Expert answer:ADVANCING PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN LEARNING ORGANIZAT
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ADVANCING PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN
LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
The Learning Organization
Vol. 11 No. 3, 2004
pp. 226-243
Dr Lynda Bourne DPM, PMP, MACS,
Director, Stakeholder Management Pty Ltd
Derek H.T. Walker,
Faculty of Business, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
For more Stakeholder Management papers see:
http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Resources_Papers.html#Stakeholder_Papers
This paper expands and substantially elaborates upon ideas discussed in a paper presented in Moscow in 2003.
Bourne, L. and Walker, D.H.T. (2003),
rd
Tapping into the power lines – a 3 dimension of project management beyond leading and managing,
17th World Congress on Project Management, Moscow, Russia.
http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Resources_Papers_014.html
Stakeholder Management Pty Ltd
13 Martin Street
South Melbourne VIC 3205 Australia
Tel: +613 9696 8684
Email: Info@stakeholder-management.com
Web: www.stakeholder-management.com
Advancing project management in
learning organizations
Introduction
Traditional project management skills were developed from the requirements of construction and
defence industries to plan, control and manage large, complex “tangible” projects (Morris, 1994).
From these industries arose the so-called “hard” concepts of project success criteria in the form of
controlling and managing schedule, cost and scope. Project management can also be seen as being
about managing change (Cleland, 1995), and therefore project managers should consider themselves
as change agents adding to the PM role an additional focus on the so-called “soft” aspects of
relationship management. The relationship management role is particularly relevant when considering
non-traditional, non-construction projects delivering “intangible” results, such as those in the sphere of
ICT or business process change.
In most organizations, project managers are accountable for the successful delivery of complete
projects. Increasingly, this success depends on project managers’ possessing and utilising skills and
competencies that may initially appear contradictory. One of the central themes of this paper is that a
successful project manager must demonstrate flexibility and competency in many areas – “hard” and
“soft” skills, introverted and reflective, extroverted and social behaviours. Until recently, many of the
initiatives for improving the practice and profession of project management have been focussed upon
enhancing techniques and methods associated with skills that included effective management of time,
cost, and scope. The Project Management Institute’s (PMI) Guide to the PM Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK) tends to be primarily concerned with management competencies (craft) and the “hard”
skills expected of practicing project management professionals with knowledge areas such as project
human resource management and project communication management (the essential relationshipfocussed areas) relegated to secondary (and less important) roles (PMI, 2000).
Relationship management skills are vital for achieving project outcomes that fully address stakeholder
expectations throughout the project lifecycle. Relationship skills are required to aid the effective
application of hard skills – it is people, using knowledge, creativity (and often technology) that realise
projects not techniques or hardware.
“Tapping into the power lines” – the concept of a set of skills and experience additional to those
discussed above – is explored in this paper. We argue that these special skills and competencies focus
upon both understanding the nature of the power source that drives large, complex organizations, and
knowing how to harness this energy effectively for project success. “Tapping into the power lines”
requires “wisdom” and “know-how” to make sense out of complex, fragmented and often confusing
alliances of power, influence and resource availability, coupled with the willingness to engage with
those powerful and influential stakeholders who have been identified by the project manager as being
essential to his/her project’s success.
Project management does not occur in a vacuum. It requires an infusion of enthusiasm and
commitment supported by the full range of project stakeholder energy sources, “tapped” much like
connecting to an energy grid. The key for project success is to know how and when to connect to this
organizational grid and to identify who the key connectors (stakeholders) are. Without attention to the
needs and expectations of a diverse range of project stakeholders, a project will probably not be
regarded as successful even if the project manager was able to deliver within the original (or agreed)
time, budget and scope.
Acquiring the necessary wisdom and know-how for operating within this organizational grid usually
comes with experience: from years of an individual learning from mistakes (and successes) throughout
a long career of managing projects. It is in the organization’s interest to attempt to reduce this learning
curve.
© Practical PM Pty Ltd
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Advancing project management in
learning organizations
This paper is structured as follows. We start with a brief review of the three dimensions of skills
required of a project manager. We then present and substantiate our argument that these skills are
essential for project success. We conclude the paper with some observations of our own about
advancing project management and the successful delivery of projects in large organizations through
programs and initiatives designed to assist both the project manager and the learning organization.
This paper is essentially theoretical in nature as we are proposing a way in which project managers can
facilitate improving project management performance and learning organizations can support them. It
is part of a continuing study that forms the basis for a doctoral thesis of one of the authors1. Areas of
further research are explored in a later section of this paper. We believe that this paper contributes to
the project management body of knowledge by initiating and facilitating discussion on an important
aspect of the project manager’s inventory of skills and competencies and the part the learning
organization can play in this endeavour.
