Background Information:
XYZ Corporation is a leading global solutions provider with over 120,000 employees. XYZ provides services, systems, products and solutions within five business sectors consisting of aerospace systems, electronics systems, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to both the U.S. government and commercial customers worldwide. The vision of the corporation is to become the leading provider of systems and technologies to their customers while establishing themselves as a top global defense and technology contractor.
XYZ divides its business units into sectors. These sectors consist of Aerospace Systems, Electronic Systems, Information Systems, Shipbuilding and Technical Services. The mission of the Aerospace Systems sector is to provide manned and unmanned aircraft, space technology systems, missile systems and advanced technologies to their customers. This sector contains projects valued at approximately billion dollars and is supported by a team of 24,000 employees. These employees develop and provide products including space satellites projects, space science projects, manned and unmanned aircraft systems, laser projects, and advanced technology projects for their customers.
The Aerospace Systems sector is organized in a project oriented environment that operates within a matrix organization to support the multiple projects that are concurrently in operation and within the various stages of the project life cycle. Each project requires a project manager and corresponding support staff to facilitate the technical, cost and schedule reporting requirements of each project.
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Problem Statement:
Due to the absence of a formal project management selection program within the Aerospace Systems sector, there is an inconsistency in the quality of the developed skills and experience of the existing project managers currently assigned throughout the organization. This has contributed too many of the organization’s projects completing behind schedule and over budget which impacts the performance goals of the organization resulting in a loss of revenue for the company.
Evidence of the Problem:
Through conversations with various project team leaders and meetings and discussions held with some of the sector’s project managers over the past several months, issues emerged concerning the competence and abilities of the sectors project managers. Deficient characteristics and skills pertaining to project managers as expressed by employees from these discussions includes the selection process of the project managers, the communication skills of the project manager, and the lack of people and business skills pertained by current project managers.
Currently, only employees with engineering backgrounds can be considered for project managers. Within this pool of employees, new project managers are selected for the sector projects based upon their technical ability and on their prior job performance on previous projects. Also taken into consideration by the executive management is the employee’s ranking among the other employees within their classification. However, the employee ranking can tend to be subjective as the employee ratings are often biased towards manager’s favorites or personal relationships.
Also, by limiting the project manager selection to only those employees with engineering backgrounds, the organization is eliminating potentially very good project manager candidates from other areas of the business. This process reduces the overall growth and capabilities of the project management office. There are employees who are not part of the engineering discipline that have the technical aptitude and the ability to become project managers but will never be provided with the opportunity within the current system.
The current process has some limitations. Since project managers are selected based on their technical background within engineering, there are many assigned project managers who have not developed the necessary skills required to be a successful project manager. Some of the areas of concern that have occurred due to the absence of a formal project management selection process include:
- Communication: Often, the project manager is very conscientious about communicating frequently with the customer to discuss the status and progress of the project. Unfortunately, many project managers forget to communicate regularly with the project team to keep them informed about any concerns and issues that the company and customer are focused on as they relate to the current phase of the project. These communication skills include oral, written and non-verbal. There was an issue a few years ago on one of our satellite programs where the customer and the project manager were discussing a new funding profile for the project for the next fiscal year. The project manager, though communicating with the customer, forgot to share this information with the project team. As a result, the project was slow to react to the new budget profile and was over target on the cost projections for the next fiscal year.
- People: One of the strengths of a technically competent engineer is the ability to focus on acquiring solutions for/or solving a specific technical issue for the project. However, this focused attention can sometimes affect the engineer’s ability to work within the team environment and can interfere with the employee’s development of people skills. These include working with the team members to solve problems rather than working alone, the ability to actively listen to other team members, understanding and expressing your thoughts to the team, seeking advice and opinions from others, coaching other team members and learning how to identify and relate to each member of the team. We had a research and development project led by a new project manager who was a lead technical designer. This project was his first assignment as a project manager and it was evident from his first week on the job that he was overwhelmed. He had no idea how to talk to the team, what tasks to do first and how the work should get done. He managed the project team through anger and threats and operated a closed door policy for the team. His management style and direction led to team members withholding important project information to the project office that ultimately delayed the project completion date from the fear of how the project manager would react and treat the bearer of “bad news”.
