Introduction
The present paper evaluates the performance of Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Mortality Project undertaken in Nigeria from 2011 to 2015. The aim of this project was to hasten the decrease of the child, newborn, and maternal mortality in the federal capital territory and fifteen states of Nigeria (Global Affairs Canada, 2016). Specifically, the paper evaluates the performance of this project in three areas, namely, project risk management, project cost management, as well as project communications management.
Project Risk Management
The project risk management facilitates early identification as well as mitigation of the project risks. Consequently, this raises the possibility of project success. According to Schroeder, Alkemade, & Lawrence (2011), the anticipated project results are inherently under the threat of non-compliance or failure as a result of the events, which might take place in the course of the project life-cycle. The project managers together with the project sponsors and the project team made sure that the risks were successfully identified, examined, and managed. In an effort to lessen the impact of the risks, the project managers, and the project team worked together to identify these risk as early as possible. During the risk identification, the project team successfully assessed the project management plan and the environmental factors. After identifying the risks, they then assessed them to identify a variety of possible project results. The project managers and the project team then found out different ways of avoiding and mitigating the risks identified. The project team successfully monitored and reported all the levels of risks during the project lifecycle. Consequently, this facilitated the success of the project.
Project Cost Management
Cost management is one of the key features, which define the success of the project (Venkataraman, & Pinto, 2011). In the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Mortality Project, the project managers and the project team effectively managed the costs through working together in the processes of cost estimating, cost budgeting, and cost control. They successfully estimated the costs to be incurred to complete all the project activities. They considered all the resources that were required to complete the entire project. As a matter of fact, this was essentially done during the project planning stage. After estimating the costs, the project management and the project team successfully created the project’s cost baseline to help in assessing the project expenses. Besides, they used the project’s cost baseline to justify the project funding. After the approving the project’s budget and cost baseline, the project management effectively monitored the status of all the project activities such as training programs. Specifically, the project management successfully evaluated if all the project activities were progressing as planned, were meeting all the quality targets, and if the costs were as budgeted. The effective management of the cost facilitated the success of the Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Mortality Project.
Project Communications Management
The project managers facilitated the success of this project by always being in touch with the obstacles that the project team faced during its lifecycle. They also encouraged communication in the project team and, as a result, contributed to the success of the project. The project managers ensured effective communication throughout the project lifecycle. Communication planning played a vital role in the execution of the project. In essence, this helped the project teams overcome the challenges during project execution. Additionally, communication planning improved the consistency of the way the entire project was handled. The information was correct, clear, and included the correct feedback. Besides, the transfer of information among the project management, sponsors, and the project team was completed successfully. What is more, the information always arrived at its destination on time. Furthermore, the project status reports were frequently generated at various phases through the monitoring and reporting cycle of the project.
References
Global Affairs Canada. (2016, March 18). Project Profile: Accelerating the Reduction of Maternal and Newborn Mortality (A034616001) – International Development Project Browser – Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD). Retrieved from http://www.acdi-cida.gc.ca/cidaweb/cpo.nsf/vWebCSAZEn/A6581A7BE26E22FF8525785D00371917
Schroeder, B., Alkemade, J., & Lawrence, G. (2011). Risk Management–A Key Requirement for Project Success. Pharmaceutical Engineering.
Venkataraman, R. R., & Pinto, J. K. (2011). Cost and value management in projects. John Wiley & Sons.
