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Preface
People and Projects: The Keys to a “Living Company”
Over the past 30 years, much attention has been focused on the development and improvement of project management tools and techniques. Nevertheless, there are alternatives to management, and one of these is the enterprise-level project office: an organizational center that promotes excellence in project management practice.
Acknowledgments
I hope you will apply the concepts contained in these chapters to build your career and the careers of those around you. I also hope you take what you learn, share it with others, and build your organizations to dynamic performance levels.
Introduction
People, Projects, and Knowledge
Change Drivers for Today
If you've worked as a manager for at least a decade, you may forget much of what you've learned so far. The big changes reshaping the world's business landscape are so vast, so fundamental, so profound."
Failure as a Signal of Change
Not only that, but new knowledge – the kind that has the most value in today's business climate – comes from thinking beyond the boundaries of those communities. At the same time that all this chaos has arisen – and that is no coincidence – the idea of 'project management' has taken hold in many sectors.33 High-tech, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, services such as banking and telecom: these Industries are the driving force of the knowledge economy.
Managing by Projects: An HR Best Practice
That's not easy, but the rewards are great: in one study, 15 percent of organizations surveyed reported a reduced number of technical change announcements, 13 percent reported improved customer relationships, 24 percent reported increased collaboration between stakeholders in the process , and 20 percent saw an increase in the quality of communication.42. These barriers are generally structural: functional silos, chains of command, restrictive job descriptions, cultures that hoard rather than share information and power, and incentives that inadvertently reward the wrong behavior.43 In the field of project management, these barriers are more visible than may also apply to people who work in more operational jobs within functional areas, as project managers and teams are by nature 'boundary keys'.
How to Use This Book
Notes
Pfeffer, J., Competitive Advantage through People, Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA, 1994; see also Pfeffer, J., Hatano, T., and Santalainen, T., Producing sustainable competitive advantage through the effective management of people, Academy of Management Executive, February 105-116; Cordero, R., Farris, G.F., and DiTomaso, N., Technical professionals in cross-functional teams: their quality of work life, Journal of Product Innovation Management pp.
THE NEW PROJECT MANAGEMENT
The Strategic Project Office: A Catalyst for
Nevertheless, "lessons learned" are an important part of the project management discipline, and the lessons learned from failure have improved the practice of project management and helped develop a body of knowledge about how not to manage project-oriented companies.
Failure: Wake-Up Call and Teacher
However, the greatest area of promise for the Project Office lies in its effect on the management of project personnel. This body of knowledge has an organizational home in the Project Office.20 More facts and trends related to the Project Office are noted in Table 1.2.
Integrating Strategy and Action
Managing the Project Portfolio
In fact, it is the logical outcome of applying project management to business problems. That's why staffing the Strategic Project Office is the cornerstone for realizing the business potential of project management.
People on Projects
A New Look at Project Roles and Responsibilities
Dangling in the margins of the org chart is something called "project management," with dotted lines vaguely connecting it here and there. These types of obstacles can only be removed at the executive level of the organization, by committing to large-scale organizational change. In the matrix organization, projects are something extra, something unusual, cobbled together from 'real' functional departments.
Why Is This So Important?
Our central finding was that most project management job descriptions are woefully inadequate. The divide here is between the project manager and the business managers dealing with HR issues, because project management is not as well understood as it should be by those people. Our vision of the Strategic Project Office is as a full partner in HR matters: helping the organization hire, train, measure and reward people in ways that make the project portfolio more productive and profitable.
The Executive Role
As the liaison between corporate senior management and the SPO project team, the Executive Sponsor should chair the Project Office Steering Committee. As a "steering board", the Project Office Steering Committee has input into strategic direction and will play a role in revising the SPO charter. Finally, one of the most important areas in which the Project Office Steering Committee plays a role is in the area of culture change.
MANAGING PEOPLE AS
THOUGH PROJECTS REALLY MATTER
BEST PRACTICES FOR CAPITALIZING ON
The Right Stuff
Competency-Based Employment
Focusing on building project manager competencies to the “best” level means first identifying what needs to be improved. Competency-based project management of human resources is a bold approach to professionalizing the role of the project manager - not only in terms of providing the means to acquire the necessary skills and competencies, but also enabling experienced project managers to climb the ranks to higher positions in the organization . It is no exaggeration to say that designing HR organizational processes based on project competencies is a paradigm shift.
What Is Competence?
Although implementing competency-based management tools can be expensive in the short term, the costs outweigh the financial benefits. Develop a list of the required tasks and personal qualities (problem solving skills, communication skills, the ability to motivate people). The existence of project manager competency models streamlines the adoption of competency-based management for project-oriented companies.
Assessing Competence
Once the competencies are defined, it is time to conduct an assessment of the identified project management populations. These three tools focus on three aspects of competency: (1) knowledge of project management concepts, terminology and theories; (2) workplace behavior and performance; and (3) personal attributes indicative of the individual's project manager potential. Sample questions from all three instruments are included in the appendices.). It tests the candidate's working knowledge of the language, concepts and practices of the profession with questions based on the Project Management Institute's PMBOK® Guide, the ISO-approved industry standard.
