PROJECT REPORT ON

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

UNDER SUPERVISION OF:

SUBMITTED BY
NAME ENROLLMENT NO : :

STUDY CENTER CODE :

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree of Master of Business Administration (Project Management)

2011

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Under Supervision of

Submitted By:
Name Programme Enrolment No. Study Centre Code : : : : MBA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
With Candor and Pleasure I take opportunity to express my sincere thanks and obligation to my esteemed guide ... It is because of his able and mature guidance and co-operation without which it would not have been possible for me to complete my project. It is my pleasant duty to thank all the staff member of the computer center who never hesitated me from time during the project. Finally, I gratefully acknowledge the support, encouragement & patience of my family, and as always, nothing in my life would be possible without God, Thank You!

(STUDENT NAME)

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the project titled Knowledge Management in Project is an original work of the Student and is being submitted in partial fulfillment for the award of the Masters Degree in Business Administration of . This report has not been submitted earlier either to this University or to any other University/Institution for the fulfillment of the requirement of a course of study.

Signature of Student
.

Signature of Supervisor

DECLARATION

I hereby declare that the project KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT prepares for submitted as a partial fulfillment of MBA programme is my original work and it has not been prepared as the basis of any reward.

(STUDENT NAME)

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

ABSTRACT
Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice. Knowledge Management efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organization. KM efforts overlap with organizational learning, and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENT

TOPIC

PAGE NO.

1. Introduction ...9 2. Review of literature..64 3. Objective of the Study......83 4. Research Methodology.....85 5. Data Analysis and Findings....88 6. Conclusion..102 7. Bibliography ..106 8. Questionnaire......112

CHAPTER- 1

INTROUDCTION

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION
Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of strategies and practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute, and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organizational processes or practice. An established discipline since 1991 (see Nonaka 1991), KM includes courses taught in the fields of business administration, information systems, management, and library and information sciences (Alavi & Leidner 1999). More recently, other fields have started contributing to KM research; these include information and media, computer science, public health, and public policy. Many large companies and non-profit organizations have resources dedicated to internal KM efforts, often as a part of their 'business strategy', 'information technology', or 'human resource management' departments (Addicott, McGivern & Ferlie 2006). Several consulting companies also exist that provide strategy and advice regarding KM to these organizations. Knowledge Management efforts typically focus on organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, integration and continuous improvement of the organization. KM efforts overlap with organizational learning, and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. Different frameworks for distinguishing between knowledge exist. One proposed framework for categorizing the dimensions of knowledge distinguishes between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge

represents internalized knowledge that an individual may not be consciously aware of, such as how he or she accomplishes particular tasks. At the opposite end of the spectrum, explicit knowledge represents knowledge that the individual holds consciously in mental focus, in a form that can easily be communicated to others.[9] (Alavi & Leidner 2001). Similarly, Hayes and Walsham (2003) describe content and relational perspectives of knowledge and knowledge management as two fundamentally different epistemological perspectives. The content perspective suggest that knowledge is easily stored because it may be codified, while the relational perspective recognizes the contextual and relational aspects of knowledge which can make knowledge difficult to share outside of the specific location where the knowledge is developed[10].

The Knowledge Spiral as described by Nonaka & Takeuchi. Early research suggested that a successful KM effort needs to convert internalized tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in order to share it, but the same effort must also permit individuals to internalize and make personally meaningful any codified knowledge retrieved from the KM effort. Subsequent research into KM suggested that a distinction between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge represented an oversimplification and that the notion of explicit knowledge is self-contradictory. Specifically, for knowledge to be made explicit, it must be translated into information (i.e., symbols outside of our heads) (Serenko & Bontis 2004). Later on, Ikujiro Nonaka proposed a model

(SECI for Socialization, Externalization, Combination, Internalization) which considers a spiraling knowledge process interaction between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuchi 1995). In this model, knowledge follows a cycle in which implicit knowledge is 'extracted' to become explicit knowledge, and explicit knowledge is 're-internalized' into implicit knowledge. More recently, together with Georg von Krogh, Nonaka returned to his earlier work in an attempt to move the debate about knowledge conversion forwards (Nonaka & von Krogh 2009). A second proposed framework for categorizing the dimensions of knowledge distinguishes between embedded knowledge of a system outside of a human individual (e.g., an information system may have knowledge embedded into its design) and embodied knowledge representing a learned capability of a human bodys nervous and endocrine systems (Sensky 2002). A third proposed framework for categorizing the dimensions of knowledge distinguishes between the exploratory creation of "new knowledge" (i.e., innovation) vs. the transfer or exploitation of "established knowledge" within a group, organization, or community. Collaborative environments such as communities of practice or the use of social computing tools can be used for both knowledge creation and transfer.[11] The past three decades have been marked by rapid growth of the software industry. The necessity to find better ways to produce software products of high quality and within budget has lead to considerable research efforts investigating new means for improving an organizations ability to plan, forecast, manage, implement, and control its activities in projects where people and their capabilities have a major impact on project performance and its quality. Thus, the research community has provided organizations with a considerable variety of software process models, project management techniques and tools.

Managing an organizations knowledge more effectively and exploiting it in the marketplace is the latest pursuit of those seeking competitive advantage. The interest in knowledge management has surged during the last few years, with a growing number of publications, conferences and investment in knowledge management initiatives. In a year long study of international best practice (Skyrme and Amidon 1997), two main thrusts were identified. The first is that of making better use of the knowledge that already exists within the firm, for example by sharing best practices. This addresses the oft cited lament: if only we knew what we knew. Too frequently people in one part of the organization reinvent the wheel or fail to solve customers problems quickly because the knowledge they need is elsewhere in the company but not known or accessible to them. Hence, the first initiative of many knowledge management programs (between a third and a half according to surveys) is that of installing or improving an Intranet, and adding best practice or expert databases. The second major thrust of knowledge focused strategies is that of innovation, the creation of new knowledge and its conversion into valuable products and services. This is sometimes referred to as knowledge innovation (Amidon 1997). This requires an environment where creativity and learning flourishes and knowledge is encapsulated in a form where it can be applied. One way is to embed knowledge into products, where it is more easily disseminated. Products from tractors to domestic appliances are getting smarter, while other products, such as software, represent packaged knowledge.

The range of knowledge management activities is broad, and touches many aspects of business operations, for example: Creation of knowledge databases - best practices, expert directories, market intelligence etc. Effective information management - gathering, filtering, classifying, storing etc. Incorporation of knowledge into business processes e.g. through the use of help screens in computer procedures or access to experts from icons Development of knowledge centers - focal points for knowledge skills and facilitating knowledge flow Reuse of knowledge at customer support centers e.g. via case-based reasoning Introduction of collaborative technologies, especially Intranets or groupware, for rapid information access Knowledge webs - networks of experts who collaborate across and beyond an organizations functional and geographic boundaries Augmentation of decision support processes, such as through expert systems or group decision support systems. In fact, any activity that uses and applies knowledge can benefit from the disciplines of knowledge management, and that covers most managerial and professional activities. Therefore, like other management fads before, many existing business practices (such as information management and intelligence gathering) are coming under the knowledge management umbrella. Similarly, information systems solutions, such as document management and data warehousing are being similarly relabelled.

Such relabelling raises the question as to whether the current knowledge focus is merely a passing fad. The importance of knowledge as a strategic lever can in fact be traced back many years, to writers like Peter Drucker, who is credited with coining the term knowledge worker (see explanation in Drucker 1993). More recently, writers such as Quinn (1992), Wiig (1994), Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995), and Stewart (1997) have given important insights as to the contribution of knowledge to corporate success. What is new, and therefore makes knowledge management more fundamental than simply a passing fad are the following factors: The value of an organizations wealth is increasingly in its intangible assets its people, know-how, brands, patents, licenses, customer relationships etc. Knowledge can command a premium price in the market - Applied knowhow can enhance the value (and hence the price) of products and services. Examples are the smart drill that learns how to extract more oil from an oil field, and the hotel chain that knows your personal preferences and so can give you a more personalized service. As suppliers and consumers get more globally connected (e.g. through the Internet), access to critical knowledge becomes easier and more cost effective. As organizations become more efficient at what they do, they need to apply new learning and talent to help them differentiate themselves in the marketplace. By retaining knowledge as organizations downsize or restructure, organizations can save costly mistakes and prevent reinventing the wheel. The significant change as companies respond to these factors is that their knowledge processes become more explicit, more systematized, more crossorganizational and more geographically dispersed. As a consequence they more

readily lend themselves to the application of information and communications technologies (ICT). Thus, surveys (e.g. Murray and Myers 1997, Chase 1997) have shown email, Intranet, Internet as effective knowledge management tools. Also, videoconferencing, document management, online information sources and decision support tools are quite widely used as such, although views diverge as to their effectiveness. The First Generation - What Went Wrong? Computer support of knowledge activities is far from new. In the 1970s there was a proliferation of expert systems, and heightened interest in artificial intelligence. It was suggested that they might radically transform knowledge activities within firms. The reality, as we know in hindsight, is that they fell far short of expectations. They could handle only a narrow range of problems, they required extensive knowledge elicitation, and they failed to grasp the fundamental nature of human thought processes. This era is best characterized as the one where we tried to make computers think, rather than using computers to help humans think. Today, after years of steady progress, artificial intelligence has evolved new techniques, such as neural networks and intelligent agents, and is being widely applied in a growing number of applications. Our research also found it is used to some degree in a significant proportion of the world-class knowledge management programs we investigated. The main hurdle affecting all applications of ICT to knowledge management is coping with the fundamental difference between explicit and tacit knowledge (Figure 1).

Whereas explicit knowledge is that which can be codified into documents, databases and other tangible forms, tacit knowledge is that in the heads of individuals. Ask a
Tacit Knowledge Contextual Mental Processes Difficult to Transfer

Explicit Knowledge

Tangible Systematic Ease of Transfer

Figure 1. Two Types of Knowledge

person to describe explicitly how to ride a bicycle and they cannot, yet they know how to. This distinction, and the processes by which tacit knowledge is converted in to explicit knowledge and vice versa, is one of the central planks of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). Our research found it one of the most widely cited concepts by knowledge management practitioners, yet one that is often ignored by information systems professionals. There seems to be a Western tendency to capture knowledge by getting it into a database. Yet some of the most successful applications of ICT in knowledge management include those that help human-human communications, most notably groupware, and especially Lotus Notes. Frameworks for Thinking and Action From the perspective of a knowledge architect, frameworks provide a convenient way of thinking about the role of ICT in supporting knowledge processes. Most frameworks map different ICT tools according to their function and whether they are used individually or by teams. One such framework is shown in Table 1.

Passive (information) Person to Person Person to Computer ComputerComputer Computer conferencing Expert networks Document Mgmt Info Retrieval Knowledge bases Data Mining

Active (knowledge) Meeting support Video-conferencing Expert Systems Decision Support Neural Networks Intelligent Agents

Identify
K n o w led g e D isco ver y T o o ls D ata M in ing T ext R e trieval/M in in g

C ollect /C odify
In fo rm atio n feed s In te llig en t A g en t s

K now ledge D atabase

D ocum ent R ep o sito rie s (D a ta W areh o u ses )

D iffuse /U se
D e cisio n S up p ort G ro u p w are V id eo c o n feren cin g

C reate
T h in kin g aid s C o n cep tu al M a p p in g

In frastructure:

N etw orks - Internets;

In tranets

Figure 2.

Representative information systems solutions mapped against the

knowledge processes they augment. Table 1. Knowledge Transfer Mechanisms From an analysis of a wide range of tools and classifications, Jan Wyllie of Trend Monitor International has developed the functional schema shown below:

A MIND: Assimilation and Interpretation a Mapping, b Summarization, c Significant pattern discovery, d Decision support B COLLABORATION: Network and Communication a Conversing, b Workflow, c Information sharing, d Resource sharing e Groupware

C CONTENT: Gathering and Retrieval a Preparation, b Classifying, c Searching, D MEDIA: Storage and Form a Numeric databases, b Textbases, c Imagebases,

d Filtering, e Indexing d Multimedia

A framework that most managers can easily relate to is that which maps various ICT tools according to the knowledge processes they enhance. Having learnt about Business Process Reengineering, many are now well oriented to the process view of the firm. Figure 2 shows a schematic of knowledge processes (similar to a value chain), whose left hand categories distinguish the two strands of knowledge management - identifying existing knowledge and creating new knowledge. A representative selection of ICT tools are mapped into different knowledge processes. Some Key Technologies The impact of each technology varies enormously from situation to situation. Several technologies recur in many knowledge management programs, partly because they are generic and pervade many core activities and processes. The main ones are now briefly reviewed. Intranet, Internet The ubiquitous Internet protocols make it easy for users to access any information, any where, at any time. Further, browsers and client software can act as front-ends to information in many formats and many of the other knowledge tools such as document management or decision support. Remember too, that the basic functions of email, discussion lists and private newsgroups often have the biggest short term impact.

