IT 73 SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Unit V
MANAGING PEOPLE AND ORGANIZING TEAMS
1. List some competencies of an IT project manager to make the project success?
a. Recruiting right people
b. Forming a well blend team
c. Building the team
d. Care for the team members
e. Good interaction / communication skills
f. Conduct meeting effectively
g. Good negotiating skill
h. Leadership qualities
i. Presentation skills (oral & written)
j. Appraisal of team
2. What is the most productive way of getting a job done?
a. Selecting the right people for the job
b. Train them on best practices & methods
c. Give higher incentives to ‘better than the best’ among them
d. Improve work environment
e. Show concern to staff
f. Appreciate good work in public
3. How, the people (employees) are categorized in an organization?
People can be categorized in to two
 Has innate dislike for work
 Need coercion, direction and control
 Tend to avoid responsibility
These categories of people need good managers above them to constantly observe,
direct, control and get the work done.
For the second category of people
 Work is natural
 Control coercion and direction comes from themselves
  Believes commitment to work automatically results in self satisfactions and
rewards come naturally.
 Seeking responsibility is a natural process in any organization
 Creativity in work improves organization’s work culture.
Present day IT company imparts training to their employees to make them realize and
convert all of them to second category.
4. List some of the test conducted on ‘eligibility’ candidates to find out their suitability for
the job?
a. Aptitude test
b. Group discussion
c. Technical ability test
d. Personal interview
5. Why the employee selection process is long in IT organization?
The selection process is normally long involving many rounds of tests in an IT
organization because
a) To select suitable candidates from many eligibility candidates
b) IT job involves creativity
c) IT employees needs understanding of new areas all times
d) IT employees is expected to work without supervision, most of the times
e) IT employees must be capable to handle customers and work pressure
f) IT employees must take care of his health to work overtime at crucial
times of need
6. Who is termed as ‘eligible’ candidates and who is a ‘suitable candidates’ for a job?
a. An “Eligible” candidate is a person with right qualification and experience on the
paper.
b. A “suitable” candidate is a person (among eligible candidate) who will do the job
well.
7. List the steps involved in the selection process for a suitable candidate for a job.
The general steps involved in the selection process are
a) Create a job specification
b) Create a job holder’s profile
 c) Obtain applications
d) Scrutinize CV’s
e) Conduct set of tests, if required
f) Conduct personal interview
g) Follow other procedure
8. Why personal interview is a must in a selection process?
All posts, whether preliminary tests are conducted or not, will definitely have at
least one round of personal interview. This interaction will enable personal touch, judge
the body language, pressure handling abilities etc.
9. What are the purposes of an induction program?
The primary purpose of this induction program is to educate the new employee on
a) Work ethics/culture followed by the organization
b) Standarsa to be followed by every employees
c) Introduce team members- formally and informally so that they get well as
a team
d) Any technical knowledge/skill to be built up before putting the person on
the project.
10. Define motivation.
Motivation is defined as a driving force that initiates and directs behavior and
empowers one to set targets and successfully achieve the target.
11. Explain the Taylor’s model for employee compensation and list its drawbacks.
Taylor suggested ‘piece rate’ compensation for manufacturing industries. ‘Piece
rates’ are where workers are paid a fixed sum for each item, they produce. In a software
environment, this cannot be applied. Further, even in manufacturing industries, when work
practices improve the number of piece/day may increase but the wage rate cannot
suddenly shoot up.
The other philosophy is ‘day rate’- it refers to payment for time worked. Even this
approach cannot be applied to software environment as the quality of work produced
cannot be measured in time frame. Again, software work is a team work and not
individual efforts. In this kind of environment, a reward system that makes excessive
distinctions between coworkers could damage morale and productivity.
 So, ‘Project Bonus’ will be given to the team on completion of projects, and staff
who volunteered at the time of need to work more is rewarded suitably.
12. Explain Moslow’s hierarchy of need model.
“The motivation of individuals varies. Money is, by far, the strongest basic
motivators to all, But once the cash need of an individual is satisfied, other motivators
emerge.”
This is what he called as ‘hierarchy of needs’. The first level of need for a human
being is food, shelter, clothes and personal security. Once the above are satisfied then
other needs emerge. According to him, the highest level of need for an individual is ‘self
actualization’ – a feeling that one is completely fulfilling his/her potential.
13. What are the various things that motivate people?
a. Salary increase
b. Security of the job
c. More autonomy on job
d. Increase in responsibility/position
e. Foreign assignment
f. Perks
g. Recognition of individual in public
14. Explain Herzberg’s two factor theory.
a. Hygiene or maintenance factor
