INFS 724 Project and Change Management

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INFS 724 Project and Change Management

• Amit Deokar, Ph.D.

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Chapter 9

• Human Resource Management

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Outline

• What is human resource management? Why?
• Motivation
• Human resource management processes
• Human resource planning
• Acquiring the project team
• Developing the project team
• Managing the project team
• Using software for human resource management

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What is human resource management? Why?
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The Importance of Human Resource Management

• People determine the success and failure of
  organizations and projects
• Peopleware issues have more impact on software
  productivity and software quality than any other
  factor
• For example, productivity of individual
  programmers with similar levels of experience
  vary by a factor of at least 10 to 1
• For entire teams, variations can be up to 5 to 1
• NASAs SEL concluded that technology is not the
  answer, The most effective practices are those
  that leverage the human potential of their
  developers

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What is Project Human Resource Management?

• Project human resource management includes the
  processes required to make the most effective use
  of the people involved with a project. Processes
  include
• Human resource planning Identifying and
  documenting project roles, responsibilities, and
  reporting relationships.
• Acquiring the project team Getting the needed
  personnel assigned to and working on the project
• Developing the project team Building individual
  and group skills to enhance project performance.
• Managing the project team Tracking team member
  performance, motivating team members, providing
  timely feedback, resolving issues and conflicts,
  and coordinating changes to help enhance project
  performance

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Motivation
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Maslows Hierarchy of Needs
Relevance for people working in IT
Implication PM should know something about team
members professional and personal lives
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Maslows Hierarchy Implication for management
(Sommerville, 2001)

• Examples of satisfying social
• allowing people to meet their co-workers and
  providing places for them to meet
• Examples of esteem social
• Show people that they are valued, e.g., through
  public recognition and that they are being paid
  at a level that respect their skills
• Examples of self-actualization social
• Assign demanding (but not impossible) tasks
• Provide training programs for people to develop

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Comparison of motivators for programmer analyst
vs. managers and general population (McConnell,
S., 1996)
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Top five motivation factors - Achievement

• Ownership buy-in Let developers create their
  own schedules
• Goal setting explicitly setting ambitious, yet
  realistic goals

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Top five motivation factors Possibility for
growth

• The principle of career progression indicates
  that it is in an organizations best interest to
  help determine how its employees wish to grow
  professionally, and to provide them with career
  development opportunities in those directions
  Barry Boehm (1981)
• Examples of support
• Provide tuition reimbursement
• Give time off to attend classes
• Assign developers to projects that will expand
  their skill sets
• Assign a mentor to each new developer

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Top five motivation factors Work itself

• Dimensions of work that motivates
• Skill variety
• Task identity
• Task significance
• Autonomy
• Job feedback (from carrying out the job itself)

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Top five motivation factors Personal life

• An organization can
• Schedule projects realistically
• Respect vacations and holidays
• Be sensitive to occasional requests for time off
  during work-days

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Top five motivation factors Technical
supervision

• An opportunity to supervise technical work
  implies that the developer has achieved a level
  of technical expertise sufficient to direct
  others.
• Examples
• Assign each person on the project to be the
  technical lead for a particular area
• Assign all, but the junior developers to be
  mentors

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Other motivators

• Rewards and incentives
• Pilot projects
• Performance reviews

Source McConnell, 1996
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Herzbergs Motivational and Hygiene Factors
(Morale killers)

• Frederick Herzberg wrote several famous books and
  articles about worker motivation. He
  distinguished between
• motivational factors achievement, recognition,
  the work itself, responsibility, advancement, and
  growth, which produce job satisfaction
• hygiene factors (moral killers) cause
  dissatisfaction if not present, but do not
  motivate workers to do more.
• Examples include larger salaries, more
  supervision, and a more attractive work
  environment

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Examples of Hygiene Factors (Morale killers) for
developers

• Working environment
• Privacy
• Outside awareness (natural light with a view)
• Personalization
• Appropriate lighting, heating, and air
  conditioning
• Adequate desk and shelf space
• Access to office equipment
• Readily available office supplies
• Freedom to set work hours
• Up-to-date computing equipment
• Applicable reference manual and trade publications

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Human resource planning
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Human resource planning

• Human resource planning involves identifying,
  documenting, and assigning project roles,
  responsibilities, and reporting relationships
• Outputs and processes include
• project organizational charts
• work definition and assignment process
• responsibility assignment matrices (RAM)
• resource histograms

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Sample Organizational Chart for a Large IT Project
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Work Definition and Assignment Process
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Responsibility Assignment Matrices

• A responsibility assignment matrix (RAM) is a
  matrix that maps the work of the project, as
  described in the WBS, to the people responsible
  for performing the work, as described in the OBS.
  
