HR Project Management Final Team Report
You are now ready to present to management a final report on establishing a project team and project phases needed to initiate the changes for a more centralized model of delivering HR services. Once the management team receives the report and is thoroughly briefed on the direction the project will take, you and your project team will begin work on the project.
The management team report will be a consolidation of the previous assignment papers you have written in this course plus a report overview (sort of like an executive summary) and final conclusion (offering importance of topics and recommendations for next steps). You may make up a fictitious company name (do not use a real company) and create your own HR project team name.
Running head: MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCE PROJECT
MANAGING HUMAN RESOURCE PROJECT 8
Organizing HR projects
Johnathan Bryant
Kenneth Lewis
HRM 517: Managing Human Resource Projects
July 26, 2020
Introduction
The company that I work with has over time become more costly and more difficult in maintaining standards and has also experienced frustration for business units to have the budget hit. However, the leadership seeks to move to a more centralized model of delivering human resource services. I have been asked to evaluate the proposition of shifting to a more centralized model of delivering human resource services. I am also tasked to also establish a project team to initiate the needed changes. Having selected the project team, this paper will discuss the five steps of strategic planning, a statement of the overall importance of the strategic planning steps to the project team, a mission and vision statement for the project team to the current project, explanation of what a project charter is and why it is used, discussion of the three charter elements, and providing emphasis to the project team.
Five steps of strategic planning
Strategic planning is the process involved in establishing the direction of a business. This is done by assessing where the business is currently and where it is headed. Therefore, strategic planning helps a business in recording the mission, vision, and values, long-term goals and action plans (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells, 2019).A strategic planning process helps businesses in the implementation of the strategic plan. The five steps of strategic planning are; strategic analysis, guiding principles; mission and vision, strategic objectives, flow-down objectives, and lastly portfolio alignment.
The first step is strategic analysis. This step involves the analysis of external and internal environments and ascertaining how they will be enhanced or limiting the ability of an organization to perform. In most cases, strategic analysis is often a SWOT analysis. The internal analysis analyzes the strengths and weaknesses of a business. The external analysis analyzes the opportunities and threats that competitors, suppliers, and customers have among others.
The second step is guiding principles. After developing a SWOT analysis, the leadership should develop guiding principles that are, the mission and vision. This step may be broken into different parts by adding separate statements on the organizations purpose and/or values. This section is however included in the organizations mission. Therefore, organizations should understand the intention of each part and achieving it. The vision statement provides a clear and inspirational long-term, desired change that may be a result of the organization or program work. Having a clear vision will help the organization to understand and desire to achieve it. A vision statement should mobilize employees in achieving it. The mission statement should be lead by the vision. The mission statement includes the core purpose, values, beliefs, culture, primary business, and primary consumers of an organization. The rationale for including each section is; the purpose and mission statement communicates the reason why an organization exists, beliefs and mission statement communicates and organizations ideal, organizations culture and mission statement instructs acting in a desired manner, and including core values and mission statement communicates how decisions will be made in an organization and how people will be treated.
The third step is strategic objectives. Having strategic analysis, mission, and vision in place, the next step is developing strategic objectives. This is the means that an organization can use in achieving the mission and vision. This may be done annually while some organizations may review the objectives after 3-6 months. The strategic objective should describe short- and long-term desired results and the measures of determining the achievements. For some leaders, for an objective to be effective, they should be specific, measurable, achievable, results-based, and time-specific.
The fourth step is the flow-down objectives. After the identification of the strategic objectives, the objectives should be enforced. Some objectives may be implemented in an ongoing operation. A primary means of implementing most objectives is through projects. For small organizations, selecting projects may be selected. For a large organization, decisions may be delegated to various functions or divisions.
The fifth step is portfolio alignment. Portfolio management is the centralized management of the portfolio in achieving the strategic objectives of an organization. The main goal is to achieve maximum benefit toward the organizations strategic goals. For this to be possible, it is important to identify, select, prioritize, resource, and govern the project portfolio.
Statement of the overall importance of the steps to the project team
The five steps of strategic planning are important for the project team. The first step, strategic analysis, is important as it will help in analyzing the external and internal environment and how it impacts the ability of the human resource to perform. The second step, guiding principles, is important to the project team as it will help guide in developing the vision and mission of the project. The third step, strategic objectives, is important since it will help the project team in developing means that can be used in achieving the mission and vision of the project. The objectives can be used as the main focus in making project decisions. The fourth step, flow-down objectives, is important in enforcing the strategic objectives of the team. In this step, the project team will be able to develop the decisions necessary for reinforcing the projects strategic objectives. The fifth step, portfolio management, is important as it will help in developing ways that can be sued in achieving the maximum benefit of the strategic goals of the project.
