People in Projects Flashcards
Key Project Roles
Project sponsor
- Initiates project
- ensures that project benefits are realised
- accountable for project
Project manager:
- ensures project meets its objective
- responsible for project
Work package manager
- Ensures completion of work package deliverables
Team
- Produces deliverables
Customer / User
- Involve the user in as many steps (appropriately) #agile
Diagram of relationships between project stakeholders
Role of Sponsor
Sponsorship of a project, programme or portfolio (P3) is an important senior management role.
- initiates project
- accountable for project
- ensures benefits realisation
- adds needed authorisation
- ensures that project remains a viable proposition
- resolves issues outside the control of the PM
- accountable for ensuring that the work is governed effectively
- stays after completion
Top drivers of project success
- Actively investing in engaged executive sponsors
- Avoiding scope creep
- Maturing value delivery capabilities
In my opinion,
- situational leadership
- clear project scope
- well-defined requirements
- purpose-driven project
- close, trusted, and frequent communication
Effective Sponsorship
- play an active role in the project, but don’t micromanaging on day-to-day activities
- be visible, available, and champion the project within the rest of the organisation
- legitimise the project and actions of the PM (authority)
- ensure the project remains aligned to the strategic objectives
- the PM needs to manage up (to the sponsor) and drive progress
Sponsor and first scoping sessions
The project sponsor should be there (even briefly) in the first scoping session with the project team. Someone with that seniority sets a good tone for the team.
Role of Project Manager
- develops and leads the project team
- manages the stakeholders
- responsible for day-to-day management of the project and must be competent in managing the six aspects of a project: time, cost, quality, scope, risk, resources
- set behaviour norms, decisive, allocate responsibilities, build morale
Project Responsibilities — RACI
Project Management Office (PMO)
- Stays even after the project is finished.
- Take the administrative burden from the project manager.
- Help the PM to highlight risks and help with estimates that may have been missed.
- Strives to standardise and introduce economies of repetition in the execution of projects. They can assist with different terminology that exists in different organisations. Methodological consistency reduces misunderstanding.
Team Selection Checklist
- Who is available?
- Who is interested in this project — keen to contribute and believes in the importance?
- Who has special technical skills/experience and that are needed? Who has special non-technical skills (communication, interpersonal skills, etc.)?
- Who has organisation clout/credibility/connections to help the team? Who has external networks that might be useful to the team?
- Who can represent important interest groups (e.g. clients, end users, etc)? Who represents/understands the “antis”/opposition?
- Who will “fit” with the way we want to work?
- Who would benefit through self-development or corporate exposure from being associated with this project?
Questioning the team members motivation
- What’s in it for them?
- Who allocated them to the project?
- Did they want to be part of it?
- Do resource managers put their best people on projects when asked to allocate a resource?
Describe Leadership
- Honesty,
- Forward-looking,
- Inspiring,
- Competency,
- Self-confidence,
- Visionary,
- Adaptability,
- Credibility,
- Sociable communicator,
- Decision maker,
- Political awareness,
- Energy,
- Empathy
The PM and the team throughout the life cycle (waterfall)
There are three basic types of organisational structure:
Functional – resources are controlled totally from within their respective functional unit;
Project – resources are allocated to a project
Matrix – hybrid; resources are controlled functionally by their functional head and concerning their project requirements by the project manager
Pros & Cons of the Functional Organisational Structure
Pros & Cons of the Project-ised Organisational Structure
Pros & Cons of the Matrix Organisational Structure
weak, balanced, strong matrix
strong = the project manager is the more senior one
Summary of Pros & Cons of all 3 types of organsational structures
Stages of Team Development
Situational Leadership Model
New team members have different levels of commitment and skill compared to long-term members (see lower image).
Identifying the employee’s readiness is crucial for any leader. It helps them to identify the optimal leadership style givent he context of the team member.
program vs. portfolio
Program - A temporary flexible organisation structure to coordinate a set of related projects; usually spans several years. Includes a programme manager.
Portfolios - Collections of projects grouped together for management convenience, often using a common resource base and which therefore may compete for scarce resources.
- Portfolio Management - Aiming to maximise the value delivered to the organisation by maximising the throughput of projects within the applied constraints. A way of organising your stuff.
How does the governance structure of P3 look like?
Programme Tranches
The programme may be sub-divided into tranches or identifiable stages that will each realise benefits (ideally), which will be reviewed.
Tranches balance the cumulative impact of changes.
Typical (linear) programme lifecycle
project vs. programme
Corporate Governance involves…
A set of relationships between a company’s management, its board, its shareholders and other stakeholders.
It provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined.
Governance of Project Management (GoPM)
Effective governance of project management ensures that an organisation’s project portfolio is aligned to the organisation’s objectives, is delivered efficiently and is sustainable.
