Unit

12

The practice of project management

The practice of project management has

evolved over half a century and permeates all industries, institutions and governments throughout the world.

Project management
Itis

thedisciplineofplanning,organi zing, securing andmanagingresourcesto bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives. It is sometimes conflated withprogramme management, however, technically that is

 A project is a temporary endeavour, having a defined beginning and end (usually constrained by date, but can be by funding or deliverables), undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives, usually to bring about beneficial change or added value. The temporary nature of projects stands in contrast to business as usual (or operations), which are repetitive, permanent or semi-permanent functional work to produce products or services.

Projects exist in every type of human enterprise. They are unique, complex undertakings that create new products, facilities, services, and events, among other things, bring about major organizational and other desired changes or recovery from natural or man-made disasters. Projects have starting and ending points in time and progress through a number of life cycle phases.

Mad Old Man Project

Have you ever heard about the Mad

Old Mans lifelong determination to bring the water from the valley to the top of the mountain in order to use the terraces for growing rice more effectively? It is an ancient Chinese story. It took place at the Taihang and Wangwu Mountains, which had a periphery of seven hundredliand were a hundred thousand feet high, originally lay south of Jizhou and north of

Taihang and Wangwu Mountains

It tells of an old man Yu Gong who lived in northern China long, long ago and was known as the Foolish Old Man of North Mountain. His house faced south and beyond his doorway stood the two great peaks, Taihang and Wangwu, obstructing the way. He called his sons, and hoe in hand they began to dig up these mountains with great determination. Another graybeard, known as the Wise Old Man, saw them and said derisively, "How silly of you to do this! It is quite impossible for you few to dig up those two huge mountains.

The Foolish Old Man replied, "When I die, my sons will carry on; when they die, there will be my grandsons, and then their sons and grandsons, and so on to infinity. High as they are, the mountains cannot grow any higher and with every bit we dig, they will be that much lower. Why can't we clear them away? Having refuted the Wise Old Man's wrong view, he went on digging every day, unshaken in his conviction. God was moved by this, and he sent down two angels, who carried the mountains away on their backs.

The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains.

And it really did. His project

came into existance. The place has been called ever since Yu Gong Yi Shan, or The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains. This idiom describes an indomitable will. It has come to us through the writings of the philosopher Lie

Project management
Project management has been practiced

since early civilization. As a discipline, Project Management developed from several fields of application including civilconstruction, engineering, and heavydefense activity. In the fields ofarchitectureandcivil engineering,constructionis a process that consists of thebuildingor assembling ofinfrastructure. Far from being a single activity, large scale construction is a feat ofhuman multitasking.

Magnificent edifices of the past

Although one might take for

granted these professions and the way they had gradually develped over the milennia long tradition, one still wondered when confronted with the major architectural and building achievements of the ancient world. Who and how built these magnificent edifices?

The Great Wall of China

Egyptian pyramids

on time, or within budget - Khufu

The Pharaoh Khufu, or commonly known as Cheops, ruled in the 4th Dynasty (2551-2528 B.C.) He was the second Pharaoh of the period and he ruled for approximately 23 years. It was assumed that this was a highly structured society and he must have attained great wealth. Not much is known about the Pharaohs personal life or his accomplishments. His most known and famous undertaking was the Great Pyramid of Egypt.

Many unresolved questions

Somebody had to commission these

edificies to be built. We know the answers: the rulers the emperors of China or pharaohs of Egypt. What we do not know despite many attempts to resolve the mystery is: 1.Who had designed these constructions, 2.Where the material had been taken from, 3.Had they been any plans or drawings, and 4.Who and how organized the labour force to build them, including the reliable data

Higher level construction

It has already been mentioned that

such huge construction undertkaings must be seen as a group of related and somehow interdependent engineering projects.
Difficulties arise in tracing the history of

management. Some see it (by definition) as a late modern (in the sense of latemodernity) conceptualization. On those terms it cannot have a pre-modern history, only harbingers (such asstewards). Others, however, detect management-like-thought back

Slave-owners through the centuries faced the problems of exploiting/motivating a dependent but sometimes unenthusiastic or hestant workforce, but many preindustrial enterprises, given their small scale, did not feel compelled to face the issues of management systematically. However, innovations such as the spread of Arabic numerals (5th to 15th centuries) and the codification of double-entry bookkeeping (1494) provided tools for management assessment, planning and control.

