ESD.

36J System & Project Management

+ Project Management

- - The Human Aspect -

Instructor(s)

Prof. Olivier de Weck

Lecture 21

11/18/2003

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Outline

„ Project Management - Human Aspects

„ Role and Skills of Project Manager
„ Class Gallery of “Project Managers”
„ Tribute to Thomas J. Kelly
„ Biography - Brief History of the Lunar
Excursion Module (LEM) Project
„ “From The Earth To The Moon” - Part 5
“Spider” - ca. 45 min
„ Nine Talking Points
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Project Manager -personal skills
„ Communications (verbal & written)
„ Delegating
„ Interpersonal skills, motivator
„ Focus
„ Consideration of alternatives
„ Technical and Planning skills
„ main focus of this class so far
„ Patience & sense of humor

Ref: ASME - DETC conference, PM workshop

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Barriers to Verbal Communications
„ Not listening to other points of view
„ German proverb: “Reden ist Silber - Schweigen ist Gold”
„ Suspicion or dislike of other person, “chemistry”
„ Preoccupation - outside emotion or worry
„ Poor timing
„ Insufficient explanation, hidden assumptions
„ Status differential
„ The “good news” complex
„ “Knowing the kinds of questions to ask is a major
managerial skill”

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Written Communications
„ Short - Simple - Soon (S3)
„ The Fog Index
„ 1. Count 100 words in body of text (2 or 3 places)
„ 2. Count # of sentences in the 100 words. Add to
the count the number of colons and semicolons.
„ 3. Count the number of 3 or more syllable words
in 100 words (nouns excluded)
„ 4. Add numbers 2 and 3.
„ 5. Multiply by 0.4
„ 6. Judge

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The Fog Index (cont.)

„ Basis for comparison

„ The Bible = 5 to 6
„ Typical Newspaper = 6 to 7
„ Time & Newsweek = 8
„ Atlantic Monthly = 13+

„ Try not to exceed 8 or 9.

„ “The one thing that most of us do better than
anyone else is read our own writing”

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Delegating
„ Why people don’t delegate
„ Takes more time to explain than to do the job
„ Mistakes are or can be too costly
„ It can be done quicker!
„ Some actions cannot be delegated (PM responsibility)
„ Employees are specialists without systems knowledge
„ People are already too busy

„ Guidelines for delegating

„ Assign responsibility & authority
„ Follow up
„ Don’t delegate just unpleasant tasks
„ Have trust

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Project Management - Class Input
„ Human aspect is key to project success
„ Role of Project Manager: “Leadership”
„ Motivation and Inspiration: Explains constantly “why are we
doing this?” - “Motion is not a substitute for direction”
„ Coordinates various efforts, sets goals, tracks progress
„ No set of methods or tools can substitute for good leadership:
“good” personality
„ Crisis Management - “shields” team from external pressures
„ Deals with politics - obtains support from top management
„ “Balance is everything”
„ Trusts his team, Respects other opinions, Form diverse teams,
Seeks consensus

Ref: ESD.36 class inputs

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Class Gallery of Project Managers

„ Type 1: “Perfectionist”
„ Type 2: “Entrepreneur”
„ Type 3: “The Emperor”
„ Type 4: “Rough Diamond”
„ Type 5: “Mr. Diplomat”
„ Type 6: “Strong Woman”

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Type 1 - Perfectionist
„ Code Names

„ “Perfectionist”, “Metrics Maniac”, “I-know-more-than-you”

„ Planning and Technical Skills

„ Very detailed, disciplined to the last level of detail, tracks

everything, excellent domain expert

„ Leadership

„ Focuses on completion, tends to do things himself if not

completed exactly as envisioned, µ-manager

„ Personality

„ “Military” style commander, low trust in team members,

doesn’t accept criticism, sums up action items in detail

„ Quotes/Tactics

„ “That’s easy!”, “Is it done yet?”

„ (+) - Confidence, Dedication, Skills, Sense of Quality

„ (-) - Doesn’t listen well, Arrogance, Lack of Trust

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Type 2 - Entrepreneur
„ Code Names
„ “Entrepreneur”, “Gunslinger”
„ Planning and Technical Skills
„ Good pre-planning, fuzzy in details and execution, works on
many ideas in parallel, “big picture” person
„ Leadership
„ Motivator, has and communicates vision, delegates a lot,
“thinks-out-of the box”, seeks non-standard solutions
„ Personality
„ “salesman”, tinkerer, fun to be around, loves industry & job
„ Quotes/Tactics
„ “This is viable!”, “If we build it they will come!”
„ (+) - Optimism, Charisma, Creativity
„ (-) - Stubbornness, Reckless decisions w/o data

