Identifying a Project's Supporting Details

Supporting details are another important aspect of organizational planning. Supporting details vary by application area and project size but typically include items such as organizational structure, job descriptions, and training needs.

Organizational structure
One aspect of compiling supporting details is to understand the limits imposed on you by the company's organizational structure. You may, for example, need to plan more time for executive approval if it is required for all project decisions. These are elements you typically can't change. When it comes to structure-imposed limits, your best strategy is to focus on what you can do within the confines of the organizational structure.

Job descriptions
Job descriptions are another aspect of supporting details. They help your project run smoothly by telling team members what is expected of them. Effective job descriptions eliminate potential conflicts over job duties, roles, responsibilities, and reporting structures. The best job descriptions provide details about competencies, responsibilities, knowledge, authority, and the physical job environment.

Training needs
Another aspect of supporting details is recognizing the training needs of your team members. Sometimes your job descriptions outline competencies your team members don't currently have. In this case, you need a plan outlining your team's training needs. Training ensures your team has the most up-to-date skills and is constantly ready for new challenges.

Supporting details are the final ties that bring a project together. Using this output from organizational planning allows you to move ahead with your project, secure in the knowledge that you have laid your plans carefully. Now you only have to follow through with those plans.

Methods for Charting Project Relationships

An organization chart shows you, in an instant, all the relationships within a company. It allows you to clearly see the layout of people and departments for an entire organization.

An organization chart is any graphic manifestation of project reporting relationships. It gives you the big picture of how your project fits into the overall activity of the organization. It shows the relationships:

• between resources of the project management system
• of formal authority between groups and individuals.

Organization charts can be formal or informal, highly detailed or broadly framed. The place of individuals within boxes on the organization chart shows broad working relationships. The connecting lines between boxes indicate formal chains of command and lines of communication between individuals.

Organization charts vary dramatically from one organization to another. They do, however, have some basic elements in common. For example:

• All members of the project are identified, including stakeholders.
• Data can be formal, informal, detailed, or general.
• Direct relationships between people are shown with a solid line.
• A dotted line indicates an indirect relationship, or a relationship that has not been clearly defined.

Organization charts offer project managers several important benefits. For starters, they show you the overall framework of the organization and indicate where project members fit into the organization. They also reveal the basic relationships between project team members, and they explain formal lines of authority (reporting relationships).

There are also drawbacks to using a traditional organization chart. For example, a traditional organization chart:

• doesn't show the nature and limits of the activities required to attain project objectives
• doesn't show the reciprocal relationships between people, which often occur within a project
• may not accurately reflect the structure throughout the project because it is often out of date very quickly
• may confuse people, as the pyramidal structure may portray a false sense of status and prestige.

Charts vary because organizations and projects vary. There are specific organization charts that give you added information. These charts help you as you plan. One such plan is an Organizational Breakdown Structure Chart (OBS)

An OBS identifies the roles and responsibilities of the individual as well as those of the collective project unit. And OBS is a concise description of the organizational interfaces. It illustrates:

• who the project participants are, the extent of their involvement, and their authority
• when decisions should be made or activities performed
• who has authority when team members share common work
• work packages or tasks necessary for project success.

And OBS is time consuming to prepare, but gives you more valuable information than a standard organizational chart.

A standard organization chart or Organizational Breakdown Structure Chart provides you with concise information concerning responsibility relationships within an organization. Both types of charts provide a useful tool of reference for everyone involved in the project.

What Does a Staffing Management Plan Include?

Jumping into your project without a staffing management plan is like jumping from a plane without a parachute. It might be the fastest way to your destination, but it clearly is not the safest or smartest decision.

The people you select to work on your project will either contribute to its success or its demise. To ensure the success of your project, you will want to identify your staffing requirements and come up with a staffing management plan.

A staffing management plan is an output of the organizational planning process. This kind of plan includes your basic staffing requirements and provides details about how people will be brought on board and released from the project.

• staffing requirements
  Staffing requirements describe the team members you need to carry out the tasks your project requires. Objective and subjective criteria are used to match the team members to various positions that need to be filled.
  
