В тоже время ISO 21500, по сравнению с PMI PMBOK просто отлично структурирован в изложении .и классификации процессов по УП, поддерживающих и процессов бизнеса.
1. project management processes, which are specific to project management, determine how the activities selected for the project are managed;
2. product processes, which are not unique to project management, result in the specification and creation of a particular product, service, or result and vary depending on the particular project deliverable;
3. support processes, which are not unique to project management, provide relevant and valuable support to product and project management processes in such disciplines as logistics, finance, accounting and safety.
Are a Strong Project Manager?
Take a Quick Quiz to Find Out
Are you a strong project manager? Take the following TenStep quiz to find out. The following questions have been worded in a way that will allow you to answer “yes” or “no,” even though there are shades of gray on some of them as well. Take out a sheet of paper and look at these ten project management skills and behaviors.
(Y / N) You don’t plan well because you consider yourself a “doer” rather than a planner. Many people consider themselves action oriented. When they are given an assignment, their first tendency is to jump in and solve the problem. The question has a built-in bias, since it implies that “planning” is not “doing”. Still, answer yes or no.
(Y / N) You manage with minimal collaboration and interaction with customers and team members. This is the classic case of the person who feels more comfortable working alone. Many people think they are more productive this way. They work by themselves on the project plan, hand out work assignments and manage the projects in front of their computer.
(Y / N) You tend to make excuses for problems rather than take responsibility. Some project managers understand they are responsible for most of what goes on within a project. Others prefer to rationalize why expectations are not met. What is your preference? Do you try to explain the problems away or do you strive to eliminate the causes of problems and failures?
(Y / N) You are an order-taker. Does client-focused behavior to you mean that you take on whatever the client wants? Or do you push back against unreasonable requests. Do you invoke scope change processes to manage changes to the project.
(Y / N) You let problems sit until they become disasters? Let’s face it. There are many procrastinators around. Do you consider project problems to be nuisances that you hope will go away? Do you focus on problems only after they reach a high-enough threshold that they are impacting the project?
(Y / N) You don’t create a schedule, or you do not keep it up to date. Many project managers create a project schedule, but then they never update it, or they abandon it somewhere in the project lifecycle. If they are asked how much work is remaining, they have a vague idea, but cannot quantify the remaining effort.
(Y / N) You would rather deliver poor quality than admit you need more time. Many projects finish on time and within budget, but do so only at the expense of quality and complete functionality. These project managers believe they will deliver on time, and then fix the problems in production. Are you one of them?
(Y / N) You manage surprises at the last minute rather than manage expectations. This trait may be caused by a tendency to be overly optimistic about what can be done in a short time frame, or perhaps a sign of not being a proactive communicator. Sometimes project managers even purposely withhold information in hopes the situation will go away.
(Y / N) You ignore risks. Some risks can be seen from the start of a project. Other risks can be viewed later while the project is executing. Many project managers don’t even consider risk management as a part of their project responsibilities. Other managers can identify risk, but then they do nothing about it until it is too late.
(Y / N) You communicate the minimum information required. It is surprising how many project managers think that communication is one of the drudgeries of the job. They don’t have regular status meetings and they spend the least time they can on status updates. Would project management be much easier if you did not have to deal with people?
Score yourself
Okay, now add up the "yes" answers. There were ten categories total, right? The number grades should be as follows:
“0” - If you did not answer yes to any category, you likely have a good chance of success as a project manager.
“1” – You are not perfect, but pretty solid. Work on the category so that you can answer “no” in the future.
“2” – This is a borderline score. Depending on what the two categories are, you may be able to overcome the weaknesses through additional focus.
More the “2” – If you answered "yes" to three or more categories, you have work to do on your project management mindset. This doesn’t mean you are a bad person. But, given the categories above, you should question your knowledge and practice of good project management practices, or else your overall motivation for taking on project management work. Perhaps you can focus on these areas for improvement and take the test again in six months.
Here are Three Reasons to Plan for Reserve Resources
When a project is first defined, you rarely know exactly all the resources you will need. As the project initially progresses, however, you start to define the scope, assumptions, deliverables, approach, etc. This gives you enough information to put together an initial estimate of the resources required for the project.
