Project Management VIII

BBA 3626, Project Management Overview 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit VIII Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

8. Describe the project management organizational structure roles, including responsibilities and skills of the project manager.

Reading Assignment Chapter 3: Organizational Capability: Structure, Culture, and Roles Unit Lesson Unit VIII lesson discusses what makes an effective project manager and identifies some good characteristics. Also discussed will be the stakeholders of the project. The project manager can make or break a project. Project managers need to be flexible and willing to adapt to ever-changing requirements as they occur. Innovation is needed from a project manager. Customer needs may change during the project, and project managers must be willing to make changes to the schedule and plan for whatever reason (Larson & Gray, 2014). The project team completes the project work and manages the work. Other stakeholders include administrative support, functional managers, top management, project sponsors, contractors, government agencies, other organizations, and customers. All projects may not have the same stakeholders, but these relationships are interdependent. The project manager must be able to work with all the stakeholders effectively. A project manager can be described like a conductor of an orchestra. The conductor does not have control of all the musical instruments just like the project manager usually only possesses a small portion of technical knowledge to make key decisions (Larson & Gray, 2014). Batons, arms, and other nonverbal cues are used by a musical conductor which influences the pace and intensity of the music. “Project managers orchestrate the completion of a project by managing the involvement and attention of project managers” (Larson & Gray, 2014, p. 344). The conductor and the project manager each controls the flow or rhythm of the work by managing the tempo and involvement of the players. The conductor and the project manager must both earn the respect, confidence, and trust of their players (Larson & Gray, 2014). According to Dorothy Kirk (Larson & Gray, 2014), a project management consultant and program manager with Financial Solutions Group of Mynd offers many tips for managing expectations. Some of these tips include the following:

x The way one presents information can either clarify or confuse expectations. x Interpretation is a human experience and serves one’s best interest. x Realign expectations with reality. x Do not ask for input from stakeholders unless you plan on using it. x State the obvious instead of obscurity. x Communicate openly even if the news is bad.

A study conducted by Ancona and Caldwell of 45 new product teams revealed some startling results. These product teams were located in five high technology companies. An alarming finding was the fact that the “internal team dynamics were not related to performance” (Larson & Gray, 2014, p. 352). Four key patterns were identified by Ancona and Caldwell which contributed to creating a high performance team. The patterns identified were:

UNIT VIII STUDY GUIDE Project Management Organizational Roles

BBA 3626, Project Management Overview 2

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

x Ambassador activities are intended in representing the team to others and protecting the team from interference. Normally, the project manager takes this responsibility in shielding the team from political pressures. The project manager also normally has the responsibility of building support for the project within the hierarchy of the company.

x Coordinating the team’s efforts with other organizations and units is accomplished by the task coordinator activities. This is more of a lateral activity which involves negotiating and interacting with interested parties within the organization.

x Scouts bring back information about what is going on elsewhere in the organization and act as a scout on an expedition.

x Lastly, guard activities are intended to keep information and resources within the team so as to prevent drainage out of the group. A crucial guard activity is concerned with keeping the necessary information secret until it is appropriate to share it (Larson & Gray, 2014).

Leading by example is a good concept to follow. This concept allows for building and sustaining cooperation by the project manager. The project manager’s behavior dictates how the team will work on the project. The project manager’s behavior can influence how others act. Six aspects of leading by example include the following: priorities, urgency, problem solving, cooperation, standards of performance, and ethics. Ethics is an important aspect which involves how other’s respond to ethical dilemmas that occur in a project and will be influenced by past actions of the project manager. Many team members will base their decisions on how they perceive their project manager would behave and many ethical dilemmas will be created during project execution (Larson & Gray, 2014). Qualities of an effective project manager as defined by Larson and Gray (2014) include some of the following characteristics:

x integrity skills x ethical manager x good time management skills x proactive x knows the business x emotional intelligence facilitation x thinks holistically x thinks optimistically

Emotional intelligence is an interesting characteristic which seems to be the buzz word today when someone discusses project management. Emotional intelligence can be divided into five emotional competencies, according to Daniel Goleman (2005) who wrote a book titled Emotional Intelligence. The five emotional competencies include: self-awareness, self-regulation, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills. These competences build on one another, and self-awareness is at the bottom of the hierarchy. An example can be seen below (Larson & Gray, 2014).

BBA 3626, Project Management Overview 3

UNIT x STUDY GUIDE Title

Let’s take a look at a real world example of an ethics and integrity issue. In this example, there are possibly more characteristic traits that are not conducive. The federal government relies on government contracting vehicles to do a lot of its technical functions. Contracting rules are strict for the government and the contractor. Many different types of contracts exist, and the rules must be followed by all parties. For instance, a no personal services contract means just that. Let’s say a government employee asks the project manager of the contracting team to perform personal services just this one time and also accepts gifts from the government for these services. These types of behavior are unethical, illegal, and demonstrate a lack of integrity. The project manager and the government should know the business, and if they do not, they lack business knowledge. The role of the project manager is very significant. This summary has discussed effective project manager characteristics which can make or break a project. Also discussed briefly was some stakeholders that may be present in a particular project. Ethical issues need to be considered and are of utmost importance. Lastly, emotional intelligence is an amazing characteristic that is the epitome of a good project manager. In conclusion, we discussed the following in the eight summaries for this course:

1. Unit I discussed some specific project failures and the reasons why these projects failed. 2. Unit II further discussed project failures that failed because of ambitious requirements, costly

overruns, and mismanagement. 3. Unit III discussed project management principles such as the waterfall method and scrum (agile

methodology). 4. Unit IV discussed cost overruns, not meeting schedule requirements, and not delivering the

capabilities as promised. 5. Unit V discussed the importance of risk management and provided relevant examples. 6. Unit VI discussed project team’s characteristics with examples. The examples provided in this unit

had a common goal for the team members. Teams are an important element of project management and must be cohesive.

7. Unit VII discussed some important elements of closing a project such as lessons learned. Lessons learned are the cornerstones of all projects and the importance cannot be overstated.

8. Lastly, Unit VIII discussed project manager characteristics which can make or break a project. Also discussed, were stakeholders that may be present in a particular project. Ethical issues and emotional intelligence were emphasized in this unit as good project manager traits.

Recalling these concepts and how they factor into project management will benefit the flow of a project you are currently working on or do in the future.

References Goleman, D. (2005). Emotional intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ. New York, NY: Bantam Books. Kloppenborg, T. J. (2015). Contemporary project management (3rd ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning. Larson, E., & Gray, C. (2014). Project management: The managerial process (6th ed.). New York, NY:

McGraw-Hill. Learning Activities (Nongraded) List and describe at least four organizational culture characteristics that increase the likelihood of project success, and tell why each is helpful. Nongraded Learning Activities are provided to aid students in their course of study. You do not have to submit them. If you have questions, contact your instructor for further guidance and information.