Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2nd Group of Hands Out
2nd Group of Hands Out
1
1) Work breakdown structure (WBS)
A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a key project deliverable-oriented breakdown of a project into smaller
components and manageable sections. It is defined as "deliverable oriented hierarchical decomposition of the
work to be executed by the project team." Sometimes it is known as How-to-How analysis. Sometimes it is
performed by numeric codes.
● develop a project plan ● execute the plan ● make changes to the plan
● The functional manager has the responsibility to define how the task will be done and where the task will be
done (i.e., the technical criteria).
● The functional manager has the responsibility to provide sufficient resources to accomplish the objective
within the project’s constraints (i.e., who will get the job done).
● The functional manager has the responsibility for the deliverable.
2
3) Organisation structure – Organisation charts
It is a diagram that shows the structure of an organization and the relationships and relative ranks of
its parts and positions/jobs.
3
4) Clear Career path and promotion line. 4) Can cause employee to act in interest of the
department or direct manager instead of the
company as a whole
Each project manager reports directly to the vice president and general manager. Since each project
represents a potential profit centre, the power and authority used by the project manager
come directly from the general manager. The project manager has total responsibility and
accountability for project success. The functional departments, on the other hand, have
functional responsibility to maintain technical excellence on each of the project.
4
Some Advantages Some Disadvantages
1)The project manager maintains max project control 1) Potential for continuous conflict and conflict
2) Rapid responses are possible to changes, conflict resolution
resolution, and project needs 2) Each project organization operates independently
3) Authority and responsibility are shared. 3) Multidimensional information and work flow.
4) Stress is distributed among the team (and the 4) Employees and managers are more susceptible to
functional managers). role ambiguity than in traditional form.
5) More effort and time are needed initially to define
policies and procedures, compared to traditional form
A matrix that describes the participation by various roles in completing tasks for a project. It is
especially useful in clarifying roles and responsibilities in cross-functional/departmental projects and
processes.
Report to
Team Team Team
Task/Member P.Sponsor P.Managmer F.Manager
member 1 member 2 member 3
P.Sponsor NA NA NA NA NA
P.Managmer Monthly Weekly NA NA NA
F.Manager Monthly Bi-Monthly NA NA NA
Team member 1 NA Daily Monthly NA NA
Team member 2 NA Bi-Weekly Bi-Monthly R NA
Team member 3 When request When Request When Request NA NA
5
5) People Management Team performing and influencing people
6
1) Belbin Team roles
Role Overview Strength Allowable weakness Do not surprise
Plant Tends to be highly Creative, imaginative, Might ignore incidentals, They could be
creative and good at free-thinking, generates and may be too absent-minded or
solving problems in ideas and solves difficult preoccupied to forgetful.
unconventional ways. problems. communicate effectively.
Monitor Provides a logical eye, Sober, strategic and Sometimes lacks the drive They could be slow
Thinking
Evaluator making impartial discerning. Sees all and ability to inspire to come to
judgements where options and judges others and can be overly decisions.
required and weighs up accurately. critical.
the team's options in a
dispassionate way.
Specialist Brings in-depth Single-minded, self- Tends to contribute on a They overload you
knowledge of a key area starting and dedicated. narrow front and can with information.
to the team. They provide specialist dwell on the
knowledge and skills. technicalities.
Teamworker Helps the team to gel, Co-operative, perceptive Can be indecisive in They might be
using their versatility to and diplomatic. Listens crunch situations and hesitant to make
identify the work and averts friction. tends to avoid unpopular
required and complete it confrontation. decisions.
on behalf of the team.
Co-ordinator Needed to focus on the Mature, confident, Can be seen as They might over-
People
team's objectives, draw identifies talent. Clarifies manipulative and might delegate, leaving
out team members and goals. offload their own share of themselves little
delegate work the work. work to do.
appropriately.
Resource Uses their inquisitive Outgoing, enthusiastic. Might be over-optimistic, They might forget
Investigator nature to find ideas to Explores opportunities and can lose interest once to follow up on a
bring back to the team. and develops contacts. the initial enthusiasm has lead.
passed.
Shaper Provides the necessary Challenging, dynamic, Can be prone to They could risk
drive to ensure that the thrives on pressure. Has provocation, and may becoming
team keeps moving and the drive and courage to sometimes offend aggressive and
does not lose focus or overcome obstacles. people's feelings. bad-humoured in
momentum. their attempts to
get things done.
Implementer Needed to plan a Practical, reliable, Can be a bit inflexible and They might be slow
workable strategy and efficient. Turns ideas into slow to respond to new to relinquish their
Actions
7
•Plant: generates off-the-wall ideas which feed into breakthrough thinking. But on its own these
ideas may be half-formed, underdeveloped and may fail in practice.
