Project Planning & Evaluation 2022/2023 PDF

04/04/2023 “ESSENTIALS OF PROJECT PLANNING AND EVALUATION” 2022/2023 Andrea Pozza ACTIVITY SCHEDULING (IN FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION PHASE)...

04/04/2023 “ESSENTIALS OF PROJECT PLANNING AND EVALUATION” 2022/2023 Andrea Pozza ACTIVITY SCHEDULING (IN FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION PHASE) 1 MANAGEMENT TOOLS: Once the list of activities is established two management tools should be established : - Activity Schedule (chronogram) - Budget In the RBM approach, both chronogram and budget are MANAGEMENT TOOLS and not M&E tools 2 1  04/04/2023 INTERVENTION LOGIC FINAL OUTCOME If the “draft” budget exceeds the financial envelope, some activities (or some outputs) should be dropped Pay attention that this “cut” does not compromise the “internal logic” of the project 3 CHRONOGRAM A chronogram basically is a matrix with activities as row headings and time units as column headings. The matrix shows how long each activity lasts and in what period it will be carried out Activity 1° 2° 3° 4° Time unit month month month month A1. Starting-up the project management office A2. Completion of opening seminar A3. Preparation and launch of course for young people A4. Completion of training scheme A5. Preparation of marketing research A6. Purchase of school equipment A7. Preparation of programs for teachers A8. Refresher courses for teachers A9. Completion of closing seminar 4 2  04/04/2023 FORMAT OF CHRONOGRAM: EXAMPLE LOGIC C RESPOSI WORK PLAN O INTERVENTION BILITY M (instituti MONTHS/WEEKS M OUTPUT ACTIVITY on in E charge / N person) J F M A M J J A S O N D T S 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.2 1.2.1 1.2.2 CHRONOGRAM: TIME UNIT Time units should be chosen according to the total duration of the project. A basic rule – that shouldn’t be followed strictly - suggests that for short duration projects, lasting less than 6 months, the chosen time units should be weeks or months; projects lasting about one year should be divided into months. 6 3  04/04/2023 CHRONOGRAM: GANTT CHART (1) A Gantt chart is the key tool to design a graphical depiction of a project activity scheduling. It's a type of bar chart that shows the start and finish dates of several activities of a project that include resources, milestones, tasks and dependencies. The Gantt chart is the most widely used chart in project management. These charts are useful in planning a project and defining the sequence of activities that require completion. In most instances, the chart is displayed as a horizontal bar chart 7 CHRONOGRAM: GANTT CHART EXAMPLE 8 4  04/04/2023 GANTT CHART MAKER monday.com - Best for customization capabilities ClickUp - Best free plan for Gantt chart maker FunctionFox - Best for custom views and filtering capabilities TeamGantt - Best for "read-only" functionality for external sharing Canva - Best for small teams and businesses Backlog - Best for software development teams Airfocus - A powerful way to prioritize projects and initiatives to build more effective roadmaps. Microsoft Project Online - A host of intuitive built-in templates and familiar scheduling software and full compatibility with the full Office 365 suite of tools. MindView - Dynamic Gantt chart maker that includes a project timeline, project reports and work breakdown structure modules. Instagantt - Syncs with Asana or can be used independently to create Gantt charts with drag-and-drop simplicity, robust scheduling, baseline tracking and more. 9 ACTIVITY An activity is a clear and understandable project action. It must be easy to quantify, be with an acceptable degree of accuracy, its duration and the resources that will be necessary for its completion. Each activity needs to be clearly linked to the Results Chain using the same numbering (e.g. “A2.1.1, A2.1.2 and A2.1.3 for the three activities of output n° 1, linked to intermediate outcome 2”) 10 5  04/04/2023 SUB-ACTIVITIES and MILESTONES Each action can (but it is not compulsory) be disaggregated into sub-activities. These are short and simple actions that all together materialze an activity. Once they are identified, they facilitate the calculation of the budget The Milestones are crucial events during the unfolding of a sub-activity that measure the actual progress of an activity. No need to have at least one milestone 11 for each activity SUB-ACTIVITIES + MILESTONE: example Activity 1° month 2° month 1° 2° 3° 4° 5° 6° 7° 8° wee wee wee wee wee wee wee wee Time unit k k k k k k k k A2.1.1 Organize opening seminar A 2.1.1.1 Select contents to be presented A 2.1.1.2 Prepare program including the list of interventions A 2.1.1.3. Prepare invitation A 2.1.1.4 Rent the room and organize catering A 2.1.1.5. Carry out the seminar A 2.1.1.5. Prepare the minutes of the MILESTONE seminar A 2.1.1.7 Disseminate the approved 12 minutes 6  04/04/2023 FORMAT FOR ACTIVITY BAR CHART/SCHEDULE Output 1.1 Schedule Activities Sub.activities Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct 1.1.1 1.1.1.1 1.1.1.2 1.1.1.3 1.1.1.4 1.1.2 1.1.2.1 1.1.2.2 1.1.3 1.1. 