Transcript Role of the PM - IMSciences.net

Chapter 3
Managing Projects:
The Role of the PM
Project Management and the
Project Manager
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The best way to explain the unique role of the PM is to
contrast it with that of a functional managers.
The PM starts with being a specialist but gradually it
metamorphose from technical caterpillar into a generalist
butterfly.
The PM is required to have an ability to put many pieces
of a task together to form a coherent whole
The functional manager uses the analytic approach and
the PM uses the systems approach.
Pm should be both a facilitator but a generalist also and
have a reasonably high level of technical competence in
the science of the project.
Cont..
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There are 3 major questions that PM faces
What needs to be done.
When it must be done.
And how are the resources required to do the job to be
obtained.
Pm is responsible for the project, and depending on how the
project is organized, the functional managers will make some of
the fundamental and the critical project decisions.
The PM is responsible for organizing, staffing, budgeting,
directing, planning and controlling the project.
In other words, the PM manages it, but the functional mangers
may affect the choice of technology to be used by the project
and the specific individuals who will do the work.
Project Responsibilities
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The PM’s responsibility are broad and fall primarily into 3
separate areas:
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Responsibility to the parent organization,
responsibility to the Project and the client, and
responsibility to the members of the project team.
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The PM MUST NEVER ALLOW SENIOR MANAGEMENT
TO BE SURPRISED.
The PM’s responsibility to the project and the client is met
by ensuring that the integrity of the project is preserved in
spite of the conflicting demands made by the many
parties who have legitimate interest in the project.
The PM’s responsibilities to the members of the project
team are dictated by the finite nature of the project itself
and the specialized nature of the team. PM must be
concerned with the future of the people who serve on the
team.
Special Demands on the PM
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A number of demands are unique to the managements of
projects and the success of the PM depends to a large
extent on how capably they are handled.
Acquiring adequate resources
Acquiring and motivating personnel
Dealing with obstacles
Making projects goals trade-offs
Failure and the risk and fear of failure
Breadth of communication
negotiation
Acquiring adequate Resources
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The resources budgeted for a project are frequently
insufficient to the task. Many details of resources
purchase and usage are deferred until the project
manager knows specifically what resources will be
required and when.
The good PM knows there are resources trade-offs that
need to be taken into consideration.
The problems of time and budget are aggravated in the
presence of a phenomenon that has been long suspect
but proved in mid-1980s.
Resources acquisition by PM.
Acquiring & Motivating Personnel
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A major problem for the Pm is the fact that most of the
people needed for a project are borrowed.
PM’s quest for quality people
Motivation problem
Skills for selection process
High-quality skills
Political sensitivity
Strong problem orientation
Strong goal orientation
High self-esteem
Dealing with Obstacles
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One characteristics of any project is its uniqueness, and this
characteristics means that the PM will have to face and
overcome a series of crises.
From the beginning of the project till the termination, crisis
appears without warning.
The Pm learns by experience, the wise PM learns from the
experiences of the others.
Managing a project is just like managing a business.
At the project completion, obstacles tend to be clustered around
2 issues: 1st, last – minute schedule and technical changes,
and second a series of problems that have as their source the
uncertainty surrounding what happens to members of the
project team when the project is completed.
Making project goal Trade-offs
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The PM must make trade-offs between the project goals of
cost, time, and performance and, of course, the ancillary goals.
The PM must also make trade-offs between project progress
and process. i.e. between the technical and managerial
functions.
The first set of trade-offs is required by the need to preserve
some balance between the projects time, cost and performance
goals.
During the design or formation stage of the PLC, there is no
significant difference in the importance PM place on the 3
goals.
It appears that the logic of this findings is based on the
assumption that the project should be designed to meet all the
client-set goals. If compromises must be made, each of the
objectives is vulnerable.
Cont…
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Schedule is the dominant goals during stage, being significantly
more important than performance, which is in turn significantly
more important than cost.
Scheduling and performance are approximately tied for primacy
during the main stage of the PLC when both are significantly
more important than cost, though the importance of cost
increases somewhat between the buildup and main stages.
During the final stage, phase-out, performance is significantly
more important than scheduling, which is significantly more
than cost.
The second set of trade-offs concerns sacrificing smoothness
of running the project team for technical progress.
The PM also has responsibility for the other types of trade-offs.
If the PM directs more than one project, he or she must make
trade-offs b/w the several projects.
Cont…
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The PM’s enthusiasm about the project-a
prime requirement for successful project
management-can easily lead him or her to:
Overstate the benefits of the project
Understate the probable costs of project
completion.
ignore technical difficulties in achieving the
required level of performance.
Make trade-offs decisions that are clearly
biased in favor of the project and antithetical to
the goals of the parent organization.
Failure & the risk & fear of
failure
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It is difficult to distinguish b/w project failure, partial failure
and success.