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Type 3 - The Emperor
„ Code Names
„ “Emperor”, “King”, “Napoleon”
„ Planning and Technical Skills
„ Detailed Planner, Keeps all resources under his control
„ Leadership
„ Autocratic, Views himself as key decision maker, reflects
organizational culture, sets very (overly) ambitious targets
„ Personality
„ Domineering, unapproachable, hardworking (long hours)
moody, figure of authority
„ Quotes/Tactics
„ “Create consensus through coercion”, “We need more data”
„ (+) - Strong Will, Confident decision making
„ (-) - Not well liked, poor motivator

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Type 4 - Rough Diamond
„ Code Names

„ “Rough Diamond”, “Kiwi”, “Experienced and Passionate”

„ Planning and Technical Skills

„ Good planner, uses “heuristics” (rules of thumb) and

experience rather than theory, knows company (+)s and (-)s

„ Leadership

„ Leads by example, masters many details him/herself, goes

”drinking” with team, avoids perfectionism: 20/80 rule

„ Personality

„ Strong “bully” with charm, self-confident, smart, self-made

man, trusts others, casual

„ Quotes/Tactics

„ “You know, I’m a simple mind”, “We’re on my time now!”

„ (+) - Fearless, Casual approach, natural leader

„ (-) - More rigor in decision making, not “polished”

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Type 5 - Mr. Diplomat
„ Code Names

„ “Mr. Diplomat”

„ Planning and Technical Skills

„ Proficient planner, but not a natural, acquired PM skills

through formal training, disciplined, avoids fire-fighting

„ Leadership

„ Good leader, anticipates and resolves disputes, seeks

compromise solutions, not “all or nothing”

„ Personality

„ Smooth operator, Excellent client skills, gets concessions

from clients and upper management, high IQ

„ Quotes/Tactics

„ “Let’s all get along”, invites team for dinner after project end

„ (+) - Communications skills

„ (-) - Stays in office late (8am-9pm)

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Type 6 - Strong Woman
„ Code Names
„ “Patton-in-Pumps”
„ Planning and Technical Skills
„ Strategic and long-term view, keeps tabs on day-to-day
operations, seeks planning input from subject matter experts
„ Leadership
„ Instills mutual respect, not fear, knows what she wants
„ Personality
„ Recognizes personnel needs and wants, Lives by the “Fish”
principle (“have fun”, “customer focus”, “make their day”,
“choose your attitude”)
„ Quotes/Tactics
„ “Let’s all get along”, invites team for dinner after project end
„ (+) - Vision, Drive, Toughness
„ (-) - Imbalance between personal and professional life
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Project Manager Taxonomy

0-little 10-detailed
Planning
10
8
6 Perfectionist
0-little 10-much
4 Entrepreneur
Personality Delegation Emperor
2
0-formal 10-casual 0
Rough Diamond
Diplomat
Strong Woman

Location Decision Making

0-office only 10-on-site 0-autocratic 10-consensus

Data based on instructor estimate.

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Other comments?

„ Off-Campus Sites
„ Other students On-Campus

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Thomas J. Kelly
„ Biography
„ Birth: Jan 1, 1927 Brooklyn
„ Death: March 24, 2002
„ High School 1946
„ Bellmore, NY
„ Education
„ Cornell University (‘51) , MIT (1970)
„ USAF (2 years) 1956
„ Grumman Aircraft
„ 5 year internship 46-51
„ 1960-1972 design of Apollo LEM
„ 1972 NASA Dist. Public Service Medal
„ retired 1992
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Movie Sequence

“From The Earth to The Moon”

Part 5: “Spider” - Design of the Lunar Module

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Nine Talking Points
„ 1) Michelangelo (Sistine Chapel) Analogy
„ 2) Lunar Orbit Rendezvous Decision
„ 3) Start of Lunar Excursion Module Project
„ 4) Role of component and system testing
„ 5) Errors (leg snapped) and engineering ethics
„ 6) Challenge of novelty, System Integration
„ 7) Effect of Schedule pressure
„ 8) Pre-Launch problems, tolerances (He tank pressure)
„ 9) Operational testing, realignment, motivation

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Thank you to the contributors
„ Eduardo Malaga
„ Celeste Kupczewski
„ Greg Zito
„ Nick McKenna
„ Laura Garza
„ Christos Sermpetis
„ Ram Krishnaswami
„ Sam Weinstein
„ Massimo Usan
„ Andrew Bond
„ Lara Daniv
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