Levels of pay, working conditions are examples of hygiene factors on the job. If
they are not right, it will dissatisfy the employees.
b. Motivation factor
Senses of achievement, challenges in the work are examples of motivation
factors. If they are lacking or missing, then these lead to employee dissatisfaction.
15. Explain the expectance theory of motivation.
Three influences on motivation are
a) Expectancy- the belief that working harder will lead to better performance.
b) Instrumentality- the belief that better performance will be rewarded
c) Perceived value- the resulting reward
 When all these three factors are high, the resulting motivation is high. Even if any one
factor is zero then it removes the entire motivation.
16. Define job enlargement.
The job holder carries out wider variety of activities. E.g. A programmer in project ‘A’,
audits the efficiency of programs written for program ‘B’.
17. Define job enrichment.
A job holder carries out a portion of his manager’s responsibility also. E.g. if a
change, to be executed by a programmer, needs approval from his manager, the
programmer himself can analyze the changes and approve it.
18. What are the two categories of team?
a. Formal, hierarchical management structure, based on department teams
b. Informal ‘Task groups’, to carry out a specific task. Here, team members are
drawn from various departments. Once the task is completed, the team is
dismantled.
19. List the various categories of tasks.
Task can be categorized as
a) Additive tasks
b) Compensatory tasks
c) Disjunctive tasks
d) Conjunctive tasks
20. What are the types of decision making?
Decision making are generally of two types
a) Structures- Routine decision where a rule can be applied in a straight
forward way
b) Unstructured- Complex and requires creativity
21. What are the 5 factors of personality?
The five factors are
a) Openness
b) Conscientiousness
c) Extraversion
d) Agreeableness
 e) Neuroticism
22. List the various styles of leadership
a. Authoritarian
b. Participative
c. Delegative
23. When to use the ‘Authoritarian’ styles of leadership?
The ‘Authoritarian’ style should normally only be used on rare occasions. If you
have the time and want to gain more commitment and motivation from your employees,
then you should use the participative style.
24. When to use the ‘participative’ style of leadership?
This is normally used when you have part of the information and your employees
have other part. Note that a leader is not expected to know everything. This is why you
employ knowledgeable and skillful employees. Using this style is to become part of the
team and allows you to make better decisions.
25. When to use the ‘delegative’ style of leadership?
In this style, the leader allows the employees to make the decision. However, the
leader is still responsible for the decisions that are made. This is used when employees
are able to analyze the situation and determine what needs to be done and how to do it.
You cannot do everything. You must set priorities and delegate certain tasks.
26. What influences a leader to choose his style of leadership?
a. How much time is available?
b. Are relationships based on respect and trust or on disrespect?
c. Who has the information- you, your employees or both
d. How well your employees are trained and how well you know the task’
e. Internal conflicts
f. Stress level
g. Type of task. Is it structured, unstructured, complicated or simple?
h. Laws or established procedures such as training plans
27. Differentiate between boss & a leader.
Positive leader use rewards, such as education, independence etc. to motivate
employees while negative leaders emphasize on penalties.
 Negative leaders act domineering and superior with people. They believe the only
way to get things done through penalties, such as loss of jobs, days off without pay,
reprimand employees in front of others, etc. they believe their authority is increased by
frightening every one into higher level productivity. Yet what always happens when this
approach is used wrongly is that morale falls, which leads to lower productivity.
People who continuously work out of the negatives are bosses while those who
primarily work out of the positives are considered real leaders.
28. Define organization.
“Organization can be defined as group of people who must coordinate their
activities in order to meet the objectives of the organization”.
29. What steps must be taken by an organization to increase its maturity levels.
As the software company moves forward, they gain more and more experience
and make their processes more organized. For example
a. Every process is documented, exactly as the way the process is done.
b. Every process within the organization is defined, documented, distributed to key
personnel, practice and improved.
c. The processes are subjected to internal and external audits.
d. Support provided by management is made transparent.
e. Technology is used in a judicious way to improve productivity of every
process/person.
30. List some organizational structures practiced.
a. Functional
b. Matrix
c. Projectised
31. What are the various variants of functional organization structures which facilitates cross
functional projects?
a. Project expeditor structure
b. Project coordinator structure
32. What do you understand by ‘matrix organization’?
In the structure of an organization, when project managers report to specialist
project managers who in turn to CEO directly, the specialist project manager gets as
 much power as that of a functional manager, Such organization is called Matrix
Organization.
33. Draw the generic model of an organization.

