Dr. S. M. M.

Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 1

Human Resource Management in a Project

The Human resource management includes the processes required to coordinate the human
resources on a project. Such processes include those needed to plan, obtain, orient, assign,
and release staff over the life of the project. Project management is a process that organize,
manage, and lead the project team. People have assigned roles and responsibilities roles and
responsibilities People have assigned. Early involvement of team members in project
planning is beneficial. It is constituted by four processes, the first process is developing the
human resource plan and it involves, roles, responsibilities, requires skills, reporting
relationships, and creating staff management plan. The second one is acquiring the project
team is based on Process of confirming HR availability and obtaining the team necessary to
complete project assignments. The third one is developing the project team that means
improving the competencies, team interaction, and overall team environment and fourth one
is managing the project team which includes, tracking team member performance, providing
feedback, resolving issues, managing changes

Project management team is also responsible for leadership activities i.e. must be present in
all project phases including initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling and
closing and influencing the project team through environment, location, communication with
stakeholders, internal/external politics, cultural issues, Internal /external politics, cultural
issues, organizational uniqueness and professional and ethical behaviour

HRM challenges and problems in the project-based organization

Organizational environment and individual work place changes when organizations decide
to transfer into project-based organization, accordingly, human resources management
problems appear that not always are considered by organizations or they are devaluated.
Packendorff (2002) highlighted, that “most HRM procedures have been designed for
permanent organizations where each individual has a position, not for project-based
organizations where positions are non-existent or are changed all the time”.

Human resources are relocated from one project to another, successively or simultaneously,
that forces to coordinate supply and needs for workers and at the same time to adapt skills
available for the best use. Analysis of scientific researches of project management and
HRM allows distinguishing few challenges and problems of HRM in project-based
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 2

organization:

Project workers workload.

Project rarely take into consideration the workload of project workers in previous projects,
leading to continuously high levels of work intensity among project workers (Packendorff,
2002). Usually when working with few projects at once appears, big number of contacts
with different people determines constant tension because the person often is unable to
process information received. This, in combination with the increased responsibilities placed
on individuals to keep themselves “employable” and stay competitive in the “market-line”
organizations, as proposed by Lindkvist (2004), might create a stressful work environment
for people working in a project context.

Increasing requirement to individual workers.

The person has to maintain good interrelationship and reputation in his/her project
environment in order to ensure participation in further projects. Also, Huemann et al. (2004)
points out that in the project-based environment individual have to “take on the
responsibility for the acquisition of the competencies demanded and of his or her
professional development to keep employable”.

Human resource development.

Specific of training is determined by short-terms of project based activity and career
possibilities. While talking about project-based organization it is needed to search for the
problems of training of individual during the long period (Bredin & Soderlund, 2006;
Hobday, 2000; Larsen & Brewster, 2003). Referring to Huemann et al. (2004) responsibility
for long-term development, possibilities of development and general understanding about
individual work is left more or less for the management of the person himself/herself.
Moreover it is hard for workers of the project to plan and prepare official program of
training development because they are taking more responsibility in order to finish the
project in time, their work is difficult to track and assess, high work intensity.

Career possibilities.
Management of human resources acknowledges the necessity to increase flexibility in career
development in project based organization’s dynamic environment (Larsen, 2002; Turner, et.
al. 2003). Dynamic and flexibility in career development in project based organizations are
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 3

related to the fact that projects are temporary and not always career possibilities can be
given. But if Project-based organization performs few or more projects at once then referring
to Grabher, (2002) career of individual is being formed according to abundance of projects.
Workers should trust in constant movement from one project to another that is based on
career possibility. Keegan and Turner (2003), introduced the idea of „career of rising stair”
in project based organization.

Motivation possibilities.
In striving to motivate workers involved into performance of new project, it is necessary to
know what factors could be important. Motivation of individual is conditioned by interaction
of needs of different complexity and intensity. Besides, some needs cannot be perceived by
the individual, and all this makes motivation very complicated. According Bredin &
Soderlund, (2006), Midler, (1995), they have pointed to the difficulties in handling
compensation and evaluation in project-based environments.

Development of Human Resource Plan

A “human resource category” (for example, consultant, programmer, etc.) is a way of
classifying skills that is useful in matching resource requirements to particular people when
developing the human resource plan for a project. The Human resource plan contains for
each human resource category, information such as:

 The number of staff required.

