The Handbook of Project Management_2 ppt

a more detailed database of information you have gathered about each stakeholder. This data can be used to derive a matrix to categorize each stakeholder as one of four types: • decision maker – one who provides resources or resolves issues; • direct influencer – one who has a direct input to the project work or who is impacted by the project activities or deliverables; • indirect influencer – one with little or no direct input but who may be needed to agree some actions to ensure project success; • observer – one who is not apparently affected by the project but who may try to impact your activities by choice. In each of the four category columns enter: • (+) for stakeholders who you consider are positive about the project; • (-) for stakeholders who you consider are negative about the project; • ‘N’ for stakeholders who you consider are neutral about the project. With your team decide what actions you can take now to turn negative and neutral stakeholders into positive and enthusiastic supporters. Assign actions to team members. Review how you intend to communicate with stakeholders and consider: • what you need to tell them; • how you will communicate with them; • the frequency of this communication; • how you will gather feedback. Take care not to go into ‘information overload’ as busy people do not like long reports to read. They need short, objective and factual reports focused on their particular interest in the project. Keeping stakeholders involved throughout the project is a demanding task for you and needs The key roles l 65 STAKEHOLDER INFLUENCE MATRIX DECISION MAKER DIRECT INFLUENCER INDIRECT INFLUENCER OBSERVER OWNER CONTACT TEL. NO. ROLENAME MANAGER PROJECT No: J. Turner Customer 01793456278 G. Hadlow T. Woodrow Ex -Sponsor Int. 3586 B. Stewart L. Harmer Tech Services Mgr Int. 3871 T. Woodrow R. Driver Sales Mgr Int. 3844 H. Farmer G. Storm Tech Dev Mgr Int. 3868 F. Johnson ? ? ? ? ?   N  D. Grant Tech Mgr Int. 3897 L.Harmer S. Trent Prodn Director Int. 3835 B. Stewart ? ? N D.W.G D.W.G J.D.T G.W K.B.M. J.D.T. D.W.G. STAKEHOLDER INFLUENCE MATRIX DECISION MAKER DIRECT INFLUENCER INDIRECT INFLUENCER OBSERVER OWNER CONTACT TEL. NO. ROLENAME MANAGER PROJECT No: STAKEHOLDER INFLUENCE MATRIX DECISION MAKER DIRECT INFLUENCER INDIRECT INFLUENCER OBSERVER OWNER CONTACT TEL. NO. ROLENAME MANAGER DECISION MAKER DIRECT INFLUENCER INDIRECT INFLUENCER OBSERVER OWNER CONTACT TEL. NO. ROLENAME MANAGER PROJECT No: J. Turner Customer 01793456278 G. Hadlow T. Woodrow Ex-Sponsor Int. 3586 B. Stewart L. Harmer Tech Services Mgr Int. 3871 T. Woodrow R. Driver Sales Mgr Int. 3844 H. Farmer G. Storm Tech Dev Mgr Int. 3868 F. Johnson        N  D. Grant Tech Mgr Int. 3897 L. Harmer S. Trent Prodn Director Int. 3835 B. Stewart  ? N D.W .G D.W.G J.D.T G.W K.B.M. J.D.T. D.W.G. Figure 4.4 Stakeholder influence matrix tact and diplomacy to retain their support and make them feel important to the outcome. A few words of caution There are always plenty of people who are anxious to influence your project. Beware the people who claim stakeholder status just to get involved, when in reality they have no valid reason to influence the project. Seek your sponsor’s support if necessary to ensure that the stake- holder list is restricted to people who have valid reasons to get involved and are keen to support you and your team to achieve success. DIMENSION 2: MANAGING THE DYNAMIC LIFE CYCLE This involves you in controlling the tasks, the resources needed to complete the tasks on time and all the materials and equipment required. You must control the work to stay on track to a schedule derived from the plan, dealing with changes, managing risks and resolving issues that arise. Simultaneously you must demonstrate your concern for your team members and any other people engaged in carrying out the work. They are looking to you as the leader of the team to provide them with a conge- nial working environment and give support and guidance. Chapters 5 to 10 take you through the life cycle processes and proce- dures and the actions you take as the programme or project manager to achieve a successful outcome. DIMENSION 3: MANAGING PERFORMANCE As the programme or project manager you must demonstrate throughout that you are concerned about the performance of everyone involved with the work. You are responsible for delivering the results expected by the key stake- holders and evaluating your performance regularly will help you improve the way you do the job. Programme and project work requires effective teamwork. If the team is not well co-ordinated the work suffers and you then jump from crisis to crisis. This is made more difficult because the team members often come from different departments or even other sites. You must make an effort to understand your team members and their working environment, what they hope to gain from the work and their personal objectives. The stakeholders should provide the drive, direction and climate for success. Ignore them and you court potential disaster! 