Topic 7 Human Resource & Comms Mgt

Topic 7- 1 ICT 327 Management of IT Projects Semester 1, 2004

Topic 7 Human Resource & Comms Mgt

Schwalbe: Chapter 9, 10


Learning Objectives

• Explain the importance of good human resource management on projects, especially on information technology projects

• Define project human resource management and understand its processes

• Summarize key concepts for managing people by understanding the theories of Abraham Maslow, Frederick Herzberg, David McClelland, and Douglas McGregor on motivation, H. J. Thamhain and D. L. Wilemon on influencing workers, and Stephen Covey on how people and teams can become more effective


Learning Objectives

• Discuss organizational planning and be able to create a project organizational chart, responsibility assignment matrix, and resource histogram

• Understand important issues involved in project staff acquisition and explain the concepts of resource assignments, resource loading, and resource leveling

• Assist in team development with training, team-building activities, and reward systems

• Describe how project management software can assist in project human resource management


The Importance of Human Resource Management

• People determine the success and failure of organizations and projects

• Recent statistics about IT workforce:• The total number of U.S. IT workers was more

than 10.1 million in December 2002, up from 9.9 million in January 2002

• IT managers predict they will need to hire an additional 1.2 million workers in the near future

• Hiring by non-IT companies outpaces hiring by IT companies by a ratio of 12:1


Digital Planet Reports

• The global high-tech industry generated more than $2.1 trillion in 1999, $2.3 trillion in 2000, and $2.4 trillion in 2001

• The Internet and e-commerce were notable bright spots in the global economy

• Global e-commerce went up 79 percent from 2000 to 2001

• China, Poland, and other developing countries are playing an increasing role in the global IT market


Long Hours & Stereotypes of IT Workers Hurt Recruiting

• Many people are struggling with how to increase and diversify the IT labor pool. Noted problems include:• The fact that many IT professionals work long hours

and must constantly stay abreast of changes in the field• Undesirable stereotypes that keep certain people away

from the career field, like women • The need to improve benefits, redefine work hours and

incentives, and provide better human resource management


What is Project Human Resource Management?

• Project human resource management includes the processes required to make the most effective use of the people involved with a project. Processes include• Organizational planning• Staff acquisition• Team development


Keys to Managing People

• Psychologists and management theorists have devoted much research and thought to the field of managing people at work

• Important areas related to project management include• motivation (intrinsic and extrinsic)• influence and power• effectiveness


Motivation

• Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs to illustrate his theory that people’s behaviors are guided by a sequence of needs

• Maslow argued that humans possess unique qualities that enable them to make independent choices, thus giving them control of their destiny


Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs


Herzberg’s Motivational and Hygiene Factors

• Frederick Herzberg wrote several famous books and articles about worker motivation. He distinguished between• motivational factors: achievement, recognition, the work

itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth, which produce job satisfaction

• hygiene factors: cause dissatisfaction if not present, but do not motivate workers to do more. Examples include larger salaries, more supervision, and a more attractive work environment


McClelland’s Acquired-Needs Theory

• Specific needs are acquired or learned over time and shaped by life experiences, including:• Achievement (nAch): Achievers like challenging

projects with achievable goals and lots of feedback• Affiliation (nAff): People with high nAff desire

harmonious relationships and need to feel accepted by others, so managers should try to create a cooperative work environment for them

• Power: (nPow): People with a need for power desire either personal power (not good) or institutional power (good for the organization). Provide institutional power seekers with management opportunities


McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

• Douglas McGregor popularized the human relations approach to management in the 1960s

• Theory X: assumes workers dislike and avoid work, so managers must use coercion, threats, and various control schemes to get workers to meet objectives

• Theory Y: assumes individuals consider work as natural as play or rest and enjoy the satisfaction of esteem and self-actualization needs

• Theory Z: introduced in 1981 by William Ouchi and is based on the Japanese approach to motivating workers, emphasizing trust, quality, collective decision making, and cultural values

Thamhain and Wilemon’s Ways to Have Influence on Projects

1. Authority: the legitimate hierarchical right to issue orders2. Assignment: the project manager's perceived ability to influence a

worker's later work assignments3. Budget: the project manager's perceived ability to authorize

others' use of discretionary funds4. Promotion: the ability to improve a worker's position5. Money: the ability to increase a worker's pay and benefits6. Penalty: the project manager's ability to cause punishment7. Work challenge: the ability to assign work that capitalizes on a

worker's enjoyment of doing a particular task8. Expertise: the project manager's perceived special knowledge

that others deem important9. Friendship: the ability to establish friendly personal relationships

between the project manager and others


Ways to Influence that Help and Hurt Projects

• Projects are more likely to succeed when project managers influence with• expertise• work challenge

• Projects are more likely to fail when project managers rely too heavily on• authority• money• penalty


Power

• Power is the potential ability to influence behavior to get people to do things they would not otherwise do