3.1 (ILO Technical Cooperation Manual - Chapter 3 – Annex 1- Figure 16) Duration Milestone 13 CROSS CUTTING ACTIVITIES These are activities which do not deliver a specific output listed in the Results Chain but by their realization generate crosscutting products and/or services Set up project office in Ndola in close liaison with Ndola Municipality Prepare inception, monthly and annual progress reports and submit to the JICA and USAID Conduct a Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) training Establish the Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) system incl. relevant data collection and analysis tools Revise the annual and multi-annual work plans Prepare and implement the project procurement plan Develop the communications and visibility plan for 14 the project 7  04/04/2023 BUDGET & CHRONOGRAM : FORMULATION PHASE Budget and chronogram are designed in the formulation phase and they are annexes of project proposal (concept note) When project implementation has begun sometime after project design (at least 12 months) , the budget and chronogram must be updated because the situation in the field could have changed (e.g. some activities might have been already implemented by the beneficiaries without any project support, or units costs are changed) 15 RESULTS CHAIN INCLUDING CROSS CUTTING ACTIVITIES FINAL OUTCOME INTERM. OUTCOME 1 INTERM. OUTCOME n CROSS CUTTING OUTPUT 1.1 OUTPUT 1.2 OUTPUT 1.n ACTIVITIES Activity 1.1.1 Activité 1.2.1 Activité 1.3.1 Monitoring and Activity 1.1.2 Activité 1.2.2 Activité 1.3.2 Evaluation Activity 1.1.3 Activité 1.2.3 Activité 1.3.3 Develop the Activity … Activité … Activité … communication and visibility plan. Etc… 8  04/04/2023 BUDGET & CHRONOGRAM : IMPLEMANTATION PHASE In the project implementation phase, chronogram (and eventually budget) are consolidated into one same document called “WORK PLAN” 17 WORK PLAN : DEFINITIONS A work plan is an important planning tool that helps the project to assign tasks, manage workflow and track the various activities and sub-activities and related outputs to deliver When a work plan has a duration of 12 months it is called an Annual Work Plan When a work plan has project covering 2 or more years duration it is called a Master Plan or Multi- Year Work Plan 9  04/04/2023 WORK PLAN FUNCTIONS I. Clearly identifies specific activities the project must carry out to deliver intended outputs to generate desired outcomes II. Serves as a roadmap to keep project staff focused and on track with implementation of targeted activities III. Helps project to communicate what is doing, and why it is important IV. Clearly identifies the deliverables (milestones) of project implementation WORK PLAN : KEY ELEMEMENTS 1. RESULTS CAHIN (Outcomes, outputs, activities, (sub- activities)) 2. CHRONOGRAM (activities disaggregated in sub-activities and grouped by result) 3. UPDATED BUDGET 10  04/04/2023 BUDGET & CHRONOGRAM FORMULATION PHASE IMPLEMENTATION PHASE Budget and Chronogram Chronogram (and eventually Budget) are key annexes of the Project elements of the Work Plan Proposal Chronogram normally disaggregated into sub- Chronogram is normally activities for the following year (n+1) and by not disaggregated into sub- activity for the subsequent ones (n+2,n+3, n+4, activities etc.) Chronogram normally presented using two Chronogram is normally different time units: more detailed for the following presented using same time year (n+1) (e.g. by week/month), less detailed for unit the subsequent years (n+2,n+3, n+4, etc.) (e.g. by month/quarter) Budget can be “activity Budget is more often “activity based” than “cost based” or “cost component” component” 21 LINKAGES BETWEEN PLANNING AND M&E IMPACTS FINAL LOGFRAME, M&E OUTCOME MANUAL+ M&E MATRIX (outcome indicators INTERMED. + KEY OUTPUT OUTCOMES INDICATORS) WORK PLAN OUTPUTS (PLANNING TOOL) (OUTPUT INDICATORS) ACTIVITIES 1 WORK PLAN ACTIVITY = INPUTS 1 OUTPUT 22 INDICATOR 11  04/04/2023 FORMAT OF WORK PLAN: EXAMPLE LOGIC RESPOS WORK PLAN INTERVENTION IBILITY (institu (CO tion in STATUS MONTHS/WEEKS OUTPU ACTIVITY ST) charge T (Sub- / activity) J F M A M J J A S O N D person) 1.1 1.1.1 1.1.2 1.1.3 1.2 1.2.1 1.2.2 ACTIVITY AND SUBACTIVITIES STATUS: COLOR CODE See below an example of color codes to track the implementation of Work Plan activities STATUS EXPLANATION GREY Activity not yet planned to start RED Activity is delayed and not ongoing YELLOW Activity is delayed and ongoing LIGHT GREEN Activity is ongoing according to plan GREEN Activity is completed 24 12  04/04/2023 “KEY OUTPUT INDICATORS” ENTERED IN THE LOGFRAME I. Each activity listed generates at least one output indicator II. Only the most important output indicators are integrated into the Project Logframe (which are called “key output indicator”) III. Criteria to select among output indicators the ones to integrate in the Project logframe are : - Relevance for the project (key milestone to be achieved) - Easiness in data collection/measurement - Cost of the activity - Frequency (normally outputs which are delivered during all project life span are preferred) IMPORTANT POINTS TO REMEMBER ABOUT WORK PLANS I. Do not just file away your work plan in a drawer— it will be useless ! II. A work plan can only be a roadmap if it is looked at frequently! If not, it can easily to get lost! III. Keep your work plans visible/easily accessed by staff III. Frequently check in on your work plan and make changes as needed — e.g., use staff/board meetings as a method for regular check ins 13  04/04/2023 SOME PROJECT SCHEDULING SOFTWARE Here some of the most used scheduling tools to design activity scheduling for a project: monday.com - best project scheduling tool for customization 10,000ft by Smartsheet - best for matching resources and team members to specific projects Resource Guru - best project scheduling software for optimizing resource utilization Runn - best project scheduling tool with integrated variance reporting and financial forecasting Forecast.app - best project scheduling software for capacity planning FunctionFox - best for creative businesses and teams Celoxis - best for complex project scheduling TeamGantt - best project scheduling tool for beginners MS Projects - best project scheduling software for general users Workfront - best for robust feature set Microsoft Project Online - best for general users Notion - best project scheduling tool for small businesses KeyedIn - best project scheduling software for international enterprises ActiveCollab - best for project scheduling for small teams 27 ProWorkflow - best project scheduling software for beginners who want simple UI 14