- Project Planning: Most project managers understand the need for a project schedule but few recognize the mechanics and value that the project schedule can provide. One of the areas of concern is the understanding and calculation of the project schedule’s total float or slack and the impact it has on the project’s critical path. One of our project managers did not understand the definition of “total float” nor had any knowledge of how it is applied to the project. Another project issue that affects the schedule is the project manager’s ability to control the volume of changes that occur during the project which often result in the restructuring and rescheduling of the project plan which could impact the project’s delivery. It is important to have a documented change control process for managing the changes that occur during the project’s life cycle.
- Business Management: Some of the organization’s project managers do not fully comprehend the terminology and use of the earned value system. We had an engineering project that was led by a technical competent project manager. This project manager concealed his lack of business knowledge by saying he understood the financial data presented to him but he never questioned the validity of the data or what was behind the numbers. The completed project met the customers’ technical specifications but the project completed nearly a year behind schedule and vastly over budget. The ability of the project manager to understand the concepts and definitions of earned value management will better prepare them to access the team’s progress during each reporting period. Also, the project manager’s understanding of the earned value system will enable them to provide better insight on the project’s performance to the company and to the customer and will enhance the ability to access the impacts of any cost overruns that may have occurred on the project.
- Subcontract Management: Many of the cost overruns that have occurred on previous projects in our company have been caused by the poor oversight of the project’s major subcontracts. This has created cost overruns on projects and schedule delays to key project deliverables. On a development contract for a new engine, the company issued a contract to a vendor to produce a critical piece of hardware for the project. The company, through the acceptance of the project manager, agreed with the cost, scope and schedule bid by the vendor. However, during the course of the project, the vendor suffered some delays in the manufacturing and assembly of the hardware resulting in a six month delay to the contract delivery. The project was unable to revise a plan to accommodate the hardware slip which resulted in the late delivery of the product to the customer. One factor contributing to the project’s late delivery was the project manager’s lack of subcontract management oversight of the vendor which could have provided early warning indicators that the vendor was having trouble.
- Training: New project managers are assigned to projects without any training provided by the organization. All experiences are learned on the job and through consultation with other project managers. Many new project managers are over whelmed by the complexity, demands and responsibilities imposed by the project. Very few new project managers are able to complete their first assigned project and are either replaced or transferred to other projects or new proposals for the company.
Nature of the Problem of Leadership:
Leadership can be defined as the process where an individual attempts to influence a group of people to accomplish an objective or a set of goals while directing the group in a manner that makes them more cohesive as a unit. As one goal gets completed, additional goals are added thus creating a continuous process for the leader to manage. Leaders apply their knowledge, skills and personalities to this process. Leadership characteristics have been discussed and documented throughout history from Plato in Greece to Confucius in China. As early as 500 B.C., Confucius listed the virtues of effective leaders and identified four elements that were keys to his beliefs: Jen (love), Li (proper conduct), Xiao (piety) and Zhang rong (the doctrine of the mean). Notice that three of the virtues are emotional and only one (Li) is managerial. Confucius’s leadership theory has formed the basis of Chinese government for over 2,500 years (Turner; Muller, 2005).
Today, modern leadership discussions and principles share concepts from the ancient discussions. According to the U.S. Army, there are four major factors effecting leadership: Leaders, Followers, Communication and Situation. A leader must understand who they are they must have the confidence to trust in their ability to lead others. They must also recognize that the followers are the ones who will determine if the leader is deemed successful. If the followers lack confidence in their leaders it is unlikely they will be inspired to perform on the job. Thus, a leader should get to know each member of their staff and understand the factors that influence them. Since there are many different types of people, there are different management styles the leader must engage in order to reach each person. Also, leaders lead through communication. Often, the leader communicates through two-way, non verbal methods. The ability of the leader to communicate can affect their relationship with the team members. Lastly, the leader should understand that all situations are different and what worked in one scenario may not necessarily work in another. The leader must use their judgment and knowledge to determine the best course of action for each situation. There are various forces at work (senior management, the skill levels of the project team, functional staff managers and the project organization) that will affect the leadership of the project manager (U.S. Army, 1983).
