May 15, 2006
Project management - a practical approach for educational and scientific research funds
Mihaela Popa Chraif
Bsc (Hons) Economic Science
DAFI (ASE) - Master graduate
Psychology Student - University of Bucharest
Abstract
Projects are conceived and completed by people. People are at the beginning, at the end, and center of projects. They apply both implicit, tacit knowledge and established theories drawn from science and practical observation to perform both everyday actions and to innovate and solve technical problems. But we still seem to lack a coherent theoretical foundation that explains how leadership engages people fully and effectively.
Introduction
In this article we offer a new approach to leadership in the project setting, one that in its theory and practice connects directly to the revolution in construction. Understanding this new form of leadership (how and why it works) begins with reconsidering the nature of work in projects and its management in organizations.
Project managers can be found in all industries. Their numbers have grown rapidly as industry and commerce have realized that much of what it does is project work. And as project-based organizations have started to emerge, project management is becoming established as both a professional career path and a way of controlling business.
So, opportunities in project management now exist not only in being a project manager, but also as part of the support team in a project or program office or as a team leader for part of a project. There are also qualifications that can be attained through the professional associations.
A project is handled by a Project Manager who must be given authority and resources to accomplish it. Many organizations employ managers using different criteria for choosing the project manager matching with the structure and orientation of the organization. Therefore, there were developed the following guidelines (OPM) for the Project Manager:
1) functions of program managers (organize and motivate project personnel, establish clear delegation of authority, keeping objective pointed towards the goal, continuing study and application);
2) prime responsibilities of project managers (to meet all the contractual profit objectives, to make all required decisions, to negotiate with all functional disciplines, to resolve all the conflicts if possible);
3) Implicit responsibilities of the project manager (interface Management, Resource Management, Planning and Control Management) and
4) What makes a good Program Manager (Good judgment, people skills, customer oriented, ethical, broad thinker, focused leader, ability to make decisions, communicator and Dynamic/Charismatic/High Energy), (McCollum, 2005).
What is project management?
The question “What is project management?” is like other on-the-mark unanswerable questions, “Where does the sun go at night?” or “What is reality?”. That we don’t have a concise answer may explain why so many projects fail and project managers want to change careers.
In order to define the project Management Mark, Mullaly (2003) offers his definition: “Project Management is the exercise of responsibility and decision-making about a project, the authority to execute within the boundaries of the project, and the accountability to deliver the results of a project in the context of agreed-upon customer expectations, commitments and constraints.”
Fernando Flores offered a distinctive notion of management in his PhD dissertation “Communication and Management in the Office of the Future”, Univ. of California Berkeley, 1982: “Management is that process of openness, listening, and eliciting commitments, which includes a concern for the articulation and activation of the network of commitments, primarily produced through promises and requests, allowing for the autonomy of the productive units.”
One reason for the rapid growth is the need to understand how to look after complex projects, often in high tech areas, which are critical to business success but also have to use scarce resources efficiently.
Therefore, the educational field expressed strong interest in achieving and transforming Educational and Training through Advanced Technologies. But the educational tools required for modern classes need high costs and several times the government’s budget and the universities cannot create rich and compelling learning opportunities that meet all learners’ needs. Despite the availability of computers and Internet access in school/university, the use of digital tools by students is more home-based than school-based. There is a large variety of lab tools that the schools and universities could assign following a project management program: virtual textbook and reference library to find source material for their school reports and projects; high-tech for laboratories and classes; video projectors and ergonomic classes’ furniture.
The importance of PM for education and scientific research
The goal of this article is to underline the role of project management in order to find financing sources for research from private corporations, companies and government and to highlight the concept of project quality as the quality of the team, feasibility study and the project documentation.
In many situations project quality is assessed according to international standards as ISO 9000 series for quality management, ISO 14000 series standards for environmental management and national or European technical standards. In order to comply with the limited financing resources, the quality factor for projects is a paramount element in the selection of most feasible projects. Other evaluation factors could be considered as: contractual time respecting, minimizing costs, project financing, feasibility and viability of the project and so on.
