The position of a project manager is privileged in that he or she has access to every aspect of the project. In some ways, this means that it can be a lonely role. Although issues can be discussed with those concerned, people are not always prepared to share concerns widely, particularly if they feel embar- rassed. A project manager will usually be trusted with a lot of confidences.
Confidentiality is essential, both in formal management of information and in management of ‘softer’ information. When people are working informally it is not unusual to be drawn into situations in which one group are discussing another, and if the project manager is seen to be taking sides it will be difficult to maintain a position of trust. Most project managers, even very experienced ones, need support sometimes from someone who can take a more distant perspective. It can be very helpful to have a mentor with whom to discuss things in confidence.
Example 9.3
Managing ‘soft’ information
Reflecting on a project he had managed, Jan commented that one of the difficulties had been poor documentation of information that had not seemed very important. He had gathered a great deal of informa- tion in the early stages of the project through discussions with staff who were in many different roles, from front-line delivery to senior management. He had even interviewed directors and the chief exec- utive. Sometimes he had also gained valuable insights from chance informal meetings in corridors, and he had spent considerable amounts of time observing the work areas that were to be affected by the project. Unfortunately, he had only made notes in the more formal interview situations, and these were always of rather specific things that people had said. Much of his real information had come from how they had said it or from the hopes and fears that were expressed.
He had not made notes from the observations at all, nor of the sudden insights that had been prompted informally.
He commented that, seen retrospectively, much of this was very useful information and would have helped the implementation stage, although it had been collected with the planning in mind. He had not realized that this information would be useful throughout the project, and wished that he had recorded it in some way that would have enabled him to retrieve it at later stages. As much of it had been
‘soft’ and probably very much influenced by his own perspectives, he 114 Managing projects in human resources
commented that he wished he had kept a personal journal or file, so that he could remind himself of the ideas that had emerged. This would have been particularly useful when he was writing the final report and wanted to identify what had been learnt from the project.
This range of responsibilities can seem quite overwhelming for a person managing a project for the first time, or even for someone with experience. It is usually the role of the project manager to initiate all of the activities and to ensure that they happen, but they do not all have to be carried out by one person. It is usual to carry out reviews with the involvement of key people, so different perspectives can be taken into consideration. These people will also often be the ones who can carry out amendments once the group have decided that action should be taken. The project manager’s main concern during implementation is to keep an overview of the whole project and to ensure that the balance of time, cost and quality is maintained while the activities of the project progress towards a successful conclusion.
Implementing the project 115
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10
Monitoring and control
In an ideal world, projects would be completed on time, within specified budgets and to the standards set out in the plans. In practice, any project involves a set of unique problems and constraints that inevitably create com- plexity and risk. Plans are liable to change as work progresses, and each stage in the process may have to be revisited several times before completion.
Although projects have boundaries that protect them to some extent from other activities in the environment, external events will affect the project. A rapidly changing environment may have significant impact on longer projects, and may require not only revision of project plans but also some realignment of objectives. In any project, new issues will emerge as activities evolve. It falls to those leading and managing projects to be aware of events that impact on the project plan (monitoring) and to revise the plans if neces- sary (controlling).
The plan itself is at the heart of effective monitoring and control. If the plan is not kept up to date to show all revisions, it will not provide the basic tool for effective monitoring. It will also not be effective if it is too complicated for everyone who needs to use it to understand. Craig and Jassim comment on a meeting with a project manager who had prepared 16 A4 sheets of his project plan:
We discussed the intimidating-looking schedule for a while: I don’t think either of us understood it. We then moved to the whiteboard. An hour
later we agreed on a schedule fitting onto one side of A4 – at that point we started making progress.
(Craig and Jassim, 1995: 26) The people who need to understand the plan include those who are respon- sible for carrying out each task within its scheduled time.
There are a number of ways of monitoring a project during its progress to identify any emerging risks or potential for improvement. Monitoring is essential to collect appropriate information to inform the project manager about anything that threatens to disrupt the project, and to stop it from pro- gressing according to the plan. Once the project manager knows that there is a problem, a decision can be taken about how to address the problem. Action can be taken to ensure that activities are kept in line with the plan, or the plan can be changed. Taking action to control the project ensures that the focus is kept on achieving the outcomes within the budget and timescale agreed.
The word ‘control’ sounds very authoritarian and inflexible. However, control in projects is essential if outcomes of the right quality are to be achieved within the time and budget agreed. All projects need investment of resources to take place at all, and staff are often well aware of the need to make good use of scarce resources. Control is part of effective management and is a key responsibility of a project manager.