Management
In practice, themanagementof

these two systems is often found to be quite different, and as such requires the development of distinct technical skills and the adoption of separate management. Managementin all business and organizational activities is the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively.

It comprises:
1.planning, 1.organizing, 1.staffing, 1.leading or directing, and 1.controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities), or 1.effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.

Resourcing
Resourcingencompasses

the deployment and manipulation of: 1.human resources, 2.financialresources, 3.technologicalresources, and 4.natural resources.

The

verbmanage comes from theItalianwo rd maneggiare(to handle especially tools), which in turn derives from theLatinman

The French

wordmesnage ment(later mnagement) influenced the development in meaning of the English wordmanagem entin the 17th and 18th centuries

Manual labour
Manual labouris physical work done with the hands, especially in an unskilledjobsuc h as fruit and vegetable picking, road building, or any other field where the work may be considered physically arduous, and which has as a profitable objective, usually the production

Theindustrial revolution
Given

the scale of most commercial operations and the lack of mechanized record-keeping and recording before theindustrial revolution, it made sense for mostownersof enterprises in those times to carry out management functions by and for themselves. But with growing size and complexity of organizations, the split between owners (individuals, industrial dynasties or groups ofshareholders) and day-to-day managers (independent specialists in planning and control) gradually became

English speakers may also use the term "management" or "the management" as a collective word describing the managers of an organization, for example of acorporation. Historically this use of the term was often contrasted with the term"Labour"referring to those being managed.

schedules, costs Press for stress

Being a manager today means a lot of work, a lot of peple, many responsibiliti es under constant pressure of many

Basic Functions
Management operates through various

functions, often classified as planning, organizing, staffing, leading/directing, and controlling/monitoring. Planning: Deciding what needs to happen in the future (today, next week, next month, next year, over the next 5 years, etc.) and generatingplansfor action. Organizing: (Implementation) making optimum use of the resources required to enable the successful carrying out of plans. Staffing: Job Analyzing, recruitment, and

Some other functions

Leading/Directing: Determining what

needs to be done in a situation and getting people to do it. Controlling/Monitoring: Checking progress against plans. Motivation: Motivation is also a kind of basic function of management, because without motivation, employees cannot work effectively. If motivation doesn't take place in an organization, then employees may not contribute to the other functions (which are usually set by

Some definitions of management

According

to the management guruPeter Drucker(19092005), the basic task of a management is twofold:

1.marketing and 2.innovation. Organization and coordination of the activities of an enterprise muste be done in accordance with certain policies and in achievement of clearly defined objectives. Management is often included as a factor of production along with

Peter Ferdinand Drucker (November 19, 1909 November 11, 2005) was a writer, management consultant, and selfdescribed social ecologist.

The Man Who Invented Management

Influence & accomplshments

His

39 books and many scholarly and popular articles explored how humans are organized across the business, government and the nonprofit sectors of society. His writings have predicted many of the major developments of the late twentieth century, including privatization and decentralization; the rise of Japan to economic world power; the decisive importance of marketing; and the emergence of the information society with its necessity of lifelong learning. In 1959, Drucker coined the term knowledge worker" and later in his life considered knowledge work productivityto

 Directors and managers have the power and responsibility to make decisions to manage an enterprise when given the authority by the shareholders. As a discipline, management comprises the interlocking functions of formulating corporate policy and organizing, planning, controlling, and directing the firm's resources to achieve the policy's objectives.

The size of management can range from one person in a small firm to hundreds or thousands of managers in multinational companies. In large firms the board of directors formulates the policy which is implemented by the chief executive officer.

