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PROJECT MANAGEMENT

CONTENTS

Main Body

In the previous wedding case study, it is clear that Steve and Susan have resource
problems. Getting a handle on all of the tasks that have to be done is a great start, but it’s
not enough to know the tasks and the order they come in. Before you can put the final
schedule together, you need to know who is going to do each job, and the things they
need so they can do it.

“We’ve got so much to do! Invitations, catering, music… and I’ve got no idea who’s
going to do it
Previous: 10.all. I’mSchedule
Project totally overwhelmed.”
Planning From this statement it is clear that Susan is
worried about human resources. In comparison, Steve realizes that not all resources are
Next: 12. Budget Planning
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people: “And it’s not just people. We need food, flowers, a cake, a sound system, and a
venue. How do we get a handle on this?”

Resources are people, equipment, place, money, or anything else that you need in order
to do all of the activities that you planned for. Every activity in your activity list needs to
have resources assigned to it. Before you can assign resources to your project, you need
to know their availability. Resource availability includes information about what
resources you can use on your project, when they’re available to you, and the conditions
of their availability. Don’t forget that some resources, like consultants or training rooms,
have to be scheduled in advance, and they might only be available at certain times.
You’ll need to know this before you can finish planning your project. If you are starting
to plan in January, a June wedding is harder to plan than one in December, because the
wedding halls are all booked up in advance. That is clearly a resource constraint. You’ll
also need the activity list that you created earlier, and you’ll need to know how your
organization typically handles resources. Once you’ve got a handle on these things,
you’re set for resource estimation.

The goal of activity resource estimating is to assign resources to each activity in the
activity list. There are five tools and techniques for estimating activity resources.

Expert judgment means bringing in experts who have done this sort of work before and
getting their opinions on what resources are needed.

Alternative analysis means considering several different options for how you assign
resources. This includes varying the number of resources as well as the kind of resources
you use. Many times, there’s more than one way to accomplish an activity and
alternative analysis helps decide among the possibilities.

Published estimating data is something that project managers in a lot of industries use
to help them10.figure
Previous: out
Project how many
Schedule resources they need. They rely on articles, books,
Planning

journals, and periodicals that collect, analyze, and publish data from other people’s
projects.
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Project management software such as Microsoft Project will often have features
designed to help project managers estimate resource needs and constraints and find the
best combination of assignments for the project.

Bottom-up estimating means breaking down complex activities into pieces and
working out the resource assignments for each piece. It is a process of estimating
individual activity resource need or cost and then adding these up together to come up
with a total estimate. Bottom-up estimating is a very accurate means of estimating,
provided the estimates at the schedule activity level are accurate. However, it takes a
considerable amount of time to perform bottom-up estimating because every activity
must be assessed and estimated accurately to be included in the bottom-up calculation.
The smaller and more detailed the activity, the greater the accuracy and cost of this
technique.

Once you’re done with activity resource estimating, you’ve got everything you need to
figure out how long each activity will take. That’s done in a process called activity
duration estimating. This is where you look at each activity in the activity list, consider
its scope and resources, and estimate how long it will take to perform.

Estimating the duration of an activity means starting with the information you have
about that activity and the resources that are assigned to it, and then working with the
project team to come up with an estimate. Most of the time you’ll start with a rough
estimate and then refine it to make it more accurate. You’ll use these five tools and
techniques to create the most accurate estimates:

Expert judgment will come from your project team members who are familiar with the
work that has to be done. If you don’t get their opinion, there’s a huge risk that your
estimates will be wrong.

Analogous
Previous:estimating is whenPlanning
10. Project Schedule you look at similar activities from previous projects and
how long they took. This only works if the activities and resources are similar.
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spreadsheet, database, or computer program that comes up with an estimate. The
software or formula that you use for parametric estimating is based on a database of
actual durations from past projects.

Three-point estimating is when you come up with three numbers: a realistic estimate
that’s most likely to occur, an optimistic one that represents the best-case scenario, and a
pessimistic one that represents the worst-case scenario. The final estimate is the
weighted average of the three.

Reserve analysis means adding extra time to the schedule (called a contingency reserve
or a buffer) to account for extra risk.

(Solutions follow.)

Exercises

In each of the following scenarios of planning Steve and Susan’s wedding,

determine which of the five activity resource estimation tools and techniques is
being used.

1. Sally has to figure out what to do for the music at Steve and Susan’s
wedding. She considers using a DJ, a rock band, or a string quartet.
2. The latest issue of Wedding Planner’s Journal has an article on working
with caterers. It includes a table that shows how many waiters work with
various guest-list sizes.
3. There’s a national wedding consultant who specializes in Caribbean-themed
weddings. Sally gets in touch with her to ask about menu options.
4. Sally downloads and fills out a specialized spreadsheet that a project
manager developed to help with wedding planning.
5. There’s so much work that has to be done to set up the reception hall that
Sally has to break it down into five different activities in order to assign jobs.
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Next: 12. Budget Planning

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6. Sally asks Steve and Susan to visit several different caterers and sample
various potential items for the menu.

7. Sally calls up her friend who knows specifics of the various venues in their
area for advice on which one would work best.

8. There are two different catering companies at the wedding. Sally asks the
head chef at each of them to give her an estimate of how long it will take
each of them to do the job.
9. There’s a spreadsheet Sally always uses to figure out how long it takes guest
to RSVP. She enters the number of guests and their zip codes, and it
calculates estimates for her.
10. Sally’s done four weddings that are very similar to Steve and Susan’s, and in
all four of them, it took exactly the same amount of time for the caterers to
set up the reception hall.

Solutions

1. Alternative analysis
2. Published estimating data
3. Expert judgment

4. Project management software

5. Bottom-up estimating
6. Alternative analysis
7. Expert judgment

8. Expert judgment
9. Parametric estimating
10. Analogous estimating

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The activity duration estimates are an estimate of how long eachNext:

activity in thePlanning
12. Budget activity
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months. Any work period is fine, and you’ll use different work periods for different jobs.
A small job (like booking a DJ) may take just a few hours; a bigger job (like
catering, including deciding on a menu, ordering ingredients, cooking food, and serving
guests on the big day) could take days.

Another thing to keep in mind when estimating the duration of activities is determining
the effort involved. Duration is the amount of the time that an activity takes, while effort
is the total number of person-hours that are expended. If it takes two people six hours to
carve the ice sculpture for the centrepiece of a wedding, the duration is six hours. But if
two people worked on it for the whole time, it took 12 person-hours of effort to create.

You’ll also learn more about the specific activities while you’re estimating them. That’s
something that always happens. You have to really think through all of the aspects of a
task in order to estimate it. As you learn more about the specific activities remember to
update the activity attributes.

If we go back to our case study of the wedding, we can see that while Sally has a handle
on how long things are going to take, she still has some work to do before she has the
whole project under control. Steve and Susan know where they want to get married, and
they have the place booked now. But, what about the caterer? They have no idea who’s
going to be providing food. And what about the band they want? Will the timing with
their schedule work out? “If the caterers come too early, the food will sit around under
heat lamps. But if they come too late, the band won’t have time to play. I just don’t see
how we’ll ever work this out.”

