Abstract:
Applying project management tools and techniques in public institutions has become an
important issue in many developing countries. However, Implementation delay, overestimation
of project return and poor manpower quality of projects were found to be statistically significant
cause of project failures to meet their objectives. To examine the effect of project management
practice on project success on selected public projects found in Jimma town, Ethiopia and
specifically intended to examine the effect of project planning, project execution, monitoring and
controlling of projects on project success on selected public projects found in Jimma town. The
study used stratified simple random sampling techniques in order to study the effect of Project
management practice on Project success using total sample size of 155 of selected public
projects. The collected data were collected with questionnaires, coded and interred into the
SPSS computer software for analysis. The data were analyzed with descriptive and inferential
statistics such as ANOVA, Pearson correlation and the Multiple Regression Analysis Model. The
result show that 115(77.18%) of the respondents were male while 34(21.1%) of the respondents
were females, in which 129(86%) of the respondents’ responded their sector have adequate and
comprehensive project management. The results of Pearson correlation revealed that project
initiation & planning was positively and significantly associated with project success (r =0.735,
ρ<0.01). Further, project execution process was positively and significantly correlated to project
success (r = 0.659, ρ<0.01). Moreover, monitoring & controlling was positively and strongly
correlated with project success (r = 0.747, ρ<0.01) and also there is a positive correlation
between project closure & project success (r = 0.348, ρ<0.01). The study suggests the
introduction of effective monitoring tools; training of staff on use of monitoring tools; use of
effective communication and improved reporting and documentation in order to improve the
monitoring and control process.
