Discuss the interface between functional and project management.
What do you believe are critical functions that the project office should perform?
Discuss the following considerations in the selection of a project manager:
- maturity
- use of tactics
- availability
- technical expertise
- customer orientation
- exposure within and outside of the company
Describe why failing to evaluate these considerations may result in the selection of the wrong project manager.
Describe approaches and techniques for developing and training project managers.
What ethical issues are common during the selection of project personnel?
Discussion Question:
What skills do project managers need now that they did not need in the past? What skills do you think project managers will need in the next 50 years that they do not have now? Why?
What power can the project manager exert as interpersonal influences? How effective are these powers and what are their limitations?
Describe the behavioral differences between functional and project managers.
You are at the end of the seventh month of your project and everything is proceeding as planned. Motivation appears high. Decide which of the following you should do and provide an explanation your response:
- Leave well enough alone.
- Look for better ways to improve the functioning of the team. Talk to them and make them feel important.
- Call a team meeting and review the remaining schedules for the project. Prepare contingency plans.
- Make sure the team is still focusing on the goals and objectives of the project.
What is meant by polarization of communications? What are the most common causes? What can you do to resolve this situation?
Describe the role of the project manager in "staffing for excellence."
Using the project life cycle develop a matrix showing when various sources of conflict occur.
Determine the best conflict resolution mode for each of the following situations:
- Two of your functional team members appear to have personality clashes and almost always assume opposite points of view during decision-making.
- R&D quality control and manufacturing operations quality control continually argue as to who should perform testing on an R&D project. R&D postulates that it is its project, and manufacturing argues that it will eventually go into production and that their staff wishes to be involved as early as possible.
- Two functional department managers continually argue as to who should perform a certain test. You know that this situation exists, and that the department managers are trying to work it out themselves, often with great pain. However you are not sure that they will be able to resolve the problem themselves.
Describe the communications process in place on your project or in your organization.
From your own experience, provide an example requiring conflict management. Discuss how the incident was handled, what the results were, and what might have been done to improve the situation.
List the types of communication in use on your projects. For each communication type determine the following:
- The intent of the communication
- The recipient(s) of the communication and their needs/expectations
- The mode of communication
- The expected results of the communication
- How the communication is documented
- Your recommendations for improving the communication
Discussion Question:
Discuss the need for development of a project vocabulary. How would you go about meeting this requirement?
List and describe the critical roles of senior/executive management during the life cycle of the project.
Describe how adopting various types of management structures and initiatives impact project management. Consider the following:
- Concurrent engineering/management
- Total quality management (TQM)
- Empowerment
- Self-directed work teams
- Life-cycle costing
In a matrix organization, people are often assigned full-time to a project. What is the responsibility of the project manager to the assigned resource and to the manager the resource is "borrowed" from?
What should the role of the project manager be in the planning endeavors, including strategic and operational planning, of his or her company?
Some executives would prefer to have their project managers become tunnel-vision workaholics, falling in love with their jobs and living to work instead of working to live. How do you feel about this?