Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

1. Learning objectives
• Appreciate the dynamics in the business world that have caused project
management to be a growing profession.
• Understand how the practice of project management is affected by
organizational structure.
• List the functions and tasks performed by project managers
• Know the difference between competencies and skills required of an
effective project manager.
• Assess your own competencies and skills.
• Put a plan together for your own professional development as a project
manager.
• Identify the specific skills that you personally wish to develop.
2. Project management:
Your company owns your job, and you own your career. Never default to
your company to take care of your career. At the same time, always look for
opportunities in your company to further your career in line with your
career plan.
3. Demand for project managers:
The demand for project managers has never been greater than it is today.
There are at least four reasons for this:
 Organizations have become customer-driven.
 Organizations have evolved from function to process structures.
 Organizations are using task forces more frequently.
 Organizations have become more project-focused.
4. Customer-driven organizations:
• Organizations are customer-driven.
• Their processes and practices are designed to relate directly to the
customer.
• Their success is measured using metrics that are directly related
to the customer.

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Robert K. Wysocki, Robert Beck Jr, David B. Crane
Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

These Organizations often assign responsibility for the care of feeding of a

customer’s request by turning the request into a project, or projectizing
that request, and assigning a specific person (a project manager) to that
customer’s request.

5. Evolution from function to process:

Most customer-driven organizations have made the transition from
• functional silos (marketing, sales, finance and so forth)
• To a more focused process structure.
• This transition makes it possible for the company to define itself in
terms of those processes that relate directly to the customer.
A good example is integrating the steps that the organization undertakes to
receive and completely process a customer order.
• In the functional silo organization, this can involve the following steps:
 Order entry by the sales department.
 Credit approval by the accounting department.
 Production scheduling by the manufacturing department.
 Acceptance into the warehouse by the inventory control department.
 Picking and packaging by the shipping department.
 Invoicing and collections by the accounts receivable department.
6. Task force: (Task forces are temporary)
• Once the charge has been met, the task force is dissolved.
• These situations are similar to a project structure except that
the team members are generally assigned to the task force on a part-time
basis.
• Organizations forms task forces to address a large number of
one-time situations…… For example:
 A problem arises unexpectedly, and a task force is commissioned to
study the problem and recommend a solution.

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Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

 A new employee benefit program has become available, and a task

force is formed to evaluate it and its impact on existing benefit programs.
 A suggestion is made to put an employee-find-an-employee program
in place, and task force is commissioned to look into the suggestion.
The permanent task force has a specific responsibility, acts independently of
the department, and draws on the functional areas for advice and training. The
functional areas perform a support role only.

There are four advantages of the permanent task force:

I. It is the same as pure project form.
II. It empowers workers and develops responsibility and
authority.
III. It generally fosters higher morale.
IV. It generates higher levels of productivity and quality.
Disadvantages of permanent task force:
I. Implementation time is long.
II. There are few opportunities to develop special skills.
III. There is a high risk of failure.
IV. There is no clear career path.
7. project-driven organizations:
The project-driven organization aligns its professional staff with projects. In
these organizations,
• A person is assigned to only one project at a time.
• When that project is complete, he or she is reassigned to another project.
• Project teams tend to be self-sufficient, that is, they possess all of the
skills needed to achieve their goal.
The project-driven structure has some advantages:
 Everybody understands the work of the whole project.
 It is highly receptive to new ideas.
 It offers better individual visibility.
 It has greater adaptability.
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Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

 It is more amenable to planning/ scheduling.

 It has better cost control.
 It has poor stability.
 It demands continuous management attention.
 There are few opportunities to develop special skills.
 There is no clear career path.

Traditional organization environments:

Many companies are holding fast to the old ways. The environment in
which the project team must function can be a great help or hindrance to
the successful practice of project management.
Examples of the traditional organizational environments are discussed
below:
1. Functional structures:
• Each major functional area is represented as a unit in the
organization with a line manager and reporting staff.
• The units’ scope of responsibility is limited to the functional
area in which they work.
• Work is transmitted to the unit; they do their work and pass it
along to the next functional unit.
• Team work exists within the unit but not across units.
Disadvantages:
 Management time needed for between-function problems.
 Development opportunities are limited.
 Communication across functions is more difficult.