  Objective criteria outline the technical competencies needed from a potential team member to successfully fulfill a project task. Subjective criteria deal with the needed personality traits to successfully fulfill a project task.
  

• information about how people are brought on to the project
  Planning for your team members before they even come on board will help you to take better advantage of their expertise. Bringing people onto a project can be chaotic. New team members have many questions about their project tasks, roles, and responsibilities. You can help make this transition as smooth as possible by anticipating team members' questions.
  
  Job descriptions, training, project information, and reward programs, and a closing meeting are just some of the items to include in this part of your plan.
  

• Job descriptions - When team members know the parameters of their position, they can focus on exactly what they are there to accomplish. Job descriptions eliminate confusion and provide direction.
• Training - You want your team members to work as efficiently as possible. For this to happen, your team members require proper training. Training takes time up front, but saves you time in the long run.
• Project information - Project information allows team members to see where their tasks fit into the big picture. The more fully informed team members are, the more focused their tasks will be.
• Reward programs - Reward programs work as productivity incentives for your team members. This creates good morale, as team members feel they are recognized for a job well done.
• Closing meeting - A closing meeting, reviews both the positive and negative elements of a finished project. It allows you and your team members to make better plans for the next project, as well as capitalize on the strengths demonstrated in the finished project.

• Information about how people are released from the project
  Creating a plan to move people off projects is also beneficial. This type of planning provides direction, focus, and smooth transitions.
  
  Your staffing management plan should include a plan for re-assigning your team members as soon as the project is completed. Your team members should know when and where their next assignment begins.
  
  Properly releasing staff reduces costs by reducing or eliminating the tendency to make work to fill the time between this assignment and another. It also improves morale by reducing or eliminating uncertainty about future employment opportunities.
  

Completing a staffing management plan before jumping into your project will save you time and trouble later in the project. The plan you develop will help you to see how to put to the best use the skills, expertise, and talents of each and every team member. And this will allow you to execute the project sure and steady with fewer surprises.

Assigning Roles and Responsibilities

Do you cringe at the thought of responsibility? Many people do. Having something fall on your shoulders may seem daunting. However, it is also through responsibility that a certain amount of freedom is gained.

Freedom through responsibility? It's true. Responsibility gives you the freedom to use your skills, talents, and intellect. Most people thrive on responsibility and blossom when they believe they have handled their responsibilities well.

Successful projects have clearly defined project roles (who does what) and responsibilities (who decides what). Most roles and responsibilities are assigned to stakeholders who are actively involved in the work of the project. These can include the project manager, other members of the project management team, and the individual contributors. Roles and responsibilities may vary over time.

Project managers bear the majority of the responsibility for the success of the project. It is their job to ensure that a project comes in on time and on budget. To succeed in this capacity, project managers must delegate roles and responsibilities to their team members. And the tool they use to do this is called a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM).

A RAM links project roles and responsibilities to the project scope definition. A RAM can be developed at various levels. Generally, they fall into two categories: low-level RAM and high-level RAM.

A low-level RAM delegates roles and responsibilities for specific activities to particular individuals within your team.

The more phases you have for your project, the more complex your matrix is going to be. A high-level RAM is very complex and shows many phases of a project. It may define which group or unit is responsible for each element of the work breakdown structure.

Responsibility is an essential component of project success. A Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) shows where you and your team members' responsibilities lie.

Assigning responsibilities reaps huge benefits. Your team feels it has control and authority for specific tasks. Progress happens when team members focus on their own responsibilities.

Analyzing Stakeholder Interests

Stakeholder analysis is the process of discovering who has a stake in your project and identifying their interests. To perform stakeholder analysis, you must identify the stakeholders, their roles and primary interests in the project. Then you must analyze the relationships between stakeholders, looking to capitalize on similarities and resolving differences.

• Step 1: Identify the stakeholders.
  Stakeholders can be internal or external. Internal stakeholders are the people directly involved in the functioning of your project. They include project managers, performing organizations, and project team members. External stakeholders are outside your organization. External stakeholders for your project may include sponsors, customers, suppliers, financial backers, special interest groups, the media and the public.
  