In my experiences I’ve found that anyone can take and use power and act like a leader. However, it takes skill to use leadership. Leadership inspires others to help achieve a goal while power forces others to complete a goal. I’ve worked with many managers who have led through power. One was compelled to complete an assignment because you had to, not because you wanted to. The teams under this type of leadership were not cohesive and were not supportive of one another or of the team’s goals. Many people operated out of self preservation and were unwilling to support the other team members. Consequently, the project managers that led through power were not very successful and the project manager was often replaced before the project was completed.
Research on leadership as it relates to project management has implied that successful project managers have the ability to multi-task and navigate the many competing demands placed on them during the life of the project. These demands include events that can affect the past, present and future activities of the project. The ability of the project manager to visualize the relationships between past, present and future project events can be characterized as temporal skills. Temporal skills are time related skills to specific past, present and future events and are abilities required by leaders in order to perform specific tasks. Temporal skills are not found in leadership books because it is generally assumed they are possessed by all leaders. However, since each individual has a different temporal chemistry, not all project managers are equipped with these skills. Those who lack these skills may not be able to perform some of the leadership tasks effectively (Thoms, Pinto, 1999).
Successful project managers have the ability to look forward in the project and help to create the future instead of reacting to it. An important feature of project leadership to consider is that due to the nature of the job, project managers are required to operate in each of the three time-oriented (past, present and future) modes (Table 1). Project leaders need the past orientation to engage in problem solving and team member evaluations. And the project leaders use present time orientation to manage the parallel tasks occurring in the project while controlling the project schedule. Lastly, it is vital for the project manager to possess the future time orientation skills to develop and maintain the project vision while developing contingency plans for future unseen problems (Thoms, Pinto, 1999).
Nature of Project Manager Selection:
XYZ specializes in large, complex and often unique projects which are highly technical and often feature newly developed innovations, components and assemblies. These high profile projects require mature and experienced project managers. Unfortunately, very few of the company’s project managers possess the skill set and well-rounded experience required to mange these complex engineering, manufacturing and development projects. As a result, the project manager is often replaced during the life cycle of the project either at the request of the customer or by the company itself for failure to meet the project’s requirements or customer expectations.
Since the Project Manager has the responsibility for the project’s cost, schedule and technical performance, the selection of new project managers should not be based solely upon the qualifications and experience of an individual’s engineering technical experience. The company should also proactively take into consideration the individuals experience and performance in working and interfacing with the business, procurement, manufacturing and quality assurance teams. Also, the executive management should empower the Project Manager to take the initiative to perform any actions necessary to complete the project successfully. These actions include the authority to make design decisions during the development phase of the project, and the ability to control the requirements, budget, schedule, resources, and product quality of the project.
Characteristics of Good Project Managers:
Through the development and implementation of a formal project manager selection process, the company can promote more balanced and experienced employees as project managers. The company can also develop an approach to standardize and distribute company acceptable and proven processes derived by current project managers from previous projects to all future project managers for implementation and use on their project. This formal selection process will help to provide process commonality across all sector projects. Also, training modules in various subjects can be made available for new project managers to provide information and consultation on the important characteristics required by the project.
A study was conducted of American project managers to determine what characteristics make an effective project manager. Some of the effective characteristics of a project manager defined by the study include: leading by example, having a vision for the project, being technically competent, being a good communicator, being a good motivator, and supporting the project team members (Zimmerer; Yasin, 1998). The most important characteristic found in the study was the willingness of the project manager to lead by example, while focusing on the project’s goals and being committed to the project’s challenges prior to asking the project team members to agree to the same (Pinto, 2007).
Increased studies and research examining the traits and abilities associated with effective project leadership skills have changed the perspective of leadership. While technical and organizational skills are still regarded as important, the concept of emotional intelligence has been suggested as the more meaningful measurement of a leader’s effectiveness. Emotional intelligence can be defined as the leaders’ ability to understand the effectiveness of the emotional and relational interactions between a leader and their staff.