66 l The programme and project environment CHECKLIST 3: MANAGING PERFORMANCE Evaluate your own performance continuously. Pay particular attention to: • helping and supporting your team members; • coaching individual team members when opportunities arise; • responding promptly to personal issues raised with you; • demonstrating your continued enthusiasm; • reviewing your decisions and being prepared to admit to mistakes if they happen; • examining your management of time; • evaluating your attention to detail in administering the work; • seeking external help when appropriate; • avoiding making promises you cannot or do not intend to fulfil. Work closely with your team to: • understand their personal objectives; • keep all the team involved and well informed; • establish clear responsibilities for the work; • act promptly when conflict appears; • encourage good communication within the team and with team members’ line managers; • recognize team effort and high performance; • look after the team’s interests at all times in the interests of success. You must avoid continual fire-fighting, so ensure you: • keep key stakeholders regularly informed of progress; • get them committed to their promises of support; • involve them in important decisions when replanning or when solving problems; • monitor team members responsible for other stakeholders; • encourage the team to maintain good communications with stakeholders. PROGRAMMES, PROJECTS AND TEAMWORK Because most programmes and projects involve more than one person, teamwork is crucial to achieve success. To get effective teamwork you start by taking a group of people from different backgrounds, with different experience, skills and personal needs, and build them into a cohesive working unit. If the team members are only giving part of their working The key roles l 67 68 l The programme and project environment day or week to your project activities, they have divided loyalties to differ- ent line managers and different working practices. The complexity increases if they are working in more than one programme or project team at the same time. The first time you bring your core team together they are really a group of individuals. They may not have worked with each other before even if they know one another. They come from different functions and their normal operational environment conditions their behaviour at work. You are an unknown entity to them if they have not worked with you before. They expect you to break down the barriers and start to build the group into a team. This will test your communication skills to the limit as you get to know and understand your team – and they get to know and under- stand you. As the communication model in Figure 4.5 shows, you can change behaviour through effective communication. This is a complex process but it is made a little easier by having a clear sense of direction. Everyone should know why he or she is in the team – apart from knowing that you selected them! They all have experience and skills you consider relevant to the project. Your objective is to harness their abilities, creativity and efforts to achieve a shared goal or outcome. If this potential is to benefit the organization, you must make sure you select the right team. AWARENESS UNDERSTANDING COMMITMENT CHANGE OF BEHAVIOUR LEADS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION ALLOWS A CREATES Figure 4.5 The consequence of effective communication CHECKLIST 4: SELECTING TEAM MEMBERS The criteria for selecting team members depend on the type of project. Ask: • What is their relevant technical experience? • Have they specialized knowledge essential to the project? • Have they experience of similar projects? • Have they worked in project teams before? • Do they have relevant technical knowledge? • What is their departmental authority? • Have they other project commitments now? • When do these commitments end? • What is their capacity for project work (as a percentage of the working week)? • What is their current non-project workload? • Can this loading be reduced? • What is their forecast future non-project workload? • Can they be assigned for the whole project duration? • Do they get on easily with other people? • Do they like working alone? • How do they feel about taking on a leadership role sometimes? • Are they interested in joining your team? • What do they expect to gain from joining your team? • Do they have a track record of commitment to high performance? • Are they well organized and good time managers? • Do they take their current responsibilities seriously? • Are they perceived as good team players? • Is their line manager in agreement with the possible assignment? Availability should not automatically guarantee selection. Selecting team members solely on the basis of functional role is no guaran- tee the individual can contribute to your project team effectively. You must guard against the possibility that the setting up of a project team is seen as an opportunity by others to dump someone on you. This may be perceived as a training opportunity or as a chance to move someone who does not fit in their current team. A project team is an exciting place to work and you want creative, enthusiastic people with a strong sense of responsibility and commitment. A successful team consists of a carefully designed mixture of the right skills and personalities – people who can work together without dissension and conflict. You select people for your The key roles l 69 70 l The programme and project environment team because you value and respect their ability to do a good job under pressure and not because you like them or they are popular! Numerous tests and models are available to help you understand the different personality types and how each behaves in a team. These instru- ments will help indicate which of these are better suited to programme and project work; they can also guide you on how to communicate effec- tively with the different personalities you meet. If possible, make use of these techniques when selecting your team members. Time spent on this activity now will be rewarded with an effective team and raise your chances of success. A balanced team encouraged to mature its working norms quickly can overcome overwhelming difficulties and achieve