manner, if the outcome, goals and monitoring are as planned. The upfront planning process has immense value. When the planning is good, that is when you know what you are doing before you start. You will be able to manage the work and the team effectively. Good time management includes risk management and quality management. For risk management the project manager has to look at the project and work

out what is likely

to go wrong. Once this is done, the project manager has to be addressed. Risk identification and project. Risk identification that

develop a plan of how each problem will should address both

should be performed on a regular basis throughout the

internal and external risks. Internal risks are things

the project team can control or influence, such as the performance of trainers, material wastage etc. External risks are things beyond the control or influence of the project team, such as changes in the exchange rate, new influences etc. A risk management plan manage risks throughout government legislation, political the project. Measuring, monitoring and evaluation of projects are important to create a wide and cheap understanding of each project and to develop measures, ensure that projects reach goals on time, scorecards. verifications and assumptions to

should document the procedures that will be used to

various measures are integrated into balanced

The project manager also has to ensure that the final product meets the quality expectations of the stakeholders. This is done by:

identify what quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to meet them (quality planning); evaluate overall project performance on a regular basis to provide confidence that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards (quality assurance);

Monitor specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant quality standards and identifying ways to remove causes of poor performance (quality control).

3.4

People: Project managers manage staff that also, indirectly, various

Trust resources, such as assistance from the Business Support Project, project committees, beneficiary committees, trustees, donors and volunteers. Each of these resources requires specific attention, within the legal framework and complementary guidelines of the Trust. Project managers are thus responsible for regular merit appraisals of project staff and for good communication with all stakeholders. Project communication includes: 3

Communications planning: determining the information and communication needs of the stakeholders, who needs what information, when will they need it, and how will it be given to them; Information distribution: making needed information available to project stakeholders in an accessible and timely manner; Performance reporting: collecting and distributing performance information. This includes status reporting, progress measurement and forecasting; Project reporting: generating, gathering, and distributing information to formalize phase or project completion.