• Types of power include• Coercive• Legitimate• Expert• Reward• Referent


Improving Effectiveness - Covey’s 7 Habits

• Project managers can apply Covey’s 7 habits to improve effectiveness on projects• Be proactive• Begin with the end in mind• Put first things first• Think win/win• Seek first to understand, then to be understood• Synergize• Sharpen the saw


Empathic Listening and Rapport

• Good project managers are empathic listeners; they listen with the intent to understand

• Before you can communicate with others, you have to have rapport

• Mirroring is a technique to help establish rapport• IT professionals often need to develop empathic

listening and other people skills to improve relationships with users and other stakeholders


Improving Relationships Between Users and Developers

• Some organizations require business people, not IT people, to take the lead in determining and justifying investments in new computer systems

• CIOs push their staff to recognize that the needs of the business must drive all technology decisions

• Some companies reshape their IT units to look and perform like consulting firms


Organizational Planning

• Organizational planning involves identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships

• Outputs and processes include• project organizational charts• work definition and assignment process• responsibility assignment matrixes• resource histograms


Sample Organizational Chart for a Large IT Project


Work Definition and Assignment Process


Sample Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)


RAM Showing Stakeholder Roles


Sample RACI Chart

R = responsibility, only one R per taskA = accountabilityC = consultationI = informed


Sample Resource Histogram


Staff Acquisition

• Staffing plans and good hiring procedures are important in staff acquisition, as are incentives for recruiting and retention

• Some companies give their employees one dollar for every hour a new person they helped hire works

• Some organizations allow people to work from home as an incentive

• Research shows that people leave their jobs because they don’t make a difference, don’t get proper recognition, aren’t learning anything new, don’t like their coworkers, and want to earn more money


Resource Loading and Leveling

• Resource loading refers to the amount of individual resources an existing project schedule requires during specific time periods

• Resource histograms show resource loading

• Overallocation means more resources than are available are assigned to perform work at a given time


Sample Histogram Showing an Overallocated Individual


Resource Leveling

• Resource leveling is a technique for resolving resource conflicts by delaying tasks

• The main purpose of resource leveling is to create a smoother distribution of resource usage and reduce overallocation


Resource Leveling Example


Team Development

• It takes teamwork to successfully complete most projects

• Training can help people understand themselves, each other, and how to work better in teams

• Team building activities include• physical challenges• psychological preference indicator tools


Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• MBTI is a popular tool for determining personality preferences and helping teammates understand each other

• Four dimensions include:• Extrovert/Introvert (E/I)• Sensation/Intuition (S/N)• Thinking/Feeling (T/F)• Judgment/Perception (J/P)

• NTs or rationals are attracted to technology fields• IT people vary most from the general population

in not being extroverted or sensing


Social Styles Profile

• People are perceived as behaving primarily in one of four zones, based on their assertiveness and responsiveness:• Drivers• Expressives• Analyticals• Amiables

• People on opposite corners (drivers and amiables, analyticals and expressives) may have difficulties getting along


Social Styles


Reward and Recognition Systems

• Team-based reward and recognition systems can promote teamwork

• Focus on rewarding teams for achieving specific goals

• Allow time for team members to mentor and help each other to meet project goals and develop human resources


General Advice on Teams

• Focus on meeting project objectives and producing positive results

• Fix the problem instead of blaming people• Establish regular, effective meetings• Nurture team members and encourage them to

help each other• Acknowledge individual and group

accomplishments


Using Software to Assist in Human Resource Management

• Software can help in producing RAMs and resource histograms

• Project management software includes several features related to human resource management such as • viewing resource usage information• identifying under and overallocated resources• leveling resources


Resource Usage View from Microsoft Project


Resource Usage Report from Microsoft Project


Project Resource Management Involves Much More Than Using Software

• Project managers must • Treat people with consideration and respect• Understand what motivates them• Communicate carefully with them

• Focus on your goal of enabling project team members to deliver their best work


Project Communications Management

Schwalbe: Chapter 10


Learning Objectives

• Understand the importance of good communication on projects and describe the major components of a communications management plan

• Discuss the elements of project communications planning, including information distribution, performance reporting, and administrative closure

• Discuss various methods for project information distribution and the advantages and disadvantages of each

• Understand individual communication needs and how to determine the number of communications channels needed for a project


Learning Objectives

• Understand how the main outputs of performance reporting help stakeholders stay informed about project resources

• Recognize how the main outputs of administrative closure are used to formally end a project

• List various methods for improving project communications, such as managing conflicts, running effective meetings, using e-mail effectively, and using templates

• Describe how software can enhance project communications


Importance of Good Communications

• The greatest threat to many projects is a failure to communicate

• Our culture does not portray IT professionals as being good communicators

• Research shows that IT professionals must be able to communicate effectively to succeed in their positions

• Strong verbal skills are a key factor in career advancement for IT professionals


Project Communications Management Processes

• Communications planning: determining the information and communications needs of the stakeholders