• Step 2: Identify their roles.
  You can enhance the usefulness of your list of stakeholders by determining the role each stakeholder plays in your project. Stakeholders may manage the project, provide financial or human resources, or provide supplies. Viewing stakeholders within the context of their roles is necessary to accomplish the rest of your stakeholder analysis.
  

• Step 3: Identify their primary interests.
  Once you know the roles of stakeholders, you can discover the interests they have. The interests of your stakeholders are the outcome of the roles they play in your project. The logical conclusion of what stakeholders do for your project is what they want from your project. It is important for you to know what they want from your project.
  

• Step 4: Analyze the relationships between stakeholders.
  Evaluating conflicting project desires is part of the fourth step of a stakeholder analysis. Once you have listed the stakeholders, their roles and interests, you can analyze the relationship between all the diverse interests in your project.
  

To properly analyze your stakeholders, you need to ask yourself:

1. How will each group respond to project decisions?
2. What effect will their reactions have?
3. How will their interaction with each other affect the project?

LUXX Corporation, an appliance manufacturer, is creating a new toaster for the market. Jodi is in charge of the project. She must determine how to prioritize the four departments' wishes, while demonstrating that she has taken everyone's requests into consideration. Jodi has identified the stakeholders and their competing interests in this project.

The research and development department wants more time to come up with the best toaster possible. It also wants to use its capabilities to the fullest by providing as many features as possible.

The marketing department wants to make this toaster attractive to the general public. This means promoting as many features as possible and having an early market release date, while keeping the price to a minimum.

The accounting department wants to keep costs low while charging the public as much as possible. It also wants this toaster to be on the market as soon as possible. Driving these desires is the interest in the margin of profit.

The quality assurance department wants a trouble-free toaster. The quality assurance department wants well-designed features, that work well, and plenty of time to complete proper testing procedures.

As you can see, many of these wishes conflict with one another.

The steps involved in stakeholder analysis are designed to reveal the conflicting interests among stakeholders so that these differences may be managed. Ultimately, stakeholder analysis helps you to gain the support of all your stakeholders and ensures that everyone involved in a project is directed toward the same project goals.

Structuring Organizations for Better Project Management

If you change the molecular structure of an organism, you change the way that organism functions. Every element of change brings about a subsequent change of function. Like an organism, your organization can and should be structured to enable you to better respond to project requirements.

Changing the structure of an organization is a relatively new phenomenon. Historically, an organization was structured along a pyramid model. This traditional form of organizational structure, called a "functional" structure, leaves the authority and decision-making in the hands of a select few. However, as the pyramid widens and the number of people increases, the effectiveness of those in authority decreases.

Most businesses now tend to focus on individual projects. If your company focuses on projects but uses a functional structure, your projects will be forced to wait in line for decisions that need to be made.

• Functional structures reduce project efficiencies because:
• decisions take too much time to go through the hierarchy
• decisions are made by people not familiar with the project

those involved in the project become frustrated by those assuming all of the responsibility.
Fortunately, organizational structures have changed to meet the new challenges of business. Two different structures that have evolved are the matrix and projectized structures.

• Matrix structures - Matrix structures are divided into two categories: weak and strong. The weak matrix structure provides relatively little authority for the project manager, while the strong matrix provides almost complete authority for the project manager.
  
  A weak matrix structure allows a project to exist apart from the main organization. It retains its own structure but still relies on the organization for some of the decision making.
  
  A strong matrix has its own structure apart from the main organization. The decision-making ability is quite strong within this structure, but it is still answerable to the larger organization.
  

• Projectized structures - The projectized structure is similar to the strong matrix structure. While the strong matrix allows very strong decision-making abilities for the project manager, the projectized structure allows for complete decision making on the part of those involved in the project. For both of these structures, the organization plays an auxiliary role to the project. This change in project authority and responsibility allows for projects to run more smoothly. This in turn, brings a faster turnaround time.

How do you decide which structure is right for your project? Complexity, duration, and outside influence on your project are the three factors which determine the type of structure your project should have.

