Soft Skills For Project Managers and Teams

1. 1 Soft Skills For Project Managers and Teams Kathy Schwalbe, Ph.D., PMP Express Scripts PMUG Meeting February 16, 2005 schwalbe@augsburg.edu www.kathyschwalbe.com

2. 2 Speaker Background Associate Professor at Augsburg College, Dept. of Business Administration, also teach project management at U of M in ME dept. Author of �Information Technology Project Management,� Fourth Edition out this March (Note: Most figures in this presentation are from my text) 10 years full-time industry experience before entering academia in 1991

3. 3 Personal Background Middle child (#3 out of 7) Did not speak until 3 years old �Forced� to write a lot in high school Rarely spoke in classes (until graduate school) Studied and worked in primarily hi-tech jobs, but soon learned that� Communications and other �soft� skills are what help you advance and gain job/life fulfillment

4. 4 Presentation Overview Project management framework Job functions and characteristics of effective project managers Tool and techniques to help project managers and teams (require hard and soft skills) Developing soft skills

5. 5 Project Management Framework

6. 6 Define scope of project Identify stakeholders, decision-makers, and escalation procedures Develop detailed task list (work breakdown structures) Estimate time requirements Develop initial project management flow chart Identify required resources and budget Evaluate project requirements Identify and evaluate risks Prepare contingency plan Identify interdependencies Identify and track critical milestones Participate in project phase review Secure needed resources Manage the change control process Report project status Project ManagementJob Functions*

7. 7 Characteristics of EffectiveProject Managers* Leads by example Visionary Technically competent Decisive Good communicator Good motivator Stands up to upper management when necessary Supports team members Encourages new ideas

8. 8 Project ManagementTools and Techniques Project management tools and techniques assist project managers and their teams in various aspects of project management Many tools and techniques emphasize �hard� skills, but they require soft skills to get people to use them effectively

9. 9 What�s the Most Popular Tool Used by Project Managers? The Work Breakdown Structure

10. 10 WBS for an ITUpgrade Project

11. 11 You Need Good Soft Skills to Develop a Good WBS The WBS provides a very logical structure, but our minds don�t work that way The challenge is getting people to provide good inputs to help develop the structure Suggestions for developing a good WBS?

12. 12 Try Using a Mind Map toHelp Create a WBS

13. 13 What Are Some Popular Time Management Tools? Gantt charts Network diagrams

14. 14 Gantt Chart for an Intranet Project

15. 15 Network Diagram

16. 16 You Need Good Soft Skills to Create and Control Project Schedules Gantt charts and network diagrams are also very logical, useful tools, but� How do you get good estimates, figure out the dependencies, and get people to focus on completing critical tasks on time?

17. 17 Pass the Gorilla�?! A project team at Apple Computer worked in an area with cubicles, and whoever was in charge of a task currently on the critical path had a big, stuffed gorilla on top of his or her cubicle Everyone knew that person was under the most time pressure, so they tried not to distract him or her When a critical task was completed, the person in charge of the next critical task received the gorilla

18. 18 What Cost Control Tool Do Many Experts Say is Crucial to Project Management? Earned Value Management

19. 19

20. 20 What Do You Need to Implement Earned Value Management? Top management commitment Team commitment to develop good estimates and enter �real� actuals Culture that permits mistakes Strong integration between project budgeting and corporate accounting Good metrics to create better estimates based on actuals from past projects

21. 21 What�s a Popular Tool for Clarifying Roles and Responsibilities for Project Work? Responsibility assignment matrices RACI charts

23. 23 Sample RACI Chart

24. 24 You Need Soft Skills to Help Clarify Roles and Responsibilities Do you take the time to clearly define roles and responsibilities on project tasks? Do you need to convince people that it�s well worth the time and effort?

25. 25 Do You Know How Your People are Allocated? What tool can show you individual and group allocations? Resource histograms

26. 26 What�s Wrong With This Picture?

27. 27 Are People Afraid to Let You Know When They�re Under Allocated? Most people let you know when they�re too busy, but are they really too busy? Are they working on the right things? Is it �safe� to say you can handle more work or that some tasks you�re supposed to do aren�t worth doing?

28. 28 Which Project Management Knowledge Area is Least Mature? Project Risk Management What simple tool can you use to help identify and prioritize project risks that�s very low tech and high touch? A probability/impact matrix (using sticky notes works fine), and then� Discussing strategies for managing high and medium risks, both positive and negative, and documenting them in a risk register

29. 29 Sample Probability/Impact Matrix

30. 30 Sample Risk Register

31. 31 What Are Some Important Project Communications Management Tools? Stakeholder analysis Stakeholder analysis for communications Status/progress reports

32. 32 Sample Stakeholder Analysis

33. 33 Sample Stakeholder Analysisfor Project Communications

34. 34 What Do People Write/Say On Status/Project Reports? Are people encouraged to bring up issues? Are too many reports done in writing instead of verbally? Do managers and team members provide helpful suggestions during review meetings?

35. 35 Individual Versus Organizational Issues Every individual can improve his/her soft skills Organizations must also strive to provide a culture conducive to good project management

36. 36 Organizational Culture Organizational culture is a set of shared assumptions, values, and behaviors that characterize the functioning of an organization Many experts believe the underlying causes of many companies� problems are not the structure or staff, but the culture

37. 37 Ten Characteristics ofOrganizational Culture Member identity* Group emphasis* People focus Unit integration* Control

38. 38 Developing Soft Skills Many tools, techniques, and courses in project management emphasize �hard� skills, and it is important to learn them It is also crucial to develop �soft� skills to be effective, such as following the ABCs of communicating building rapport listening empathically team building, motivating, negotiating, etc.

39. 39 ABCs of Communicating* Aim for a specific result or series of outcomes from your communications Be positive See, hear, and feel sensory data Dovetail desires Entertain long- and short-term objectives

40. 40 Building Rapport When rapport is not present, it becomes top priority in communication A process called mirroring or pacing works well to gain rapport Many sales people use mirroring, then stroking, then go for the sale

41. 41 Listening Empathically Empathic listening means listening with the intent to understand �Seek first to understand, then to be understood,� as Covey puts it You can learn to put yourself in another�s shoes and focus on understanding them before trying to get them to understand you

42. 42 Team Building, Motivating, Negotiating, etc Many soft skills take time and practice to develop, but most people are capable of improving them Role playing is a good technique before testing new skills in a real-world setting Working with a mentor/expert also helps build these skills

43. 43 Ideas for Developing Soft Skills at ESI?

44. 44 Questions/Comments?