Informal Project Management: Human Resource ManagementMITM743Advanced Project Management

Formal vs Informal

Formal controls - elements that could deliver clear outcomes, such as budget, quality, and procurement (especially when dealing with external parties)

Informal controls - elements that related to people, such as human resources and communications.

What about project set up (or project initiation) management, project time management and project risk assessment?

Project Human Resource Management

People determine the success and failure of organizations and projects

Long Hours and Stereotypes of IT Work Hurt Recruiting The fact that many IT professionals work long

hours and must constantly keep up with changes in the field

Undesirable stereotypes that keep certain people away from the career field, like women

The need to improve benefits, redefine work hours and incentives, and provide better human resource management

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What is Project Human Resource Management?

Project human resource management includes the processes required to make the most effective use of the people involved with a project. Processes include Organizational planning Staff acquisition Team development

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Organizational Planning

Organizational planning involves identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships

Outputs and processes include project organizational charts work definition and assignment process responsibility assignment matrixes resource histograms

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Sample RACI Chart

R = responsibility, only one R per taskA = accountabilityC = consultationI = informed

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Staff Acquisition

Staffing plans and good hiring procedures are important in staff acquisition, as are incentives for recruiting and retention

Some companies give their employees one dollar for every hour a new person they helped hire works

Some organizations allow people to work from home as an incentive

Why people leave?

Research shows that people leave their jobs because : they don’t make a difference don’t get proper recognition aren’t learning anything new don’t like their coworkers want to earn more money

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Resource Loading and Leveling

Resource loading refers to the amount of individual resources an existing project schedule requires during specific time periods

Overallocation means more resources than are available are assigned to perform work at a given time

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Resource Leveling

Resource leveling is a technique for resolving resource conflicts by delaying tasks

The main purpose of resource leveling is to create a smoother distribution of resource usage and reduce overallocation

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Team Development

It takes teamwork to successfully complete most projects

Training can help people understand themselves, each other, and how to work better in teams

Team building activities include physical challenges psychological preference indicator tools

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Reward and Recognition Systems

Team-based reward and recognition systems can promote teamwork

Focus on rewarding teams for achieving specific goals

Allow time for team members to mentor and help each other to meet project goals and develop human resources

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General Advice on Teams

Focus on meeting project objectives and producing positive results

Fix the problem instead of blaming people

Establish regular, effective meetings Nurture team members and

encourage them to help each other Acknowledge individual and group

accomplishments

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Resource Usage View from Microsoft Project

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Resource Usage Report from Microsoft Project

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Project Resource Management Involves Much More Than Using Software

Project managers must Treat people with consideration and

respect Understand what motivates them Communicate carefully with them

Focus on your goal of enabling project team members to deliver their best work

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Keys to Managing People

Psychologists and management theorists have devoted much research and thought to the field of managing people at work

Important areas related to project management include motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic) influence and power effectiveness

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Motivation

Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs to illustrate his theory that people’s behaviors are guided by a sequence of needs

Maslow argued that humans possess unique qualities that enable them to make independent choices, thus giving them control of their destiny

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Herzberg’s Motivational Factors

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Herzberg’s Motivational Factors

Frederick Herzberg wrote several famous books and articles about worker motivation. He distinguished between motivational factors: achievement,

recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth, which produce job satisfaction

hygiene factors: cause dissatisfaction if not present, but do not motivate workers to do more. Examples include larger salaries, more supervision, and a more attractive work environment

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Thamhain and Wilemon’s Ways to Have Influence on Projects

Authority: the legitimate hierarchical right to issue orders

Assignment: the project manager's perceived ability to

influence a worker's later work assignments

Budget: the project manager's perceived ability to

authorize others' use of discretionary funds

Promotion: the ability to improve a worker's position

Money: the ability to increase a worker's pay and benefits

Thamhain and Wilemon’s Ways to Have Influence on Projects

Penalty: the project manager's ability to cause

punishment

Work challenge: the ability to assign work that

capitalizes on a worker's enjoyment of doing a

particular task

Expertise: the project manager's perceived special

knowledge that others deem important

Friendship: the ability to establish friendly personal

relationships between the project manager and others

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Ways to Influence that Help and Hurt Projects Projects are more likely to succeed

when project managers influence with expertise work challenge

Projects are more likely to fail when project managers rely too heavily on authority money penalty

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Power Power is the potential ability to influence

behavior to get people to do things they would not otherwise do

Power

Coercive

Legitimate

RewardExpert

Referent

Coercive Power

• Involves using punishment, threats or other negative approaches to get people to do things they do not want to do. This type of power relates to using penalty and threat.

• Example: A project manager can threaten to fire workers or subcontractors to try to get them to change behavior.

• However, influencing using penalties is correlated to unsuccessful projects. Nevertheless, coercive power can be very effective in stopping negative behavior.

Legitimate Power

Getting people to do things based on a position of authority.

This type of power is similar to the authority basis of influence.

If top management gives project managers organizational

authority, project managers can use legitimate power in

several situations.

They can make key decisions without involving the project tea,

for example.

Overemphasis of legitimate power or authority also correlates

with project failure.

Expert Power

Involves using personal knowledge and expertise to get

people to change their behavior. If people perceive that

project managers are experts in certain situations, they

will follow their suggestions.

For example, if a project manager has expertise in working

with a particular information technology supplier and their

products, the project team will be more likely to follow the

project manager’s suggestion on how to work with that

vendor and its products.

Reward Power

Involves using incentives to induce people to do things.

Rewards can include money, status, recognition,

promotions, special work assignments, or other means

of rewarding someone for desired behavior.

Many motivation theorists suggest that only certain

types of rewards, such as work challenge , achievement,

and recognition, truly induce people to change their

behavior or work hard.

Referent Power

This is based on individual’s personal charisma.

People hold someone with referent power in very high regard and will do what they say based on their regard for the person.

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Empathic Listening and Rapport Good project managers are empathic listeners;

they listen with the intent to understand

Before you can communicate with others, you

have to have rapport

Mirroring is a technique to help establish rapport

IT professionals often need to develop empathic

listening and other people skills to improve

relationships with users and other stakeholders

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Improving Relationships Between Users and Developers

Some organizations require business people, not

IT people, to take the lead in determining and

justifying investments in new computer systems

CIOs push their staff to recognize that the needs

of the business must drive all technology

decisions

Some companies reshape their IT units to look

and perform like consulting firms

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Improving Effectiveness – Learning styles

The Visual-Auditory-Kinesthetic learning styles model or 'inventory', usually abbreviated to VAK, provides a simple way to explain and understand your own learning style 

Special Test