What is a project team?
A small number of people with complementary skills committed to a common purpose, performance, goals and approach, directly or indirectly accountable to the project manager.
List the four human resource management processes.
Planning human resource management; acquiring the project team; developing the project team; managing the project team.
What does planning human resource management do, and what is its output?
Identifies and documents project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships. Output: human resource plan.
Describe acquiring and developing the project team.
Acquiring: getting the needed personnel assigned to and working on the project. Developing: building individual and group skills to enhance project performance.
What does the human resource plan include?
Project organizational chart; responsibility assignment matrixes; a staffing management plan; resource histograms.
What is the difference between a WBS and an OBS?
WBS: defines the total scope (work) of the project. OBS: shows which organizational units are responsible for which work items.
What is a responsibility assignment matrix (RAM)?
A matrix that maps the work in the WBS to the people responsible for performing it as described on the OBS.
In a RAM for a very large project, what do R and P mean?
R: responsible organizational unit (execution and management of cost, schedule and performance of the WBS segment). P: performing organizational unit (performs the task).
What does RACI stand for, and when is it used?
Responsibility (who does it), Accountability (who signs off), Consultation (who has needed information), Informed (who must be notified). Used to assign individuals to WBS activities in smaller projects.
What is a staffing management plan?
A plan describing when and how people will be added to and taken off the team: types of people, number per month, and how they are acquired, trained, rewarded, reassigned.
What is a resource histogram?
A column chart that shows the number of resources assigned to a project over time.
What are the three topics related to acquiring the project team?
Resource assignment, resource loading, resource leveling.
Give two approaches to hiring and retaining IT staff.
Offer existing employees incentives for helping recruit and retain personnel; provide benefits based on personnel need (e.g. four-day weeks, working from home).
Define resource loading and overallocation.
Resource loading: the amount of individual resources a schedule requires during specific periods. Overallocation: not enough resources available for the assigned work in a period.
What is resource leveling and its main purpose?
A technique for resolving resource conflicts by delaying tasks; its main purpose is a smoother distribution of resource usage.
What is the main goal of team development, and what are its tools?
To help people work together more effectively to improve project performance. Tools: training, team-building activities, reward and recognition systems.
What tools are used for managing the project team?
Observation and conversation; project performance appraisals; interpersonal skills; conflict management.
Compare relationship conflict and task conflict.
Relationship (personal) conflict can be detrimental (sources: roles, communications failure, stakeholder relationships, rewards). Task (ideas) conflict can encourage alternatives and better-justified decisions (sources: resources, technical approach, schedule, priorities).
List the six steps of the conflict resolution process.
Understand the conflict; agree on resolution goals; identify causes; identify potential solutions; pick the desired solution; implement it.
Name the five conflict resolution styles.
Forcing/competing; withdrawing/avoiding; smoothing/accommodating; compromising; collaborating/problem solving.
When is compromising appropriate?
Only when an agreement is unlikely, both sides have equal power, and each is willing to get part of what they want without taking more time.
When is smoothing/accommodating appropriate?
Only when we know we are wrong, it is more important to the other party, or we are after something bigger later.