Work Performance Domain

Week 9
The Project Work Performance Domain addresses activities and functions associated with
establishing project processes, managing physical resources, and fostering a learning
environment.
Effective execution of this performance domain results in the following desired outcomes:
 Efficient and effective project performance.
 Project processes are appropriate for the project and the environment.
 Appropriate communication with stakeholders.
 Efficient management of physical resources.
 Effective management of procurements. Improved team capability due to continuous
learning and process improvement.
Factors relevant to project work performance
domain
 Bid Documents. All documents used to solicit information, quotations, or proposals from
prospective sellers.
 Bidder Conference. The meetings with prospective sellers prior to the preparation of a bid
or proposal to ensure all prospective vendors have a clear and common understanding of
the procurement. Also known as contractor conferences, vendor conferences, or pre-bid
conferences.
 Explicit Knowledge. Knowledge that can be codified using symbols such as words,
numbers, and pictures.
 Tacit Knowledge. Personal knowledge that can be difficult to articulate and share such as
beliefs, experience, and insights.
Project work keeps the project team focused and project activities running smoothly. This
includes but is not limited to:
▶ Managing the flow of existing work, new work, and changes to work;
▶ Keeping the project team focused;
▶ Establishing efficient project systems and processes;
▶ Communicating with stakeholders;
▶ Managing material, equipment, supplies, and logistics;
▶ Working with contracting professionals and vendors to plan and manage procurements and
contracts;
▶ Monitoring changes that can affect the project; and
▶ Enabling project learning and knowledge transfer.
Project Processes
 Project manager and project team establish and periodically review the processes the
project team is using to conduct the work.
 It can be reviewing task boards to identifying bottlenecks in the progress.
 To check if the work is flowing at expected rate, and if there are any impediments that are
blocking progress.
 In general large projects have more processes compared to small projects;
 And critical projects have more processes than less significant projects.
 What to do, if any changes are required?
 We TAILOR
 Tailoring can help in optimizing the process for the need of the project.
 By taking into considerations of the environment.
 So, ways of optimizing the process for the environment include:
 Lean production methods: Lean production uses techniques such as value stream mapping
to measure the ratio of value-adding activities and non-value-adding activities. The metrics
calculated form a basis and measurement system for identifying and removing waste from
production systems.
 Retrospectives or lessons learned. These meetings provide an opportunity for the project
team to review the way in which it works and to suggest changes to improve process and
efficiency.
 Where is the next best funding spent? Asking this question can help project teams
determine if they should continue with the current task or move onto the next activity to
optimize value delivery.
 Reviewing processes can guide in determining if processes are efficient, or any waste that
can be eliminated.
 Time spent tracking conformance to process is time the project team cannot spend on
delivering the outcomes for which the project was commissioned. Therefore, project teams
utilize just enough time reviewing process conformance to maximize the benefits delivered
from the review while still satisfying the governance needs of process.
 In addition to being efficient, processes should be effective.
 This means they need to comply with quality requirements, regulations, standards, and
organizational policies in addition to producing the desired outcome.
 Process evaluation can include process audits and quality assurance activities to ensure
processes are being followed and are accomplishing the intended outcomes.
Balancing Competing Constraints

 Successfully leading a project includes understanding the constraints associated with the
work.
 Constraints can take the form of fixed delivery dates, compliance to regulatory codes, a
predetermined budget, quality policies, considerations of the triple bottom line, and so
forth.
 Constraints may shift and change throughout the project.
 A new stakeholder requirement may entail expanding the schedule and budget.
 E.g. A reduction in budget may entail relaxing a quality requirement or reducing scope
 Balancing these shifting constraints, while maintaining stakeholder satisfaction, is an ongoing
project activity. At times, it may include meeting with the customer, sponsor, or product owner
to present alternatives and implications. Other times, the decisions and potential variances may
be within the project team’s authority to make trade-offs to deliver the end result. Either way,
this balancing activity is ongoing throughout the project.
Maintaining Project team focus

