Chapter 9:

Project Human
Resource Management

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition

Note: See the text itself for full citations.

 Learning Objectives
 Explain the importance of good human resource
management on projects, including the current state and
future implications of the global IT workforce
 Define project human resource management and
understand its processes
 Summarize key concepts for managing people by
understanding the theories of Abraham Maslow, Frederick
Herzberg, David McClelland, and Douglas McGregor on
motivation, H. J. Thamhain and D. L. Wilemon on
influencing workers, and Stephen Covey on how people
and teams can become more effective

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 2
 Learning Objectives (continued)
 Discuss human resource planning and be able to create a
human resource plan, project organizational chart,
responsibility assignment matrix, and resource histogram
 Understand important issues involved in project staff
acquisition and explain the concepts of resource
assignments, resource loading, and resource leveling
 Assist in team development with training, team-building
activities, and reward systems
 Explain and apply several tools and techniques to help
manage a project team and summarize general advice on
managing teams
 Describe how project management software can assist in
project human resource management
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 3
 The Importance of Human Resource
Management
 Many corporate executives have said, “People are
our most important asset”
 People determine the success and failure of
organizations and projects

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 4
 The Global IT Workforce
 Although there have been ups and downs in the IT
labor market, there will always be a need for good
IT workers
 The Digital Planet 2008 study estimated that the

global marketplace for information and

communications technology (ICT) would top $3.7
trillion in 2008 and reach almost $4 trillion by 2011

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 5
 More Digital Planet Report Findings
 Communications products and services represented the
largest single category of ICT spending (57 percent) in
2007 with $1.9 trillion; consumers spent 29 percent of ICT
dollars worldwide, while spending by business and
government accounted for 71 percent
 The top ten ICT spending countries are, in descending
order: the U.S., Japan, China, Germany, U.K., France,
Italy, Brazil, Canada, and Spain; in 2008, China jumped
ahead of Germany, the United Kingdom, and France
 The Americas’ growth in ICT spending will be the slowest
of the three broad regions at 4 percent between 2007 and
2011; the Asia-Pacific region and the Europe, Africa, and
Middle East regions will grow annually at 10.5 percent and
5 percent, respectively
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 6
 U.S. IT Workforce
 U.S. IT employment topped 4 million for the first
time in 2008
 Several IT-related occupations will be among the

top 30 fastest-growing occupations in the U.S.

between now and 2016, with network systems/data
communications analysts and computer software
engineers listed as numbers one and four
 IT staff struggle to transition to project

management, CIOs argue, and complain that

educational institutions are not putting adequate
focus on these skills through coursework

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 7
 Implications for the Future of IT
Human Resource Management
 Proactive organizations are addressing workforce
needs by:
◦ Improving benefits
◦ Redefining work hours and incentives
◦ Finding future workers

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 8
 What Went Wrong?
 A 2006 report by The Conference Board,
Corporate Voices for Working Families,
Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the
Society for Human Resource Management
suggests that entry level workers in the U.S. are
ill-prepared for the workplace
 Four-year college graduates were listed as

deficient in the following three skills:

◦ Written communications - 27.8%
◦ Writing in English - 26.2%
◦ Leadership - 23.8%

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 9
 What is Project Human Resource
Management?
 Making the most effective use of the people
involved with a project
 Processes include:
◦ Developing the human resource plan: identifying and
documenting project roles, responsibilities, and reporting
relationships
◦ Acquiring the project team: getting the needed
personnel assigned to and working on the project
◦ Developing the project team: building individual and
group skills to enhance project performance
◦ Managing the project team: tracking team member
performance, motivating team members, providing timely
feedback, resolving issues and conflicts, and coordinating
changes to help enhance project performance
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 10
 Figure 9-1. Project Human Resource
Management Summary