Five elements have been identified that characterize emotional intelligence; self-awareness, self-regulation, motivation, empathy, and social skill. A project manager who possesses these traits can develop relationships with the project team members that are critical to guiding an effective team. Self-awareness represents the understanding of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, ego needs, drives and motives. One who is self-aware has a clear perspective of one’s self and being self-aware does not imply that one is excessively self-centered or self-involved. Self-regulation refers to a leaders’ willingness to keep themselves under control. This includes thinking before acting. Effective leaders are those who have developed self-regulation techniques (ability to reflect upon events, responding after thoughtful consideration, and avoiding impulsive reactions). Effective leaders are often highly motivated people that are self driven to achieve their potential. These people recognize that in order for them to be successful, they need to work with the project team members to help them generate their maximum performance. Two common traits regarding motivation among effective leaders include the identification of clear markers to monitor and demonstrate progress and the consistent strive for greater challenges. Empathy relates to a leaders’ wiliness to consider the feelings of other team members while making informed decisions. Lastly, social skill refers to a leaders’ ability to manage relationships with others. Having a good social skill is more than being friendly; it is about “friendliness with a purpose”. Social skill is the ability to move people in a desired direction. Thus emotional intelligence is a concept that reflects an important point. Most of the critical project management skills that define effective leadership are not related to either technical skills or analytical ability. More importantly, a greater emphasis is placed on the self-management skills as reflected in emotional intelligence. It has been stated that “project management is first and foremost a people management challenge” (Goleman, 1998).
All newly selected project managers provide some levels of knowledge, skills and abilities they have acquired through their career. However, competencies within the various disciplines are the result of years of experience built up over time through on the job work experience and lessons learned. When someone switches from a project team position to a project manager position they are often faced with a sufficient amount of change. Their special technical qualifications decrease in importance and management skills, including interpersonal skills, become more critical (Strohmeier, 1992).
Competency Characteristics:
Common competency characteristics found among project managers include knowledge and skill. Knowledge includes the information an individual contains within a specific area or discipline and skill represents the ability to perform any required task. Knowledge and skill are competencies that are developed and assessed through training and experience. A competency model (Fig. 1) or an attribute based framework for project managers was developed to reconcile the performance based approaches to competency and to provide a means to identify and measure various aspects of competence against standards. The model acknowledges that competence can be inferred from attributes (including knowledge, skills, experience, personality traits, attitudes and behaviors). This is represented in the model by the input competencies knowledge, skill and core personality. The performance based competence input relies on the use of practices performed in the workplace (Crawford, 2005).
Competence can be defined as the combination of skills, abilities and knowledge applied to adequately perform a specific task. The competency model shown if Figure 1 contains attribute based and performance based inferences of competence. The attribute based competencies include knowledge, skills and core personality characteristics. The knowledge and skills boxes pertain to the knowledge, training, skills, experience and abilities that a project manager brings to the project and are identified as input competencies. The core personality characteristics box, identified as personal competencies, provides the human performance skills and represents the factors affecting the project manager’s capability to manage the project. The performance based competency is represented by the demonstrable performance box and relates to the technical skills possessed by the project manager to perform the project management duties and activities to the performance level required by the project. Demonstrable performance is identified as output competencies in the model. The input, personal and output competencies combine to define the competence of a project manager.
The competency model addresses the various aspects of competence (input, personal and output) that are discussed in literature and presented in project management standards. Measurements regarding competencies require identified standards from which one can measure against. As identified in the model, only knowledge and demonstrable performance have identified standards. These include the APM Body of Knowledge and the PMBOK for knowledge and the Australian National Competency Standards for Project Management and the United Kingdom’s National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) framework for demonstrable performance (Crawford, 2005).
Project Manager Human Skills:
Many of Northrop’s projects are classified as research and development contracts and contain areas of high technical complexity, high schedule and cost risk, high probabilities for unknown occurrences and a high degree of uncertainty. Project managers work with a large staff do get the work accomplished even though they have little management control them. A study conducted by Katz suggested that the effective programmatic skills required to be a successful project manager can be split into three developable skills. These are the human skill, the conceptual skill and the technical skill (El-Sabaa, 2001).
The Human Skill is used to define the project manager’s ability to work effectively as a group leader and to foster a cooperative work effort within the project team he leads. This skill can be demonstrated by observing the manner which the project manager perceives, recognizes and behaves toward the attitudes of his superiors, equals and subordinates. In effect, the human skill can be considered the people skill. It has identified that people management is an important skill for a project manager since much of the project manager’s time is spent communicating with different parties (Wateridge, 1997). A project manager who has highly developed human skill is one who is sensitive to the needs and motivations of the people within his project team and is skillful in communicating with others in their own context.
