Project ManagementA Managerial Approach

Chapter 3

The Project Manager

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

Project Management and the Project Manager

The Functional Manager

Project Management and the Project Manager

The Functional Manager Analytical Approach Direct, technical supervisor

The Project Manager Systems Approach Facilitator and generalist

Project Management and the Project Manager

The Project Manager

Project Management and the Project Manager

Three major questions face the project manager: 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?

Project manager is responsible for organizing, staffing, budgeting, directing, planning, and controlling the project.

Responsibilities of a Project Manager

Responsibility to the Parent Organization

Responsibility to the Client

Responsibility to the Team Members

Above all, the Project Manager must never allow senior management to be surprised

Responsibilities to the Parent Organization

Conservation of resourcesTimely and accurate project

communicationsCareful, competent management of

the projectProtect the firm from high riskAccurate reporting of project status

with regard to budget and schedule

Responsibilities of the Project Manager

Responsibility to the Client Preserve integrity of project and client Resolve conflict among interested parties Ensure performance, budgets, and

deadlines are metResponsibility to project team

members Fairness, respect, honesty Concern for members’ future after project

Project Management Career PathsMost 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 degreed programs

Importance of Project Management ExperienceExperience as a project manager serves to

teach the importance of: An organized plan for reaching an objective Negotiation with one’s co-workers Follow through Sensitivity to the political realities of

organizational life

The career path often starts with participation in small projects, and later in larger projects, until the person is given control over small, then larger projects

Special Demands on the Project ManagerA number of demands are critical to

the management of projects: Acquiring adequate resources Acquiring and motivating personnel Dealing with obstacles Making project goal trade offs Dealing with failure and the risk and fear

of failure Maintaining breadth of communication Negotiation

Acquiring Adequate Resources

Resources initially budgeted for projects are frequently insufficient 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 often turns into

“win-lose” propositions between project and functional managers

Acquiring and Motivating Personnel

A major problem for the project manager 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 project manager cannot promise much beyond the challenge of the work itself

Acquiring and Motivating Personnel

Characteristics of effective team members: High quality technical skills Political sensitivity Strong problem orientation Strong goal orientation High self-esteem

Dealing with ObstaclesOne 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 issues:1. Last minute schedule and technical changes2. Uncertainty surrounding what happens to

members of the project team when the project is

completed

Making Project Goal Trade-offs

The project manager 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 project managers 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

Making Project Goal Trade-offs

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

Failure and the Risk of Fear and FailureIt 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

By dividing all projects into two general categories, interesting differences in the nature and timing of perceived difficulties can be found

Failure and the Risk of Fear and Failure

Two general types of projects: Type 1 - these projects are generally well-

understood, routine construction projectsAppear simple at the beginning of the projectRarely fail because they are late or over budget,

though commonly are bothThey 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

Failure and the Risk of Fear and Failure

Type 2 - these are not well understood, and there may be considerable uncertainty about specifically what must be doneMany difficulties early in the life of the projectOften considered planning problemsMost of these problems result from a failure to

define the mission carefullyOften fail to get the client’s acceptance on the

project mission

Breadth of CommunicationMost 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 managementFunctional departmentsClientsMembers of the project team

Breadth of Communication

To effectively deal with the demands, a project manager must understand and deal with certain fundamental issues: 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

Selecting the Project ManagerSome of the most popular attributes, skills,

and qualities that have been sought in project managers are: Strong technical background Hard-nosed manager A mature individual Someone who is currently available Someone on good terms with senior executives A person who can keep the project team happy One who has worked in several different

departments A person who can walk on (or part) the waters

Selecting the Project Manager

Four major categories of skills that are required for the project manager and serve as the key criteria for selection: Credibility

Sensitivity

Leadership and management style

Ability to handle stress

CredibilityThe project manager needs two kinds of

credibility: Technical credibility - perceived by the client,

senior executives, the functional departments, and the project team as possessing sufficient technical knowledge to direct the project

Administrative credibility - keeping the project on schedule and within costs and making sure reports are accurate and timely. Must also make sure the project team has material, equipment, and labor when needed.

