INSTITUTE OF PUBLIC ADMINISTRASTION AND MANAGEMENT

(IPAM) USL

NAME: KADIATU MANSRAY

ID NO: 29893

COURSE: MASTERS IN GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP

YEAR: ONE (1)

MODULE: PROJECT PLANNING AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

TASK: ASSIGNMENT
What is the impact of project planning and
strategic management in the institution I work
for?
Definition of Project Management – It is the application of
processes, methods, skill, knowledge and experience to achieve
specific project objectives according to project acceptance
criteria within agreed parameters – every project has a clear
beginning and ending.

I work at the Sierra Leone Road Safety Authority(SLRSA) as a

planning officer. Project planning is important to my job
description as a planning officer, because we are always on
research and Hypothesis on Issues affecting the institution
mandate. Since we always want to deliver quality services to
our customers, we are always on our feet with research, on
how to improve the services we render.

As a planning officer, there was a project which we undertake.

There was a Hypothesis that it is due to bad or fake spare part
that are coming into the country that is making a lot of vehicle
to get into accident on highways. So my boss handed that task
to me so that I can help doing the research. After assembling
the team members, motivating them and explaining the
research we wanted to undertake, and the learning of new
experience which will improve on their knowledge, because it
was the first time they were introduced to do a research.

My boss made questioning available to all of us, but I was the

leader of the field to make sure that those questions get to the
targeted groups of business people. I spent few hours to
explain to them how they are to approach those business
people, and how to be able to get the required information
from them.

So we left the following day to the field to implement those

questionnaires. The questionnaire entails question like:

1) Where do the dealers get their spare part from?

2) Name and address of the business. 3) Where they
get their lubricant oil from 4) What their challenges
are etc.
When we got to the field it was easy for us to do our task easily
because the team understood the task very well. We did the
research in Freetown both western rural and urban. We later
extended it to all the 16 district and head quarter towns in
Sierra Leone. The project was well implemented, and we got to
our target at the right time. Because of the knowledge I had
with project management as a module, I was able to deliver my
task well and handed over the report to my boss at the right
time.
Our priorities and milestone were clear which was to meet with
these spare part dealers. It was challenging at first because of
the business people were frowning, and refusing to give out the
information we needed to accomplish our visit. Because of the
knowledge I have in project planning, I was able to interact with
the business people, so that we can get the proper information
we wanted. Because my team understood their roles and
responsibility well, we all worked together and the job was
accomplished.
I also created a communication plan for us to be able to reach
each other, through the means of mobile phone, a number was
shared among us, and it was a free call line for all us of to
communicate on.
Everyone knew their target, because every job description
had been allocated to each other and the job was carried out
with everyone’s knowledge on how the finance is being used.
Risk are always within the project, but we had tried to
mitigate them, by making sure that the targeted business
understood how government is counting on these research,
and making sure that we were moving with the official vehicles,
so that we will help them understand how realistic is the job.
The research was progressive and we did our report and feed
back to the Institution for my boss to take a proper action.