The Project Manager

Chapter 3
IN this chapter we are going to discuss the following :

The subject of the PM.

The unique nature of project management
How project management differs from functional management.
The PM’s role in the organization and responsibilities to both the
organization and the project team.
Common PM career paths.
The unique demands typically placed on PMs.
The task of selecting the PM.
Finally, the issue of culture and its effect on project communication
and success.
Introduction

A project manager (PM)is the person responsible for leading

a project from its inception to execution, This includes
planning, execution and managing the people, resources
and scope of the project.

The PM is probably the major resource input to the project

compared to the team, the capital, the materials, and any
other inputs
When to appoint your project manager ?

at the earliest opportunity in the project inception phase.

The PM can be chosen and installed as soon as the project is

selected for funding or at any earlier point that seems desirable
to senior management.

A PM is chosen late in the project life cycle, usually to replace

another PM who is leaving the project for other work.
 PM first set of tasks are:

• To prepare a preliminary budget and schedule.

• To help select people to serve on the project team.
• To get to know the client (either internal or external).
• To make sure that the proper facilities are available.
• To ensure that any supplies required early in the
project life are available when needed
• And to take care of the routine details necessary to
get the project moving
project management and the project
manager
The functional manager versus the project manager

Functional manager Project manager

Specialists in the area they Generalist ,facilitator

manage (direct , technical
supervisor)
Skilled at analysis Skilled at synthesis

Uses the analytic approach Uses the system (or synthesis)

approach
Both require specialized technical knowledge
Functional Manager

• The analytic method focuses on breaking the components

of a system into smaller and smaller elements.
But it is merely inadequate for understanding a complex
system.

• The functional manager’s knowledge must be in the

technology of the process being managed.

• . As functional managers, they are administratively

responsible for deciding how something will be done, who
will do it, and what resources will be devoted to accomplish
the task.
Project Manager

The system approach focuses on the ability to put many pieces

of a task together to form a coherent whole.

The PM should be competent in the science of project

management.( must oversee many functional areas, each with its
own specialists )

Three major questions face PMs in their task of synthesis:

What needs to be done?, when must it be done ?(if the project is
not to be late),and how are the resources required to do the job
to be obtained?
 Vice-president
marketing

Marketing Group
sales
research administration

Project Manager

Finance Engineering Planning

Micromanagement

• At times, a senior manager (often the PM’s immediate

superior) will take over the PM’s job by exercising extremely
close supervision over every action the PM takes or will
actually tell the PM precisely what to do.

• All of the powers normally delegated to the PM are withdrawn,

and the PM’s boss runs the project. It stamps out any
creativity or initiative from the PM or project workers,
frustrates almost everyone connected with the project, and
generally ensures mediocre performance, if not failure.

• It is practiced by individuals who have so little trust in their

coworkers that they must control everything.
The Project Manager’s Responsibilities

The PM’s responsibilities are broad and fall primarily into

three separate areas:

• Responsibility to the parent organization.

• Responsibility to the project and the client.
• Responsibility to the members of the project team.
 I. Responsibility to the parent organization

Responsibilities to the firm itself include proper conservation of

resources, timely and accurate project communications, and the careful,
competent management of the project.
It is very important to keep senior management of the parent
organization fully informed about the project’s status, cost, timing, and
prospects.
It is also a major, and ethical, responsibility of the PM to inform senior
management if the viability of the project has become doubtful due to
its inability to achieve the organization’s strategic objectives.
Senior managers should also be warned about likely future problems.
As well as methods available (reports) to reduce the likelihood of
these dread events.

Above all, the PM must never allow senior management to be

surprised!
I. Responsibility to the project and the
client.

It is met by ensuring that the integrity of the project is

preserved in spite of the conflicting demands made by the many
stakeholders who have legitimate interests in the project.
I. Responsibility to the members of the project
team

The PM’s responsibilities to members of the project team are

dictated by the finite nature of the project itself and the
specialized nature of the team.

the PM must be concerned with the future of the people who

serve on the team. (why)?
 PM Career Paths

The career path of a PM often starts with participation in small

projects, and later in larger projects, until the person is given
command over small and then larger projects simultaneously.

