In Search Of Excellence In Project Management

1
Chapter 4 and 5 Organizing And Staffing The
Project Office And Team
2
Human Resources Issues in PM

• Identify, document project roles,
  responsibilities, and reporting relationships
• Develop a staffing management plan
• How and when project team members will be
  acquired
• How to release them from projects
• Identification of training needs
• Rewards
• Safety issues

3
Project Personnel

• A project manager
• An assistant project manager
• A project (home) office (PMO)
• A project team

4
Human Resource tools and techniques

• Hierarchical-type organizational Chart
• Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS)
• Helpful in tracking cost
• It is used to breakdown the project by type of
  resources
• Ex welders ?welding equipment ? for metal sheets

5

• Matrix Based charts
• Responsibility Assignment Matrix

6
Definitions

• Authority is the right of an individual to make
  the necessary decisions required to achieve his
  objectives or responsibilities.
• Responsibility is the assignment for completion
  of a specific event or activity.
• Accountability is the acceptance of success or
  failure.

7
Responsibility Assignment Matrix
Project Office
DepartmentManager
Team Member
Project Sponsor
Project Manager
Raw Material Procurement Prepare bill of
materials Contact vendors Visit vendors Prepare
purchase orders Authorize expenditures Place
purchase orders Inspect raw materials Quality
control testing Update inventory file Prepare
inventory report Withdraw Materials
LEGEND General Management responsibility Special
ized Responsibility Must be consulted May be
consulted Must be notified Must approve

8
Staffing Questions

• Who should be a member of the project team?
• Internal
• External
• Contracted
• Who should be a member of the project office?
• What problems can occur during recruiting
  activities?
• What can happen downstream to cause the loss of
  key team members?

9
Project Manager Selection

• A project manager is given a license to cut
  across several organizational lines.
• A leader
• General management has selected and appointed
  him.

10
Project ManagerResponsibilities

• To negotiate
• To resolve all conflicts, if possible
• To produce the end-item
• To make all required decisions
• To meet contractual profit objectives

11
Accidental Project Managers

• Neither well defined nor well-understood career
  path
• Responsibilities by happenstance
• No formal procedure for selecting and training
  project managers
• Loosely defined bosses

12
What Information was PM never given that could
have made the job easier?

• Understand the context of project management
• Recognize project team conflict as progress
• Understand who the real stakeholders are
• Accept the political nature of organizations and
  use it to your advantage

13
Lead from the front the view is better!
14

• Understand what success means
• Build and maintain a cohesive team
• Enthusiasm and Despair are both infectious
• One look forward is worth two looks back
• Remember what you are trying to do
• Use time carefully or it will use you
• Above all, plan, plan, plan

15
Communications Defined

• Effective project communication is needed to
  ensure that we get the right information to the
  right person at the right time using the right
  media and the right format and in a
  cost-effective manner.

16
PM Communications Responsibility

• The project manager must know
• What kind of message to send
• To whom to send the message
• How to translate the message into a language that
  all can understand

17

• Teamwork is a lot of people doing what I say.
• Anonymous Boss

18
Acquiring Project Team

• Process of obtaining the human resources needed
  to complete the project
• Availability
• Ability
• Experience
• Interests
• Cost

19
Team Skills

• Team members committed to the program
• Good interpersonal relations and team spirit
• The necessary expertise and resources
• Clearly understood goals and program objectives
• Involved and supportive
• Open communication among team members and support
  organizations

20
Tools to acquire project team

• Pre-assignment
• Negotiation with
• Functional managers
• Other project teams
• Consultants, subcontracting (in case of lack of
  expertise)
• Virtual teams

21
Virtual Teams

• Teams of people from the same company live in
  widespread geographic areas
• Add special expertise to a project team
• Incorporate employees who work from home offices
• Teams with different shifts or work hours
• Reduce cost of traveling
• Requires technology

22
Tools for managing project teams

• Observation and conversation
• Progress towards project deliverable
• Accomplishments
• Interpersonal issues
• Project performance appraisals
• 360-degree feedback regarding performance
• From superiors, peers and subordinates
• Conflict management (scarce resources, scheduling
  priorities, work styles)

23

• Projects progress quickly until they become 90
  complete then they remain 90 complete forever.

24
Documentation

• Individually oriented media These include
  letters, memos, and reports.
• Legally oriented media These include contracts,
  agreements, proposals, policies, directives,
  guidelines, and procedures.
• Organizationally oriented media These include
  manuals, forms, and brochures.

25
Lessons Learned documentation

• Documentation of knowledge learned during the
  implementation of a project
• Procedures, documents, drawings, plans,..
• Skills
• Mistakes
• Issues
• Task descriptions, memos, meeting minutes, etc.

26
Conflict Resolution Skills

• Understand interaction of the organizational and
  behavioral elements in order to build an
  environment conducive to their teams
  motivational needs.
• Communicate effectively with all organizational
  levels regarding both project objectives and
  decisions.

27
Conflict Resolution Skills (Continued)

• Recognize the determinants of conflict and their
  timing in the project life cycle.

28
Meetings

• Meetings can be classified according to their
  frequency of occurrence
• The daily meeting where people work together on
  the same project with a common objective and
  reach decisions informally by general agreement.
• The weekly or monthly project meeting where
  members work on different but parallel projects
  and where there is a certain competitive element
  and greater likelihood that the chairmen will
  make the final decision by himself/herself.

29
Meetings (Continued)

• The irregular, occasional, or special project
  meeting, composed of people whose normal work
  does not bring them into contact and whose work
  has little or no relationship to the others.

30
How to Train Project Managers

• Experiential learning (60)
• Formal education and courses (20)
• Professional activities, seminars (10)
• Readings (10)

31
Special Requirements

• Part-time versus full-time assignments
• Several projects assigned to one project manager
• Projects assigned to functional managers
• The project managers role retained by the
  general manager

32
Risks

• The greater the project managers technical
  expertise, the higher the propensity that he will
  overly involve himself in the technical details
  of the project.

33
Risks (Continued)

• The lower the project managers technical
  expertise, the more likely it is that he will
  overstress the non-technical project functions
  (administrative functions).

34
Special Problems

• Personnel connected with project forms of
  organization suffer more anxieties about possible
  loss of employment than members of functional
  organizations.
• Individuals temporarily assigned to matrix
  organizations are more frustrated by authority
  ambiguity than permanent members of functional
  organizations.

35
Special Problems (Continued)

• Personnel connected with project forms of
  organization worry more about being set back in
  their careers than members of functional
  organizations.