Guideline for Project Proposal Development, Term paper 1

Course Convener: Muluadam Alemu (Ph.D)

Course name: Project Management (MBA 592)

General direction

Instruction:

1. For the sake of social distancing, the Project Proposal Development must be done
with three students in a group.
2. Each group is expected to select a hypothetical (new project title) and send it to the
instructor via the representative for approval (this must be done in 3-4 days from
the receipt of this guideline)
3. The deadline for submission is on the class end date. Any late submission will never
be accepted;
4. The project proposal needs to be written with a clear and formal language
incorporating all project elements indicated in this guideline (No more, no less);
5. Each group is expected to come up with 20-25 pages of Project Proposal
6. On the cover page please do not forget to write your name, ID and section
7. Each group need to submit a serial bind hard to the instructor.

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Format
The Project Proposals should contain the following:

1. Cover Sheet/ cover page

2. Table of Contents

 In this section, you need to include a table of contents listing the contents of your project
proposal as well as the attachments/annexes that you wish to be considered.

3. Executive Summary

 Readers lack the time needed to read the whole project proposal. It is therefore useful to
insert a short project summary. Thus, the executive summary is a short, precise summary
of your project proposal. Please ensure to include a brief outline of your project
description and how your project contributes to the achievement of
national/regional/business development.

Specifically, do not forget to include the following basic elements in your summary:

 The problem statement/rational of the proposed project;

 The project’s goal, purpose or objectives;
 Target groups and implementing organization/s;
 Key project activities/tasks that can help you to answer the question what; and
 The total project budget and other related resources.

Note: The summary need to be compiled after the relevant project proposal items already exist in
their long form.

4. Project Context

 In this section you need to describe the social, economic, political and cultural
background from which the project is initiated. It should contain relevant data from
research/observation carried out in the project initiation phase or collected from other
sources like government/official reports. You should take into consideration the need for
a balance between the length of this item and the size of the overall project proposal.
Thus, large amounts of relevant data should be placed in an annex.

5. Project Justification/Description

 Here, you need to precisely articulate the rationale for the project. Due to its importance,
you need to present this section by dividing it into four or more sub-sections.

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5.1. Problem statement/Business case

 In this section, provide a description of the specific problem(s) the project is trying to
solve, in order to “make a case” for the project. Moreover, you should point out why the
proposed issue is a problem for the community or society as a whole, i.e. what negative
implications affect the target group. You need to offer a detailed explanation of the needs
of the target group that appear as a direct consequence of the described problem.

5.2. Priority needs

 In this section, the needs of the target group that have arisen as a direct negative impact
of the problem should be prioritized. An explanation as to how this decision was reached
(i.e. what criteria were used) must also be included. The project proposal should describe
the strategy chosen for solving the problem and precisely how it will lead to improvement
(maximizing welfare/profit or both).

5.3. The proposed approach (type of project intervention)

 In this section, you need to describe the strategy chosen for solving the problem and
precisely how it will lead to improvement.

5.4. The implementing organization

 In this section, you need to describe the capabilities of the organization that is proposed
to implement the project by referring to its capacity and previous project record (if any).
Describe why exactly the proposed organization is the most appropriate to run the new
project, its connection to other relevant stakeholders, the constituency behind the
organization and what kind of expertise/product the organization can provide.

6. Project aims

 In this section, you need to declare the major goal of the project and then followed by
some other specific project objectives. Once this issue has been dealt with, the hierarchies
between objectives need to be established.

6.1. Project goal (or overall objective)

 This is a general aim that should explain what the core problem is and why the project is
important, i.e. what the long-term benefits to the target group are. There should be only
one goal per project. The goal should be connected to the vision for national/business
development.

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6.2. Project objectives

 The objectives should address the core problem in terms of the benefits/return to be
received by the project beneficiaries or target group as a direct result of the project.
Project objectives provide a more detailed breakdown of the project goal. A project will
likely have multiple objectives.

7. Expected Project results

 In this section you need to describe the services or products to be delivered to the
intended beneficiaries. Obviously, this is what the project management is promising to
deliver. The results are more detailed than the objectives and the goal, and should be
possible to measure through the use of objective indicators. You need to give special
consideration to this section in selecting the performance indicators.
 Indicators provide the project team with a quantifiable basis on which to judge the
project’s success in reaching its objectives. The specification of indicators acts as a check
on the viability of the results and project objectives. It forms the basis for monitoring
your project. Once you define the indicators, you need to offer details of quantity, quality
and time. Make sure that the results can address the main causes of the problem that the
target group faces.

8. Project Target group

 Here, you need to define the target group and show how it will benefit from the project.
The project should provide a detailed description of the size and characteristics of the
target groups, and especially of direct project beneficiaries.

9. Project implementation

 The implementation plan should describe activities and resource allocation in as much
detail as possible. It is exceptionally important to provide a good overview of who is
going to implement the project’s activities, as well as when and where. You need to
divide the implementation plan into two key elements: the activity plan and the resource
plan.

9.1. Activity plan (schedule)

 The activity plan should include specific information and explanations of each of the
planned project activities. The duration of the project should be clearly stated, with
considerable detail on the beginning and the end of the project. In general, you can use a
simple table and the Gantt chart to express the activity plan. If need arises you can apply
the PERT & CPM as network analysis tools.

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9.2. Resource plan

 The resource plan should provide information on the means necessary to undertake the
project. Cost categories are established at this stage in order to aggregate and summarize
the cost information for budgeting.

10. Monitoring and evaluation

 The basis for monitoring is set when the indicators for results are set. The project
proposal should indicate:
o How and when the project management team will conduct activities to monitor
the project’s progress;
o Which methods will be used to monitor and evaluate; and
o Who will do the evaluation?

11. Reporting

 The schedule of project progress and financial report could be set in the project
proposal. Often these obligations are determined by the standard requirements of the
stakeholders. The project report may be compiled in different versions, with regard to
the audience they are targeting.

12. Management and personnel

 You need to give a brief description of the project personnel, the individual roles
each one will assume, and the communication mechanisms that exist between them.

13. Annexes
 The annexes should include all the information that is important, but is too large to be
included in the text of the proposal. Here, you need to annex:

13.1. Analysis related to the general context (e.g. sector assessment);

13.2. Analysis related to policy documents and strategic papers (e.g. a local
environmental action plan);
13.3. Results of the demand and market analysis (e.g. market potential and market share)
13.4. Results of Financial and economic Analysis
 NPV results and decisions
 IRR results and decisions
 Payback period results and decisions
 PI/Benefit ratio results and decisions
 Projected cash flow statement
13.5. Results of Technical Analysis
13.6. Results of Environmental impact analysis
13.7. Analysis related to Risk and Unertaininty

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 13.8. Project management policies, procedures and forms (organizational charts, forms,
etc).
14. References
 All published and unpublished materials used in the in-text referencing must be
included in the end-reference section following the APA style of reference writing.
Good luck!