Sample Project Preparation

SAVSwiss-AIT-Vietnam Management Development Programme

c/o HCMC University of Technology, 268 Ly Thuong Kiet, Dist.10, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam Tel: (84-8) 865 08 80 Fax: (84-8) 865 08 81 E-mail: [email protected] / [email protected]

Project Management

Project paper

EVALUATING THE PROJECT FOR SETTING UP AN INDUSTRIAL MAINTENANCE TRAINING CENTRE

Instructors:Dr. Tran Phuong TrinhMr. Phan Trieu Anh

SAV Management Development Programme.

Ho Chi Minh CityJuly 1999

mailto:[email protected]

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center i

ABSTRACT

This project has been accomplished. All problems have been solved (or ignored). But

those solutions are not the best. On the other hand, a similar project will be initiated in

Ha Noi. Therefore, the study to find out some better solutions is necessary. This is the

reason why we conduct this paper.

All the problems of this project are caused by three main reasons:

There is no clear commitment between Vietnamese party and French party at the

beginning.

The ambiguity between the training center -the output of the project- and the project

itself.

The project structure is not clear.

This paper will analyze the problems and give some recommendations for the new

project managers (at Ha Noi) and stakeholders such as: trying to get the strong

commitment at the beginning, differentiating between training center and the project,

restructuring project organization.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................II

TABLE OF CONTENTS................................................................................................IV

Part I: Introduction.........................................................................................................2

Part II: Project profile....................................................................................................2

2.1 PROJECT STAKEHOLDERS.......................................................................................22.2 STARTING POINT OF THE PROJECT...........................................................................42.3 PROJECT OBJECTIVE, LOCATION, DURATION AND BUDGET.......................................4

2.3.1 Objective.........................................................................................................42.3.2 Project Location:..............................................................................................52.3.3 Major phases:...............................................................................................5

2.4 PROJECT ORGANIZATION, SCHEDULE, KEY PERSONNEL AND THEIR BACKGROUND. .72.5 PROJECT SCHEDULE...........................................................................................92.6 WORK BREAKDOWN AND PROJECT SCHEDULE....................................................102.7 BUDGET AND FINANCIAL STRUCTURE.....................................................................10

Part III: Problems.........................................................................................................11

3.1 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROBLEMS......................................................113.2 ANALYZING PROBLEMS.........................................................................................133.4 RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................................................19

Part IV: Conclusion.....................................................................................................21

BIBLIOGRAPHY.............................................................................................................B

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center 1

Part I: Introduction

The use of project management to accomplish the many and diverse objectives of our

society’s varied organizations continues to grow and it has made a significant

contribution to the practice of management. Therefore, searching and analyzing current

practical project management and concerned matters enable us to be more

understanding on this field.

Generally, the final stage of project life cycle, evaluation and termination, has been

rarely paid attention. However, it is found that this task plays a very crucial role in a

project success. That leads us choosing the project of setting up a Industrial

Maintenance Training Program at University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh city

(HCMUT).

This project completed last year. However, the similar project will be carried out in the

North of Vietnam. Furthermore, due to its natural characteristics, each project is

potentially emerged certain problems. Thus, deliberate understanding, analyzing and

proper recommendation or solution will be useful for project stakeholders.

This paper is attempted to describe and analyze the Project and its problems then

propose some specific recommendations and solution to the problems.

Part II: Project profile

2.1 Project Stakeholders

a. Ministry of Foreign Affair, France Government

Objective of Ministry of Foreign Affair is to develop and enhance cooperation between

Vietnam and France. It was the sponsor of the project. Therefore it had influences on

funding process for the project. In addition, this aid project was also aimed at better

using French companies’ resources, that was, through this project, French companies

could transfer technology as well as equipment, creating jobs to the French.

b. Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam.


Influence of the Ministry of Education and Training was referred to administrative

procedures, ensuring that the project was legally carried out. That Ministry played a

role in supervising the project works and the project team’s performance.

c. CODIFOR - Development and Technology Cooperation company.

