PS-CP#2

Understand the Project Framework and Approach

First, you need to understand the big picture by learning about the project life cycle, project phases, and the processes in each of those phases.

Second, for the human resource management planning process, you need to know how the work will be executed, how the change requests will be handled (that is, how the changes will be monitored and controlled), how the configuration management will be performed, how the integrity of the project planning baselines will be maintained, and what the needs and communication styles or methods of the stakeholders are.

All this information is contained in various project plans that are part of the overarching  project management plan  that covers the execution, monitoring, and controlling methodology or approach for the entire project.

Determine the Resources Required to Complete the Project Work

Resources are needed to complete the project work, and a project manager needs to know what type and how many human resources are required for project roles and responsibilities. This step provides the information on the project resource needs. Although the basic estimation of the project resource needs is done during the project time management processes, that preliminary information is further explored, developed, and evaluated via progressive elaboration in the human resource management planning process.

Note

Progressive elaboration , as defined in the  Project Management Body of Knowledge  (PMBOK® guide), involves continuously improving and adding more details to the existing plans as more detailed and specific information becomes available.

Understand the Project Environment

Project human resources are influenced by the environment in which the project is undertaken. It is important to understand what the environmental factors are and how they can impact the project human resources. Some key project environmental factors include the following:

• The culture of the organization: For example, the employee-friendly culture of Hewlett Packard used to attract and retain highly skilled and expert professionals.

• The structure of the organization (functional, matrix, or projectized): A project manager’s level of influence and authority depend upon the structure of the organization and hence the organizational structure does have an impact on how a project manager acquires the human resources. For examples, in matrix organizations, the horizontal project management structure is superimposed on the vertical hierarchical functional management structure, as shown in  Figure 2.2 . In such organizations, the human resources are owned by the functional managers, and the project manager has to approach the appropriate functional managers to request the needed resources.

Figure 2.2 Typical Matrix Organizational Structure

• Government laws and regulations: Labor laws in some countries may impose certain restrictions on hiring and firing the workers. For example, cast-based reservation government policies have a wide impact on hiring of the workers and the same thing is true for labor laws concerning layoffs.

Note

A major canal project in the Punjab state of India was abandoned in the 1980s due to water disputes between Punjab and the neighboring state Haryana. However, the Punjab government could not let the workers (state employees including senior management, project teams, and labor) go due to labor laws, and all the workers kept getting paid for just showing up in the office. According to one of those workers, some workers would just play cards during 8 work hours while some would show up briefly and then leave.

• Personnel administration policies: These policies include but are not limited to guidelines for hiring, retaining, and layoffs, employee benefits, training and development, leaves, time tracking and overtime, and records of training and performance appraisals.

• Geographical locations of the project team members: Resources identified at the remote locations may not be available due to a variety of reasons:

• Time zone differences

• Sickness

• Laid off

• Moved to different assignment

• Retirement

The remote resource owners (functional manager) must report such incidents promptly to the project manager so that a contingency plan can be adopted to fill the void in a timely manner to prevent or reduce delays to the project schedule.

• Local, regional, or global trends and practices: For example, different places around the globe observe different official holidays that would impact the availability of the resources.

• Existing human resources: Resources with the required skillset existing in the organization or on other projects, if available, can be used.

• Availability of resources: Identified resources with the required skillset might be tied up on other projects and may not be available immediately.

• Prevailing conditions of the marketplace: Certain skills required for some roles on the project may not be readily available in the marketplace, which may require a project manager to consider the following alternatives:

• Have an existing project team member to fill that role until someone with the required skillset is hired; however, the team member may need some training.

• Acquire the services of a private consultant for the duration needed.

• Outsource the work associated with that role.

• Professional environment: The professional environment involves the professional network (for example, LinkedIn for online networking and networking mixer events for physical networking) that can provide opportunities for interpersonal interaction and communication with professionals. It is vital in identifying and acquiring the human resources with specialized skills and strong competencies. In addition, professional networking enables the project manager to understand how organizational internal and external environments may influence the project.