Booz Allen & Hamiltons Knowledge Online is an Intranet that provides a wealth of information (e.g. best practice, industry trends, database of experts) to their consultants world-wide. Through active information management by knowledge editors (subject experts and librarians) the information remains well structured and relevant. Groupware - Lotus Notes What groupware products like Lotus Notes add over and above Intranets are discussion databases. Users such as Thomas Miller, a London based manager of insurance mutuals, access their organizational memory, as well as current news feeds in areas of interest, through one of Lotuss key features, its multiple views. When writing new insurance proposals, existing explicit knowledge can be assembled from the archive, guided by an expert systems front-end, while tacit knowledge is added through discussion databases. Intelligent Agents The problem of information overload is becoming acute for many professionals. Intelligent agents can be trained to roam networks to select and alert users of new relevant information. Additionally they can be used to filter out less relevant information from information feeds. However, in practice it seems that a well run knowledge center, such as those at Price Waterhouse, the best intelligent agent is still a human being! A related technology is that of text summarizing, which British Telecom have found can summarize large documents, retaining over 90 per cent of the relevant meaning with less than a quarter of the original text.

Mapping Tools There are an increasing number of tools, such as COPE and IDONS, that help individuals and teams develop cognitive maps or shared mental models. These have been used by companies such as Shell to develop future scenarios and resolve conflicting stakeholder requirements. In addition, other mapping tools, such as those found in Knowledge X, can represent conceptual linkages between different source documents. Document Management Documents, and especially structured documents, are the form in which much explicit knowledge is shared. With annotation and redlining facilities, they can become active knowledge repositories, where the latest version and thinking is readily shared amongst project teams. By using a document management system for the construction of the Thelma North Sea oil platform, AGIP reduced construction time by 9 months and reduced document handling costs by 60 per cent. Suppliers like Dataware are repositioning their products as knowledge management products and are also adding knowledge enriching functionality. Knowledge Enriched Solutions With a burgeoning and lucrative market for knowledge management solutions, many companies are simply relabelling their products and approaches e.g. information management as knowledge management, databases as knowledge bases, data warehouses as knowledge repositories. True knowledge management solutions are not simply new labels, but add knowledge-enriching features. These include:

 Adding contextual information to data - where was this information used? What factors need to be considered when using it? Using multimedia e.g. adding video clips or voice to databases of best practice or problem solution databases Providing annotation - adding informal notes to individual data items; using MAPI enabled software, where a document or file can be sent with a forwarding note by email Qualifying information - giving details of originator, users adding comments about the quality of information Providing links to experts - a click button to contact an expert (either by email or phone). GIGA, for example, lets its client access global experts through its web site (http://www.gigaweb.com). These all help the transfer of tacit knowledge, and any tool should increasingly provide hooks that add new levels of interaction, not just person-to-computer but person-to-person. Knowledge Collaboration Architecture Over time, the boundaries of individual tools blur (c.f. groupware and Internet, document management and information retrieval), and effective usage requires seamless interoperability and fluidity of information and knowledge flow. Therefore organizations using ICT to support knowledge activities need to think about an overall architecture. Some companies, such as Glaxo Wellcome are recognizing that knowledge management requires changes in established technical architectures. Our analysis of several companies who have developed architectures that support knowledge management indicates that tools and supporting processes are needed at several levels (Figure 3).

Collaboration Conversations Communications Connections Figure 3 - Levels of an IT Knowledge Infrastructure At the base level is the requirement that people should be able to connect into knowledge whenever and wherever they are (in the office, at remote sites, on the move etc.). At higher levels, there must be mechanisms for threaded conversations and structured collaborative work. As you move up through each architectural layer (each of which depends on the one below), more of the challenges are people and organization, rather than technology, related. In our experience, most large organizations, taking their position overall, are still between the bottom two levels. Achieving the Benefits As any manager of change or implementer of ICT infrastructure knows, it is the human, organizational and cultural factors that are the ultimate determinants of success. ICT solutions for Knowledge Management are, in essence, social computing, and therefore need such an approach. Implementations that are successful are typically found to share the following characteristics: Clear vision and leadership - a solid appreciation of the contribution of knowledge to business success and how IT can help. Multidisciplinary teams - including information managers (librarians), facilitators, business experts as well as technologists. User and business-centric. Users are actively engaged in developing solutions that enhance knowledge activities.

 Well designed processes that engage humans where they are best, and allow them to interact with computers where computers perform best. A business process that does not consider applying best knowledge (and updating it) is an incomplete process. Active learning and experimentation. There is no such thing as a finished requirement specification. Solutions evolve and adapt. A knowledge sharing culture. People want to share information and their experience and are rewarded for doing so. Projects are usually based on three major factors, time, cost, and scope. Once these three aspects are defined it is the project managers responsibility to manage within the constrained values. For instance, if a projects scope must be met at a maximum budget of $5 Million, and completed within fifteen months, then the project manager must continually evaluate the impact on cost, and time, if additional project scope is proposed. This places the project manager in a unique role. Technical personnel tend to place their highest priority on the technical aspects of the product (scope), and give lower priority to the schedule (time) and budget (cost). Finance personnel tend to place their highest interest on cost, and generally remained unconcerned about time or scope.

CRITICAL PROJECT MANAGER SKILLS If there is any field that requires a broad set of skills it is project management. Three in particular are technical skills, leadership skills, and business skills. Technical Skills. Having technical skills is important for project managers working in todays high-technology fields is critical but it is not the only needed skill. They must have proven leadership skills and pragmatic business skills. Although it would be impossible for a project manager to master all disciplines participating on a project, it is vital that managers have a working knowledge of each discipline. This level of knowledge should enable them to communicate effectively with technical personnel, and to recognize and understand technical problems. Leadership Skills. If a project manager has a solid grasp of project management techniques, principles and processes, yet has inadequate leadership skills, the results will often be disastrous. Leadership skills include the ability to communicate effectively, to negotiate with peers, subordinates and superiors, and the ability to use the proper leadership style. A common mistake made by corporate stakeholders is assuming that because an individual is strong technically he must be strong in the area of leadership. Business Skills. Modern-day corporations are realizing that the most effective way to manage project costs is to delegate responsibility to project managers

and hold them accountable. As a result, project managers must have a working knowledge of the financial aspects, and understand the language spoken by business personnel. Terms such as then-dollars and constant dollars must be understood. Project managers must know what NPV, ROI, and B/C ratios are, and how to adjust for the time-value of money. ORGANIZATION STRUCTURES While there are various types of organizations used today, the two most prominent are the functional and matrix forms. Functional Organization Structure. Prior to about 1960 most corporate organizations favored a functional organization structure, also called a traditional organizational structure. The structure was very vertical with each employee having one boss. The simplified diagram below illustrates the basic form of this structure. Division managers and department heads were also included in some cases. Organizations still using this structure tend to be in the public sector where there is little if any competition and pressures to produce new products quickly are minimal.

Each functional manager was responsible for hiring employees having a specific field of knowledge or skill set. For instance, one functional manager would be responsible for hiring and administering individuals who were mechanical engineers. Another functional manager would be responsible for hiring and administering electrical engineers. The advantage of this type of organization structure is that all specialists within a functional group tend to keep each other current with the latest technology. They cross-pollinated each other. Also, each employee had only one boss, making the chain of command simple and easy to understand. There are several disadvantages to this type of structure. First, no one has overall responsibility for a given project. Each has his own piece of the pie. Second, many employees within a group are not gainfully employed all the time. Often they are challenged with attempting to find ways to fill up their work day. Third, customers become frustrated when trying to understand the status of their product. Each functional manager may know a specific aspect of

the products development but none have a full knowledge of product development. This type of organization structure is very weak in product development integration. Matrix Organization Structure. Many corporations today have moved toward the matrix form of organization structure. This structure has been found to alleviate many of the deficiencies with the functional form. As seen in the figure below, lines of authority flow both vertically and horizontally. Hence, the term matrix.

While employees still report administratively to their functional managers, they are assigned to project managers for the duration of their need. Once their support to a project is completed they return to their functional group ready to

be assigned to another project. Project managers extract employees from the functional organizations as needed. In many cases employees are assigned to multiple projects. This creates the problem of spreading an employee over too many projects resulting in lost time as they transition physically or mentally between projects. As the number of projects supported increases so does the lost time due to transitioning. An employee assigned to four projects is not available for 25% of their time to each one as might be expected. The available time is actually closer to 19%.3 The lost time, 6% is due to transitioning. The tendency to spread employees over too many projects is precipitated by functional managers who are required to keep their assigned budgets to a minimum. In order to accomplish this they must assign their employees to projects which have their own budgets. These same pressures on functional managers cause them to hire fewer people than needed to prevent unassigned personnel from charging against their budgets. PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROCESS GROUPS The Project Management Institute has posited five major process groups. A process is defined as a set of interrelated actions & activities performed to achieve a pre-specified product, result, or service. Each process is characterized by its inputs, the tools and techniques that can be applied, and the resulting outputs. The five groups consist of project initiation, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing processes.

Initiating Process Group. Those processes performed to define a new project or a new phase of an existing project by obtaining authorization to start the project. Planning Process Group. Those processes required to establish the scope of the project, refine the objectives, and define the course of action required to attain the objectives that the project was undertaken to achieve. Executing Process Group. Those processes performed to complete the work defined in the project management plan to satisfy the project specifications. Monitoring and Controlling Process Group. Those processes required to track, review, and regulate the progress and performance of the project; identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required; and initiate the corresponding changes. Closing Process Group. Those processes performed to finalize all activities across all Project Management Process Groups to formally close the project

CHARACTERISTICS OF SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS In the funding application process, you clearly defined the objectives of your project, sought partnerships with organizations with similar objectives and developed a detailed action plan for your project. In doing so, you laid the foundations for success. successful projects: 1. Clear objectives - The most successful projects have clearly defined objectives from the outset. 2. A good project plan - A carefully thought-out plan serves two purposes. First, it allows everyone involved to understand and perform their part in the project. It shows who is responsible for what and estimates how much money, people, equipment and time will be required to complete the project. Second, it serves as a monitoring tool, allowing you to take early action if things go wrong. 3. Communication, communication, communication - Your project is a collaborative effort between all of the individuals and organizations involved. You all need to work together to maintain effective and continual communication between the parties. 4. A controlled scope - Numerous issues will come up throughout your project, and not all of them will contribute to your overall objectives. It is important to stay focused on your priorities, with little wasted time or attention. 5. Stakeholder support - Projects typically involve several stakeholders, who invest time and resources in the project. It is important to maintain stakeholder support throughout the project, so the project team can meet its objectives. Consider the following traits that characterise

How many of these characteristics does your project have? How can you improve it?

The tools and techniques provided throughout this module are all designed to help you meet these five characteristics. Planning Your Project Every project has a life cycle, composed of the phases it goes through from beginning to completion. The broad phases of an Office of Learning Technologies funded project are: 1. Formulating the concept, goals and objectives of a project that uses technology to enhance learning and skills development; 2. Applying for OLT funding; 3. Conducting the initial phase (developing partnerships, conducting a needs assessment, community learning asset mapping); 4. Conducting the pilot project; 5. Writing a final report and disseminating your results to others. The techniques in this module will help you with the fourth phase, conducting your community learning pilot project. In formulating your project and applying for funding, you have already done substantial project planning: identifying partners and project team members, assigning responsibility for tasks, developing an action plan, budgeting resources and preparing a marketing strategy and evaluation plan. These elements form the basis of a project plan.

A project plan sets the ground rules and states them in a clear fashion. This is especially important since OLT projects typically include multiple partners and stakeholders with differing interests and perspectives. Why Plan? First, it is vital that everyone understands and agrees to the "ground rules" that will govern the project from here on in. You need to ensure that the objectives are clearly stated so that there is no disagreement later on.

