Project Human Resource

Management
Learning Objectives

 Define project human resource management and

understand its processes
 Summarize key concepts for managing people by
understanding different theories on how people and
teams can become more effective
 Discuss organizational planning and be able to create a
project organizational chart, responsibility assignment
matrix, and resource histogram
What is Project Human
Resource Management?
 Project human resource management includes the
processes required to make the most effective use of
the people involved with a project.
 Processes include
 Human Resource Planning
 Organizational planning
 Acquire Project Team
 Staff acquisition
 Develop Project Team
 Team development and controlling
Cont…

 Project Human Resource Management

includes the processes required to
organize and manage the project team.

 The project team is comprised of the

people who have assigned roles and
responsibilities for completing the
project.
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 (intrinsic and extrinsic)
 influence and power
 effectiveness
Motivation
 Abraham Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs to
illustrate his theory that people’s behaviors are
guided by a sequence of needs

 Maslow argued that humans possess unique

qualities that enable them to make independent
choices, thus giving them control of their destiny
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Herzberg’s Motivational and
Hygiene Factors
 Frederick Herzberg wrote several famous books and
articles about worker motivation. He distinguished
between

 motivational factors: achievement, recognition,

the work itself, responsibility, advancement, and
growth, which produce job satisfaction

 hygiene factors: cause dissatisfaction if not

present, but do not motivate workers to do
more. Examples include larger salaries, more
supervision, and a more attractive work
environment
 McClelland’s Acquired-Needs Theory
 Specific needs are acquired or learned over time and
shaped by life experiences, including:
 Achievement : Achievers like challenging projects
with achievable goals and lots of feedback
 Affiliation : People with high desire harmonious
relationships and need to feel accepted by others, so
managers should try to create a cooperative work
environment for them
 Power: People with a need for power desire either
personal power (not good) or institutional power (good
for the organization). Provide institutional power
seekers with management opportunities
 McGregor’s Theory X and Theory 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
Influence : Thamhain and Wilemon’s Ways to Have
Influence on Projects
1. Authority: the legitimate hierarchical right to issue orders
2. Assignment: the project manager's perceived ability to
influence a worker's work assignments
3. Budget: the project manager's perceived ability to
authorize others' use of discretionary funds
4. Promotion: the ability to improve a worker's position
5. Money: the ability to increase a worker's pay and benefits
6. Penalty: the project manager's ability to cause punishment
7. Work challenge: the ability to assign work that capitalizes
on a worker's enjoyment of doing a particular task
8. Expertise: the project manager's perceived special
knowledge that others deem important
9. Friendship: the ability to establish friendly personal
relationships between the project manager and others
Ways to Influence that Help
and Hurt Projects
 Projects are more likely to succeed when project
managers influence with
 expertise
 work challenge
 Projects are more likely to fail when project managers
rely too heavily on
 authority
 money
 penalty
Organizational Planning
 Organizational planning involves identifying,
documenting, and assigning project roles,
responsibilities, and reporting relationships
 Outputs and processes include
 project organizational charts
 work definition and assignment process
 responsibility assignment matrixes
 resource histograms
Sample Organizational Chart for a Large IT Project
Work Definition and Assignment Process
Sample Responsibility Assignment Matrix
(RAM)
Staff Acquisition
 Staffing plans and good hiring procedures are
important in staff acquisition, as are incentives
for recruiting and retention.
 Some organizations allow people to work from
home as an incentive
 Research shows that people leave their jobs
because they don’t make a difference, don’t get
proper recognition, aren’t learning anything
new, don’t like their coworkers, and want to
earn more money.
 After acquisition resource assignment will follow
with two important concepts Loading and
leveling.
Resource Loading and
Leveling
 Resource loading refers to the amount of individual
resources an existing project schedule requires
during specific time periods
 Resource histograms show resource loading

 Over-allocation means more resources than are

available are assigned to perform work at a given
time
Sample Resource Histogram
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 over allocation
Resource Leveling Example
Team Development
 It takes teamwork to successfully complete most
projects

