10

Project Human Resource

Management
week

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 Learning Objectives
 Explain the importance of good human resource
management on projects, including the current state of the
global IT workforce and future implications for it
 Define project human resource management and understand
its processes
 Summarize key concepts for managing people by
understanding the theories of Abraham Maslow, Frederick
Herzberg, David McClelland, and Douglas McGregor on
motivation, H. J. Thamhain and D. L. Wilemon on influencing
workers, and Stephen Covey on how people and teams can
become more effective

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 Learning Objectives
 Discuss human resource management planning and be able to
create a human resource plan, project organizational chart,
responsibility assignment matrix, and resource histogram
 Understand important issues involved in project staff
acquisition and explain the concepts of resource assignments,
resource loading, and resource leveling
 Assist in team development with training, team-building
activities, and reward systems
 Explain and apply several tools and techniques to help
manage a project team and summarize general advice on
managing teams
 Describe how project management software can assist in
project human resource management 3
The Importance of Human Resource
Management
 Many corporate executives have said, “People are our most important asset”
 People determine the success and failure of organizations and projects

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The Global IT Workforce

 Although there have been ups and downs in the IT labor market, there will always
be a need for good IT workers
 The Digital Planet 2010 study predicts that ICT spending will have an annual
growth rate of more than 6 percent each year through 2013, when it will reach
almost $5 trillion
 Thirty-three percent of the world’s population is
online, and 45 percent of Internet users are below
the age of 25.

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 More Digital Planet Report Findings

 With almost 6 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions, global penetration of

cell phones is 87 percent, with 79 percent in the developing world
 Fortune magazine lists IT as the number one “hot career for 2012 and
beyond” in the United States. Openings for software application developers
are projected to increase by 34 percent by 2018, while companies will hire
20 percent more computer systems analysts
 The 2011 average salary for project management professionals was
$105,000 per year in the United States, not including bonuses

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Implications for the Future of
IT Human Resource Management
 Proactive organizations are addressing workforce needs by
 improving benefits
 redefining work hours and incentives
 finding future workers

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 Global Issues
 Many people enjoy using Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. Some
companies even encouraged workers to use these tools to get to know their
colleagues better, especially for global work teams. A 2011 survey, however, shows
that companies have changed their tune after realizing that worker productivity
often suffers due to social media and other distraction
 Psychologists have even created a term—Internet addiction disorder (IAD)—for
the increasingly common addiction to Web-based activity. Many children suffer
from this disorder, especially in Asian countries like China, Taiwan, and South
Korea

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What is Project Human Resource
Management?
 Making the most effective use of the people involved with a project
 Processes include
 Planning human resource management: identifying and documenting project roles,
responsibilities, and reporting relationships
 Acquiring the project team: getting the needed personnel assigned to and working on
the project
 Developing the project team: building individual and group skills to enhance project
performance
 Managing the project team: tracking team member performance, motivating team
members, providing timely feedback, resolving issues and conflicts, and coordinating
changes to help enhance project performance

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Project Human Resource Management
Summary

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Keys to Managing People

 Psychologists and management theorists have devoted much research and thought
to the field of managing people at work
 Important areas related to project management include
 motivation theories
 influence and power
 effectiveness

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Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

 Intrinsic motivation causes people to participate in an activity for their own

enjoyment
 Extrinsic motivation causes people to do something for a reward or to avoid a
penalty
 For example, some children take piano lessons for intrinsic motivation (they enjoy
it) while others take them for extrinsic motivation (to get a reward or avoid
punishment)

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

 Abraham Maslow argued that humans possess unique qualities that enable them
to make independent choices, thus giving them control of their destiny
 Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs which states that people’s behaviors are
guided or motivated by a sequence of needs

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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

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McGregor’s Theory X and Y
 Douglas McGregor popularized the human relations approach to management in
the 1960s
 Theory X: assumes workers dislike and avoid work, so managers must use
coercion, threats and various control schemes to get workers to meet objectives
 Theory Y: assumes individuals consider work as natural as play or rest and enjoy
the satisfaction of esteem and self-actualization needs
 Theory Z: introduced in 1981 by William Ouchi and is based on the Japanese
approach to motivating workers, emphasizing trust, quality, collective decision
making, and cultural values

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Developing the Human Resource Plan
 Involves identifying and documenting project roles, responsibilities,
and reporting relationships
 Contents include
 project organizational charts
 staffing management plan
 responsibility assignment matrixes
 resource histograms

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Sample Organizational Chart for a Large IT Project

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Work Definition and Assignment Process

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Responsibility Assignment Matrices

 A responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) is a matrix that maps the work of the
project as described in the WBS to the people responsible for performing the work
as described in the OBS
 Can be created in different ways to meet unique project needs