Second, the project plan helps you to control and measure your progress. Now that your team members and financing are finalized, you should revisit your action plan and add the specific details that will allow you to manage successfully. Third, the project plan will help you deal with any changes that may occur (and they inevitably do occur!). For example, what if a stakeholder wants to add a new objective to the project? A clear project plan will help you deal with this situation in keeping with the overall project objectives. Finally, the project plan will help to cement stakeholder support over the coming months and years of the project. This is important because you will need the support of people from different organizations, and you will not have direct authority over them. What is in a Project Plan? No two projects are the same; hence no two project plans are the same. To provide the maximum benefits, your project plan should be relevant, understandable and complete, and reflect the size and complexity of your unique project.

Your project plan should include the following elements: 1. A project charter 2. A calendar of activities 3. A time schedule 4. A responsibility matrix 5. A project plan budget 6. Major milestones with target dates 7. A risk management strategy The project manager, sponsor, every partner, and all key project staff should have a copy of the project plan. It is a valuable tool that can help to avoid confusion about the projects scope and misunderstandings about responsibilities, timeframes or resource management. The amount of detail in your project plan will depend on your needs. It may be quite brief or very detailed. It is up to you to develop an appropriate project plan based on the nature of your project. 1 - The Project Charter The Project Charter is a document that demonstrates management support for the project, authorizes the project manager to lead the project and allocate resources as required. It is very easy to create a project charter. It simply states the name and purpose of the project, the project managers name and a statement of support by management. It is signed by senior management of the responsible organization and the partner organizations.

The project charter should be distributed widely - to anyone with an interest in the project. This will help build momentum, reinforce the project manager's

authority, and possibly draw other interested and valuable team members into the project. The charter can be e-mailed to broaden its distribution easily and quickly. 2 - The Calendar of Activities A Calendar of Activities is one of the most important tools in a project manager's toolkit. By dividing a project into the individual tasks required to complete it, the Calendar of Activities:

Provides a detailed view of the projects scope; Allows you to monitor what has been completed and what remains to be done; Allows you to track labor, time and costs for each task; Allows you assign responsibility for specific tasks to team members; Allows team members to understand how they fit into the big picture.

Designing a Calendar of Activities requires some effort, and you may think that your project is too small to warrant the effort. However, with the action plan you developed when applying for funding, you already have the information you need to get started. Creating a Calendar of Activities The action plan you developed when applying for OLT funding breaks down your project into its component activities. For the initial phase, you described them on a month-by-month basis, for the pilot phase on a quarterly basis. The activities in your action plan may be considered summary tasks. Some of these tasks are small enough to manage as is, but others will need to be broken down further into their logical parts.

These smaller units of work, tasks, will be assigned to individuals and should be specific enough to track and manage performance, but not so small that you spend too much time chasing details. As a guideline, it doesnt make sense to define tasks that take less than half a day to perform over the lifecycle of the project. The following example illustrates the work breakdown structure of the summary task Conduct learner evaluation of skills development content: Conduct learner evaluation of skills development content

Create interview guide (1/2 day) Interview learners (2 days) Collate responses (1/2 day) Write report (1 day) Discuss report at weekly meeting (1/2 day) Revise learning material content (4 days) Approve evaluation (1/2 day)

The bulleted items are the units of work that will be assigned to one or more individuals. Each task should begin with a verb that specifies the work to be done. Be sure to estimate the time required for each task, since tasks left openended are an invitation to procrastination. The last task within each category should always be to approve the work of that phase, a good management practice. When all the work units are done, you will mark the Calendar of Activities to show the summary task as being complete. In the meantime, you will know exactly what steps remain to be done. Organize your Calendar of Activities on a quarterly basis. This will help you to prepare the quarterly progress reports you will be submitting to OLT.

When you've finished your Calendar of Activities, look at it objectively. Does it capture everything you need to do? Is it logical and easy to read? If not, rework it so that it becomes a meaningful tool. Getting the Calendar of Activities designed properly will save you hours of effort later on. 3 - The Time Schedule In your action plan you laid out the activities of your project in their logical sequence. You have now expanded on the action plan to create a Calendar of Activities with a detailed work breakdown structure. Having identified the tasks to be completed and determined the sequence for doing them, you are ready to prepare the Time Schedule. The Time Schedule identifies logical relationships between project activities, ensures personnel is available for tasks when needed and helps you to manage time effectively and complete your project when planned. When setting the Time Schedule, review all the tasks and the sequence for doing them. Some tasks are dependent on others and can only be started when others are finished. Other tasks can be done concurrently, if you have sufficient human resources. External factors may also influence your Schedule. You may already have a list of eager learners and the learning materials ready for your projects launch date, but repairs at the local community centre mean that the classroom facilities are unavailable until next month. Project management software permits you to use Gantt charts for schedules. Gantt charts are popular because they graphically display the relationships between tasks. If you do not have project management software, spreadsheet software can also be used for schedules, as in this example showing one summary task:

Time Schedule Task Hours per week Week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 Total Conduct learner evaluation of skills development content Create interview guide Interview learners Collate responses Write report Discuss report at weekly meeting Revise learning material content Approve evaluation Sub-total 4 4 16 16 4 4 8 4 8 28 24 4 28 4 20 4 8 4 32 4 76

Managing the Time Schedule Despite your best efforts at scheduling, there is often a rush to meet project deadlines. There seem to be three major reasons for this:

No project manager is assigned. Most project resources are focused on completing the project deliverables, with little attention paid to actually managing the project. A perception that project management is "administration" or overhead. In fact, as we try to emphasize throughout this toolkit, project management is an essential foundation for ensuring quality and timeliness. Lack of awareness of project management techniques.

The following hints may help to keep your project on schedule:

When creating the Time Schedule, involve key personnel who are familiar with individual tasks, can estimate the time they will require and know the problems you may face. Discuss the responsibilities and priorities that partners have within their own organizations that may impact the time they can devote to your project. Allot time in the schedule for project management activities - 10% of total project time is a general rule of thumb. Hold regular project status meetings with the entire team to discourage procrastination and identify difficulties early.

The duration of a task depends on the number of people you assign to it and their productivity. For simple, labour-intensive tasks, you can shorten the duration by recruiting additional resources (perhaps from a local community group). For more complex tasks, such as advanced research, adding more resources may not help because only highly skilled people can be productive on these tasks. Adding more resources may simply increase your cost, with no improvement in quality or time requirement. As the project progresses, there may be tasks that were not foreseeable in the original plan, or you may wish to undertake additional tasks to enhance the overall project outcome. If so, you will need to consider the impact on both the Time Schedule and resources. If your organization and your partners decide that changes to the Schedule are warranted and feasible, the project manager should get a written agreement for the revised plan from all the key stakeholders in the project.

4 - The Responsibility Matrix Your project will be a collaborative effort by a number of individuals and organizations working together toward a common goal. Managing a diverse team, often spread over several locations, can present some special challenges. A Responsibility Matrix is a valuable project management tool to help you meet these challenges. A Responsibility Matrix ensures that someone accepts responsibility for each major project activity and that nothing falls through the cracks. It need not be complex and is easily created by using your project Schedule. To create a Responsibility Matrix, refer to your Time Schedule. The left hand column enumerates all the required tasks for your project. Across the top of the chart, list all the team members (e.g. project manager, evaluation consultant, office administrator, technical support etc.) for your project. Enter a code in each cell that represents that team members involvement in the task in that row. For example: Responsibility Matrix Project Team Members Task Project manager Evaluator Teacher Instructional designer Technical support

Conduct learner evaluation of skills development content Create interview guide Interview Learnners Collate S A I -

A A

responses Write report Discuss report at meeting Revise learning material content Approve evaluation S P P P P P weekly P A S A -

S Sign-off; A Accountable; P Participant; I Input Choose codes appropriate to your project; the key is to clearly identify who has a role in every activity, who is accountable and who must sign off. Make sure the matrix is included in the project plan so that every participant is clearly aware of their responsibilities. 5 - The Project Plan Budget As part of the application process, you prepared a budget for your project that meets OLT guidelines. This best estimate of costs will be an important tool for managing resources while delivering a quality result. It is important to have the most detailed and accurate estimates possible for major project costs (usually wages, materials and supplies and overhead) at the start of the project. With this information, the actual process of producing the

Project Plan Budget is simple. Simply add up the labour and equipment costs of each task in the Time Schedule you produced. These costs should fit within the financial budget approved by OLT. Keep the Project Plan Budget as simple as possible while maintaining accuracy. If you have experience in project accounting, enter the costs estimates from the budget for each of the tasks in your Schedule. This way, as actual expenses come in they will automatically be posted to the project, making the Financial Detail sheets and Cashflow Forecast forms required in your quarterly reports to OLT easier to fill out. If you are not familiar with project costing, you can use spreadsheet software to monitor your budget. List all the Time Schedule tasks at the left of the spreadsheet, the resources to be used, cost estimates from your budget, actual costs and the difference, if any, in columns to the right: Project Budget

Task

Resources to be Used

Budgeted Actual Costs Costs

Budget Actual Costs

Conduct learner evaluation of skills development content Create interview guide Interview Learnners Wages of project manager, teacher; Evaluator's fees. Wages of teachers; rental of meeting computer. room; laptop $375

$600

Collate responses Write report Discuss report at meeting Revise learning material content Approve evaluation weekly Evaluator's fees. Evaluator's fees. Wages of project manager, teachers, technical support; Evaluator's, designer's fees. Wages of teachers, technical support; Evaluator's, $1200 instructional designer's fees. instructional $800 $200 $400

Wages of project manager

$200

Subtotal for learner evaluation of skills development content

$3775

6 - Major Milestones and Target Dates Milestones are significant events in a project, usually the completion of a major deliverable. You defined project milestones and set target dates in your project action plan as part of the application for funding process. List these milestones and target dates in the Project Plan to ensure that everybody involved in the project is aware of them. While all those involved doubtless recognize that meeting them is important to achieving the objectives of your project, there are also additional, less obvious, benefits. Meeting milestones on schedule prevents wasting resources, maintains the momentum of the project and builds credibility among potential future partners.

Managing a project requires a constant balancing of resources and priorities. These constraints, coupled with unexpected effects of circumstances outside your control can make it difficult to meet milestones and target dates, but the Calendar of Activities, Time Schedule and Responsibility Matrix are powerful tools to ensure you do. The following are a few hints to help with the process:

Ensure the partners and key personnel have signed off on the project plan, explicitly committing themselves to milestones and target dates. Review the Time Schedule and Responsibility Matrix at weekly or biweekly project team meetings to address problems before they result in major slippage. Make sure each individual has the recognized authority and access to resources needed to complete tasks they are accountable for in the Responsibility Matrix. Allow sufficient time for training for all team members to perform effectively. Meet with team members individually to discuss the expected outcomes of the project and the tasks they are assigned, as well as to point out any difficulties they may face and answer any questions they may have. Recognise your project teams success when they meet milestones and target dates.

What is Risk? Risk is inherent in all projects. In project management terms, risk refers to an uncertain event or condition that has a cause and, that if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a projects objectives, and a consequence on project cost, schedule or quality. For example: the cause of a risk may be requiring a classroom with networked computers for the learners in your skills development

project. The risk event is that Internet connection is delayed and the classroom is not available for the anticipated start date. This affects your objective, offering computer literacy training to underemployed adults, with the consequence that you must rent another facility or delay project activities. Naturally, you would prefer to maximize the probability and consequences of positive events and minimize the probability and consequences of events adverse to your project objectives. A risk response plan can help you. It identifies the risks that might affect your project, determines their effect on the project and includes agreed-upon responses for each risk. The Risk Management Strategy Identifying Risks The first step in creating a risk response plan is to identify risks which might affect your project. The project manager, key staff and project partners should brainstorm referring to the project charter, calendar of activities schedule and budget to identify potential risks. Those involved in the project can often identify risks on the basis of experience. Published information resources are also available that identify risks for many application areas. Common sources of risk in community learning initiatives include:

Technical risks such as unproven technology Project management risks such as a poor allocation of time or resources Organizational risks such as resource conflicts with other activities External risks such as changing priorities in partner organizations

Developing Risk Response Strategies You cannot prepare for or mitigate all possible risks, but risks with high probability and high impact are likely to merit immediate action. for your projects objectives. Several risk response strategies are available:

The

effectiveness of your planning determines whether risk increases or decreases

Avoidance changing the project plan to eliminate the risk or protect the objectives from its impact. An example of avoidance is using a familiar technology instead of an innovative one. Transference shifting the management and consequence of the risk to a third party. Risk transfer almost always involves payment of a premium to the party taking on the risk. An example of transference is using a fixed-price contract for a consultants services. Mitigation reducing the probability and/or consequences of an adverse risk event to an acceptable threshold. Taking early action is more effective than trying to repair the consequences after it has occurred. An example of mitigation is seeking additional project partners to increase the financial resources of the project. Acceptance deciding not to change the project plan to deal with a risk. Passive acceptance requires no action. Active acceptance may include developing contingency plans for action should the risk occur. An example of active acceptance is creating a list of eligible instructors that can be called upon if last minute replacements are needed for your project.

