W4

Assignment 2

Part I

Choose one process from human resource process: Plan HR Management, Acquire Project Team, Develop Project Team and Manage Project Team and apply it to a case study(ProjectA).  Students do have an option of choosing their own project or case study from the library.  In 500 words apply chosen methodology to the project or case study.  Include a minimum of two references. 

Part II

Please comment on the below postings in blue that is different from your chosen methodology and provide further insight on how to improve.  Please add a minimum of two references to support your research, thoughts and or opinions.  Ask a question at the end of your 500 word minimum response.

Develop Project Team

For this week’s discussion, I decided to use the process of Develop Project Team and will apply it towards the case study of Technology Deployment Project (Zenon, Slehat, & Salmon, 2015).

This project was a contracted Technology Integration project; handled by Contractor Green.  It included two teams:  a centralized Remote Integration Center and field-based resource.  The project overran both its budget and time schedule (Zenon, Slehat, & Salmon, 2015). 

The main inputs for the Develop Project Team are the human resource management plan, project staff assignments and resource calendars.  Project staff assignments include a list of all team.  Resource calendars keep track of the availability of the team (Project Management Institute, 2013). 

The main outputs are team performance assessments and enterprise environmental factors updates. Team performance assessments are the evaluation of the team members, which can be used to “identify the specific training, coaching, mentoring, assistance or changes required to improve the team’s performance.”  Enterprise environmental factors updates can include “personnel administration, employee training records, and skill assessments” (Project Management Institute, 2013).

The purpose of the Develop Project Team is to develop individual and group skills to enhance the performance of the project.  According to the Project Management Book of Knowledge, this can be done by utilizing seven techniques:  interpersonal skills, training, team-building activities, ground rules, colocation, recognition and rewards, and personnel assessment tools (Project Management Institute, 2013).

According to the journal article about the project, there were four main reasons for this lack of success: “failing to understand the complexity, failing to capture the scope correctly, poor planning and monitoring, and changes to management team” (Zenon, Slehat, & Salmon, 2015).  Both failing to understand the complexity and failing to capture the scope correctly are examples of how to use the Develop Project Team phase. 

Both tasks are a responsibility of the project management team.  This could have been prevented by selected the individual with the best talent to gather initial requirements.  If this was not caught before the project started, an experienced project manager could have “coached” the project team member through the process or helped the team member locate training to assist with determining the scope and complexity of the project.

However, by the sound of the journal article, these deficiencies were not caught until after the completion of the project.  This is where assessment outputs play a vital role; not for the benefit of this current project, but for future projects.  The project manager needs to document the deficiencies and “coach” the project team member and suggest training development plans that will enhance the team member’s skill and prevent future errors.