Project Management Professional Responsibility Questions Part 2

As mentioned last week, a few years ago Frank Saladis and Al Zeitoun compiled a list of Project Management Professional Responsibility Questions. These questions are an example of what might appear on the the Project Management Institute's (PMI) Project Management Professional (PMP) exam. I posted the first fifteen questions last week, and the remainder are listed below.

Here is the second set of questions.  Comments are welcome. 

16. In order for the project manager to fully and effectively understand a stake holder's personal concerns or grievances it may necessary to:

1. Ask for a written description of the problem and submit it through the project office
2. Schedule a project review session with the entire project team
3. Attempt to empathize with the stakeholder
4. Involve the project sponsor as an arbitrator

17. As the leader of a project team, the project manager may be required to assess the competencies of his or her team members. Occasionally, some weaknesses or areas for improvement will be identified. The project manager should:

1. Remove any team members who have demonstrated weaknesses in critical knowledge areas
2. Communicate those weaknesses and establish a performance improvement program
3. Hire additional resources to compensate for weak areas
4. Wait for the team members to fail in an assignment to justify termination.

18. You have just changed jobs and discovered that your new employer routinely violates OSHA/EPA and affirmative action requirements on projects. You should:

1. Do nothing; it's not your problem
2. Start by asking management if they are aware that regulations are being violated
3. Talk to the corporate legal department
4. Inform the appropriate government agencies about the violations

19. The project manager must be an effective communicator to ensure that project stakeholders receive and understand project related information and status. Prior to delivering information to the stakeholders the project manager should attempt to:

1. Research and understand the region of experience of the stakeholder before transmitting information
2. Identify only those stakeholders that have a the same background experience as the project manager
3. Filter the information to remove any details
4. Restrict information to specific technical details

20. As part of your project plan you must develop an effective method of communication for your multinational team of stakeholders. You have several choices of media available. The appropriate action to take in the development of the communication plans would be to:

1. Discuss the available options with the stakeholders and obtain their input
2. Use the standard media that has been in effect for your previous projects
3. Use multiple forms of media to ensure that everyone receives the information
4. Obtain additional funding from the project sponsor and develop a project specific communications infrastructure.

21. One of your employees is up for promotion. If the promotion is granted, the employee will be reassigned elsewhere causing a problem for you on your project. You can delay the promotion until your project is completed. You should:

1. Support the promotion but work with the employee and the employee's new management to develop a good transition plan
2. Ask the employee to refuse the promotion until your project is completed.
3. Arrange to delay the promotion until the project is completed
4. Tell the employee that it is his responsibility to find a suitable replacement so that the project will not suffer.

22. The integrity of the project manager is often challenged by stakeholders who attempt to use personal power or influence to change the scope of an agreed upon deliverable. In these situations the project manager's most appropriate response would be:

1. Refer the stakeholder to the process for change documented in the approved contract.
2. Agree to the change because customer satisfaction is the goal regardless of cost.
3. Contact the legal department and suspend all further project work
4. Determine the risks and rewards for implementing the change before taking any action.

23. During project implementation the client interprets a clause in the contract to mean the he is entitled to a substantial refund for work recently completed. You review the clause and disagree with the client's conclusion. As the project manager which of the following actions should be taken

1. Disregard the customer's conclusion and continue to process invoices
2. Document the dispute and refer to the provisions of the contract that address interpretations and disputes
3. Advise the customer that ambiguous information in contracts is always interpreted in favor of the contractor
4. Immediately correct the clause to remove any possible misinterpretation by the customer

24. Your executives, in appreciation for the success of your project, have given you a $10,000 bonus to be disbursed among your five-team members. One of the five, who is a substandard worker and accomplished very little on your project, is in your car pool. You should:

1. Provide everyone with an equal share
2. Provide everyone a share based upon their performance
3. Ask the workers to decide among themselves how the bonus should be subdivided
4. Ask the sponsor to make the decision

25. Before reporting a perceived violation of an established rule or policy the project manager should

1. Determine the risks associated with the violation
2. Ensure there is a reasonably clear and factual basis for reporting the violation
3. Ignore the violation until it actually affects the project results
4. Convene a committee to review the violation and determine the appropriate response

26. Project Managers can contribute to their organization's knowledge base and to the profession of project management most effectively by:

1. Developing and implementing a project review and lessons learned process
2. Establishing strict guidelines for protecting intellectual property
3. Promote the use of ad hoc project management
4. Ensuring that all project plans are developed before the project team is formed

27. You have been assigned two concurrent projects. Because of the nature of the projects, you have a conflict of interest. You should:

1. Do the best you can and tell no one
2. Ask to be removed from one of the projects
3. Ask to be removed from both of the projects
4. Inform your sponsor and ask for his advice

