Organizational Influences in Projects

Every project is performed under certain organization which will have its own environment, culture, structure, SOP (Standard operation procedures). By this definition, a project is more likely be influenced by the organization than external factors, thus understanding the operating organization better is the key to successfully performing a project.
We'll start from the organization's culture which includes management style, visions&missions, and working environment.

The most influencing factor in a organization's culture is of course the management style. If we talk about management style, it can be dictatorship, leading-by-example (leadership), authority, but most certainly not democracy..:)

Second, clear visions&missions of the performing organization will help boost the project execution to run smoothly because a clear definition of what the organization is doing will give better direction than a randomly taken decision.

Last but not least, the working environment also plays important role as an organizational culture. Beware of a company treating overtime as a habit or tradition if you are not comfortable to endure work 98 hours per week straight (for example). Usually, an organization led by a dictator and has a carelessly directed/overridden decision-making process will create uncomfortable working environment for what supposedly done still can be altered by higher management. 

Other than the work-hours, working environment also includes work ethics which is quite general across any organizations.

Going forward to organizational structure, there are at least 3 types of structures: Functional, Projectized, and Matrix. Those three are already simplified in a book by Dr. Paul Sanghera, PMP: "PMP in Depth" page 38 as shown as follow:

 

Please note that in a weak matrix organization's structure, a project manager role is more a coordinator which similar to functional organization's structure. Only in a strong matrix and the projectized structure a project manager will have the fullest mean (influence and power) of being a project manager

"A good manager is a man who isn't worried about his own career but rather the careers of those who work for him." -- H. S. M. Burns

Negotiation

Negotiation is a dialogue between two or more people or contributing parties so that a consensus can be reached. The consensus itself is an agreement between those parties reached in the process. Parties involved in negotiation process are said to have compromised the earlier agreement or to reach a win-win solution when issues are encountered/arose from the earlier agreement. 

Throughout project lifecycle, there are times when a project manager will have to negotiate with project's stakeholders. The negotiation might occur when there is/are:

1. Gaps to fill between stakeholder's expectation and the agreed scope (scope negotiation as well as stakeholder's management)
2. A need to select/include team of expert to execute a project (human resources negotiation)
3. Conflicts of interest between team members (team development)
4. A need to procure a certain work/module to third party (pricing negotiation)
5. etc

In a negotiation process, most of the time debate can't be avoided. A project manager might involved in an extended debate with stakeholders to reach a consensus. In time like this, the project manager's expert power will play a very important role in negotiation. With expert power, a project manager can explain/reason better with his/her stand to stakeholders.

Winning a tough negotiation will require not only expert power, or any given references (reasons) but also a management skill called Influence. A project manager with great influence will have the odds of winning more than just an ordinary, by-the-book project manager. Without influence, a negotiation will turn out to be a just a meeting place where a project manager nodding 'Yes' all the time.

Please note that project manager IS an agent of change but it doesn't mean that he/she has to nod all the time; a project manager should have power of influence to control and manage the proposed changes so that the project he/she is managing will not turn into chaos

"Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted. Good ideas come with a heavy burden. Which is why so few people have them. So few people can handle it." -- Hugh Macleod 

Communication Within Project

Communication is already part of all-living-being's daily activities and it is common and convenient to communicate ideas, experiences, concerns, considerations, etc in our daily interaction with others. In project management, a project manager might need to communicate issues, concerns, and other project-related materials to functional managers, program manager or even portfolio manager. 

 

Related to project management, it is for sure the duty of a project manager to manage and communicate issues (positive or negative) across stakeholders. To help ease the process, there are some guidelines or more a checklist on how to communicate properly:
1. What to communicate (message)
2. Who the receiver(s) is/are (stakeholders)
3. How to communicate (medium)
4. When to communicate (appropriate time)
5. What the expected result from the message is (feedback)

Having the checklist answered, communicating across projects should be a lot easier and manageable, i.e: the target audience and the time they receive the addressed message.

Quoting Dr. Paul Sanghera, PMP in his book: "PMP in Depth": "The importance of communication in project management cannot be overemphasized. Even a well-scheduled and well-funded project can fail in the hands of a hard-working team of experts due to lack of proper communication."

A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself. What one can be, one must be. -- Abraham Maslow 

Identifying Stakeholders

In all kind of project, there will be people and/or organizations (for next will be mentioned with only people) that will have benefit or loss on the project's execution; these people are grouped as "Stakeholders".  People with interest or influence/power to a project are also stakeholders.

It is very important to identify all (if possible) stakeholders in the Identify Stakeholders process and of course further manage their expectations. With complete stakeholders' identification and proper management of their expectations, it will be relatively easier and manageable to form positive synergy amongst project's scope, stakeholders' expectations, and The Direct and Manage Execution process.

The result of this process is Stakeholder Register and Stakeholder Management Strategy which may include the stakeholder's power/interest grid chart. The chart will have more/less similar look like the following figure:

By having the two documents, it will be easier to plan communication for the stakeholders. This communication plan will be discussed in a different post.

Intro To Project Management Knowledge Area

Managing projects means to apply knowledge, skills, and tools/techniques to project activities so that project objectives can be fulfilled. These appliances must be carried out throughout the project life cycle or within the five process groups (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, closing).

The following list is the 9 Project Management Knowledge Area:

• Integration
• Scope
• Time
• Cost
• Quality
• Human Resources
• Communication
• Risk
• Procurement

These areas are connected/integrated throughout the project life cycle such as the Scope of the project that needs managing, the performing actors managed by Human Resources management, medium to communicate information, etc. 

Furthermore, apart from the memorizing aspect, these 9 knowledge areas are indeed important in project management practices; it helps distinguish a whole activities carried inside the project from the  beginning to the very end cycle of a project, e.g.: "Collect requirements" belongs to Planning Process of The Five Process Group and grouped in Scope Management Knowledge Area; "Control schedule" belongs to Monitor and Control Process of The Five Process Group and grouped in Time Management Knowledge Area.

There are still a lot of examples for the connection between The Five Process Groups and The 9 Project Management Knowledge Area and the activities carried out in the project itself,but they will not be covered in this post alone; perhaps, many future posts will show clear examples as we go through PM materials

The Five Process Groups

The following figure shows the five process groups and what they are about: (click for a bigger view)

Ever wondering how we formally start a project?

Many people wonders how a project is actually initiated, what kind of starting point a project should have so that it can be started. I hope this post can give some idea about how a project is initiated.

Start from the organization's business strategy, business needs are mentioned. Furthermore, these business needs will be used as a basis to develop Statement of Work and of course, the business case. These two input items then will be used to develop a document called Project Charter.

Project charter is a document that states the initial requirements to satisfy stakeholder's needs and expectations, and it also used to formally authorize a project. So, without this document, a project will never be legally started.

The following figure depicts the above narration about project charter : (click for a bigger view)

By the Project Charter Approval, the initiation process is finished and the planning process shall begin soon..

Additional notes I quoted from the book: PMP in Depth by Dr. Paul Sanghera, PMP:

"If your project is divided into different phases, you will be going through the initiation stage at the beginning of each phase to check whether the decisions and plans made during the initiation of the project are still relevant to this phase. It helps to ensure the project is still focused on the business needs for which it was started"