Henri Fayol (1841 1925)

He was one of the most influential

contributors to modern concepts of management. According to him, management consists of six functions:

1.forecasting, 2.planning, 3.organizing, 4.commanding, 5.coordinating, and 6.controlling.

Mary Parker Follett (18681933)

She wrote on the

topic in the early twentieth century, and defined management as "the art of getting things done through people". She described

Some regard

Nonetheless,

management as equivalent to "business administration" and thus excludes management in places outsidecommerce, as incharitiesand in the public sector. More realistically, however, every organization must manage its work, people, processes,

many people refer to university departments which teach management as "business schools." Some institutions (such as theHarvard Business School) use that name while others (such as theYale School of Management) employ the more

1. Human resourcemanagement 2. Operations managementor

production management 3. Strategic management 4. Marketing management 5. Financial management 6. Information technology managementresponsible formanagement information systems

Goals and challenges

The primary challenge of project

management is to achieve all of the project goalsand objectives while honouring the preconceived project constraints.

Typical constraints

arescope, time, andbudget.

The secondary and more ambitious

challenge is tooptimizetheallocationand

Forefathers of project management

As a discipline, Project Management

developed from several fields of application including civilconstruction, engineering, and heavydefenseactivity. Two forefathers of project management areHenry Gantt, called the father of planning and control techniques, who is famous for his use of theGantt chartas a project management tool; andHenri Fayolfor his creation of the 6 management functions, which form the foundation of the body of knowledge

Henry Gantt (18611919)

Often called the father of planning and control technique s

AGantt chart is a type of bar chart that illustrates a project schedule.

Gantt charts
Gantt charts illustrate the start and

finish dates of the terminal elementsand summary elements of aproject. Terminal elements and summary elements comprise thework breakdown structureof the project. Some Gantt charts also show thedependency(i.e., precedence network) relationships between activities. Gantt charts can be used to show current schedule status using percentcomplete shadings and a vertical

A Gantt chart created usingMicrosoft Project(MSP).

Note (1) thecritical pathis in red, (2) theslackis the black lines connected to non-critical activities, (3) since Saturday and Sunday are not work days and are thus excluded from the schedule, some bars on the Gantt chart are longer if they cut through a weekend.

Evolvement of project management

The discipline of project management has

evolved because the more traditional, well-established industrial age principles and methods for managing our classical functional organizations (involving ongoing, repetitive operations of various kinds) do not work well for planning, controlling, and managing projects, programs, or project portfolios. Projects are comprised of diverse tasks that require diverse specialist skills, and hence cut across the traditional functional

The challenge
They are temporary endeavours

with a finite lifetime and so do not provide stable organizational homes for the people involved. The challenge is to accomplish the right projects at the right time while providing stable homes that develop the diverse skills needed for all the specialists who contribute to the projects.

Approaches
There are a number of approaches

to managing project activities including: 1.agile, 2.interactive, 3.incremental, and 4.phased approaches.
Regardless

of the methodology employed, careful consideration must be given to the overall project objectives, timeline, and cost, as well as the roles and responsibilities of all

A training meeting with factory workers in a stainless steel ecodesign company from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Endomarketing is a part of the management and is very important to motivate the work force.

The traditional approach

A traditional phased approach identifies a

sequence of steps to be completed. In the "traditional approach", we can distinguish 5 components of a project (4 stages plus control) in the development of a project:

1.Project initiation stage; 2.Project planningand design stage; 3.Project execution and construction

stage; 4.Project monitoring and controlling systems; 5.Project completion.

Projects vs. programmes

Programmes are defined as long-term

undertakings that include two or more projects that require close coordination . Projects within a programme are usually closely related in some way, such as using common resources, having dependency relationships (in which tasks within one project cannot proceed until the results of tasks within a second project have been completed), or supporting common strategic objectives.

