Advanced Project Management APM

Prepared by Dr. Ahmad Al Ghamdi

PMG 506
Advanced Project Management (APM)
Advanced Project Management
Prepared by Dr. Ahmad Al Ghamdi
Lecture 3

PMG 506
The Project Manager
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
Lecture 3
The Project Manager

The appointment of a PM (the project “leader”) important to initiate any project. The PM
is probably the major resource input to the project compared to the team, the capital,
the materials, and any other inputs. As the leader, this person will take responsibility for
planning, implementing, and completing the project, beginning with the job of getting
things started. The way to get things started is to hold a meeting (kick-off meeting).

The PM’s first set of tasks, is typically 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.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND THE PROJECT MANAGER
The Functional Manager versus the Project Manager
The functional manager in charge of one of a firm’s functional departments such as
marketing, engineering, or finance. Such department heads are usually specialists in the
areas they manage. 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.
The PM, new or experienced, must oversee many functional areas, each with its own
specialists. Therefore, what is required is an ability to put many pieces of a task together
to form a coherent whole.
That is, the project manager should be more skilled at synthesis, whereas the functional
manager should be more skilled at analysis. The functional manager uses the analytic
approach and the PM uses the systems approach. PM “manages” the project, but the
functional managers may affect the choice of technology to be used by the project and
the specific individuals who will do the work.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND THE PROJECT MANAGER
Project 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, and
responsibility to the members of the project team.
• Above all, the PM must never allow senior management to be surprised!
• “tweed coat management” The result, obvious in retrospect, was that such projects
invariably far exceeded budget and schedule

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.
Experience as a PM is seen as a mandatory or desirable step on the way up the corporate
ladder. The capability of a PM to meet the demands of senior management positions is
evidenced by the PM’s ability to achieve the project’s goals without the need for de jure
authority while operating in an environment typified by uncertainty, if not chaos.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.2 SPECIAL DEMANDS ON THE PROJECT MANAGER
Acquiring Adequate Resources
Many details of resource purchase and usage are deferred until the project manager
knows specifically what resources will be required and when.
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
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The Project Manager
3.2 SPECIAL DEMANDS ON THE PROJECT MANAGER
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.”
The functional manager may thus be a bit jealous or suspicious of the PM, a person who
may have little interest in the routine work of the functional area.

It has long been assumed that in order to ensure creativity, professionals require minimal
supervision, maximum freedom, and little control.
The most effective team members have some common characteristics:
1. High-quality technical skills
2. Political sensitivity
3. Strong problem orientation
4. Strong goal orientation
5. High self-esteem
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.2 SPECIAL DEMANDS ON THE PROJECT MANAGER
Failure and the Risk and Fear of Failure
Maintaining a balanced, positive outlook among team members is a delicate job. Setting
budgets and schedules with sufficient slack but not sufficient to arouse suspicion in cost
and time-conscious senior management, is also a delicate job.

Breadth of Communication
Most of the PM’s time is spent communicating with the many groups interested in the
project

Negotiation
The project manager must be a highly skilled negotiator. There is almost no aspect of the
PM’s job that does not depend directly on this skill.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.2 SPECIAL DEMANDS ON THE PROJECT MANAGER
Dealing with Obstacles
From the beginning of the project to its termination, crises appear without warning. The
better the planning, the fewer the crises, but no amount of planning can take account of
the myriad of changes that can and do occur in the project’s environment.

Making Project Goal Trade-offs

The PM must make trade-offs between the project goals of cost, time, and performance
and, of course, the ancillary goals.
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The Project Manager
3.3 SELECTING THE PROJECT MANAGER
Selection of the project manager is one of the two or three most important decisions
concerning the project.
The following is a list of some of the most popular attributes, skills, and qualities that
have been sought when selecting 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
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.3 SELECTING THE PROJECT MANAGER
Above all, the best PM is the one who can get the job done! What is rare is the individual
whose focus is on the completion of a difficult job, a “closer.” Of all the characteristics
desirable in a PM, this drive to complete the task is the most important.

Credibility
Technical credibility. 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.
Administrative credibility. The PM has several key administrative responsibilities that
must be performed with apparently effortless skill.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.3 SELECTING THE PROJECT MANAGER
Sensitivity
PM needs to sense interpersonal conflict on the project team or between team members
and outsiders. Successful PMs are not conflict avoiders, they sense conflict early, then
confront and deal with it before the conflict escalates into interdepartmental and
intradepartmental warfare.
The PM needs a sensitive set of technical sensors. It is common for competent and
honest team members to try to hide their failures.

Leadership, Ethics, and Management Style

Leadership has been defined (Tannenbaum et al., 1957) as “interpersonal influence,
exercised in situations and directed through the communication process, toward the
attainment of a specified goal or goals.”
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The Project Manager
3.3 SELECTING THE PROJECT MANAGER
Leadership, Ethics, and Management Style
Another aspect of leadership is a strong sense of ethics. Nixon (1987) has identified some
ethical missteps that are relatively common in business:
• “wired” bids and contracts (the winner has been predetermined)
• “buy-in” (bidding low with the intent of cutting corners or forcing subsequent contract
changes)
• kickbacks
• “covering” for team members (group cohesiveness)
• taking “shortcuts” (to meet deadlines or budgets)
• using marginal (substandard) materials
• compromising on safety
• violating standards
• consultant (e.g., auditors) loyalties (to employer or to client or to public)
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.3 SELECTING THE PROJECT MANAGER
Ability to Handle Stress
There do appear to be four major causes of stress often associated with the management
of projects:
First, never develop a consistent set of procedures and techniques to manage their work.
Second, having “too much on their plates.”
Third, a high need to achieve that is consistently frustrated.
Fourth, the parent organization is having a major change.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.4 PROBLEMS OF CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
Some projects require cooperation by individuals and groups from different countries.
Sometimes they require cooperation by individuals or groups in one country, but from
different industries or even from different divisions of the same firm. It is not the
geographical or organizations differences that matter, it is the differences in cultures.
Moreover, it is the differences in the environments within which projects are conducted,
i.e. the economic, political, legal, and sociotechnical environments that matter.
“Culture” refers to the entire way of life for a group of people. It encompasses every
aspect of living and has four elements that are common to all cultures: technology,
institutions, language, and arts (The World Book, 1997).

