INTRODUCTION_TO_INTERNATIONAL_PROJECTMANAGEMENTChapter

INTRODUCTION TO INTERNATIONAL PROJECT

MANAGEMENT

Chapter 1

Limited

Duration, Scope, Financial Resources, Human Resources

Unique

Objectives, Context,

Organization

Risky

Uncertainty, Complexity

Three main characteristics of a project.

What is a project?

An organization has only limited resources. Hence, the project operates

within constraints of resources and time. It is supposed to produce a result

that meets agreed quality standards.

WHAT IS PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

A project is typically managed in four phases: 1. Initiating

2. Planning

3. Executing/Controlling

4. Completion

This is also called the ‘project management life cycle’.

1. • Initiating

2. • Planning

3. • Executing/ Controlling

4. • Completion

Initial state (company internal idea, customer requirement)

Objective (product, service, result)

Strategy, Project portfolio

Organization

Project management in the international

organization

WHO ARE THE MAIN PLAYERS WITH THE CONTEXT OF PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

They are called ‘project stakeholders’.

In an international project, their set-up is more complicated than in a standard project. Moreover, they tend to have diverging and conflicting ideas about the project.

The project manager needs to map all project stakeholders and manage them carefully.

Project Management Team

Project Team Members

Contractors with PM

Subcontractors with PMs

A B C

1 2 3 1 2 31 2 3

Internal customer

Project Owner/

Project Sponsor

Project Manager of

Leading Contractor

Project Owner/

Project Sponsor

External customer/ Investor Users Users

Project Manager

Require-

ments

Require-

ments

Results

Require-

ments

Require-

ments

Results

Require-

ments

Results

Require-

ments

Results

An overview of main project stakeholders

Main purposes of international

projects

Search for new geographical presence or

new international stakeholders

Increase of global market share, market power,

global political power or global effectiveness

Realization of efficiency gains

Access to scarce and unique resources

Reduction of risk

What are the main purposes of international

projects?

International projects reach beyond national boundaries, usually in terms of project

purpose or nationality of stakeholders. International projects can be global, involving

the entire world.

International Project

Uniqueness

Risk

Complexity

Limited Resources

Dynamics

Diversity

International

Project

What are the main characteristics of international projects?

Critical success criteria for

international project

managementGoal commitment of project team and

initial clarity of goals

Establishment of smooth

communications and supporting

infrastructure

Adequate project team capabilities

Consideration of context

Right balance between common methodology and

flexibility

Supportive project culture

What do you need to take into account to manage

successfully international projects?

Assignment Question

Select an Industry, organisation and market scenario of your choice to critically review the essential conditions by which customer loyalty can be built and sustained as a result of a relevant, valued, delivered total customer experience for market segments.

You will be expected, in a 4000 words assignment to give attention to the following;

1) A background statement to outline the industry, market positioning as well as the present unique selling proposition.

2) A marketing audit, outlining the overall market attractiveness and whether there is the potential for market growth.

3) Critically defended new marketing mix actions to achieve gaps between the company’s present marketing strategy and external environment.

Marking Criteria

Marks will be awarded based on the following criteria:

 Clear and structured presentation of answers showing clarity of expression

 Each question should be answered comprehensively and creatively

 Students should demonstrate critical analysis and evaluation of the material, literature and theories covered during course lectures.

 The ability to critically weigh and evaluate the alternative theories/studies available to the International Marketer should be demonstrated from both theoretical and practical application.

 Presentation and referencing

Marking Criteria for each question

 Background statement: Good introduction, providing an oversight of the company and the competitive environment 15 marks

 Marketing Audit: Ability to apply theory to practice 40 marks

 New marketing mix: The ability to critically discuss the various facets of the marketing mix. 30 marks

 Overall Standard of Presentation: Presents material in an interesting and informative way and references per Harvard style of referencing. 15 marks

Assessment Requirements:

The submission of your work assessment should be organized and clearly structured in a report format.

Maximum word length allowed is 4,000 words, excluding words in charts & tables and in the appendixes section of your assignment.

This assignment is worth 100% of the final assessment of the module.