Since not all risks will be evident at the outset of the project, periodic risk reviews should be scheduled at project team meetings. Risks that do occur should be documented, along with their responses. Your lessons learned may be useful to others or on future projects.

Define Project team structure The purpose of this process is to define an effective team structure for a project organizational unit. The team structure defines the roles, responsibilities and relationships of the people managing and working within a project organizational unit. An appropriate team structure will help to optimize the efforts of the team and the success of the project. An inappropriate one can undercut the efforts of a hard working group of people and impede their success. This process is performed during Plan phase. Often, it is carried out by the functional managers/Senior management responsible for the people who will staff the project. The project manager should influence the functional managers to ensure that the team structure meets the requirements of the project.

The first consideration in organizing a team is the objective of the team. Has the team been asked to explore possibilities and alternatives? Is the team charged with solving a complex, poorly defined problem? This is often the case with study projects or when implementing a new technology. Broadly, there are two different organizational approaches: In the normal approach, each teamis responsible for a specific set of activities and the work products move between the teams according to a predefined work flow. The team members all have similar skills. In the multidisciplinary approach; each team is responsible for completing some of the work products. The team members have different skills and, possibly, are multi-skilled.

Certain project approaches favor certain team structures. For example, rapid application development (RAD) works best with multidisciplinary teams. It is necessary to have a team structure so that all the members of the project understand their roles and their working and reporting relationships. However, all team structures introduce some measure of inflexibility. It is important to understand that there is no right team structure for a project and that usually it depends on the organizational requirements and needs of the project. Review the Project definition to understand the overall project objectives and context. Review the Organizational breakdown structure (OBS) and the Work breakdown structure (WBS) to understand what the project organizational unit that is being structured must accomplish. Determine the appropriate team model for the unit by considering the broad objective(s) of the unit and, if applicable,

the work patterns that have been selected. Note that several models may apply if the project organizational unit has several objectives. Plan the number of team(s) within the project organizational unit and how the responsibilities of the organizational unit will be split between the teams. Consider how the teams will be managed within the organizational unit. Estimate the size of each team and determine the skills that each team will require. The right number of people in a team depends on factors such as the nature of the work. Consider carefully how skills that are known to be expensive and/or in short supply should best be deployed. Document the roles and responsibilities of each of the teams within the project organizational unit in the OBS. Acquiring staff This function includes processes to: Identify potential sources (external/department in the organization) of project staff. Define skill and activity descriptions that can be used by recruiters and resource managers to obtain staff from appropriate sourcing organizations. Select staff for the project finding the: right people, with appropriate skills, available when needed, for the right duration, within planned costs can be a daunting and time-consuming challenge. Here are six key areas in which HR professionals can help lay the foundation for excellence in project management.

Strategy The ability to respond quickly to changing business needs and customer demands is a good thing. Or is it? We would argue that an organization that strives to speed up its response time to specific needs risks ending up with nothing more than the ability to do the wrong thing faster. Most business and customer needs can be met in a variety of ways, but not all solutions will be consistent with how the organization wants to be positioned in the market. Nor will every profitable project take the organization where it needs to go. To be of real value, the projects into which an organization puts its efforts need to be tied to its strategy. There are a number of ways in which human resource executives can help leaders move strategy from a statement to an operating reality. The senior HR executive can take a lead role in helping the top team set up a system for evaluating proposed projects in terms of their strategic relevance and impact. HR can also take responsibility for ensuring that all those assigned to projects understand how their goals relate to the overarching strategic goals of the business. Current and Future Leadership Historically, top managers have been selected for their financial skills more than for their ability to manage complex projects. The modern organization requires leaders who can translate a broad strategic vision into manageable projects and sell them up (to the board and shareholders) and down (to the organization and customers). HR can play a key role in recruiting and developing a new breed of leaders, with broader, more project-relevant skills. When interviewing candidates for

management positions, they need to look for individuals with proven success in not only formulating, but also implementing organization strategy; people who have a track record of bringing complex projects to completion; and those who can inspire others to get work done. Interestingly, these skills closely parallel those of successful project managers. As HR executives work with project managers in their organization, they need to closely observe and mentor this rich source of future executives. Quality What is project quality? On time, on budget and on specification, right? Not necessarily. What if landing a man on the moon before the Soviets had cost the United States an extra $20 million dollars? What if Henry Ford had taken an extra four months to launch the Model T that built an industrial giant? Would these projects have been labeled failures? Not likely. Meeting cost and schedule expectations is important, but these are often indicators of efficiency rather than of quality. A quality project is one that meets customers' needs -- even if it takes more time or spends more money than was originally planned. To produce a quality product, a project team must continuously survey, anticipate, clarify and confront issues in and around the project to ensure that the end result will delight the customer. If the customer's needs change, so must the project plan? HR leaders must install behaviors that separate the need to find the cause of a problem from the need to make a choice on plan actions. Problems, decisions and actions can't be addressed the same way. Each requires people to gather, sort and analyze different information differently. And rarely can a person come

to the best resolution alone. It almost always requires help from others to provide needed information or to implement. Having a common, visible approach to resolving project issues speeds and improves outcomes. For the HR executive, this means ensuring that the workforce has the communication, interpersonal, teaming and critical-thinking skills necessary to turn on a dime. Methodology Many organizations have protocols, processes and procedures in place to control the initiation and implementation of projects. These are valuable and necessary to efficiently and effectively deploy resources to the highest-value projects. But these protocols can devolve into a low-value, bureaucratic, paper-pushing exercise unless the people using them understand the "why" behind the "how." The challenge for HR is to provide the workforce with both the protocols and the thinking processes behind them. There is logic to defining, planning and controlling projects, and the better all involved understand that logic, the better they can participate in projects, and the faster they can move from project to project. Communication Many project managers believe that you can't communicate too much during a project. We beg to differ. Unnecessary communication distracts the project team from achieving results. Technology has enabled rapid -- but not necessarily rich -- communication, which often results in data overload. Project-team members are overwhelmed by reports, spreadsheets and e-mails.

To keep project teams from drowning in paperwork, HR leaders need to work with IT and telecommunications professionals to ensure that the necessary datacollection tools are in place -- and unnecessary ones are eliminated. They can also ensure that project management training includes proper use of the correct communication tool. For example, each step of a projectmanagement methodology can be broken down into a series of questions. What is the project intended to accomplish? What is the best way to accomplish this? What is the logical order of work? What specific part of the project are we having trouble with? Communication can be greatly enhanced if it is centered on a specific part of the project-management process. Performance Environment and Culture In order to excel at projects, an organization needs to have a performance system that supports this approach to getting work done. This is where HR executives can shine. First, top to bottom, everyone in the organization must understand what project behaviors are expected. It must be clear when in the process the behaviors are expected to be exhibited. People must have the time, tools and resources to do as expected. Sufficient rewards and incentives must exist for proper project participation. Finally, frequent and meaningful feedback is needed to either let the team knows that its project work is meeting company goals or, if not, what it needs to do differently to turn the situation around. HR can work with management to ensure that all these elements are present in the performance system for project teams as well as for all members of the workforce.

Why organizations need to change Change management is relevant as though the research finds that change is taking place at an ever-increasing pace, the evidence suggests that most change initiatives fail. For example, recent CIPD research suggested that less than 60% of re-organizations met their stated objectives which are usually bottom line improvement. This is consistent with other published research. The impact of failures to introduce effective change can also be high: loss of market position, removal of senior management, loss of stakeholder credibility, loss of key employees. Finally, one organizational response to change is that organizational forms are themselves evolving. Therefore, the change management response will have to be adaptive. For example, the increased competitive challenges and the need to be responsive to the changing environment are resulting in emerging organizational models. Traditional organizational models following functional or matrix lines are being supplemented by new models. These might rely on project teams, on networks, on virtual structures. In theory, certain of these newer models, for example virtual and project-based structures, allow increased flexibility to respond to change. However such models are not always introduced uniformly, and in practice often introduce other issues that also impact upon change management, for example ability to share knowledge and to operate efficiently. Also, as more companies rely on these new structures, for example, sub-contractors and agency staff, the traditional psychological contract between organization and employee can no longer be relied upon to elicit employee engagement, motivation and ultimately superior performance, all of which are particularly important in times of change.

These structures may also impact effectiveness of communication, which again has implications for change effectiveness. What issues have been identified in the change management process? A large number of issues have been identified as having negative impact on effective change management. Some of the key themes are identified below, covering organizational issues and individual resistance to change. Organizational issues individual change initiatives are not always undertaken as part of a wider coherent change plan, for example through considering linkages between strategy, structure and systems issues. Therefore a change that considers a new structure but fails to establish the need to introduce new systems to support such a structure is less likely to succeed. Lack of effective project management and programme management disciplines can lead to slippages in timings, in achievement of desired outcomes, in ensuring that the projects do deliver as planned. Insufficient, relevant training, for example in project management, change management skills, leadership skills can all impact negatively on the effectiveness of any change initiative. Poor communication has been linked to issues surrounding the effectiveness of in achieving effective change in various ways. For example, imposed change can lead to greater employee resistance (see section below also). Finally, lack of effective leadership has been identified as an inhibitor of effective change.

Individual/group resistance to change Resistance to change can be defined as an individual or group engaging in acts to block or disrupt an attempt to introduce change. Resistance itself can take many different forms from subtle undermining of change initiatives, withholding of information to active resistance eg via strikes. Resistance to change can be considered along various dimensions: * individual versus collective * passive versus active * direct versus indirect * behavioral versus verbal or attitudinal * minor versus major. Similarly two broad types of resistance can be considered: * Resistance to the content of change - for example to a specific change in technology, to the introduction of a particular reward system. * Resistance to the process of change. This concerns the way a change is introduced rather than the object of change per se, for example, management restructure jobs, without prior consultation of affected employees.

Management need to be aware of these different criteria to ensure they respond appropriately. Suggested reasons for resistance include: loss of control, shock of new, uncertainty, inconvenience, threat to status, competence fears. It is important to try to diagnose the cause of employee resistance as this will help determine the focus of effort in trying to reduce/remove the issue.

What can be done to make change management more effective? From the issues raised in the section above, it can be seen that change is complex and there is not a single solution. However, a number of key areas of focus emerge. Effective leadership is a key enabler as it provides the vision and the rationale for change. Different styles of leadership have been identified, for example coercive, directive, consultative and collaborative. These different styles may each be appropriate depending on the type and scale of change being undertaken. For example, when there is a large-scale organization-wide change a directive style has been identified as most effective. Appropriate and timely training is frequently identified as key to effective change. Examples of training requirements might include: * Project and programme management skills to ensure change initiatives are completed both on time and to budget. * Change management skills, including communication and facilitation. * Leadership coaching. Two-way communication with employees (see our factsheet on Managing the psychological contract) and their active involvement in implementation has also been identified as a key enabler of change. Active participation is one suggested means of overcoming resistance to change. However, research has indicated that part of the communication/participation issue might arise from a potential mismatch between what the employer and employee opinions are regarding levels of communication. For example, in a recent study of both employers and employees, employers believed they were involving and communicating with employees at a considerably higher level than was reported by employees.