Projects and SWAT Analysis

Programmes may be related to a particular product line, operating division, or geographic area, for example. Projects having a common customer may also be grouped within a programme, as another example. A UK definition of the term programme (in the project management arena) is "a set of related projects with a common strategic goal or aim " (Harpham

Harpham (2002)
Programme management as practiced

in the UK and its sphere of influence in Europe and elsewhere is essentially the same as project portfolio management in North America and elsewhere. "Programme management exists to bridge the gap between Corporate Strategy and Projects. It enables that fundamental question to be asked before starting the project 'where does it fit into the corporate strategy?'

Aportfoliois a handleless case for carrying in the hand or under the arm.

Portfolio
In finance, aportfoliois a collection of

investments held by an institution or an individual. Holding a portfolio is a part of an investment and risk-limiting strategy calleddiversification. By owning several assets, certain types of risk (in particular specific risk) can be reduced. The assets in the portfolio could includebank accounts,stocks,bonds,options,warr ants,gold certificates,real estate,futures contracts, production

Project portfolio management

A major development in the state of the

art of project management has been the recognition that projects, like other investments, must be managed on a portfolio basis in most large organizations. Programme management is a step in the right direction, but more formalized project portfolio management goes beyond what is usually termed program management. However, a common understanding and use of the terms program, programme and project

 A project portfolio consists of the programmes and projects supporting a given higher-level strategy. There could be only one overall corporate project portfolio, but it generally makes more sense to define more than one portfolio on a strategic basis in large organizations to reflect product line, geographic or technological divisions of the organization, industry or market. Combe and Githens (1999)

Three types of project portfolios:

1.Value creating: Strategic or

enterprise projects. 2.Operational: Projects that make the organization more efficient and satisfy some fundamental functional work. 3.Compliance: "Must-do " projects required to maintain regulatory compliance.

between portfolio and multiple project management

Project Portfolio Management
Purpose Project selection and prioritization resource allocation Strategic

Multiple Project Management

Focus

Tactical

Planning Emphasis

Long & medium-term Short-Term (Day-to(annual/quarterly) day) Executive/senior management

Responsibility

Project/resource managers

Project Portfolio Management Process:

12 steps

1. Define the project portfolios required. 2. Define the project categories within

3.

4. 5. 6.

each portfolio based on uniform criteria. Identify and group all current and proposed projects within appropriate categories and programs. Validate all projects with the organization's strategic objectives. Prioritize projects within programs and portfolios. Develop the project portfolio master schedule.

7. Establish and maintain a key resources data bank. 8. Allocate available resources to programs and projects within portfolios. 9. Compare financial needs (primarily cash flow) with availability. 10. Decide how to respond to shortfalls in money or other key resources and approve list of funded projects and their priorities. 11. Plan, authorize, and manage each program and project using the organization's project management process and supporting systems and tools for each project category. This step comprises the entire practice of what has traditionally been thought of as "project management. 12. Periodically reprioritize, reallocate resources to, and reschedule all programs and

Project manager
A project manager is the person

responsible for accomplishing the stated project objectives. Key project management responsibilities include creating clear and attainable project objectives, building the project requirements, and managing thetriple constraint for projects, which arecost,time, andquality(also known asscope).

Project manager as a client representative

A project manager is often a client

representative and has to determine and implement the exact needs of the client, based on knowledge of the firm they are representing. The ability to adapt to the various internal procedures of the contracting party, and to form close links with the nominated representatives, is essential in ensuring that the key issues of cost, time, quality and above all, client

Manager, Owner and Stakeholders

Programme & project manager

The responsibilities of a programme

manager are similar to but broader than those of a project manager, since the programme manager gives direction to and integrates the efforts of two or more project managers. The programme manager role is of longer duration than that of any of his project managers, since the overlapping projects within a programme rarely, if ever, start and

Harpham (2002, p. 3)
"Unlike projects,

programmes had no distinctive start or end, rather the strategy could be accelerated or slowed down, by introducing new projects, speeding up old existing ones, or slowing up projects, or stopping existing or

Team

Teamcomprise

s agroup of peopleoranima lslinked in a common purpose. Teams are especially appropriate for conducting tasks that are high incomplexitya nd have many interdependent subtasks.