Phillip Kotler has introduced the marketing mix concept in project management based on 4P: Product, Place, Price, and Promotion. The project itself could be considered a product as well as the other products being under competition on the project market, a market that have offertory, contractors, investment funds, project designers, and consultants. If the competitors for a specialized project from the educational field are competing, they will bid or compete in the limits of their specialization and competence.
The price of the project could be: estimated and effective price. The effective price is based on direct and indirect costs to make the projects and adding profit after completing the project. Successful project applications in the bidding process will be agreed to settle contracts for financial support (these contracts will be establish between contractors and financial institutions or government institutions). The drivers of improved efficiency, reduced costs and greater return on investment bear down on program managers and project managers. These managers are not accountants, yet they need to report revenues and costs, and deliver the work more efficiently than before.
As the perceptions of the project begin to take shape, the managers decide that a special project team must be designed and given resources to handle the emerging project. The project manager has responsibility for coordinating and integrating activities across multiple lines. Thus, the manager needs strong interpersonal and communicative skills and should have knowledge of the technology being used.
An important and critical stage of any project is the planning stage - determining what needs to be done, by whom, and when, in order to fulfill all necessary requirements for project completion on time.
The main goals of planning the project are (McCollum 2005):
1. Eliminate or reduce uncertainly;
2. Improve efficiency of the operation;
3. Obtain a better understanding of the objectives;
4. Provide a basis for monitoring and controlling work.
Furthermore, planning projects mean a cooperative team based on trust and understanding. The most common types of conflict generating uncertain environment involve (Kenzer 2003): manpower resources, equipment and facilities, capital expenditure, costs, technical opinions, priorities, responsibilities and administrative procedures.
Several studies of projects have analyzed the intensity of the major types of conflicts: scheduling, priorities, labor, technical opinions, procedures, costs and personality. All these types of conflicts occur at all stages of the project: Early Stages, Project Formation, Main Program and Project Phase Out.
Professor McCollum highlights five ways to handle the conflicts: Withdrawal/retreating from the actual disagreement; smoothing (emphasizing areas of agreement); Compromising - give and take attitude; Facing the conflict directly and forcing (competitiveness and win-loose situation).
Conflicts may cause stress and inefficiency in work. The most important causes of stress in the project environment are: role conflict and the pressure of death lines. While the project manager tries to organize in order to accomplish some goals and objectives, not everyone is in agreement with his plans and methodologies. This is a moment when the conflict can lead to stressful conditions in the project manager’s life. A good project manager will always finds ways of dealing with stress, being always effective.
What is time management?
The project management environment consists of numerous meetings, planning, conflict resolutions, communication with the team workers, and engaging in crisis management. It is hard to accomplish all of these requirements and to supervise and train the team members. Kenzer (1988) has compiled a list with 114 time robbers underlining that for the project manager is very important to learn to say “no” to nonproductive activities that take him away. Time robbers could be: delayed decisions, waiting for people, incomplete job, casual visitors and failure to delegate, desire for perfection and meetings that never end.
The literature of specialty provides practical rules for time management:
• Prioritize the activities;
• Establishing the priorities and cost opportunities;
• Continuum training of the personnel;
• Practice delegation;
• Learning how to say “no” to unimportant activities;
• Following the schedule and deciding quickly;
• Controlling telephone time.
Team building and cooperation
Team members need a sense of belonging, interest in the work, respect for the work being done properly and potential for career development. An important beginning should establish each group member’s place and role in the way to form the team and start the work.
The first meeting should focus on: introducing all members by name and specialty; establishing working relationships and communications’ channels, setting team objectives and goals, discuss perceived problem areas and establishing individual and group responsibilities.