So far, this is nothing new. All projects have some level of uncertainty. If possible, you account for the estimating uncertainty through the use of a contingency budget. The contingency budget helps you manage through estimating errors. (If you do not have a contingency budget you account for uncertainty in your base budget estimates.)
The nature of some projects requires that the project manager take this contingency even farther. On some projects, you must actually plan for what the contingency resources look like and how you will get them when needed. You need a plan for having reserve resources available when needed. These could be labor or non-labor resources, such as hardware, equipment or supplies.
There will be a couple times when you need to plan ahead for reserve resources.
- Time is of the essence. In a typical project, if you find that work is taking longer than you anticipated, you would ask for additional time and budget. However, if the deadline date is critical and cannot be moved, you may not have time to look for new resources when you first realize you need them. You may have to have already made plans for where they are and how to acquire them. Having resources identified and in reserve would allow you to move quickly if you determined more were necessary.
- High incremental costs for additional resources. You may have resources that are less expensive when purchased in bulk, but very expensive when purchased incrementally. For instance, if the solution you are building requires new hardware, you may find that the price per unit is less as you purchase more units. Let’s say that you estimate you will need 100 units. Depending on your estimating uncertainty, you may choose to purchase 110 instead, and have ten units in reserve. You would do this because the price to purchase the extra ten units now (as a part of the bulk order) is much less expensive that having to purchase ten units later, when the incremental cost would be much higher.
- Long lead times for specialty resources. Sometimes there is a long lead-time to acquire hard-to-find specialty resources. You may need to have them in reserve if needed. For example, you may work with consulting firms ahead of time to find specialty resources, such as experts in some obscure tool, with the understanding that the requirement is not 100% firm. The firms can work ahead of time to locate these people and try to have someone available on short notice in case you need them later on the project.
These are reasons why you should consider planning ahead of time for contingency resources. The need for project reserves would typically be identified and managed through the risk management process, with reserve resources being a response to a specifically identified resource risks.
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Two Keys to Allocating Staff in a Matrix Organization
Identifying and allocated staff to your project is a critical component of project HR management. In a matrix organization people are assigned full time to a functional organization, but can be temporarily assigned full-time or part-time to a project as well. In this case, their functional manager may be responsible for part of a team member’s workload, and a project manager is responsible for assigning the work associated with the project. The matrix is especially efficient if your project does not need a full-time and long term commitment from team members. These people can be used on projects for as long as needed and the revert back to their functional organization.
The matrixed organization can be the most efficient at utilizing and leveraging people’s time and skills. However, it only works if the functional manager and project manager (or multiple project managers) recognize the challenges and work together for the company’s overall benefit. The two areas to focus on are planning and communication. Planning ensures the resources are reserved for your project. Communication helps ensure that the resources are actually there when you need them.
- Planning. Functional managers and project managers need to plan the resource needs together and in advance. The functional managers need to maintain a planning window of upcoming projects and an estimate of their resource needs. If your staffing requirements fluctuate a lot from month-to-month, or if the projects cannot be forecast many months in advance, you can at least plan using a three-month rolling window. You then update and refine the plan on a monthly basis. The closest month should be pretty firm. Two months out should be pretty close. Three months out and beyond is best guess.
- Communication. After the planning comes the proactive communication. Remember that in a matrix organization, project managers need resources to do their work, but they do not own them – the functional managers do. So, the onus is usually on the project managers to make sure that the resources are available when they are needed, and that there are no surprises. For instance, if you and the functional manager agree that a specific set of people will be available for one of your projects in two months, don’t just show up in two months and expect them to be ready to go. In fact, you should expect that they will not be ready if you have not communicated often and proactively. The project manager should gain agreement on resources two months in advance. The resources should be confirmed again at the next monthly staff allocation meeting. The project manager should double-check resources again two weeks before the start date, and follow-up with a reminder one week out. You are much more likely to have the resources available when you need them if you take these proactive steps.
Many companies and organizations struggle trying to optimize the people allocation in a matrix organization. You can get software to help make this easier. But software is just a tool. Overall staffing success in a matrix organization depends on having good planning processes in place, maintaining a partnering relationship between the project managers and functional managers, and communicating proactively and effectively.
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