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 11
 Keys to Managing People
 Psychologists and management theorists have
devoted much research and thought to the field of
managing people at work
 Important areas related to project management

include:
◦ Motivation theories
◦ Influence and power
◦ Effectiveness

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 12
 Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation
 Intrinsic motivation causes people to participate
in an activity for their own enjoyment
 Extrinsic motivation causes people to do
something for a reward or to avoid a penalty
 For example, some children take piano lessons for
intrinsic motivation (they enjoy it) while others take
them for extrinsic motivation (to get a reward or
avoid punishment)

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 13
 Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
 Abraham Maslow argued that humans possess
unique qualities that enable them to make
independent choices, thus giving them control of
their destiny
 Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs which

states that people’s behaviors are guided or

motivated by a sequence of needs

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 14
 Figure 9-2. Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 15
 Herzberg’s Motivational and Hygiene
Factors
 Frederick Herzberg wrote several famous books
and articles about worker motivation; he
distinguished between:
◦ Motivational factors: achievement, recognition, the work
itself, responsibility, advancement, and growth, which
produce job satisfaction
◦ Hygiene factors: cause dissatisfaction if not present, but
do not motivate workers to do more; examples include
larger salaries, more supervision, and a more attractive
work environment

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 16
 Table 9-1: Examples of Herzberg’s
Hygiene Factors and Motivators

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 17
 McClelland’s Acquired-Needs Theory
 Specific needs are acquired or learned over time
and shaped by life experiences, including:
◦ Achievement (nAch): achievers like challenging projects
with achievable goals and lots of feedback
◦ Affiliation (nAff): people with high nAff desire harmonious
relationships and need to feel accepted by others, so
managers should try to create a cooperative work
environment for them
◦ Power (nPow): people with a need for power desire either
personal power (not good) or institutional power (good for
the organization); provide institutional power seekers with
management opportunities

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 18
 McGregor’s Theory X and Y
 Douglas McGregor popularized the human relations
approach to management in the 1960s
 Theory X: assumes workers dislike and avoid work,
so managers must use pressure, threats, and
various control schemes to get workers to meet
objectives
 Theory Y: assumes individuals consider work as
natural as play or rest and enjoy the satisfaction of
esteem and self-actualization needs
 Theory Z: introduced in 1981 by William Ouchi and
is based on the Japanese approach to motivating
workers, emphasizing trust, quality, collective
decision making, and cultural values

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 19
 Thamhain and Wilemon’s Ways to Have Influence on
Projects
1. Authority: the legitimate hierarchical right to issue
orders
2. Assignment: the project manager's perceived ability
to influence a worker's later work assignments
3. Budget: the project manager's perceived ability to
authorize others' use of discretionary funds
4. Promotion: the ability to improve a worker's position
5. Money: the ability to increase a worker's pay and
benefits

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 20
 Thamhain and Wilemon’s Ways to Have
Influence on Projects (continued)

6. Penalty: the project manager's ability to cause

punishment
7. Work challenge: the ability to assign work that
capitalizes on a worker's enjoyment of doing a
particular task
8. Expertise: the project manager's perceived
special knowledge that others deem important
9. Friendship: the ability to establish friendly
personal relationships between the project
manager and others
Information Technology Project
Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 21
 Ways to Influence that Help and Hurt
Projects
 Projects are more likely to succeed when project
managers influence with:
◦ Expertise
◦ Work challenge
 Projects are more likely to fail when project
managers rely too heavily on:
◦ Authority
◦ Money
◦ Penalty

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 22
 Power
 Power is the potential ability to influence behavior
to get people to do things they would not
otherwise do
 Types of power include:
◦ Coercive
◦ Legitimate
◦ Expert
◦ Reward
◦ Referent

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 23
 Covey and Improving Effectiveness
 Project managers can apply Covey’s 7 habits to
improve effectiveness on projects
◦ Be proactive
◦ Begin with the end in mind
◦ Put first things first
◦ Think win/win
◦ Seek first to understand, then to be understood
◦ Synergize
◦ Sharpen the saw

