Application of project management techniques in organizing sports event: An examples international track and field competition

SUMMARY In this study, a model for the utilization of project management techniques in international sport event organizations is proposed. In order to constitute a basis for the proposed model, a questionnaire has been realized with 41 managers who are responsible for various sport event organizations, and with 102 athletes who took part in the two international competitions organized in Turkey, which are chosen for the survey. Additionally, a questionnaire has been sent to the athletics federations and the related sports organizations of 20 countries. The managers are asked whether they use any planning techniques during the organization of a sport event and other questions that are related with the details of the subject, and the athletes are asked about the problems, that they are faced with, during the competitions they had joined previously as well as during the current competition within the context of the survey. It has been determined that 51.22% of the managers have not benefited from any sort of planning techniques. On the other hand, it is found out that, the athletes are generally faced with the basic problems as transportatian and accomodation problems; whereas they have been faced with problems to various extents, before, during, and after the observed competitions. The results derived from the managers' survey, i.e. the fact that more than half of the managers do not use any techniques during the planning face of the organization, is supported by the results that during222- an international sportive organization, the athletes may live through various problems. In the light of these results, it is proposed that the organizations will be more successful, if the organization committee is established in matrix type organization, which included related committees implementing plans prepared with project management techniques and the efficient utilization of a monitoring and control system. In this direction, a model is prepared for a track and field competition as to be an example. The necessary activities to be completed before and after the competition are expressed with 123 work-packages; for each work-package priorities and durations are determined; then predecessors and successors of each work-package and the organizational units (committee, federation, secretary general) to be responsible from each activity are determined; with a series of operations realized as the next step, the work flow is maintained to be in a smooth manner. After determining the committees, the organizational chart is established, and the detailed job descriptions are written. The "work break-down structure" is established and is maintained to see the project's parts as a whole in one chart; the "responsibility matrix", i.e. the "task form" is prepared; the "Gantt chart", which is one of the most widely used techniques is drawn. The model proposal of the thesis is completed with the "project network plan", which shows the duration, start and finish days, predecessors and successors of each activity, the milestones of the project, and also shows which activities are critical activities and determines the critical path of the project.-223- For the evaluation of the results of the survey, MINITAB statistics program and Z-test \n percentage distributions and the evaluations of the differential between ratios, are utilized. For the formation of the project network plan and the Gantt chart, MS Project for Windows 4.0 package program is applied.