Project Human Resource Management
Study Notes
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Points to Note
Please read Chapter 9 from PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition (pages 215-242).
The study notes explain topics that are important for PMP exam preparation, and you can expect
several questions from these topics.
It is very important to understand all the concepts discussed in this chapter, so please pay close
attention to all the terms used.
Try to relate the concepts to real life examples.
After reading the study notes, please answer the chapter test questions in this knowledge area.
The chapter questions improve your understanding of the concepts discussed in the study notes.
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What is Project Human Resource
Management?
Processes that help project managers and other managers to organize, and manage all the
project stakeholders’ expectations.
Processes that explain how to make the most effective use of the people involved with the
project, including all stakeholders.
Major Human Resource Management processes are:
Develop Human Resource Plan
Acquire Project Team
Develop Project Team
Manage Project Team
Please refer to figure 9-1, on page 217, in PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition, which provides
an overview of the processes in Project Human Resource Management.
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Develop Human Resource Plan
Identifies and documents roles, responsibilities, required skills, and reporting
relationships and creates staffing management plan. The roles can be assigned to persons
or to groups, who could be part of the organization performing the project or external to
it.
.
Identifies the training needs, strategies for team building, programs to recognize and
reward, and issues regarding safety and compliance.
Is planned in the early stages in most projects.
Is closely linked with Communications Planning, since the performing organization’s
structure has a major influence on the project’s human resource requirements.
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Human Resource Plan
Output of Develop Human Resource Plan
Part of the Project Management Plan
Provides guidance on how we should define, staff, manage, control, and finally release
project human resources
Should definitely include:
• Role and responsibility assignments:
o Project roles and responsibilities are closely linked to the Define Scope
process.
o Roles (who does what), authority (who decides what), responsibility (work
expected to be performed), and competency (skill and capacity needed to
complete the activities in the project) are defined, and role clarity is
documented for the project’s human resources.
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Human Resource Plan (continued)
– Staffing management plan:
Describes when and how human resource requirements are met
Can be formal/informal, highly detailed/broadly framed depending on the needs of the
project
Contains information on staff acquisition, resource calendars, staff release plan, training
needs, recognition and rewards, compliance, and safety
Project organization chart:
Is a graphical display of project team members and their reporting relationships
Can be formal/informal, highly detailed/broadly framed depending on the need of the
project
For details, please refer to PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition, page 222-223
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Acquire Project Team
In this process, human resource availability is confirmed, and the team necessary to complete
the project is acquired.
Points the project manager/project management team has to consider while acquiring the
project team:
• Effectively negotiate and influence those who can provide required human
resources
• Failure to acquire the required human resources could affect the success of the
project and could even result in project cancellation
• Alternative resources, even if less competent, should be assigned if, for any reason,
the required human resources are not available. By so doing, no
regulatory/legal/mandatory, or any other criteria should be violated
The tools and techniques used for this process are:
Pre-assignment
Negotiation
Acquisition
Virtual teams
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Acquire Project Team (continued)
The outputs for the Acquire Project Team process are:
Project Staff Assignments: The project staff members are assigned, and the
assignments are documented
Resource Calendars: They document the time periods each member works on the
project
Project Management Plan Updates: The project management plan should be updated
with human resource plan after completion of the above two sub-processes
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Develop Project Team
Process that improves the competencies, interactions among the team members, and the
overall team environment to enhance project performance
Objectives of developing a project team include:
Enhance the skills and knowledge of team members
Enhance a feeling of trust and agreement among team members
Enhance cohesiveness among team members to improve both individual and team
productivity
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Tools And Techniques For Develop
Project Team
Interpersonal Skills
Training
Team Building Activities
Ground Rules
Co-location
Recognition and Rewards
For more details, please refer to PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition, pages 232-234.
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Manage Project Team
Process to track team member performance, provide feedback, resolve issues, and manage
changes to optimize project performance.
Project team management achieves the following objectives:
Change results are submitted
Human resource plan is updated
Issues are resolved
Inputs for performance appraisals are provided
Lessons learned document is added to the organization’s database
The project management team should:
Observe team behavior
Manage conflict
Resolve issues
Appraise team members’ performance
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Tools and Techniques for
Manage Project Team
Observation and Conversation
Project performance Appraisals
Conflict Management
Issue Log
Interpersonal skills
For more details, please refer to PMBOK® Guide Fourth Edition, pages 238-241
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Source: Project Management - A Systems Approach To Planning, Scheduling, And Controlling (pages
195-196)
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Herzberg's Theory of Motivators and
Hygiene Factors
Factors such as company policy, supervision, interpersonal relations, working conditions,
and salary are the hygiene factors. The absence of the hygiene factors can create job
dissatisfaction, but their presence does not guarantee motivation or satisfaction.
Achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, and advancement are
motivators
(satisfiers). They are associated with long-term positive effects in job performance.
The hygiene
factors (dissatisfiers) consistently produce only short-term changes in job attitudes and
performance.
The satisfiers relate to what a person does, while the dissatisfiers relate to the situation
in which
the person does what he or she does.
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Handling Conflicts
Blake and Mouton have delineated five modes for handling conflicts:
Withdrawal: Retreat or withdraw from a potential disagreement
Smoothing: De-emphasize or avoid areas of differences and emphasize areas of
agreement
Compromising: Bargain and search for solutions that bring some degree of
satisfaction to the parties in a dispute
Forcing: Exert one’s viewpoint at the potential expense of another—characterized by
competitiveness and a win-lose situation
Confrontation: Handling the conflict directly, which involves a problem solving
approach whereby affected parties work through their disagreements.
Source: Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, pages 304,
305, and 306
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Conflict Intensity
Most of the conflicts occur due to the following issues (in order of decreasing intensity)
Highest Intensity
Schedules
Priorities
Manpower
Technical
Procedures
Personality
Costs
Lowest Intensity
Source: Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, page 302
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Management/Leadership Styles
Some common management/leadership styles are:
Autocratic: Manager makes decisions himself or herself- allows subordinates little
involvement and discussion before a decision is made
Laissez faire: Manager does not interfere with subordinates – so subordinates are
largely unsupervised, which may lead to anarchy
Democratic: Manager allows subordinates to discuss issues and reach decisions,
although he or she will guide and advise
Discussing: There is two-way communication and discussion between manager and
subordinates
Directing: Managers tell people what tasks will be performed and when and how they
should be done
Delegating: Manager delegates to get consensus on what has been achieved and
what needs to be done
Coaching: Manager issues instructions to others
Facilitating: Manager coordinates inputs from several sources before making a
decision
Participatory
Supportive
Task oriented
Team-based
Assertive
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Types of Roles People Play in a Project
Destructive Roles Supportive Roles
Aggressor Information Seekers
Dominator Information Givers
Devil’s Advocate Encouragers
Topic Jumper Clarifiers
Recognition Seeker Harmonizers
Withdrawer Consensus Takers
Blocker Gate Keepers
Initiators
Reference: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (pages 181-182)
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Delegation
A method and style of management by which the project manager distributes
responsibility for proper performance of a task to a team member working on the project.
Project manager, even after delegating responsibility to a team member, still retains the
ultimate responsibility for the end results.
Project manager also agree to be held accountable for the decision to delegate.
Involves:
• Giving responsibility (obligation to perform the assigned tasks)
• Gaining acceptance (the team member's agreement to be responsible)
• Granting authority (the right and power to accomplish the tasks)
• Expecting reliability (assurance of best and consistent effort)
• Requiring accountability (accepting responsibility for success or failure).
Please note: The concept and process of delegation can be illustrated by the "4D's" model
(Drop, Delay, Delegate, and Do).
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Delegation (continued…)
Project managers should delegate:
• Routine tasks
• Tasks that require technical expertise
• What someone else can do better
• Projects involving the critical, visible issues of quality, quantity, cost, and timeliness
to self-managed project teams or self-directed teams.
Project managers should not fully delegate:
• Long range planning (although they should involve others)
• Selection, monitoring, motivation, evaluation (performance appraisal) and rewarding
of key team players
• Personal matters
Practical method for effective delegation:
• There are eight essential ingredients of effective delegation, which can be
represented by the acronym: 2 x ETFP, which stands for Easy To Follow Procedures.
Effective and successful delegation involves four steps, each having two major
ingredients.
o E ⇒ Entrust and Enlist
o T ⇒ Teach and Touch
o F ⇒ Familiarize and Follow up
o P ⇒ Praise (the Process) and Participate (in Feedback)
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Delegation (continued…)
The project manager must assign responsibility, grant appropriate authority, expect
reliability, and require accountability from the delegatees.
Authority confers the right to impose some degree of obedience.
Responsibility confers the obligation on the delegatee to act with or without detailed
guidance or specific authorization.
Reliability encompasses two main factors—track record and quality of work.
Accountability in the project context is the extent to which individuals are answerable and
must provide visible evidence of their actions.
Reference: Organizing Projects for Success (Human Aspects of Project Management) by Vijay
Verma. Chapter 4: Important Issues in Project Organizational Design
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Delegation (continued…)
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