what appears at times to be a ‘mission impossible’. BUILDING YOUR TEAM Clearly, you face many potential difficulties in getting a project team working well. Do not despair. Many are normal in team development and often predictable. Team size can add to complexity if the team is large (more than five or six members). Pay particular attention to avoiding: • confusion over any aspect of the project; • unclear responsibilities; • unclear lines of authority; • uneven workload distribution; • unclear task assignments; • unclear overall objectives; • failure to identify stakeholders; • communication breakdowns; • mistrust between team members; • personal objectives unrelated to project work; • lack of commitment to project plan; • lack of real team spirit; • lack of concern about quality; • a climate of suspicion; • lack of direction; • conflict and personality clashes; • rigid attitudes. The key roles l 71 There is no secret to success, no magic dust to sprinkle around to remove these difficulties if they occur. Take positive actions to minimize the prob- lems and act promptly when necessary. You sometimes have to take unpopular decisions in the interests of the project. Test your team at inter- vals with the simple test given in Figure 4.6. Check that team working improves as the project progresses – it’s not about luck, it’s just hard work! Teamwork enables personal development and ranks it as important: The team members are encouraged to offer ideas and suggestions: The team members are encouraged to express their opinions freely and share information: Each team member has a clear idea of his/her role and responsibilities in the project: Everyone in the team is listened to with interest: Everyone in the team is involved in making and taking decisions: Team members do not feel threatened by exposing their true feelings: The team members respect each other and encourage each other in their work: Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly The team knows exactly what it has to get done: Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly Disagree strongly 12345 Agree strongly HOW IS YOUR TEAM DOING? Answer each statement with a ranking in the range 1 – 5 Your score: 9 – 15 This seems to be a group, not a working team. 16 – 33 Teamwork is good: ask the team members if they agree with your scores. Identify areas for improvement and work on them. 34 – 45 Ask the team members if they agree with your scores. If they do, keep up the good work. Watch out for any slippage and react promptly. Figure 4.6 Test your team working Successful teams don’t just happen; they have to be built through effective leadership and commitment. CUSTOMER SATISFACTION It is essential for you to recognize that customer expectations directly relate to customer satisfaction. Unfortunately there are degrees of satisfaction relating to the extent to which your customers perceive you understand their expectations and, what is more important, meet them with the results achieved. Fall short of these expectations and you will have unhappy customers. Your goal is to have delighted customers by providing all the expected results to an acceptable quality and standard. In addition, customers will expect you to deliver on time – that is to an agreed schedule of delivery. This constitutes a promise by contract. Fail to deliver and you lose the respect of the customers and probably increase the project cost. This leaves you with a further issue of recovering the additional cost – disgruntled customers are not too easy to convince that they should accept the overspend. Customers also expect you and eventually your project team to serve them with professional competence. You must ensure that the right people with experience and appropriate skills are assigned to the project work, behave in a co-operative and friendly manner and demonstrate a real concern to meet the customer’s expectations. This means everyone working on the project must understand the customer’s environment and the difficulties and constraints the customer faces. Do not add to the customer’s problems – your job is to reduce them, so always avoid announcing surprises. The customer wants you to provide positive results, not a long list of excuses for poor performance and the problems achieving the desired results. SUMMARY • Clarify your project organization: – Who is your sponsor? – Are all programmes and projects sponsored? – Are all programmes and projects prioritized? 72 l The programme and project environment • Clarify and understand defined responsibilities: – the programme steering team; – the sponsor; – the programme manager; – the project manager. • Confirm your authority for the programme or project. • Recognize the importance of stakeholders. • Focus on the dimensions of leadership: – identifying and managing stakeholders; – managing the project’s dynamic life cycle process; – managing the performance of yourself, the team and the stakeholders. • Select your core team carefully; use selection instruments. • Take positive actions to build the team: – Regularly review performance. – Test team working. – Encourage participation. – Celebrate and reward high performance. Checklist 5 gives some key actions for effective leadership throughout the project. CHECKLIST 5: ACTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP Throughout the programme or project: • Build trust and inspire good team working: – Focus on behaviour and problems, not the person. – Maintain the self-esteem of others. – Keep relationships constructive. – Keep the team well informed at all times. – Encourage ideas and suggestions. – Involve them in decisions. – Clearly define roles and responsibilities