• Information distribution: making needed information available in a timely manner

• Performance reporting: collecting and disseminating performance information

• Administrative closure: generating, gathering, and disseminating information to formalize phase or project completion


Communications Planning

• Every project should include some type of communications management plan, a document that guides project communications

• Creating a stakeholder analysis for project communications also aids in communications planning


Communications Management Plan Contents

• A description of a collection and filing structure for gathering and storing various types of information

• A distribution structure describing what information goes to whom, when, and how

• A format for communicating key project information• A project schedule for producing the information• Access methods for obtaining the information• A method for updating the communications

management plans as the project progresses and develops

• A stakeholder communications analysis


Sample Stakeholder Analysis for Project Communications


Information Distribution

• Getting the right information to the right people at the right time and in a useful format is just as important as developing the information in the first place

• Important considerations include• using technology to enhance information

distribution• formal and informal methods for distributing

information


What Went Wrong?

A well publicized example of misuse of e-mail comes from the 1998 Justice Department's high profile, antitrust suit against Microsoft. E-mail emerged as a star witness in the case. Many executives sent messages that should never have been put in writing. The court used e-mail as evidence, even though the senders of the notes said the information was being interpreted out of context.

See example of misunderstanding “pedagogical approach” on p. 358

Media Choice Table


The Impact of the Number of People on Communications Channels


Performance Reporting

• Performance reporting keeps stakeholders informed about how resources are being used to achieve project objectives• Status reports describe where the project stands at a

specific point in time• Progress reports describe what the project team has

accomplished during a certain period of time• Project forecasting predicts future project status and

progress based on past information and trends• Status review meetings often include performance

reporting


Administrative Closure

• A project or phase of a project requires closure

• Administrative closure produces• project archives• formal acceptance• lessons learned


Suggestions for Improving Project Communications

• Manage conflicts effectively

• Develop better communication skills

• Run effective meetings

• Use e-mail effectively

• Use templates for project communications


Conflict Handling Modes, in Preference Order

• Confrontation or problem-solving: directly face a conflict

• Compromise: use a give-and-take approach• Smoothing: de-emphasize areas of

differences and emphasize areas of agreement

• Forcing: the win-lose approach• Withdrawal: retreat or withdraw from an

actual or potential disagreement


Conflict Can Be Good

• Conflict often produces important results, such as new ideas, better alternatives, and motivation to work harder and more collaboratively

• Groupthink can develop if there are no conflicting viewpoints

• Research by Karen Jehn suggests that task-related conflict often improves team performance, but emotional conflict often depresses team performance


Developing Better Communication Skills

• Companies and formal degree programs for IT professionals often neglect the importance of developing speaking, writing, and listening skills

• As organizations become more global, they realize they must invest in ways to improve communication with people from different countries and cultures

• It takes leadership to improve communication


Running Effective Meetings

• Determine if a meeting can be avoided• Define the purpose and intended outcome of the

meeting• Determine who should attend the meeting• Provide an agenda to participants before the

meeting• Prepare handouts, visual aids, and make logistical

arrangements ahead of time• Run the meeting professionally• Build relationships


Using E-Mail Effectively

• Make sure that e-mail is an appropriate medium for what you want to communicate

• Be sure to send the e-mail to the right people• Use meaningful subjects• Limit the content to one main subject, and be as clear and

concise as possible• Limit the number and size of attachments• Delete e-mail you don’t need, and don’t open it if you

question the source• Make sure your virus software is up to date• Respond to and file e-mails quickly• Learn how to use important features


Using Templates for Project Communications

• Many technical people are afraid to ask for help• Providing examples and templates for project

communications saves time and money• Organizations can develop their own templates,

use some provided by outside organizations, or use samples from textbooks

• Recall that research shows that companies that excel in project management make effective use of templates

Sample Template for a Project Description


Sample Template for a Monthly Progress Report


Sample Template for a Letter of Agreement for a Class Project


Outline for a Final Project Report


Final Project Documentation Items


Gantt Chart Template for a Class Project


Guidance for Student’s Lessons Learned Report


Sample Template for a Project Web Site


Developing a Communications Infrastructure

• A communications infrastructure is a set of tools, techniques, and principles that provide a foundation for the effective transfer of information• Tools include e-mail, project management software,

groupware, fax machines, telephones, teleconferencing systems, document management systems, and word processors

• Techniques include reporting guidelines and templates, meeting ground rules and procedures, decision-making processes, problem-solving approaches, and conflict resolution and negotiation techniques

• Principles include using open dialog and an agreed upon work ethic


Using Software to Assist in Project Communications

• There are many software tools to aid in project communications (see pages 380-381 for several examples in the What Went Right? section)

• Today more than 37 percent of people telecommute or work remotely at least part-time

• Project management software includes new capabilities to enhance virtual communications

• Project 2002’s enterprise edition includes features for portfolio management, resource management, and collaboration

Documents

Topic 7 Human Resource & Comms Mgt