You need a strong matrix or projectized structure if your project:

• is extremely complex
• is long in duration
• involves many different organizations.

The effectiveness of these structures is dependent on senior management. Matrix and projectized structures can only succeed if the larger organization lets go of control. Authority and independence are needed for these new structures to have validity. The benefits of these structures must be clear to the larger organization for them to relinquish power over individual projects.

Changing from functional structures to new structures calls for a change in both the main organization and the project team. Senior management must learn to give up control, just as the project team needs to learn to take it on. All of this change requires new competencies within the project team. Each team must be able to handle all of the functions usually accomplished by the larger company.

A project team must learn to equip itself before it gains independence. To function, the team must ensure that it is able to:

• communicate
• sell ideas
• negotiate
• problem solve
• resolve conflicts across functional boundaries.

Requiring these competencies of a project team is a huge departure from the past. More is expected from individual members of a team, and more responsibility is placed upon them. This creates dynamic and skilled people. It also creates some new challenges for the project team.
Human beings are incredibly adept at adjusting to new situations and new demands. This adjustment does, however, take time. The same is true of new organizational structures and the new processes they create. The new challenges faced by project teams require an adjustment period and a clear understanding of how the roles have changed.

The four areas that provide the most challenge within the project team are ownership, commitment, authority, and process orientation. Some of these challenges for the project team are due to the limitations of the larger organization, while others rest within the project team itself.

Responsibility for a project calls for ownership of that project. When companies move toward a new structure, they must make the transition of assigning a process owner. They need a manager with responsibility over the process from beginning to end.

The challenge of commitment is found within the project team itself. This is particularly an issue if the project involves contract workers. The project manager must ensure that employees realize their unique role in the success of a project.

Formal statements from the project champion or customer are necessary. These state who has the authority and responsibility for the project and should be distributed to stakeholders, resource managers, and especially the contracted team members.

New structures require new processes. Turning from functional to process-oriented structures requires new work habits, skill sets, meeting formats, reporting structures, problem resolution methods, and other tools to make a project truly effective.

The changing face of business has required dramatic changes in how organizations structure themselves. These changes have brought about a greater sense of responsibility within project teams and the acquisition of competencies formerly only found within the larger organization. Acquiring new competency requirements also presents new challenges for organizations. Meeting these challenges, however, enables a company to be more efficient, to save time, and to gain expertise.

Incorporating Policies, Procedures, and Regulations

Safety nets ensure that the work environment is secure. Human resource practices work as a safety net to ensure that the employment practices you use in forming a project team are above board.

You can ensure that the integrity of your project is beyond reproach by following the policies and guidelines set by your company, your industry, and the government.

Organizations have a variety of policies, procedures, and regulations that help the project management team with various aspects of organizational planning. These human resource practices give guidance on planning team benefits, incorporating company initiatives, and following government stipulations.

The sources of influence which govern employment practices can be divided into internal sources and external sources. Internal sources are policies set forth by the organization. External sources are decisions made outside of the company which affect company policy. Together, these internal and external sources make up the policies, procedures, and regulations governing your project.

• Company policies - include information addressing issues like vacation time, maternity leave, sick leave, and medical benefits.
• Regulations - deal with safety standards, minimum wage laws, and hiring discrimination.
• Procedures - vary from company to company. Your company chooses procedures based on what works best in its industry and what has proven to provide a sense of continuity and balance.

Corporate policies and procedures are at the discretion of individual companies. These are based on what each company deems fair and what it finds produces the most productive and loyal employees. On the other hand, the laws set forth by government are unwavering standards which must be met by each and every company. While project managers should abide by the human resource practices of the organizations in which they work, the laws set by government are binding and aren't optional.

The government has placed regulations upon different industries for the benefit of the public, as well as for those who work in these industries. The regulations differ for each industry, and you should become aware of how they affect your project.

Complying with company policies, regulations, and procedures will help to ensure project success. As you build and develop your project team, remember to:

• follow organizational procedures when assigning new jobs
• ensure the same level of project information gets to all team members
• provide similar training for all team members
• ensure senior management approves any guarantee made to an employee about future roles or positions
• inform team members why they were selected.

