PROJECTMANAGEMENT PRACTICES: A CASE STUDY OF ADDIS ABABA WATER AND SEWERAGE AUTHORITY PROJECT OFFICE

Abstract

The application of Project Management knowledge areas is gradually becoming an important issue in developing economies, especially in a country like Ethiopia where projects of different size and structures are undertaken. The purpose of this study is to assess the project management practices of Addis Ababa Water and Sewerage Authority Project Office. A descriptive case study design was adopted. While the sampling technique is purposive, Participants of the study are all project management team members of the organization and data is collected through in-depth interview, close and open-ended questionnaires and document analysis. The analysis is done qualitatively by relating the results with literatures and quantitatively using percentage, frequency and mean and for the mean value the researcher adopted previous literature style in order to categorize the mean value. The findings of the study revealed that among knowledge area assessment almost all of them are at low level of mean value except project quality management. In light of other knowledge areas the organization perform project quality management in a better way. The other objective was assessment of project management challenges. Lack of suitable project management methodology and lack of project management practices are the major challenges that the organization faced off during the assessment. Therefore, to alleviate these prevailing implementation challenges the organization should adopt a standard Project Management (PM) methodology for its projects, diversify funding partners, and conduct need assessment of beneficiaries. Change can occur to project scope, deliverables, timescales or resource. These changes must be formally requested furthermore, it needs to adopt well-structured communication strategy and invest more on the capacity building of its staff.