Defining a project life-cycle for implementing a high-tech project in rural Southern Africa-a case study

Bridging the gap between first world practices and third world needs remains a topic for continuous debate, research and experimentation. Although the practices of project management are deemed to be generally and universally applicable, the success rate of projects in the developing world is questionable. In South Africa the various provincial governments embarked on a programme to outsource the payment of social pensions to the aged, child support and for disabled people to private companies. The primary objectives of the outsourcing drive were to alleviate the administrative burden on departments and to replace the manual payment of pensions by means of a smart card system within close proximity of the each beneficiary's residential home. Even though the technology of smart cards is fairly mature, the introduction of this concept to a market characterised by illiteracy, limited access to automatic teller machines (ATMs) and bank accounts, high levels of corruption and where payments are mostly in rural areas, posed new challenges to project life-cycle definition and the application of the nine knowledge areas of the PMBoK (Project Management Body of Knowledge). This work provides an overview and analysis of the specific challenges facing the definition of a project life-cycle in the developing world. It focuses on the social and economic characteristics of a developing environment and indicates how project management can facilitate the introduction of high technological products and services into a developing environment. The paper is based on an actual project, which won a "High-Commend" award from the PMSA (Project Management South Africa).