Project Policy & Financial Appraisal

Module I:  Project Appraisal: Identification, Policy Analysis & Selection

Day One: Strategic Context of Project Decision Analysis 

• What is Project Management Decision Analysis?
• Project management maturity
• Managing programs and portfolios
• Strategic planning and policy context
• Typical project organisation structures and implications for project investment decisions
• Using subcontractors
• Key issues addressed by project appraisal
• Market analysis
• Technical analysis
• Environmental and social analysis
• Understanding stakeholders

Day Two: Defining Project Scope and Estimating Timeline  

• Project life cycle
• Project initiation
• Uncertainty in project selection and planning decisions, stage gate approach
• Project trade-offs
• Understanding and managing project scope
• Projecting project timeline

Day Three: Evaluating Project Costs  

• Fundamentals of budgeting and cost control
• Estimating methods
• Dealing with uncertainty in estimates
• Resource allocation and cashflow estimates
• Value for money decisions
• Important cost considerations: whole of life costs, cost of quality and uncertainty
• The contents of a project plan

Day Four: Project Analysis Under Risk And Uncertainty

• Project risk considerations
• Risk and contingency analysis
• Thought leadership on risk and uncertainty in projects
• Making rational strategic choices
• Selecting projects to meet organizational goals
• Decisions under certainty, risk and uncertainty 

Day Five: Strategic Project Selection  

• Project feasibility studies – an integrated evaluation
• Introduction to scenario and sensitivity analysis; decision trees
• Psychological aspects of investment decisions: Before You Make That Big Decision
• Influencing investment decisions

Module II: Project Appraisal: Financial and Economic Factors

Day Six: Source of Finance                                      

• Potential Funding Sources
• Financing Options:
  • Long Term Source of Finance
  • Short Term Source of Finance
• Evaluation of the Types of Finance
• Equity Finance
• Debt Finance
• Hybrid Finance
• The Cost of Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC)
• Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM)
• Measures of Risks

Day Seven: Investment Decisions

• The Most Appropriate Valuation Techniques for Different Economic Sectors
• Applying Time-adjusted Measures
• Social Cost-benefit Analysis in Project Appraisal
  • Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (IRR) and Payback Method
• Decision-making using NPV
• Modified Internal Rate of Return (MIRR)
• Integration of Financial, Economic and Social Appraisals to Investment Decisions
• Impact of Inflation on Financial Viability and Risks
• Foreign Exchange Risks
• Financial and Economic Analysis for Selecting a High-quality Project
• Sensitivity Analysis, Scenario Analysis and Simulation

Day Eight: Managing, Controlling and Modelling Cash flow

• Development of the Cash Flow Statement
• Cash vs. Profit
• The Cash Conversion Cycle
• Calculating and Managing the Cash Flow Cycle
• Cash Flow Ratios
• Working Capital Ratios
• The Cost of Maintaining Working Capital
• Maintaining the Optimum Level of Working Capital
• Preparing a Monthly Cash Flow Forecast

Day Nine: The Challenge of Financial Economic Decision-Making

• The Practice of Financial / Economic Analysis
• The Value-creating Company
• Corporate Value and Shareholder Value
• A Dynamic Perspective of Business
• The Agency Problem and Corporate Governance
• What information and data to use?
• The Nature of Financial Statements
• The Context of Financial Analysis and Decision-making

Day Ten: Revisit the Key Concepts in Decision Making

• Course Summary and Checklists
• Cash Budgets & Capital Budgets Reviewed
• Financial Skills and Further Development
• Re-visit Cash Flow Management
• Key Challenges in Decision making