• Coordinator: brings together the ideas of different team members and reconciles them. Also
establishes the key roles so people know what they are doing.
• Monitor–evaluator: helps to make the ideas into an effective business case – and monitors results.
• Resource investigator: ensures that interfaces with the organisational environment happen
smoothly.
B) Role conflicts
As early in a project as feasible, ask team members where they see themselves fitting into the
project.
Assign/negotiate roles.
Determine how the overall project can best be divided into subsystems and subtasks (e.g., the work
breakdown structure).
Conduct regular status review meetings to keep team informed on progress and watch for
unanticipated role conflicts over the project’s life.
Conflict resolution
Get both people together in order to identify the problem.
Get them to agree who is responsible for making the decision – where there is deadlock you must
intervene, and your decision is final.
A good tactics is often to get each person to defend the other person’s point of view. This often
enables each person to see things from a different perspective and then compromise situations are
much easier to achieve.
Where there is a situation of “bad chemistry” between individuals i.e. the main issue is personal
differences between two people, there may be a need for accountable behaviour and professional
awareness of the personal insights. This may involve counselling sessions.
8
It is essential – mainly in conflict resolution- to always separate personal and professional aspects.
Business is business nothing personal.
Talk to people as individuals try to get an understanding of who the chief protagonist is. This makes
mediation easier and intervention can be easily targeted to the issue under review.
It can be useful to talk with people’s friends to try and resolve problems. They might be able to shed
more light on the problem or be persuaded to try and convince them to accept a compromise.
Status within teams can be a problem, particularly with senior teams and the right for decision
making. This is mostly resolved by clear statements of roles and responsibilities and authority levels
clearly defined.
Both parties need to be made aware of the problems and where solutions cannot be found it may be
appropriate to split both people from the team, in order to prevent further damage to team morale.
Four Bad signs: Absence of trust / Fear of conflict / Lack of commitment/ Inattention
to results
9
● Watches windows and opportunities closly due to ● Develops an ability to learn from mistakes
excessive analysis and unnecessary delay ● Takes advantage of opportunities before
● Breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure competitors do
● Revisits discussions and decisions again and again ● Moves forward without hesitation
● Encourages second-guessing among team members ● Changes direction without hesitation or guilt
A team that is not focused on results… A team that focuses on collective results…
● Stagnates/fails to grow ● Enjoys success and suffers failure acutely
● Rarely defeats competitors ● Retains achievement-oriented employees
● Loses achievement-oriented employees ● Minimizes individualistic behavior
● Encourages team members to focus on their own ● Benefits from individuals who subjugate
careers and individual goals their own goals/interests for the good of
● Is easily distracted the team
●Creates resentment among team members who have ● Avoids distractions
different standards or inferior performance ● Ensures that poor performers feel
●Misses deadlines and key deliverables pressure and encouragement to improve
●Places an undue burden on the team leader as the ● On time
sole source of discipline ● Avoids excessive bureaucracy around
performance management and corrective
action
10
3) The devil’s advocate … thinking
● Finds fault in all areas of project management
● Refuses to support project management as he/she only finds faults
● Acts more of a devil than an advocate
11
1) The initiators
● “Is there a chance that this might work?”
● “Let’s try this.”
4) The encouragers
● “Your idea has a lot of merit.”
● “The idea is workable, but we may have to make small changes.”
● “What you said will really help us.”
5) The clarifiers
● “Are we saying that . . . ?”
● “Let me state in my own words what I’m hearing from the team.”
● “Let’s see if we can put this into perspective.”
6) The harmonizers
● “We sort of agree, don’t we?”
● “Your ideas and mine are close together.”
● “Aren’t we saying the same thing?”
12
Common types of effective communication barriers include
➢ Factors
● Credibility
● Unmatched needs
● Personality and interests
● Interpersonal sensitivity
●Attitude, emotion, and self-interest
●Assumptions
➢ Barriers
● Sender and receiver having different perceptions. This is vitally important in interpreting
contractual requirements, statements of work, and proposal information requests.
●Sender did not check two pathway confirmation.
● Receiver hearing what he wants to hear. This results from people doing the same
job so long that they no longer listen.
● Receiver evaluating the source before accepting the communications.
● Receiver ignoring conflicting information and doing as he pleases.
● Words meaning different things to different people.
● Communicators ignoring nonverbal cues.
● Receiver being emotionally upset.
13
Important to know Critical Pathway analysis
The critical path is that sequence of activities and events whose
accomplishment will require the greatest time, and if delayed, is likely to delay
the entire project.
Critical path analysis is at the very centre of traditional project management.
14
Slack can be defined as the difference between the latest allowable date and
the earliest expected date based on the nomenclature below:
TE = the earliest time (date) on which an event can be expected to take place
TL = the latest date on which an event can take place without extending the
completion date of project
Slack time = TL – TE
15