SensitivityThere are several ways for project managers to

display sensitivity: Understanding the organization’s political structure Sense interpersonal conflict on the project team or

between team members and outsiders Does not avoid conflict, but confronts it and deals

with it before it escalates Keeps team members “cool” Sensitive set of technical sensors - ability to sense

when team members may try to “sweep things under the rug”

Leadership and Management StyleLeadership has been defined as: “interpersonal influence, exercised in situation and directed through

the communication process, toward the attainment of a specified

goal or goals.” Other attributes may include:

enthusiasm optimism energy tenacity courage personal maturity

Ethical Issues A project manager must also have a strong sense of

ethics. Some common ethical missteps are listed below: “wired” bids and contracts (the winner has been predetermined) “buy-in” (bidding low with the intention of cutting corners or

forcing subsequent contract changes) “kickbacks” “covering” for team members (group cohesiveness) taking “shortcuts” (to meet deadlines or budgets) using marginal (substandard) materials compromising on safety violating standards consultant (e.g., auditors) loyalties (to employer or to client or to

public)

Ability to Handle StressFour major causes of stress associated with the

management of projects: 1. Never developing a consistent set of procedures and

techniques with which to manage their work 2. Many project managers have “too much on their

plates” 3. Some project managers have a high need to achieve that is consistently frustrated 4. The parent organization is in the middle of major change

Impact of Institutional Environments

A culture’s institutions are a part of the environment for every project

In general systems theory, the environment of a system is defined as everything outside the system that receives outputs from it or delivers inputs to it

Impact of Institutional EnvironmentsProject managers must consider the

following environments and how they may impact a project: Socioeconomic environment

Legal environment

The business cycle as an environment

Technological environment

Multicultural Communications and Managerial Behavior

The importance of language cannot be overstated Communication cannot be separated from

the communicator Managerial and personal behaviors of the

project manager must be considered in the communication processStructure and style of communicationsManagerial and personal behavior

Multicultural Communications and Managerial Behavior

Structure and Style of Communications: In the United States, delegation is a

preferred managerial style In cultures where authority is highly

centralized, it becomes the project manager’s responsibility to seek out information

The manager of an international project cannot count on being voluntarily informed of problems and potential problems by his or her subordinates

Multicultural Communications and Managerial Behavior

Managerial and Personal Behavior In a society with highly structured social

classes, it is difficult to practice participative management

There is an assumption that the more educated, higher-class manager’s authority will be denigrated by using a participative style

The more structured a country’s social system, the less direct managerial communication tends to be

SummaryThe project manager has responsibilities

to the organization, the project, and to the project team

There are many career paths available to an experienced project manager

Typically, a project manager faces unique demands relating to resources, personnel, communication and negotiation

SummaryTwo factors critical to the success of a

project are top management support and the existence of a problem orientation within the team members

Compared to a functional manager, a project manager is a generalist rather than a specialist, a synthesizer rather than an analyst, and a facilitator rather than a supervisor

SummaryThere are common characteristics of

effective project team members: technical skills, political sensitivity, problem orientation, and high self esteem

The best person to select as the project manager is the one who will get the job done

Valuable skills for the project manager are: credibility, political sensitivity, and leadership

SummaryCultural elements refer to the way of life for

any group of people including technology, institutions, language, and art

The project environment includes: economic, political, legal, and sociotechnical aspects

Cultural issues include: the group’s perception of time and the manner of staffing projects

Language is a particularly critical aspect of culture for the project

The Project Manager

Questions?

The Project Manager

Picture Files

The Project Manager

Figure 3-1

The Project Manager

Figure 3-2

The Project Manager

Table Files

The Project Manager

The Project Manager

The Project Manager

The Project Manager

The Project Manager

The Project Manager