for all project tasks. • Create a team identity: – Clarify purpose and objectives. – Confirm understanding and acceptance. – Set clear personal targets. – Recognize and praise effort. – Celebrate team achievements. The key roles l 73 • Encourage personal development: – Assess individual abilities and experience. – Assess training needs. – Coach individuals to enhance skills. – Appraise individual performance. • Seek continuous improvement: – Evaluate team processes and practices. – Evaluate team performance. – Encourage creativity and innovation. – Devalue tradition and find better methods. – Reward success. • Resolve conflict and grievances promptly: – Treat team members with respect. – Encourage active participation. – Listen to the team’s views. – Support problem solving constructively. • Champion and support the team: – Help the team to reach consensus. – Support team decisions. – Look after the team’s interests. – Give guidance and assistance on request. 74 l The programme and project environment [...]... kick-off meeting The purpose is for you to understand what they expect from the project and allow them to confirm that you have a clear picture of the results they require at completion The project sponsor should chair and open the meeting to explain the strategic context of the proposed project Explain why the project is important now and how it is prioritized in relation to other active projects Your... overhead costs The operating budget should be prepared to give a cost for each phase of the project As this may be required in a standard format, I would suggest that you involve the finance department in the preparation of the budget 86 l The programme and project processes and techniques Prepare the financial case The financial case must demonstrate the true worth of carrying out the project Your... is the key individual – not a committee – who has the necessary authority to take decisions affecting the project Who will use the results? Although the customer wants the results from the project, the customer is often not the person or group of people who will actually use the results on a day-to-day basis You will need to have contact with the potential end users or a small representative group of. .. secured the release of the core team members you select for the project If the PST authorized the release, your job is considerably easier, but be prepared to enter into negotiations with other managers to get people released from their current activities The business case should have identified the key people with a close interest in your project and you should now prepare them to attend the kick-off... decision When the PST accepts your business case, Phase Gate One is passed and you enter Phase One, where the project passes to definition The business case should contain much of the information required for the work of definition As the project is now active, some parts of definition require more detail to be added 88 l The programme and project processes and techniques At this stage the PST has decided... proceed with the project either immediately or at some future date It will agree a priority ranking for the programme or project relative to existing active programmes and projects on the register, and this will be recorded on the programme register You will be given authority to form the project core team and start work Occasionally you may find that your work on the project is over and another project. .. assigned Remember, the business case plus any qualifications and amendments added by the PST is now your project charter’ and becomes a key working document for the project Regular reference to the contents is essential in the future, as your performance will be measured against the forecasts it contains Your next step is to organize the kick-off meeting for the project THE KICK-OFF MEETING You must... satisfactory completion This will normally mean planning the key stages but neglecting all the tasks in each key stage This will give an estimate of the time required for each of the remaining phases of the project enabling you to present the PST with a ‘phase schedule’ only in the business case Assess the resource needs The resource needs are estimated from the key stage plan you have derived Pay particular... required in a standard format, and persuading the finance department to assist in the preparation of the data creates a possible future ally You should always approach this stage of the work with a conviction that the opportunity will be approved at the next submission to the PST Identify the customer needs and expectations Defining the needs of the customer starts off a process that will ultimately allow... internal benefits to the organization; potential risks The ‘cost to market’ is a preliminary assessment of the expected total cost of carrying out the work to realize the expected benefits The ‘time to market’ is the expected period of time from final approval at Phase Gate One through to final completion and availability to the marketplace In some circumstances the marketplace may be the organization . on the type of project. Ask: • What is their relevant technical experience? • Have they specialized knowledge essential to the project? • Have they experience of similar projects? • Have they. affecting the project. Who will use the results? Although the customer wants the results from the project, the customer is often not the person or group of people who will actually use the results on. of the work with a conviction that the opportunity will be approved at the next submission to the PST. Identify the customer needs and expectations Defining the needs of the customer starts off