 Training can help people understand themselves,

each other, and how to work better in teams
Reward and Recognition
Systems
 Team-based reward and recognition systems can
promote teamwork
 Focus on rewarding teams for achieving specific
goals
 Even reward yourself
 Allow time for team members to mentor and help
each other to meet project goals and develop
human resources
General Advice on Teams
 Focus on meeting project objectives and producing
positive results
 Fix the problem instead of blaming people
 Establish regular, effective meetings
 Nurture team members and encourage them to help
each other
 Acknowledge individual and group accomplishments
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
 viewing resource usage information
 identifying under and overallocated
resources
 leveling resources
Project Human 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
Project Cost Management
What is Cost and Project Cost
Management?
 Cost is a resource sacrificed or foregone to achieve
a specific objective or something given up in
exchange
 Costs are usually measured in monetary units like
dollars
 Project cost management includes the processes
required to ensure that the project is completed
within an approved budget.
Project Cost Management Processes

 Resource planning: determining what resources and

quantities of them should be used
 Cost estimating: developing an estimate of the costs
and resources needed to complete a project
 Cost budgeting: allocating the overall cost estimate
to individual work items to establish a baseline for
measuring performance
 Cost control: controlling changes to the project
budget
Basic Principles of Cost Management
 Profitsare revenues minus expenses
 Life cycle costing is estimating the cost of a
project plus the maintenance costs of the
products it produces
 Cash flow analysis is determining the
estimated annual costs and benefits for a
project
 Benefits and costs can be tangible or
intangible, direct or indirect
Resource Planning
 The nature of the project and the organization will affect
resource planning
 It is about determining what resources are required ?
 Some questions to consider:
 How difficult will it be to do specific tasks on the
project?
 Isthere anything unique in this project’s scope
statement that will affect resources?
 What is the organization’s history in doing similar tasks?
 Does the organization have or can they acquire people,
equipment, and materials that are capable and available
for performing the work?
Cost Estimating

 An important output of project cost management

is a cost estimate
 There are several types of cost estimates and
tools and techniques to help create them
 It is also important to develop a cost management
plan that describes how cost variances will be
managed on the project
Cost Estimation Tools and Techniques
 3 basic tools and techniques for cost estimations:
 analogous or top-down: use the actual cost of a
previous, similar project as the basis for the new
estimate
 bottom-up: estimate individual work items (based
on current market price) and sum them to get a
total estimate
 parametric: use project characteristics (like LOC
and FP in SW projects) in a mathematical model to
estimate costs
 Example
 COCOMO, Delphi
Cont….
 Estimating the cost of a particular activity or task
with an estimated duration involves five steps:
1. Defining what resources will be needed to
perform the work
2. Determining the quantity of resources that are
needed
3. Defining the cost of using each resource
4. Calculating the cost of the task or activity
5. Ensuring that the resources are leveled, that is,
resources have not been over allocated
 Typical Problems with IT Cost Estimates
 Developing an estimate for a large software project is a
complex task requiring a significant amount of effort.
 Remember that estimates are done at various stages of
the project
 Many people doing estimates have little experience doing
them.
 Try to provide training and mentoring
 People have a bias toward underestimation.
 Review estimates and ask important questions to make
sure estimates are not biased
 Management wants a number for a bid, not a real estimate.
 Project managers must negotiate with project sponsors to
create realistic cost estimates
Cost Budgeting
 Cost budgeting involves allocating the project
cost estimate to individual work items and
providing a cost baseline
 As you can see, task decomposition is said to be
the major task, base for many successive tasks
Cost Control
 Project cost control includes
 monitoring cost performance
 ensuring that only appropriate project changes are
included in a revised cost baseline
 informing project stakeholders of authorized
changes to the project that will affect costs
 Earned value management is an important tool
for cost control
Earned Value Management (EVM)
 EVM is a project performance measurement technique
that integrates scope, time, and cost data
 Given a baseline (original plan plus approved changes),
you can determine how well the project is meeting its
goals
 You must enter actual information periodically to use
EVM.

 Read on EVM
Thus
 Plan

 Estimate

 Budget and
 Control your cost