The global recession in the late 2000s and accompanying

unemployment have put pressure on the project management
profession, It has affected the companies' view of the manager, so
firms are now looking for PMs who have “specific experience and
understand the nuts and bolts” of the technology or project being
implemented.

As a result, it’s important that PMs not only continue to develop their
project management skills and gain their PMP certifications but keep
themselves trained in the latest technologies.
EX. The Project Management Career Path at AT&T

The project management career path now consists of:

•Trainee: a 6-month position to learn about project
management.
•Cost Analysis/Schedule Engineer: a 6–18-month team position
reporting to a project manager.
•Site Manager: a 6–12-month position responsible for a large
site and reporting to a program manager.
•Small Project Manager: sole responsibility for a $1M to $3M
revenue project.
•Project Manager: responsible for $3M to
$25M projects.
•Program Manager: responsible for multiyear projects and
programs over $25M.
 Special Demands on the project
A number of demands are unique to the management of projects, and the success of the PM
depends to a large extent on how capably they are handled. These special demands can be
categorized under the following headings.

1. Acquiring Adequate Resources

2. Acquiring and Motivating Personnel
3. Dealing with Obstacles
4. Making Project Goal Trade-Offs
5. Maintaining a Balanced Outlook
6. Breadth of Communication
7. Negotiation
 Acquiring Adequate Resources
the process of obtaining team members ,facilities ,equipments ,
materials, supplies and other resources necessary to complete
project work.

The key benefit :

it outlines and guides the selection of resources and assigns them to their respective activities.

Resources

Physical Human
Resources Resources

supplies Equipment’s facility

It was noted earlier that the resources initially budgeted for a
project are frequently insufficient to the task ,this is due to:

• the natural optimism of the project proposers about

how much can be accomplished with relatively few
resources.
• Sometimes, it is caused by a deliberate, unethical
understatement of resource requirements to ensure that a
project is accepted for funding.
• At times, it is caused by the great uncertainty
associated with a project.
Another issue may complicate the problem of resource
acquisition for the PM :

Project and functional managers alike perceive the

availability of resources to be strictly limited, and thus a
strict “win–lose” proposition. Under these conditions,
the “winners” may be those managers who have solid
political connections with top management.
Often, there are times in the life of any project when
success or survival may depend on the PM’s “friendship”
with a champion or “sponsor” high in the parent
organization .
 Acquiring and Motivating Personnel
A major problem for the PM is the fact that most of the people
needed for a project must be “borrowed” from elsewhere in
the organization conducting the project. With few exceptions,
they are borrowed from the functional departments.

PM is usually trying to borrow precisely those people the

functional manager would most like to keep.

The PM will be asking for the services of the two types of

people most needed and prized by the functional manager:
first, individuals with scarce but necessary skills and second,
top producers.
Motivating personnel

• Motivating good people to join the project does not appear

to be difficult, because the kind of people who are most
desired as members of a project team are those naturally
attracted by the challenge and variety inherent in project
work.

• The issue of motivating people to join and work creatively

for a project is closely related to the kind of people who
are invited to join.
The characteristics of the most effective team members :

1. High-quality technical skills

2. Political, and general, sensitivity
3. Strong problem orientation(problem-oriented rather than
discipline-oriented)
4. Strong goal orientation
5. High self-esteem
“Tuckman ladder” one of the most popular classic models of
team development which suggests that teams progress through
the following four development phases:

•Forming: Team members come together for the first time and begin
learning about their roles and responsibilities.

•Storming: Work on the project begins, but initially the team members
tend to work independently, which often leads to conflict.

•Norming: In this phase, the team members begin to establish team

norms and team cohesiveness develops. Individual team members
reconcile their behaviors to support the overall team, and trust develops.