CODIFOR, a private company, was the contractor of the project. Its objective was

merely profit. It was in charge of technical area of the project. It provided the project’s

technical personnel resource from the French party. At the same time, it made the final

decision about selecting and purchasing equipment in framework of the project. It had

full experience in similar projects in other countries (15 other developing countries). It

had to meet the requirement of its customer - France Government. Therefore actually

CODIFOR did not commit to the project’s quality.

d. HCM city National University

HCMUT is also a member of HCM city National University. The policies of HCM city

National University influenced some activities of the project.

e. Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology

Objective of the university was to develop a new training program. It provided the

project with physical condition, such as land, building, human resources. It also

assigned personnel of Vietnamese party, including administrative manager, assistants

and lecturers. It also influenced administrative procedure of the project. On the other

hand, HCMUT required the project to follow all regulations on college training as

others.

g. Mechanical Faculty

Due to the similarity between the fields, Mechanical Faculty played the main role in

implementing this project. The Faculty wanted to take advantage of the physical

condition of the project after finishing. It was likely to become lab center of the faculty.

The major of Project’s personnel are taken from this faculty. Mr Ngoc, Project manager,

used to be vice dean of the faculty.


h. Trainees

There were two types of trainees. The first type was college students. The second type

was employees of factories, companies. Trainees who participated in the training

program wanted to improve their knowledge. It was likely to become skillful to industrial

maintenance field. This would help them to look for their jobs.

2.2 Starting point of the project

- Since 1991, France and Vietnam Governments discussed the establishment of an

Industrial Maintenance Training Program within the framework of the Program for

Cultural, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Republic of France

and Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

- CODIFOR made investigation in the North, Middle and South regions of Vietnam.

Eventually, it decided to carry out the project in South where the industry has been

rapidly developing. It was found that demands for technicians of industrial

maintenance who would work for industrial factories were occurring.

- On 15 October 1995, an agreement was signed between CODIFOR (delegated by

the Government of France) and Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology

(delegated by Ministry of Education and Training) in Paris.

2.3 Project Objective, Location, Duration and Budget

2.3.1 Objective

The goal of this project is setup an Industrial Maintenance Training System in Vietnam,

including 8 modules: Mechanic, Electricity, Compressed Air, Hydraulic, Welding,

Electronic, Air Condition, and Automatic.

Objectives:

Establishing infrastructure:

8 lab rooms for 8 training modules

3 class rooms


1 library

3 office rooms

Transferring equipment:

8 equipment modules for 8 lab rooms

4 computers computer lab

Transferring knowledge:

Training 8 permanent teachers in France for 8 modules

Training part-time teachers in Vietnam

Developing curriculum and document system:

Translating 8 curricula for 8 modules

Modifying and developing curricula to conform to Vietnam situation.

Training industrial maintenance technicians (trial):

Training 300 technicians in 3 courses

Training technicians for Vietnamese companies. The trainees was required to be

skillful in industrial maintenance.

This project must be accomplished in 3 years (1996,1997,1998), and the budget is

10700000FF.

2.3.2 Project Location:

The project was located at Block C, Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology. This

location was selected because it was very convenient for project implementation.

University of Technology is one of the largest universities in Ho Chi Minh city. It would

be able to sufficiently provide the project with material conditions as well as personnel

resources.

2.3.3 Major phases:

There are 3 major phases.

Phase 1: Concept and Development (1991 - 06/1996)


First discussion between Vietnamese Government and French Government in

1991.

Agreement signatures of two parties on October 15th 1995.

Discussion of goals, alternatives, overall criteria, costing and scheduling estimates

in 1996.

Phase 2: Implementation (1996 - 1998)

1996: Preparing infrastructure.

Teaching French for Vietnamese Teachers.

Organizing the first Entrance Exam of Industrial Maintenance Branch

for students.

Start the first college class of Industrial Maintenance Branch.

1997: Continuing French classes for Vietnamese Teachers.

Continuing to install machines for infrastructure.

Conducting translation activities and editing books.

Organizing the second Entrance Exam of Industrial Maintenance

Branch for students.

Start the second college class of Industrial Maintenance Branch.