It’s not easy to plan for a lot of resources when they have tight time restrictions and
overlapping constraints. How do you figure out a schedule that makes everything fit
together? You’re never going to have the complete resource picture until you have
finished building the schedule. And the same goes for your activity list and duration
estimates! It’s only when you lay out the schedule that you’ll figure out that some of
your activities and durations didn’t quite work.
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Next: 12. Budget Planning

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The project schedule should be approved and signed off by stakeholders and functional
managers. This ensures they have read the schedule, understand the dates and resource
commitments, and will cooperate. You’ll also need to obtain confirmation that resources
will be available as outlined in the schedule. The schedule cannot be finalized until you
receive approval and commitment for the resource assignments outlined in it. Once the
schedule is approved, it will become your baseline for the remainder of the project.
Project progress and task completion will be monitored and tracked against the project
schedule to determine if the project is on course as planned.

The schedule can be displayed in a variety of ways, some of which are variations of what
you have already seen. Project schedule network diagrams will work as schedule
diagrams when you add the start and finish dates to each activity. These diagrams
usually show the activity dependencies and critical path.

The critical path method is an important tool for keeping your projects on track. Every
network diagram has something that is called the critical path. It’s the string of activities
that, if you add up all of the durations, is longer than any other path through the network.
It usually starts with the first activity in the network and usually ends with the last one.

Steve: Aunt Jane is a vegetarian. That won’t be a problem, right?

Susan: Well, let’s see. What menu did we give the caterers?

Steve: We didn’t give it to them yet because we won’t have the final menu
until everyone RSVPs and lets us know which entrée they want.

Susan: But they can’t RSVP because we haven’t sent out the invitations!
What’s holding that up?

Steve: We’re still waiting to get them back from the printer. We can’t send
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them out if we don’t have them yet! Next: 12. Budget Planning
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Susan: Oh no! I still have to tell the printer what to print on the invitations
and what paper to use.

Steve: But you were waiting on that until we finished the guest list.

Susan: What a mess!

Steve thought Aunt Jane being a vegetarian was just a little problem. But it turns out to
be a lot bigger than either Steve or Susan realized at first. How did a question about one
guest’s meal lead to such a huge mess?

The reason that the critical path is critical is that every single activity on the path must
finish on time in order for the project to come in on time. A delay in any one of the
critical path activities will cause the entire project to be delayed (Figure 11.1).

Figure 11.1: An example of problems that can be caused within the critical path.

Knowing where your critical path is can give you a lot of freedom. If you know an
activity is not on the critical path, then you know a delay in that activity may not
necessarily delay the project. This can really help you handle emergency situations.
Even better, it means that if you need to bring your project in earlier than was originally
planned, you know that adding resources to the critical path will be much more effective
than adding them elsewhere.

It’s easy to find the critical path in any project. Of course, on a large project with dozens
or hundreds of tasks, you’ll probably use software like Microsoft Project to find the
critical path 10.
Previous: forProject
you. But whenPlanning
Schedule it does, it’s following the same exact steps that are
followed here (Figure 11.12).
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Start with a network diagram.
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Figure 11.2 Step 1. Create a Network Diagram

Step 2. Find all the paths in the diagram. A path is any string of activities that goes from
the start of the project to the end.

• Start > Activity “A” > Activity “B” > Finish

• Start > Activity “A” > Activity “C” > Finish
• Start > Activity “D” > Activity “E” > Finish

Step 3. Find the duration of each path by adding up the durations of each of the activities
on the path.

• Start > Activity “A” > Activity “B” > Finish = 4 + 7 = 11

• Start > Activity “A” > Activity “C” > Finish = 4 + 2 = 6
• Start > Activity “D” > Activity “E” > Finish = 3 + 5 = 8

StepPrevious:
4. The 10.
first pathSchedule
Project has a duration of 11, which is longer than the other paths, so it’s
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the critical path.
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Figure 11.3: An example of a Gantt chart.

Resource management is the efficient and effective deployment of an organization’s

resources when they are needed. Such resources may include financial resources,
inventory, human skills, production resources, or information technology (IT). In the
realm of project management, processes, techniques, and philosophies for the best
approach for allocating resources have been developed. These include discussions on
functional versus cross-functional resource allocation as well as processes espoused by
organizations like the Project Management Institute (PMI) through the methodology of
project management outlined in their publication A Guide to the Project Management
Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Resource management is a key element to activity
resource estimating and project human resource management. As is the case with the
larger discipline of project management, there are resource management software tools
available that automate and assist the process of resource allocation to projects.
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Next: 12. Budget Planning

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The most important resource to a project is its people—the project team. Projects require
specific expertise at specific moments in the schedule, depending on the milestones
being delivered or the given phase of the project. An organization can host several
strategic projects concurrently over the course of a budget year, which means that its
employees can be working on more than one project at a time. Alternatively, an
employee may be seconded away from his or her role within an organization to become
part of a project team because of a particular expertise. Moreover, projects often require
talent and resources that can only be acquired via contract work and third party vendors.
Procuring and coordinating these human resources, in tandem with managing the time
aspect of the project, is critical to overall success.

In order to successfully meet the needs of a project, it is important to have a high-

performing project team made up of individuals who are both technically skilled and
motivated to contribute to the project’s outcome. One of the many responsibilities of a
project manager is to enhance the ability of each project team member to contribute to
the project, while also fostering individual growth and accomplishment. At the same
time, each individual must be encouraged to share ideas and work with others toward a
common goal.

Through performance evaluation, the manager will get the information needed to ensure
that the team has adequate knowledge, to establish a positive team environment and a
healthy communication climate, to work properly, and to ensure accountability.

Managing the project team includes appraisal of employee performance and project
performance. The performance reports provide the basis for managerial decisions on
how to manage the project team.

Employee
Previous:performance includes
10. Project Schedule the employee’s work results such as:
Planning

• Quality and quantity of outputs

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• Work behaviour (such as punctuality)

• Job-related attributes (such as cooperation and initiative)

After conducting employee performance reviews, project managers should:

• Provide feedback to employees about how well they have performed on established
goals
• Provide feedback to employees about areas in which they are weak or could do
better

• Take corrective action to address problems with employees performing at or below

minimum expectations
• Reward superior performers to encourage their continued excellence

One resource management technique is resource leveling. It aims at smoothing the stock
of resources on hand, reducing both excess inventories and shortages.

The required data are the demands for various resources, forecast by time period into the
future as far as is reasonable; the resources’ configurations required in those demands;
and the supply of the resources, again forecast by time period into the future as far as is
reasonable.

The goal is to achieve 100% utilization. However that is very unlikely, when weighted
by important metrics and subject to constraints; for example: meeting a minimum quality
level, but otherwise minimizing cost.

Resource leveling is used to examine unbalanced use of resources (usually people or

equipment) over time and for resolving over-allocations or conflicts.
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When performing project planning activities, the manager will attempt to schedule
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certain tasks simultaneously. When more resources such as machines or people are
needed than are available, or perhaps a specific person is needed in both tasks, the tasks
will have to be rescheduled sequentially to manage the constraint. Resource leveling
during project planning is the process of resolving these conflicts. It can also be used to
balance the workload of primary resources over the course of the project, usually at the
expense of one of the traditional triple constraints (time, cost, scope).

