Project Performance and the Project Cycle: lessons from the Asian Development Bank

Published on: 12/09/2008

In order to better understand why this happens, a business practices study was undertaken to look at project performance in the project cycle.

The retrospective analysis was able to determine 17 common factors which affected project success. The most frequently occurring of these factors were deficient capacity-building and ownership measures during project design, insufficient or deficient supervision by ADB during project implementation, less than rigorous ADB internal review, and inadequate technical analysis or inappropriate project design.

Based on an analysis of each stage of the project cycle, three main issues were highlighted:

1. Overloading of the Project Team Leader
Recommendation. Project teams have been less than effective in adequately supporting the project team leaders. Management should continue to explore modalities for strengthening team work (including through appropriate incentives) to have better burden sharing in teams.

2. Budgetary Support not Commensurate with Expanding PPTA (project preparatory technical assistance) Scope
Recommendation. Management should review PPTA funding requirements in light of the current and future scope of PPTAs and ensure the necessary PPTA funds.

3. Need for Greater Project Supervision to Avoid Implementation Delays
Recommendation. Current resource allocation for project implementation supervision should be reexamined for adequacy. Start-up delay, which is a common feature for most projects, should receive special attention, and adequate resources should be made available including thorough flexible use of TA and loan funds and/or greater internal human resource allocation.

Read the full ADB report (September 2008)