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Sample Responsibility Assignment Matrix
(RAM)

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Sample RACI Chart

R = responsibility
A = accountability, only one A per task
C = consultation
I = informed
Note that some people reverse the definitions of responsible
and accountable.
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Staffing Management Plans and Resource
Histograms
 A staffing management plan describes when and how people will be added to
and taken off the project team
 A resource histogram is a column chart that shows the number of resources
assigned to a project over time

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Sample Resource Histogram

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Acquiring the Project Team

 Acquiring qualified people for teams is crucial

 The project manager who is the smartest person on the team has done a poor
job of recruiting!
 It’s important to assign the appropriate type and number of people to work on
projects at the appropriate times

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Resource Assignment
 Staffing plans and good hiring procedures are important, as are
incentives for recruiting and retention
 Some companies give their employees one dollar for every hour a new
person they helped hire works
 Some organizations allow people to work from home as an incentive
 Enrollment in U.S. computer science and engineering programs has
dropped almost in half since 2000, and one-third of U.S. workers were
over the age of 50 by 2010
 CIO’s researchers suggest that organizations rethink hiring practices and
incentives to hire and retain IT talent

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Resource Loading

 Resource loading refers to the amount of individual resources an existing

schedule requires during specific time periods
 Helps project managers develop a general understanding of the demands a project
will make on the organization’s resources and individual people’s schedules
 Overallocation means more resources than are available are assigned to perform
work at a given time

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Sample Histogram Showing an Overallocated
Individual

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Resource Leveling

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

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

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Developing the Project Team

 The main goal of team development is to help people work together more
effectively to improve project performance
 It takes teamwork to successfully complete most projects

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Tuckman Model of Team Development

 Forming
 Storming
 Norming
 Performing
 Adjourning

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Training

 Training can help people understand themselves, each other, and how to work
better in teams
 Team building activities include
 physical challenges
 psychological preference indicator tools

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Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 MBTI is a popular tool for determining personality preferences and helping
teammates understand each other
 Four dimensions include:
 Extrovert/Introvert (E/I)
 Sensation/Intuition (S/N)
 Thinking/Feeling (T/F)
 Judgment/Perception (J/P)
 NTs or rationals are attracted to technology fields
 IT people vary most from the general population in not being extroverted or
sensing

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DISC Profiles

 Also uses a four-dimensional model of normal behavior

 Dominance
 Influence
 Steadiness
 Compliance
 People in opposite quadrants can have problems understanding each other

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The DISC Profile

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Reward and Recognition Systems

 Team-based reward and recognition systems can promote teamwork

 Focus on rewarding teams for achieving specific goals
 Allow time for team members to mentor and help each other to meet project goals
and develop human resources

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Managing the Project Team

 Project managers must lead their teams in performing various project activities
 After assessing team performance and related information, the project manager
must decide
 if changes should be requested to the project
 if corrective or preventive actions should be recommended
 if updates are needed to the project management plan or organizational process assets.

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Tools and Techniques for Managing
Project Teams
 Observation and conversation
 Project performance appraisals
 Interpersonal skills
 Conflict management

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 Five Dysfunctions of a Team
 Patrick Lencioni, author of several books on teams, says that “Teamwork
remains the one sustainable competitive advantage that has been large
untapped”*
 The five dysfunctions of teams are

1. Absence of trust
2. Fear of conflict
3. Lack of commitment
4. Avoidance of accountability
5. Inattention to results

*Lencioni, Patrick, “Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” Jossey-Bass: San

Francisco, CA (2005), p. 3.
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General Advice on Teams
 Be patient and kind with your team
 Fix the problem instead of blaming people
 Establish regular, effective meetings
 Allow time for teams to go through the basic team-building stages
 Limit the size of work teams to three to seven members

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General Advice on Teams (cont’d)
 Plan some social activities to help project team members and other stakeholders
get to know each other better
 Stress team identity
 Nurture team members and encourage them to help each other
 Take additional actions to work with virtual team members

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Using Software to Assist in Human
Resource Management
 Software can help in producing RAMS and resource histograms
 Project management software includes several features related to human resource
management such as
 Assigning resources
 Identifying potential resource shortages or underutilization
 Leveling resources

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Project Resource Management Involves
Much More Than Using Software
 Project managers must
 Treat people with consideration and respect
 Understand what motivates them
 Communicate carefully with them
 Focus on your goal of enabling project team members to deliver their best
work

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Chapter Summary

 Project human resource management includes the processes required to make the
most effective use of the people involved with a project
 Main processes include
 Plan human resource management
 Acquire project team
 Develop project team
 Manage project team

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Thanks for your attention!

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