WHY ORGANIZATIONS ARE ADOPTING BEST HR PRACTICES? The best practices in the management of Human Resources are the ones which optimize a workforce so that it can not only get more done, but also ensure a greater level of efficiency, timeliness & quality accomplishing an increase in overall productivity. The important areas in which the best human resources practices must be applied include the creation of viable & attractive benefits & compensation packages, managing the performance of employees, making sure that business practices & worker conditions stay well within the law, creating a positive, enjoyable work environment, talent recruitment and mapping out the best Human Resources strategy for the future. In the past HR was considered as an expense rather than an investment. But today many top-performing organizations have realized that following best practices for HR is vital to long-term success. HR is all of the practices that surround people, from recruiting, orientation and training to corporate culture and non-monetary rewards, as well as benefits and compensation. HR is about creating a workplace where employees, the most valuable asset for most companies, can perform to their peak potential. Competition for the best employees is intense, especially today as the job market recovers after several years in a slump. Thus effective employers need to level the playing field by emphasizing their unique advantages. One of the first features the prospective talent look at while browsing the job listings are the salary levels and the benefits packages. Hence an organization implementing best HR practices makes sure that these benefits and pay scales meet the companys budget while remaining attractive and competitive enough to pull in the very best talent possible.

Since managers give a voice to the company culture, training at the manager level is very critical as the best mangers are those who can motivate, communicate, retain and inspire. They hold individuals accountable, evaluate and coach their employees. Best HR practices are also vital for retaining talent in an organization. Preferred employers are not only making endeavors to cope up and allay the long-term employees but are now devoting their HR resources to On-boarding wherein an organization takes newly hired employees and immerses them in the organization. From the very first day on the job, it is crucial for the employees to know their duties, get honest feedback on their performance and reward for exceeding expectations. Another important aspect of best practices is the accurate and productive evaluation and enhancement of performance among the employee base. Indeed, performance management is one of the key functions of a human resources department. Another best HR attribute that organizations should stress on is career growth and succession which may be learning opportunities or opportunities to take on more responsibility by offering be learning opportunities, or opportunities to take on more responsibility. HR functions that cant be efficiently performed in-house are being outsourced in order to fill any gaps in building a comprehensive HR program, either for routine tasks such as payroll and benefits management or more strategic goals such as recruiting and management training.

Companies exhibiting the Best Practices have been found to have: Higher Employee Engagement:-

Engaged employees display the behaviors that are critical to business success and developing a competitive edge. They speak positively about the company, have no immediate intention or desire to leave, and willingly put in extra effort to ensure strong company performance. Career Opportunities & Sense of Accomplishment are the key drivers of employee engagement for many companies. Better Financial Results & Customer Satisfaction:-

Best Employers deliver better business results and are more capable of building a sustainable business model. According to the Hewitt Survey, the Best Employers have outperformed their counterparts in terms of revenue over the previous two years & have consistently demonstrated a growth in their profitability. Also, a large body of literature (A research study by Centre for Advanced Human Resource Studies) supports the notion that the work practices of an organization influence individual employees feelings of commitment to an organization which in turns influences employee behavior in towards fulfilling customer needs. A Strong Reputation That Attracts Talent:-

Great Places to work as per the Grow Talents Study, 2006 are able to attract talent based on a strong employer brand. They create an employee value proposition that differentiates their employment offer distinctly from that of other organizations.

Better Retention of Key Talent:-

Organizations with best practices attempt to build long-term employee relationships. They create a working environment in which their key people enjoy working for them and want to be part of the success story. Their employees also see them as promoting people who are best equipped to meet the future demands of the company. Also, the Leaders at such organizations are perceived by employees to build relationships with all levels in the organization and treat employees as their most valued asset. ENGAGED EMPLOYEES HAVE BEEN FOUND TO EXHIBIT: Higher self-motivation Confidence to express new ides Higher productivity Higher levels of customer approval and service quality Reliability & low turnover Organizational loyalty and thus less employee turnover Lower absenteeism

Effective employers today are learning and sharing their best HR practices with each other through benchmarking which involves measuring performance, systematically identifying best practices, learning from leading organizations, and adapting best practices as appropriate. This provides organizations with tools, models, skills, methods, and data to improve the effectiveness of their human resource programs for their customers by learning and sharing of information.

Unfortunately, theres no universal definition of knowledge management (KM), just as theres no agreement as to what constitutes knowledge in the first place. For this reason, its best to think of KM in the broadest context. Succinctly put, KM is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Most often, generating value from such assets involves codifying what employees, partners and customers know, and sharing that information among employees, departments and even with other companies in an effort to devise best practices. Its important to note that the definition says nothing about technology; while KM is often facilitated by IT, technology by itself is not KM. Think of a golf caddie as a simplified example of a knowledge worker. Good caddies do more than carry clubs and track down wayward balls. When asked, a good caddie will give advice to golfers, such as, The wind makes the ninth hole play 15 yards longer. Accurate advice may lead to a bigger tip at the end of the day. On the flip side, the golfer having derived a benefit from the caddies advice may be more likely to play that course again. If a good caddie is willing to share what he knows with other caddies, then they all may eventually earn bigger tips. How would KM work to make this happen? The caddie master may decide to reward caddies for sharing their tips by offering them credits for pro shop merchandise. Once the best advice is collected, the course manager would publish the information in notebooks (or make it available on PDAs), and distribute them to all the caddies. The end result of a well-designed KM program is that everyone wins. In this case, caddies get bigger tips and deals on merchandise, golfers play better because they benefit from the collective experience of caddies, and the course owners win because better scores lead to more repeat business. With the excitement and sense of urgency and momentum of a new project, the natural tendency is to dive right in. Your enthusiasm and imagination will be

essential to meeting project objectives, but they are not enough alone. Successful projects require effective management. In the application process for OLT funding, you have already done much of the groundwork for sound project management and your hard work will pay dividends now. With a relatively small amount of additional planning before you begin your pilot project, you can help ensure a successful outcome. The purpose of this learning module is to introduce you to the rudiments of project management. The module is divided into subsections which introduce some basic terminology of project management, describe the characteristics of successful projects and provide practical advice on creating a simple yet useable project management plan for your community learning pilot project. We hope you will find it useful.

CHAPTER- 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE

CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
According to Adnane Belout
[13]

Today, human resource management (HRM) is

being renewed in organizations and gradually affirming its strategic role. However, the results of an empirical study conducted by Pinto and Prescott [Journal of Management 14 (1988) 5] within a context of project management, contradict this trend. These authors concluded that the Personnel factor was the only factor in their research that was marginal for project success. This paper attempts to retest their conclusions in rethinking issues of validity of the measures used in their study. In line with research by Tsui [Human Resource Management 26 (1987) 35; Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (1990) 458] and some of Belout's recommendation [International Journal of Project Management 16(1) (1998) 21], the construct validity of the human resources factor has been examined and a model proposed. Results show, first of all, that although there was a link between project success and the Personnel factor (based on the correlation analyses), this factor did not have a significant impact on project success. Our results tend also to confirm that the relationships between the independent variables and project success will vary according to life cycle stage. The results also show that for three distinct structures (functional, project-based and matrix), the Management Support and Troubleshooting variables were significantly correlated with success. Finally, this study confirms a moderating effect between the independent variables and project success, depending on the sector studied. All in all, this research adds another step in conceptualizing HRM in project context which is still very rudimental. In this sense, researchers should, in the future, improve the construct validity of the Personnel variable by improving the psychometric properties of the questionnaires used in the project management context. This study also shows

the problem of multicolinearity, which appears to be excessive in the use of PIP. Finally, a fundamental question is posed: does HRM in the context of project management have specific characteristics that make its role, social responsibility and operation different from the so-called traditional HRM? According to David E Guest said that Human resource management (HRM) is a term which is now widely used but very loosely defined. In this paper it is argued that if the concept is to have any social scientific value, it should be defined in such a way as to differentiate it from traditional personnel management and to allow the development of testable hypotheses about its impact. Based on theoretical work in the field of organizational behavior it is proposed that HRM comprises a set of policies designed to maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work. Within this model, collective industrial relations have, at best, only a minor role. Despite the apparent attractions of HRM to managements, there is very little evidence of any quality about its impact. Furthermore very few UK organizations appear to practice a distinctive form of HRM, although many are moving slowly in that direction through, for example, policies of employee involvement [14]. According to Adnane Belout University of Montreal, School of Industrial Relations, Montreal, Canada[15] Project management strategy research has focused on the effects of structure and planning operations (such as budgets, date completion and quality) on project success. In the past, projects have been managed as technical systems instead of behavioral systems. Relatively little attention has been paid to human resource factor. However, the Project Management Institute in its official definition of Project Management Body of Knowledge (P.M.B.K.) included human resource management as one of the six fundamental basic functions of project management.1 In this arena which lacks theoretical foundation, a relatively recent study made the situation even worse.

Pinto and Prescott (1988) concluded that the Personnel factor (independent variable) was the only factor in their research that was marginal for project success (dependent variable). This paper takes a critical look at this research and attempts to respond to their controversial findings. The main objective is to improve the thinking aspects and to highlight the validity of the measures used. People are the backbone and most valuable resource for successfully executing any project. To survive and grow in the 21st century, project management practitioners must learn and use appropriate interpersonal skills that inspire all those involved in a project. This book offers practical guidelines that can be used to develop and implement the practices of communication, motivation, negotiation, conflict resolution, conflict and stress management and leadership. Human resource Skills for the Project manager is Volume Two of the Human Aspects of Project Management Series [16]. A model for developing and implementing human resource management strategies incorporating both an external fit (human resource management fits the developmental stage of the organization) and an internal fit (the components of human resource management complement and support each other) is proposed. Human resource management is seen as having five developmental stages and six strategic components. These are combined to form the Human Resource Strategic Matrix. The implications of these ideas for research and practice are discussed. According to Andrew Longman, HR executives can take the lead in helping their organizations excel in increasingly important project work. Among other issues, they need to ensure employees understand the strategic relevance of the specific projects and need to create performance systems and cultures that reward involvement on project teams.

One key change that has largely eluded the attention of management gurus is the shift in how work gets done. The modern enterprise has become project driven and this change presents significant new challenges and opportunities, especially for HR professionals. Project work comes with a package of idiosyncrasies. No two projects are exactly alike. Project teams rarely rotate intact from one project to the next. Talent is added and subtracted as needed or as it is available. Similar needs are often met with dissimilar solutions. And projects tend to be "green field" activities, without benefit from previous "lessons learned." Excelling at managing projects and people requires a broadly embedded understanding of how effective project work happens and of the new behaviors needed for success. It is a challenge for which HR professionals are uniquely suited. According to David E. Guest in 1990 human resource management (HRM) is a term which is now widely used but very loosely defined. In this paper it is argued that if the concept is to have any social scientific value, it should be defined in such a way as to differentiate it from traditional personnel management and to allow the development of testable hypotheses about its impact. Based on theoretical work in the field of organizational behaviour it is proposed that HRM comprises a set of policies designed to maximize organizational integration, employee commitment, flexibility and quality of work. Within this model, collective industrial relations have, at best, only a minor role. Despite the apparent attractions of HRM to managements, there is very little evidence of any quality about its impact. Furthermore very few UK organizations appear to practice a distinctive form of HRM, although many are moving slowly in that direction through, for example, policies of employee involvement.