When using specially designed project software, leveling typically means resolving
conflicts or over-allocations in the project plan by allowing the software to calculate
delays and update tasks automatically. Project management software leveling requires
delaying tasks until resources are available. In more complex environments, resources
could be allocated across multiple, concurrent projects thus requiring the process of
resource leveling to be performed at company level.

In either definition, leveling could result in a later project finish date if the tasks affected
are in the critical path.

Working with other people involves dealing with them both logically and emotionally. A
successful working relationship between individuals begins with appreciating the
importance of emotions and how they relate to personality types, leadership styles,
negotiations, and setting goals.

Emotions are both a mental and physiological response to environmental and internal
stimuli. Leaders need to understand and value their emotions to appropriately respond to
the client, project team, and project environment.

Emotional intelligence includes the following:

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• Self-awareness Next: 12. Budget Planning

Self-regulation
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• Empathy

• Relationship management

Emotions are important to generating energy around a concept, building commitment to

goals, and developing high-performing teams. Emotional intelligence is an important
part of the project manager’s ability to build trust among the team members and with the
client. It is an important factor in establishing credibility and an open dialogue with
project stakeholders. Emotional intelligence is critical for project managers, and the
more complex the project profile, the more important the project manager’s emotional
intelligence becomes to project success.

Personality types refer to the differences among people in such matters as what
motivates them, how they process information, how they handle conflict, etc.
Understanding people’s personality types is acknowledged as an asset in interacting and
communicating with them more effectively. Understanding your personality type as a
project manager will assist you in evaluating your tendencies and strengths in different
situations. Understanding others’ personality types can also help you coordinate the
skills of your individual team members and address the various needs of your client.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is one of most widely used tools for exploring
personal preference, with more than two million people taking the MBTI each year. The
MBTI is often referred to as simply the Myers-Briggs. It is a tool that can be used in
project management training to develop awareness of preferences for processing
information and relationships with other people.

Based on the theories of psychologist Carl Jung, the Myers-Briggs uses a questionnaire
to gather information on the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and
judgment. Perception represents the way people become aware of people and their
environment. Judgment represents the evaluation of what is perceived. People perceive
things differently and reach different conclusions based on the same environmental
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input. Understanding and accounting for these differences is critical to Budget

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The Myers-Briggs identifies 16 personality types based on four preferences derived from
the questionnaire. The preferences are between pairs of opposite characteristics and
include the following:

• Extroversion (E)-Introversion (I)

• Sensing (S)-Intuition (N)

• Thinking (T)-Feeling (F)

• Judging (J)-Perceiving (P)

Sixteen Myers-Briggs types can be derived from the four dichotomies. Each of the
16 types describes a preference: for focusing on the inner or outer world (E-I), for
approaching and internalizing information (S-I), for making decisions (T-F), and for
planning (J-P). For example, an ISTJ is a Myers-Briggs type who prefers to focus on the
inner world and basic information, prefers logic, and likes to decide quickly.

It is important to note that there is no best type and that effective interpretation of the
Myers-Briggs requires training. The purpose of the Myers-Briggs is to understand and
appreciate the differences among people. This understanding can be helpful in building
the project team, developing common goals, and communicating with project
stakeholders. For example, different people process information differently. Extroverts
prefer face-to-face meetings as the primary means of communicating, while introverts
prefer written communication. Sensing types focus on facts, and intuitive types want the
big picture.

On larger, more complex projects, some project managers will use the Myers-Briggs as a
team-building tool during project start-up. This is typically a facilitated work session
where team members take the Myers-Briggs and share with the team how they process
information, what communication approaches they prefer, and what decision-making
preferences they have. This allows the team to identify potential areas of conflict,
develop communication strategies, and build an appreciation for the diversity of the
team.
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Another theory of personality typing is the DISC method, whichNext:

rates12.people’s
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personalities by testing a person’s preferences in word associations in the following four
areas:

• Dominance/Drive—relates to control, power, and assertiveness

• Inducement/Influence—relates to social situations and communication

• Submission/Steadiness—relates to patience, persistence, and thoughtfulness

• Compliance/Conscientiousness—relates to structure and organization

Understanding the differences among people is a critical leadership skill. This includes
understanding how people process information, how different experiences influence the
way people perceive the environment, and how people develop filters that allow certain
information to be incorporated while other information is excluded. The more complex
the project, the more important the understanding of how people process information,
make decisions, and deal with conflict. There are many personality-type tests that have
been developed and explore different aspects of people’s personalities. It might be
prudent to explore the different tests available and utilize those that are most beneficial
for your team.

Leadership style is a function of both the personal characteristics of the leader and the
environment in which the leadership must occur, and a topic that several researchers
have attempted to understand. Robert Tannenbaum and Warren Schmidt described
leaders as either autocratic or democratic (1958). Harold Leavitt described leaders as
pathfinders (visionaries), problem solvers (analytical), or implementers (team oriented)
(1986). James MacGregor Burns conceived leaders as either transactional (focused on
actions and decisions) or transformational (focused on the long-term needs of the group
and organization) (1978).

Fred Fiedler introduced his contingency theory, which is the ability of leaders to adapt
their leadership approach to the environment (1971). Most leaders have a dominant
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leadership style that is most comfortable for them. For example,Next:

most12.engineers spend
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years training in analytical problem solving and often develop an analytical approach to
leadership.

A leadership style reflects personal characteristics and life experiences. Although a

project manager’s leadership style may be predominantly a pathfinder (using Leavitt’s
taxonomy), most project managers become problem solvers or implementers when they
perceive the need for these leadership approaches. The leadership approach incorporates
the dominant leadership style and Fiedler’s contingency focus on adapting to the project
environment.

No particular leadership approach is specifically appropriate for managing a project. Due

to the unique circumstances inherent in each project, the leadership approach and the
management skills required to be successful vary depending on the complexity profile of
the project. However, the Project Management Institute published Shi and Chen’s
research that studied project management leadership traits and concluded that good
communication skills and the ability to build harmonious relationships and motivate
others are essential (2006). Beyond this broad set of leadership skills, the successful
leadership approach will depend on the profile of the project. For example, a
transactional project manager with a strong command-and-control leadership approach
may be very successful on a small software development project or a construction
project, where tasks are clear, roles are well understood, and the project environment is
cohesive. This same project manager is less likely to be successful on a larger, more
complex project with a diverse project team and complicated work processes.

Matching the appropriate leadership style and approach to the complexity profile of the
project is a critical element of project success. Even experienced project managers are
less likely to be successful if their leadership approach does not match the complexity
profile of the project.

Each project phase may also require a different leadership approach. During the start-up
phase of a project, when new team members are first assigned to the project, the project
mayPrevious:
require10.
a command-and-control leadership approach. Later, as the project moves
into the conceptual phase, creativity becomes important, and the project management
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takes on a more transformational leadership approach. Most experienced project

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Occasionally, on very large and complex projects, some companies will bring in
different project managers for various phases of a project. Changing project managers
may bring the right level of experience and the appropriate leadership approach, but is
also disruptive to a project. Senior management must balance the benefit of matching the
right leadership approach with the cost of disrupting established relationships.

Example: Multinational Textbook Publishing Project

On a project to publish a new textbook at a major publisher, a project manager led a

team that included members from partners that were included in a joint venture. The
editorial manager was Greek, the business manager was German, and other
members of the team were from various locations in the United States and Europe.
In addition to the traditional potential for conflict that arises from team members
from different cultures, the editorial manager and business manager were
responsible for protecting the interest of their company in the joint venture.

The project manager held two alignment or team-building meetings. The first was a
two-day meeting held at a local resort and included only the members of the project
leadership team. An outside facilitator was hired to facilitate discussion, and the
topic of cultural conflict and organizational goal conflict quickly emerged. The
team discussed several methods for developing understanding and addressing
conflicts that would increase the likelihood of finding mutual agreement.

The second team-building session was a one-day meeting that included the
executive sponsors from the various partners in the joint venture. With the project
team aligned, the project manager was able to develop support for the publication
project’s strategy and commitment from the executives of the joint venture. In
addition to building processes that would enable the team to address difficult
cultural differences, the project manager focused on building trust with each of the
team members. The project manager knew that building trust with the team was as
critical to 10.
Previous: theProject
success of thePlanning
Schedule project as the technical project management skills and
devoted significant management time to building and maintaining this trust.
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The project manager must be perceived to be credible by the project team and key
stakeholders. A successful project manager can solve problems and has a high degree of
tolerance for ambiguity. On projects, the environment changes frequently, and the
project manager must apply the appropriate leadership approach for each situation.

The successful project manager must have good communication skills. All project
problems are connected to skills needed by the project manager:

• Breakdown in communication represents the lack of communication skills

• Uncommitted team members represents the lack of team-building skills

• Role confusion represents the lack of organizational skill

Project managers need a large numbers of skills. These skills include administrative
skills, organizational skills, and technical skills associated with the technology of the
project. The types of skills and the depth of the skills needed are closely connected to the
complexity profile of the project. Typically on smaller, less complex projects, project
managers need a greater degree of technical skill. On larger, more complex projects,
project managers need more organizational skills to deal with the complexity. On
smaller projects, the project manager is intimately involved in developing the project
schedule, cost estimates, and quality standards. On larger projects, functional managers
are typically responsible for managing these aspects of the project, and the project
manager provides the organizational framework for the work to be successful.

One of the most important communication skills of the project manager is the ability to
actively listen. Active listening is placing oneself in the speaker’s position as much as
possible, understanding the communication from the point of view of the speaker,
listening to the
Previous: body language
10. Project and other environmental cues, and striving not just to
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hear, but to understand. Active listening takes focus and practice to become effective.
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It enables a project manager to go beyond the basic information that is being shared and
to develop a more complete understanding of the information.

Example: Client’s Body Language

A client just returned from a trip to Australia where he reviewed the progress of the
project with his company’s board of directors. The project manager listened and
took notes on the five concerns expressed by the board of directors to the client.

The project manager observed that the client’s body language showed more tension
than usual. This was a cue to listen very carefully. The project manager nodded
occasionally and clearly demonstrated he was listening through his posture, small
agreeable sounds, and body language. The project manager then began to provide
feedback on what was said using phrases like “What I hear you say is…” or “It
sounds like.…” The project manager was clarifying the message that was
communicated by the client.

The project manager then asked more probing questions and reflected on what was
said. “It sounds as if it was a very tough board meeting.” “Is there something going
on beyond the events of the project?” From these observations and questions, the
project manager discovered that the board of directors meeting did not go well. The
company had experienced losses on other projects, and budget cuts meant fewer
resources for the project and an expectation that the project would finish earlier
than planned. The project manager also discovered that the client’s future with the
company would depend on the success of the project. The project manager asked,
“Do you think we will need to do things differently?” They began to develop a plan
to address the board of directors’ concerns.

Through active listening, the project manager was able to develop an understanding
of the issues that emerged from the board meeting and participate in developing
solutions. Active listening and the trusting environment established by the project
manager enabled the client to safely share information he had not planned on
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sharing and to participate in creating a workable plan that resulted in a successful

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In the example above, the project manager used the following techniques:

• Listening intently to the words of the client and observing the client’s body
language

• Nodding and expressing interest in the client without forming rebuttals

• Providing feedback and asking for clarity while repeating a summary of the
information back to the client
• Expressing understanding and empathy for the client

Active listening was important in establishing a common understanding from which an

effective project plan could be developed.

When multiple people are involved in an endeavor, differences in opinions and desired
outcomes naturally occur. Negotiation is a process for developing a mutually acceptable
outcome when the desired outcome for each party conflicts. A project manager will
often negotiate with a client, team members, vendors, and other project stakeholders.
Negotiation is an important skill in developing support for the project and preventing
frustration among all parties involved, which could delay or cause project failure.

Negotiations involve four principles:

1. Separate people from the problem. Framing the discussions in terms of desired
outcomes enables the negotiations to focus on finding new outcomes.
2. Focus on common interests. By avoiding the focus on differences, both parties are
more open to finding solutions that are acceptable.
3. Generate options that advance shared interests. Once the common interests are
understood, solutions that do not match with either party’s interests can be
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discarded, and solutions that may serve both parties’ interests

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4. Develop results based on standard criteria. The standard criterion is the success of
the project. This implies that the parties develop a common definition of project
success.

For the project manager to successfully negotiate issues on the project, he or she should
first seek to understand the position of the other party. If negotiating with a client, what
is the concern or desired outcome of the client? What are the business drivers and
personal drivers that are important to the client? Without this understanding, it is
difficult to find a solution that will satisfy the client. The project manager should also
seek to understand what outcomes are desirable to the project. Typically, more than one
outcome is acceptable. Without knowing what outcomes are acceptable, it is difficult to
find a solution that will produce that outcome.

One of the most common issues in formal negotiations is finding a mutually acceptable
price for a service or product. Understanding the market value for a product or service
will provide a range for developing a negotiating strategy. The price paid on the last
project or similar projects provides information on the market value. Seeking expert
opinions from sources who would know the market is another source of information.
Based on this information, the project manager can then develop an expected range
within the current market from the lowest price to the highest price.

Additional factors will also affect the negotiated price. The project manager may be
willing to pay a higher price to assure an expedited delivery or a lower price if delivery
can be made at the convenience of the supplier or if payment is made before the product
is delivered. Developing as many options as possible provides a broader range of choices
and increases the possibility of developing a mutually beneficial outcome.

The goal of negotiations is not to achieve the lowest costs, although that is a major
consideration, but to achieve the greatest value for the project. If the supplier believes
that the negotiations process is fair and the price is fair, the project is more likely to
receive higher value from the supplier. The relationship with the supplier can be greatly
influenced
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price unreasonably low or below the market value will create an element of distrust in
the relationship that may have negative consequences for the project. A positive
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negotiation experience may create a positive relationship that may be beneficial,
especially if the project begins to fall behind schedule and the supplier is in a position to
help keep the project on schedule.

