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1. a. Explain relevance of project Management in HRM.

A project manager is responsible for managing various tasks, activities and processes to ensure that the project is delivered in the defined time. He is responsible for defining the goals and objectives of the project and ensures that the resources that are required for the smooth working of the project are available. He also monitors and controls the project process to keep track of the status of the work. This ensures that the progress, schedule, procedures and the cost of the project are well monitored. Apart from monitoring and controlling the implementation and execution of the project, a project manager also plays a vital role in Human Resources and communications management such as: Assists in effective communications among the team members, Consistency in methodology, Consistency in process, documentation, procedure, Meet deadlines and commitments Facilitate formal metrics and reporting to upper management/project sponsors. Entrusted with the authority and accountability necessary to get the job done. Able to cope with conflicting scope, quality, schedule, risk, and other requirements. Single point of integration to meet customers needs. Held accountable for project failure. Maintain control over the project by measuring performance and correcting as necessary.
b. What are the five stages of team building?

Traditionally, a team goes through five stages of development. Each stage of team development presents its own special challenges to a group of people striving to work together successfully by forming a cohesive team. The team and the organization can take specific actions at each stage of team development to support the teams success in accomplishing the team mission. At each stage, the behavior of the leader must be adapted to the changing and developing needs of the group. The model used was first developed by Dr. Bruce Tuckman who published his four stages of team development: the Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing model, in 1965. Dr. Tuckman seems to have added a fifth stage, Adjourning, during the 1970s.

Stages of Team Development Model

Forming: a group of people come together to accomplish a shared purpose. Storming: Disagreement about mission, vision, and approaches combined with the fact that team members are getting to know each other can cause strained relationships and conflict. Norming: The team has consciously or unconsciously formed working relationships that are enabling progress on the teams objectives.

Performing: Relationships, team processes, and the teams effectiveness in working on its objectives are synching to bring about a successfully functioning team. Transforming: The team is performing so well that members believe it is the most successful team they have experienced; or Ending: The team has completed its mission or purpose and it is time for team members to pursue other goals or projects.

Not every team moves through these stages in order and various activities such as adding a new team member can send the team back to earlier stages. The length of time necessary for progressing through these stages depends on the experience of the members, the support the team receives and the knowledge and skill of the team members. These are the twelve specific factors that must be present for a team to succeed.

2. List and explain a few Business related competencies of a Project Manager

Competency Categories and Performance Criteria

Business Environment
These are competencies that a project manager needs to understand in order to operate in the environment effectively. These competencies should be considered in tandem with the management and technical competencies listed below.
Competency Category Business Literacy Performance Criteria Ability to understand the line of business, to take the business vision and translate it into the project vision.

Corporate Procedures and Ability to understand and apply established policies and procedures, corporate tools and technical Tools requirements to the project. Corporate Environment and Ability to recognize and understand the corporate environment and cultural impacts on our Culture projects from both internal and external sources. Organizational Structure Ability to understand and work within the corporate organization and team structure.

Management
These are the "soft skills" or people-oriented competencies that would be required of any manager, but which are especially important for project managers dealing with a project team (superiors, staff and consultants) and external stakeholders (client, other third parties, media outlets and regulators)
Competency Category Communications Performance Criteria Ability to produce clear status reports (clear writing and verbal skills), communicate tactfully and candidly, simplify jargon, make clients aware of all issues, and be an excellent listener. Ability to manage and implement solutions related to corporate environment impacts.

Corporate

Environment External Issue Management Ability to identify, analyze and prioritize issues external to the project and develop mitigation plans. Ability to understand how decisions affect the bottom line; know about general financial and accounting principles and practices that affect operations; and know about the links between operations and the department's financial performance, which is essential to create value for all the organization's stakeholders. Ability to motivate project members; set achievable objectives; maintain a positive outlook; take responsibility; make decisions; and provide constructive feedback. Ability to keep abreast of technological change; learn from and reflect on the past; ensure effective training and development of team members; and find the most expedient way to develop the new skills and knowledge required to undertake new projects. Ability to undertake continual adjustments with stakeholders in a persuasive manner, and to keep the project on course by using positive win/win negotiations. Ability to find a place for everything so that needed tools, resources and data are easily accessible; and the ability to create and maintain a clear team structure.

