Availability of resources

As a Project Manager once said, “If only there were no people to manage in my project, it would be so easy!” As we know, that is very rarely possible, since a great part of managing a project is managing the people working in the project, and ensuring that the right tasks are done at the right time by the right people.

As project managers, we normally know how many people we need, what skills they need to have, and for how long we would like them (and if we don’t know, it is our job to find this out even before the project starts). However, reality often does not allow us to fulfill our needs as we would like. Our managers will tend to tell us how many people we can get (if any at all!), and when we go to the Line Managers of the people we need for our project, to ask for their staff, we very rarely get the people we asked for. If we do get them, they will most likely only be able to help us part-time as they will be in demand on other projects as well. Normally what happens is that we get the people who are not as busy at the time, and not necessarily the ones who really can help us. This can cause enormous problems, and is one of the big reasons for delays in projects.

These problems mostly happen in what we call “Matrix Organizations” – an organization where each individual reports to a Line Manager or Department Head, and the Project Manager is expected to use people on a part time basis from different departments. This means that the people themselves will then be reporting not just to their direct managers but also to the Project Manager (or Managers, as the case often is). It is easy in these cases to find conflicts of interest arising – who should the person listen to, who has the overriding power, who should give them their performance review at the end of the year? Etc. Etc. These are all questions that the Project Manager in such a Matrix organization should ask, and have negotiated up-front with the Department Heads as well as with his or her Sponsor.

If we are lucky enough to work in a projectised environment (where we are the direct line managers of our project staff), we then face the problem of getting the budget to bring in the required staff – we are told either to do with the team we already have, or to “borrow” from other project managers, or to hire consultants on an as-needed basis. This causes disruptions as well, since every person brought on board a project needs to be assimilated into the team, taught their job, and they need time to be up and running.

What can we do about this? We can try to avoid this becoming a problem in the first place by negotiating with the line managers up front, selling our project to them, create a relationship with them that remains active both before and after the project. If this already is a problem, and we are not getting the people we need, or we are getting the people, but not when we need them, we can talk with the Line Manager, and sell them the need and the “what’s in it for me” for them, or if this does not work, we should get our Sponsor involved and active. Many of the problems that we see arising here are due to a fundamental lack of communication – both within the project team, between the Project Manager and the Department Managers, and between the Project Manager and the Sponsor. Many problems can be solved by actively communicating, selling ones project, and forming relationships with the “right people”.

Very often, the Sponsor is not aware of his or her role in a project. It is our job as Project Manager to educate our Sponsor – get a working relationship going with them right at the start of the project, and make a deal with them in terms of what we expect from them and what they can expect in return from us. One of the main roles of the Sponsor will be to be escalated to, and to help us find solutions to problems that we cannot ourselves solve (for example, if the Line Manager of a person we need is not being cooperative), and to work with the other Managers to solve this problem, taking ownership of it until the problem is solved, and our project no longer is affected. Another role of the Sponsor is to clear the way for us and our team, in the cases where there are obstructions happening. We see the job of a Sponsor as the one who is up ahead of the rest of the team, clearing the way.

Let’s take the example of a company deciding to install, let’s say, an Accounting System, and once they have decided on the system, they realize that they need a Project Manager. They look around the finance department, and see a person who may not be very busy at that moment, name him or her Project Manager, and tell them to get on with it. The poor Project Manager asks “what do I do? How do I manage a project?” the reply is “you will find out as you go along, don’t worry”. That is exactly what the Project Manager starts to do: worry. And with reason. Managing a project is a specific profession, with specific skills, tools and techniques required to be successful. We have seen unprepared Project Managers end up in hospital with nervous breakdowns, and their team members leaving the company in droves (before the end of the project, of course!!). It is much more expensive (and risky) for a company to try to achieve their projects with inexperienced or untrained Project Managers, yet that is exactly what happens in many cases. They skimp on the training up-front, and tell the Project Manager to learn on the job. This may work for other areas of the business, but since projects are specifically of a fixed duration, and with a specific scope and objective, it is vital that Project Managers know how to achieve the project in the time allotted, with the budget allotted. This knowledge is not innate. It must be learned. Project Managers, more than any other type of manager, have to quickly get their teams up and running efficiently and closely together from the very start.

So what to do? The ideal is to ensure that the company has a pool of skilled, experienced and above all educated Project Managers who can be relied on to take on projects, to know what to do, and to succeed in successfully implementing them. This does mean a great deal of commitment on the side of the company. The company should plan ahead to be able to only appoint as Project Manager persons who have already had experience in projects, and who have the necessary training in the skills required. It must trust its Project Managers to know what to do, and to know what they need in order to do their job successfully; it must trust the answers when Project Managers are asked how long a project will take, and how much it will cost (within reason!), and it must back up the Project Manager with a Sponsor who knows what his or her role is, and how they can best help the Project Manager achieve the project. More on those roles in a later newsletter.

In summary, we should chat up the Line Managers in advance, creating a good relationship with them BEFORE we need their help and their people, we should use our Sponsors when necessary, and we should ensure that we get trained and experienced Project Managers whenever possible.

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