•Performing: With norms and trust established, teams function as a

cohesive unit focused on accomplishing the goals of the project.
In addition to these four phases, a fifth phase, “adjourning,” has
been proposed which refers to the team breaking up after the task
has been completed.
If the team members have worked together previously,
it is possible that one or more phases may be skipped.
 Dealing with Obstacles
One characteristic of any project is its uniqueness, and this
characteristic means that the PM will have to face and overcome a
series of crises.
crises appear without warning. The better the planning, the fewer
the crises, but no amount of planning can take account of the
myriad changes that can and do occur in the project’s environment.

One of the most serious crises is a change in the required project

scope (better known as “scope creep”), typically initiated by the
client.

scope creep occurs when new project requirements are added by

project clients or other stakeholders after the project execution has
started.
Burba describes three approaches that are paramount for
handling complex projects:

1. is communicating effectively with all stakeholder groups

more and always keeping an open line to external
stakeholders and internal sponsors who actively support
the project.
2. be sure to learn as much about the client as possible and
especially the problems and solutions in dealing with them
in the past.
3. leadership is a critical skill for handling complex projects.
This means always being on the lookout for even weak
signals of trouble and being ready to respond. The ability to
revise plans and rectify conflicting interests is crucial.
As the project nears completion, obstacles tend to be
clustered around two issues:
1. last-minute schedule and technical changes .
2. series of problems that have as their source the
uncertainty surrounding what happens to members of
the project team when the project is completed.

The way to deal with last-minute schedule and technical

changes is “the best you can.
The key to solving such problems is communication. The
PM should make open communications between the PM
and team members first priority.
 Making Project Goal Trade-Offs
Trade-off :giving up of one thing in return for another
(exchange)
The PM also has responsibility for other types of trade-
offs, so If the PM directs more than one project, he or
she must make trade-offs between the several projects.

It is critical to avoid the appearance of favoritism in such

cases.
Thus ,when a PM is directing two or more projects, care
should be taken to ensure that the life cycles of the
projects are sufficiently different that the projects will
not demand the same constrained resources at the same
time, thereby avoiding forced choices between projects.
 the PM’s enthusiasm about a project—a prime requirement
for successful project management—can easily lead him or
her to consider some unethical actions such as:

(1)overstating the benefits of a project

(2)understating the probable costs of project completion.
(3)Ignoring technical difficulties in achieving the required
level of performance
(4)making trade-off decisions that are clearly biased in
favor of the project but antithetical to the goals of the
parent organization.
Similarly, this enthusiasm can lead the PM to take risks not
justified by the likely outcomes.
 Maintaining a Balanced Outlook
Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish whether a project is
heading for failure or success. Indeed, what appears to be
a failure at one point in the life of a project may look like
success at another.

There is little doubt that these mood swings can have a

destructive effect on performance. The PM must cope with
these alternating periods of elation and despair
 Breadth of Communication
communication skills, especially listening and persuading, are the
most important skills in successfully managing projects.
there are also certain fundamental issues that the manager
must understand and deal with so that the demands noted can
be handled successfully :

1. the PM must know why the project exists; that is, the PM must
fully understand the project’s intent. The PM must have a clear
definition of how success or failure is to be determined. When
making trade-offs, it is easy to get off the track and strive to
meet goals that were really never intended by top
management.
2. any PM with extensive experience has managed projects that
failed.
3. It is critical to have the support of top management If
the support is weak, the future of the project is clouded
with uncertainty, and if it is an R&D project, it is more
likely to be closed.

4.the PM should build and maintain a solid information

network.

