4/9/2021

Department of Informatics
INF 315
Lecture 3: Soft Issues involved in IT
Project Management
Dr Riana Steyn
Prof Carina de Villiers
Dané Coetzee

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Lecture 3: Soft Issues involved in IT PM

LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Define hard issues in the Project Management (PM)

environment.
2. Understand why it is easier to manage hard issues than soft
issues in the PM environment.
3. Define soft issues in the PM environment.
4. Understand why it is difficult to manage soft issues in the PM
environment.
5. Describe the soft skills required to manage a project
successful.
6. Understand how the soft PM skills should be utilised for
successful PM
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LEARNING OUTCOMES
7. Understand the difference between a manager and a leader.
8. Understand and apply the different leadership theories:
• Trait theory of leadership
• Behavioural theory of leadership
• Contingency theory of leadership
• Power and influence theory of leadership
9. Argue for or against the different leadership theories

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Write down a hard issue that you can think of

in the project environment:
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Typical hard issues to manage in an IT Project

 Quality
 Service
 Profitability
 Cost control
 Productivity
 Overall performance

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Why do most leaders focus on the hard issues of PM?

 They are easy to see or recognise
 They are easy to measure
 They seem easier to address
 They are based on facts and facts
can be debated, proven and
strategized
 Most people find it easier to
address concrete, nonhuman
issues
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The following is an example of a soft issue in a

project environment:
A. Emotional well-being
B. Self-image and self-esteem
C. Values and beliefs
D. All of the above

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Soft issues in an IT Project

 Soft issues = the HUMAN issues
 = the fundamental attitudinal or
mindset issues of the people
 = the overall mental and
emotional well-being, self-image,
self-esteem, values, beliefs and
feelings about the world and the
place people believe they have in
it

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Soft issues in an IT Project

 Soft issues are:
 less tangible aspects
 much more subjective
 less easily measured or
charted
 Managers are less
experienced in dealing with
these issues and mostly tend
to ignore it
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Soft issues in an IT Project

 Soft issues affect people’s
state of mind
 An individual’s performance is
DIRECTLY RELATED to his/her
state of mind
 Performance (easily
measurable = hard issue)
 State of mind = soft issue

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Soft issues in an IT Project

 Dealing with the true cause of
the problem involves:
 understanding and
 fostering
 attitudinal changes in
people

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Capture a soft skill which you think a project

manager should have:
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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

 What is leadership?

“A leader is best when people

barely know that he exists. Of a
good leader, who talks little,
when his work is done and his
aims fulfilled, they will say “We
did this ourselves.”
Lau-Tzu

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

 What is leadership?

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Leadership and management is the same thing

A. True
B. False

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

The difference between
leadership and management?
 Leadership is:
 The ability to influence a group
toward the achievement of goals.
 the ability to establish direction,
align people, motivate, and inspire
 Management is:
 The use of authority inherent in
designated formal rank to obtain
compliance from organizational
members.
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The difference between leadership and management?

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

The difference between leadership and management?

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership styles:
 Task oriented:
 High concern for the goal and the
work and tend to behave in an
autocratic fashion.
 Relations oriented:
 Show greater concern for people
and tend to exercise a more
democratic kind of leadership.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 The trait theory of leadership:
 An early assumption that leaders
are born
 due to this belief, those that possess
the correct qualities and traits are
better suited to leadership.
 identifies behavioural characteristics
that are common in leaders

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 The trait theory of leadership
(continued):
 The belief that personality,
social, physical or intellectual
traits differentiate leaders from
non-leaders

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Behavioural theories:
 focus on how leaders behave
 assume that leaders can be made,
rather than born and
 successful leadership is based on
definable, learnable behaviour.

