The role of project management processes in the success of NGOs’aid/development projects
Creators: name: Al-Jrab, Youmni
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 330202
subject: Building construction management and project planning
classificationCode: 339999
subject: Other built environment and design not elsewhere classified

description: Much research has been carried out on project management (PM) practices addressing performance gaps in managing aid/development projects such as the Logical Framework Approach (LFA). There is a gap in the PM literature with regard to effective application of PM processes to aid/development projects executed by non-governmental organisations (NGOs). LFA contains some pitfalls that made it hard to use with today’s PM framework, especially it has proven that the LFA is inflexible, complex, and difficult to integrate with other PM tools. Morevoer, it was found to be too rigid and mechanistic and unable to reflect the complexity of development projects<br><br>The Project Management Institute (PMI) has developed the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) as the best practices in managing projects over the past decades. PMBOK is one of the recognized standards for the PM profession and it provides guidelines for managing different projects. PMBOK processes have been applied and followed in different types of projects resulting in a streamlined management practice. However, PMBOK processes have not been followed by most NGOs. Due to unique characteristics of aid/development projects, poor quality of delivery and limited project success has long been problematic for NGOs.<br><br>Critical success factors (CSF) leading to success of for-profit businesses have received significant research interest within the PM discipline. However, research interests in investigating the success of aid/development projects that are managed by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been minimal. This is despite the fact that these projects are normally taking place in developing countries where aid and development projects are crucial to improve people’s quality of life. Such projects provide socio-economic assistance with the aims of poverty alleviation, living standards improvement, environmental protection, and development of basic physical and social infrastructures.<br><br>The aim of the thesis is to demonstrate how improved PM delivery of non-governmental organizations’ (NGOs’) aid/development projects enhanced improvement of aid recipients’ chances for a meaningful and sustainable life and how by applying the PMBOK processes by NGO aid/development projects, the degree of their project success increases.<br><br>The proposed research achieved this aim through contributing to an improved understanding for the NGO PM processes by analysing which sustainable processes an NGO has to follow to successfully deliver its aid/development projects. To achieve that aim, appropriate CSF were developed for this context. The PMBOK processes were chosen as the appropriate PM process model for this research to adapt the traditional PM processes of an existing aid/development project and enhance its delivery because PMBOK processes are applied by many industries and have proven that the application of these processes increases the chances of the success of their projects.<br><br>For this purpose, a comparative analysis was used and followed by the multiple case study approach to compare the results generated from the Phase 1 of the project as the pilot case study through which traditional PM processes were applied to the results generated from the Phase 2 of the project as the action case study through which adapted PMBOK processes were applied to better understand the improvement for PM processes and their impact on project success. By applying this, the researcher discovered that certain improvements were demonstrated. The results also showed that adopting the PM processes was not fully successful. The analysis showed that implementing the PM processes has some role in project success. Furthermore, the adopted PM process models had negligible impact on success of the project.<br><br>From this thesis, the implications and potential contributions in the PM area mainly contributed the development of the PM processes that an NGO can apply on any similar aid/development project and adapt their existing PM process models. By applying some of the PMBOK processes throughout this research, its impact on the success of one of NGO aid/development project will be tested through a comparison analysis between the results generated from the application of the traditional PM processes and between the application of the developed and adopted PM processes. The thesis contributes to the PM literature by improving the insight into management of aid/development projects delivered by NGOs.