1998: Continuing to conduct translation activities and edit books.

Organizing the third Entrance Exam of Industrial Maintenance

Branch for students.

Start the third college class of Industrial Maintenance Branch.

Introducing Training Ability and courses of the center to firms,

factories, companies in HoChiMinh city and Bien Hoa Industrial

Zone.

Offering chances for Vietnamese teachers to have further training in

France from one to three months.

Phase 3: Termination (1998)

The project was evaluated to be successful.

Vietnamese party suggested lengthening two more years till the end of year 2000.


2.4 Project Organization, schedule, key personnel and their background

Project organization (figure 1 & 2)

a. CODIFOR is a contractor, directly performs the project. Its responsibilities are as

follows:

- Identifying the required equipment and facilities and purchasing, transporting and

installing these equipment.

- Assigning and paying salary for the qualified French lecturers.

- Transferring technology and related matters.

b. HCMC University of Technology (HCMUT): is a partner in the project, is responsible

for:

- Cooperating with CODIFOR to perform the project

- Providing and setting up the infrastructure condition

- Providing Vietnamese personnel

- Insuring the administrative procedures

c. Project team:

The center is managed by The Industrial Maintenance Center is managed by two co-

project managers: A Technical Manager appointed by the French Party, An Executive

Manager appointed by the Vietnamese Party. Their authorities are equal.

- Executive manager: Dr. Le Minh Ngoc, he is a lecturer of University, specializing is

mechanics. He is in charge of administrative management, organizing training

courses, integrating project activities, including scheduling, approving, making the

reports after discussing with the Technical managers.

- Technical manager: Dr. Alain George Noel. He is responsible of coordinating with

Vietnamese co-workers, managing, controlling the techniques and technological

aspects. He has much experience in performing similar projects in other countries.

- Three assistants: administrative and general affairs assistant, training assistant,

and communication assistant. They are assisting managers in equipment and

infrastructure repairing and installing; training, contacting related organizations to


organize internship courses for students. Vietnamese trainers and assistants are

employees of HCMUT.

- Eight module managers: managing the training tasks in their own modules.

The center includes 8 modules. Each module is managed by a head of module and

consists of 4 to 6 trainers. (refer to Figure 1)

A Project Review Board comprising representatives of each party is set up to control

the operation of Execution and Technical Managers and ensure the progress of the

project as planned.


Figure 1: Organizational structure of the Industrial Maintenance Training Center

Figure 2: Organizational structure of Administrative Department


2.5 Project Schedule

Activities 1996 1997 19981st

quarter2nd

quarter3rd

quarter4th

quarter1st

quarter2nd

quarter3rd

quarter4th

quarter1st

quarter2nd

quarter3rd

quarter4th

quarter1. Preliminary Planning2. Detail Planning3. Conducting 1st Exam4. Starting the 1st class5. Teaching French for Vietnamese teachers6. Installing machines and transferring technology7. Conducting 2nd Entrance exam8. Starting the 2nd class9. Translating Materials and editing books10. Conducting 3rd Entrance exam11. Starting the 3rdclass12. Self Introducing training ability and courses of the center13. Transferring 7 Vietnamese teachers to French for further training


2.6 Work Breakdown and project schedule

The project can be broken down into following works

Establishing infrastructure: building up workshops, classes, offices,

Transferring equipment: transporting equipment and facilities, installing these

facilities to the workshops.

Transferring technology: transferring know-how, training teachers, students:

Developing curriculum and documents: Translating documents and modifying

and developing curricula to conform to Vietnam situation.

Training industrial maintenance technicians: Recruiting and training the first

batch of technicians

2.7 Budget and Financial Structure

Project requires the budget funded by the two parties as follows:

a. France Government party contributes 10,700,000FF

Budget structure is as follows:

Machinery and Equipment 7,400,000 FF 69%

Other expenses:

Including Travelling and accommodation expenses of French professors:

3,000,000 FF 31%

The budget is funded along the project phases as follows:

1996: 6,700,000 FF

1997: 2,000,000 FF

1998: 2,000,000 FF

Vietnam party (HCMUT) contributes in form of land, workshop, and human resources

to the project.

