Project Management/PMBOK/Human Resources Management

The most important resource to a project is its people&mdash;the project team. Projects require specific expertise at specific moments in the schedule, depending on the milestones being delivered, or the given phase of the project. An organization can host several strategic projects concurrently over the course of a budget year, which means that its employees can be working on more than one project at a time. Alternatively, an employee may be seconded away from his/her role within an organization to become part of a project team because s/he has a particular expertise. Moreover, projects often require talent and resources that can only be acquired via contract work and third party vendors. Procuring and coordinating these human resources, in tandem with managing the time aspect of the project, is critical to overall its overall success.

Plan Human Resource Management
When Planning Human Resource Management the first thing is to identify all the project roles and responsibilities. Documenting the reporting relationships and the Staffing management plan are key in the planning process.

Project roles are roles taken up by individuals or groups within or outside of the project it self. The Staffing management plan brainstorms ideas for acquiring team members. It figures out training needs and hiring and releasing information. It holds information about safety and the impact the plan has on the project.

Inputs
To properly define responsibilities and project roles we must look at the inputs involved. Understanding the ways that the existing groups will be involved and how the technical disciplines and individuals interact.

organizational inputs a team must determine what organization groups there are for the project, what role and service they provide and how the groups interact with each other allowing them to complete tasks as one unit. Once all the groups are determined. Then we must look at the technical side of things and determine what special technologies may need unique ways of integration such as (New computer software, languages, New Hardware Systems). A team will also have to try and predict any problems that might occur during transition from each life cycle phase that might greatly hinder and slow down the project. Having tried to predict some of the problems will greatly help the team by allowing them to have an understanding of what things might occur so that they can be ready for them if or when they happen. While the team is looking at what problems might occur they should also look at other areas of the project that might need special attention. This should be done so that if something special is needed to be done to complete a task it’s not a surprise to the team and someone with the abilities needed, can be found and ready to help. Finally we must view the interpersonal relationships and determine the preexisting relationships and communications barriers that could exist as well as the relationship, if any, between supplier and client. Then we should ask some Logistics questions: How much distance is involved between individuals and technologies within the project? (For example a server in a different continent while two team members are based in opposing continents.) What kind of transportation may be needed between two parties involved in the project?

In conjunction with these questions about the inputs it is a good idea to have some tangible tools while analyzing all inputs. As experience with project management grows so does certain lessons learned. It is a good idea to stick with things which worked in the past and avoid the things that didn't. By forming Templates and Checklists these things can be easily done and therefore reduce project time greatly. With Templates documentation can be completed much faster and allow for more uniform work. With Checklists projects can keep on schedule, they allow everything to be done and not forgotten allowing the project train to stay on its tracks.

Tools
Organization Charts and Position Descriptions There are a few different ways to record roles and responsibilities of team members. There are three different ways to document information; hierarchical, matrix, and text-oriented. However the methods are used, the main idea is to make sure each team member knows their roles and responsibilities.

Techniques
Necessary Conditions To Consider
 * Support
 * Commitment
 * Participation

Templates

All projects are different but the majority of projects have similarities. The organizational planning time will move faster if similarities between projects are implemented or using role and responsibility definitions.

Creating a template for the entire project to make sure staff don’t start drifting out of scope can also be a good idea. This template (depending on your project) most likely will not be functioning, more or less just a visual representation of the work to be completed. Once a visual representation is set up people will know in what order tasks need to complete.

 Project Roster 

Proper planning will have you determining the required skills to place employees in the proper areas to work most efficiently. This could include hiring new staff or transferring employees from certain sections. A great idea on determining placement for employees is creating a project Roster. A roster will help you outline the roles and responsibilities for each staff member, by the projects scope, and work to be completed. In developing the roster, eventually it will identify how many members should be designated to which section, or where to fill in the gaps so to speak.

 Project Support Team 

Setting up a project support team is something to consider. It does require additional funding and staff; however stalls or problems in the project may be completed faster if veteran project managers or IT professionals are on call.

Hiring a Consultant

Hiring a consultant could be a good way for you to get the ball rolling for a major project. Some one with experience motivating people and following through with large scale projects would definitely be an asset to the work at hand.

Human Resource Practices

There are many policies, guidelines, or procedures that a business or organization might have that can greatly speed up organizational planning. A project management team can use these to better understand the roles of specific management or how other processes in the organization work.

Organizational Theory

Needs to be understood by all team members so that they can quickly respond to the requirements of a project by having the general knowledge of the way teams, departments and people perform.

Costs

Keeping track of costs and budgeting can be a small problem. A Good option is to make an excel spread sheet or some other type of basic budget to abide by for the initial process of the project. This way other spending can be outlined to speed up the process or set funding where it would be better used.

Acquire Project Team
The Acquire Project Team process involves attaining and assigning human resources to the project to make the project successful.

If a project manager can’t obtain the human resources required, with the right skills, at the right time, this will greatly affect the project success.

Develop Project Team
The Develop Project Team process improves project performance by developing the competencies of the individual team members and making it grow into an effective, functioning, and coordinated group.

It keeps the team motivated to move toward the project goal.

Manage Project Team
Manage Project Team process monitors team and individual performance, resolves conflicts, and optimize team performance to ensure that people perform according to the plan.

Compared to the other process groups of project management execution, the human resource management is recognized as the most unpredictable. For example, team members may report directly to a functional manager, conflict may arise, or people may leave the project. Thus, a project manager must address all these factors that could delay or damage the project and challenge the team to a superior performance.

Summary
All aspects of staff working and their potential in a specific project section have to be considered to have a good start in a project. If required people can be moved but then Project Managers have to re-evaluate the situation and then bring the transferred members up to speed, which can be lengthy and non cost-effective. Keep in mind the mentioned aspects above when creating a project, they will definitely save time and money when working with large scale projects.