 Project managers have a responsibility for assessing and balancing the project team focus
and attention.
 They do it by evaluating short and long term projections of progress toward delivery goals.
 To maximize business and stakeholder value delivered throughout the project, project team
attention needs to be kept in a healthy balance.
 Leading with a goal of maximizing overall delivered value involves focusing on
production (delivering value) and protecting the project team’s production capability
(project team health and satisfaction).
Project Communication and Engagement

 As discussed in Stakeholder Performance Domain, communication entails formal and

informal communication, in addition to verbal and written communication.
 Information can be collected in meetings, conversations, and by pulling information from
electronic repositories.
 Once collected, it is distributed as indicated in the project management communications
plan
 On a day-to-day basis, there are ad hoc requests for information, presentations, reports,
and other forms of communication. An abundance of ad hoc communication requests may
indicate that the communication planning was not sufficient to meet stakeholder needs. In
this situation, further stakeholder engagement may be necessary to ensure stakeholder
information requirements are met.
Managing physical resources

 Project require material and supplies from third parties.

 Planning, ordering, transporting, storing, tracking and controlling these physical resources
can take a large amount of time and effort.
 Physical resources require integrated logistics system
 This is usually documented in companies policies that are then implemented in projects
 Logistic plan
 Supporting documentation
 A logistics plan describes how the company policy will be implemented on the project.
 Supporting documentation includes estimates for the type of material, basis of estimates,
expected usage over time, specifications for grade, and the time and location for deliveries.
The objectives from a physical resource perspective are to:
▶ Reduce or eliminate the material handling and storage on site,
▶ Eliminate wait times for materials,
▶ Minimize scrap and waste, and
▶ Facilitate a safe work environment.
All of this work is integrated with the master project schedule to provide clear expectations
and communications for all parties involved
WORKING WITH PROCUREMENTS
 Many projects involve some form of contracting or procurement.
 Procurement can cover everything from material, capital equipment, and supplies to
solutions, labor, and services.
 In most organizations, project managers do not have contracting authority. Rather, they
work with contracting officers or other people with expertise in contracts, laws, and
regulations. Organizations usually have rigorous policies and procedures associated with
procurements.
 Prior to conducting a procurement, the project manager and technically qualified project
team members work with contracting professionals to develop the request for proposals
(RFP), statement of work (SOW), terms and conditions, and other necessary documents to
go out to bid.
Bid Process
The bid process includes developing and publicizing bid documents, bidder conferences, and
selecting a bidder.
Bid documents can include:
▶ Request for information. A request for information is used to gather more information from
the market prior to sending out bid documents to a set of selected vendors.
▶ Request for proposal. This bid document is used for complex or complicated scope where
the buyer is looking for the vendor to provide a solution.
▶ Request for quote. This bid document is used when price is the main deciding factor, and
the proposed solution is readily available
Contracting

Eventually, the parties reach agreement and enter into a contract. The type of contracting
vehicle depends on the size of the purchase, the stability of the scope of work, and the risk
tolerances of the organizations.
 Knowledge Management
 Explicit Knowledge
 Explicit knowledge can be readily codified using words, pictures, or numbers. For example, the
steps to a new process are explicit knowledge that can be documented. Explicit knowledge can be
distributed using information management tools to connect people to information, such as
manuals, registers, web searches, and databases.
 Tacit knowledge
 Tacit Knowledge is challenging to express as it cannot be codified. Tacit knowledge is comprised
of experience, insights, and practical knowledge or skill. Tacit knowledge is shared by connecting
the people who need the knowledge with people who have the knowledge. This can be
accomplished via networking, interviews, job shadowing, discussion forums, workshops, or other
similar methods.
 Because projects are temporary endeavors, much of the knowledge is lost once the project is
completed. Being attentive to knowledge transfer serves the organization by not only
delivering the value that the project was undertaken to achieve, it also allows the organization
to gain knowledge from the experience of running project.