Project Management

Project Management is the discipline of planning, monitoring, and controlling software projects, identifying the scope, estimating the work involved, and creating a project schedule. It is also responsible for keeping the team up to date on the project’s progress handling problems and discussing solutions.

Phases of Project Management Process:

1.     Project Designing

2.     Project Planning

3.     Project Execution

4.     Project Monitoring and Controlling

5.     Project Closing

 BFD ERP system for programs and projects is based on the project life cycle, which consists of four stages: Designing, Planning, Implementation, Monitoring and controlling and closing. BFD ERP system provides different pages and tools for each stage.

Grant, program managers, and MEAL mangers staff should ensure that Analysis and Designing stage is fully completed and all inputs related to the Project proposal and log frame are set up correctly at the beginning of the project.

Program and Project Staff should ensure that the planning stage is fully completed, and all inputs related to the project plans and initial requirements are completed. More details for each plan and tools explanation in details in the sections below.

The picture below shows the components of the Project management workspace (Analysis and Designing, Project Planning, Project Implementation, Project Report, MEAL Monitoring and Controlling, and Closing)

1.1       Analysis and Designing

This card involves Proposal Development Matrix, Project Proposal, and logical framework explained in detail in MEAL Management System

1.1.1      Proposal Development Matrix

Proposal Development Matrix is a document that contains brief details of a project that the organization wants to intervene. This document is submitted to the grant manager from grant coordinator for review and starting development of the Project Proposal.

Note: You need to more careful about every single detail in Proposal Development Matrix and in approval process to ensure that everything is recorded and clear.

To access Proposal Development Matrix, go to:

Programs Management > Analysis and Designing> Proposal Development Matrix

1.1.1.1        Prerequires

Before creating a Proposal Development Matrix, it is advised that you create the following first:

1.     Program

2.     Donor

3.     Targeted Area

1.1.1.2        How to create a Proposal Development Matrix

1.     Go to Proposal Development Matrix list, click on add.

2.     Proposal Title

3.     Select the Donor/s name/s.

4.     Select the program/s

5.     Enter the proposal details such as, Donor Currency Fund Confirmation, Information

6.     Deadline

7.     Targeted Area

8.     Save.

1.1.1.3        Features

Apart from the aforementioned mandatory details, some additional details that can be captured in the Proposal opportunity are as follows:

Status: You can set a status for your proposal opportunity such as, Under Review, Under Review Donor.

Comment.:  Here you write your notes or comments about the Proposal opportunity for reviews and attentions.

General features : You can expand or reduce the narrative box by moving the bottom right corner of the box.

Note: After a final approval from Grant Manager and in case the donor approved the Concept note you can create a project proposal directly from the Proposal Development Matrix.

1.1.2      Project Proposal

Project proposal is a written document outlining everything stakeholders should know about a project, including the timeline, budget, targets, and goals. This document is submitted to the donors for review and determination.

To access Project Proposal, go to:

Programs Management > Analysis and Designing> Project Proposal

1.1.2.1        Prerequisites

Before created a Project proposal, it is advised that you create the following first:

1.     Proposal Development Matrix.

Note: you can always create project proposal without needs for Proposal Development Matrix (skip). Otherwise, you create a Proposal Development Matrix then after submitted it you create a project proposal from action button in Proposal Development Matrix screen.

1.1.2.2        Create Project proposal.

Go to Project Proposal list, click on add.

Inside project proposal page we have three tabs, Details, Targeted program, and Proposal. Enter the Project Proposal Details as all mandatory field highlighted * as below:

1.1.2.3        Proposal initial details:

1.     Select the source of fund and Donor.

2.     Project title: enter the title of your project.

3.     Planned start date: the planned start date of your project’s implementation.

4.     Planned end date: the planned end date of your project’s implementation.

5.     Project duration: will be automatically calculated and displayed by the system.  

6.     Project Code: a unique number code for proposal will be created automatically (BFD/Country/Year/##)

7.    

Governorates - Districts: Targeted places.

8.     Project Budget Currency field, in currencies section you can select which currency you want.

9.     Exchange Rate To GBP, Exchange Rate to USD fields, the ability to enter the exchange rate for your currency to GBP or from for example, YER to USD to GBP.

10. Project Budget Amount - Project Budget Amount - USD fields, the result of exchange amount currencies.

11.

Project Summary:

1.1.2.4        Targeted program

1.     Targeted Programs child table, Enter the programs that this proposal it related with it.

Note: When adding programs for the project, you can add more than one program, provided that the total percentage of programs is 100%.

2.     Target Group child table, Enter the number of beneficiaries for each type.

Field Descriptions: 

·       Directly Affected Persons: They include the following categories: Host communities, Internally Displaced People.