Part III: Problems


3.1 Historical development of the problems

The main problem was an inappropriate project organization.

In 1996, the project was approved and assigned to HCMUT. There was no bound

equivalent capital contributed by Vietnam party. HCMUT contributed to the project by it

owned capital in form of infrastructure (VND 1 billion equivalent). Therefore, the project

was strongly depended on HCMUT.

Figure 3 Project Organization

Since the very first day, there was no unique way of organizing project. Many

controversial ideas were arisen that whether the Project belonged to Department of

Mechanic or HCMUT. Consequently, the Project was on the controlled of two

management levels.

During the first year, this organizational structure has caused many difficulties in

administrative procedures, conflicts on the selection and recruiting batch, proportion of


devising the collected tuition to the involved participants, project team organization, and

participants of project team and their benefits.

During the next two years, 1997 – 1998, increased numbers of recruitment batch as

well as class sections resulted in some negative effects in schedule. There was the

increased work load on the project team.

It is found that, this multi-level structure has caused many problems:

- The complicated administrative procedures, it takes time to get works through, thus

restrains relations with outsiders as well as looking for trainees who are currently

working in factories or plants.. The procedures concerning to the number of

students should be recruited and selected, signing of re-training contracts with the

factories and plants, organizing academic seminars, personnel recruiting, the

proportion of devising collected tuition fees must be approved through many levels:

Mechanical Department, HCMUT, even HCMNU. This limits the relations with

outsiders, and therefore restrains. For examples, the Project manager could not

directly sign the re-training contract with companies but it must be approved by the

HCMUT’s Rector, this lengthens the process of preparing the initial procedures in

organizing such training courses. Meanwhile, the other local Colleges could directly

and quickly contact the companies in carrying out the similar tasks. The

opportunities of carrying out such courses were therefore limited.

- Difficulties in looking for resources staffing to the project. HCMUT was responsible

for supplying personnel outside Mechanical Department but in fact they did not.

Besides, some key personnel had left the project during the first year such as Mr

Huan, training assistant and Mr Mai, administrative assistant, had left the project in

1996 after several months working for the project.

- Limited budget for organizing the training courses. HCMUT kept 33%, HCMNU kept

4% of training tuition of this center, therefore the money left was not enough for

training expenditure such as teachers’ salaries (35%), buying materials for

experiments (19%) and other allowances for project members (9%). The retained

amount of 28% of tuition fees was not enough for sustaining the project’s

operations.


- It is difficult to harmonizing the schedules of the two parties because Vietnamese

teachers worked in many activities, the project had not the win-win solution of

negotiation of schedule between France party and Vietnamese party.

All have caused many problems to the project

3.2 Analyzing problems

There were many stakeholders who involved to the project. Each of them had its own

interest when participating in the project. The interest determined the stakeholder’s

degree of commitment to the project’s success.

It is found that the organization had many hierarchies. It takes much time for the across

administrative procedures to be approved through many levels, Mechanical

department; HCMUT and in some cases, they must get the approval from National

University. For instance, the following was the procedures of getting a recruitment

decision from Ministry of Education and Training.

IMTC HCMUT Training Department HCMUT Rector HCMUN Ministry of

Education and Training.

It took approximately 2 months. Mr Ngoc – executive manager – had submitted the

proposal in April but got the approval in June. He said that it would have taken about

10 days if he had could submit the proposal directly to Ministry of Education and

Training.

That organization reflected that the project depended very tightly on the HCMUT.

Therefore, the authority of the project manager was very limited. This caused an

inappropriate project team structure, a difficulty in allocating resources, time delay. All

of them influenced the project’s quality.

3.2.1 Unsuitable project team structure

In the project, there were two co-managers who took the same level of authority. This

was really ineffective because none of them kept the supreme power to make final

decisions and integrate the project. However, there was no decision making

mechanism, thus it took time to get a decision approved. The execution manager

represented Vietnam part and the technical manager represented the French part. The


reason for this setting two co-manager was that all HCMUT and CODIFOR wanted to

have adequate authority in managing the project.