28. You receive a contract to perform testing for an external client. After contract award, the customer provides you with the test matrix to use for your 16 tests. The vice president for engineering says that the customer's test matrix is wrong, and she will use a different test matrix, which should give better results. This is a violation to the SOW. You should:

1. Use the customer's test matrix
2. Use the engineering test matrix without telling the customer
3. Use the engineering test matrix and discuss the reasons with the customer
4. Ask your sponsor for clarification, assuming that the vice president is not your sponsor

29. An effective method for improving an organization's project management knowledge base is through:

1. Coaching and mentoring
2. Referent power
3. A weak Matrix organizational structure
4. Fast Tracking 

5. Answer Key

   1=c    8=b    15=d  22=a

   2=d    9=b    16=c   23=b

   3=a    10=a   17=b  24=c

   4=a    11=c   18=b   25=b

   5=c    12=b   19=a   26=a

   6=b    13=b    20=a  27=d

   7=c    14=d    21=a  28=d

Why Is My Project Late?

Design Changes – Design changes during project execution almost always cause delays and impacts to your budget. Once the Scope document has been signed, any changes to the design need to go through your Scope Change Request Process.

Skill Sets – When planning, assumptions are made regarding people's skills. Sometimes these assumptions turn out to be wrong. Also, you will usually have people on your team who are new or are less experienced. These new or lower skilled workers won't be as productive or effective as higher skilled workers. Make sure your project plan has accounted for skill levels.

Unplanned Work or Workarounds – Many times changes must be made to the sequence of planned work. These changes can impact time, cost, budget, and quality. Think about these risks up front and discuss what if any workarounds will be used.

Rework – Rework happens; it is part of project management. Ensure your project plan accounts for rework.

Team Morale – Turnover, project conflict, sick time, vacations all can wreak havoc with your schedule and budget; plan for these things. A happy team is a productive team. Ensure your team is working towards a common goal and not working against each other. Remove disruptive team members from your project if their behavior can't be changed.

Schedules – Trying to do too much in too little time will result in delays. Once you get behind it is very difficult to catch up. Your project will have delays. You need to have contingency plans to get back on track quickly.

Work Environment – Ensure that your team has a proper workspace. Cramming people into poorly designed work spaces will lower productivity.

Tools – Ensure your team has the right tools to do the job. Having the right tool, but not getting into the teams hands at the right time will cause delays in your schedule.

Project Manager Overload – Too many people on a project team without the proper management oversight can cause major problems for the project manager.

Overtime – Adding hours to people's schedules in order to make a deadline will usually do nothing but increase your budget. Adding overtime rarely results in getting a late project back on track.

Executive – Executive apathy can kill your project. People are usually not going to make your project a priority if their boss isn't willing to tell them it is important.

Plan for the above "risks" and you will start to bring your projects in faster, cheaper, with higher quality.

Wimps are Killing Your Large Project!

Do your organization's senior managers and executives understand the benefits of project management? How do you know?

Do your organization's senior managers and executives have formal training in project management?

Are large projects sponsored by and continually reviewed by senior management and /or executives? What is reviewed, and how often?

Do your senior managers and executives have their business processes mapped for their areas of responsibility?

It is a fact that good, proven, measurable business processes are critical to running an efficient organization, and also assist the project manager to deliver beneficial project results. It is also a sad fact that most senior managers and executives don't want to deal with things like business processes, yet it is the business processes that make or break organizations and projects, and bad business processes can cause an organization to waste time and money.

EMOTIONAL OUTBURST - If senior management isn't involved in reviewing their business processes to ensure they are delivering efficient results then they are either lazy or incompetent.
END OF EMOTIONAL OUTBURST

We can all agree that if senior managers and executives aren't regularly reviewing the performance of their organization (including the effectiveness of their business processes) they are not acting as responsible leaders. We have all heard them say that they just want somebody to figure out the problems and fix them, but many times that is where their participation ends. There is often no follow-up and no personal accountability for results. While problems need to be found and fixed, the "find them and fix them" mentality doesn't work for large projects. In fact, it can prove disastrous.

Project management is about delivering change. Executives and senior management have to drive the change, monitor the change, and ensure the change takes place. Change that isn't driven and monitored by senior management won't be accepted by the organization.

Don't get me wrong, we all need to have a "get it done" mindset, however on its own a get it done attitude isn't effective when dealing with today's enterprise problems and projects. Large projects create large change. Many times change creates, fear, panic, and chaos. Project managers can't implement change or change organizations alone. In fact, I would argue that for the most part they can't change organizations at all.