 Costing information and assumptions.
 When the staff are needed and for how long.
 Any special skills required over and above those that people in the category would
normally be expected to have, as well as the required level of proficiency and the
relative importance of these skills.
 Training requirements needed specifically for the project, for example in a new
technology.
 Office and materiel requirements
 Plans for team-building activities.(Motivation management)

The Human resource plan supports staff planning, staff acquisition, allocating resources to
staff, and supervising project specific training activities. A summary Human resource plan
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 4

is created for the entire project and managed by the project manager.

The formality with which the Human resource plan is created and documented is a
reflection of the size and complexity of the project. Typically, small projects do not require a
formal plan. On the other hand, large, multiyear, multilevel projects with many participants
may require multiple formal plans. The HRM plan is based on the project schedule.

The Project management schedule includes a summary of the effort by human resource
category (expressed in person hours, person days, etc.) that will be required to perform
defined work units, as well as the time frames during which the work units will be
performed. For example, the Project management schedule might indicate that 2000 hours
of application programmer skills are needed between 2 February and 31 December.

The Human resource plan uses the requirement for human resources to develop a plan for
staff acquisition. There is usually iteration between the development of the Project
management schedule and the Human resource plan as “reality” is applied during
development of the Human resource plan during the different phases of the project. For
example, for a very large project, it may be known that it is impossible to obtain the 200
programmers specified in the Project management schedule during a particular time period.
Therefore, the Project management schedule will need to be changed to reflect this. The
Human resource plan may be revised when changes in the Project management schedule for
a project organizational unit result in a change in staffing requirements. Also, the results of
recruiting activities could impact the Human resource plan

Creation of human resource plan

This process may be used at several levels in the project organization. Each project
organizational unit that has a responsibility for staffing, controlling and allocating staff
related resources may create a Human resource plan. Project Human Resource Planning
(HRP) is in other words establishing project organization having following objectives to
ensure that:
• Necessary people are for specific work time available
• Each work package has an unambiguous owner
• Each team member has clear understanding of his/her role and responsibility
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 5

HRP inputs are:

 Activity resource requirements
o preliminary requirements regarding the required people and competencies for
the project team members
 Enterprise environmental factors
o organizational culture and structure
o existing human resources
o personnel administration policies
o marketplace conditions
 Organizational process assets
o organizational standard processes and policies and standardized role
descriptions
o templates for organizational charts and position descriptions
o historical information on organizational structures that have worked in
previous projects

Corresponding outputs are:

 roles and responsibilities
o Expressed in organization charts and positions description
o Hierarchical, matrix, and text-oriented format
 staffing management plan
o When and how human resource requirements will be met
o Expressed in tables, resources histograms etc

HRP consists of following steps:

1. Defining Roles
With roles are defined responsibilities, inputs and outputs to implement them

Role – set of responsibilities, authorities and competencies

Responsibilities – work what is expected from team member to get a result
Authority - right to apply project resources, make decisions and sign approvals; right to
choose work method, accept quality and respond to project disagreements
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 6

Competency – skills and capabilities, what are needs to complete tasks

2. Defining of Report Relationships and Responsibilities

Defining of report relationships and responsibilities is in other words putting in place
project control and information flow structure expressed in organization chart. These
charts can be:
• Hierarchical-type charts – show positions and relationships in a graphic, top-down
method
• Matrix-based charts – illustrate the connections between work that needs to be done
and project team members
• RAM (Responsibility Assignment Matrix)

RACI (Responsible, Approve/Accountable, Consult, Inform)

Text-oriented formats – detailed description of team member responsibilities, authority,
competencies and qualifications
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 7

Description of assignment roles:

Responsible
 Individual/s who perform a task/activity; the doer, responsible for
action/implementation
 The degree of responsibility is defined by the Accountable person
 Responsibility can be shared
 While Accountability can NOT be delegated, Responsibility can be delegated
Accountable
 The individual who has ultimate accountability and authority
 There is only one accountable (A) to each task/activity
 Accountability is assigned at the lowest level and implied at higher levels
 Accountability cannot be delegated
Consulted
 The individuals to be consulted prior to a final decision or action is taken
 Two-way communication
Informed
 The individuals that need to be informed after a decision or action is taken

RACI benefits
• encourages teamwork by clarifying roles and responsibilities
• eliminates duplication of effort
• reduces misunderstanding
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 8

• improves communication - make sure people are not ‘left out’

• determines ownership
• helps clarify activities and tasks in a process
• reduces bad decisions by ensuring the correct people are involved
• clarifies hand-offs and boundaries
• improves cross-functional view for all employees