CEO/COO Top level senior management

Department managers Middle level management

All other employees worked, as per department manager’s direction

Workers

34. What are the reasons of stress for an IT employee?

An IT project, most of the times, is to achieve a creative piece of work in a time
frame, dictated by customer, which is impossible to achieve.
Due to internet explosion and science fiction movie, the public in general and
customers in particular, think that everything can be achieved using computer by pressing
a button or clicking a mouse.
35. How to avoid stress in work area?
a. Realistic planning
b. Periodic monitoring
c. Avoid role ambiguity
d. Avoid role conflict
36. What is the reason for role ambiguity?
Not defining clearly the work responsibility and expectations from a role and not
documenting them leads to role ambiguity.
37. What is role conflict?
‘Role Conflict’ leads to stress. Example- a person in torn between the demands of
two different roles. The parent of young children might be torn between the need to look
after a sick child and need to attend an important meeting to win new business.
38. List the occupational hazards of an IT employee.
 An IT employee, by the nature of his work
a. Keeps watching the computer screen most of his life.
b. Sits in the chair during most of his office hours.
c. Subjects himself to stress due to impossible target completion dates and
office/customer pressure.
d. Works long hours
e. Skips regular food with respect to time and quality of food.
f. No time for exercise
g. Lack of sleep.
39. List some of the disease an IT worker is prone to due to occupational hazards.
Some of the disease IT worker is prone to are
a. High blood pressure
b. Vulnerability to heart disease
c. Poor eye sight
d. Psychological disorders
e. Prone to cancer
f. Constant headache
g. Weight gain
h. Diabetes
i. Back/neck/shoulder problems
j. Indigestion and constipation
k. Breathing disorders
l. Musculoskeletal disorder
m. Nerve disorder etc
40. List 5 golden rules to better health.
IT staff, as individuals, must follow five easy ways for a better health
1. Move more : At least an hour walk at least 5 days a week.
2. Sit up straight : Posture matters, also take a break every half an hour for
stretching and other pasture exercise.
3. Eat on time-right calorie: Eat home food. Avoid junk food as they have calorific
value. Don’t skip food or eat at odd time.
 4. Go meatless : Substitute high fiber beans, legumes for meat and dairy. A
plant based diet is less fatty compared to animal based diet.
5. Snack better : Keep low fat snacks like carrots and raisins and high fiber
protein like nuts at office desk for evening calorie cravings.
41. What steps can be taken by an IT organization to ensure good health for the employees.
IT companies, as organization, must ensure the following
a. ‘Health and Safety’ must also become one of the objectives of the project.
b. Top management must be committed to the stated safety policies.
c. Delegation of responsibility for safety must be clear.
d. Job description must include duty related safety.
e. Employ a 24*7 safety and health officer at the office.
f. Tie up with a leading hospital to support office medical officer.
g. Consultations on safety, counseling on health regularly.
h. Adequate budget for safety and health.
i. Formal training, workshops on safety and health
j. Make the employees take the ‘earned leave’ and spend with family to relax mind
and body. A trip to a new place with family may be organized by the
organizations.