Organizing and Staffing the Project Office
and Team
Requirements, Skills and Job Descripiton of Project Manager
Pavel Adámek
Project management

Outline of the lecture
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•The Staffing Environment
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•Selecting the Project Manager
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•Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
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•Duties and Job Descriptions
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Introduction
•Successful project management, regardless of the organizational structure, is only as good as the
individuals and leaders who are managing the key functions.
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•Project management is not a one-person operation; it requires a group of individuals dedicated to
the achievement of a specific goal. Project management includes:
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•A project manager
•An assistant project manager
•A project (home) office
•A project team
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Introduction
•Generally, project office personnel are assigned full-time to the project and work out of the
project office, whereas the project team members work out of the functional units and may spend
only a small percentage of their time on the project.
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•Normally, project office personnel report directly to the project manager, but they may still be
solid to their line function just for administrative control.
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•Before the staffing function begins, five basic questions are usually considered:
•What are the requirements for an individual to become a successful project manager?
•Who should be a member of the project team?
•Who should be a member of the project office?
•What problems can occur during recruiting activities?
•What can happen downstream to cause the loss of key team members?
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The Staffing Environment
To understand the problems that occur during staffing, we must first investigate the
characteristics
of project management, including the project environment, the project management process, and the
project manager.
•Two major kinds of problems are related to the project environment: personnel performance problems
and personnel policy problems.
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•Performance is difficult for many individuals in the project environment because it represents a
change in the way of doing business.
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•Individuals, regardless of how competent they are, find it difficult to adapt continually to a
changing situation in which they report to multiple managers.
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The Staffing Environment
•Many individuals thrive on temporary assignments because it gives them a “chance for glory.”
Unfortunately, some employees might consider the chance for glory more important than the project.
–For example, an employee may pay no attention to the instructions of the project manager and
instead perform the task his own way. In this situation, the employee wants only to be recognized
as an achiever and really does not care if the project is a success or failure.
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•The second major performance problem lies in the project–functional interface, where an individual
suddenly finds himself reporting to two bosses, the functional manager and the project manager.
–If the functional manager and the project manager are in agreement about the work to be
accomplished, then performance may not be hampered.
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•Because each project is different, the project management process allows each project to have its
own policies, procedures, rules, and standards, provided they fall within broad company guidelines.
Each project must be recognized as a project by top management so that the project manager has the
delegated authority necessary to enforce the policies, procedures, rules, and standards.

The Staffing Environment
Project management is successful only if the project manager and his team are totally dedicated to
the successful completion of the project!
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•This requires each team member of the project team and office to have a good understanding of the
fundamental project requirements, which include:
–Customer liaison
–Project direction
–Project planning
–Project control
–Project evaluation
–Project reporting

The Staffing Environment
•Ultimately, the person with the greatest influence during the staffing phase is the project
manager. The personal attributes and abilities of project managers will either attract or deter
highly desirable individuals. Basic characteristics include:
–Honesty and integrity
–Understanding of personnel problems
–Understanding of project technology
–Business management competence
–Management principles
–Communications
–Alertness and quickness
–Versatility
–Energy and toughness
–Decision-making ability
–Ability to evaluate risk and uncertainty

The Staffing Environment
•Project managers should have both business management and technical expertise.
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•They must understand the fundamental principles of management, especially those involving the
rapid development of temporary communication channels.
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•Project managers must understand the technical implications of a problem, since they are
ultimately responsible for all decision-making.
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•However, many good technically oriented managers have failed because they have become too involved
with the technical side of the project rather than the management side.
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•Because a project has a relatively short time duration, decision-making must be rapid and
effective.

Selecting the Project Manager
Probably the most difficult decision facing upper-level management is the selection of project
managers.
•The selection process for project managers is not easy. Five basic questions must be considered:
–What are the internal and external sources?
–How do we select?
–How do we provide career development in project management?
–How can we develop project management skills?
–How do we evaluate project management performance?