Financial Acumen

Leadership Learning and Knowledge Management Negotiation

Organization

Problem Solving and Ability to analyze and define a problem, evaluate alternatives, find a solution; and understand how and Decision Making when to make a choice. Relationship Management Ability to consult and provide advice; facilitate discussion and resolve conflict; develop relationships with key project stakeholders; recognize and deal with other cultures; establish trust, credibility and respect, and to be willing to give more than one will receive. Ability to analyze the future impact of decisions by taking a big-picture approach, and to strategically position the project within the business to relate to short- and long-term objectives. Ability to assemble the team with the right mix of skills, then 'create' the team; understand and know how to share information; coach members; delegate responsibility; and promote support and interaction. Ability to manage competing priorities effectively, to be resourceful and to use time as a resource.

Strategic Thinking

Team Building

Time Management

Technical
Traditionally, real property projects require the following main technical competencies for which the project manager will be held accountable. A project charter is required for every project and should incorporate some or all of these competencies
Competency Category Performance Criteria

Budget Planning

Understand and know how to perform cost/benefit analyses; use sound rationale; ensure that all factors are included; maintain focus on budget; and consult with client and management if estimated final costs are close to or above budget. Understand who the client is and what the client's needs are; be able to provide realistic expectations and to reach agreement with the client from the project's outset. Understand and know how to use contract project tools, how to create contract with clear and agreed-upon terms and conditions, and how to administer contracts.

Client Focus

Contract Management

Understand and know how to comply with all regulations; implement a positive attitude toward Environmental, Health and health and safety in the design and execution of the project; ensure safe deliverables and Safety Management incorporate sustainable development practices. Commissioning Management Information Management Understand how to coordinate, implement, test and deliver a project in order to produce an effective working system (or a successful product). Ability to manage project documentation (technical and management) and data (or information) requirements.

Ability to control and implement a process of change when needed; document and track issues; Issues/Change/ monitor assumptions and make decisions in a timely manner; understand and use sound, proven Assumptions Management problem-solving techniques. Risk Management Understand how to assess, document and manage internal and external project risks; and develop contingencies and mitigation plans. Understand and know how to use standard project management tools and techniques to schedule, plan, track and correct project performance; and know how to make effective use of technical and management methodologies. Understand how to obtain and ensure quality results (or products) for total client satisfaction, be able to take corrective actions and effectively perform verification of project standards. Understand how to use standard project management tools and techniques related to cost planning and estimating. Ability to identify and make optimal use of resources. Ability to organize the work in a logical way so that it is executed effectively, and to manage the schedule. Ability to establish a clear scope, define the extent of the project; - what's in, what's out - and set up and understand approval procedures.

Project Controls and Process Management

Quality Management

Cost Management Resource Management Scheduling Management

Scope Definition

3. Why is authority important for a Project Manager? What are the areas in which he can exercise authority?

Identify the levels of authority

Defining the levels of authority, roles and responsibilities is essential for good project control. This will apply to the key groups and individuals that influence the project. For example:

Project management team Management committees: o Project Board (perhaps referred as a Steering Committee) o Programme management Budgetary approval (this is likely to be the Project Board) Consultants

Within the Project Board there will be positions such as the Senior User [see PRINCE2 the folder 'Project Management Team Roles' for full descriptions in the product package] and the Senior Supplier [see PRINCE2 the folder 'Project Management Team Roles' for full descriptions in the product package].

Identify individual roles

For each of the major positions you will have to identify the personnel that will fill these.