5.the PM must be flexible in as many ways, with as many

people, and about as many activities as possible
throughout the entire life of the project.
 Negotiation

The PM must be a highly skilled negotiator In order to

meet the demands of the job
 Attributes of Effective Project
Managers
• • A strong technical background
• A hard-nosed manager
• A mature individual
• Someone who is currently available
. Someone on good terms with senior executives
• A person who can keep the project team happy
• One who has worked in several different departments
• A person who can walk on (or part) the waters
# the best PM is the one who can get the job done!
hard workers are easy to find. What is rare is the individual
whose focus is on the completion of a difficult job
 Credibility
• The PM needs two kinds of credibility : First is technical
credibility Second the administratively credible
The PM must be perceived by the client, senior executives, the functional departments,
and the project team as possessing sufficient technical knowledge to direct the project

We remind the reader that “technical credibility” includes technical knowledge in such
arcane fields as accounting, law, psychology, anthropology, religion, history, playwriting,
, the PM has to have a reasonable understanding of the base technologies on which the
project rests, must be able to explain project technology to senior management, and
must be able to interpret the technical needs and wants of the client (and senior
management) to the project team. Similarly, the PM must be able to hear the problems
of the project team and understand them sufficiently to address them, possibly by
communicating them to upper management
• One of the administrative responsibilities is to the client and
senior management—to keep the project on schedule and within
cost and to make sure that project reports are accurate and
timely. This can place the PM in an ethically awkward situation
sometimes. Another responsibility is to the project team—to
make sure that material, equipment, and labor are available
when and where needed. Still another responsibility is to
represent the interests of all stakeholders (team, management,
functional departments, community, and client) to one another.
The PM is truly the “person in the middle.” Finally, the PM is
responsible for making the tough trade-off decisions for the
project and must be perceived as a person who has the mature
judgment and courage to do so consistently.
Sensitivity
• the PM needs to sense interpersonal conflict on
the project team or between team members and
outsiders. Successful PMs are not conflict avoiders.
Quite the opposite, they sense conflict early, then
confront and deal with it before the conflict
escalates into interdepartmental and
intradepartmental warfare
• The PM must keep project team members
“cool.” This is not easy. As with any group of
humans, rivalries, jealousies, friendships, and
hostilities are sure to exist. The PM must
persuade people to cooperate irrespective of
personal feelings, to set aside personal likes and
dislikes, and to focus on achieving project goals.
Three Aspects of Leadership and
Fifteen Leadership
Competencies
Leadership, Ethics, and
Management Style
• Leadership has been defined as : a process of
social influence, which maximizes the efforts of
others, towards the achievement of a goal.
• What kinds of skills does a PM need to become a
project “leader?” There were six primary skills
identified: 29 percent said “communication,” 26
percent “people,” 16 percent “strategic,” 12
percent “requirements gathering,” 12 percent
“leadership,” and 5 percent “time management.”
• EQ begins with self-awareness or a person’s ability to
observe and recognize his or her own emotions.
Becoming more self-aware of our emotions in turn
positions us to better manage our emotions. Thus,
self-management is associated with the ability to
positively manage our thoughts, behaviors, and
actions based on the understanding of our emotions
gained through self-awareness. In effect then, self-
management reflects our ability to manage our
emotional reactions given the situation or
circumstances in which we find ourselves
• EQ will lead PMs to ask questions such as: How can we
collaborate more effectively with one another on this
project? Or, what reservations do you imagine the
client will have, and how can we address them? Or,
how has this project addressed the needs of all the
stakeholders involved?
comparatively little has been written about the proper
management style for a PM. Shenhar (1998) classifies
projects across two dimensions and concludes that
management style should be adapted to certain differences in
the type of project. His dimensions are:
(1) the level of technological uncertainty and (2) the level of
system complexity. As the uncertainty increases from “low
tech” to “high tech,” the appropriate management style
progresses from “firm, rigid, and formal” to “highly flexible.”
As the system complexity increases from simple to highly
complex, the style progresses from “in-house informal” to
“remote and highly formal.”
Ability to Handle Stress
• Throughout this chapter and elsewhere in this book,
we have noted that the life of the PM is rarely serene.
The PM is surrounded by conflict, often caught in an
irrational management structure and trapped in a