According to David P Lepak Pennsylvania state university he study examines two alternative views--universal and contingency--of the human resources (HR)-performance relationship in manufacturing settings. Results from a survey of 97 plants primarily support a contingency approach to human resource management (HRM). An HR system focused on human capital enhancement was directly related to multiple dimensions of operational performance (i.e., employee productivity, machine efficiency, and customer alignment), but subsequent analysis revealed that this main effect was predominately the result of linking human-capital-enhancing HR systems with a quality manufacturing strategy. Other manufacturing strategies also moderated the HR-performance relationship. According to Adrune University of Montreal, Project management strategy research has focused on the effects of structure and planning operations (such as budgets, date completion and quality) on project success. In the past, projects have been managed as technical systems instead of behavioral systems. Relatively little attention has been paid to human resource factor. However, the Project Management Institute in its official definition of Project Management Body of Knowledge (P.M.B.K.) included human resource management as one of the six fundamental basic functions of project management. in this arena which lacks theoretical foundation, a relatively recent study made the situation even worse. Pinto and Prescott (1988) concluded that the Personnel factor (independent variable) was the only factor in their research that was marginal for project success (dependent variable). This paper takes a critical look at this research and attempts to respond to their controversial findings. The main objective is to improve the thinking aspects and to highlight the validity of the measures used. According to Karen A. Golden the first stage of a two-stage research project on the relationship between human resource management (HRM) and strategic
1

business planning (SBP) is described. Based on data collected from senior human resource executives in 10 Cleveland area companies, a typology of HRM-SBP linkages is developed. Factors which appear to influence the extent of HRM-SBP integration are identified and discussed. An agenda for future research is provided. According to Jonathan Michie the relationship between HRM and performance was explored in 366 UK companies using objective and subjective performance measures and cross-sectional and longitudinal data. Using objective measures of performance, greater use of HRM is associated with lower labor turnover and higher profit per employee but not higher productivity. After controlling for previous years performance, the association ceases to be significant. Using subjective performance estimates, there is a strong association between HRM and both productivity and financial performance. The study therefore confirms the association between HRM and performance but fails to show that HRM causes higher performance. According to Michael A. West Developing effective health care organizations is increasingly complex as a result of demographic changes, globalization, and developments in medicine. This study examines the potential contribution of organizational behavior theory and research by investigating the relationship between systems of human resource management (HRM) practices and effectiveness of patient care in hospitals. Relatively little research has been conducted to explore these issues in health care settings. In a sample of 52 hospitals in England, we examine the relationship between the HRM system and health care outcome. Specifically, we study the association between high performance HRM policies and practices and standardized patient mortality rates. The research reveals that, after controlling for prior mortality and other potentially confounding factors such as the ratio of doctors to patients, greater use of a complementary set of HRM practices has a statistically and practically

significant relationship with patient mortality. The findings suggest that managers and policy makers should focus sharply on improving the functioning of relevant HR management systems in health care organizations as one important means by which to improve patient care. Copyright 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. According to Charis Brewster Cranfield University the concept of human resource management (HRM) has been much debated in the literature. The concept developed initially from work in the U.S.A. in the 1960s and 1970s and since then has been adopted increasingly around the world. This paper argues that in Europe there is only limited acceptance of the organisational autonomy upon which the concept is based, and that, therefore, different approaches to the notion of human resource management are required. External constraints are analysed and a new model of the concept that would encompass EuroHRM is proposed. According to B Fabi and N Pettersen the paper reviews the literature on the different human resource management (HRM) practices in project management. Through an analysis of more than 60 publications in French and English, it sets out current knowledge on the existence, the quality and the problems relating to HRM practices in diverse project management environments. The HRM practices considered are the following: human resource planning, reception or organizational entry, selection, job analysis, remuneration, performance assessment, training and career planning. The conclusion contains some evaluative commentaries on the present state of knowledge concerning HRM practices in project management. Some recommendations for future research are also proposed.

According to Stephen J. Wood Institute of Work Psychology, School of Management, and ESRC Centre for Innovation and Organization, University of Sheffield, It is often assumed that research over the last decade has established an effect of human resource management (HRM) practices on organizational performance. Our critical assessment of existing studies finds that, although collectively they have opened up a promising line of inquiry, their methodological limitations make such a conclusion premature. We argue that future progress depends on using stronger research methods and design that, in turn, will require large-scale long-term research at a level of magnitude that probably can only be achieved through partnerships between research, practitioner and government communities. We conclude that progress so far justifies investment in such big science. According to David E. Bowen and Carmen Galang we explore how the role of Human Resource Management (HRM) varies across countries on two dimensions. One is how the status of HRM departments may vary (e.g., perceptions of its importance and involvement). Second is whether there is cross-country strategic HRM (SHRM) in terms of the conventional contingency approach (linking HRM practices to strategy), as well as a resource-based view of the firm (e.g., developing organizational capability as competitive advantage). Results included significant differences in HRM status across countries; significant correlations between status and organizational capability; and in Asian countries, a slight tendency for HRM practices to be linked more to a differentiation strategy, whereas, in Anglo countries, a strong linkage between HRM practices and organizational capability. 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The study of human resource management (HRM) has been invigorated by the promise that there is a best-practice, high-involvement management (HIM) that

can guarantee superior organizational performance. None the less, there remain concerns that contingency theory still rules, that is, that the fit between the human resource systems and their context, and particularly the organization's business strategy, is all important and, thus, that HIM will only outperform other systems in certain circumstances. In the 1990s, there has been a spate of research that has sought to test whether HIM is indeed universally relevant. This paper reviews these studies. The paper first introduces the conceptual dimensions of the debate concerning HRM and performance. This shows that the issues go beyond a simple competition between universalism and contingency theory. There are more complicated hypotheses linking human resource practices beneath the surface of the recent literature. The second part of the paper overviews the studies in the light of these hypotheses, revealing that they present an uneven picture. Firstly, there are conceptual differences underlying the studies and, secondly, the results vary between them, and the effects of HIM vary between performance measures even in particular studies. Though a fair number of the studies claim to support universalism, their claims are not always unequivocally supported by their research evidence, and it is premature to conclude in its favour. If anything, there is more support for the lean production argument that stresses the interaction effect between HIM and total quality management on performance. BEST HR PRACTICES Human Resource is all of the practices that surround people, from recruiting, orientation and training to corporate culture and non-monetary rewards, as well as benefits and compensation. HR is about creating a workplace where employees, the most valuable asset for most companies, can perform to their peak potential.

The best practices in the management of Human Resources are the ones which optimize a workforce so that it can not only get more done, but also ensure a greater level of efficiency, timeliness & quality accomplishing an increase in overall productivity. The Best Employers in India 2007 study, conducted by Hewitt Associates and Great Place to Work Study 2006 study conducted by Grow Talent provides a definitive benchmark against which one can measure how effective an organization is in providing a workplace that engages the intellectual and emotional commitment of its employees. The key parameters on the basis of which the best HR practices can be categorized and the trends observed for each of these are: Recruitment, Hiring & Induction:-

Modern management thought focuses attention on "people" as the key to successful deployment of resources to meet organizational goals and realize strategies. The Recruitment and Selection process promotes successful hiring decisions that can truly impact the success of a department or faculty. This constitutes initiating the Recruitment Process through advertising, screening applicants, selecting the Interview Panel, conducting the Interview Plan i.e. Interview Scheduling and the Interview Environment, making the Selection Decision (Candidate Evaluation, Reference Checking) and making the offer. Research has consistently shown a high degree of correlation between being a preferred employer and superior financial results. Being a preferred employer involves the following key criteria:

POSITIONING THE EMPLOYER BRAND The employer brand is an image of the organization that employees and prospective employees have. It includes perceptions of functional benefits, economic value and psychological attributes associated with the employment experience. It is a critical factor which determines the decision to apply or stay with the organization. Also, it would be aligned to the corporate brand promise to customers (As per a Hewitt Study, there is a strong linkage between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction). SOURCES OF TALENT The Best employers practice the philosophy of hiring for a career as opposed to hiring for a job. They deploy employee referral, internal job posting, internal recruitment team, external consultant, job fair, job sites, and Company internet site as the common methods of recruitment for different levels of management. At the Senior Management level, head-hunters, referrals and internal applications are the primary sources of talent. At the Middle Management level, internal applications, referrals and head-hunters are primary sources supplemented by applications solicited in advertised positions. At the Junior Management levels, all methods except job fairs are widely used by most of the preferred Employers. MAKING THE SELECTION DECISION According to the Hewitt Best Employers Survey, the Best Employers lay much greater emphasis on the softer attributes such as fit with culture & organization values and competencies as compared to the other employers which is in line with the recruitment policy to hire for career

General criteria used by the Top 25 Employers (Hewitt Survey & GPTW Study) to make the Selection Decision Figure 2.1, Source: The Hewitt Best Employers in India 2007 study & GPTW study, 2006. These criteria are assessed through a multi-step process consisting of multiple rounds of interview with HR, potential supervisor, skip-level supervisor, senior management and a probationary period. MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS Preferred employers in addition to monitoring how many openings were filled and in what time period, they also use process quality metrics like rate of wrong fits and performance of new joinees. This helps them tune the process, align it with the market & business requirements and drive employee engagement. INDUCTION/ ORIENTATION PROCESS A key characteristic of effective employers as per the GPTW Study, 2006 is the emphasis laid on ensuring that a new joinee is completely on-board. Not only do they focus on the content of the orientation program, but also on how it is delivered and then followed through. They use the orientation program to communicate expectations forwards to the employee and backwards to the organization. Learning & Development, Career Progression: Provision of a learning environment with systematic developmental inputs in order to grow the depth and quality of the talent pipeline at all levels and ensures a higher return in each role is very important for an effective employer. Training is now treated as an investment rather than a cost. Research by Mercer Human Resource Consulting has shown that "Career & Opportunity" is the single most important driver of employee engagement in Asia. It suggests that people are more likely to pursue

alternative employment opportunities for career development than financial reward. A key point is the use of opportunities within the organization to the mutual advantage of the employee and organization, thus stretching the long term benefit of each rupee spent on training. Also another key point is the use of selflearning tools like career counseling tools, company library facilities, tuition reimbursements and sabbaticals. This reflects the a preferred employers commitment to their strong belief that development is the joint responsibility of the employee as well as the organization DEVELOPMENT & LEARNING PRACTICES Hewitts Best Employers invest 82 hours of training in their employees and roughly 0.25-3% of gross revenue. All Best Employers use multiple sources of development - external, in-house and computer based self-paced learning. Percentage of Best Employers Using Each of the Following Developmental Practices.

UPCOMING TRENDS IN LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT TEAM CONCEPT:-

The team concept is useful as a low-cost alternative to formal crossfunctional training programs and helps employees become familiar with broader aspects of the organization. It helps to build general management skills, teamwork and can be

leveraged to effectively solve organizational problems through internal consultants. Also, according to the GPTW Report, effective employers use

autonomous workgroups where a team of employees works together with minimal oversight by a superior, to produce results for the company. NEW RECRUIT TRAINING:-

Newly recruited employees not only undergo an orientation program, but are also provided with job-related and behavioral skills training to begin contributing confidently and productively in the job assigned. EMPLOYEE SUGGESTION SCHEMES: Employee suggestion

schemes, where implemented, build engagement through the driver influence. Not only are they a source of upward feedback from the trenches or lower levels, but develop employees as corporate citizens. TUITION REIMBURSEMENTS:as per the Hewitt Report provide Tuition

All Best employers

Reimbursement programs to its employees. Most of the effective employers also offer paid and unpaid sabbaticals to its employees. While paid sabbaticals are typically offered to enhance effectiveness of employees in

their current or future roles, unpaid sabbaticals are used as rewards for long serving employees with often no requirements beyond employment. MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS The most popular methods of measuring effectiveness of the level of learning & development in an organization remain periodic user feedback and post-training performance management data (as a measure of transfer of training). 1) TALENT MANAGEMENT:-

As per the GPTW report, the selected best employers also have in place focused programs to develop those with higher potential for contribution. These individuals are the future leaders of the organization and exist at all levels. Thus, a high potential program must be supported by a strong performance management framework that not only differentiates between high and low performers but also, is able to give a fair assessment of the employee's potential. 2) WORK ENVIRONMENT:-

Best Employers have transparent and employee centered work environments that contribute towards building a total rewards experience for their workforce. Best Employers design their strategy, programs and practices to reflect a people-friendly employer-employee relationship with the belief of communicating everything which includes sharing of product or service information and information on the branding of the organization in the marketplace with management and employees.

DOWNWARD COMMUNICATION Senior management groups are the single most frequent source of

communication for employees regarding the organizational philosophy, objectives and related business initiatives. 100% of the companies selected in the Hewitts Best Employers & Grow Talent GPTW have a formal communication strategy. Employee satisfaction results are the most frequently communicated pieces of information including business goals and objectives, company operating results and customer information on an annual basis among both management and employees. According to research there has been a shift from a traditional communication philosophy to a transformational communication philosophy over the years as preferred employers and many other organizations have increasingly started believing today that the more employees know the more they can act independently and contribute towards organizational success. CHANNELS OF DOWNWARD COMMUNICATION Downward channels of communication are widely used at the Best Employers as per the Hewitt Survey. Employers selected by GPTW Study not only communicate, but ensure that the message reaches. Most frequent source used for communicating sharing various types of information with employees.

UPWARD COMMUNICATION Communication at Best Employers is a continuous two way process between the management and employees and various mediums are used to solicit employee opinions and suggestions surrounding organizational issues.