A three dimensional model of project management
Briner et al. (1996) defined a framework of six directions of which a “project leader” must be aware,
to control the project’s deliverables and manage a project’s stakeholders successfully. Weaver and
Bourne (2002) describe a seven-element framework as the network or “sphere of influence and
support” on which a project depends for its very existence. This concept was further developed by
Bourne and Walker (2003) as a framework of project management focus and influence to be addressed
for project success.
Figure 1 represents this framework. The project manager must manage the processes to develop plans,
schedules, reports, lessons learnt and forecasts that will serve as communication devices to everyone
who has an interest. This is dimension 1, looking forwards and backwards: it is predominately a skillset relying upon techniques that value certainty and abhor ambiguity in monitoring and controlling
projects.
Figure 1, dimensions of project influence
1
Published thesis see: Project Relationship Management and the Stakeholder Circle®:
http://www.mosaicprojects.com.au/Resources_Papers_021.html
© Practical PM Pty Ltd
3
www.stakeholder-management.com
Advancing project management in
learning organizations
Looking outwards, managing the needs of clients, suppliers and clients, requires a mix of management
and leadership skills. Looking downwards, requires considerable leadership skills to motivate
followers and ensure all team members have their needs and wants satisfied. The project manager
must also manage him/herself, from the point of view of personal discipline, but also from the point of
view of having needs and wants that must also be met through successful completion of the project.
Looking inwards, outwards and downwards (and some limited examples of upwards) are dimension 2
skills. Managing upwards to the obvious set of senior management stakeholders is generally
considered to be part of dimension 2.
Project relationships can be best defined by the relationships between the project manager and the
project stakeholders. These relationships focus on how different stakeholders – including senior
management, project team members, users – have different expectations of the project and different
definitions of success and also require different methods of management.
Recent management leadership literature abounds with examples of the changing attitude to
relationship management skills. One example is the fourth blueprint model described by Limerick et
al. (1998, p. 41) in which they describe a more inclusive, reflexive, and collaborative focus towards
empowering and motivating people to perform. The essential features of this blueprint for working
include:
•
high levels of social, economic and technological discontinuity;
•
loosely coupled systems that are chunked together;
•
synergies and alliances through virtual organizations of people often linked together through ICT
groupware applications;
•
collaborative individualism where people work on their own initiative;
•
social responsibility and sustainability;
•
holism to contribute to the whole in achieving a project’s vision.
This blueprint model describes the context in which the third dimension properties of project
management reside.
Dimension 3 in Figure 1 focuses on satisfying the needs and wants of a project’s most influential
stakeholders, including the project manager’s senior management stakeholders and his/her peers.
“Third dimension” skills – looking sidewards and upwards – are the focus of this paper. Examples of
three case studies illustrated in Bourne and Walker (2003), one a large-scale civil engineering project
and two IT related projects, indicate that without attention to the (often conflicting) needs and
expectations of all project stakeholders, projects will probably not be regarded as successful even if
that project manager was able to deliver within the original time, budget and scope.
Projects are affected by both the “hidden agendas” and the overt actions of people or groups referred
to earlier in this paper as being third dimension project stakeholders. This group extends well beyond
the more readily recognised traditional stakeholder groups. In large complex organizations,
understanding the power structures and using them to influence project outcomes is often understood
as “politics”. Awareness of the need, and the ability to manage different types of stakeholders and
their “how, why and when” issues so that these needs might be best addressed is an essential part of a
successful project manager’s toolkit. To illustrate our ideas, we have chosen three case studies to
support relevance of assertions resulting from our review of the literature and our observations as
project managers over many years.
© Practical PM Pty Ltd
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Advancing project management in
learning organizations
Three case studies and supporting research
The data that forms the basis for ideas explored in this paper have been derived from three case studies
developed from the experiences of candidates of the RMIT, Australia, Doctor of Project Management
(DPM) program. This data was collected through extensive formal and informal discussions conducted
over two semesters (eight months) of the DPM program and were drawn from these project managers,
all of whom have several decades of experience as project managers to reflect upon. Thus, qualitative
data was gathered based upon a process of deep reflection of likely cause and effect loops of actions
taken by these project managers and actions that perhaps should have been taken. The data is further
supported by research findings from Crawford and Da Ros (2002), who conducted quantitative and
qualitative research into the impacts of organizational politics on the outcomes of projects, and the
importance of the development of political skills for project personnel, particularly the project
manager. The starting point of this research was that project success depends on the positive
perceptions of project outcomes of key people as well as on positive schedule and budget
performance. This then leads to the conclusion that “the concept of project success . . . appears to be,
of itself, inherently political” (Crawford and Da Ros, 2002, p. 20).
The Crawford and Da Ros (2002) research was designed to investigate the relationship between
organizational politics and the perceived outcomes of projects. The study focussed on projects
conducted within and between large organizations. Using quantitative (questionnaire) data and case
studies (interviews), their findings supported the following:
•
There is strong correlation between organizational politics and acquisition of project resources.