One of the human skills, interpersonal skill, can be defined as the feelings and behaviors that exist within an individual that affect and influence the interactions with others. Project managers are often challenged by the task of motivating others during difficult circumstances. The project team members maybe stressed, overworked, frustrated and overwhelmed by the steady flow of deadlines and changes that occur during the phases of the project. The project manager must rely on his interpersonal skill to inspire the project team to stay focused on the current project goals and expectations. The project manager must utilize his experience and have confidence in his own abilities and of the abilities of the project team to successfully complete the project (Jeffery, 1985).
Another important human skill for a project manager is the ability to maintain a positive attitude and optimistic outlook for the project team. Martin Seligman at the University of Pennsylvania has made a career of studying optimism and reasons that negative thinking in a work environment is a predictor of task failure. The belief that optimism can be learned creates an opportunity to provide training to project managers (Dolfi; Andrews, 2007). Many projects go through periods where budget constraints, technical problems, late supplier deliveries, resource shortages or compressed schedules have impacted the performance and attitude of the project team. The ability of the project manager to maintain a positive outlook and slant towards the given situation helps to lessen the added stress absorbed by the project team. However, the project manager should remember that being optimistic about a situation still requires some type of action rather than doing nothing.
Leadership Skills:
A learned human skill valuable to all project managers is leadership. Leadership abilities inherent or obtained through experiences are vital to the selection of the project manager. These leadership competencies should be factored into the selection and assignment of project managers. The selection board should select the candidate whose competencies best fits the type of project being assigned (Muller; Turner, 2009).
Important leadership skills include vision, communication, integrity and passion. Vision represents the ability of the project manager to visualize what he wants from the project and the projection of how to accomplish the near term goals of the project. The project manager must be able to convey the project view to the entire project team. The ability of the project manager to gain the involvement of the team members towards his vision is when the entire project team begins to operate as a unit. An effective project manger recognizes that decisions made without participation from top management can significantly affect the likelihood of their vision becoming reality (Morton, 1983).
Communication Skills:
Communication is probably the most important skill of a project manager. Since communication is an integral part of the leadership skills, the project manager loses his ability to lead without it. A project manager needs to communicate with various people at different levels and should be able to articulate and be concise, fair and able to be understood. They also need to be good listeners and to be able to read both verbal and nonverbal messages (Pettersen, 1991).
Good communication skills for project managers to learn include negotiation and persuasion techniques. These qualities help to provide openness and relativity for the project. The project manager is involved with many negotiations that occur throughout the project life cycle. Some situations that can arise which require the skills of the project manager include changes or issues to the project scope, cost or schedule; those involving the contract terms and conditions; or involving resource availability and utilization (Edum-Fotwe; McCaffer, 2000).
Also, a project manager must have integrity to be successful. The actions of the project manager set an example for the rest of the project team to follow. The project manager is responsible for setting the standards (ethically and morally) for the project team and must lead by example. The project manager should have the ability to apply communication skills relating to the understanding of emotions that can affect the project team. This ability is important in leadership contexts for knowing how and when to use it can help to stimulate the creativity, optimism and excitement among the project team (Clarke, 2009).
Lastly, a project manager needs to have a passion for the job. A project manager without passion is one that lacks dedication. The project manager has to be passionate about the project and he should be enthusiastic about it and possess a positive attitude. Only by portraying these traits will the project team follow and respect the decisions of the project manager. It is important for the project manager to remember that not all project team members contributing to the project share a common objective for the project and some may believe the project manager is not engaged in the day-to-day problems (Wearne, 2008). A project manager without passion will lose the trust and respect of the project team. The project manager needs to engage in the project and present a feeling of commitment and optimism to the project team. Kendra and Taplin state that ‘‘for organizations to be successful with the adoption of project management, they need to establish a shared set of values and beliefs (a project management culture) that aligns with the social and technical aspects of project management to achieve the organization’s business objectives” (Thomas; Mengal, 2008).