Knowledge Assessment Profile Scores
Both the candidate and judge may agree on the level of performance, but in reality that level may be less than the desired level. In addition, these factors may indicate whether the candidate will be best used in small, non-complex projects or large, highly sophisticated and complex projects. The candidate's score is compared to high performers (project managers who demonstrate the highest level of competence).
Behavioral Assessment — Gap Analysis
The role of project manager carries with it a number of critical factors that, when used together, can identify the potential of the project management candidate to be successful in managing projects. The behavioral gaps are identified by examining the differences between the self-rating of the project manager candidate and the assessor's score. A gap analysis is performed to analyze the project manager's current capabilities and skill areas that need improvement.
Developing Competence
A development program is ideally a coordinated track that combines educational, training and professional experiences for each role in the project management area. To develop the organization's project management capability, says Sauer, it is desirable to both institutionalize the development of individual capabilities and to create learning, which extends beyond the individual project manager's skills and experience. 8, 2003; Freeman and Gould, The Art of Project Management: A Competency Model for Project Managers, White Paper, available at www.
Why Project Managers Fail … and How to Help
Project Manager and Team Member Competencies
Casual project managers are appointed to this role because they feel they have time to take on the project alongside other work. Both types of project managers struggle to be effective because they do not know the basic concepts of project management. One obvious factor is that many organizations employ project managers from other organizations.
What Does a Project Manager Do?
Because the project leader has been found to be one of the most (if not the single) critical factors in project success, much published research exists on the roles and skills of project managers. Project managers must also serve as the link between the project team and the executive team. Effective project managers are able to develop a high-performing project team from resources that are not co-located.
The Emergence of the Project Planner Role
Organizing and leading group planning also falls within the scope of the project planner role. The project planner proactively manages the schedule to ensure the project is delivered on time. It is important to note that a project planner can support multiple projects simultaneously (depending on project size and work experience).
Other Roles and Their Areas of Competence
A major insurance company calls this role 'The Project Manager Role Steward'. Instead of individual project managers having to 'beg, borrow and steal' resources wherever they can find them, they turn to the resource manager (RM) for help. Competency development for project managers has matured, but for all other job descriptions there is still a lot of work to be done. Christopher Sauer, Li Liu and Kim Johnston, Where Project Managers Are Kings, Project Management Journal, December 2001.
The Turnover Solution
Recruitment and Retention Practices for the Project-Based Company
At the time of writing, some of the focus on retaining top performers, especially in the IT area, has diminished. Many companies place workers in the wrong positions, and experts suggest that this has caused. Top performers want work to be fun in the sense that highly trained employees find joy in being able to utilize their skills and expertise.
Recruitment
Clearly there has been a shift in the way many of us view our work (as life, not as). Don't passively post ads and sort resumes – Top talent is unlikely to look at the want ads. As the interview draws to a close, the candidate will usually say something very important in the last five minutes.
Retention
Obviously this happens, but it can be addressed by paying attention to the terms of the employee's "contract". Companies that want to retain project managers must pay a market price to do so – including the cost of retention programs. An organization's credibility is measured in part by how well promises of benefits are delivered. Too often, benefits packages are based on what the competition is doing, leading to a "me too" approach that doesn't necessarily reflect employee needs.
Culture
When employees feel like “we're all in this together,” the sense of equal work effort contributes to employee engagement. Recognizing that employees' personal and family lives are important and promoting benefits that promote work-life balance is essential. Management's credibility is affected by inadequate communication, perceived or actual inconsistencies, and the perception of a lack of interest in employee needs.54.
Graceful Exits
John Sullivan, Jumping through Hoops: A New Job Requirement, http://www.careerjournal.com/columnists/perspective/20021202-fmp.html. Allen DeMers, Recruitment and Retention Solutions and Strategies: A Guide for Managers, Public Personnel Management, 22 Mar. 2002; International Personnel Management Association (IPMA), Best Practice: IT Staff Retention, online, available at: http://www.ipma-hr.org/public/bestp_toc. Gene Slowinski et al., After Acquisition: Managing Paranoid People in Schizophrenic Organizations, Research Technology Management, May/June 2002.
The Care and Feeding of Project
Management Personnel
Career Pathing and Professional Development
Do we need to complete a project charter?” or “What content should we include in our project charter?” the company expected projects to start faster and better. A progressive combination of skills has created a career path for both project management consultants and administrative staff. An expert, educated and trained in the principles of project management and areas of knowledge (scope, schedule, costs, quality, risk, personnel, . communications and procurement).
Professional Development: Training, Coaching, and Mentoring
See Appendix F for statistics from a Center for Business Practices survey on the value of project management training.). The need for functional managers to attend project management training was highlighted in a recent field study published in the Journal of Project Management. Care and Nutrition of Project Management Staff 157. and fades completely by the closing session.
Project Manager Training and Education Requirements
Consequently, CFOs learn about finance, and project managers study project FIGURE 6.1 Example of a project manager's education and training requirements description.
Education and Training Requirements
The employee must be aware of the self-development required to meet expectations, as laid down in the employee's development plan. The employee is expected to demonstrate significant progress in the basic knowledge of the competency. The employee demonstrates mastery of competence in a wide variety of complex situations and circumstances.