•
The ability of the project manager to make effective use of organization politics contributed
significantly to project success.
The qualitative survey did reveal difficulties in assessing how political influences affect the perceived
outcomes of projects, due to inconsistencies of definition of clear measures of project success.
Pinto (2000) makes a useful supporting contribution through his research focus on behaviours and
competencies that project managers can use to make organizational politics work for project success.
He maintains, “political behaviour, sometimes defined as any process by which individual and groups
seek, acquire and maintain power, is pervasive in modern corporations” (Pinto, 2000, p. 86). This
behaviour is important for a project manager to acquire because:
•
Project managers do not always have a “stable base of power” but must “cultivate other methods
of influence” to secure the resources necessary for their project to succeed.
•
These projects often exist outside the “traditional line (functional) structure”. Access to resources
(financial, human, material and informational) must be negotiated.
•
Project managers are not typically assigned the authority or status to manage their team members,
who will still be organizationally attached to functional groups elsewhere in the organization. At
best these members will be “loaned” to the project and may have roles on multiple projects.
Ensuring the best performance from these team members is therefore based on leadership qualities
and the ability to manage conflict and the competing claims on their project resources.
Pinto (2000) quotes research that demonstrates that, while managers recognise the necessity to work
within the organization’s political framework, many of them find it distasteful. He characterises
political behaviour into three categories:
(1) “Shark” – manipulative, self-serving and predatory – the “used car salesman”.
(2) “Naive” – politics is unpleasant and to be avoided at all costs – the “beginner”.
(3) “Sensible” – politics is necessary; negotiation and networking are essential tools for project
success (Pinto, 2000, p. 88).
© Practical PM Pty Ltd
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Advancing project management in
learning organizations
Each of the contributors to the DPM case studies discussed in this paper has several decades of
relevant project management experience to draw upon, and we argue that their reflection on theory and
practice as a result of this experience contributes significantly to the project management body of
knowledge. Two of the project case studies reflected on information technology (IT) projects in large
Australian organizations, one a medium-budget infrastructure development project and the other a
much higher-budget project aimed at increasing the organization’s revenue through innovative
technological support for the sales force. The third project case was based on one of the joint ventures
formed for the construction of a major component of the Hong Kong airport project, with a very high
budget. Despite the apparent diversity of the three case studies, there were many similarities. These
similarities are best defined by the lessons learned from the projects. The lessons include the need to
focus on relationship building skills as well as the skills required for risk minimisation through
measurement and control. Other lessons include:
• the importance of defining and maintaining the project vision;
•
the effect that stakeholders had on the project outcomes; and
•
the part that a project manager’s knowledge, experience, personal style and management
preferences played in project success.
Case study 1 was established within the Internet service provider section of a large Australian utility
company to automate aspects of registration and renewal of domain names and to provide IT support
for the capture of issues and tracking of resolution activities. Although this project was initiated to
reduce the likelihood of legal issues for the company and promote the concept of social performance,
it was viewed as an “easy” project and a novice (inexperienced, junior) project manager was assigned.
Many of the assumptions at project start-up were false, there was conflict of interest within the
stakeholder group and a second project manager with more experience, but not enough to unravel the
stakeholder issues replaced the first project manager. The project was completed, but it went over
time, over budget, and did not meet stakeholder expectations. Both project managers described their
experiences as “extremely stressful”.
Case study 2 formed part of the Hong Kong airport construction project. It was to be delivered by a set
of joint ventures and strategic alliances comprising partners representing many countries and cultures.
This project was to be completed in six months and appeared to be a straightforward construction
project. However the Australian project manager had never worked on a project in Asia before. He
was competent in managing the “hard” criteria of time, cost, quality and scope, but had never needed
to develop skills and experience in managing relationships in a multicultural environment (Hofstede,
1991; Trompenaars, 1993). The project did deliver the required scope, on time and within budget.
However, even after eight years had passed, the project manager still described that assignment as his
“worst ever”.
In case study 3, the project manager was assigned to the complex, multi-vendor, highly visibility
project that was exhibiting lack of cohesion, lack of leadership and schedule and budget overruns.
Once again, this was a stressful experience for the project manager, who had a reputation for
successfully bringing projects such as these to order. Progress on the project had been stalled, with
conflicts arising from cultural misunderstandings between the major delivery groups – one group of
“staff” business analysts, one group of technical contractors and one group from a high-tech company
with clear visions and methods (Cusumano and Selby, 1995). One source of conflict was that the clear
visions and methods of this third group did not match the vision and methods of the other two groups
or the vision and methods of the project. There was no clear leadership, with four project managers
attempting to implement what each believed was the best outcome through the best means. This
situation was finally resolved when senior stakeholders decided to support the methods and vision of
the group who had been most successful at managing the expectations and needs of the influential
stakeholders. Eventually the project did deliver to the satisfaction of the use …
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