Consult the Historical Organizational Project Artifacts

The historical organization project artifacts refer to an organization’s historical artifacts archived from other similar projects completed previously. Leveraging lessons learned, historical information, tools, and other artifacts from previously done similar projects can save the project at hand a lot of time and money. These artifacts may include but are not limited to the following:

• Project plans from previously completed projects

• Schedules from previously completed projects

• Lessons learned and knowledge base from previously completed projects

• Risk, issue, and corrective action logs from previously completed projects

• Organizational standards, policies, and procedures

• Position and role descriptions

• Templates for organization charts

• Templates for project management tools such as risk and issue management tools

Consult Subject Matter Experts

It may be necessary for the project manager to seek advice from subject matter experts (or simply called experts) to determine the type and number of human resources needed for a particular project activity. The expert advice from seasoned senior stakeholders may help the project manager estimate activity resources quicker and more accurately. The following are some of the key subject matter experts whose knowledge a project manager can tap into:

• Senior management

• Project managers who previously worked on similar projects and in the same type of project environment

• Key stakeholders

• Functional managers in matrix organizations

• Other business units within the organization or other government agencies

• Outside consultants and industry groups

• Professional and technical associations such as Project Management Institute (PMI) and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE)

Expert advice or opinion plays a pivotal role in shortening the time to develop the human resource management plan. A project manager can utilize the expert advice to determine the following:

• Project roles and responsibilities

• Position descriptions

• Skills required for a given position or role

• Estimated number of resources needed to complete a task

• Reporting relationships

• Estimated time needed for staff recruitment

• Risks and issues associated with human resource management processes

• Government and union contracts and compliance information

The subject matter experts can be consulted via meetings, phone calls, e-mails, interviews, focus workgroups, surveys, and so on.

Note

Meetings must have value and must motivate attendees to participate constructively. A lack of a meeting agenda, failure to stay on agenda, uncertain start and stop times, the absence of key stakeholders, and so on—all of these issues demotivate the attendees.

Understand Organizational Behavior

Organizational theory enables you to understand how organizational teams and units behave, and this understanding is essential in optimizing and speeding up the Plan Human Resource Management process. The project team’s maturity level changes as the project progresses. This theory suggests how a project manager can adjust his leadership style to adapt to this change.

Determine the Format for Documenting Project Roles and Responsibilities

The following sections discuss commonly used formats for documenting project roles and responsibilities.

Organization Charts and Position Descriptions (Duty Statements)

Organization charts explain who will be working on the project and their roles and responsibilities. The three major formats of organization charts used to represent project roles and responsibilities include hierarchical, matrix, and text-oriented. The project manager must determine which format to use for documenting project roles and responsibilities.

Hierarchical Format

A hierarchical format is a top-down graphical structure commonly used to depict project positions, relationships, and deliverables. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is an example of a hierarchical format chart that shows how project deliverables are broken down into smaller work packages. An Organizational Breakdown Structure (OBS) shows the hierarchical arrangement of an organization’s departments, units, or teams with the corresponding work packages listed under each entity responsible for those work packages. Similarly, a Resource Breakdown Structure (RBS) is another example of a hierarchical format chart that shows the project resources associated with work packages in the WBS.

Figure 2.3 depicts a typical hierarchical organization chart.

Figure 2.3 Typical Hierarchical Organization Chart

Matrix Format

This type of organizational charts are matrix-based charts with column headers representing the project team members and row headers representing the project activities or work packages those team members are responsible for. This matrix chart is also called a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM). The cells of the matrix represent the roles that individual team members will play for the work packages they are responsible for. A RAM chart is commonly known as a RACI chart (where R stands for responsible, A is stands for accountable, C stands for consulted, and I stands for informed).

Table 2.1 shows an example of a RACI Responsibility Assignment Matrix.

Table 2.1: RACI Responsibility Assignment Matrix

Other commonly used forms of a RAM chart are RASCI and CAIRO (where R stands for responsible, A stands for accountable, S stands for support, C stands for consulting, I stands for informed, and O stands for omitted or out of loop):

R = Who actually completes the task.

A = Ultimate ownership, with yes or no authority; makes the final decision.

C = Consulted prior to an action or final decision; involves two-way communication.

I = Who needs to be informed after a decision or action has been taken; involves one-way communication.

S = Who supports the task to completion.

O = Someone who is not part of the task (helps to enhance the clarity of roles and responsibilities).

Table 2.2 summarizes these common types of RAM charts.

Table 2.2: Common Types of RAM Charts

Note: Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 depict the relative position of the letter representing responsibility in the sequence of acronym letters. For example, the “R” in RACI is at the first position in the sequence, A is at the second position, C is at the third position, and I is at the fourth position.

Text-Oriented Format

Text-oriented formats are utilized to depict position description, duties, authority, qualifications, and competencies. Sometimes, such a document is also called a Duty Statement, and it is commonly used in the recruitment process.

Figure 2.4 depicts a typical text-oriented format-based document.

Figure 2.4 Typical Text-Oriented Format-Based Document