Conflict on a project is to be expected because of the level of stress, lack of information

during early phases of the project, personal differences, role conflicts, and limited
resources. Although good planning, communication, and team building can reduce the
amount of conflict, conflict will still emerge. How the project manager deals with the
conflict results in the conflict being destructive or an opportunity to build energy,
creativity, and innovation.

David Whetton and Kim Cameron developed a response-to-conflict model that reflected
the importance of the issue balanced against the importance of the relationship (2005).
The model presented five responses to conflict:

• Avoiding
• Forcing

• Collaborating
• Compromising
• Accommodating

Each of these approaches can be effective and useful depending on the situation. Project
managers will use each of these conflict resolution approaches depending on the project
manager’s personal approach and an assessment of the situation.

Most project managers have a default approach that has emerged over time and is
comfortable. For example, some project managers find the use of the project manager’s
power the easiest
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way to resolve problems. “Do it because I said to” is the
mantra for project managers who use forcing as the default approach to resolve conflict.
Some project managers find accommodating with the client the most effective approach
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The effectiveness of a conflict resolution approach will depend on the situation. The
forcing approach often succeeds in a situation where a quick resolution is needed, and
the investment in the decision by the parties involved is low.

Example: Resolving an Office Space Conflict

Two senior managers both want the office with the window. The project manager
intercedes with little discussion and assigns the window office to the manager with
the most seniority. The situation was a low-level conflict with no long-range
consequences for the project and a solution all parties could accept.

Sometimes office size and location is culturally important, and this situation would
take more investment to resolve.

Example: Conflict Over a Change Order

In another example, the client rejected a request for a change order because she
thought the change should have been foreseen by the project team and incorporated
into the original scope of work. The project controls manager believed the client
was using her power to avoid an expensive change order and suggested the project
team refuse to do the work without a change order from the client.

This is a more complex situation, with personal commitments to each side of the
conflict and consequences for the project. The project manager needs a conflict
resolution approach that increases the likelihood of a mutually acceptable solution
for the project. One conflict resolution approach involves evaluating the situation,
developing a common understanding of the problem, developing alternative
solutions, and mutually selecting a solution. Evaluating the situation typically
includes
Previous:gathering data. In our
10. Project Schedule example of a change order conflict, gathering data
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would include a review of the original scope of work and possibly of people’s
understandings, which might go beyond the written scope.The second step in
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developing a resolution to the conflict is to restate, paraphrase, and reframe the
problem behind the conflict to develop a common understanding of the problem. In
our example, the common understanding may explore the change management
process and determine that the current change management process may not
achieve the client’s goal of minimizing project changes. This phase is often the
most difficult and may take an investment of time and energy to develop a common
understanding of the problem.

After the problem has been restated and agreed on, alternative approaches are
developed. This is a creative process that often means developing a new approach
or changing the project plan. The result is a resolution to the conflict that is
mutually agreeable to all team members. If all team members believe every effort
was made to find a solution that achieved the project charter and met as many of the
team member’s goals as possible, there will be a greater commitment to the agreed-
on solution.

Delegating responsibility and work to others is a critical project management skill. The
responsibility for executing the project belongs to the project manager. Often other team
members on the project will have a functional responsibility on the project and report to
a functional manager in the parent organization. For example, the procurement leader for
a major project may also report to the organization’s vice-president for procurement.
Although the procurement plan for the project must meet the organization’s procurement
policies, the procurement leader on the project will take day-to-day direction from the
project manager. The amount of direction given to the procurement leader, or others on
the project, is the decision of the project manager.

If the project manager delegates too little authority to others to make decisions and take
action, the lack
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Delegating too much authority to others who do not have the knowledge, skills, or
information will typically cause problems that result in delay or increased cost to the
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When developing the project team, the project manager selects team members with the
knowledge, skills, and abilities to accomplish the work required for the project to be
successful. Typically, the more knowledge, skills, abilities, and experience a project
team member brings to the project, the more that team member will be paid. To keep the
project personnel costs lower, the project manager will develop a project team with the
level of experience and the knowledge, skills, and abilities to accomplish the work.

On smaller, less complex projects, the project manager can provide daily guidance to
project team members and be consulted on all major decisions. On larger, more complex
projects, there are too many important decisions made every day for the project manager
to be involved at the same level, and project team leaders are delegated decision-making
authority. Larger projects, with a more complex profile will typically pay more because
of the need for the knowledge and experience. On larger, more complex projects, the
project manager will develop a more experienced and knowledgeable team that will
enable the project manager to delegate more responsibility to these team members.

Example Learning Project in Peru

An instructional design project in Peru was falling behind schedule, and a new
manager was assigned to the design team, which was the one most behind schedule.
He was an experienced project manager from the United States with a reputation for
meeting aggressive schedules. However, he failed to see that as a culture, Peruvians
do a great deal more socializing than teams in the U.S. The project manager’s
communication with the team was then limited because he did not go out and spend
time with them, and his team did not develop trust or respect for him. Due to these
cultural differences, the project fell further behind, and another personnel change
had to be made at a significant cost of time, trust, and money.

The project manager must have the skills to evaluate the knowledge, skills, and abilities
of project team members and evaluate the complexity and difficulty of the project
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assignment. Often project managers want project team membersNext:

they12.have worked
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in the past. Because the project manager knows the skill level of the team member,
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project assignments can be made quickly with less supervision than with a new team
member with whom the project manager has little or no experience.

Delegation is the art of creating a project organizational structure with the work
organized into units that can be managed. Delegation is the process of understanding the
knowledge, skills, and abilities needed to manage that work and then matching the team
members with the right skills to do that work. Good project managers are good
delegators.

Remember that personality traits reflect an individual’s preferences, not their limitations.
It is important to understand that individuals can still function in situations for which
they are not best suited. It is also important to realize that you can change your
leadership style according to the needs of your team and the particular project’s
attributes and scope.

For example, a project leader who is more thinking (T) than feeling (F) (according to the
Myers-Briggs model) would need to work harder to be considerate of how team
members who are more feeling (F) might react if they were singled out in a meeting
because they were behind schedule. If individuals knows their own preferences and
which personality types are most successful in each type of project or project phase, they
can set goals for improvement in their ability to perform in those areas that are not their
natural preference.

Another individual goal is to examine which conflict resolution styles you are least
comfortable and work to improve those styles so that they can be used when they are
more appropriate than your default style.

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A team is a collaboration of people with different personalities that is led by a person
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with a favoured leadership style. Managing the interactions of these personalities and
styles as a group is an important aspect of project management.

Trust is the foundation for all relationships within a project. Without a minimum level of
trust, communication breaks down, and eventually the project suffers in the form of costs
increasing and schedules slipping. Often, when reviewing a project where the
performance problems have captured the attention of upper management, the evidence of
problems is the increase in project costs and the slippage in the project schedule. The
underlying cause is usually blamed on communication breakdown. With deeper
investigation, the communication breakdown is associated with a breakdown in trust.

On projects, trust is the filter through which we screen information that is shared and the
filter we use to screen information we receive. The more trust that exists, the easier it is
for information to flow through the filters. As trust diminishes, the filters become
stronger and information has a harder time getting through, and projects that are highly
dependent on an information-rich environment will suffer from information deprivation.

