Tales from a Project Manager – The Project Manager, Project Management Office, and Planning

Tales from a Project Manager – The Project Manager, Project Management Office, and Planning

Project Management is only as good as the individuals and leaders who mange the key functions.  With that, project management requires a group of people dedicated to the achievement of specific goals.

We will explore the role of the project manager, understand the responsibilities of the Project Management Office, and explore the critical stage of all projects which is planning.

The source artifact for this post is Harold Kerzner's, "Project Management:  A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling" 

 

Project Manager

Honesty and integrity or required to foster an atmosphere of trust and thus a project manager must exhibit honesty and integrity to build a culture of trust. 

Selecting a project manager is not an easy effort.  Harold Kerzner in the book, “Project Management:  A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (SAPSC), 11th Edition,” indicates there are five (5) basic questions to consider:

• What are the internal an external sources?
• How do we select?
• How do we provide career development in project management?
• How can we develop project management skills?
• How do we evaluate project management performance?

Harold Kerzner goes further in the book, “Project Management:  A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (SAPSC), 11th Edition” and defines the major responsibilities of a project manager to include:

• Producing the end item with available resources and within the constraints of time, cost, and performance / technology
• Meet Contractual profit objectives
• Make all required decisions whether they be for alternatives or termination
• Act as the customer (external) and upper-level and functional management (internal) communications focal point
• “Negotiate” with all functional disciplines for accomplishment of the necessary work packages within the constraints of time, cost, and performance / technology
• Resolve all conflicts

Besides the major responsibilities listed above, Kerzner indicates project managers are constantly required to demonstrate their skills in interface, resource, and planning/control management.

 

Project Management Office

The project management office is a support organization for project managers to carry out their duties.  Integration of work across the functional lines of the organization is a major responsibility of the project managers and the project management office. 

The most common cause of project failure is the lack of integration of functional units.  So the project management office plays a critical role in horizontal integration across the organization.  Thus the PMO is looking to get the functional units working toward the same designs, specifications, and objectives.  This is important across R&D, engineering, manufacturing, and subcontractors.

Harold Kerzner’s, “Project Management, SAPSC 11^th edition,” states the responsibilities of the project office also include:

• Focal point of information for both in-house control and customer reporting
• Controlling time, cost, and performance to adhere to contractual requirements
• Ensuring all work required is documented and distributed to all key personnel
• Ensuring all work performed is both authorized and funded by contractual documentation.

Four major activities of the project office are:

1. Integration of activities
2. In-house and out-of-house communication
3. Scheduling with risk and uncertainty
4. Effective Control

 

Planning

This is the critical stage of any project and includes more than just planning the activities that need to be accomplished.  Harold Kerzner’s, “Project Management: SAPSC, 11^th edition,” suggests that this critical stage also includes, “the planning and establishment of the authority relationships that must exist for the . . . . project.” 

In planning, “the project team develops a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) that contains such elements as:

·        General management responsibility

·        Operations management responsibility

·        Specialized responsibility

·        Who must and may be consulted

·        Who must be notified

·        Who must approve. 

Final Thoughts

Kerzner’s book, “Project Management: SAPC, 11^th edition,” clearly lays out the challenge the project management office can help solve which is the horizontal integration of the functional teams. 

Selecting a project manager is important but not an easy task.  There are several questions that should be answered when selecting the project manager.  The project manager has several explicit responsibilities in addition to the implicit responsibilities of interface, resource, and planning / control management.

Planning is a critical stage of all projects and includes more than just planning what activities are needed.  It is necessary during planning to define the authority relationships that are necessary for the project and to have the project team develop a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM).