Developing a framework for project status reporting in South African state-owned companies.
Date
2020
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Abstract
There are two prominent organisations that play a critical role in the everyday life of most
South Africans through freight logistics and electricity provision, Transnet State-Owned
Company (SOC) and Eskom SOC, respectively. Within these organisations, billions of
taxpayers’ Rand are invested into hundreds of capital projects that are frequently delayed. A
capital project is a long-term, capital-intensive investment project aimed at building-upon,
adding to or improving a capital asset. It is defined by its large scale and exorbitant costs
relative to other projects.
A project status report summarises the position or condition of a particular project during a
stated period of time. It may be published as a single, stand-alone report or as part of a series
of distinguishable, identifiable portions forming part of a larger report. During project status
reporting, and according to the project management ‘iron triangle’, it is a measure of good
governance for stakeholders to be informed of project progress during its lifecycle in terms of
cost, schedule, scope, and quality. The key challenge, however, is that this can lead to
stakeholders being unaware of various other constraints which affect capital projects executed
by these organisations. Literature indicating how this challenge can be overcome is scarce.
In developing a holistic framework for project status reporting in South African SOCs as its
primary finding, this study suggests that additional project management constraints should be
considered during project status reporting. Fifteen themes were identified. Delays in approval
processes which can negatively influence all other project management constraints and
utilisation of centralised and digitised project management software were exclusively
identified during the analysis of primary data. Themes solely identified during the review of
secondary data were safety, health and environment; highly regulated disciplines within the
project management space. Other themes identified in secondary data were document control
which is responsible for the creation, review, modification, storage, issuance, distribution,
accessibility, and destruction of project documents, which should be undertaken together with
the procurement of project-related goods and services which, if not strategically planned and
executed, may stall progress onsite.
Appropriately, most themes were present both in the primary and secondary data. These
include the project cost management involving a set of processes that will allow the project to
be completed within the approved budget. Schedule management details the activities and milestones that comprise the project. Scope definition is a process of developing a
comprehensive description of the desired project outcome. Project quality bespeaks a
philosophy of adherence to standards. Resources relate to everything that is required to perform
project activities or tasks. Risks emanating from within and outside the project need to be
understood. Contract lifecycle management, involves legally binding documents between the
contractor and client. Together with project reporting and communication, the processes that
are required to ensure timely and appropriate planning, collection, creation, distribution,
storage, retrieval, control, monitoring, and the ultimate disposition of project information are
additional considerations.
This framework formalises project status reporting pertaining to Eskom and Transnet SOCs. It
nurtures effective communication, a key attribute in project management. It considers a holistic
view of project management constraints, to give stakeholders an unparalleled view of all the
project management disciplines. It promotes accurate flow of holistic project status information
to both internal and external stakeholders, to aid problem-solving and decision-making during
the project lifecycle. It advocates the utilisation of enterprise management offices as a means
to improve stakeholder feedback. Lastly, it eliminates bureaucratic project management
structures as a factor that is capable of undermining project status reporting.
The research design is phenomenology and the research approach is qualitative. The general
population, target population and accessible population are concepts that were clearly
articulated in order to guide the reader in appraising sampling credibility. The techniques used
and the outcomes of the research study were then declared and defined. Thereafter, purposive
sampling was used to identify a SOC with an accessible population of 20 individuals
responsible for project status reporting. Due to the small, manageable size of the accessible
population, census sampling was used to maximise data collection points. Ultimately, 16
respondents were interviewed. Data were collected using self-administered, semi-structured
interviews. NVivo software was utilised to find relationships, differences and
interconnectedness between the themes in the primary and secondary data.
This study recommends that Eskom and Transnet SOCs adopt this framework during project
status reporting. Future research may want to refine the framework for wider application.
Alternatively, future research may want to rank the project management constraints to
determine the impact that each has vis-à-vis others.
Description
Doctoral Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.