What Functional Managers Need to Know About Project Management

Chapter 1

PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES

PROJECT MANAGEMENT HUMOR

Project management is the art of creating the illusion that any outcome is the result of a series of predetermined, deliberate acts when, in fact, it was dumb luck!

Some people are under the impression that project success is accomplished by chance and luck. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most people will agree that project success is accomplished through a structured process of project initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and finally closure.

Some companies rely heavily on an organized and consistent project management methodology to accomplish their goals. Some methodologies are based on policies and procedures, whereas others are developed around forms, guidelines, templates, and checklists.

Project management is an attempt to get nonroutine work to flow multidirectionally through the company, usually horizontally, rather than in a vertical, sometimes bureaucratic manner. To accomplish this multidirectional work flow, a project management methodology is required. One of the purposes of this structured methodology is to facilitate the job of integrating the work across various functional units to meet project objectives.

When projects reach completion or closure, the project team is debriefed in order to capture lesson learned and best practices that may be beneficial to the organization and for use on future projects. In most cases, the best practices that are discovered are used to improve how the project and functional managers interface and to increase efficiency in the use of organizational resources.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PROJECT PLANNING

• Definition of work requirements
• Definition of quantity and quality of work
• Definition of resources needed

PROJECT MONITORING AND CONTROL

• Tracking progress
• Comparing actual outcome to predicted outcome
• Analyzing impact
• Making adjustments

The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) identifies five domain areas in which the project managers must perform:

• Initiation—Defines and authorizes the project
• Planning—Defines and refines project objectives
• Execution—Integration of resources to meet objectives
• Monitoring and Control—Measuring progress and identifying variances
• Closure—Acceptance of project deliverables

The amount of time and effort that project managers must put forth can vary based on the domain area. Many project managers are not brought on board the project until the end of the initiation process. Executive management, marketing, and sales may take the lead during project initiation.

Project managers and functional managers are heavily involved in project work during planning, monitoring and control. During project execution, much of the work is accomplished by the project team and the functional managers. If the project team members report directly to their specific functional departments, the project manager’s main contact with these resources may be during monitoring and control of project activities as tasks are executed.

During project closure, the project manager is expected to make sure that all project documentation is complete and ready for the archives. Some companies bring on board project closure experts to shut down large projects.

PROJECT NECESSITIES

• Complete task definitions
• Resource requirement definitions (and possibly skill levels needed)
• Major timetable milestones
• Definition of end-item quality and reliability requirements
• The basis for performance measurement

Planning is often regarded as the most important activity for a project manager. The project manager must understand the following:

• All of the tasks necessary to accomplish the deliverables. Many times the project manager does not possess a command of technology and must rely upon the functional managers for clarification and identification of project components, activities, and their respective risks.
• Functional skills needed to accomplish the work. The functional managers may be in a better position than the project manager to identify the skill levels needed to complete project work.
• Major milestones identified by the customer, whether an internal or external customer. The functional managers must verify that they can meet the milestone dates. Functional manager commitment is essential.
• Quality of the deliverables. The functional managers must confirm that they can meet the customer’s quality and specification requirements.
• Performance measurement. The functional managers and project manager must agree about how to measure project performance with reference to the work breakdown structure (WBS) and detailed activity lists developed by the project team. It is possible that the WBS may require some changes and updates to support the functional manager’s tracking processes.

RESULTS OF GOOD PLANNING

What are the results of good project planning as seen through the eyes of the functional managers?

The following points define the results of good planning:

• Assurance that functional units will understand their total responsibilities toward achieving project needs.
• Assurance that many of the problems associated with the scheduling process and allocation of critical resources are identified and are addressed through risk management.
• Early identification of risks and issues that may jeopardize successful project completion and the corrective actions required to prevent or resolve problems.
• A plan has been established for the purpose of guidance, problem solving, and decision-making, which will allow functional managers to spend more time supervising their people rather than resolving conflicts and solving problems.

PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS

• Have a specific objective (which may be unique or one of a kind) to be completed within certain specifications
• Have defined start and end dates
• Have funding limits (if applicable)
• Have quality limits (if applicable)
• Consume human and nonhuman resources (i.e., money, people, equipment)
• Be multifunctional (cut across several functional lines)

Before continuing on, we should provide a definition of a project. Projects are most often unique endeavors that have not been attempted before and might never be attempted again. Projects have specific start and end dates. In some cases, projects may be very similar or identical and repetitive in nature, but those situations would be an exception rather than the norm. Because of the uniqueness of projects and their associated activities, estimating the work required to complete the project may be very difficult and the resulting estimates may not be very reliable. This may create a number of problems and challenges for the functional manager.

Projects have constraints or limitations. Typical constraints include time frames with predetermined milestones, financial limitations, and limitations regarding quality as identified in the specifications. Another typical constraint may be the tolerance for risk and the amount of risk that the project team or owner can accept. There may also be limitations on the quality and skill levels of the resources needed to accomplish the tasks.

Projects consume resources. Resources are defined as human—people providing the labor and support—and nonhuman—equipment, facilities, and money, for example.

Projects are also considered to be multifunctional, which means that projects are integrated and cut across multiple functional areas and business entities. One of the primary roles of the project manager is to manage the integration of project activities.

THE TRIPLE CONSTRAINT

Project management is an attempt to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the use of resources by getting work to flow multidirectionally through an organization. Initially, this might seem easy to accomplish, but there are typically a number of constraints imposed on a project. The most common constraints are time, cost, and performance (also referred to as scope or quality) and are known as the triple constraint.

From an executive management perspective, the preceding illustration is the goal of project management, namely, meeting the triple constraints of time, cost, and performance while maintaining good customer relations. Unfortunately, because most projects have some unique characteristics, highly accurate estimates may not be possible and trade-offs among the triple constraint may be necessary. Executive management and functional management must be involved in almost all trade-off discussions to ensure that the final decision is made in the best interest of both the project and the company. Project managers may possess sufficient knowledge for some technical decision making, but may not have sufficient business or technical knowledge to adequately determine the best course of action to address interests of the company as well as the project.

RESOURCES

• Money
• Manpower
• Equipment
• Facilities
• Materials
• Information/technology

Here are some of the typical resources that are used when executing projects. Assuming that the project manager and functional manager are separate roles assigned to different people, the resources are generally administratively under the control of the functional managers. The project...