Company policies, regulations, and procedures are the safety nets that guide you to make sound decisions when it comes to planning the human resource aspect of your project. When you follow your company's human resource practices you stand a better chance of keeping your team members happy, the government satisfied, and your organization running smoothly.

Using Templates from Past Projects

Who was your role model when you were a child? Do you remember someone you used to emulate? Did you want to be like them? Did you try to copy that person's behavior to get the same results?

Templates for organizational planning work the same way. You can model your project according to similar successful projects from the past.

Using the successful elements of a former project will save you both time and money.

Although the details of each project are unique, the basic components are often similar. This helps you in your planning. For example, you can use the role and responsibility definitions, or reporting relationships, of a similar project to expedite the organizational planning process.

Peter, the project manager for a large insurance company, is preparing a responsibility chart for his team members. How does he decide how to do this? One effective method is to see how responsibility has been distributed in the past. Peter can do this by using the responsibility charts of other successful departments in his organization, or he can copy those of another successful company. Either way he chooses, he is using a past template to ensure the success of his project.

You can disassemble past templates and reassemble the plans you need for your own project. Possible plans you can use for your own project include:

• organizational structure
• Work Breakdown Structure
• company policies and practices

IRT is a successful IT consulting company. One of the services it offers is a Software Development Life Cycle Methodology. Within that methodology are predefined roles and responsibilities and organization charts. Before starting a project, the team members at IRT use their company's model as a starting point. By doing this, they are using templates of organizational structure and work breakdown structure. The team modifies its own template to suit its clients' needs, while building upon past success.

As a project manager, you will want to use templates to guide your organizational planning. Building on the success of others is a sure way of steering you toward your desired goal.

Identifying Project Constraints

Everyone has constraints on decision-making and action. During project organizational planning, there are many constraints to consider. Some of the most common constraints on decision-making are the organizational structure, collective bargaining agreements, the preferences of the project management team, and expected staff assignments.

Organizational structure
Organizational structure can be a constraint. The level of authority given to a project manager is largely dependent on the organizational structure, which may be functional, matrix, or fully projectized.

• Functional structure - In a functional structure, personnel are grouped hierarchically by speciality.
• Matrix structure - In a matrix structure, project managers share responsibility with functional managers.
• Fully projectized structure - In a fully projectized structure, project managers have total authority.

Collective bargaining agreements
Collective bargaining agreements are another potential constraint. Written agreements with unions or other employee groups ensure that you don't ask anything of your team that goes beyond what the union has agreed is appropriate. For example, a union may require that certain employees be hired, or it may set boundaries concerning work done by members of the union. Union contracts may also limit work hours and travel and time away from an employee's designated job.

The preferences of the project management team
Team preferences may also be a constraint. A team may be used to functioning independently, and individual team members may resist the changes brought about by interdepartmental interaction.

Expected staff assignments
Expected staff assignments are constraints placed on you and your team from the larger organization. When someone above you expects you to use certain people on your team, you then have the constraint of a pre-selected team. A pre-selected team limits a project manager in a variety of ways. Expected staff assignments can hinder a project when tasks are assigned based on criteria other than competency, the required competencies of the project team are changed, and the chemistry of the project team is altered.

It may seem logical that competency should be the overriding factor in team selection. Unfortunately, organizations themselves are under the constraint of staff availability. There may be redundant employees who have not yet been reassigned to a new full-time position. Projects end at different times. If one ends just as yours is beginning, your project is a convenient new placement for these employees.

Overcoming project constraints resulting from organizational structure, collective bargaining agreements, team preferences, and expected staff assignments is possible when you learn to view constraints as a challenge. When you understand the constraints placed on you, you can plan your strategy to take advantage of the human and material resources at your disposal.

Identifying Your Project Staffing Needs

People make or break a project. That's why, as a project manager, it is important to carefully plan your project staffing needs. You need to choose people with the right competencies and personalities if you want your project team to work well together and to be capable of getting the job done.

