Informal Project Management: Human Resource Management

1. MITM743 Advanced Project Management Informal Project Management: Human Resource Management

2. 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?

3. 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

4. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

5. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

6. Sample RACI Chart R = responsibility, only one R per task A = accountability C = consultation I = informed IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

7. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

8. 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

9. Resource Loading and Leveling • Resource loading refers to the amount of individual resources an existing project schedule requires during specific time periods • Overallocationmeans more resources than are available are assigned to perform work at a given time IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

10. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

11. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

12. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

13. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

14. Resource Usage View from Microsoft Project IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

15. Resource Usage Report from Microsoft Project IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

16. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

17. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

18. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

19. Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

20. Herzberg’s Motivational Factors

21. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

22. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

23. 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

24. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

25. Power • Power is the potential ability to influence behavior to get people to do things they would not otherwise do

26. 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.

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. 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.

30. 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.

31. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

32. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9

33. 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 IT Project Management, Third Edition Chapter 9