Project ManagementChapter 4 : project Office and Team

Harold Kerzner, Project Management: A Systems Approach To Planning, Scheduling and Control, Tenth Edition, John Wiley & Sons

Inc., 2009

Matching PMBOK Section• Human Resource

Management

Chapter 4 Contents

• Introduction• The Staffing Environment• Selecting the Project Manager: An

Executive Decision• Skill Requirements for Project and

Program Managers• Special Cases in Project Manager

Selection• Selecting the Wrong Project Manager

• Next Generation Project Managers• Duties and Job Descriptions• The Organizational Staffing Process• The Project Office• The Functional Team• The Project Organizational Chart• Special Problems• Selecting the Project Management

Implementation Team

Introduction

• Project management includes managing • Project office• Project team

• Project Office personnel • Work full time at the office

• Project Team members• Work outside – spend little time at the office

Staffing Environment

• Issues • Personnel performance – change in work – temporary nature, adaptation • Personal policy – related to salary and grades

• Project managers characteristics• Honesty and integrity• Business management and technical expertise• Not biased• Quick decision maker• Versatile• Tough• Guiding their subordinates

Selecting PM

• Experience with past projects • Responsibilities• Interface management• Resource management• Planning and control management

• Where to recruit• From within the company• Outsiders

Skills Required

• Team building• Leadership• Conflict resolution• Technical expertise• Planning• Organization• Entrepreneurship• Administration• Building Management Support.• Resources Allocation.

Special cases in Selecting PM

• 4 major problem areas in staffing projects:• Part-time vs full-time

• Line manager can be part time project manager• One project manager handling several projects

• Each project has different priorities• Projects managed by functional manager

• Resources may not be allocated based on priority• Project manager role retained by the general manager (GM)

• GM may not have time for total dedicaton

Selecting the Wrong PM

• Issue in wrong selection• Maturity of PM

• Exposure to many projects• Hard nosed way of PM

• Close scrutiny and monitoring of staff by PM• Assigning PM purely on availability basis

• Changing PM half way through• Technical expertise

• PM become project doers• Over involvement

• Choosing PM to satisfy customer request• Choosing a first timer PM

How to train PM

Experiential training/on-the-job• Working with professional leader/project team member• Assigning a variety of project management responsibilities, consecutively• Job rotation / Formal on-the-job training• Supporting multifunctional activities / Customer liaison activitiesConceptual training/schooling• Courses, seminars, workshops / Simulations, games, cases• Group exercises / Hands-on exercises in using project management techniques• Professional meetings / Conventions, symposia• books, trade journals, professional magazinesOrganizational development• Formally established and recognized project management function• Proper project organization / Project support systems• Project charter / Project management directives, policies, and procedures

Next Generation PM

• PM need simply an understanding rather than a command of technology.• Primary skills needed to be an effective PM in future are:• Knowledge of the business• Risk management• Integration skills

• Technical skill is less requiredcompared to Business Skills

Job description of PM

• Depends on Industry• Eg: for Construction• Planning – direct the preparation of

• Contract, procedures, budget, schedule, specification, activities, plan• Organizing – The team and project

• Org chart, review duties and responsibilities of team members• Directing – direct and supervise

• System for decision making, team building, solving problems, • Controlling – monitoring

• Activities, costs, communication

Organizational Staffing Process

• Every managers wants the best people• Need to answer the questions of:

• What kind of people required• Where to get

• external source or internally• What type of organizational structure to have

• Staffing Problems• Staffing levels - more variable in project environment.• Performance evaluation - more complex / subject to error in a matrix organization.• Wage and salary grades - more difficult to maintain under a matrix organization.• Training and development - more complex and necessary under project organization.• Morale problems - potentially greater in a matrix organization.

Project Office

• Project team - combination of the project office and functional employees• An organization developed to support PM in carrying out his duties.• Responsibilities of project office :

• Acting as the focal point of information for both in-house control and customer reporting

• Controlling time, cost, and performance to adhere to contractual requirements• Ensuring that all work required is documented and distributed to all key

personnel• Ensuring that all work performed is both authorized and funded by contractual

documentation

Functional Team

• The project team consists of • project manager• project office (whose members may or may not report directly to the project

manager)• functional or interface members (who must report horizontally as well as

vertically for information flow).

• Functional team members • often shown on organizational charts as project office team members. • can be full-time or part-time

Project Org Chart

• Develop the Org Chart for the project and determine relationship to parent organizational structure.• People in project Org chart, whether full-time or parttime , may not

be physically sitting in the project office. • For full-time, long-term assignments, as in construction projects, the

employees may be physically sitting side by side• For part-time assignments, it may be imperative for them to sit in their

functional group.

Selecting PM implementation team

• The implementation of PM requires strong executive support and an implementation team that is dedicated to making project management work – with supportive roles.

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