Selecting the right people for your project begins with a staffing requirement plan. Staffing requirements are created using the project's Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Skills Inventory Matrix.

Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The first step in determining your staffing requirements is to choose people with the right competencies. The WBS details the competencies you need to complete your project. A WBS is the organization of a project into a group of deliverables that defines the project scope.

Project managers complete all phases of the WBS. These phases are:

• identifying the major work assignments for the project
• breaking down each work assignment into tasks
• matching competencies to tasks.

When it comes to matching competencies to tasks, you need to consider both objective and subjective criteria. Objective criteria may include: technical ability, level of proficiency, project management skills, and previous experience as a leader.
Subjective criteria may include: social skills, opinions of fellow project managers, and opinions of co-workers.

Skills Inventory Matrix
After using the WBS, objective and subjective criteria to select the members of your team, you need to assign tasks based on team member competencies. A Skills Inventory Matrix is ideal for this purpose.

A Skills Inventory Matrix allows you to see all the competencies within the project team. The matrix can be created using a simple table. In the first column on the left, list each team member. In the columns to the right, list the competencies required to complete the project. If an employee has a particular competency, place a checkmark in the table cell corresponding to their name and the competency.

A WBS and a Skills Inventory Matrix help you to determine your staffing needs. These inputs ensure that you know which competencies and people you need, as well as what the time frames are for your project.

To ensure the timely completion of your project, you need to match people to competencies and competencies to tasks. A project manager is more likely to have success when all of these staffing requirements are in place.

Managing Communication Interfaces

One of the most important aspects of project planning is communication. As a project manager, you must define needed interactions between project teams and project support groups as part of the project planning process. To do this, you need to understand where communication occurs. Areas of communication, called interfaces, generally fall into one of three categories: organizational, technical, and interpersonal.

Organizational interfaces
An organizational interface is a communication interface among organizational units. Communication between organizational units is affected by the:

• Individuals that make up organizational units - Good communication between individuals is essential to project success. Miscommunications and disagreements between individuals can cause delays in your project.
• Overall unit goals - When units within an organization have similar goals, everyone can work together to meet those goals. When the goals of organizational units conflict with one another, each unit's effort works against the others.
• Different managerial styles within each unit - Difference in managerial styles from department to department can cause confusion, frustration, and miscommunications.
• Decisions made outside the immediate organization - Decisions made by governments, interest groups, and competitors can influence your project and must be communicated.

Technical interfaces
Technical interfaces are the formal and informal reporting relationships among different technical disciplines.

Technical interfaces occur within and between project phases. They can occur in products, facilities, and hardware, in other words, in anything that is non-people related.

The technical interface falls into two categories: physical and performance. The physical interface is between interconnecting parts of the system. The performance interface is between various functional or product subsystems. These categories contain both good interfaces and problems with interfaces.

For example, MercuryRising has an excellent technical support team that is familiar with the hardware and software within the various departments. Quick response time to computer problems ensures little disruption time on projects and makes meeting deadlines easier.

The office supplier for MercuryRising has software to let them know what and how much of a product is being used daily. This tells them exactly when and how much to deliver. Such precision aids project delivery.

Project managers can help to ensure project success by managing technical interfaces.

Interpersonal interfaces
The interpersonal interface deals with formal and informal reporting relationships among different individuals working on a project.

Differences in personality, skill level, and communication style can create issues as a project team begins to work together. Typically, as the number of people involved in a project increases, so does the potential for problems with communication. A project may involve:

• different organizations
• organizational departments (Accounting, R&D)
• groups (special interest)
• subgroups
• individuals

To enable effective communication at the interpersonal interface, you must carefully plan your project reporting relationships and keep the communication lines open to accommodate everyone involved.

For your project to succeed, you must remove barriers to communication through interface management—a constant juggling of communication issues.

A good project plan outlines individual, technical and organizational responsibilities and authority. It enables you to simultaneously manage the three interfaces and maintain the flow of communication.

If you effectively use the inputs to organizational planning, you can avoid most conflicts. Your projects will run more smoothly, and your project will have the best chance for success.