high-stress occupation. Kent (2008) identifies six signs
of excessive stress in the workplace:
• (1) inability to switch off work issues
• (2) disturbed sleep
• (3) lack of pleasure in nonwork-related
leisure activities
• (4) difficulty concentrating or making
decisions
• (5) tendency to anger quickly
• (6) lack of energy.
• Kent suggests several ways to control stress:
• 1. Keep a journal, taking time to reflect on the events
of the day.
• 2. Prioritize all tasks facing you, eliminating tasks that
do
not really need to be done, transferring or delegating
what
you can, delaying low priority items, and minimizing the
scope of any subtask that is not crucial to your overall
task
(the online Appendix to this chapter provides a primer on
effective time management).
• 3. Give yourself time to unwind from high-stress
meetings,
perhaps by taking a short walk or doing 15 minutes of
exercise or meditation. Avoid meditating on the high stress
meeting.
• 4. Engage in after-work physical activities that take
your mind off the tasks.
• 5. Improve your physical surroundings so they are
pleasant, enjoyable, and comfortable, helping you to relax.
• 6. Become aware of the control you do or do not have over
events. One of the great laws of living is “Do not develop
anxiety about things over which you have no control!”
• One way PMs try to handle excess work is by
“multitasking.” But as Hunsberger (2008) points out,
this does not work. In fact, multitasking is a
misnomer. What you are doing is switching back and
forth between tasks. You lose time whenever you do
this. Her advice is to divide your tasks into small
steps, prioritize them on a to-do list, be proactive by
tackling and completing tasks as soon as possible, and
then cross them off the list (see the online Appendix
for additional ideas on effective time management). If
you can’t finish in one sitting, leave notes that trigger
your memory about where you were when you were
interrupted.
Problems of Cultural
Differences
• It is not, however, the geographical or organizational
differences that matter, it is the differences in cultures.
Moreover, it is not merely the differences in culture that
matter, it is also differences in the environments within
which projects are conducted, as we mentioned at the start
of this chapter, the economic, political, legal, and
sociotechnical environments. While the impacts of these
dissimilarities are greatest and most visible in the case of
international projects, they exist to some extent any time
different organizations (including different parts of one
organization) are asked to work together on a project
Culture and the Project
• A nation’s culture affects projects in many ways. One
of the most obvious ways is in how people of different
cultures regard time. In the United States and several
other Western industrialized nations, time is highly
valued as a resource (Smith et al., 1993). We
“Time
say, is money.” It isn’t, of course, but the expression
is one way of expressing impatience with delay and
lateness. Latin Americans, on the other hand, hold
quite different views of time. The pace of life differs
from one culture to another, just as do the values that
people place on family or success. The PM conducting
a construction project in South America will learn that
to be half-an-hour late to a project meeting is to be
“on time.” In Japan, lateness causes loss of face. In
some cultures, the quality of the work is seen to be
considerably more important than on-time delivery.
The great value placed on time in the United States
and the distaste for tardiness leads to a common
perception that U.S. managers are “impatient.”
Summary
• This chapter addressed the subject of the PM.
The PM’s role in the organization and
responsibilities to both the organization and
the project team were discussed first. Common
PM career paths were also described. Next, the
unique demands typically placed on PMs were
detailed, and the task of selecting the PM was
addressed. Finally, the issue of culture and its
effect on project communication and success
was discussed.
• • Some important points concerning the
impact of culture on project management are
as follows:
• • Cultural elements refer to the way of life
for any group of people and include
technology, institutions, language, and art.
• • The project environment includes economic,
political, legal, and sociotechnical aspects.
• • Examples of problematic cultural issues
include the group’s perception of time and the
manner of staffing projects.
• • Language is a particularly critical aspect
of culture for the project
• The most common characteristics of effective
project team members are as follows:
• • High-quality technical skills
• • Political sensitivity
• • Strong problem orientation
• • High self-esteem
• • To handle the variety of project demands
effectively, the PM must understand the basic goals of
the project, have the support of top management,
build and maintain a solid information network, and
remain flexible about as many project aspects as
possible.
• • The best person to select as PM is the one who
will get the job done.
• • Valuable skills for the PM are technical and
administrative credibility, political sensitivity, and
an ability to get others to commit to the project, a
skill otherwise known as leadership.