Student is required to submit a type-written document in Microsoft Word format with Times New Roman font type, size 12 and line spacing 1.5.

Indicate the sources of information and literature review by including all the necessary citations and references adopting the Harvard Referencing System.

Students who have been found to have committed acts of Plagiarism are automatically considered to have failed the entire module. If found to have breached the regulation for the second time, you will be asked to leave the course.

Plagiarism involves taking someone else’s words, thoughts, ideas or essays from online essay banks and trying to pass them off as your own. It is a form of cheating which is taken very seriously.

The assignment should be written in a report structure. An example of the layout of an assignment is listed below:

 Title Page

 Table of Contents

 Executive Summary

 Introduction

 Body

 Conclusions

 References

 Appendix

Plagiarism

Plagiarism are:

 The verbatim copying of another person’s work without acknowledgement

 The close paraphrasing of another person’s work by simply changing a few words or altering the order of presentation without acknowledgement

 The unacknowledged quotation of phrases from another person’s work and/or the presentation of another person’s idea(s).

Copying or close paraphrasing with occasional acknowledgement of the source may also be deemed to be plagiarism if the absence of quotation marks implies that the phraseology is the student’s own.

Plagiarised work may belong to another student or be from a published source such as a book, report, journal.

Harvard Referencing

The structure of a citation under the Harvard referencing system is the author’s surname, year of publication, and page number or range, in parentheses, as illustrated in the examples below.

 The page number or page range is omitted if the entire work is cited. The author’s surname is omitted if it appears in the text. Thus, we may say: “Jones (2001) revolutionized the field of trauma surgery.”

 Two or three authors are cited using “and” or “&”: (Deane, Smith, and Jones, 1991) or (Deane, Smith & Jones, 1991). More than three authors are cited using et al. (Deane et al., 1992).

 An unknown date is cited as no date (Deane n.d.). A reference to a reprint is cited with the original publication date in square brackets (Marx [1867] 1967, p. 90).

 If an author published two books in 2005, the year of the first (in the alphabetic order of the references) is cited and referenced as 2005a, the second as 2005b.

 A citation is placed wherever appropriate in or after the sentence. If it is at the end of a sentence, it is placed before the period (full stop), but a citation for an entire block quote immediately follows the period (full stop) at the end of the block since the citation is not an actual part of the quotation itself.

 Complete citations are provided in alphabetical order in a section following the text, usually designated as “Works cited” or “References”. The difference between “works cited” or “references” list and a bibliography is that a bibliography may include works not directly cited in the text.

 All citations are in the same font as the main text.

Examples

 Examples of book references are:

 Smith, J. 2005a. Dutch Citing Practices. The Hague: Holland Research Foundation.

 Smith, J. 2005b. Harvard Referencing. London: Jolly Good Publishing.

 Examples of journal, journal article from an electronic source accessed through a password protected database, and website references are:

 Smith, J. M., 1998. The origin of altruism, Nature, 12. pp. 639-645.

 Boughton, J.M., 2002. The Bretton Woods proposal: an in-depth look. Political Science Quarterly, [e-journal] 42(6). Available through: Anglia Ruskin University Library website <http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk> [Accessed 12 June 2005].

 NHS Evidence, 2003. National Library of Guidelines. [online] Available at: <http://www.library.nhs.uk/guidelinesFinder> [Accessed 10 October 2009].

IMPLEMENTING AND CONTROLLING INTERNATIONAL

PROJECTS

Chapter 7

THE CHALLENGE OF IMPLEMENTING AND CONTROLLING AN INTERNATIONAL PROJECT

The efficiency and efficacy of the processes and activities in the implementation phase highly depend on the quality of the output of the initiation and planning phases.

The main activities in the implementation phase follow the Plan-Do- Check-Act cycle:

 Implement activities based on the project master plan.

 Check the status of the project at regular intervals.

 Compare the results of these status checks with the plan.

 Act in case of deviances between the plan and the actual status by implementing counter measures.

MONITORING AND CONTROLLING

Project monitoring refers to keeping track or checking a situation for a special purpose.