Selecting the Project Manager
The major responsibilities of the project manager include:
•To produce the end-item with the available resources and within the constraints of time, cost, and
performance/technology
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•To meet contractual profit objectives
•To make all required decisions whether they be for alternatives or termination
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•To act as the customer (external) and upper-level and functional management (internal)
communications focal point
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•To “negotiate” with all functional disciplines for accomplishment of the necessary work packages
within the constraints of time, cost, and performance/technology
•To resolve all conflicts

Selecting the Project Manager
In order for project managers to fulfill their responsibilities successfully, they are constantly
required to demonstrate their skills in interface, resource, and planning and control
management. These implicit responsibilities are shown below:
Interface Management
•Product interfaces - Performance of parts or subsections; Physical connection of parts or
subsections
•Project interfaces
•Customer
•Management (functional and upper-level)
•Change of responsibilities
•Information flow
•Material interfaces (inventory control)

Selecting the Project Manager
These implicit responsibilities are shown below:
Resource Management
•Time (schedule)
•Manpower
•Money
•Facilities
•Equipment
•Material
•Information/technology
Planning and Control Management
•Increased equipment utilization
•Increased performance efficiency
•Reduced risks
•Identification of alternatives to problems
•Identification of alternative resolutions to conflicts

Selecting the Project Manager
Finding the person with the right qualifications is not an easy task because the selection of
project managers is based more on personal characteristics than on the job description.
A broader range of desired personal characteristics:
•Flexibility and adaptability
•Preference for significant initiative and leadership
•Aggressiveness, confidence, persuasiveness, verbal fluency
•Ambition, activity, forcefulness
•Effectiveness as a communicator and integrator
•Broad scope of personal interests
•Poise, enthusiasm, imagination, spontaneity
•Able to balance technical solutions with time, cost, and human factors
•Well organized and disciplined
•A generalist rather than a specialist
•Able and willing to devote most of his time to planning and controlling
•Able to identify problems
•Willing to make decisions
•Able to maintain proper balance in the use of time

Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
Managing complex programs represents a challenge requiring skills in team building, leadership,
conflict resolution, technical expertise, planning, organization, entrepreneurship,
administration, management support, and the allocation of resources.
To get results, the project manager must relate to
•(1) the people to be managed,
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•(2) the task to be done,
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•(3) the tools available,
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•(4) the organizational structure, and
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•(5) the organizational environment, including the customer community.

Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
•With an understanding of the interaction of corporate organization and behavior elements, the
manager can build an environment conducive to the working team’s needs. The internal and external
forces that impinge on the organization of the project must be reconciled to mutual goals.
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Effective program management is directly related to proficiency in these ten skills:
•Team building
•Leadership
•Conflict resolution
•Technical expertise
•Planning
•Organization
•Entrepreneurship
•Administration
•Management support
•Resource allocation

Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
Team-Building Skills
•Team building involves a whole spectrum of management skills required to identify, commit, and
integrate the various task groups from the traditional functional organization into a single
program management system.
Manager must nurture a climate with the following characteristics:
•Team members committed to the program
•Good interpersonal relations and team spirit
•The necessary expertise and resources
•Clearly defined goals and program objectives
•Involved and supportive top management
•Good program leadership
•Open communication among team members and support organizations
•A low degree of detrimental interpersonal and intergroup conflict
Three major considerations are involved in all of the above factors: (1) effective communications,
(2) sincere interest in the professional growth of team members, and (3) commitment to the project.

Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
Leadership Skills
•It involves dealing effectively with managers and supporting personnel across functional lines and
the ability to collect and filter relevant data for decision-making in a dynamic environment.
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An effective management style might be characterized this way:
•Clear project leadership and direction
•Assistance in problem-solving
•Facilitating the integration of new members into the team
•Ability to handle interpersonal conflict
•Facilitating group decisions
•Capability to plan and elicit commitments
•Ability to communicate clearly
•Presentation of the team to higher management
•Ability to balance technical solutions against economic and human factors
The personal traits desirable and supportive of the above skills are:
•Project management experience
•Flexibility and change orientation
•Innovative thinking
•Initiative and enthusiasm
•Charisma and persuasiveness
•Organization and discipline

Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
Conflict Resolution Skills
•Understanding the determinants of conflicts is important to the program manager’s ability to deal
with conflicts effectively.
To successfully resolve conflict and improve overall program performance, program
managers must:
•Understand interaction of the organizational and behavioral elements in order to build an
environment conducive to their team’s motivational needs. This will enhance active participation
and minimize unproductive conflict.
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•Communicate effectively with all organizational levels regarding both project objectives and
decisions. Regularly scheduled status review meetings can be an important communication vehicle.
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•Recognize the determinants of conflict and their timing in the project life cycle. Effective
project planning, contingency planning, securing of commitments, and involving top management can
help to avoid or minimize many conflicts before they impede project performance.

Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
Technical Skills
The program manager rarely has all the technical, administrative, and marketing expertise needed to
direct the program single-handedly. It is essential, however, for the program manager to understand
the technology, the markets, and the environment of the business.
Technical expertise is composed of an understanding of the:
•Technology involved
•Engineering tools and techniques employed
•Specific markets, their customers, and requirements
•Product applications
•Technological trends and evolutions
•Relationship among supporting technologies
•People who are part of the technical community

Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
Organizational Skills
•The program manager must be a social architect; that is, he must understand how the organization
works and how to work with the organization.
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•It requires defining the reporting relationships, responsibilities, lines of control, and
information needs. A good program plan and a task matrix are useful organizational tools. In
addition, the organizational effort is facilitated by clearly defined program objectives, open
communication channels, good program leadership, and senior management support.
Entrepreneurial Skills
•For example, economic considerations affect the organization’s financial performance, but
objectives often are much broader than profits. Customer satisfaction, future growth, cultivation
of related market activities, and minimum organizational disruptions of other programs might be
equally important goals.

Skill Requirements for Project and Program Managers
Administrative Skills
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•The program manager must be experienced in planning, staffing, budgeting, scheduling, and other
control techniques. In dealing with technical personnel, the problem is seldom to make people
understand administrative techniques such as budgeting and scheduling, but to impress on them that
costs and schedules are just as important as elegant technical solutions.
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•Some helpful tools for the manager in the administration of his program include: (1) the meeting,
(2) the report, (3) the review, and (4) budget and schedule controls.
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Resource Allocation Skills
•Functional lines often shield support organizations from direct financial control by the project
office.
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•Once a task has been authorized, it is often impossible to control the personnel assignments,
priorities, and indirect manpower costs. In addition, profit accountability is difficult owing to
the interdependencies of various support departments and the often changing work scope and
contents.

Duties and Job Descriptions
The project manager’s efforts are now heavily oriented toward integration of the function plans
into a total project plan.
•As project management began to grow and mature, the project manager was converted from a technical
manager to a business manager.
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•The primary skills needed to be an effective project manager in the twenty-first century are:
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•Knowledge of the business
•Risk management
•Integration skills

Duties and Job Descriptions
•Project to project, it is not unusual for companies to struggle to provide reasonable job
descriptions of the project manager and associated personnel.
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•Project management responsibilities include the coordination and completion of projects on time
within budget and within scope. Oversee all aspects of projects. Set deadlines, assign
responsibilities and monitor and summarize progress of project. Prepare reports for upper
management regarding status of project.
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•Project managers ensure that a project is completed on time and within budget, that the project's
objectives are met and that everyone else is doing their job properly.
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•Projects are usually separate to usual day-to-day business activities and require a group of
people to work together to achieve a set of specific objectives.
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Duties and Job Descriptions
Typical responsibilities of project manager include:
•agreeing project objectives
•representing the client's or organisation's interests
•providing advice on the management of projects
•organising the various professional people working on a project
•carrying out risk assessment
•making sure that all the aims of the project are met
•making sure the quality standards are met
•using IT or other systems to keep track of people and progress
•recruiting specialists and sub-contractors
•monitoring sub-contractors to ensure guidelines are maintained
•overseeing the accounting, costing and billing
•reporting to the client or senior stakeholders on progress
•evaluating the success of the project against its benchmarking and sharing lessons or best
practice with other organisations or project managers.
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Duties and Job Descriptions
Typical requirements of project manager include:
•Great educational background, preferably in the fields of computer science or engineering for
technical project managers
•Proven working experience as a project administrator in the information technology sector
•Solid technical background, with understanding or hands-on experience in software development and
web technologies
•Excellent client-facing and internal communication skills
•Excellent written and verbal communication skills
•Solid organizational skills including attention to detail and multi-tasking skills
•Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office
•PMP / PRINCE II certification is a plus
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Duties and Job Descriptions
Typical skills for project managers
•Organisational skills
•Analytical skills
•Well developed interpersonal skills
•Numeracy skills
•Commercial awareness
•Communication skills
•Teamworking skills
•Diplomacy
•Ability to motivate people
•Management and leadership skills
•Risk management
•Critical Thinking

RECAP
•With the Core Competencies Checklist companies will be able to determine which project manager has
the best mix of knowledge, experience and personality for a specific project. By being able to
select the right project manager for the project, companies will minimize project failures and
maximize their project's return on investment.
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•Different roles in project management will require different competencies. Since the project
management environment is characterized by change, responsibilities, and hence required knowledge
and skill levels, continuously transform. One of the key competencies is therefore to be flexible
and adaptive in any situation. Although certification does not qualify a project manager by itself,
it does give an indication of the candidate's knowledge of concepts and methodologies.
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•Successful project managers have the ability to demonstrate the unbiased fairness of a judge, the
skills of a diplomat, the authority of a general and the understanding of a parent.