Role of Individual Personnel in Project Management

By
THE PROJECT MANAGER–LINE MANAGER INTERFACE

As per knowledge, we know that the Project Manager is the personnel who control the project concerning all factors like money, manpower, equipment, facilities, materials, and information & technology. 

Actually, the project manager does not control any of these resources directly, except perhaps money (i.e., the project budget). Resources are controlled by the line managers, functional managers, or, as they are often called, resources managers. Project managers must, therefore, negotiate with line managers for all project resources. When we say that project managers control project resources, we really mean that they control those resources (which are temporarily loaned to them) through line managers.

Most project managers today have an understanding of technology rather than a command of technology. As a result, the accountability for the success of the project is now viewed as shared accountability between the project manager and all affected line managers. 

Another important fact is that project managers are treated as though they are managing part of a business rather than simply a project, and as such are expected to make sound business decisions as well as project decisions. Project managers must understand business principles.

Role of Project Manager

The new breed of business leaders must deal effectively with a broad spectrum of contemporary challenges that focus on time-to-market pressures, accelerating technologies, innovation, resource limitations, technical complexities, social and ethical issues, operational dynamics, cost, risks, and technology itself.
                                                                                                           - Hans Thamhain

By summarizing, listed factors are:
  • High task complexities, risks and uncertainties 
  • Fast-changing markets, technology, regulations 
  • Intense competition, open global markets 
  • Resource constraint, tough performance requirements 
  • Tight, end-date-driven schedules 
  • Total project life-cycle considerations 
  • Complex organizations and cross-functional linkages 
  • Joint ventures, alliances and partnerships, need for dealing with different organizational cultures and values 
  • Complex business processes and stakeholder communities 
  • Need for continuous improvements, upgrades and enhancements 
  • Need for sophisticated people skills, ability to deal with organizational conflict, power, and politics 
  • Increasing impact of IT and e-business
DEFINING THE PROJECT MANAGER’S ROLE

The project manager is responsible for coordinating and integrating activities across multiple, functional lines. The integration activities performed by the project manager include:
  • Integrating the activities necessary to develop a project plan 
  • Integrating the activities necessary to execute the plan 
  • Integrating the activities necessary to make changes to the plan
To be effective as a project manager, an individual must have management as well as technical skills. Because engineers often consider their careers limited in the functional disciplines, they look toward project management and project engineering as career path opportunities. But becoming a manager entails learning about psychology, human behavior, organizational behavior, interpersonal relations, and communications. MBA programs have come to the rescue of individuals desiring the background to be effective project managers. 

DEFINING THE FUNCTIONAL MANAGER’S ROLE
  • The functional manager has the responsibility to define how the task will be done and where the task will be done (i.e., the technical criteria). 
  • The functional manager has the responsibility to provide sufficient resources to accomplish the objective within the project’s constraints (i.e., who will get the job done). 
  • The functional manager has the responsibility for the deliverable.
DEFINING THE FUNCTIONAL EMPLOYEE’S ROLE
  • Accept responsibility for accomplishing the assigned deliverables within the project’s constraints 
  • Complete the work at the earliest possible time 
  • Periodically inform both the project and line manager of the project’s status 
  • Bring problems to the surface quickly for resolution 
  • Share information with the rest of the project team
DEFINING THE EXECUTIVE’S ROLE

Executives are expected to interface a project as follows:
  • In project planning and objective-setting 
  • In conflict resolution 
  • In priority-setting 
  • As project sponsor

THE PROJECT MANAGER AS THE PLANNING PERSONNEL 

The project manager must provide:
  • Complete task definitions 
  • Resource requirement definitions (possibly skill levels) 
  • Major timetable milestones 
  • Definition of end-item quality and reliability requirements 
  • The basis for performance measurement
If above listed properly established, result in:
  • Assurance that functional units will understand their total responsibilities toward achieving project needs. 
  • Assurance that problems resulting from the scheduling and allocation of critical resources are known beforehand. 
  • Early identification of problems that may jeopardize successful project completion so that effective corrective action and replanning can be taken to prevent or resolve the problems.

Thanks & See you in the next one.
Keep Learning.

Comments

Post a Comment