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What do you think? Are leaders born or

taught?
A. Born
B. Taught

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Contingency theories:
 a leader's effectiveness
is contingent upon with how
his/her leadership style matches
the situation
 = the leader must find out what
kind of leadership style and
situation he/she thrives in.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Contingency theories:
 Fiedler’s contingency model:
 The theory that effective groups depend on a proper match
between a leader’s style of interacting with subordinates and the
degree to which the situation gives control and influence to the
leader.
 Fred Fiedler developed a Least Preferred Co-Worker (LPC)
Questionnaire
 An instrument that purports to measure whether a person is
task- or relationship-oriented.
 A high LPC score indicates that the individual is a relationship-
oriented leader, while a low LPC score suggests a task-
oriented leader.
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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Contingency theories:
 Fiedler’s contingency model:
 Situations:
 Leader-Member Relations: The degree of confidence, trust,
and respect subordinates have in their leader.
 Task Structure: The degree to which the job assignments are
procedurised.
 Position Power: Influence derived from one’s formal
structural position in the organization; includes power to hire,
fire, discipline, promote, and give salary increases.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Contingency theories:
 Fiedler’s contingency model

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Contingency theories:
 Hersey and Blanchard’s Situational Leadership Theory:

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Contingency theories:
 Leadership styles and follower readiness:

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Power and Influence leadership
theory:
 focuses on how leaders can motivate
their team by using (surprise, surprise)
their power and/or influence.
 The main study supporting
this theory in action was conducted by
John French and Bertram Raven in
1959

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Power and Influence leadership theory:
 John French and Bertram Raven’s 5 forms of power:
 Legitimate – power that comes from the belief that a person has the formal
right to make demands, and to expect others to be compliant and obedient.
 Reward – power that results from one person's ability to compensate another
for compliance.
 Expert – power based on a person's high levels of skill and knowledge.
 Referent – power as a result of a person's perceived attractiveness,
worthiness and right to others' respect.
 Coercive – power due to the belief that a person can punish others for
noncompliance.
 Six years later, Raven added an extra power base:
 Informational – power due to a person's ability to control the
information that others need to accomplish something.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project: Leadership

Leadership theories:
 Power and Influence leadership theory:
 Power vs influence

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

2. Motivation
 the “will to act”
 Everyone has motivational forces
inside them
 as a manager it is important to
understand what those are for each
team member, to tap into that and
influence their behaviour in a positive
way

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

2. Motivation (continued)
 Leaders should keep in mind that
listening to and advising team
members will likely go further than
issuing declarations and expecting
them to work.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

3. Communication
 Poor communication undermines a
project’s success.
 Communicating clearly and openly is a
necessity
 Open and honest communication from
top-level leadership will result in the
same communication and trust from all
other members of the team.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

3. Communication(continued)
 Transparent project managers will typically
have employees who feel more comfortable
about opening up to the manager about
their concerns, issues and constructive
suggestions.
 Listening aligns directly with good
communication.
 Good listening skills allow project managers
to learn about and engage with clients and
team members.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

4. Conflict management
 Implementing conflict resolution strategies helps make effective leadership
easier during difficult moments for the team.
 Conflicts are inevitable, especially when managing a large group of people

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

4. Conflict management
 Disagreements typically stem from:
 competition to get a scarce resource,
 system downtime,
 communication gaps,
 personnel policies and
 unclear requirements, to name a few.
 When managed well, a conflicting situation has
the potential to bring team members together
and make them more focused on achieving the
overall objectives of the project.
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Soft skills needed to manage a project

5. Trust building
 Good leaders care about earning the trust
of their team members.
 To earn trust:
 share information with the team,
 be transparent about decisions,
 get team members involved in the
decision-making process
 and be genuinely interested in each
team member’s growth

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

5. Trust building (continued)
 Team members who have trust
in each other will thrive
 Those who don’t often have
trust in each other struggle to
survive.
 Providing honest feedback helps
create a sense of trust between
team members.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

6. Decision making
 Decisions can usually be categorised
as:
 routine,
 strategic,
 operational or
 emergency
 The type of decision will determine
the set of criteria that come into play
when making a judgment.

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Soft skills needed to manage a project

6. Decision making
 always consider how others will be
affected
 team members are more likely to trust
a project manager who makes sound
decisions by:
 defining problems clearly,
 brainstorming solutions,
 exploring the advantages and
disadvantages of the various
options and
 bringing together the people
needed to implement a solution.
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Soft skills needed to manage a project

7. Organisation
 A good manager can track the multitude of tasks, issues, action
items, milestones and decisions, all while ensuring accountability.
 Time management is vital

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Individual class assignment 3

 Due Monday 12 April at midnight

 Under Schedule and Notes / Lecture 3 – 9 April 2021

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