What appears to be a failure at one point in the life of the
project may look like success at another. If we divide all
projects into 2 general categories according to the degree
to which the project is understood, we find some
interesting differences in the nature and timing of
perceived difficulties in carrying out a project. These
perceptions have a considerable effect on the PM.
That I TYPE 1
TYPE 2
Type 1
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Assume that type 1 projects are generally well-developed,
routine construction projects. Type 2 projects are at the
opposite pole; they are not well understood, and there
may be considerable uncertainty about specifically what
should be done.
When type 1 project begun, they appear simple. The later
in the life cycle of the project thee problem appear, the
more difficult it I to keep the project on it time an cot
schedule.
Contingencies allowance for the time an cot to overcome
such problem are often build into the budget an schedule
for type 1 project.
Type 2
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Type 2 project exhibit a different et of problem. There are
many difficulties early in the life of the project, mot of
which are so-called planning problem.
By an large, the problem result from a failure to define the
mission carefully and, at times, from a failure to get the
client's acceptance on the project mission.
Failure to define the mission leas to subsequent
problems.
These failures often appear to result from the inability to
solve the project’s technical problems. In fact they result
from a failure to define project requirements an
specification well enough to deal with the technical
glitches that always occur.
Breadth of Communication
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Most of the PM’s is spent communicating with the
many groups interested in the project.
Running a project requires constant selling, reselling,
and explaining the project to outsiders, top
management, functional departments, clients, and a
numbers of others parties – at- interest to the project,
as well as to members of the project team itself.
The PM is the project’s liaison with the outside, but
the managers must also be available for problem
solving in the lab, for crisis in the field, for
threatening or cajoling the subcontractors, an for
reducing interpersonal conflict between project team
members.
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Certain fundamental issues that the managers must understand
an deal with as follows:
The PM’s must know why the project exists; that is, the PM
must fully understand the project’s intent. The PM must have a
clear definition of how success or failure is to be determined.
Any PM with extensive experience has manage projects that
failed.
It is critical to have the support of top management.
The PM should build an maintain a solid information network. It
is critical to know what is happening both inside an outside the
project.
The PM must be flexible in as many people an about as many
activities as possible throughout the entire life of the project.
Negotiation
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In order to meet the desires of the job of the
project manager- acquiring adequate
resources, acquiring and motivating personnel,
dealing with obstacles , making project goal
trade-offs, handling failure and the fear of
failure, and maintaining the appropriate
patterns of communicationThe project manager must be a highly skilled
negotiator.
Selecting the Project Manager
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Selection of the project manger is one of the two or
three most important decisions concerning the project.
The following is a list of some of the most popular
attributes, skills , and qualities that have been sought
when selecting project manager:
A strong technical background
A hard-nosed manager
A mature individual
Someone who is currently available
A person who can keep the project team happy
One who has worked in several departments
A person who can walk on( or parts) the waters.
The perceptions required for the
PM
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It is not sufficient for the PM simply to possess these
skills; they must also be perceived by others. The fact
and the perception are equally important.
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Credibility : the PM needs 2 kinds of credibility. 1st is
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Technical credibility: the PM must be perceived by the
client, senior executes, the functional departments, and
the project team as possessing sufficient technical
knowledge to direct the project.
A PM with reasonable technical competence seems to be
associated with project success and is seen by project
team members to be a positive leadership quality
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Technical credibility
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The PM does not need to have a high
level of expertise, know more than any
actual team member, or be able to stand
toe-to-toe and intellectually slug it out
with experts in the various functional
areas.
Administrative credibility
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The PM has several key administrative
responsibilities that must be performed with
apparently effortless ease.
One of these responsibilities is towards the
client and the senior mgt.
Responsibility towards the project team
Responsibility towards the interest of all the
parties
Responsibility of the trade-offs.
Sensitivity
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The PM must keep project team members
“cool” . This is not easy. As with any group of
humans, rivalries, jealousies, friendships, and
hospitalities are sure to exist .
The PM needs a sensitive set of technical
sensors. it is common, unfortunately , for
otherwise competent and honest team
members to try to hide their failures.
Individuals who cannot work under stress
would be well advised to avoid project
organization.
Leadership and management
styles
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Leadership has been defined as ‘
interpersonal influence, exercised in
situations and directed through the
communication process, towards the
attainment of a specified goals or goals.
PM must have other skills as
enthusiasm, optimism, energy, tenacity,
courage, and personal maturity.
Ability to handle stress
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Life in Projects is hectic like a pressure cooker.
Therefore PM must deal with all the stress that comes
his way
Following are the types of stress in a project life.
PM’s never develop a reasonably consistent set of
procedures and techniques with which to manage their
work.
“Too much on the plate”
Some have a high need to achieve that is constantly
frustrating
The parent organization is in throes of major change.