Note: The sum of each category is summed in the total column and row, and the overall total is displayed in the screen

·       Persons with Disabilities: Out of the total of directly Affected Persons, how many are persons with disabilities. Note: The number of PWD in each column (Men, Women, Boys, Girls) cannot be greater than the total sum of each column of directly Affected Persons.

·       Indirect Beneficiaries: Indicates an estimate of people who could use the service in addition to the people targeted in the project.

1.1.2.5         Proposal Summary Details and Other Components

In the third tab, you will input the proposal's remaining details if not skip it empty.

Field Descriptions: 

·       Accountability to the Affected Persons: Describe how affected populations and specific beneficiaries have been and will be involved throughout the project cycle. 

·       Protection Mainstreaming and GBV: Describe how the proposed project mainstreams protection.

·       Risk Management: Describe how the risks to project/program implementation were identified, managed, and mitigated, including any operational, security, financial, personnel management, or other relevant risks.

·       Access: Explain how the organization is able to operate in or plans to access the areas where the project will be implemented.

·       Monitoring and Reporting: Describe the specific arrangements for monitoring and reporting the progress of the project.

·       Exit Strategy and Sustainability: Describe the exit strategy and closure steps for the project or program and an assessment of the sustainability of the results.

·       Coordination and Complementarity: Describe any coordination efforts, any synergies that developed, and recommendations for improving coordination in the future.

1.1.2.6        Features

When adding a donor you can add the Donor's contact information, such as: The person responsible for the Donor, the email address, phone number, address, and many other details.

You can upload all files and attachments related to the Project Proposal for easy access to files and for electronic archiving as well.

1.1.2.7        Submit a project proposal.

Once all the tabs of the project proposal are correctly filled and saved, you can click on [Save] and submit the project Proposal by Head of the Program Manager or based on the roles in Users Permission Matrix.

To submit, click on the [Submit Project] button. The system will ask for a confirmation. Once the confirmation is given, a notification will be sent to the Executive Director, informing him/her that the project was submitted. The project will then become "read-only" for the user, until it pushed to redraft at a later stage.

After submitting a project proposal, you can click on [Create project]. The project will be generated, based on the details provided even the proposal is under donor approval.

1.1.3      Projects

A Project has a broad scope and hence can be divided into tasks. Think of coming up with a new smartphone for the next year as a Project. Then things like designing, prototyping, testing, delivery, etc. become tasks under the project.

While each task within a Project can be assigned to an individual or a group of individuals, the assignment can also be done at the project level.

These Tasks can be created from a Project itself or a Task can be created separately as well.

To access Projects, go to:

Home > Programs Management > Projects

1.1.3.1        Prerequisites

Project Proposal

1.1.3.2        How to Create a New Project

This will open the ‘Create Project’ page, where all the basic details of the project will need to be outlined. Please note that the data can be modified once the project proposal has been created. 

1. Go to the Project list and click on New.

2. Select the Project proposal for the project.

3. Original Start Date: the planned start date that will be fetched from the proposal.

4. Original End Date: the planned end date that will be fetched from the proposal.

5. Add the following details:

6. Project Name: Title of the Project.

7. Status: The default status of a Project is going to be 'Open' which can later be changed to 'Completed' or 'Cancelled'.

1.1.3.3        Additional Options while Creating a Project

1. Expected Start Date and End Date: If there is an extra timeline for the project (exceeded time period).

2. Project Manager: You can enter the project manager's name for each project that you have who will be responsible for.

3. Is Active: A Yes/No tab, lets you change the active status of the project at any later stage.

4. Completion Method: You can track the % completion of your project based on one of the three methods, viz. Manual, Task Completion, Task Progress, and Task Weight (Indicator Weight).

Some examples of how the Percentage Completion is calculated based on Tasks:

Note: If the total weight of the Tasks is not 100, then the calculated result will be divided by the total weight. For example, if the total of task weight is 70, then the percentage completed = (70/0.8) % = 87.5%

1.1.3.4        Features

Project Status

Creating a project with Pending status as default and read-only means its just under reviewing by Donor/s to submit/approved so, the workflow must be as follows:

Note that you cannot start a project in pending status without LFW, Indicators, and Activities but at the same time, you have to create all this for Donor/s reviewing and approval to begin with work and action plans.

Expected Dates and NCE

1. Expected Start Date and Expected End Date: these fields will appear in case there is an exceeded timeline for the project in NCE.

2. NCE: this connection is used when there is a need for an exceeded timeline for a project (Non-Cost Extension)

Reporting Dates

BFD requires these fields to determine where the main reports need to be delivered.