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 24
 Empathic Listening and Rapport
 Good project managers are empathic listeners;
they listen with the intent to understand
 Before you can communicate with others, you
have to have rapport, a relation of harmony,
conformity, accord, or affinity
 Mirroring is the matching of certain behaviors of
the other person, a technique to help establish
rapport
 IT professionals need to develop empathic
listening and other people skills to improve
relationships with users and other stakeholders

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 25
 Developing the Human Resource Plan

 Involves identifying and documenting project

roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships
 Contents include:
◦ Project organizational charts
◦ Staffing management plan
◦ Responsibility assignment matrixes
◦ Resource histograms

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 26
 Figure 9-3. Sample Organizational
Chart for a Large IT Project

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 27
 Figure 9-4. Work Definition and
Assignment Process

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 28
 Responsibility Assignment Matrices
 A responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) is a
matrix that maps the work of the project as
described in the WBS to the people responsible
for performing the work as described in the OBS
 Can be created in different ways to meet unique

project needs

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 29
 Figure 9-5. Sample Responsibility
Assignment Matrix (RAM)

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 30
 Figure 9-6. RAM Showing Stakeholder
Roles

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 31
 Table 9-2. Sample RACI Chart

R = responsibility
A = accountability, only one A per task
C = consultation
I = informed
Note that some people reverse the definitions of responsible and accountable.

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 32
 Staffing Management Plans and
Resource Histograms
 A staffing management plan describes when
and how people will be added to and taken off the
project team
 A resource histogram is a column chart that

shows the number of resources assigned to a

project over time

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 33
 Figure 9-7. Sample Resource
Histogram

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 34
 What Went Right?
 In addition to providing technical training for IT
personnel, several companies have made
significant investments in project management
training to provide career paths for project
managers
◦ Hewlett Packard employed only six registered PMPs in
1997, but by August 2004, it employed more than 1,500
PMPs and was adding 500 more per year
◦ While most consulting firms offer a single path to a
leadership position, IBM has four to allow their people to
succeed by focusing on their strengths and interests in
one or more disciplines

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 35
 Acquiring the Project Team
 Acquiring qualified people for teams is crucial
 The project manager who is the smartest person
on the team has done a poor job of recruiting!
 It’s important to assign the appropriate type and
number of people to work on projects at the
appropriate times

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 36
 Resource Assignment
 Staffing plans and good hiring procedures are important,
as are incentives for recruiting and retention
◦ Some companies give their employees one dollar for every hour a
new person they helped hire works
◦ Some organizations allow people to work from home as an
incentive
 Enrollment in U.S. computer science and engineering
programs has dropped almost in half since 2000, and one-
third of U.S. workers will be over the age of 50 by 2010
 CIO’s researchers suggest that organizations rethink
hiring practices and incentives to hire and retain IT talent

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 37
 Best Practice
 Best practices can be applied to include the best
places for people to work
◦ For example, Fortune Magazine lists the “100 Best
Companies to Work For” in the United States every year,
with Google taking the honors in 2007 and 2008
◦ Working Mothers Magazine lists the best companies in
the U.S. for women based on benefits for working
families
◦ The Timesonline (www.timesonline.co.uk) provides the
Sunday Times list of the 100 Best Companies to Work
For, a key benchmark against which UK companies can
judge their Best Practice performance as employers

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 38
 Resource Loading
 Resource loading refers to the amount of
individual resources an existing schedule requires
during specific time periods
 Helps project managers develop a general

understanding of the demands a project will make

on the organization’s resources and individual
people’s schedules
 Overallocation means that more resources than

are available are assigned to perform work at a

given time

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 39
 Figure 9-8. Sample Histogram
Showing an Overallocated Individual

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 40
 Resource Leveling
 Resource leveling is a technique for resolving
resource conflicts by delaying tasks
 The main purpose of resource leveling is to create

a smoother distribution of resource usage and

reduce overallocation

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 41
Figure 9-9. Resource Leveling Example