Figure 4 Actual Project Team Organization

However, this caused sometime conflict between two managers. The execution could

not control technical field of the project. Otherwise the technical manager could not use

resource for the technical field. Moreover they had cultural difference which caused

misunderstanding and culture clack. The French manager had a not much experience

about training system of Vietnam. Therefore his requirements sometimes did not match

the practical conditions. For instance the French manager required project staff to work

full time for the project. The Vietnamese manager knew that it was unreasonable

because all Vietnamese teachers had to participate in many activities. But, the

execution manager did not have enough authority to reject the decisions of the

technical manager. This was also a cause of lacking project members.

3.2.2 Difficulty in asking resources

a. Working capital:

Working capital was raised from tuition fee, which was amount of 1,000,000

VND/semester/student. The project was considered as a part of HCMUT. So it had to

be complied with HCMUT’s regulations on training and recruiting. Allocating tuition fees

followed Regulation No. 42/98 BGH for training college.

The average total amount of college tuition fees: 240,000,000VND per semester.

Submitting to National University: 4%

Submitting to HCMUT : 33%

Teaching compensation: 35%

Remaining tuition fee of project: 28%


In which:

+ 19% for experiment materials

+ 9% for allowances of project’s members

Therefore, the proportional budget used for paying to participants in teaching as well as

managing is very low. Their income is just promptly equivalent to regulated wages

( 20,000 VND per session). That might not encourage the involvement of participants

and teachers to the project.

Obviously the complex hierarchy influenced working capital use of the project. The total

tuition fee was devised into many parts HCM city National University, which

participated little in the project also got one part of the total tuition fee. Therefore, the

remaining part was little and not enough to compensate its operating expenses.

Budged for experiment materials was 19% of total which serving 240 students.

Therefore the project had to restrict its expenses for its materials which was used for

training.

Almost expense of the project based on re-training tuition fees. But this training source

was not stable. Moreover, IMTC had to submit 25 % of these fees to HCMUT.

Therefore the annual project budget was fluctuated. This caused difficulty in project

management as well as ensuring project’s quality.

b. Human resource availability

- The project’s human resource was provided from HCMUT and CODIFOR.

However, the resource was often in stress. The center was usually in shortage of

teachers. For example, every semester, there were from 12 to 15 subjects that

required 20 –25 teachers but in fact IMTC had only about 10 teachers.

Consequently, IMTC needed to invite about 10 – 15 visitor lecturers. A Module

commonly required at least 4 to 6 teachers, there was in fact only 2 to 3 teachers

per Module But it was also not easy to invite teachers to training in the center

because the salary was so low. Moreover, some young Vietnamese teachers who

had been trained firstly by French trainers left the project to come back to their

department or to work for other companies. Besides, some key personnel had left

the project during the first year such as Mr Huan, training assistant and Mr Mai,

administrative assistant, had left the project in 1996 after several months working

for the project.


The reasons for the shortage were:

- Low salary did not encourage trainers committing to the project. Moreover, working

hours for all people who participated in the project was very strictly managed under

the supervision of French part.

- HCMUT had many projects and they did not consider the project very important

because HCMUT had many concerns about many types of training such as post-

graduate level, university level, college level. And IMTC was under-concerned. So it

did not pay attention to the project. HCMUT actually paid more attention to the

project’s existence than quality of higher vocational training. Therefore, after

providing infrastructure condition for the project, HCMUT had no longer committed

to allocating resources to the project. HCMUT did not assign personnel for the

project, therefore, Vietnamese teachers could left the project after working some

months on the project. For instance the project manager had asked HCMUT many

time for Electrical teachers but had not response from HCMUT while Electrical

Dean refused the project manager’s requirement because all teachers of that

department were so occupied.

- The execution manager did not really keep the legal right to ask for resources from

other departments because this project was a functional matrix project.

- According to this organizational structure seeming to matrix organization, the

functional resources employed in the project were rather fixed. This helped the

project manager to use functional resource effectively. Actually any resources was

available for the project.