However, managers don’t perform in a perfect environment and they must accept conditions that they are given and still create an effective team building. Thus, the project manager should perform the following:
• select key project members matching the project’s requirements;
• develop commitment and a sense of mission from the outsets;
• provide authority and organizational skills;
• build a perfect public image of the project.
Cooperation in the team work means: value, respect and trust. Looking back at the evolution of societies, trust has been one of the more important socio-political concepts. It has the potential to permeate nearly every aspect of culture; by gaining an understanding of trust, one gains insight into the interrelationships and dependencies that make our social and political systems function. With this understanding, cultures and communities have the potential to improve themselves and become more effective democracies in all their social and political environments. The ability of individuals or organizations to associate with one another depends on the degree to which they can suspend their own interests and integrate with the norms and values of the larger community.
Figure 1 Trust and cooperation in team work
People can not only have varying degrees of trust in different team members, but they can also have varying degrees of trust in the same person to do different tasks in a team. The types of trusting relationships people get involved in can vary highly as well. People develop strong relationships with high degrees of trust and mutual reliance with close friends and business partners. These relations are very different from the weak relationships reflecting little mutual dependence, such as those developed through casual interactions with those we regularly pass in the hallway or with the familiar cashier at the grocery store.
The project manager should reward the team members by reinforcing positive performances: awards, certificates, personal visits, telephone calls, personal letters, chance to attend higher level, teaming high performers, job rotation, and pay raises. In order to perform in a perfect environment, the project managers must have an effective team characterized by High Performance, Commitment, Effective Communication, High Trust level and Integrity.
Software for the Project Management
To provide support for project management activities, specialized companies have developed software such as Microsoft Project 2000 or Primavera. Based on the basic principles of Project Management, the computer program is structured in a logical way and could be use in any situation: educational projects, construction projects and development projects. The purpose of the software is to draw together the themes of program and project management with revenue and cost accounting; to give an organization a guide to the design of data and systems it should put in place, which will provide information on their spend; to enable the development of internal efficiency programs to achieve a greater return on program and project spend; to educate the reader about the salient issues of data collection and reporting; to demonstrate how to implement a program and project accounting system; to list software and system requirements when implementing a solution.
Conclusion
Projects can often be extremely complex processes involving various teams from client organizations, contractors and sub-contractors. Law for Project Managers provides an easily understandable and practical guide to the laws of contract, liability, and intellectual property and so on, entirely from the perspective of the project manager.
The importance of Project Management in the educational and scientific research fields consist in attracting funds for financing development projects, IT technology for laboratories, technological guidelines, new books for students’ use, participation to the International Congresses and Conferences. Virtual Projects provide consulting and mentoring for project management and collaboration as well as technical evaluation and systems architecture for management and collaboration systems. The goal of Project Manager is to focus on finding and developing effective methods for the effective management and collaboration in virtual teams and distributed organizations. Each manager, before starting the work with the team members should do the followings (Muchinsky, 1987): consult and support with project- and programmed-management; evaluate, plan and consult for infrastructure and processes for communication and collaboration; develop studies and strategies in the areas mentioned above.
References
Flores, F. Communication and Management in the Office of the Future, Univ. of California Berkeley, 1982.
Kenzer, Harold. Project Management: A system Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling 6th ed., John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2003.
Kenzer, Harold. Project Management: A system Approach to Planning, Scheduling and Controlling 8th ed., John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2003.
Kotter, J.P. Corporate Culture and Performance, Free press, New York, 1992.
McCollum, J.; Bacanu, S. Project Management a Practical Approach, Ed. Universitara, Bucharest, 2005.
Mullaly, M. What's the Benefit: Measuring Project Success, CIPS ICE Conference, Oct 22, 2003.
Muchinsky, P. Psychology Applied to Work, The Dorsey Press, Chicago, Illinois, 1987.
Mullins,J.L.Management and Organizational Behavior, Pitman Publishing, London, 1999.