Department
Head

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Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

Function Function Function Function

Manager Manager Manager Manager

Advantages:
 Everybody understands his or her task.
 It is more stable than other forms.
 It provides for checks and balances.
 Standardization within functions is possible.
Matrix structures: (In the matrix organization, there are two entities to
consider:
 The functional home of individual.
 The project home of the individual.
The functional home deals with development and deployment of
individuals to projects. This is where the line manager of
individual is found. The project home is where the individual
actually engages in work. The individual team members are
accountable to project manager.

Department Head

Function Manager Function Manager Function Manager

Project A

Project B

Project C
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Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

 It offers better assessment of skill and development needs.

 It better utilizes specialized skills.
 It is flexible and can adapt to changing environments.
 It has few communication problems (dual reporting)
 Everybody understands the work of the whole.
 Project objectives are clear and visible.
 Morale is high
 It develops future project managers. (on the job development)
 Project shut down is not too traumatic.
Disadvantages:
 Success depends on manager interactions.
 Project management is difficult.
 Potential for politics is greater.
 Each project team member has two bosses.
 There are conflicting goals (project versus function)
 There is the potential for balance-of-power conflicts.
 Management costs are higher.
 It is more complex than other forms.
Project management in contemporary environments:
Today there is a trend in organizations to use cross-functional teams.
Members of cross-functional teams include people from different business
functions. This adds several areas of concern for the project manager.
New issues:
 Ownership
 Commitment
 Authority
 Process-oriented
 Self-managed teams

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Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

 Inter-enterprise.
Project support office:
The project support office (PSO) is a staffed function within those
organizations that have recognized that the successful completion of
projects is a critical success factors. In general, the PSO is a support unit
to project managers and their teams that ensures the success of all
projects in the portfolio.
The Project Support Office (PSO) serves six purposes:
o Establish, monitors, and enforce standards.
o Manage communications
o Provide administrative support to the project managers.
o Provide training and development.
o Fill a mentoring role.
o Facilitate deployment.
Job functions and tasks for project management:
List of most common responsibilities of the project managers are:
1) Project planning (strategic and tactical):
a. Develops preliminary study with project team, identifying
business problem, requirements, project scope and benefits.
b. Identifies key project results and milestones.
c. Develops project plan and work-breakdown structure and
communicates to team and client.
d. Determines needed resources; including client involvement.
e. Estimates timelines and phases.
f. Influences selection of project team members.
g. Assigns project responsibilities based on assessment of
individual skills and development needs.
h. Defines clear individual roles and performance expectations
i. Establishes acceptance criteria.
j. Determines appropriate technological approach.
2) Managing the project:
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Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

a. Continually reviews project status.

b. Reviews work against key results criteria.
c. Uses systematic method for logging project status, checking against
schedule.
d. Uses change management/ request procedure.
e. Uses project meetings to measure progress against plan,
communicate chances and issues.
f. Assesses skill-needed documentation of meetings, work,
conversations and decisions.
g. Measures quality through testing against requirements.
h. Conducts project reviews and walk-through (with appropriate client
involvement)
3) Lead project team:
Assessing competencies and skills:
Two levels of characteristics determine success or failure as a project
manager: skills and competencies. At the visible levels are skills whose level
of mastery can be measured and that a person can acquire through training.
Estimating time and estimating cost are two examples. That is the easy part.
More difficult are competencies, those traits that lie below the surface, out of
range of the visible.
. .

visible

Skills

Competencies

hidden

The well rounded project manager has skills and competencies in all of these
categories.
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Dr Zain Yusufzai How to become a World Class Project Manager Chapter # 2 (page 13-52)

 Business
 Personal
 Interpersonal
 Management
Skills profile of project manager:
 Knowledge.
 Comprehension
 Application
 Analysis
 Synthesis
 Evaluation
 A career planning template
 Where are you?
 Where do you want to go?
 How will you get there?
 Step 1: Gap Analysis
 Step 2: Prioritize the gaps to get to the next project manager class.
 Step 3: Look for learning opportunities to close the gaps
 Step 4: Go back to step one.

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