A project typically begins with a charter or contract. A contract is a legal agreement that
includes penalties for any behaviour or results not achieved. Contracts are based on an
adversarial paradigm and do not lend themselves to creating an environment of trust.
Contracts and charters are necessary to clearly establish the scope of the project, among
other things, but they are not conducive to establishing a trusting project culture.

A relationship of mutual trust is less formal but vitally important. When a person or team
enters into a relationship of mutual trust, each person’s reputation and self-respect are
the drivers in meeting the intent of the relationship. A relationship of mutual trust within
the context of a project is a commitment to an open and honest relationship. There is
nothing that10.
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people involved. Smaller, less complex projects can operate within the boundaries of a
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legal contract, but larger, more complex projects must develop a relationship of mutual
trust to be successful.

Svenn Lindskold describes four kinds of trust (1978):

• Objective credibility. A personal characteristic that reflects the truthfulness of an

individual that can be checked against observable facts.

• Attribution of benevolence. A form of trust that is built on the examination of the

person’s motives and the conclusion that they are not hostile.
• Non-manipulative trust. A form of trust that correlates to a person’s self-interest
and the predictability of a person’s behaviour in acting consistent in that self-
interest.
• High cost of lying. The type of trust that emerges when persons in authority raise
the cost of lying so high that people will not lie because the penalty will be too
high.

Building trust on a project begins with the project manager. On complex projects, the
assignment of a project manager with a high trust reputation can help establish the trust
level needed. The project manager can also establish the cost of lying in a way that
communicates an expectation and a value for trust on the project. Project managers can
also assure that the official goals (stated goals) and operational goals (goals that are
reinforced) are aligned. The project manager can create an atmosphere where informal
communication is expected and reinforced.

The informal communication is important to establishing personal trust among team

members and with the client. Allotting time during project start-up meetings to allow
team members to develop a personal relationship is important to establishing the team
trust. The informal discussion allows for a deeper understanding of the whole person and
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Example: High Cost of Lying in a Charleston Project

On a project in Charleston, South Carolina, the client was asking for more and more
backup to information from the project. The project manager visited the client to
better understand the reporting requirements and discovered the client did not trust
the reports coming from the project and wanted validating material for each report.
After some candid discussion, the project manager discovered that one of the
project team members had provided information to the client that was inaccurate.
The team member had made a mistake but had not corrected it with the client,
hoping that the information would get lost in the stream of information from the
project. The project manager removed the team member from the project for two
main reasons. The project manager established that the cost of lying was high. The
removal communicated to the project team an expectation of honesty. The project
manager also reinforced a covenant with the client that reinforced the trust in the
information the project provided. The requests for additional information declined,
and the trust relationship between project personnel and the client remained high.

Small events that reduce trust often take place on a project without anyone remembering
what happened to create the environment of distrust. Taking fast and decisive action to
establish a high cost of lying, communicating the expectation of honesty, and creating an
atmosphere of trust are critical steps a project manager can take to ensure the success of
complex projects.

Project managers can also establish expectations of team members to respect individual
differences and skills, look and react to the positives, recognize each other’s
accomplishments, and value people’s self-esteem to increase a sense of the benevolent
intent.

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Team meetings are conducted differently depending on the purpose of the meeting, the
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leadership style that is appropriate for the meeting, and the personality types of the
members of the team.

Action item meetings are short meetings to develop a common understanding of what
the short-term priorities are for the project, individual roles, and expectations for specific
activities. This type of meeting is for sharing, not problem solving. Any problems that
emerge from the discussion are assigned to a person, and another meeting is established
to address the issue. Action item meetings focus on short-term activities, usually less
than a week in duration.

The action item meeting is fact based and information oriented. It is a left-brain-type
focus. The action item meeting has very little dialogue except to ask clarification
questions. If discussion is needed or disagreement is not easily resolved, another
problem-solving meeting is established to deal with that issue. On smaller topics, that
meeting might take place immediately after the action item meeting and only include
those people with an interest in the outcome of the discussion.

The project manager keeps the successful action item meeting short in duration and
focused on only those items of information needed for the short-term project plan. The
project manager will restate the common understandings of what activities are priorities
and who will be responsible for the activities. Often these meetings can include a review
of safety procedures or security procedures when these issues are important to the
project. The leadership approach to action item meetings focuses on data, actions, and
commitments. Although the project manager may observe stresses between project team
members or other issues, they are not addressed in this meeting. These are fact-based
meetings. If issues begin to arise between people, the project manager will develop other
opportunities to address these issues in another forum. Using the Myers-Briggs
descriptions, team members who favour thinking more than feeling and judging more
than perceiving are more comfortable with this type of meeting.
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oriented toward developing plans, tracking progress of existing plans, and making
adjustments to plans in response to new information.

These meetings include focused discussion on generating a common understanding of

the progress of the existing plan. This discussion is based on quantitative information
provided on the progress of the schedule and other data, but the discussion is qualitative
in evaluating the data to develop a more complete understanding of the data. The
experience and opinions of the project leaders are solicited, and disagreement about
meaning of the data is even encouraged to develop a deeper understanding of the data.
Through this discussion, a common understanding of the status of the project should
emerge, and the project manager invites discussion, invites people to offer their
thoughts, and assures that disagreements are positive discussions about interpretation of
the information and that disagreements do not become personal.

Management meetings also focus on developing mid-term goals. For larger, more
complex projects, the goals may be monthly or even quarterly. For smaller or less
complex projects, weekly goals will provide the focus. The project manager focuses the
discussion on the broad priorities for the next period and includes all the functional
leaders in the discussion. The goals that emerge from the discussion should represent a
common understanding of the priorities of the project for the next term.

For example, during the early phases of a project, the team is focused on developing a
conceptual understanding of the project. A major milestone on complex projects is
typically the completion of the conceptual plan. The project manager would lead a
discussion on what needs to be accomplished to meet the project milestone and asks
what potential barriers exist and what key resources are needed. From the discussion, the
project team develops a few key goals that integrate the various functions of the project
team and focus the team on priorities.

The following are some examples of goals during the conceptual phase:

• Developing a list of the procurement long-lead items and defining critical dates
• Developing a human resources plan that identifies critical positions
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• Developing and building agreement with the client on the project scope of work
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Each of these goals is measurable and has a time frame specified. They can be developed
as positive motivators and will take the project leaders and most of the project team to
accomplish. They develop a general understanding of the priorities and are easy to
remember.

Management meetings are a combination of left-brain thinking, which is fact based, and
right-brain thinking, which is creative and innovative. Using the Myers-Briggs
terminology, team members who prefer feeling over thinking and perceiving over
judging can contribute ideas and perspectives on the project that the more fact-oriented
members might miss.

The project manager allows and encourages conversation in developing and evaluating
the goals but focuses the discussion on the goals and obstacles. Management meetings
take on a different focus during the month. Meetings at the beginning of the month
spend time addressing the progress and potential barriers to the goals developed the
previous month. During the middle of the month, the project manager leads the team to
develop next month’s goals as the team also works on the current month’s goals. Toward
the end of the month as the goals for the month are accomplished, the meeting focuses
more on the next month, enabling the team to remain goal focused during the life of the
project.

