Strategic Project Management Report: Kenya Village Project Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of a strategic project management case study undertaken by RMIT University in Melbourne, focusing on a project to improve the social lives of people in a remote village in Kenya. The project involves the construction of a two-story building with classrooms and offices, with a budget of AUS$3 million. The report meticulously examines the project's success criteria, including budget adherence, timely completion, infrastructural requirements, and local authority approvals. It delves into project governance, emphasizing the roles of the project manager and supervisor, along with control measures such as weekly updates, quality control testing, issue reporting, and financial controls. Furthermore, the report defines critical project management processes like project scope, benefit realization, project governance, and key performance indicators (KPIs). The analysis draws on scholarly references to provide a robust framework for project execution, governance, and benefit realization, with the goal of ensuring the project's success and its positive impact on the community. The report underscores the importance of these elements in achieving the project's objectives within the specified constraints.

Running head: STRATEGIC PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Strategic Project Management
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
1. Success Criteria...............................................................................................................2
2. Governance......................................................................................................................4
3. Definition.........................................................................................................................6
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................7
References............................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
Management of a project is subjected to correct evaluation of success criteria of the
project, the governance process of the project along with management of the undertaken project.
It is integral to analyze the success criteria for execution of the project as it is one of the main
factors linked with project benefit realization management (Serra and Carlos Eduardo Martins
2015). The report will be evaluating the concept of project governace. It is observed that there is
an immense pressure on the managers in demonstration of the value they have in a chosen
projects. It is observed that a massive number of projects may not be meeting their objectives
due to lack of governace and therefore, it is considered to be one of the most critical criteria of
project success (Samset, Knut and Gro Holst Volden 2016). This particular project is based on
the case study that deals with the launching of the project is support to improvement of the social
lives of individuals living in a remote village situated in Kenya. The budget estimated for this
project is AUS$ 3 million. Accurate identification of the project success criteria, governace and
the definition of the project is needed to ascertain that the project is delivered within the
scheduled time and the estimated budget.
1. Success Criteria
The success criteria can be described as a measurable terms, linked with the outcome of
the project. A chosen project can only be termed as successful only if all the objectives of the
same are fulfilled (Joslin, Robert and Ralf Müller 2016). Although there cannot be any
interpretation of success of a project, there can be certain criteria in a project, which indicate that
a project is successfully delivered. Therefore, it becomes quite necessary to identify the success
criteria that will help in ascertaining if the objectives of the project is accomplished. There are

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two distinct component linked to the success of the chosen project, one is the success of project
management, while the other is success of the product that is being delivered (Aliza et al. 2011).
Therefore, it becomes critical to evaluate the success criteria related to the execution of the
project.
The project management success, generally has three crucial components which include,
meeting the time, cost and the quality specified; meeting the standard quality of process of
project management and satisfying the stakeholders’ requirement and the process of project
management that is being followed in the project (Gomes, Jorge and Mário Romão 2016). The
quality of project management generally indicates how efficiently the project has been managed
while it is being implemented. The project success also, rely on the fact that whether the issues
present in the project were dealt with in an efficient manner.
The success criteria of a product is quite different from the product success. A product’s
success, is generally linked with three different components, which include meeting the strategic
organizational objective of the project owner, satisfaction of the needs of the users along with the
satisfaction of the needs of the stakeholders.
It is crucial to identify the success criteria of the undertaken project as it is a high priority
project that has been undertaken in consideration with a social cause. The success criteria related
to the execution and completion of this particulate project is indicated as follows-
1. The project will only be termed as successful if, it is completed within the budget of
AUS$ 3 million. This is linked with the project management processes that is followed in
execution and completion of a project.

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2. The project must be completed within 1st January as it is the date of start of the new
semester.
3. The development plan of the project must include the infrastructural requirement,
which include the installation of the hardware and software and it should be accessible to the
mobility impaired people.
4. The project will only be successful only if the RMIT manages to get approval from the
local authorities to go on with the school construction.
The above four points indicate the success criteria that is chosen for successful execution
of the project. The project will considered to be successful or beneficial only if the project’s
success criteria is fulfilled. The above indicated project’s success criteria is linked with the
project objective of improving the social lives of the people in distant village of Kenya. The aim
of the project is to build a 2 storey blocks, designed for the disadvantage kids of the community.
The benefit realization of the project is linked with delivery of a completed building with all the
required infrastructural settings so that semester can start from 1st January.
2. Governance
The governance of a project is a critical element as ascertain that the project is executed
as per the plan. It is observed that quite a large number of project may not meet their objective
due to lack of project governace (Whyte et al. 2016). Therefore, appropriate project governance
can be considered as a critical success criteria linked with execution and control of a project (do
Rosário Bernardo and Maria 2014). In the recent years, there is an increasing need for the
organization to focus on the benefits of the project and for that accurate governace of the project
within an organization is quite essential (Musawir et al. 2017). Researches prove that there is a