• Can be created in different ways to meet unique
  project needs.

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Sample Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)
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RAM Showing Stakeholder Roles
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Staffing Management Plans and Resource Histograms

• A staffing management plan describes when and how
  people will be added to and taken off the project
  team.
• Often part of the project management plan (refer
  Chapter 4)
• A resource histogram is a column chart that shows
  the number of resources assigned to a project
  over time.
  (part of the staffing management plan)

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Sample Resource Histogram
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Acquiring the project team
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Acquiring the project team

• Staffing plans and good hiring procedures are
  important in staff acquisition, as are incentives
  for recruiting and retention
• Some organizations allow people to work from home
  as an incentive
• Research shows that people leave their jobs
  because
• they dont make a difference,
• dont get proper recognition,
• arent learning anything new,
• dont like their coworkers,
• and want to earn more money

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Five principles of software staffing (Boehm, 1981)

• Top talent
• Use fewer and better people
• Job matching
• Fit the tasks to the skills and motivation of the
  people
• Career progression
• Help people self-actualize
• Team balance
• Select people to complement each other
• Misfit elimination
• Replace problem team members as quickly as
  possible

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Resource Loading

• Resource loading refers to the amount of
  individual resources an existing project schedule
  requires during specific time periods
• Resource histograms show resource loading
• Overallocation means more resources than are
  available are assigned to perform work at a given
  time

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Sample Histogram Showing an Over-allocated
Individual
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Resource Leveling

• Resource leveling is a technique for resolving
  resource conflicts by delaying tasks
• The main purpose of resource leveling is to
  create a smoother distribution of resource usage
  and reduce over-allocation.
• Benefits include
• When resources are used on a more constant basis,
  they require less management.
• It results in fewer problems for project
  personnel and the accounting department.
• It often improves morale.

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Resource Leveling Example
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Developing the project team
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Team Development

• It takes teamwork to successfully complete most
  projects
• Training can help people understand themselves,
  each other, and how to work better in teams
• Team building activities include
• physical challenges
• psychological preference indicator tools

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Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

• MBTI is a popular tool for determining
  personality preferences and helping teammates
  understand each other
• In total, you have 16 personality types
• http//www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp

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MBTI for IS professionals

• NTs are classified as rational.
• They tend to be attracted to technology fields
• No more than 7 of the population are rational
• Implication are clear
• To appeal to IT people, use logical arguments
• By knowing your team members MBTI profile, you
  can adjust your management style for each
  individual

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Managing the project team
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Managing the Project Team

• Project managers must lead their teams in
  performing various project activities.
• After assessing team performance and related
  information, the project manager must decide
• If changes should be requested to the project.
• If corrective or preventive actions should be
  recommended.
• If updates are needed to the project management
  plan or organizational process assets.

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Tools and Techniques for Managing Project Teams

• Observation and conversation
• Project performance appraisals
• Conflict management
• Issue logs

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Reward and Recognition Systems

• Team-based reward and recognition systems can
  promote teamwork
• Focus on rewarding teams for achieving specific
  goals
• Allow time for team members to mentor and help
  each other to meet project goals and develop
  human resources

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General Advice on Teams

• Focus on meeting project objectives and producing
  positive results
• Fix the problem instead of blaming people
• Establish regular, effective meetings
• Nurture team members and encourage them to help
  each other
• Acknowledge individual and group accomplishments

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Using Software to Assist in Human Resource
Management

• Software can help in producing RAMs and resource
  histograms
• Project management software includes several
  features related to human resource management
  such as
• viewing resource usage information
• identifying under and overallocated resources
• leveling resources

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Resource Usage View from Microsoft Project
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Resource Usage Report from Microsoft Project