Identify responsibilities
For each role identified there must be clarity on the exact nature of their responsibilities and the level of such responsibilities. What approvals can be given without the need to go to the next level of management? Identifying individual roles and responsibilities will help clarify duties and avoid any ambiguity. Dont forget to consider people outside of the immediate project management team, for example, consultants.

4. What strategies would a leader employ in order to make his project successful?

In an earlier, popular article, I gave you a strategic planning framework, samples, and examples for creating your organizations mission statement, vision statement, values, and goals. Want to know more about strategic planning implementation now that you have created your strategic planning framework? Strategic planning implementation is at the heart of how to make change of any kind happen in your organization. Start by answering why your organization might want to embark on a strategic planning process and implementation. Want to be one of the organizations, in which employees understand the mission and goals? They enjoy a 29 percent greater return than other firms. This seems like a good reason to start strategic planning implementation to me. How about you?

Keys to Strategic Planning Implementation Success

These are the keys to effective strategic planning implementation for your business.

Full and active executive support,

Effective communication, Employee involvement, Thorough organizational planning and competitive analysis, and Widespread perceived need for the strategic planning.

If you are implementing your strategic planning in an organizational environment that is already employee-oriented, with a high level of trust, you start the strategic planning implementation with a huge plus. An additional plus is an organization that already thinks strategically. Unfortunately, the implementation of strategic planning most frequently occurs as an organization moves from being traditionally reactionary to strategic. So, often, learning to think strategically is part of the strategic planning implementation learning curve.

Full and Active Executive Support for Successful Strategic Planning

Successful strategic planning implementation requires a large commitment from executives and senior managers, whether the strategic planning is occurring in a department or in a complete organization. Executives must lead, support, follow-up, and live the results of the strategic planning implementation process. Or, the strategic planning implementation process will fail. Its as simple as that. Without the full commitment of the organizations senior executives, dont even start strategic planning. Participants will feel fooled and misled. A vision statement and a mission statement, along with this years goals, filed, unimplemented in a cabinet or computer, is a serious source of negativity and poor employee morale. Senior leaders can do the following to create a successful strategic planning implementation process.

Establish a clear vision for the strategic planning implementation process. Paint a picture of where the organization will end up and the anticipated outcomes. Make certain the picture is one of reality and not what people wish would occur. Make sure key employees know why the organization is changing.

Appoint an executive champion or leader who owns the strategic planning implementation process and makes certain other senior managers, as well as other appropriate people in the organization, are involved.

5. What are the important competencies required for managing contracts in projects?

Project Management Competencies

Competency Area PM 1.0: Project Conceptualization
Development of a concept, overall plan, and proposal for a successful NASA project. Includes preliminary definition of: program/project plan content; acquisition strategy and plans; risk management plan; development of a realistic cost estimate and a sound rationale for consistency with the NASA vision, strategies, and objectives. PM 1.1 Project Proposal PM 1.2 Requirements Development and Management PM 1.3 Acquisition Management

PM 1.4 Project Planning PM 1.5 Cost Estimating PM 1.6 Risk Management PM 1.7 Earned Value Management (EVM)

Competency Area PM 2.0: Resource Management

Overall planning, allocation, and management of program/project resources. Includes advocacy; budget and operating plan development and management; allocation of financial, facility and other resources; tracking and control of contractor performance using Earned Value Management or comparable approaches. PM 2.1 Budget and Full Cost Management PM 2.2 Capital Management

Competency Area PM 3.0: Project Implementation

The overall process of project initiation and implementation, including delegation of systems engineering responsibilities to the technical team (see SE competencies), penetration and insight of all contractor activities, evaluation of contractor performance, control of contract changes, and determination, and approval of contract award fees throughout the design, fabrication, assembly, integration, verification, validation, transition, and operational phases of the project lifecycle. PM 3.1 Systems Engineering PM 3.2 Contract Management

