Influence of skills and knowledge on the relationship between project scope management and implementation of economic stimulus projects in public secondary schools in Kisumu county, Kenya

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate influence of skills and knowledge on the relationship between project scope management and implementation of economic stimulus projects in public secondary schools in Kisumu County, Kenya. The objectives were : to determine how project initiation as a project scope management influences the implementation of ESP projects in public secondary schools; to establish the extent to which project scope planning influence implementation of ESP projects in public secondary schools; to assess how project scope definition influence implementation of ESP projects in public secondary schools; to examine how project scope verification influences influence the implementation of ESP projects in public secondary schools; to establish the extent to which project change control influence implementation of ESP projects in public secondary schools; to establish the moderating influence of project skills and knowledge on the relationship between project scope management and implementation of ESP projects in public secondary schools. The study targeted Boards of Management and Project management Committees of 7 secondary schools that benefited from the government initiative of ESP projects in Kisumu County. This gave a target population of 189 respondents from which a sample size of 128 respondents was drawn. In this study, descriptive survey research design was be used. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used. The study applied stratified random sampling and judgmental sampling techniques. The study made use of questionnaires for primary data collection and Qualitative data was collected through interviews. Validity and reliability was done by piloting and carrying out the test and retest method. Reliability test was be done using Pearson product‟s moment correlation co-efficient formula a co-rrelation coefficient of .075 and 0.72 was obtained for Ministry of educations and project committee questionnaires respectively this was acceptable to research since it was above the recommended 0.7.Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists(SPSS)The findings were; project initiation, project scope planning, scope definition, scope verification and project change control influenced the implementation of Economic Stimulus Projects in public secondary schools and also that there is moderating influence of skills and knowledge on the relationship between scope management and implementation of Economic Stimulus Projects in public secondary schools.61.8% of the respondents reported project management techniques were inadequately applied. Only 35.4% of the respondents admitted having a scope management plan. Signinificant relationship was established between project initiation, scope planning, scope definition, scope verification and project change control and implementation of Economic Stimulus Projects, chi –square tests revealed p<0.05.Most of the respondents did not have skills and knowledge of project scope management and this influenced the implementation of the projects as most of the projects experienced scope creep and are still being implemented long after their stated completion time. The study recommends focused training of education stakeholders on project scope management techniques and further research on how scope management can be improved in educational projects.