3. Life as a PM: Planning and managing

Question 1

Competencies for boundaryless careers?

Answer 1

Knowing What, Why, Where, Whom, When, How

Question 2

Characteristics of successful project managers

Answer 2

Skills 
•	analytical 
•	technical 
•	leadership and delegation 
•	time management 
•	problem-solving 
Attitudes
•	customer and goal focused 
•	accepts challenges and responsibility 
•	challenges waste 
•	integrity

Question 3

“The Eight Lookings”

Answer 3

• forward/backward
• internally/externally
• inward/downward
• outwards/upwards

Question 4

Ten principles focused on planning, managing and leading projects:
(Randolf and Posner, 1988)

Answer 4

Planning

1. Set a clear project goal
2. Determine the project objectives
3. Establish checkpoints, activities, relationships and time estimates
4. Draw a picture of the project schedule

Managing Projects

5. Direct people individually and as a project team
6. Reinforce commitment and excitement of the project team
7. Keep everyone connected with the project informed
8. Build agreements that vitalise team members
9. Empower yourself and others on a project
10. Encourage risk taking and creativity

Question 5

What were the key reasons for the cost escalation of the Scottish Parliament?

Answer 5

• The approved design was more complex than envisaged at the feasibility stage
• Increase in construction cost estimates, almost half of which is attributable to a 47% increase in the total area of the building
• “Whenever there was a conflict between quality and cost, quality was preferred”
• Additional costs for landscaping and road re-alignment work
• Shortfalls in procurement strategy
• Inadequate risk allowance

Question 6

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

Answer 6

Deconstruction of large projects into manageable chunks

overall project –> deliverables –> sub-deliverables –> work packages

Question 7

Ground up and Top down costing?

Answer 7

Top down - costs fixed externally to project and pms allocated budgets to sub-projects.

Ground up - costs set by the project, pm collates estimates.

Question 8

Common mistakes in negotiations

Answer 8

1. Neglecting the other sides problems
2. Price over other elements
3. Searching too hard for common ground
4. Neglecting BATNAs
5. Failing to correct for skewed vision/wrong assumptions

Question 9

Risk appetite

Answer 9

Amount of risk that an organisation is willing to take on in pursuit of value

Question 10

Changing beliefs of project nature?

Crawford and Pollack, 2007

Answer 10

• standardised to unique
  e. g. Projects are also differentiated as being either hard or soft. McElroy (1996) classified projects as either hard or soft based on the tangibility of proj- ect outputs, ease of estimation, and ambiguity of logical relationships.