Project controlling entails an element of influence and exertion of power to rectify undesired situations:

 Direct control (subject of this chapter): Fact-based controlling of resources with tools and techniques.

 Indirect control (subject of other chapters) : Person-oriented controlling, using stakeholder management, leadership, motivation, negotiation, conflict management.

The detailed inputs, and outputs of these activities will be explained on the following slide.

Required inputs:

Project Proposal and Project Master Plan , i.e.

Required tools and techniques:

1. Change orders

2. Change documentation supported by IT

3. Follow up of issue log in status meetings

3 2

PLAN

DOCHECK

ACT

The

Monitoring

Cycle

1. Inadequate allowance for time in planning phase

2. Inadequate specifications

3. Inadequate knowledge about customer’s needs

4. Lack of discipline

5. Improvements due to technological progress

6. Unforeseeable circumstances

1. Stakeholder Matrix

2. Cultural gap analysis

3. Diversity-Complexity Assessment

4. Project Scope Statement

5. Enhanced Risk Register

6. Resource loaded Gantt charts

7. Cumulative spread sheets

8. Quality plan incl. specs

9. Project structure

10. Contracts

Main output:

Data in form of nominal scale, interval scale, or descriptions

Required activities:

• Collection of hard data, mainly supported by IT

• Collection of soft data considering impact of cultural diversity

Main reasons for variances:

1. Data in various forms

2. Observations

Required tools and

techniques:

1. Red/Amble/Green

2. Milestone Analysis

3. Critical Path

4. Earned Value Analysis

5. Balanced Score Card

Required inputs:

1. Analysis of deviations or variances

2. Analysis of their root causes

Main output:

• Deviation analysis regarding time, cost, quality, scope,

satisfaction level

• Issue log

Required activities:

• Decision on countermeasures

• Claim management

• Change management

CULTURAL IMPACT ON PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION (1)

The application of the cultural gap analysis helps the project manager selecting adequate controlling and monitoring techniques.

It also raises his or her awareness regarding potential behavioural differences within the team in the implementation phase.

An important difference to keep in mind:

 In task-oriented cultures, remote or virtual controlling usually works.

 In relationship-oriented cultures, personal controlling and support is difficult to replace by remote controlling techniques.

The following two slides give a systematic overview of potential behavioural differences among project members in the execution phase.

The higher the inclination to avoid risk, the more

likely it is that important decisions due to a changing

environment get delayed due to the fact that more

details are needed for decision making. If decisions

are avoided, plans cannot be modified, and

monitoring gets meaningless.

Embracing

risk Avoiding risk

Data collection and reporting: persons from

individualistic cultures tend to feel more comfortable

responding to non-anonymous interviews or

questionnaires for data collection. They also tend to

feel more comfortable with measurement of their

personal performance compared to team members

from collectivistic cultures.

Individual Group

Individuals from rather circumstantial cultures might

feel that it does not make sense to monitor and

revise ‘old’ plans. They might feel that it is sufficient

to adapt to changes when they come, without

documenting deviations from the original plan.

Universal Circumstan-

tial

CULTURAL IMPACT ON PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION (2)

Project managers from achievement-oriented

cultures may tend to invest some time in monitoring

on a regular basis in order to counteract quickly.

More status-oriented project managers might spend

their time on presumably more rewarding activities

like politics or building networks.

Achievement Standing /

status

Prioritization of tasks under time constraints might be

difficult for individuals from synchronic cultures. Sequential Synchronic

Individuals from more pragmatic-orientated cultures

may prefer quick action and countermeasures over

thorough analysis of the cause of deviations from the

plan.

Theoretical Pragmatic

Task Relationship

Individuals from relationship-oriented cultures could

have difficulties in reporting issues or anything bad

in order not to ruin the relationship to the person

they are reporting to.

They may also need more direct physical follow-up

in terms of encouragement rather than virtual status

meetings.

CULTURAL IMPACT ON PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION (3)

MONITORING TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

Project monitoring:  Data Collection:

 Frequency count or nominal scale data.

 Raw numbers or interval scale data.

 Verbal characterization.

 Documentation.

 Reporting project information:

 Routine reports.