The main contractor is CODIFOR, a private company specialized in technical support

and development. Its objective is profit and best utilized its held resources. On the

other hand, it has to meet the requirement of its customer, France Government.

Actually CODIFOR did not commit to the project’ quality. Some of the French trainers

just had B.Eng degree and lacked of training experience. Therefore resources which

CODIFOR provided for the project was not always suitable and sometime did not meet

the project’s requirement.

The consequence of the human resource problem was:

- Many courses were postponed to the next semester because of lacking

Vietnamese teachers who participating in training.


- The project lacked assistants who tasked project works. Some members of the

project team left their position to move into other positions. During a long time, the

project could not looking for staff replacing the vacant. Lacking people who tasked

project work induced the execution manager to be in charge of almost project jobs.

He worked as a project manager, at the same time as a person who tasked the

project. That means the project lacked really a real project manager who directed

project activities, integrated them and established a communication channel. This

contributed to make the project management ineffectively.

- Lacking good trainers influenced the training quality. This was due to both parties.

CODIFOR did not supply good personnel and HCMUT had not many good

teachers participating in training students. The reason was that good teachers left

the project for another jobs with higher salaries. Almost Vietnamese teachers

working for the project was young teachers who just graduated from universities.

3.2.3 Unmatched schedule

Apart from teaching these courses, Vietnamese teachers had to participate in the

Technological Transfer lectures provided by CODIFOR. The fact is that, CODIFOR’s

schedule did not match with Project’s. For instance, except in summer, Vietnamese

teachers were so busy teaching many courses, they thought summer was the most

appropriate time for them to attend Technological Transfer lectures but at that time,

French trainers were not willing to work in summer.

If CODIFOR does not carry out the technological transfer to the project with in a fiscal

year, it cannot transfer the outstanding budget to the following year. Therefore,

CODIFOR usually forced to adjust project’s schedule to fit with its. In this case, the

execution manager could not interfere CODIFOR’s schedule. In some cases, transfer

courses for Vietnamese teachers was delayed even if after knowledge relating the

course was conveyed to students as a result of time constraints of Vietnamese

teachers. That affected the quality of the training courses.

3.3 Evaluation of the project’s quality

The project’s quality is considered by the technology skills of student after graduated.

Many students of the project got jobs in local as well as foreigner industrial factories

right in the internship period (30%). This reflects the project’s success. However the


industrial world also find that the students are not very much skillful, their knowledge

was not practical enough. On the other hand, this field of industrial maintenance

requires employees to be skillful and ready to jobs. The causes are:

- Practical lessons

- Lack of equipment what help improving student’s knowledge.

- Lack of appropriate trainers due to both parties. CODIFOR did not give good

trainers and IMTC did not have enough good teachers.

According to training method of the center, theory and practice lessons would perform

parallel. In many cases, in order to follow the schedules, the two lessons were

sometimes not parallel, the one placing prior the other.

The importance of training program is to access a practical method rather than theory

one. Therefore, it required Vietnamese lecturers to participate in all transferring

courses. But as mentioning above, the lecturers often were absent in the courses.

Consequently this has influenced certainly the quality of training, leading to quality of

students.

All equipment of the project was provided by CODIFOR. But CODIFOR, in order to

reach its objectives, did not commit so much to quality of the project. As the result, the

equipment provided as well as specialists and courses in technology transferring

sometime did not match requirement of this field. This also influenced the training

quality. For instance, IMTC announced that they lacked measuring system to measure

the current operation statement of machines. This system was very important for

training of industrial maintenance. And the project lacked of models that help students

understand more in machine details. In addition, the project manager also announced

of lacking Automatic Module. This was due to the unclear contract at the beginning

about related equipment.

For the first time of developing the field in Vietnam, the quality’s student is acceptable.

There were some factories where recruited the students graduated from the center,

such as MeKong Co., Cattle Food Factory “Conco”. They also commended that the

center should focus more on the training quality.