Considerations about RACI

• Accountable
 Too many A’s? - Probably a sign of confusion - no one will be sure who really had
the task and each individual will probably have a different approach and/or
expectation(s).
 multiple “A”ccountable and unrelated resources can cause conflicts in differences of
opinion
 You should be sure the team members are co-chairs, co-leads, or at least in similar
roles and will collaborate well together.
 Many A’s - Is this person a bottleneck? Can these tasks be shared or segregated?
 multiple A’s should be kept to a minimum or each vertical column should have only
ONE Accountable

• Responsible
 Multiple “R”esponsible can cause unnecessary or duplicate work.
 Make one team member responsible for each task.
 Lots of R’s - The individual may have too much to do - can the activities be broken
into small sections and split out to others?
 Each vertical column should have one Responsible, but can have more in some
situations of shared responsibility.
 With no R’s a gap occurs - Is the task being completed? Assign Responsibility.

• Consult
 Form one side multiple “C”onsulted is desirable to collect input from all potential
subject matter experts.
 From ohter side - minimize the number of Consults - Make sure the consult is
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 9

necessary and not just a ‘feel good’ contact.

• Inform
 Keeping multiple people “I”nformed helps develop capacity.
 If a team member is absent or unable to carry out work for any reason, you have
developed a successor for that role.
 Too many I’s? Maybe some people only need to be informed if exceptional
circumstances occur - Build the appropriate criteria into the process
In general:
• any team member should have only one role;
• if any column is empty, consider if that resource is necessary for the project;
• No empty spaces in a row - Does this person need to be involved in every step? Try
to reduce C’s and I’s First’;
• Completely empty row - Why was this function included? Are we missing
including them when they should be? Can the function be correctly eliminated
from the process?

3. Defining Project Staffing Management Plan

Project staffing management plan describes when and how human resource requirements
will be met and includes following consisting of following items:
 Staff acquisition - how and through what methods the people needed for the project
will be acquired, which may include both personnel internal to the performing
organization and external to it, such as consultants
 Resource calendars, timetables, and histograms - information on when resources
will be needed and in what durations, shown through calendars, timetables, and
histograms
 Training - formal plan for project team member training, though informal training
will also occur
 Compliance and safety - any measures that will be taken to ensure that any safety,
governmental, regulatory, organizational, or contractual obligations are followed
that are applicable to human resource requirements
 Team performance assessments - include any team performance goals, and how the
overall performance of the project team will be measured and evaluated
 Project performance appraisals - include the procedures, methods, and guidelines
for the performance appraisal of individual project team members
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 10

 Recognition and rewards - details the approaches that will be taken for promoting
and reinforcing desired behavior, including the costs associated with any
recognition or reward program
 Staff release criteria - describes how team members will be released from the
project; how payment for work completed will be handled for the departing team
member

Example of Resource Histogram

Limitations in Supplying with Personnel
 Project member location in main organization
 Team member’s preferences for composition, role allocation and fulfilment
 Dependence of personal skills and capabilities
 Availability of resources
 Team communication model conditioned by development methodology
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 11

Being project team member depends on:

 Rules, on what projects in main organization are organized
 Management structure in customer and performer organization
 Project member’s subordination relationships in main organization

Include the sponsor, contractors, and customer staff, in team-building activities when
appropriate. Consider cost and the sensitivity of information shared as such activities when
deciding who can be included. Consolidate Human resource plans from each project
organizational unit to create the top-level Human resource plan for the entire project.
Identify potential staffing conflicts or difficulties. Rework individual project organizational
unit plans as required in order to smooth and balance staffing across all levels within the
project.

Review the Project management schedule to determine what changes have occurred.
Changes can occur in the human resource category definitions, number of resources per
category, total effort, duration, and specific dates. It depends on the phase of the project like
concept, plan, develop, qualify and rollout. Update the Human resource plan to reflect
changes in human resource category definitions and/or number of resources per category.

Evaluate the effect of the changes on staff acquisition plans.

For example, it might be possible to improve project productivity by recruiting fewer but
more experienced people than initially planned. But again it depends on the cost as moiré
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 12

experienced resource will cost higher than less experienced resource. There should be a
perfect mix of experienced and fresher in the team to balance the cost of the project.

Determine the impact of changes on required resources for each human resource category. If
the total effort or duration has changed, recalculate required resources and update Human
resource plan to reflect the change. If dates have changed, update the Human resource plan
to reflect the revised time frames. If changes have an immediate or near-term effect, raise
the appropriate Change requests. Actions may include obtaining additional staff, and/or
redeploying or releasing current staff based on changed requirements.