Implementation Period

you easily specify the period time for the implementation stage and the duration time will be calculated automatically.

1.1.3.5        MEAL Framework Checklist

You can select the template you want from previous initialization for all project stages it depends on NGO policies in project management. Then press the button Get MEAL checklist to fetch all the phases in Analysis and Design Stage Details, Planning Stage Details, Implementation Stage Details, Evaluations, Reporting, and Project Closure Stage Details that you have in this template.

Project Team Section

This section allows you to specify the users who will see the project on website.

Costing and Billing

1. Estimated Cost: Enter the Estimated Cost of the Project.

2. Total Sales Amount: If you have already linked the Project with a Sales Order, the Total Sales Order Amount will be auto-populated here.

3. Total Costing Amount: The system will automatically fetch the Total Costing Amount from all the Timesheets linked to this project.

4. Total Billable Amount: The system will automatically fetch the Total Billable Amount from all the Timesheets linked to this project.

5. Total Expense Claim: Based on the expenses claimed by an Employee for the completion of the Project, the Total Expense Claim will be auto calculated.

6. Total Billed Amount: The Total Billed Amount gets auto populated in the system using the Sales Invoice created against the Sales Order.

7. Total Purchase Cost: The Total Purchase Cost of a Project is the cost fetched from the Purchase Invoices that get created against a Purchase Order issued for supply of Materials required for a Project.

8. Total Consumed Material Cost: Using the Stock Entry made as per the requirement of Materials in the Project, the Total Consumed Material Cost gets captured.

Required Attachments

Here you attached the required files for the project, Project Proposal, Project Budget, Project Agreements, and Project Logframe. You can also add any other related documents by using table project Attachments.

1.1.3.6        Related Topics

Project Management.

1.2       Project Planning:

In this phase, the project manager defines the scope of the project, develops a detailed project plan, and identifies the resources required to complete the project. A detailed plan stating a stepwise strategy to achieve the listed objectives is an integral part of any project. Planning consists of the following activities:

1.     Develop strategies.

2.     Develop project policies.

3.     Determine courses of action

4.     Making planning decisions

5.     Set procedures and rules for the project.

6.     Develop a project plan.

7.     Prepare budget.

8.     Define/Develop risk management.

9.     Prepare Documentation plan.

This step also involves the construction of a work breakdown structure (WBS). It also includes size, effort, schedule, and cost estimation using various techniques.

1.2.1      Work Plan

A work plan is a description of the sequence of the project activities in time. It is much more detailed than a mere timeline though. It includes information about responsibilities, objectives and sometimes even the budget. In many cases, the donor gives a format for your work plan that you have to follow.

When writing the proposal, we don’t need to write the detailed activities in the work plan. So, we write the main activities that we wrote in the proposal itself. What we need in the work plan is to clarify the period of time to implement each main activity (in months not weeks). Therefore, we shade the months in which we expect each activity is going to be implemented.

To access Work Plan, go to:

Project Management > Project Planning > Work Plan.

To get project activities click Get Activity as the below picture and the activities will be displayed accordingly.

Note: The work plan page will be updated in case the activities, or the start/end date of the project are amended. 

1.3       1. Prerequisites

Before creating and using a Work Plan, it is advised that you create the following first:

1. Project.

2. Activity.

1.4       2. How to create a work plan 

1. Go to the Work plan list and click on Add.

2. Select the Project's name for which you want to create the work plan for it. Also, its project proposal will fetch.

3. Save as draft status.

4. Click on the Get Activity button which will be shown after saving. That will fetch all activities that are related to a selected project.

5. Submit.

Note: if you open one of these rows of the table, we will see the details of the Activity like the name of the Activity, period, States, progress, and description.

Data that will be displayed in the table will be read-only, as the Sub-Activities will be entered in another screen and the main Activity will be affected based on the Sub-Activities.

1.5       3. Related Topics

Action Plan.

In the workplan, the activities listed in the logical framework will be displayed against the project implementation duration and timeframe, in order to allow the user to link each activity against its timelines, i.e. the months of implementation for the activity.  

3. Project Execution:

This phase involves the actual implementation of the project, including the allocation of resources, the execution of tasks, and the monitoring and control of project progress. A project is executed by choosing an appropriate software development lifecycle model (SDLC). It includes several steps including requirements analysis, design, coding, testing and implementation, testing, delivery, and maintenance. Many factors need to be considered while doing so including the size of the system, the nature of the project, time and budget constraints, domain requirements, etc. An inappropriate SDLC can lead to the failure of the project.

The picture below shows the main components of Project Execution including project tools and reports.