Sources of employee input Source of employee inputs % Employers Employee opinion surveys Focus groups Representative councils/ panels 96% 88% 68% Selected

Electronic or traditional suggestion 84% boxes 96% Employee meetings (Large or small group) Other Table 2.3, Source: Grow Talents Great Place to Work Study, 2006 Effective employers use employee inputs to influence programs and policy decisions, manage changes in employee motivation, satisfaction or morale and make product/service or process improvements. Many of these organizations also use this feedback for enhancing business performance and evaluating people program effectiveness. 44%

GRIEVANCE RESOLUTION Preferred employers today aim at creating a positive and employee oriented work environment to enhance productivity and engagement levels. However, they do understand that there may be individual employee concerns and suggestions to improve existing systems and processes. Therefore, they establish channels or processes through which employees can appeal or complain if they feel unfairly treated. Processes which employees use to complain & appeal at the selected employers EMPLOYEE PORTALS Preferred employers as per the GPTW Study are strong advocates of "selfmanagement" and provide employees with the technology and resources that they need to make decisions effectively as well as the tools to implement those decisions. The use of automated employee portals helps in streamlining processes and enables key Human Resource functions such as Performance management, Compensation and Payroll Administration FUN AT WORK In order to inculcate the element of "fun" at the workplace, organizations should recognize employee achievements and special days e.g. birthdays, completion of a number of years of service etc. These celebrations also extend to the employees spouse, children and family at a majority of Best Employers of Hewitt.

CHAPTER- 3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

CHAPTER 3

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To find the role of knowledge in the effective project management. 2. To find the role of effective knowledge & project management to achieve the desired goals by the proper team building. 3. To find the role of human resource administrator in the project management team building at the different hierarchy levels of the company.

CHAPTER- 4 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

CHAPTER 4

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The current chapter deals with the research methodology adopted in the present study indicates the selection of sample respondents, collection of data, choice of statistical tools for analysis of data, in addition to pointing out limitation of the study. Methodology adopted The research is aimed at studying the Role of Knowledge management in project management at Baluja Labs. Research design: The design for this study is descriptive. Since the study will conducted to find the attitude of employees towards role of knowledge management in project management. This is a company as we discussed profile of company, which dealing in software Development, website Development and Seo . Sampling plan: Sampling is an effective step in collection of primary data that influences the quality and correctness of the result. Sample size: The sample size is so selected to give the true picture of the problem. 50 middle level and high level management employees of the company will be randomly select.

Sampling techniques: Convenience sampling shall be used to conduct this study. Under this technique sample of respondents will be chosen to the convenience of the respondents. Sources of primary data and secondary data: In this study, sample survey will be conducted both primary as well as secondary data were used. The primary data is collected by structured questionnaires, Interview and Observation method. Brief information is collected regarding different attributes to be considered and questionnaire contained both open ended, close ended and ranking questions. The secondary data is obtained from magazines, journals, and internet and from various books. Here I would like to use two types of Questioners, one for Employees and another one for Clients.

CHAPTER- 5
DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

CHAPTER 5

DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

1. Which of the following functional areas best describes your work responsibilities?

TABLE - 1 Criteria
Information Technology Human Resources Organizational Development Knowledgement Management Customer Relationship Management Financial Management Sales and/or Marketing R&D Manufacturing Operational or senior management Frequency 10 6 4 2 3 4 6 5 7 3 Percentage 20% 12% 8% 4% 6% 8% 12% 10% 14% 6%

FI N D I N GS :
It is evident from the above table that 20% sample of respondents think that the Information Technology functional areas best describes your work responsibilities, 12% sample of respondents think that the Human Resources functional areas best describes your work responsibilities, Organizational Development, 6% agree with Customer 8% think Relationship

Management and 4% sample of respondent think Knowledgement Management areas best describes work responsibilities,

ANALYSIS:
It is analyzed from the table that most of the employees are think that the Information Technology functional areas best describes work responsibilities.

2. What should the primary emphasis of a KM educational program be in order to be as relevant and useful to you as possible? (Check all that apply)

TABLE - 2 Criteria
K M Strategies KM Technologies KM Tools and Methods KM Metrics Supply-side KM (approaches for enhancing knowledge sharing) Demand-side KM (approaches for enhancing knowledge production, or innovation) KM Value Propositions and ROI Schemes Theoretical foundations in KM Frequency 8 10 12 6 8 11 4 1 Percentage 16% 4% 24% 12% 16% 22% 8% 2%

FI N D I N GS :
It is evident from the above table that 24% sample of respondents think that the KM Tools and Methods primary is emphasis of a KM educational program be in order to be as relevant and useful, 22% sample of respondents think that the

Demand-side KM (approaches for enhancing knowledge production, or innovation) primary emphasis of a KM educational program be in order to be as relevant and useful, 16% agree with KM Strategies and Supply-side KM (approaches for enhancing knowledge sharing),12% sample of respondent think KM Metrics the primary emphasis of a KM educational program.

ANALYSIS:
It is analyzed from the table that most of the sample of respondents think that the KM Tools and Methods is primary emphasis of a KM educational program be in order to be as relevant and useful.

3. How would you rank your own level of experience and familiarity with KM?

TABLE - 3 Criteria
Introductory Intermediate Advanced Frequency 20 20 10 Percentage 40% 40% 20%

FINDINGS:
It is evident from the above table that 40% sample of respondents think that the Introductory and Intermediate rank your own level of experience and familiarity with KM and 20% sample of respondents think that Advanced level of experience and familiarity with KM.

ANALYSIS:
It is analyzed from the table that most of the sample of respondents agrees with Introductory and Intermediate.

4. What is the current status of Knowledge Management in IT Companies?

TABLE - 4 Criteria
Not in Existence at all Nascent stage Introduction Stage Growth Stage Frequency 02 08 18 22 Percentage 40% 16% 36% 44%

FINDINGS:
44% Percentage respondents feels that Growth Stage is current status of Knowledge Management in IT Companies Where 40% feels Not in Existence at all is current status of Knowledge Management in IT Companies 36% believe Introduction stage and 16% say Nascent Stage.

ANALYSIS:
Most of the people believe that Growth Stage is current status of Knowledge Management in IT Companies.

5. Do IT Companies recognize knowledge as a part of their asset base?

TABLE - 5
Criteria Yes No Cant say Frequency 42 7 1 Percentage 84% 14% 20%

FINDINGS:
84% Percentage respondents feels that IT Companies recognize knowledge as a part of their asset base, Where 20% cant say any think about that and 14% said No.

ANALYSIS:
Most of the people believe that feels that IT Companies recognize knowledge as a part of their asset base.

6. What are the problems of IT Companies?

TABLE - 6
Criteria Lack of Information Information overload. Reinventing the wheel. Loss of crucial knowledge due to a key employee leaving the organization Poor sharing of knowledge in the organization Frequency 2 8 12 12 16 Percentage 40% 16% 24% 24% 32%

FINDINGS:
40% Percentage respondents feels that Lack of Information is the problems of IT Companies, where 32% Percentage respondents feels that poor sharing of knowledge in the organization is the Problems of IT Companies, 24% Percentage respondents feels that Reinventing the wheel and Loss of crucial knowledge due to a key employee leaving the organization problems and 16% Percentage respondents feels Information overload is the problems of IT Companies.

ANALYSIS:
Most of the people believe that Lack of Information is the problems of IT Companies.

7. What is the biggest hurdle in effective implementation of KM in IT Companies?

TABLE 7
Criteria Changing peoples behavior from knowledge hoarding to knowledge sharing Lack of understanding of KM and its benefits Determining what kind of knowledge to be managed & making it available Justifying the use of scarce resources for KM Lack of top management commitment to KM. Overcoming technological limitations Attracting & retaining talented people. Frequency 12 8 7 9 11 8 0 Percentage 24% 16% 14% 18% 22% 16% 0%

FINDINGS:
24% Percentage respondents feels that Changing peoples behavior from knowledge hoarding to knowledge is the biggest hurdle in effective implementation of KM in IT Companies, where 22% Percentage respondents feels that Lack of top management commitment to KM, 18% Percentage respondents think that Justifying the use of scarce resources for KM is the biggest hurdle in effective implementation of KM in IT Companies and 14% Percentage respondents think Determining what kind of knowledge to be managed & making it available is the biggest hurdle in effective implementation of KM in IT Companies.

ANALYSIS:
Most of the people believe that changing peoples behavior from knowledge hoarding to knowledge is the biggest hurdle in effective implementation of KM in IT Companies.

8. The project manager's leadership style should be matched to the corresponding developmental level of the project team and should move through successive steps in the following order:

TABLE 8
No. of Requirements 50 Percentage 12 24 Disciplining Staff Planning 28 56 Team Building 8 16 2 4 Coaching

50

Disc iplining Staff Planning Team Building Coaching

FINDINGS:
56% Percentage respondents feels that project leadership comes from staff planning Where 24% feels its term the Discipline, where only 16% believe its Team building & 2% say Coaching.

ANALYSIS:
Most of the people believe the staff planning is the main thing for the project success & then is the discipline which Contributes to it. Only same people believe that Team building is also is also an important role of the HR.

9. Human resource administration is the primary responsibility of the.

TABLE 9
No. of Respondents Project Team 50 Percentage 10 20 Human Dept 34 68 0 0 6 12 0 0 Executive manager Project Manager Line Manager

Management resource

No. of Respond ents Project Man age ment Tea m Human resource Dept Executive mana ger

Project Man age r

Line Manag er

FINDINGS:
68% respondents believe that Human resource Dept is Concerned with the administration as primary responsibility wheres the 20% people believe in project Management Team.

ANALYSIS:
Human resource is the main department which is mainly responsible for the administrative work and other day to day admin Management issues.

10. A mandatory prerequisite for team building is:

TABLE 10
No. of Respondents 50 Percentage Functioning for Staff Development 2 4 Shared work ether 32 64 Commitment from top Level 8 16 Removal of Troubling individuals 8 16

50 Funct ioning for Staff Development Sha d work ether re

Com itment m fro m top Level Removal of Tro ubling individuals

FINDINGS:
64% respondents believes most shared work ethics is the mandatory perquisite for team building whereas also 16% says the commitment from Top level management in important.

ANALYSIS:
I t is found for the team to work smoothly it is the shared work ethics which matter which is supported by management of the company.

11. The factor which is the not contributing to the process of project human resource management is.

TABLE 11
No. of Respondents 50 Percentage Functioning for Staff Development 40 80 Shared work ether 0 0 Commitment from top Level 8 16 Removal of Troubling individuals 2 164

Functioning for Staff Develop ment Sha red w rk ethe r o

Commitmen t from top Le vel Removal of Trou bling ind ividua ls

FINDINGS:
80% respondent believes that organization planning is least bothered area of the HR where 16% respondents believe that information distribution is not the area of HR.

ANALYSIS:
Organizational planning is the area which is out of the bowel of the HR department. It is the management issue which is resolved at the higher levels.

12. The team building is most difficult in the following organizations.

TABLE 12
No of respondents 50 Percentage 10 20 8 16 12 24 Functional Projectized Matrix Project Expediter 6 12 Project coordinator 14 28

50

Functional Projectized Matrix Project Exped iter Project Co ordina tor

FINDINGS:
28% respondents feel that the team building is difficult in the project coordinates environment & 6% for the project expediter & 24% beliefs that are difficult in the matrix organization.

ANALYSIS:
Most of the respondents founds that project coordinates environment in the most difficult to handle the situation.

13. Project Management is an effective & power strategy & should be implemented in every organization.

TABLE 13
No of respondents 50 Percentage Yes 41 82 No 9 18

50

Yes No

FINDINGS:
82% respondents feel that the project management is the important issue with the success of the project where 18% is not.

ANALYSIS:
Monthly all respondents are agreeing with the feeling that the project management is the important issue to be handled by the HR department.

107

CHAPTER- 6 CONCLUSION

CHAPTER 6

CONCLUSION
Therefore, there is a need to: 1. Information and communications technologies are an important

ingredient of virtually every successful knowledge management program. An ever wider range of highly effective solutions are coming to market, including a new generation of artificial intelligence solutions, new flavors of document management systems and various collaborative technologies such as the Internet. 2. Successful implementation depends, as always, on giving appropriate focus to the non-technical factors such as human factors, organizational processes and culture, the multi-disciplinary skills of hybrid teams and managers, and the already existing knowledge repository of prior. 3. To remain competitive, organizations must efficiently and effectively create, locate, capture, and share their organizations knowledge and expertise. This increasingly requires making the organization's knowledge explicit and recording it for easier distribution and reuse. This article provides a framework for configuring a firms organizational and technical resources and capabilities to leverage its codified knowledge. This knowledge management architecture is illustrated with examples of two companies that are successfully competing based on their ability to manage their explicit knowledge.