Review the initial set of team building activities and look for areas that need to be expanded
with more detail and/or for new team building activities to plan as a result of changes to the
Project management schedule or changes to the project environment.

Define Project team structure

The purpose of this process is to define an effective team structure for a project
organizational unit. The team structure defines the roles, responsibilities and relationships of
the people managing and working within a project organizational unit. An appropriate team
structure will help to optimize the efforts of the team and the success of the project. An
inappropriate one can undercut the efforts of a hard working group of people and impede
their success.

This process is performed during Plan phase. Often, it is carried out by the functional
managers/Senior management responsible for the people who will staff the project. The
project manager should influence the functional managers to ensure that the team structure
meets the requirements of the project.

The first consideration in organizing a team is the objective of the team.

Has the team been asked to explore possibilities and alternatives? Is the team charged with
solving a complex, poorly defined problem? This is often the case with study projects or
when implementing a new technology.

Broadly, there are two different organizational approaches: In the normal approach, each
team is responsible for a specific set of activities and the work products move between the
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 13

teams according to a predefined work flow. The team members all have similar skills. In the
multidisciplinary approach, each team is responsible for completing some of the work
products. The team members have different skills and, possibly, are multi-skilled. Certain
project approaches favor certain team structures. For example, rapid application
development (RAD) works best with multidisciplinary teams.

It is necessary to have a team structure so that all the members of the project understand
their roles and their working and reporting relationships. However, all team structures
introduce some measure of inflexibility. It is important to understand that there is no “right”
team structure for a project and that usually it depends on the organizational requirements
and needs of the project.

Review the Project definition to understand the overall project objectives and context.
Review the Organizational breakdown structure (OBS) and the Work breakdown structure
(WBS) to understand what the project organizational unit that is being structured must
accomplish.

Determine the appropriate team model for the unit by considering the broad objective(s) of
the unit and, if applicable, the work patterns that have been selected. Note that several
models may apply if the project organizational unit has several objectives. Plan the number
of team(s) within the project organizational unit and how the responsibilities of the
organizational unit will be split between the teams. Consider how the teams will be managed
within the organizational unit. Estimate the size of each team and determine the skills that
each team will require. The “right” number of people in a team depends on factors such as
the nature of the work.

Consider carefully how skills that are known to be expensive and/or in short supply should
best be deployed. Document the roles and responsibilities of each of the teams within the
project organizational unit in the OBS.

Acquiring staff
This function includes processes to:
 Identify potential sources (external/department in the organization) of project staff.
 Define skill and activity descriptions that can be used by recruiters and resource
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 14

managers to obtain staff from appropriate sourcing organizations.

 Select staff for the project.

Finding the:
 right people,
 with appropriate skills,
 available when needed,
 for the right duration,
 Within planned costs can be a daunting and time-consuming challenge. Let us look at
the process below.

Staff acquisition processes are performed throughout the project, not just at project
initiation. New phases of the project may require that additional staff or staff with different
skills be found. Process of confirming HR availability and obtaining the team necessary to
complete project assignments. Following factors to be considered by PM during the process
of acquiring the project team.
– Negotiating and influencing whom are in position to provide HR for the project
– Failure to acquire HR affects project schedules, budgets, customer satisfaction, quality,
and risks. If HR is not available, PM or project team may be required to assign alternative
resources

Inputs
Project management Plan is consisted of roles, responsibilities, skills, competencies, project
organizational chart and Staffing management plan (when to get team member). The
enterprise environmental factors are based on existing information for HR including who is
available, their competency levels, prior experience, interests, cost rate, personnel
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 15

administration policies such as outsourcing, organizational structure and location or multiple

locations. The organizational process assets are consisted of organizational standard policies,
Processes and procedures

Tools and Techniques

Pre‐assignment (i.e., selected in advance), negotiation with functional managers and other
PM teams, external organizations, vendors, suppliers, contractors. The employees are
acquired through hiring or sub-contracting. The PM also uses virtual teams because such
teams are with no limit in geographic location, have the special expertise from other part of
world, working from home offices, teams working different shifts/hours even people with
mobility limitation, disables can also be hired for compliance and particularly virtual teams
are beneficial for the projects with high travel costs or limits.