Management meetings are also an opportunity to discover obstacles to goal achievement.

The project team reallocates resources or develops alternative methods for
accomplishing the goals. As the project team discusses the progress of project goals, the
project manager explores possible obstacles and encourages exposing potential problems
in achieving goals. The project manager focuses the team on finding solutions and
avoids searching for blame.

The project manager uses a facilitative leadership approach, encouraging the

management team to contribute their ideas, and builds consensus on what goals will
bring the appropriate focus. The project manager keeps the focus on developing the
goals, tracking progress, identifying barriers, and making adjustments to accomplish the
management goals. Although there are typically meetings for scheduling and
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procurement and other meetings where goals are established andNext:

problems solved,
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management meeting and the goal development process create alignment among the
project leadership on the items critical to the project’s success.

Leadership meetings are held less frequently and are longer in length. These meetings
are used by the project manager to reflect on the project, explore the larger issues of the
project, and back away from the day-to-day problem solving. The project manager will
create a safe environment for sharing thoughts and evaluations of issues that are less data
oriented. This is a right-brained, creative meeting that focuses on the people issues of the
project: the relationship with the client, vendors, and project team. Team members who
favour feeling, perceiving, and intuition often contribute valuable insights in this type of
meeting. The team might also share perceptions by upper management and perceptions
of the community in which the project is being executed. Where the time frame for
action item meetings is in weeks and management meetings is in months, the time frame
for leadership meetings is longer and takes in the entire length and impact of the project.

The project manager’s meeting management skill includes creating the right meeting
atmosphere for the team discussion that is needed. For discussions based on data and
facts, the project manager creates the action item type meeting. The conversation is
focused on sharing information and clarification. The conversation for leadership
meetings is the opposite. Discussion is more open ended and focused on creativity and
innovation. Because each type of meeting requires a different meeting atmosphere,
mixing the purposes of a meeting will make it difficult for the project manager to
develop and maintain the appropriate kind of conversation.

Skilled project managers know what type of meeting is needed and how to develop an
atmosphere to support the meeting type. Meetings of the action item type are focused on
information sharing with little discussion. They require efficient communication of
plans, progress, and other information team members need to plan and execute daily
work. Management type meetings are focused on developing and progressing goals.
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These three types of meetings do not cover all the types of project meetings.
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project meetings. Understanding what kinds of meetings are needed on the project and
creating the right focus for each meeting type is a critical project management skill.

Teams can outperform individual team members in several situations. The effort and
time invested in developing a team and the work of the team are large investments of
project resources, and the payback is critical to project success. Determining when a
team is needed and then chartering and supporting the development and work of the
team are other critical project management abilities.

Teams are effective in several project situations:

• When no one person has the knowledge, skills, and abilities to either understand or
solve the problem
• When a commitment to the solution is needed by large portions of the project team

• When the problem and solution cross project functions

• When innovation is required

Individuals can outperform teams on some occasions. An individual tackling a problem

consumes fewer resources than a team and can operate more efficiently—as long as the
solution meets the project’s needs. A person is most appropriate in the following
situations:

• When speed is important

• When one person has the knowledge, skills, and resources to solve the problem
• When the activities involved in solving the problem are very detailed
• When the actual document needs to be written (Teams can provide input, but
writing is a solitary task.)
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In addition to knowing when a team is appropriate, the project manager must also
understand what type of team will function best.
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A functional team refers to the team approach related to the project functions. The
engineering team, the procurement team, and the project controls team are examples of
functional teams within the project. On a project with a low complexity profile that
includes low technological challenges, good team member experience, and a clear scope
of work, the project manager can utilize well-defined functional teams with clear
expectations, direction, and strong vertical communication.

Cross-functional teams address issues and work processes that include two or more of
the functional teams. The team members are selected to bring their functional expertise
to addressing project opportunities.

Example: Cross-Functional Teamwork

A cross-functional project team in Tennessee was assigned to develop a project

approach to drafting, shooting, and editing educational videos without storing the
videos on the school server. Although the complexity of this goal is primarily
related to creating the videos and procuring editing equipment, the planning
involved coordination of the script drafting, procurement of equipment and talent,
and establishment of project controls. Team members from each of these functions
developed and tracked a plan to meet the project goal. Because they communicated
so frequently and clearly, the cross-functional team was successful in designing a
process and executing the plan in a way that saved three weeks on the video
schedule and several thousand dollars in cost by hosting off-site.

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Problem-solving teams are assigned to address specific issues that arise during the life of
the project. The project leadership includes members that have the expertise to address
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Project managers should provide an opportunity to ask such questions as “What is your
gut feeling about how the project going?” and “How do you think our client perceives
the project?” This creates the opportunity for reflection and dialogue around larger
issues on the project. The project manager creates an atmosphere for the team to go
beyond the data and search for meaning. This type of discussion and reflection is very
difficult in the stress of day-to-day problem solving.

The project manager has several tools for developing good quantitative
information—based on numbers and measurements—such as the project schedules,
budgets and budget reports, risk analysis, and goal tracking. This quantitative
information is essential to understanding the current status and trends on the project. Just
as important is the development of qualitative information—comparisons of
qualities—such as judgments made by expert team members that go beyond the
quantitative data provided in a report. Some would label this the “gut feeling” or
intuition of experienced project managers.

The Humm Factor is a survey tool developed by Russ Darnall to capture the thoughts of
project participants. It derived its name from a project manager who always claimed he
could tell you more by listening to the hum of the project than reading all the project
reports. “Do you feel the project is doing the things it needs to do to stay on schedule?”
and “Is the project team focused on project goals?” are the types of questions that can be
included in the Humm Factor. It is distributed on a weekly or less frequent basis
depending on the complexity profile of the project. A project with a high level of
complexity due to team-based and cultural issues will be surveyed more frequently.

The qualitative responses are converted to a quantitative value as a score from 1 to 10.
Responses are tracked by individuals and the total project, resulting in qualitative
comparisons over time. The project team reviews the ratings regularly, looking for
trends that indicate an issue may be emerging on the project that might need exploring.
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Example: Humm Survey Uncovers Concerns Next: 12. Budget Planning

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On a project in South Carolina, the project surveyed the project leadership with a
Humm Survey each week. The Humm Factor indicated an increasing worry about
the schedule beginning to slip when the schedule reports indicated that everything
was according to plan. When the project manager began trying to understand why
the Humm Factor was showing concerns about the schedule, he discovered an
apprehension about the performance of a critical project supplier. When he asked
team members, they responded, “It was the way they answered the phone or the
hesitation when providing information—something didn’t feel right.”

The procurement manager visited the supplier and discovered the company was
experiencing financial problems and had serious cash flow problems. The project
manager was able to develop a plan to help the supplier through the period, and the
supplier eventually recovered. The project was able to meet performance goals. The
Humm Factor survey provided a tool for members of the project team to express
concerns that were based on very soft data, and the project team was able to
discover a potential problem.