4. Elaborate on evaluation techniques in order to provide support for effective solutions to resource-based problems, in particular, resource allocation, people (knowledge/skill, learning) capability metrics, resource compatibility metrics; analysis, comparison and management of resource capabilities. 5. Develop new approaches to project management scheduling which provide the means for analyzing human resource quality and its impact(s) on project performance and output quality. 6. Integrate project management scheduling, which incorporates human, managerial, and organizational aspects, into the process modeling frameworks. The application of such an approach is very much concerned with the improvement of project management quality via strategic management of employee skill capabilities. In particular, this approach provides the means for improving an organizations ability to plan, forecast, manage, implement, and control its activities in projects where capability and compatibility of resources are critical aspects. 7. The purpose of project management process is to define an effective team structure for a project organizational unit. The team structure defines the roles, responsibilities and relationships of the people managing and working within a project organizational unit. An appropriate team structure will help to optimize the efforts of the team and the success of the project. An inappropriate one can undercut the efforts of a hard working group of people and impede their success.

8. The main role of hr in project management is to determine the appropriate team model for the unit by considering the broad objective(s)

of the unit and, if applicable, the work patterns that have been selected. Note that several mod may apply if the project organizational unit has several objectives. Plan the number of team(s) within the project organizational unit and how the responsibilities of the organizational unit will be split between the teams. Consider how the teams will be managed within the organizational unit. Estimate the size of each team and determine the skills that each team will require. The right number of people in a team depends on factors such as the nature of the work.

9. To manage the project in the better way its the primary responsibility of the HR to understand how the responsibilities for in this area are divided between the project manager and any other manager(s) and then either execute, or contribute to the execution of, the following steps. Review the Human resource plan to understand the staffing requirements. Focus on information such as human resource categories, numbers of staff needed, when needed, special skills, and cost. Review the Agreement to understand what staff the client has agreed to provide and to determine if there are any constraints in the Agreement related to staffing.

10.It is the responsibility of project management to ensure that a balance is achieved between the often conflicting interests of the task, the individual, and the team. The project manager and the functional managers must cooperate if an acceptable balance is to be achieved. Set performance expectations and measurements the purpose of this process is to develop a set of objectives for the project team and then to assist the team members and their functional managers in setting individual objectives.

CHAPTER- 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY

CHAPTER 7

BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. "Introduction to Knowledge Management". Unc.edu. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 2. http://www.crito.uci.edu/noah/HOIT/HOIT%20Papers/TeacherBridge.pdf . Retrieved 15 January 2010. 3. http://www.ischool.washington.edu/mcdonald/ecscw03/papers/grothecscw03-ws.pdf. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 4. Secretary of Defense Corporate Fellows Program; Observations in Knowledge Management: Leveraging the Intellectual Capital of a Large, Global Organization with Technology, Tools and Policies. IBM, Global Business Services. 2002. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 5. "Information Architecture and Knowledge Management". Iakm.kent.edu. Archived from the original on June 29, 2008. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 6. Snowden, Dave (2002). "Complex Acts of Knowing - Paradox and Descriptive Self Awareness". Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue 6 (2): 100 - 111. 7. SSRN-Knowledge Ecosystems: A Theoretical Lens for Organizations Confronting Hyperturbulent Environments by David Bray. Papers.ssrn.com. Retrieved 15 January 2010.

8. http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/wyssusek02sociopragmatic.html 9. "SSRN-Literature Review - Knowledge Management Research at the Organizational Level by David Bray". Papers.ssrn.com. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 10.Hayes, M.; Walsham, G. (2003). Knowledge sharing and ICTs: A relational perspective In M. Easterby- Smith & M. A. Lyles (Eds.), The Blackwell 63122672-7. 11."SSRN-Exploration, Strategies in Exploitation, and Knowledge Organizations Management Experiencing handbook Malden, of organizational MA: Blackwell. learning and knowledge ISBN 978-0management. pp. 5477.

Multi-Tier

Hierarchical

Environmental Turbulence by David Bray". Papers.ssrn.com. Retrieved 15 January 2010. 12.http://www.cs.fiu.edu/~chens/PDF/IRI00_Rathau.pdf. January 2010. 13.http://tecom.cox.smu.edu/abasu/itom6032/kmlect.pdf 14.http://myweb.whitman.syr.edu/yogesh/papers/WhyKMSFail.pdf . 15.Retrieved 15 January 2010.
[dead link]

Retrieved

15

16."p217-ricardo.pdf" (PDF). Retrieved 15 January 2010.

17.Gupta, Jatinder; Sharma, Sushil (2004). Creating Knowledge Based Organizations. Boston: Idea Group Publishing. ISBN 1591401631. 18."Knowledge Management". www.systems-thinking.org. Retrieved 26 February 2009. 19.Aviation Industry Group. 2005. 20.Basili, V.R. and Turner, A.J., Iterative Enhancement: a Practical Technique for Software Development, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, SE-1, (4),(1975) 390-396 21.Boehm, B.W., A Spiral Model of Software Development and Enhancement, IEEE Computer, No. 21, (1988) 61-72 22.Conway, R.W., Maxwell, W.L., and Miller, L.W.: Theory of Scheduling, Addison- Wesley Publishing Company, (1967) 23.Curtis, B., Hefley, W. and Miller, S., People Capability Maturity Model (CMU/SEI- 95-MM-02), Pittsburgh, A: Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 1995. 24.Dowson, M., Software Process Themes and Issues, Proceedings of the 2 Process Improvement, Berlin, Germany, (1993) 54-62
nd

"Service life-cycle management"

[dead

link]

Aircraft Technology: Engineering & Maintenance, FebruaryMarch,

International Conference of the Software Process: Continuous Software

25.Kellner, M.I. and Hansen, G.A., Software Process Modeling: A Case Study, Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Vol. 2, (1989) 175-188 26.Meredith, J.R. and Mantel, JR, S.J., Project Management: A Managerial Approach, John Wiley&Sons, Inc., (1995) 27.Royce, W.W., Managing the Development of Large Software Systems: Concepts and Techniques, Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Software Engineering, Pittsburgh, (1989) 328-338 28.Sachs, P., Transforming Work: Collaboration, Learning and Design, Communications of the ACM, Vol. 38, No. 9, (1995) 36-44 29.Sommerville, I. and Rodden, T., Human, social and organizational influences on the software processes. In A. Fuggetta and A. Wolf (ed.), Software Process, Vol. 4 of Trends in Software., J. Wiley, Chapter 4, (1996) 89-109 30.White, P., Process Modelling and Process Support, IOPENER, Vol. 1, No. 3, (1992)7-8 31.Factors influencing project success: the impact of human resource management Adnane Belout and Clothilde Gauvreau School of Industrial Relations, University of Montreal, CP 6128, succursale Centre-Ville, Montral, QC, Canada H3C 3J7. 32.HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS David E. Guest.

33.Effects of human resource management on project effectiveness and success: Toward a new conceptual framework Adnane Belout University of Montreal, School of Industrial Relations, Montreal, Canada 33. The human aspects of project management: human resource skills for the project manager, volume two Author: Vijay Verma

CHAPTER- 8
QUESTIONNAIRE

CHAPTER 8

QUESTIONNAIRE
DEAR RESPONDENTS: I am a student doing MBA. I am underlying a project named ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN PROJECTMANAGEMENT OF SOFTWARE COMPANY AT BALUJA LABS PVT. LTD.. So by filling this questionnaire please help me in completing my research project. NAME (optional): GENDER: AGE: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

YEARS AT CURRENT POSITION: ----------------------------------TOTAL NO. OF YEARS IN THIS ORGANIZATION: ------------1. Which of the following functional areas best describes your work responsibilities? Internal to an Enterprise Information Technology Human Resources Organizational Development Knowledge Management Customer Relationship Management Financial Management Sales and/or Marketing R&D Manufacturing Operational or senior management

2. What should the primary emphasis of a KM educational program be in order to be as relevant and useful to you as possible? (check all that apply) KM Strategies KM Technologies KM Tools and Methods KM Metrics Supply-side KM (approaches for enhancing knowledge sharing) Demand-side KM (approaches for enhancing knowledge production, or innovation) KM Value Propositions and ROI Schemes Theoretical foundations in KM 3. How would you rank your own level of experience and familiarity with KM? Introductory Intermediate Advanced 4. What is the current status of Knowledge Management in IT Companies? a) Not in existence at all. [ ] b) c) Introduction stage. [ ] d) Nascent stage Growth stage [ ] [ ]

5.Do IT Companies recognise knowledge as a part of their asset base? a) Yes [ ] b) No [ ] c) Cant say [ ]

6. What are the problems of IT Companies? a) Lack of Information b) Information overload. c) Reinventing the wheel. [ ] [ ] [ ]

d) Loss of crucial knowledge due to a key employee leaving the organisation. [ ] e) Poor sharing of knowledge in the organisation. [ ]

7. What is the biggest hurdle in effective implementation of KM in IT Companies? a) Changing peoples behaviour from knowledge hoarding to knowledge sharing. [ ] b) Lack of understanding of KM and its benefits. [ ] c) Determining what kind of knowledge to be managed & making it available. [ ] d) Justifying the use of scarce resources for KM. [ ] e) Lack of top management commitment to KM. [ ] f) Overcoming technological limitations. g) Attracting & retaining talented people. [ ] [ ]

8. Please rate the knowledge provided to IT Companies by government /industry associations. Excellent a) Relevant Knowledge b) Latest Your Knowledge Expert c) Timely Knowledge Very Poor 1 1 1 2 2 2 3 3 3 4 4 4 Average 5 5 5 6 6 6 7 7 7

Comments:

9. The project manager's leadership style should be matched to the corresponding developmental level of the project team and should move through successive steps in the following order: 1. Disciplinary, autocratic, participative 2. Staff planning, team training, performance monitoring 3. Team building, team development, responsibility assignment 4. Directing, coaching, supporting, delegating

10. Human resource administration is the primary responsibility of the: 1. Project Management Team 2. Human Resources Department 3. Executive Manager 4. Project Manager 5. Line Managers 11. A mandatory prerequisite for team building is: 1. Funding for staff development activities 2. Shared work ethics among team members 3. Commitment from top level management 4. Removal of troublesome individuals 12. Which of the following is best for handling cross-functional project needs for a large, complex project? 1. A strong matrix organization 2. A project coordinator 3. A project expeditor 4. Direct executive involvement 5. A functional organization 13. A key barrier to team development is: 1. A strong matrix management structure. 2. When major problems delay the project completion date or budget targets. 3. When team members are accountable to both functional and project managers. 4. When formal training plans cannot be implemented.

5. When members cannot be collocated. 14. Which of the following is not a process of project human resource management? 1. Organizational Planning 2. Staff Acquisition 3. Information Distribution 4. Team Development 15. Which of the following is not an input into organizational planning? 1. Recruitment practices 2. Project interfaces 3. Staffing requirements 4. Constraints 16. Forcing, as a means to manage conflict: 1. Exerts one's view at the potential expense of another party. 2. Emphasizes areas of agreement while avoiding points of disagreement. 3. Establishes a lose-lose situation. 4. at and c 17. When should the project expeditor form of organization be used? 1. When the project is extremely important to the organization. 2. When a project's cost and importance are relatively low. 3. When the project manager has a lot of responsibility and accountability. 4. When the organization's primary source of revenue is derived from projects.

18. Which of the following statements concerning compromise as a conflict resolution is false? 1. Neither party wins but both parties get some degree of satisfaction. 2. Important aspects of the project may be hindered in order to achieve personal objectives. 3. Compromise is generally considered a lose-lose situation. 4. A Definitive resolution is seldom achieved. 19. In which type of organization is team building likely to be most difficult? 1. Functional 2. Projectized 3. Matrix 4. Project expediter 5. Project coordinator 20. A tool which links the project roles and responsibilities to the project scope definition is called: 1. Scope Definition Matrix 2. Responsibility Assignment Matrix 3. Roles Assignment Matrix 4. Project Scope and Roles Matrix 21. Formal reporting and reviews violate the basic principles of project management because they A. are customer based and not project based B. do not appear on the project schedule C. do not occur frequently enough to avoid surprises

D. must be reviewed by a central project authority before being forwarded to the customer and top management E. none of the above 22. Project management is an effective and powerful strategy and should be implemented in every organization A. True B. False