Outputs
The output of the activity of acquiring the staff is normally as follow
• Project staff assignments
• Resource calendars
• Project management plan updates

Develop Project Team

The process of improving the competencies, team interaction, and overall team environment
PMs should acquire skills to identify, build, maintain, motivate, lead, and inspire project
teams. PMs should continually motivate the team by providing should continually motivate
the team by providing challenges/opportunities, getting feedback/providing support,
recognizing and rewarding good performance and high performance may be achieved by
open and effective communication, developing trust among team members and managing
conflict s in a constructive manner. That can be achieved through encouraging collaborative
problem‐solving and decision‐making. The problems faced usually are global environment,
cultural diversity, and multiple languages

Objectives of Developing a Project Team

Improving knowledge and skills of team members to lower costs, reduce schedules, and
improve quality, Improve feeling of trust and feeling of trust and agreement among team
members to raise morale, lower conflict, and increase team work. Create a dynamic and
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 16

cohesive team culture to improve both individual and team productivity, team spirit and
cooperation allow cross training, team spirit, and cooperation, allow cross‐training and
mentoring between team members to share knowledge and expertise

Inputs, Tools & Techniques, Outputs

Inputs
The input at this stage is project staff assignments which deals with the question that “who
are on the team”, project management plan based on training strategies and plans, rewards,
feedback, additional training, and disciplinary actions. The third component is resource
calendars.

Tools and Techniques

The first requirement is Interpersonal skills (soft skills) consisted of understanding the
sentiments of project team members, anticipating their actions, acknowledging their
concerns, following up their issues. The second component is training which encompasses,
classroom, online, computer‐based, on‐the‐job training from another project team member,
mentoring, and coaching. The fourth one is team‐building activities (stages in order) which
focuses on forming: the team meets and learns about project, Storming: the team begins to
address the project work, technical decisions, and PM approach, norming: the team begins to
work together and adjusts to work habits and behaviours of each other, performing: the team
functions as a well‐organized unit and finally adjourning: the team completes the work and
moves on from the project. The fifth one is ground rules, such rules that establishes
acceptable behaviour by project team members. Sixth one is co‐location that helps in placing
many team members in the same physical location. Finally recognition and rewards which
can only be effective if it satisfies a need which is valued by that individual. Only desirable
behaviour should be rewarded (overtime to meet aggressive schedule versus poor planning
by team member. Rewards that everyone can achieve should be supported. Money can be as
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 17

tangible reward but intangible rewards must be focused such as opportunity to grow,
accomplish, and apply their professional skills to meet new challenges.

Outputs
The output of the process of developing the project team is as follow

Team performance assessments

The team effectiveness should be formally/informally assessed and it is measured in terms of
technical success according to project in terms of technical success according to project. It is
considered as measured objectives, schedule, and budget. This assessment focuses on task
oriented or result oriented outcomes and encompasses specific job‐related and people related
qualities

Indicators:
The indicators of team development are improvements in skills, improvement in
competencies, reduced staff turnover rate and increased team cohesiveness (openly share
information and experience)

Results:
Identifying specific training, caching, mentoring, assistance or changes needed

Enterprise environmental factors updates

One of the important output is personnel administration enhancement and increased ability
to update employee training records and skill assessments.

Manage Project Team

The process of tracking team member performance, providing feedback, resolving issues,
managing changes. Project management team observes team behaviour, manages conflict,
resolves issues, and appraises team member performance. Change requests can be submitted,
HR plan is updated, issues resolved, input is provided for performance appraisals, and
lessons learned are added to the organization’s database. The skills needed to manage the
project team are communication skills, conflict management, negotiation and leadership.
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 18

Inputs
The input for project team management are project staff assignments, project management
plan which is consisted of roles and responsibilities, project organization, and the staffing
management plan. Second level input is team performance assessments which is based on
resolved issues, modified communication, addressed conflict, and improved team
interaction. Performance reports are also included based on schedule control, cost control,
quality control, scope verification control, cost control, quality control, and scope
verification. Recognition and rewards along with updated staffing management plan are also
included. Third level of input is organizational process assets consisted of certificates of
application, newsletters, websites, bonus structures, corporate apparel and other
organizational perquisites.

