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MBA (Project Management) 3rd SemesterPM0004 Managing Human Resources in Projects

ASSIGNMENT SET-1

Q.1 Describe the following conflict resolution styles:

a. Avoidant Approach

b. Accommodating Approach

c. Consensus Approach

d. Collaborative Approach

Ans: a) Avoidant Approach: Some people will do anything to avoid a direct confrontation. They

agree even though they are opposed to the outcome. This style cannot be tolerated on the

project team. Each persons input and opinion must be sought. It is the responsibility of the

project manager to make sure that this happens. A simple device is to ask each team member

in turn what he or she thinks about the situation and what he or she suggests be done about it.

Often this approach will diffuse any direct confrontation between two individuals on the team.

1(b) Accommodating Approach: Here, one party is ready for keeping the psychological door

open to the other party. When the issue is more important to oneself than to the other person,

this strategy works better under such situations. Forgetting or Forgiving on one issue may be

key to moving the conflict to a new level where issues may be discussed better. It can be auseful, but a temporary fix among the parties.

c) Consensus Approach:

Consensus building is a process that a team can follow to reach agreement on which alternative

to proceed with for the item (action, decision, and so forth) under consideration. The

agreement is not reached by a majority vote, or any vote for that matter. Rather, the

agreement is reached through discussion, whereby each participant reaches a point when he or

she has no serious disagreement with the decision that is about to be taken. The decision will

have been revised several times for the participants to reach that point.

(d) Collaborative approach:

In this approach, the team looks for win-win opportunities. The approach seeks out a common

ground as the basis for moving ahead to a solution. This approach encourages each team

member to put his or her opinions on the table and not avoid the conflict that may result. At

the same time, team members do not seek to create conflict unnecessarily. The approach is

Constructive, not destructive.

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Q.2 List and explain in brief the key features of a project.

Ans.: The key features of a project are: Planning utilities (product based planning for instance

- product breakdown structure, product flow diagram)

- Gantt chart

- Network diagram- Resource management

- Risk management

- Issue management

- Daily log (optional)

- Calendar

- Work packages

- Checkpoints

- Snapshots

- Cost items (optional)

- Resource load diagram

- Cost diagram

- Reports

There are other features ofPM software such as integration with mail server, SharePoint and

other collaboration portals. There are a lot of products for project management. Some include

- Microsoft Project

- Easy Projects .NET

- P2ware Planner

- FogBugz

A project plan can be considered to have five key characteristics that have to be managed:

- Scope: defines what will be covered in a project.

- Resource: what can be used to meet the scope.- Time: what tasks are to be undertaken and when.

- Quality: the spread or deviation allowed from a desired standard.

- Risk: defines in advance what may happen to drive the plan off course, and what will be done

to recover the situation.

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Balanced Plans

The sad thing about plans is you cannot have everything immediately. Many people plan using

planning software packages, without realising the tradeoffs that must be made. They assume

that if they write a plan down, reality will follow their wishes. Nothing is further from the truth.

The point of a plan is to balance:- The scope, and quality Constraint against,

- The time and resource constraint,

- While minimizing the risks.

-

Bad Plan Example

As an example this diagram shows what can happen. The scope is so large that there is no way

the time, resource, and quality constraints can result in the project delivering, which means

there are enormous risks. To salvage this plan, requires reducing the scope, increasing the time,

or resource, or lowering the quality standard. Any of which will reduce the risk of failure. The

key lesson is that plans have to be balanced within the project constraints if they are to deliver.

Test plans are a particular type of project plan and details about how the clauses of IEEE Std

829-1998 for test plans map against these five characteristics is in the Test Plans article.

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Q.3 Write a note on human resource planning.

Ans.: A Project is a planned undertaking that requires a set of human tasks and activities

toward achieving a specific objective within a defined time period. Projects are temporary,

though they may last from few hours to many years; a team project involves a group of people

with complementary skills and experiences, working together to accomplish the goals andobjectives of the project. The purpose of the team is to develop and execute a work plan that

will meet the expectations of the project. Everyone on the team is committed and deducted to

the same thing meeting the goals of the project. Although the goals may be same, how the

team elects to execute the work plan is variable. Different team runs the same project

differently. This Variation is attributable to differences in people, process and interactions. The

interactions of a team are dependent on the collective knowledge, skills, experiences,

personalities, and behaviors of the group. Each person has personal preferences regarding how

to run the project and how to work within the project, People have different work and

communication styles, and these personal preferences and differences represent the diversity

of the team. All team members want the same thing (to achieve the project goals), but each

goes after it differently due to their diversity. This can generate both positive and negative

interactions. How well we mange human interactions is the key to the success of any project.

This is been grouped into six general areas.

Problem solving

Decision making

Conflict resolution

Consensus building

Brainstorming

Team meetings

Human Resource planning is an organized way to ensure that organizations employ the

right people. Human Resource planning is the staffing management plan which illustrates howand when the team members are added/removed from the team. Human Resource planning is

utilized to decide and recognize. Human Resources with the necessary skills are essential for

the success of a project. Human Resource planning must think and plan for these factors and

widen Human Resource options.

The inputs for creating a Human Resource (HR) plan are:

Enterprise environmental factors: The enterprise environmental factors comprises of

individuals of an organization interacting and relating with one another. The enterprise

environmental factors that play a major role includes are existing organizational culture,

knowing how different technical disciplines work, existing Human Resources and policies andprocedures, interpersonal, logical and political issues with respect to Human Resources.

Organizational culture Organizational culture is an idea in the field of organizational studies

and management which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values

(personal and cultural values) of an organization. It is defined as "the specific collection of

values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that controls the

way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization. List the

Organizations or departments that are going to be engaged in the project. Enquire whether

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there are any existing working arrangements between them. Know the formal and informal

relationships between the departments.

Technical To accomplish the project successfully, list the fields of expertise needed.

Interpersonal List formal and informal reporting relations existing among the team members.

Know the team members existing job descriptions.

Logistical

Find whether people are in different locations or time zones.Political List the individual goals and agendas of stakeholders. Find the informal authority

base and how that can impact the project. List the informal agreements that are present.

*****

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