A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills and generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximise his or her strengths and minimise his or her weaknesses. Team members need to learn how to help one another, help other team members realize their true potential, and create an environment that allows everyone to go beyond their limitations

Team building

A team used only for adefinedperiod of

Project teams

time and for a separate, concretely definable purpose, often becomes known as aproject team. Managers commonly label groups of people as a "team" based on having a common function. Members of these teams might belong to different groups, but receive assignment to activities for the sameproject, thereby allowing outsiders to view them as a single unit.

Setting up a team
In this way, setting up a team allegedly facilitates the creation, tracking and assignment of a group of people based on the project in hand. The use of the "team" label in this instance often has no relationship to whether the employees are working as a team.

From Both Sides Now The Job Interview

In the days

when I was responsible for hiring folks,I didn't rely on personality assessments, structured interviews or a list of prewritten questions. My style was simply to chat with the job candidate and rely completely

Be sensitive to international cultural and business differences

Functions and culture

When working in the

global commercial environment, knowledge of the impact of cultural differences is one of the keys to international business success. Improving levels of cultural awareness can help companies build international competencies and

Culture
Singapore is probably the most heavily

Western-influenced of all the major Asian economies and, as such, presents a sometimes confusing mix of solidly traditional Asian values and ultra modern business techniques. Business structures tend towards the hierarchical with decisions made at the top by senior management before being cascaded down the chain. It is unusual for people to display open disagreement with a decision made. Any debate would be held in private.

Singapore is an eclectic mix of ethnic Chinese, Malays, Indians and global expatriates and is therefore difficult to categorise. What is true of the ethnic Chinese approach may be very different in an Indian-oriented company or the regional headquarters of a major MNC. Ensure that people of a similar status deal with senior people. Do not show disrespect by expecting them to deal with younger, more junior colleagues. Managers expect and receive respect. In return for that respect they take a holistic interest in the all-round well being of subordinates. Performance determines promotion within an organisation except within family firms where family bonds are strongly felt. Harmony is sought in meeting situations and everything should be done to promote and maintain that harmony. Remember the importance of safeguarding 'face'. Relationships are the key in Singapore and relationships become difficult if people have lost face.

Some useful tips and hints

Teams work on a consensus decision-

making basis, which can be lengthy and frustrating. Patience is definitely a virtue in these situations. Remember that diplomatic and coded language is the norm and that what is said is not what is necessarily meant. Try to look for the meaning beneath the actual words. If in doubt return to the issue later. No' does not always mean 'no' and 'yes' may merely be an indication of comprehension. Always try to explore beneath the surface level as to what may

Singaporean Teams
Basically group oriented, Singaporeans

make highly effective team players if the team environment engendered promotes the harmonious interaction of individuals rather than a competitive approach. A good team leader will strive hard to develop an atmosphere of consensusstyle decision making within the team in which individual members are shielded from the possibility of 'losing face'. Decisions are team ones and therefore success or failure is also team oriented.

Due to the consensual nature of team decisions, external agents can sometimes feel frustration at the lack of progress. It is difficult to speed along this process from the outside and any seeming interference could be resented, leading to even slower movement.

Britain
The British are almost Asian in their use

of diplomatic language. Almost alone in Europe, (with the possible exception of the Belgians), they strongly place diplomacy before directness in communication. Being very non-confrontational in business situations, the British equate directness with open confrontation and fear that bluntness will offend the other party. This can often lead the British to seem evasive in meeting situations when they are really searching for a way of saying something negative in a positive

In addition to being

diplomatic, the British also use language in a coded manner preferring to say unpalatable things using more acceptable, positive phrases. Thus, "I disagree" becomes "I think you have made several excellent points there but have you ever considered...." And a lack of interest in an idea is often

Humour
Humour is virtually all-

pervasive in business situations. Indeed, the more tense and difficult a situation is, the more likely the British are to use humour. This does not imply that the British are not taking the situation seriously - it is merely that humour is used as a tension release mechanism in the UK and helps to keep situations

Never underestimate a British

businessperson because he or she uses humour in a seemingly inappropriate situation. Humour is a very important and respected communication tool at all levels and in all contexts.