Tools and Techniques

Observation and conversation with employees are used along with project performance
appraisals based on clarification of roles and responsibilities, constructive feedback to team
members, discovery of unknown or unresolved issues, development of individual training
plan and the development of individual training plan, and the establishment of specific goals
for future time periods. Its need depends on length and complexity of the project,
organizational policy, labor contract requirements, and the amount and quality of regular
communication

• Conflict management:
Conflict is natural and inevitable and forces a search for alternatives. Conflict is a team issue
coming from scarce resources, scheduling priorities, and personal work style. Conflict can
be reduced if there are team ground rules, group norms, solid PM practices like
communication planning and role definition reduces the amount of conflict. Personality trait
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 19

like openness to new experiences help to resolves it. The resolution should focus on issues,
not personalities, on the present, not on the past. The primary responsibility to resolve the
conflict resides with team members, if unable, PM should help. Early, in private, using direct
and collaborative approach. If not resolved yet, formal procedures may be used, including
disciplinary actions.

Factors influencing conflict resolution methods

The relative importance and intensity of the conflict with time pressure for resolving the
conflict, position taken by players involved and motivation to resolve conflict on a long‐term
or short‐term basis are the important factors that can help the PM to resolve the conflict
effectively. Different conflict resolving techniques are used i.e. withdrawing/avoiding,
Smoothing/accommodating, compromising collaborating and Confronting/problem solving.

First PM has to look at Issue log to see list of issues to be resolved, after word on
interpersonal skills. PM uses technical, human, and conceptual skills to analyse situations
and interact appropriately with team members. The PM requires leadership skills to
influence the followers. Which consequently enhances the ability to be persuasive and
clearly articulate points and positions, develops high levels of active and effective listening
skills, enables the leader to consider of various perspectives in any situation, and gathering
relevant and critical information to address important issues and reach agreements while
maintaining mutual trust. Effective decision making is based on focus on goals to be served,
follow a decision‐making process, and study the environment factors. Develop personal
qualities of the team members, stimulate team creativity, and Manage opportunity and risk

Outputs
The output of managing the project team are enterprise environmental factors updates. The
data that can be used as input to organizational performance appraisals and personnel skill
updates along with organizational process assets updates. The second output is
organizational process assets update which is consisted of historical information and lessons
learned documentation, Templates and organizational standard processes. The third output is
change based on moving people, outsourcing, replacing team members and preventing
actions like cross‐training team members. Finally the project management plan updates are
the output of managing the project team.
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 20

Release of Staff at the end

This includes processes to debrief and release the staff from the project. The prime purpose
of the processes is to ensure that: The members of the project team can move to their next
assignments in an orderly way. When an individual leaves in mid-project, there is little or no
impact on the project costs or time scales.

Plan staff release

The purpose of this process is to plan the release of members of the project team who are
coming towards the end of their assignments. It is usual for staff to leave the project
throughout its course and not just at the end.

Steps
Review the Staff schedule to determine which assignments are coming to an end. Plan the
release of each team member with the objective of minimizing the disruption to the project
while ensuring that the commitments made to staff providers are kept. Compare the latest
Individual status report with the Operational schedule to determine if there is any work
outstanding. If appropriate, review the Human resource plan to determine if the individual
might be redeployed somewhere else within the project. Notify the team member’s
organization (external staff provider) of the pending release. If required, provide the staff
provider concerned with the required notice (often one month).

It may be desirable to negotiate a change in the planned finish date. At a meeting with each
individual:
 Discuss any work that is outstanding.
 If required, agree how and to whom any uncompleted work and other responsibilities
are to be handed over.
 If appropriate, discuss any opportunities for reassignment within the project that
might be open to the individual.
 Allow the team member the opportunity to provide personal opinions about what was
done well and what could have been improved. If required, raise Action control
documents to address points identified during the meeting and update the Staff
schedule.
Dr. S. M. M. Raza Naqvi PHRM & Com HRP 21

Release staff
The project manager has a final meeting with the team member to ensure that the work is
complete, any hand over has been carried out and the office and materiel allocated to the
individual has been returned.

Steps
Plan the final meeting with the departing team member.
Hold the meeting to Check:
 All the work packages are complete.
 If necessary, all responsibilities have been handed over as planned.
Collect any project documentation and working papers that are in the possession of the
departing team member. Pay particular attention to those documents that are subject to the
project’s confidentiality rules. Recover portable items, such as identification badges and
keys. Try to ensure that the team member leaves with a positive attitude about the project
and the delivery organization. Ensure that all relevant files held on personal computers etc.
are moved to the project libraries and that all access to the technical environment is revoked.
Reallocate the office and materiel to another team member, if needed, or notify the relevant
provider about the return of office and materiel. Update the Asset inventory to show that the
office and materiel has been returned or reallocated. Update the Staff schedule and Human
resource plan to show that the individual is no longer a member of the project team.