If you want organizational change and you want large project results at the same time then your organization's executives and senior management must be involved from the start, they must be continuously engaged, and the must be out front and visibly leading the change. Additionally, they need to be able to clearly and effectively communicate the value of the enterprise project's deliverables to their organizations. If they are unwilling to do these things, then your large project may need to be altered, deferred, or killed.

PERSONAL RANT: It is unacceptable for an organization to spend large sums of money on a project if senior management isn't prepared to roll up their sleeves and understand what is being delivered, understand the benefits of the deliverables, willing to hold others accountable for results, have an enthusiastic attitude, and have personal accountability tied to the project's success.

Project managers and team members can't afford to work on projects where ignorance and indifference is prevalent. Also, project teams can't afford to have "Teflon" managers" managing resources on the external resource teams, or in the positions of power or influence over their projects. Teflon" managers are never personally accountable for any project results because they choose ignorance over engagement. Shame on them, and guess what, the project manager and the project team pays the price of failure.
END OF PERSONAL RANT

What happens when senior management isn't involved with projects from the beginning to the end? Things like those below, which if left unchecked will ensure you project is a failure or delivers less than desirable results.

There is no organizational commitment to the project's objectives (you have project objectives that were created by senior management, right?)

Project teams are left with the job of trying to change the organization's bad habits and culture (not possible without senior management buy-in and support)

Divisions and departments fight the change the project is creating

Mid-level managers, supervisors, and line workers refuse to get involved and often work to sabotage the project

To summarize, large projects require senior management commitment, involvement, and follow through. Without senior management involvement your large project is almost certain to fail. Project managers and project teams can't be successful, nor will project management deliver results in organizations where fear is pervasive. Senior management can do more to create fear and remove fear than any project manager ever could.

Finally, I will say what most of us know, many senior managers and executives are wimps, however, this doesn't need to be the case when it comes to large projects. They can speak out up front while the project is being initiated and demand to see a business case. They can and must be involved in setting the project's measurable objectives. Once they have bought-in to the project they can and must insist that their direct reports support the project and keep them appraised of project progress. Finally, they can and must hold their staff accountable for project results.

When it comes to large projects senior managers and executives can be engaged, involved, and act as leaders, or they can be wimps.

Project Roles and Responsibilities

Happy New Year!

Hopefully, you can use this list to educate your team members about the various roles on a project team.

Executive Steering Committee
Sets the strategic vision and objectives for a given program or project. The team leads efforts to build consensus through the organization to support the project or program’s objectives.

Governance Board
Formal team of executives from across the organization that ensure projects will meet/are meeting enterprise goals.

Project Sponsor
Provides clarity of the project vision, and directs the activities of the project team. Allocates funding and resources to the project. Provides executive authority necessary to overcome organizational obstacles and barriers. The guardian of the business case, and ultimately responsible for project success.

Performing Organization
The organization whose personnel are most directly involved in doing the work of the project. This organization usually provides sponsorship for the project.

Project Management Office
An organizational body or entity assigned various responsibilities related to the centralized and coordinated management of those programs/projects under its domain.

Project Stakeholders
Persons or organizations (customers, sponsors, performers, public) that are actively involved in the project or whose interests may be positively or negatively impacted by executing or implementation of the project.

Program Manager
Person responsible for the centralized, coordinated management of a program (group of related projects) to achieve the program’s strategic objectives and benefits.

Project Manager
The person assigned by the performing organization to achieve the project objectives. The project manager is responsible for coordinating and integrating activities across multiple functional lines, and managing stakeholder communications. The project manager accomplishes the above by managing project scope, time, cost, and quality. Finally, the project manager applies project management, general management and technical skills, as well as team management, negotiation, financial and business acumen, combined with an understanding of organizational politics to meet project objectives and to meet or exceed stakeholder expectations.

Project Team
All the project team members, including the project management team, the project manager, and for some projects, the project sponsor.

Functional Manager
On projects, the person responsible for ensuring agreed-upon project tasks are completed using pre-defined resources under the manager’s control within scope, time, budget and quality constraints.

Project Team Leader
Responsible for ensuring that agreed-upon project tasks and assignments are completed on time, on budget, and within quality standards for personnel under their realm of control or influence. The team leader should be knowledgeable of the principles and practices of project management and understand the business unit’s strategic and operational issues.

Technical Manager/Liaison
Responsible for the technical implementation of the project as measured against the project requirements, quality targets, and budgetary constraints, and timelines. Ensures technical deliverables are consistent with the overall technical strategy of the enterprise.

Business Analyst
Primary interface between projects and business partners. Responsible for understanding current and future processes, including processes for the entire enterprise. Documents business requirements, generate business cases, assists in defining project benefits/ costs, and participates in project reviews