Competency Area PM 4.0: Project Closeout

Overall planning and management of project closeout activities, based on assessment of project completion, political and other pertinent factors and stakeholder agreements. PM 4.1 Stakeholder Management PM 4.2 Technology Transfer and Commercialization)

Competency Area PM 5.0: Program Control and Evaluation

Process for controlling the final outcome of the program / project including tracking the performance of all significant contractors, vendors, and other involved entities. Requires penetration/insight of contractors' status and performance, allocation of resources, management of mitigation efforts, exercise of de-scope options when required and leading workaround options. Also includes management of the continuum of internal and external project reviews. PM 5.1 Tracking/Trending of Project Performance PM 5.2 Project Control PM 5.3 Project Review and Evaluation

6. How does training enhance the competencies of the project team members?

The concept of competency as a factor in recruitment, selection, hiring and employee performance evaluation has become very popular not only among HR practitioners but to the management echelons as well. Yet, in the more than three decades since it became a buzzword, still many are really unfamiliar with the details of the concept. More so with its appropriate application and utility.

For managers, competencies are vital if they want better performance in their employees. Whether during recruitment and selection phases or while already on board, competencies should be identified and studied. It should always be borne in mind that the competencies required of each job position differ from one another. In the job analysis and writing of job descriptions, quick guides can make the task easier. The following factors should be considered in determining the appropriate competencies: 1. 2. 3. 4. Level of Decision-Making, Responsibilities and Authorities. Level of Internal Personnel Inter-Action. Level of Customer Contact and Inter-Action. Level of Physical and Aptitudinal Skills and Knowledge.

Many studies have been undertaken on the subject of job competency for managerial and supervisory positions, and they are one in categorising and lumping them into: 1. 2. 3. 4. Administrative Competencies; Communication Competencies; Supervisory Competencies, and; Cognitive Competencies.

These competencies were found to be the most important or vital for managerial and supervisory effectiveness. For the rank and file employees, the level of physical and aptitudinal competencies form the larger part in consideration. This is due to the lack or absence of decision making tasks that involve significant physical and manpower resources of the company. In many cases, their jobs entail routines, clerical and manual. Common to all jobs in the rank and file category are competencies that enhance inter-personal relationship, physical skills, and job knowledge. Administrative Competencies which involves "management of the job" and this includes more specifically: 1. Management of Time and Priority Setting. 2. Goals and Standards Setting. 3. Work Planning and Scheduling. Communication Competencies that comprise of: 1. Listening and Organising. 2. Clarity of Communication. 3. Getting Objective Information. Supervisory or Building Teams Competencies that encompasses: 1. Training, Mentoring and Delegating. 2. Evaluating Employees and Performance. 3. Advising and Disciplining. And, Cognitive Competencies which involve: 1. Problem Identification and Solution. 2. Assessing Risks and Decision-Making. 3. Thinking Clearly and Analytically.

1. Management of Time and Priority Setting

Cutting across all position levels, time management is considered to be a required competency that must be possessed by everybody. It is the ability to manage both one's time as well as others'. It includes self-discipline, controlling interruptions by moulding the behaviour of others who have varying priorities, and being time-effective and timeefficient.

2. Goals and Standards Setting

Setting goals and standards are usually competencies that are required of managerial and supervisory positions. It is about the ability to determine activities and projects toward measurable goals and standards, setting these in collaboration with others so as to arrive at a clear understanding and elicit commitment.

3. Work Planning and Scheduling

Like time management, this competency must be possessed by managerial and supervisory employees and to those that are engaged in production. It is about controlling manpower assignments and processes by using the major tools and techniques of management. This includes the following skills: analysing complex tasks and breaking them into manageable units, selecting and managing resources appropriate to the tasks, using systems and techniques to plan and schedule the work, and setting checkpoints and controls for monitoring progress.