According to Katz, an effective administrator must develop his own personal point of view toward human activity, so that he would: (a) recognize the feelings and sentiments which he brings into a situation; (b) have an attitude about his own experiences which will enable him to re-evaluate and learn from them; (c) develop ability in understanding what others, by their actions and words (explicitly or implicitly), are trying to communicate to him; and (d) develop ability in successfully communicating his ideas and attitudes to others (El-Sabaa, 2001).
Research has identified and/or described the importance of communication by a project manager to their project team, including discussions relating to the project goals and the monitoring and feedback of the project data. Also, the results of research studies confirmed the overall value of communication in managing projects. Pinto also found that project performance on task outcomes, budget, schedule, level of performance, and likelihood of usage by clients, improves with project managers who actively communicate with team members (Henderson, 2004).
Project Manager Conceptual Skills:
The conceptual skill can be defined as the project manager’s ability to obtain a global perspective on the entire project. It includes the recognition by the project manager of how the various functions and pieces of the project depend upon one another and how changes in any one section could affect all of the other areas of the project. Thus, the conceptual skill can be referred to as the organizational skill. The conceptual skill also contains the visualization of the relationship between the project and the goals and objectives defined by the company. Project leadership encompasses the ability to manage a team. Skills in managing relationships are critical for the project manager to achieve stakeholder satisfaction for all phases of the project (Pant; Baroudi, 2006).
Another important conceptual skill for a project manager to have concerns the ability to think logically. Logical thinking is a leaned skill. There are many situations for a project manager where the ability to think logically is an important asset. Logical thinking is the ability to think in terms of causes and effects. This implies that logical thinking is sequential thinking and therefore means following a train of thought. It is based on the analysis and interpretation of a set of events and then predicting what will happen if the same conditions or events continue to occur. This skill enables the project manager to proactively respond to potential problems before they can impact the project and plan for contingencies to help mitigate their impact if the problems are realized.
Project Manager Organizational Skills:
One of the organizational skills that is important for a project manager to understand and recognize relates to the needs and perceptions of the project stakeholders. The stakeholders play an important role in the success of the project. The communication plan developed by the project manager needs to include the expectations and perceptions of the project’s stakeholders. Unfortunately, stakeholder perceptions of project management are based on prior experience with other projects, other project managers and different organizations. There is a general understanding for the need and importance for the project manager to possess a good communication skill. The communication skill is used to gain agreements from all stakeholders on the project success criteria and to establish effective communication channels between the project manager, organization and the customer (Stevenson; Starkweather, 2009). Therefore, the project manager should develop a communication plan that relies on open communication channels, reminds the stakeholders that this not the old project but a new and different project with a different set of requirements and to provide accurate and timely information to the stakeholders that meet their expectations and needs.
Project Manager Business and Technical Skills:
The technical skill implies that the project manager has an understanding and proficiency in a specific area involving methods, processes, procedures or techniques. To be successful, the project manager should possess the knowledge and experience required by the project they are to be managing. The technical skill involves the knowledge and experience in the use of the required tools and techniques of a specific discipline including engineering, business, planning and management.
Business skills include accounting, finance, budgeting, forecasting and contracts. Since the project manager is ultimately responsible for the development, control and management of the project’s budgets and cost estimates, the project manager should possess some basic knowledge of finance and accounting principles, forecasting techniques and contract management.
It is common for project managers to work within compressed timelines, adhere to locked delivery dates, work with tight schedule margins, manage multiple resources across the organization and meet the project deliverables on time and within budget. As a result, planning is often acknowledged as the most important activity for the project manager to get engaged with. In order to meet the needs, requirements and customer expectations of the project, the project manager should possess some experience in the use and applications of schedule management.
The duties of the project manager are vast and all project managers must be able to simultaneously manage the project’s work scope, budget, schedule and resources in support of the project requirements and the needs of the customer. The project manager should have the technical skills required as the project team leader to provide solutions to the difficult issues and technical problems that will occur during the project. It is therefore recommended that the project manager is diligent in building a project staff that best compliments his own skills and expertise to mange for project success. A project manager should try to create an “atmosphere conducive to achievement”. In other words, create an environment where the project team can successfully perform the work (Lynne Thomas; Buckle-Henning, 2007).
Project Manager Selection – Bibliography
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