Project Management Foundations: Ethics

Question 1

What are the four values in the PMI code of ethics?

Answer 1

Responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty.

Question 2

What are the fundamental pieces of demonstrating responsibility as a project manager?

Answer 2

Being accountable and displaying ownership.

Question 3

What can you do to avoid project management traps?

Answer 3

Meet these guiding principles:

First, seek to manage others versus assign blame. Check in with your team. Ensure they have the info and tools they need to get the job done properly.

Adjust your plans instead of cursing reality. If priorities change, or you discover business or technical issues, admit to them. Analyze their impact and adjust your plans.

Responding to things in support of your team is my third recommendation. Be a supportive participant when responding to project situations.

Work in support of your boss and business. Don’t ever make up data to put into a business case just to tick the box and say you have one.

Question 4

As the steward of a project, you’re responsible for what?

Answer 4

Tracking and shepherding a project to achieve the value cited in the business case.

Question 5

The respectful project manager does what?

Answer 5

Makes answering queries and making decisions as easy as possible for their managers. You do this by clearly stating questions, empowering questions with pros and cons for effective decision-making, and providing a heads up when significant decisions are upcoming so your sponsor can sort their thoughts out ahead of time.

Question 6

What does showing respect mean?

Answer 6

Looking after your team and advocating the ethics of your business and your key stakeholders.

Question 7

What are the four items that require diligent attention to ensure you’re always viewed as being fair?

Answer 7

Abstain if there’s even a shadow of doubt as to your ability to be fair and objective.

Focus on balancing workload.

Be fair to yourself.

Evaluate performance, not popularity.

Question 8

What are the significant forms of honesty which can help you stand out as a project manager?

Answer 8

Transparency, timely communications, predictability, and clearly sharing knowledge with others.

Question 9

What are rules?

Answer 9

Behaviors and activities that you will always comply with.

Question 10

What are norms?

Answer 10

Things expected from each other, expect in extraordinary circumstances.

Question 11

What are guidelines?

Answer 11

They’re behaviors that are generally expected, but you can vary your approach in particular circumstances.

Question 12

What are mandatory standards?

Answer 12

Hard and fast rules. Mandatory standards establish firm requirements, and in some cases, limit or prohibit practitioner behavior.

Question 13

What are a few of the ethical sticking points we need to watch for during project initiation?

Answer 13

Be totally transparent with your business case development.

Be transparent, and ensure you have captured all the data used to build your business case.

Watch for assumptions that aren’t stated as assumptions.

Avoid detailed estimating when the data isn’t there.

Don’t make the assumption the project will proceed.

Question 14

What are the three stages for estimating?

Answer 14

Order of magnitude, budgetary, and definitive.

Question 15

What are the common pitfalls that can plague project managers when managing a procurement process?

Answer 15

Share your relationships with vendors, past and present. Spend time considering what relationships other people may believe you have as a result of your background. Recognize any bias you may have toward a solution or approach. Avoid evaluating noncritical items equally with vital business conditions.

Determine what is meaningful for you and your business and assess all proposals from a set of conditions you require.

Question 16

How do you mitigate bias in the procurement process?

Answer 16

Create a vendor and solution evaluation process in advance. Determine your business needs and the outcomes or processes that are necessary for you to succeed. Derive a scoring mechanism for evaluating the different solutions available to you.

Question 17

What are some ethics in execution and closure?

Answer 17

Communication. Ensure your status reports are clear, concise, and issued in a timely manner. Share the full and complete status of your project on a preset schedule. Deliver products against predetermined standards, and stick to those standards. When things are good, share responsibility. When things are bad, remember your position as a leader.

Question 18

What’s the mandatory standard related to reporting ethical standards violations?

Answer 18

First, report unethical or illegal conduct to appropriate management and, if necessary, to those affected by the conduct. Second, only file ethics complaints when they’re substantiated by facts. These should always be first-hand accounts. Involve those that are affected by the unethical behavior if possible.

Question 19

What are the steps of the ethical decision-making framework?

Answer 19

First, make sure you have all the facts about the ethical dilemma. These include the specifics about the incident, the relevant legal and ethical standards that apply, your personal ethical views, and cultural norms that apply to the incident.

Second, consider your choices. Ask yourself if you have considered all options to address the issue and compile a pros and cons for the options that you’ve thought of. Third, choose the best option, but when doing so, make sure you’re in the right frame of mind to make the selection.

Fourth, apply ethical principles to your decision. Does your approach provide the greater good, and is it equitable to all concerned parties?

Finally, the last task is to make you’re decision.