4. Listening and Organising

Listening and organising are communication competencies that deal with relating to people in the organisation. It is about the ability to understand, organise, and analyse what one is hearing in order to decide what to think and do in response to a message. These competencies are appropriate for employees who deal with customers and those who work as a team, either as a leader or a member. Specifically, they include skills like identifying and testing inferences and assumptions, overcoming barriers to effective listening, summarising and reorganising a message for recall, and withholding judgment that can bias responses to a message.

5. Clarity of Communication
Giving clear information is a competency that should be required of managerial and supervisory employees. Whether verbally or in written forms, the messages conveyed to audiences (whether internal staff or customers) should be clear and concise and should attain the objectives. The skills would consist of a) overcoming physical, psychological, and semantic barriers in interactions with others; b) keeping on target and avoiding digressions; c) using persuasion effectively; and d) maintaining a climate of mutual benefit and trust.

6. Getting Objective Information

For positions involving substantial people management, getting objective information is a critical competency requirement in order to ensure fairness. This competency is about the ability to use questions, probes, and interviewing techniques to obtain unbiased information and to interpret it appropriately. It considers such skills as: using directive, non-directive, projective and reflecting questions effectively, employing the funnel technique of probing, using probing methods to elicit additional information, recognising latent and underlying meanings, confirming understanding and attaining agreement.

7. Training, Mentoring and Delegating

These competencies should be required of supervisors and managers as well. They involve the ability to develop people under them to attain higher levels of excellence. The skills could consist of coaching, advising, transferring of knowledge and skills, and teaching and pinpointing employees where tasks can be transferred with trust and confidence.

8. Evaluating Employees and Performance

The ability to undertake a constructive performance evaluation involving joint assessment of past performance, agreement on future expectations are managerial and supervisory competencies. The skills would consist of ability to develop parameters of evaluation, benchmarking and face to face confrontation with the employees being evaluated without any bias and hesitation.

9. Advising and Disciplining

The ability to advise and counsel as well impose discipline in a positive manner are competencies required of managerial and supervisory positions that handle large number of employees. This is to restore, within the acceptable range of standards, the employees' performance while maintaining respect and trust. It also involves the ability to impose penalties and sanctions with firmness and resolve in appropriate cases.

10. Problem Identification and Solution

Problem identification and arriving at solutions cut across organisational functions and job positions. It is about the ability to identify barriers that prevent achieving goals and standards. It also involves the application of systematic sets of procedures to eliminate and reduce the problem origins and causes. It requires skills like distinguishing between problems, symptoms and indicators, inputs and outcomes, gathering and assessing evidence relating to causes, and plotting a decision matrix and eventually choosing and recommending the best options. This competency should be required to positions that engage in evaluation, whether in managerial, supervisory, or technical job levels.

11. Assessing Risks and Decision-Making

Assessing risks and decision-making are competencies required of higher managerial positions where decision-making can involve commitment of company resources and processes that could have company-wide implications. Like problem identification and solution competencies, assessing risks and decision-making involve the ability to construct a decision matrix that aids to identify and evaluate alternatives and options, identify limits, desirables, and risks to be considered, assign weights to each option and choose the best option to achieve the desired goals and standards.

12. Thinking Clearly and Analytically

The ability to apply clear and logical thinking is a competency required for both supervisory and managerial positions. The competencies include skills as determining valid premises arriving at logical conclusions from them, separating fact from hearsay, unwarranted assumption and false inferences, applying inductive and deductive logic appropriately, culling of logical fallacies, invalid premises and conclusions based on insufficient information. As a basic process in determining competencies during job analysis, writing of job specifications and developing performance assessment instruments, one can easily be guided by plotting jobs against the 12 major competencies previously mentioned. Choosing which competencies and the mix should follow, with the most important competency taking precedence over the others. The degree and level of competencies that will be required will vary according to scope of responsibilities, authorities, people involvement, and decision-making powers. Putting them in a matrix could provide a visual guide that would make the tasks easier and convenient.