Project management a managerial approach chapter 03

Project Management: A
Managerial Approach
Chapter 3 – The Project Manager
© 2006 John Wiley


Overview
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PMs and Organizational Alignment
Key PM Responsibilities
Career Management
PM “Realities”
PM Selection
PM Considerations
© 2006 John Wiley


Project Management and the Project
Manager
• The Functional Manager vs. The Project Manager
– Functional managers are usually specialists, analytically
oriented and they know the details of each operation for which
they are responsible
– Project managers must be generalists that can oversee many
functional areas and have the ability to put the pieces of a task

together to form a coherent whole

© 2006 John Wiley


Functional Manager and the PM
• The Functional Manager
– Analytical Approach
– Direct, technical supervisor

• The Project Manager
– Systems Approach
– Facilitator and generalist

© 2006 John Wiley


Organizations and Functional Manager
• The Functional Manager

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Management and the PM
• The PM

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Management and the PM

• Major questions face the PM:
– 1. What needs to be done?
– 2. When must it be done?
– 3. How are the resources required to do this job
going to be obtained?

• PM is responsible for organizing, staffing, budgeting,
directing, planning, and controlling the project.

© 2006 John Wiley


Responsibilities of a PM
• Responsibility to the Parent Organization
• Responsibility to the Client
• Responsibility to the Team Members
• Above all, the PM must never allow senior
management to be surprised—be prepared to
give “bad news”
© 2006 John Wiley


Responsibilities to the Parent
Organization
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Conservation of resources
Timely and accurate project communications
Careful, competent management of the project
Protect the firm from high risk
Accurate reporting of project status with
regard to budget and schedule

© 2006 John Wiley


Responsibilities of the PM
• Responsibility to the Client
– Preserve integrity of project and client
– Resolve conflict among interested parties
– Ensure performance, budgets, and deadlines are met

• Responsibility to project team members
– Fairness, consistency, respect, honesty
– Concern for members’ future after project

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Management Career Paths
• Most Project Managers get their training in one
or more of three ways:
– On-the-job
– Project management seminars and workshops
– Active participation in the programs of the local chapters of
the Project Management Institute

– Formal education in degree/certificate programs

© 2006 John Wiley


Project Management Experience
• Experience as a PM serves to teach the importance of:
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An organized plan for reaching an objective
Negotiation with one’s co-workers
Follow through
Sensitivity to the political realities of organizational life

• Careers often starts with participation in small into
larger projects, until given control over small, then
larger projects
© 2006 John Wiley


Special Demands on the PM
• A number of demands are critical to the management
of projects:
– Acquiring sufficient resources
– Acquiring and inspiring personnel
• Finding sources of internal motivation

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Dealing with obstacles
Making project goal trade offs
Dealing with risk and failure (perceived or otherwise)
Maintaining multiple channels of communication
Negotiation
© 2006 John Wiley


Acquiring Sufficient Resources
• Resources initially budgeted for projects are
frequently inadequate
– Sometimes resource trade-offs are required
– Subcontracting is an option
– Project and functional managers perceive availability of
resources to be strictly limited
– Competition for resources CAN turn into “win-lose”
propositions between project and functional managers

© 2006 John Wiley


Acquiring and Inspiring Personnel
• A major problem for the PM is that most people required
for a project must be “borrowed”

– At times, functional managers may become jealous if they
perceive a project as more glamorous than their own functional
area
– Typically, the functional manager retains control of personnel
evaluation, salary, and promotion for those people lent out to
projects
– Because the functional manager controls pay and promotion, the
PM cannot promise much beyond the challenge of the work
itself
– Violation of “Unity of Command” principle
© 2006 John Wiley


Attracting the “Best” Team
• Characteristics of effective team members:
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High quality technical skills
Political sensitivity
Strong problem orientation
Strong goal orientation
High self-esteem

© 2006 John Wiley

Dealing with Obstacles
• One characteristic of any project is its uniqueness
and with that come a series of crises:
– At the inception of a project, the “fires” tend to be associated
with resources
– As a project nears completion, obstacles tend to be clustered
around two key issues:
• Last minute schedule and technical changes
• Uncertainty surrounding what happens to members
of the project team when the project is completed

© 2006 John Wiley


Making Project Goal Trade-offs
• The PM must make trade offs between the project
goals of cost, time and performance
– During the design or formation stage of the project life cycle,
there is no significant difference in the importance PM’s place
on the three goals
– Schedule is the primary goal during the build up stage, being
more important than performance, which is in turn significantly
more important than cost
– During the final stage, phaseout, performance is significantly
more important than cost

© 2006 John Wiley


Making Project Goal Trade-offs

• Relative importance of project objectives for each stage of
the project life cycle:

© 2006 John Wiley


Failure, the Risk of Fear, and Failure
• It is difficult, at times, to distinguish between
project failure, partial failure, and success.
– What appears to be a failure at one point in the life of a project
may look like a success at another
– Perception is reality—PMs need to control perceptions
– Communication is key to minimize impact of most “failures”
• Accountability never transfers from PM

© 2006 John Wiley


Failure and Project Types - 1
• Two general types of projects:
– Type 1 - these projects are generally well-understood, routine
construction projects
• Appear simple at the beginning of the project
• Rarely fail because they are late or over budget, though
commonly are both
• They fail because they are not organized to handle
unexpected crises and deviations from the plan
• These projects often lack the appropriate technical expertise
to handle such crises
© 2006 John Wiley

Failure and Project Types - 2
– Type 2 - these are not well understood, and there may be
considerable uncertainty about specifically what must be done
• Many difficulties early in the life of the project
• Often considered planning problems
• Most of these problems result from a failure to define the
mission carefully
• Often fail to get the client’s acceptance on the project mission

© 2006 John Wiley


Multiple Communication Paths
• Most of the project manager’s time is spent
communicating with the many groups interested in
the project
– Considerable time must be spent selling, reselling, and
explaining the project
– Interested parties include:
• Top management
• Functional departments
• Clients
• Members of the project team
© 2006 John Wiley


Communication Realities
• To effectively deal with the demands, a PM must

understand and deal with certain fundamental
issues:
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Must understand why the project exists
Critical to have the support of top management
Build and maintain a solid information network
Must be flexible in many ways, with as many people,
and about as many activities as possible throughout the
life of the project
© 2006 John Wiley


Selecting the Project Manager
• Some key attributes, skills, and qualities that
have been sought in PM are:
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Strong technical background
Assertive and successful functional manager

Mature and calm
Someone who is currently available
Someone on good terms with senior executives
Knows how to keep a team focused and inspired
Experience in several different fucntions
A person who can walk on (or part) the waters
© 2006 John Wiley