British Teams
The British like decisions to be made in a

team environment and a good manager will work hard to ensure 'buy-in' from his or her team. The team environment aspires to being friendly and companionable with individuals within the team being seen to be supportive and helpful of each other. If, however, something goes wrong, it is not uncommon for the team to look for an individual within the team to blame. ('Blame culture' is something that seems to permeate working life and many organisations work hard to try to change

Team members often bring with them

into the team a certain level of specialisation, but are expected to take a generalist view of the project and their role within the project team. Being seen as a 'good all-rounder' is definitely positive.

Face-to-face (FTF) meetings

Meetings are an important part of the

business transactions. This is because face-to-face (FTF) interaction is the traditional standard on which we base our communication with clientele groups and advisory boards. However, FTF meetings may be an inefficient and costly way to conduct business, particularly when participants must travel a great distance. Over the past few years, travel-related costs (lodging, airfare, meals), have increased at a rate frequently greater than that of

An alternative meeting format

An alternative meeting format

called teleconferencing may be a solution.

Teleconferencing
Teleconferencing is interactive group

communication (three or more people in two or more locations) through an electronic medium.In general terms, teleconferencing can bring people together under one roof even though they're separated by hundreds of miles.

Great development in 50 years

Teleconferencing was first introduced in

the 1960's with American Telephone and Telegraph's Picturephone. At that time, however, no demand existed for the new technology. Travel costs were reasonable and consumers were unwilling to pay the monthly service charge for using the picturephone, which was regarded as more of a novelty than as an actual means for everyday communication. But things have changed in the past 10

Basic Types
1. Video conferencing-television-like

communication augmented with sound. 2. Computer conferencing-printed communication through keyboard terminals. 3. Audio-conferencing - verbal communication via the telephone with optional capacity for telewriting or telecopying.

Advantages

One of the major advantages of teleconferencing is its potential to reduce the cost of group meetings. Savings come primarily from reduced travel costs. In fact, teleconferencing can reduce national business travel-associated costs by about 30% annually-a $4.5 billion savings.

Several other advantages:

People (including outside guest speakers) who

wouldn't normally attend a distant FTF meeting can participate. Follow-up to earlier meetings can be done with relative ease and little expense. Socializing is minimal compared to an FTF meeting; therefore, meetings are shorter and more oriented to the primary purpose of the meeting. Some routine meetings are more effective since one can audioconference from any location equipped with a telephone. Communication between the home office and field staffs is maximized.

Participants are generally better prepared than for FTF meetings. It's particularly satisfactory for simple problem solving, information exchange, and procedural tasks. Group members participate more equally in wellmoderated teleconferences than in an FTF meeting.

Disadvantages
Technical failures with equipment,

including connections that aren't made. Unsatisfactory for complex interpersonal communication, such as negotiation or bargaining. Impersonal, less easy to create an atmosphere of group rapport. Lack of participant familiarity with the equipment, the medium itself, and meeting skills.

Acoustical problems within the teleconferencing rooms. Difficulty in determining participant speaking order; frequently one person monopolizes the meeting. Greater participant preparation and preparation time needed. Informal, one-to-one, social interaction not possible.

Pros & Cons

Teleconferencing can only facilitate

the linking of people-it does not alter the complexity of group communication. Although it may be easier for us to communicate with teleconferencing, it may also be easier for us to miscommunicate.

The increased efficiency of human communication

Teleconferencing has vast potential for

increasing the efficiency of human communication. It means less time away from home, more money to devote to other activities, and more time to spend on other projects. Yet, teleconferencing for all it's worth can never totally replace FTF meetings. FTF interaction is an important part of human communication.

Ready to do your share?