Regular Evaluation and Monitoring of Policies and Projects are important pre-requisites for ensuring successful project implementation

Regular Evaluation and Monitoring of Policies and Projects are important pre-requisites for ensuring successful project implementation

Introduction

Regular Evaluation and Monitoring of Policies and Projects are important pre-requisites for ensuring successful implementation of projects. Evaluation is the comparison of the pre-arranged strategic planning for a project against the actual project impacts, while monitoring is the process through which the project management team ensures that the project activities conform to the original plans and intentions. Thus monitoring can be said to be ''a systematic effort to compare performance with laid-down objectives and standards so as to determine whether progress is in line with them.'' (G. N. Isaev 2009). Monitoring and evaluation are employed to keep events during a project in accordance with the pre- specified plans, programs and timeframes.

Evaluation means taking a close look at what the project set out to do, what has been accomplished, and how this was accomplished.

Project Management Lifecycle

Agile Project Management

Agile Project Management

Evaluation of projects can be formative or summative. Formative evaluation has to do with evaluation of policies as the project proceeds, with the intention of improving the strategy or functionality of a particular project or organization. Summative evaluation involves acquiring knowledge and information from already completed projects. Notably, the differences between formative evaluation and summative evaluation have been described as the difference between a check-up and an autopsy.

Monitoring is the systematic gathering and analysis of information during the course of a project. Monitoring is aimed at the improvement of effectiveness and efficiency of a project or an organization. Monitoring can be based on set targets and planned activities during various phases of work. Monitoring enables the project manager to keep the work on track, and can enable the management team to realize when things begin to go wrong in the...