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 42
 Benefits of Resource Leveling
 When resources are used on a more constant
basis, they require less management
 It may enable project managers to use a just-in-

time inventory type of policy for using

subcontractors or other expensive resources
 It results in fewer problems for project personnel

and accounting department

 It often improves morale

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 43
 Developing the Project Team
 The main goal of team development is to help
people work together more effectively to improve
project performance
 It takes teamwork to successfully complete most

projects

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 44
 Tuckman Model of Team Development
 Forming
 Storming
 Norming
 Performing
 Adjourning

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 45
 Training
 Training can help people understand themselves,
each other, and how to work better in teams
 Team building activities include:

◦ Physical challenges
◦ Psychological preference indicator tools

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 46
 Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
 MBTI is a popular tool for determining personality
preferences and helping teammates understand
each other
 Four dimensions include:
◦ Extrovert/Introvert (E/I)
◦ Sensation/Intuition (S/N)
◦ Thinking/Feeling (T/F)
◦ Judgment/Perception (J/P)
 NTs or rationals are attracted to technology fields
 IT people vary most from the general population
in not being extroverted or sensing

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 47
 Social Styles Profile
 People are perceived as behaving primarily in one
of four zones, based on their assertiveness and
responsiveness:
◦ Drivers
◦ Expressives
◦ Analyticals
◦ Amiables
 People on opposite corners (drivers and amiables,
analyticals and expressives) may have difficulties
getting along

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 48
 Figure 9-10. Social Styles

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 49
 DISC Profiles
 Also uses a four-dimensional model of normal
behavior
◦ Dominance
◦ Influence
◦ Steadiness
◦ Compliance
 People in opposite quadrants can have problems
understanding each other

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 50
 Figure 9-11. The DISC Profile

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 51
 Reward and Recognition Systems
 Team-based reward and recognition systems can
promote teamwork
 Focus on rewarding teams for achieving specific

goals
 Allow time for team members to mentor and help

each other to meet project goals and develop

human resources

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 52
 Managing the Project Team
 Project managers must lead their teams in performing
various project activities
 After assessing team performance and related

information, the project manager must decide:

◦ If changes should be requested to the project
◦ If corrective or preventive actions should be recommended
◦ If updates are needed to the project management plan or
organizational process assets

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 53
 Tools and Techniques for Managing
Project Teams
 Observation and conversation
 Project performance appraisals
 Conflict management
 Issue logs
 Interpersonal skills

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 54
 General Advice on Teams
 Be patient and kind with your team
 Fix the problem instead of blaming people
 Establish regular, effective meetings
 Allow time for teams to go through the basic

team-building stages
 Limit the size of work teams to three to seven

members

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 55
 Five Dysfunctions of a Team
 Patrick Lencioni, author of several books on
teams, says that “Teamwork remains the one
sustainable competitive advantage that has been
largely untapped”*
 The five dysfunctions of teams are:
1. Absence of trust
2. Fear of conflict
3. Lack of commitment
4. Avoidance of accountability
5. Inattention to results
*Lencioni, Patrick, “Overcoming the Five Dysfunctions of a Team,” Jossey-Bass: Sa
Francisco, CA (2005), p. 3.

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 56
 General Advice on Teams (continued)
 Plan some social activities to help project team
members and other stakeholders get to know
each other better
 Stress team identity
 Nurture team members and encourage them to

help each other

 Take additional actions to work with virtual team

members

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 57
 Using Software to Assist in Human
Resource Management
 Software can help in producing RAMS and
resource histograms
 Project management software includes several
features related to human resource management
such as:
◦ Assigning resources
◦ Identifying potential resource shortages or
underutilization
◦ Leveling resources

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 58
 Project Resource Management Involves
Much More Than Using Software
 Project managers must:
◦ Treat people with consideration and respect
◦ Understand what motivates them
◦ Communicate carefully with them
 Focus on your goal of enabling project team
members to deliver their best work

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 59
 Chapter Summary
 Project human resource management includes the
processes required to make the most effective use
of the people involved with a project
 Main processes include:
◦ Develop human resource plan
◦ Acquire project team
◦ Develop project team
◦ Manage project team

Information Technology Project

Management, Sixth Edition Copyright 2009 60