3.4 Recommendations

Through the project implementation process, we see some problems. The biggest

cause is the inappropriate structure. In order to have a better project next time, some

recommendations are proposed as follows:

3.4.1 Structure of the project organization

The project had two managers with the same level of authority, one was Vietnamese

(executive manager) and one French (technical manager). This structure led to

occurrence of conflict between two managers. French manager did not understand well

about Vietnamese practical conditions. Therefore, we suggest that the next project

should have one project manager and that project manager should be Vietnamese.

The technical manager should be subordinate of project manager.

It is impossible to take project apart from HCMUT, however, it is better to let it be less

dependent on HCMUT, that makes it easier for the project manager to handle works.

Besides, as mentioned above, the executive manager had not enough authority to find

personnel for the project. This was due to the inappropriate structure of the project.

Therefore, we think the balanced matrix structure is most appropriate for this type of

project.

Finally, HCMUT kept 33% of training tuition from this project, this meant that HCMUT

treated the project as a its function. This was not reasonable. We suggest two

alternatives.

HCMUT should consider this project as having two main parts. The first part is

training activities. The second part is the technological transfer. HCMUT can apply

the predefined policies for other departments to training activities part of the project

such as keeping 33% of training tuition. But with the second part of this project,

HCMUT must give IMTC a fixed annual budget to cover project’s transactions.

HCMUT should apply favorable budget policies for IMTC because this is a project,

and IMTC can not afford all the expenditures.

3.4.2 Human

For French trainers, we should clarify more clearly at the beginning about their

degrees, technical experiences, training experiences and practical experiences.


For Vietnamese party, HCMUT should be responsible for assigning qualified people

for the project and have policies to keep them working for the project also.

Finally, we should think about the student recruitment processes. IMTC focused

more on practice than theory, therefore, we should choose certain kinds of exams

that express the practical ability of examinees.

3.4.3 Schedule

The time was delayed because of Vietnamese party. The reason was HCMUT did not

supply enough people, besides, those who worked for the project did not give much

time for it because of time constraints. The suggested solution here is HCMUT should

pay more attention on the project, they should have appropriate policies to encourage

Vietnamese teachers working for the project or they should give the project manager

more authority to find project members through departments.

3.4.4 Budget:

The budget coming from France was used for machines, French trainers’ salaries and

expenditures. Vietnamese party had no budget supply from any organization.

Therefore, IMTC had to use the training tuition for Vietnamese teachers’ salaries,

project members’ salaries and materials for experiments for students. The budget was

not enough for all of those, consequently, the salaries were low, no body wanted to

work for the project, and materials were not enough for experiments, therefore the

quality of students were not practical enough.

Our suggestion is that HCMUT or National University should find project sponsors for

this project. This project should have an annual fixed budget which managed by the

project manager.

Finally, in order to have better project next time at Ha Noi, we have some

recommendations:

In the contract, we should clarify more clearly about opportunities for Vietnamese

teachers to be trained in France.

We also need to clarify about machine quantity and quality in the contract.

We should pay more attention to French trainers’ knowledge.


Part IV: Conclusion

In the previous part, we describe the Project and identify its problems.

Recommendations and conclusions are also proposed on the basis of our

understanding on the field of project management. These proposals would be not very

useful for the implemented Project, however, it would be meaningful and necessary for

the concerned members in carrying out a similar project.

To the participants, by doing this project paper, we have realized many interesting

points in Project management. We can broadly understand the real nature of the

project, its potential problems as well as project management practices in Vietnam.

That’s also our expectation in doing this project work.

Evaluating project to set up an Industrial Maintainance Training Center a

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Avraham, S. et al., Project Management – Engineering, Technology and

Implementation, Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1994

Meredith, J. and Samuel, M., Project Management: A Managerial Approach, Wiley &

Son, New York, 1995

Ho Chi Minh city University of Technology, Ministry of Education and Training, Centre

De Formation De Maintenance Industrielle, 1996, The scientific and technological

cooperation between republic of France and SR of Vietnam.

Minutes: Management Review Board’s meeting, dated 1st December 1998.

Performance report of the Industrial Maintenance Training Center during three years of

operation – 1996, 1997 – 1998.

Documents

Sample Project Preparation