 Special analysis reports.

 Exception reports.

Pre-requisite:  Existence of relevant performance indicators, called Key Performance Indicators (KPI).

Areas to be monitored:  ‘Hard’ facts: Time, cost, measurable quality.

 ‘Soft’ things: Goal commitment of project team and initial clarity of goals, establishment of clear communication, adequate project team capabilities, project culture.

PARTICULARITIES OF MONITORING INTERNATIONAL PROJECTS

 Tends to be more complex than monitoring standard projects.

 Context plays a big role.

 Reports need to be customized to expectation of recipients that may be culturally impacted.

 Attention needs to be paid to developments within the project, but also outside of the project.

 The monitoring matrix as depicted in the following slides helps with this task.

Internal

Completion

1. Resources: time, cost

2. Productivity of human resources

(due to cultural diversity)

3. Quality

4. Scope

5. Delays of input from other projects

6. Support level from HQ/top

management

7. Efficiency and consistency of

business processes across locations

1. Executive management

2. Steering committee

3. Line managers

4. Heads of subsidiaries

5. Project team members

6. Users within organization

1. Customer

2. Suppliers

3. Subcontractors

4. Consultants

5. (International) users outside of

organization

1. Economic situation of the countries

the project operates in

2. Government regulations and

approvals (changes, delays)

3. Natural disasters or untypical

weather change

4. Technological problems like power

outages

More details see Chapter 4

Satisfaction

External

Monitor matrix for international projects

CONTROLLING TECHNIQUES (1)

Low tech controlling tools:

 Traffic light system:  Rather a visualization method than a generic control tool. Its effectiveness depends on underlying criteria (see example on next slide).

 Due to its self-explanatory colour coding very suitable for international projects.

 Milestone analysis:  Review meetings are conducted around pre-defined milestones.

 Important to have clear criteria to pass a milestone.

 Approach is easy to use and easy to learn.

 Can be combined with team-building events.

Criteria for project status

light setting

Profitability

R&D costs

Milestone review

Specific project risks

Project resources

Red, if any of the criteria

is red.

Total project traffic

light status

Yellow, if any of the criteria is yellow.

Green, if all criteria is

green.

EXAMPLE OF TRAFFIC LIGHT TOOL

CONTROLLING TECHNIQUES (2)

More complicated controlling tools:

 Earned Value Analysis (EVA):  Shows the relationship between variances in cost, schedule and project performance.

 Suitable for controlling long-lasting, complex, international projects.

 Earned value is the value expressed in a currency of the work accomplished at a certain point in time based upon the planned or budgeted value for the work.

 Automation of control by the use of expert systems:  Expert systems are IT based.

 Input relies on traditional data collection methods.

 Balanced Score Card (BSC):  Apart from financial control, more intangible performance areas like customer’s satisfaction, internal business processes, and

learning and growth need to be monitored.

Time

C o

s t

in T €

36 80

146

225

350

458

565

693

841

1.000

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1.000

1.100

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct

Planned cost in relation to

schedule

Example of EVA Calculation (1)

Time

C o

s t

in T €

36 80

146

225

350

458

565

693

841

1.000

160

240

390

503

610

748

900

1.059

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

900

1.000

1.100

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct

Planned

Actual

Example of EVA Calculation (2)

100

200

300

400

500

600

Apr May Jun

AC = 503

Time

C o

s t

in T €

PC = 458

SVm

SV = 54 CV = -99

EV = 404

Example of EVA Calculation (3)

MANAGING PLANNED AND UNPLANNED CHANGE

Detect variations from the plan:

 Identifying of issues through context scanning (e.g. with monitoring matrix).

 Entering the issue into a special forma called an issue log (see next slide).

 Allocating resources to solving the issue.

 Following up the progress of implementing change to solve the issue until completion.

Central version control:

 Change requests of changes in progress need to be administered by a central database.

 Transparency and accessibility of change data is important.

Claim management is a special form of change management.

Issue Log

No. Date Description

Impact (in terms

of project

completion)

Suggested

solution

Responsible

person

Date of

comple-

tion

Example of issue log

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