THE MANAGER,

THE ORGANIZATION,
AND THE TEAM

By
A .Khaliq
Project Management Chapter 03
 Project Manager

A Professional in the
field of project
management
Responsible for the
planning and
execution of project
Central duty of PM is
to ensure the
success of a project
by minimizing risk
Project Management and the Project
Manager

The senior manager of the parent

organization briefs the project
manger on how to deal with the
parent organization and
communicate the project activities
in project and with parent
organization.
Project manager is responsible for

planning, organizing, budgeting,

directing, and controlling the project.
Project Management and the Project
Manager

Three major questions for the project

manager:

1. What needs to be done?

2. When must it be done?
3. How are the resources required to
do this job going to be obtained?
 Responsibilities of a Project
Manager
1. Responsibility to the Parent
Organization
2. Responsibility to the Client
3. Responsibility to the
Team Members
4. Above all, the Project Manager
must never allow senior
management to be surprised
1. Responsibilities to the parent
organization

Avoiding waste of resources (efficiency)

Timely and accurate project
communications (Accurate reporting of
project status with regard to budget
and lifecycle)
Careful and competent management of
the project to avoid pitfalls.
Protect the firm from high risk. (Means
the PM should be skilful in risk
minimization)
 2. Responsibility to the
Client
Preserve interest of the client.
implementation according to the
demands of the client to create
credibility and goodwill
Ensure standard performance within
cost, time
Resolve conflict among the groups.
Like heads of all departments of the
parent organization
Between project team members
 3. Responsibility to project
team members

Fairness in evaluating their

performance, respect for all without
any discrimination and last but not
least, to be honest.
Concern for members future after
the completion of project. PM
should be careful about the career
development of the project staff.
The Key Roles of PM
 Special Demands on the Project
Manager

A number of demands are critical to

the manager of projects:
Acquiring adequate resources
Acquiring and motivating personnel
Dealing with obstacles (problem)
Making project goal trade offs (changes)
Dealing with the risk factor
Maintaining effective communication
Negotiation for conflict resolution
 Acquiring Adequate Resources

Resources initially budgeted for projects

frequently proves to be insufficient
because functional managers and PM
wants the use of resources to be strictly
limited. Normally a project becomes short
of resource at the termination stage so
the manager should be very careful about
an effective termination of the project.
Sometimes resource trade-offs are required
Subcontracting is an option
 Acquiring and Motivating
Personnel
A major problem for the project manager is
that most people required for a project must
be hired
At times, functional managers may become jealous
if they perceive a project as more attractive than
their own functional area, so results into conflict
Typically, the functional manager retains control of
personnel evaluation, salary, and promotion for the
project staff so still motivation becomes one of the
problems
Because the functional manager controls pay and
promotion, the project manager cannot promise
more rewards for better performers, which may
 Acquiring and Motivating
Personnel

So in such a challenging situation to

keep the project staff motivated, the
PM should have;
Political sensitivity
Strong problem solving skills
Familiarity with organizations
environment
 Dealing with Obstacles

One characteristic of any project is its

uniqueness and with that comes a series
of crisis:
At the start of a project, the problem
associates with the use of resources
As a project nears completion, obstacles tends
to be what will happen to the members of the
project team when the project is completed.
The reduced efficiency of personnel as the
project moves towards completion, is one of
the obstacles
 Making Project Goal Trade-offs

The project manager must make trade

offs between the project goals of cost,
time and performance
During the design or formation stage of the
project life cycle, there is no significant
difference in the importance project
managers place on the three goals
With the passage of time, during the
project life cycle one of these goals may
become more important. Then the PM
should make changes in their strategies.
 Effective Communication

Most of the PMs time is spent

communicating with the many groups
interested in the project
Considerable time must be spent selling,
reselling, and explaining the project
 Conflict Resolution

A conflict if existed within a project

organization may stop the achievement of
project goals, therefore PM should have a
red sense of conflict identification and skills
for effective resolution of conflict.
 Selecting the Project Manager

Some of the most popular attributes,

skills, and qualities that necessary in
project managers are:
Strong technical background
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
Selecting the Project Manager

Four major categories of skills that are

required for the project manager and
serve as the key criteria for selection:
Credibility(trustworthiness and expertise)
Sensitivity
Leadership and management style
Ability to handle stress
The Functional Manager vs.
The Project Manager
 The Functional Manager vs.
The Project Manager

Functional managers (managers in functional

areas) are usually specialists, analytically
oriented and they know the details of the
related department for which they are
responsible.

For example the Vice President Marketing (head

of marketing department) of a manufacturing
company should know the functions of sales,
warehouse, advertisement, market research and
other related sections as shown in the diagram;
 Project Management and the Project
Manager

The Functional Manager

 The Functional Manager vs.
The Project Manager

Project managers are usually generalists,

and they should know the details of all the
departments of the parent organization.

Forexample the PM should know about

the finance, manufacturing, engineering,
planning, procurement and such other
departments as shown in the diagram;
 Project Management and the Project
Manager

The Project Manager

Project Management and the Project
Manager

The Functional Manager

Analytical Approach
Direct supervisor

The Project Manager

General Approach
Facilitator
The Organization
The Pure Project Organization
The organization that perform its activity
mainly through managing projects.
The Pure Project Organization

Advantages
Effective and efficient for large projects
Resources available as needed
Broad range of specialists
short lines of communication
Drawbacks
Expensive for small projects
Specialists may have limited
technological depth
May require high levels of duplication for
Functional Project Organization

The organization which undertake projects

only when needed.
Functional Project Organization

Advantages
technological depth

Drawbacks
lines of communication outside functional
department slow
technological breadth
project rarely given high priority
Mixed Project Organization
An organization which is dealing in both
operations and project management.
Mixed Project Organization

Advantages
flexibility in way it can interact with
parent organization
strong focus on the project itself
contact with functional groups minimizes
project risks
ability to manage fundamental trade-offs
across several projects
Drawbacks
violation of the unity of command
THE PROJECT TEAM
 Characteristics of Effective
Project Team
Technically
competent
Politically sensitive
Problem orientation
Goal orientation
High self-esteem