Another project team used the Humm Factor to survey the client monthly. The
completed surveys went to a person who was not on the project team to provide
anonymity to the responses. The responses were discussed at the monthly project
review meetings, and the project manager summarized the results and addressed all
the concerns expressed in the report. “I don’t feel my concerns are being heard”
was one response that began increasing during the project, and the project manager
spent a significant portion of the next project review meeting attempting to
understand what this meant. The team discovered that as the project progressed
toward major milestones, the project team became more focused on solving daily
problems, spent more time in meetings, and their workday was becoming longer.
The result was fewer contacts with the clients, slower responses in returning phone
calls, and much fewer coffee breaks where team members could casually discuss
the project with the client.

The result of the conversation led to better understanding by both the project team
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and client team of the change in behaviour based on the current phase
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and the commitment to developing more frequent informal discussion about the
project.

Project managers have a unique opportunity during the start-up of a project. They create
a project culture, something organizational managers seldom have a chance to do. In
most organizations, the corporate or organizational culture has developed over the life of
the organization, and people associated with the organization understand what is valued,
what has status, and what behaviours are expected. Edgar Schein identified three distinct
levels in organizational culture.

1. Artifacts and behaviours

2. Espoused values
3. Assumptions

Artifacts are the visible elements in a culture and they can be recognized by people not
part of the culture. Espoused values are the organization’s stated values and rules of
behaviour. Shared basic assumptions are the deeply embedded, taken-for-granted
behaviours that are usually unconscious, but constitute the essence of culture.

A project culture represents the shared norms, beliefs, values, and assumptions of the
project team. Understanding the unique aspects of a project culture and developing an
appropriate culture to match the complexity profile of the project are important project
management abilities.

Culture is developed through the communication of:

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The given status
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• The alignment of official and operational rules

Official rules are the rules that are stated, and operational rules are the rules that are
enforced. Project managers who align official and operational rules are more effective in
developing a clear and strong project culture because the project rules are among the
first aspects of the project culture to which team members are exposed when assigned to
the project.

Example: Operational Rules on a Multi-site Project

During an instructional design project that required individuals to collaborate

remotely, an official rule had been established that individuals would back up their
work in a location other than the shared folders they were using every week. It did
not take long, however, for everyone involved to see that one member was actively
backing up all work. Believing that was sufficient, the operational rule became
simply leaving the backing up to a single individual. They assumed that official
rules could be ignored if they were difficult to obey.

When this individual fell ill, however, no one picked up the slack and followed the
official rule. When some files were corrupted, the team found that their most recent
backups were weeks old, resulting in redoing a lot of work. The difference between
the official rules and the operational rules of the project created a culture that made
communication of the priorities more difficult.

In addition to official and operational rules, the project leadership communicates what is
important by the use of symbols, storytelling, rituals, rewards or punishments, and
taboos.

Example: Creating a Culture of Collaboration

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A project manager met with his team prior to the beginning of an instructional
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design project. The team was excited about the prestigious project and the potential
for career advancement involved. With this increased competitive aspect came the
danger of selfishness and backstabbing. The project leadership team told stories of
previous projects where people were fired for breaking down the team efforts and
often shared inspirational examples of how teamwork created unprecedented
successes—an example of storytelling. Every project meeting started with team-
building exercises—a ritual—and any display of hostility or separatism was
forbidden—taboo—and was quickly and strongly cut off by the project leadership if
it occurred.

Culture guides behaviour and communicates what is important and is useful for
establishing priorities. On projects that have a strong culture of trust, team members feel
free to challenge anyone who breaks a confidence, even managers. The culture of
integrity is stronger than the cultural aspects of the power of management.

The requirement of innovation on projects is influenced by the nature of the project.

Some projects are chartered to develop a solution to a problem, and innovation is a
central ingredient of project success. The lack of availability of education to the world at
large prompted the open education movement, a highly innovative endeavor, which
resulted in the textbook you are now reading. Innovation is also important to developing
methods of lowering costs or shortening the schedule. Traditional project management
thinking provides a trade-off between cost, quality, and schedule. A project sponsor can
typically shorten the project schedule with an investment of more money or a lowering
of quality. Finding innovative solutions can sometimes lower costs while also saving
time and maintaining the quality.

Innovation is a creative process that requires both fun and focus. Stress is a biological
reaction to perceived
Previous: threats. Stress,
10. Project Schedule Planningat appropriate levels, can make the work
environment interesting and even challenging. Many people working on projects enjoy a
high-stress, exciting environment. When the stress level is too high, the biological
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reaction increases blood flow to the emotional parts of the brain and decreases the blood
flow to the creative parts of the brain, making creative problem solving more difficult.
Fun reduces the amount of stress on the project. Project managers recognize the benefits
of balancing the stress level on the project with the need to create an atmosphere that
enables creative thought.

Example: Stress Managed on a Website Design Project

When a project manager visited the team tasked with designing the website for a
project, she found that most of the members were feeling a great deal of stress. As
she probed to find the reason behind the stress, she found that in addition to
designing, the team was increasingly facing the need to build the website as well.
As few of them had the necessary skills, they were wasting time that could be spent
designing trying to learn building skills. Once the project manager was able to
identify the stress as well as its cause, she was able to provide the team with the
support it needed to be successful.

Exploring opportunities to create savings takes an investment of time and energy, and on
a time-sensitive project, the project manager must create the motivation and the
opportunity for creative thinking.

Burns, J.M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.

Fiedler, F.E. (1971). Validation and Extension of the Contingency Model of Leadership
Effectiveness. Psychological Bulletin, 76(2), 128–48.

Leavitt, H. (1986). Corporate Pathfinders. New York: Dow-Jones-Irwin and Penguin

Books.
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Lindskold, S. (1978). Trust Development, the GRIT Proposal, and the

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Budget Planning
Conciliatory Acts on Conflict and Corporation. Psychological Bulletin 85(4), 772–93.
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Shi, Q., & Chen, J. (2006). The Human Side of Project Management: Leadership
Skills. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, Inc.

Tannenbaum, R., & Schmidt, W. (1958). How to Choose a Leadership Pattern. Harvard
Business Review 36, 95–101.

Whetton, D., & Cameron, K. (2005). Developing Management Skills. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Pearson Education.

This chapter of Project Management is a derivative of the following texts:

• Project Management by Merrie Barron and Andrew Barron. © CC BY

(Attribution).

• Project Management/PMBOK/Human Resources Management and Development

Cooperation Handbook/How do we manage the human resources of programmes
and projects?/Manage the Project Team by Wikibooks. © CC BY-SA (Attribution-
ShareAlike).
• Resource Management, Edgar Schein, and Resource Leveling by Wikipedia. © CC
BY-SA (Attribution-ShareAlike).
• Project Management for Instructional Designers by Amado, M., et. al. © Creative
Commons Attribution 3.0 Licence.

• Wedding Critical Path by Barron & Barron Project Management for Scientists and
Engineers © CC BY (Attribution)
• Step 1 Network Diagram by Barron & Barron Project Management for Scientists
and Engineers © CC BY (Attribution)
•Previous:
MindView Gantt Chart by Matchware Inc (MindView) © CC BY-SA (Attribution
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