Project Management in Practice
Sixth Edition
Chapter 2
The Manager, the
Organization,
and the Team
Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
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Introduction
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Project manager usually selected after project is
selected
It is job of project manager to make sure that the
project is properly planned, implemented, and
completed
Project manager then recruits qualified people for
the project
Learning project tools and techniques is easy,
succeeding as a project manager is hard
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The Project Manager’s Roles
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Facilitator
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Facilitator versus supervisor
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Systems approach
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Must ensure that those working on project have the
appropriate knowledge, resources, and time to accomplish
their responsibilities
Must understand how everything impacts the overall project
Communicator
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Must communicate effectively with the various
stakeholders of the project
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Communication Paths for a Project
Manager
Figure 21
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Different Views of Stakeholders
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Traditional view suggests alternative stakeholders
define success and failure differently
Others don’t see satisfying alternative stakeholder
needs as a zerosum game
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Seek to align the goals of all stakeholders with the
purpose of the project
If we look for tradeoffs we will find them!
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If we look for synergies we may find them too
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Identifying and Analyzing
Stakeholders
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Expert judgment of PM and project to team
helpful in identifying stakeholders
Stakeholder register created to maintain key
information about stakeholders
Stakeholder issue log should also be
maintained to catalog issues that arise and
how they were resoloved
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Example PowerInterest Grid
(Figure 22)
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Example Commitment
Assessment Matrix (Figure 23)
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Managing Stakeholder
Engagement
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Obtaining and confirming stakeholders’
commitment to the project’s success at the
appropriate stages in the project
Communicating with stakeholders to manage their
expectations
Proactively addressing stakeholder concerns
before they become major issues
Resolving issues in a timely fashion once they
have been identified
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Virtual Project Manager
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More and more often, project teams are
geographically dispersed
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Often referred to as “virtual projects
Much of the communication is conducted via
email, through websites, by telephone, or video
conferencing
To succeed, communication between
project manager and project team must be
frequent, open, and twoway
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Responsibility to Senior
Management
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Must keep senior management up to date on
the state of the project
Particularly important to keep management
informed of any problems
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Or any likely to affect the project in the future
Never let the boss be surprised
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Responsibility to the Client
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The project manager is also responsible to the
client
Clients often want changes to the project
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Cost, schedule, scope change
Cost of changes often exceed client’s expectations
Project manager must be certain the client
understands the impact of the changes on the
project’s goals of delivery time, cost, and scope
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Responsibility to Project Team
•
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Facilitate the work of the team
Help the team succeed
Serve as advisor, counselor, confessor, and
interested friend
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The Project Manager’s
Responsibilities to the Project
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Acquiring resources
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It is the project manager’s responsibility to ensure the
project has the appropriate level of resources
This is especially difficult with human resources
Fighting fires and obstacles
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Early obstacles linked to need for resources
Later fires associated with technical problems, supplier
problems, and client problems
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The Project Manager’s
Responsibilities to the Project Continued
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Leadership and making tradeoffs
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Tradeoffs are between cost, schedule, and scope
Scope is usually the most important
Another type of tradeoff occurs between projects
Negotiation, conflict resolution, and persuasion
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Cannot meet these responsibilities without being a
skilled negotiator and resolver of conflict
Success depends on the project manager’s skill at
persuading others to accept the project
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As well as changes in its methods and scope once it has been
accepted
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Skills of Persuasion
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Effective persuaders must be credible to those
they are trying to persuade
Effective persuaders must find goals held in
common with those being persuaded
Effective persuaders must use “vivid” language
and compelling evidence
Effective persuaders must connect with the
emotions of those they are trying to persuade
116
Critical Dimension of
Leadership: EQ
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Research suggest that EQ is single best predictor
of job performance
EQ is ability to harness emotions to achieve
positive outcomes
Foundational skills
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Selfawareness
Selfmanagement
Social awareness
Relationship management
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Strategies for Dealing with
Conflict
Figure 24
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Selection of a Project Manager
Credibility
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1.
2.
Technical credibility
Administrative credibility
Sensitivity to political issues and interpersonal
conflict
Leadership, style, and ethics
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•
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Only project manager has the view of the entire
project to provide the necessary leadership
Most effective overall style is participative
Another aspect of leadership is a strong sense of
ethics
Ability to handle stress
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Six Signs of Excessive Stress in the
Workplace
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Inability to switchoff work issues
Disturbed sleep
Lack of pleasure in nonworkrelated
leisure activities
Difficulty concentrating or making
decisions
Tendency to anger quickly
Lack of energy
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Ways to Keep Stress Under Control
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Keep a journal
Prioritize all tasks
Give yourself time to unwind
Engage in afterwork physical activities
Improve your physical surroundings
Become aware of the control you have
121
Growing Importance of
Multicultural Projects
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Project managers have to be aware of
cultural differences between counties
Common practice in one country may be
illegal in another
Discovering another culture’s ethical
standards is difficult
Project managers have to be trained to the
highest ethical standards
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Project Management As A
Profession
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Project management is a demanding job
Mastering the use of project management
tools requires specialized knowledge
Project Management Institute (PMI) is a
projectoriented organization with more
than 447,000 members worldwide
PMI publishes The Project Management
Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
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Career Path for the Project Manager
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Starts with work (not as manager) on a
small project
Moves on to larger projects
Moves on to a project engineer or deputy
project manager
Project manager for a small project
Moves on to larger projects
May manage a “megaproject”
124
Fitting Projects into the Parent
Organization
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Project managers rarely have any influence
over the interface between the project and
the parent organization
This is a matter of company policy
As such, it is decided by senior
management
However, it has a major impact on the
project manger
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