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direct relationship between the governace and the success of the project (Bekker and Michiel
2015). Effective governance of the project influences the project success through different other
mechanism (Rosário Bernardo and Maria 2014). Effective governace of the project generally
affects the efficiency of the project, the organizational benefits, the impact, the satisfaction of the
stakeholders along with the increase in the future potential of project execution.
The governance process of the undertaken project is mainly undertaken by the manager.
The project manager along with the supervisor of the chosen project is responsible for project
governance (Pinto and Jeffrey 2014). This particular project needs to follow an effective
governance process that will ascertain that the project is executed as per the control. Certain
project controls will be enforced in this particular project to ascertain that the project is executed
as per plan (Too, Eric and Patrick Weaver 2014). The controls that are enforced within the
project team are indicated as follows-
1. Weekly project updates are followed and maintained for successful project execution.
2. Regular quality control testing is to be followed for execution of the project as per
plan.
3. Any issues arising in the project is reported to the manager of the project for prompt
decision-making.
4. Since the budget of the project is fixed, financial control measures are to be enforced in
the project for correct execution and control. Regular budget forecasts were made for
administering the set budget of the project.

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The above controls are enforced for the chosen project to ascertain that it is executed as
per the plan. These governance framework ascertains that the project will be a success
(Mossalam, Amr and Mohamad Arafa 2016). These governance framework are set at the
beginning of the project so that an effective plan is followed for project execution.
3. Definition
There are a number of processes that is linked with the execution of the chosen project in
an effective manner. The project team needs to know the effectiveness of each of the processes
that is linked with the management and execution of the project so that the project is executed as
per plan. The critical definition of the various project management processes are indicated in the
following paragraphs-
Project Scope: The scope of the project generally outlines the deliverables, objectives
and the success criteria of the chosen project (Brunet, Maude and Monique Aubry 2016). The
scope of the project is generally considered to be a part of project planning that helps in
determination and documentation of the goals and deliverables of the project.
Benefit Realization: Benefit realization to benefit management is considered to be one of
the most effective ways of managing the main resources linked with a particular project. Benefit
realization framework is generally followed in an organization as it provide a planned process of
identification of the benefits, execution of the benefits and the sustaining the benefits of the
organization.
Project Governance: Project governance is termed as an infrastructure requirement of
project execution process that mainly deals with responsibility and accountability in a project

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(Kerzner and Harold 2019). It is necessary to set up an accurate project governace framework for
successfully completing the project.
KPI: The Key Performance Indicators of the project is a measurable value that
demonstrates the effectiveness of a company in achieving key business objectives and the
success of the project.
Conclusion
The report discusses the critical success criteria of the undertaken project, the project
governace framework along with the critical definitions linked with the execution of the chosen
project. It is possible to finish the project as per plan as the report defines the benefit realization
process of the project along with the process of governing the project execution.

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References
Aliza, Abu Hassim, Kajewski Stephen, and Trigunarsyah Bambang. "The importance of project
governance framework in project procurement planning." Procedia Engineering 14 (2011):
1929-1937.
Bekker, Michiel C. "Project Governance–the definition and leadership dilemma." Procedia-
Social and Behavioral Sciences 194 (2015): 33-43.
Brunet, Maude, and Monique Aubry. "The three dimensions of a governance framework for
major public projects." International Journal of Project Management 34, no. 8 (2016): 1596-
1607.
do Rosário Bernardo, Maria. "Performance Indicators for Enhancing Governance of
Projects." Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences 119 (2014): 55-64.
do Rosário Bernardo, Maria. "Project indicators for enhancing governance of projects." Procedia
Technology 16 (2014): 1065-1071.
Gomes, Jorge, and Mário Romão. "Improving project success: A case study using benefits and
project management." Procedia Computer Science 100 (2016): 489-497.

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Joslin, Robert, and Ralf Müller. "The relationship between project governance and project
success." International Journal of Project Management 34, no. 4 (2016): 613-626.
Kerzner, Harold. Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for project
management. Wiley, 2019.
Mossalam, Amr, and Mohamad Arafa. "The role of project manager in benefits realization
management as a project constraint/driver." HBRC Journal 12, no. 3 (2016): 305-315.
Pinto, Jeffrey K. "Project management, governance, and the normalization of
deviance." International Journal of Project Management 32, no. 3 (2014): 376-387.
Samset, Knut, and Gro Holst Volden. "Front-end definition of projects: Ten paradoxes and some
reflections regarding project management and project governance." International Journal of
Project Management 34, no. 2 (2016): 297-313.
Serra, Carlos Eduardo Martins. "Benefits Realization Management and Strategic Project
Success: Analysis of UK, USA, and Brazil." Project Management Institute, 2015.
Too, Eric G., and Patrick Weaver. "The management of project management: A conceptual
framework for project governance." International Journal of Project Management 32, no. 8
(2014): 1382-1394.
ul Musawir, Ata, Carlos Eduardo Martins Serra, Ofer Zwikael, and Imran Ali. "Project
governance, benefit management, and project success: Towards a framework for supporting
organizational strategy implementation." International Journal of Project Management 35, no. 8
(2017): 1658-1672.

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Whyte, Jennifer, Angelos Stasis, and Carmel Lindkvist. "Managing change in the delivery of
complex projects: Configuration management, asset information and ‘big data’." International
Journal of Project Management 34, no. 2 (2016): 339-351.