The Greater Stellenbosch Development Trust
Project Managers: Roles and responsibilities
1. Definition
A project manager is the person who takes ownership of a project within the boundaries set by the
project committee, the donors and the trustees. While the project manager functions within these
margins set by the project committee, donors and trustees, the project manager should also strive
to think and act out of the box. This freedom allowed to a project manager usually depends on the
quality of trust and understanding the project manager has managed to establish with the trustees,
donors and beneficiaries.
2. Responsibilities
At the GSDT project managers are responsible to:
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Develop the project plan
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Manage and communicate with project stakeholders
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Manage the project team and project committees
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Manage the project risk
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Manage the project schedule
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Manage the project budget
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Manage the project conflicts
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Manage quality
3. Basic elements to manage
A successful project manager simultaneously manages four basic elements of a project: resources,
time, money, and scope. These elements are interrelated. Each must be managed effectively. All
must be managed together. There is always a need to manage and balance people, time, and
money. However, the fourth element is often the most important. A successful project manager has
to manage the scope of the project, as the first and the last task.
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3.1
Project Scope: The project scope is the definition of what the project is supposed to
accomplish and the budget of time and money that is available to achieve these objectives. Any
change to the scope of the project has a matching change in budget, either in time or in
resources. If the project scope is to train 100 beneficiaries with a budget of R100, 000 the
project manager is expected to do that. However, if the scope is changed to training 150
beneficiaries, the project manager must obtain an appropriate change in budgeted resources. If
the budget is not adjusted, the smart project manager will avoid the change in scope.
3.2
Budget, business plan and reports: The project manager must draft reports to donors,
committees, trustees and to beneficiaries, comprehensively and in time. The project manager
must develop a full and comprehensive budget for the project every year for three annual
periods and must see that this budget is approved by donors, the project committee and
trustees. The project manager must be able to allocate monthly expenses so that the financial
statements can be processed every month. The project manager must present a monthly report,
comparing the annual budget to the monthly expenses. This report must be presented every
month to the committee chairperson for the project. The project manager must also report to
fellow workers within the agreed balanced scorecard format.
3.3
Planning: The project manager ensures that the relevant information is available at the
yearly budget and planning meeting in order to set goals for the project for the year. If a project
manager manages this process well, with a thought out plan, and ambitious but realistic goals,
the project manager will be able to work during the year in a largely independent manner, if the
outcome, goals and monitoring are as planned. The upfront planning process has immense
value. When
the planning is good, that is when you know what you are doing before you
start. You will be able to manage the work and the team effectively.
Good time management includes risk management and quality management. For risk
management the project manager has to look at the project and work out what is likely to
go
wrong. Once this is done, the project manager has to develop a plan of how each problem will
be addressed. Risk identification and should be performed on a regular basis throughout the
project. Risk identification should address both internal and external risks. Internal risks are
things that the project team can control or influence, such as the performance of trainers,
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material wastage etc. External risks are things beyond the control or influence of the project
team, such as changes in the exchange rate, new government legislation, political
influences etc. A risk management plan should document the procedures that will be used to
manage risks throughout the project.
Measuring, monitoring and evaluation of projects are important to create a wide and cheap
understanding of each project and to develop measures, verifications and assumptions to
ensure that projects reach goals on time, various measures are integrated into balanced
scorecards.
The project manager also has to ensure that the final product meets the quality expectations of
the stakeholders. This is done by:

identify what quality standards are relevant to the project and determining
how to meet them (quality planning);

evaluate overall project performance on a regular basis to provide confidence
that the project will satisfy the relevant quality standards (quality assurance);
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Monitor specific project results to determine if they comply with relevant
quality standards and identifying ways to remove causes of poor performance
(quality control).
3.4 People: Project managers manage staff that also, indirectly, various Trust resources, such
as assistance from the Business Support Project, project committees, beneficiary committees,
trustees, donors and volunteers. Each of these resources requires specific attention, within the
legal framework and complementary guidelines of the Trust. Project managers are thus
responsible for regular merit appraisals of project staff and for good communication with all
stakeholders. Project communication includes:
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Communications planning: determining the information and communication
needs of the stakeholders, who needs what information, when will they need it,
and how will it be given to them;
Information distribution: making needed information available to project
stakeholders in an accessible and timely manner;
Performance reporting: collecting and distributing performance information.
This includes status reporting, progress measurement and forecasting;
Project reporting: generating, gathering, and distributing information to
formalize phase or project completion.
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