Culture and the Project

One of the most obvious ways is in how people of different cultures regard time.

Microcultures “corporate culture” and the Project

The PM must know whose promises can be relied upon and whose cannot.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.5 IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
The environment of a system is defined as everything outside the system that receives
system outputs from it or delivers inputs to it. A culture’s institutions are a part of the
environment for every project.

Socioeconomic Environment
On international projects, the PM (or the PM’s senior management) can expect to deal
with bureaucracy at several different levels (i.e., local, regional, and national government
functionaries)
The project should be conducted in such a way that host-country norms are honored.

Legal Environment
Martin (1993) Concludes that the failure to understand the culture of a nation in which
negotiations are taking place puts the ignorant party at a severe disadvantage. The same
conclusion is obviously true for microcultures.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.5 IMPACT OF INSTITUTIONAL ENVIRONMENTS
The Business Cycle as an Environment
The project manager should be aware of the general level of business conditions in the
nation hosting the project.
Above all, PMs should be sensitive to economic problems in the host country and be
willing to adapt, as far as possible, to local commercial cust.

Technological Environment
The ability to complete a project with success is often dependent on the PM’s ability to
plan the project in such a way as to be compatible with the technology available in the
host nation.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.6 MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS AND MANAGERIAL
BEHAVIOR
Almost every writer on the subject of managing international projects, or of managing
any business in another country, advises the manager to learn the language of the host
nation. It is usually not necessary (though it is always helpful) for a project manager to be
fluent in the language of the host nation.

Structure and Style of Communications

The PM should never let the boss be surprised. This is a fundamental tenet of our
approach to project management. The manager of an international project cannot count
on being voluntarily informed of problems and potential problems by his or her
subordinates.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.6 MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS AND MANAGERIAL
BEHAVIOR
Managerial and Personal Behavior
Many languages have both formal and informal modes of addressing other people.
Dinsmore et al. (1993) list five factors that they contend require special consideration by
the PM heading a multicultural project.
• the importance of language and culture,
• the need to deal with the politics and politicians in the host nation,
• the fact that the PM may have to use indigenous staff members,
• the possibility of input supply and technology problems,
• the need to obey local laws and customs
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
3.6 MULTICULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS AND MANAGERIAL
BEHAVIOR
Final Comments on Multicultural Projects
The project manager is ill-advised to take on an international project without adequate
preparation in the culture and language of the host nation. Lack of preparation is apt to
cause cultural shock which results in frustration, usually followed by withdrawal. If there
are no resources inside the organization to prepare those moving into a different culture,
outside consultants with appropriate knowledge and teaching skills are needed. Lessons
in the foreign language are mandatory, even if the language training does not extend to
technical language. The willingness to speak in the host nation’s tongue on social
occasions and for routine business, will be appreciated by the hosts and earn goodwill
from the indigenous members of the project team.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager

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 project managers were detailed and the task of selecting the PM was
addressed. Last, the issue of culture and its effect on project communication and success
was discussed.
The following specific points were made in the chapter.
Two factors crucial to the success of the project are its support by top management and
the existence of a problem orientation, rather than discipline orientation, within the
team members.
Compared to a functional manager, a PM is a generalist rather than a specialist, a
synthesizer rather than an analyst, and a facilitator rather than a supervisor.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
Summary
The PM has responsibilities to the parent organization, the project itself, and the project
team. The unique demands on a PM concern seven areas:
• Acquiring adequate physical resources
• Acquiring and motivating personnel
• Dealing with obstacles
• Making goal trade-offs
• Maintaining a balanced outlook in the team
• Communicating with all parties
• Negotiating
The most common characteristics of effective project team members are:
• High-quality technical skills
• Political sensitivity
• Strong problem orientation
Lecture 3
The Project Manager

Summary
• 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.
Some important points concerning the impact of culture on project management are:
• 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.
Lecture 3
The Project Manager
Summary
• Language is a particularly critical aspect of culture for the project.
In the next chapter we consider the task of negotiating for the resources to implement
the project plan and WBS.
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The Project Manager
GLOSSARY
Analytic Approach Breaking problems into their constituent parts to understand the
parts better and thereby solve the problem.
Benefit-Cost A ratio to evaluate a proposed course of action.
Champion A person who spearheads an idea or action and “sells” it throughout the
organization.
Contingency Plan An alternative for action if the expected result fails to materialize.
Culture The way of life of any group of people.
Discipline An area of expertise.
Environment Everything outside the system that delivers inputs or receives outputs from
the system.
Facilitator A person who helps people overcome problems, either with technical issues or
with other people.
Functional One of the standard organization disciplines such as finance, marketing,
accounting, or operations.
Microculture The “corporate culture” within the organization, or even project.
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The Project Manager
GLOSSARY
Systems Approach A wide-ranging, synthesizing method for addressing problems that
considers multiple and interacting relationships. Commonly contrasted with the analytic
approach.
Technological Having to do with the methods and techniques for doing something.
Trade-Off Allowing one aspect to get worse in return for another aspect getting better.
Tweed Coat Management The concept that highly educated people such as engineers
require a special type of management.
Lecture 1
Projects in Contemporary Organizations

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