Vision and mission statement for the project team
Vision statement: to transform the human resource towards adapting a centralized model of delivering human resource services.
Mission statement: the human resource is dedicated towards supporting the vision of using a centralized model of delivering human resource service through consolidating human resource decisions and activities.
What a project charter is and why it is used
A project charter is a short document that acts as an informal contract between the project team and the sponsor. A contract is an agreement binding two or more parties. One party of the contract cannot change it. Every part also has something to value from the contract. However, a contract can change conditions. However, for it to change, both parties agree and receive something valuable. Therefore, the signing of the charter represents the transitioning from a high-level project initiation stage to a more detailed project planning stage (Sokowski, 2015).Therefore, a project charter is a deliverable hence granting the project team the right to move into a more detailed planning stage of a project. This may include permission to plan or to make decisions among others.
A project charter is used for four main reasons. The first reason is the authorization of the project manager to proceed. A project charter authorizes the project hence giving a project manager a go ahead and documents for the business needs. The second reason is that it acts as a foundation for the project team and sponsor to develop a common understanding. The third reason is that it ensures that the project team and sponsor commit. Lastly, it helps in screening out poor projects (Sokowski, 2015).
Three charter elements
The three charter elements that I have selected are scope overview, business case, and background. The reason for choosing scope overview is as it determines what a project team should accomplish and how it will be done. Therefore, it answers the question what and why of the project. It hence establishes the work that must be undertaken to deliver a result. The scope overview describes the project work and results. It can hence be used in the differentiation of what the project will achieve and what it will not achieve. This will hence prevent the issue of scope creep.
The second element is the business case. The reason for choosing this element is because it provides the purpose of the project. It helps parties in the project such as the project team and the sponsors in understanding what the main objective of the project is. Therefore, it justifies why the project is necessary. With a well-written business case, decision-makers can be persuaded in supporting the project and inspiring the project team to work hard (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells, 2019).
The third element is the background. The reason for choosing this element is because it identifies the major schedule and milestones in the project. The team can then set a date where each milestone is expected to be completed.
Statement of emphasis
This information is essential as it will help in initiating the needed changes towards shifting to a more centralized model of delivering HR services. The five steps of strategic planning will help in establishing the direction of the project and the importance of following the steps when undertaking the project. The vision and mission statement will guide the project team on what needs to be accomplished. It also establishes what a project charter is and how it can be used and applied in the project. Lastly, the charter elements will help in ensuring that the project team commits and achieves the projects mission, vision, and objectives.
References
Katsioloudes, M., & Abouhanian, A. K. (2016).The Strategic Planning Process: Understanding Strategy in Global Markets. Taylor & Francis.
Kloppenborg, T. J., Anantatmula, V. S., & Wells, K. N. (2019).Contemporary Project Management. Cengage.
Sokowski, D. (2015).Mastering Project Management Integration and Scope: A Framework for Strategizing and Defining Project Objectives and Deliverables. FT Press. 2
Running Head: Leading and Managing the HR Project
Leading and managing the HR Project
Johnathan Bryant
Kenneth Lewis
HRM 517: Managing Human Resource Projects
August 1, 2020
For this assignment, I will consider my approach to leading and managing my human resource project. In this paper, I will discuss the types of project manager power and then select two that would be relevant to my current project. I will also identify and describe four outcomes that may be as a result of managing projects, and address how the issues may be resolved. Thirdly, I will discuss the increased challenges that a project manager may face when leading virtual or global project teams and recommend strategies that can be used in dealing with the challenges. Lastly, this paper will provide an overall plan for communication management during the project.
Types of project manager power
A project manager relies on people who do not report to them directly to undertake their responsibility in the project. Due to such cases, a project manager can use various types of power in encouraging people to perform. There are different types of power available to project managers. The first type of power is legitimate power. The formal authority in this power is based on the position of the user. The best instance to use this type of power is asking people to perform in their job description. The second type of power is a reward. This power is based on persuading others by providing them with something. It can be used when team members perform their responsibilities well and when negotiating for resources. The third type of power is coercive. It is used when punishing people for not performing. This type of power is used when there is a need to maintain discipline or enforce rules (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells, 2019).
The fourth type of power is the referent. This type of power is used when persuading people according to their relationship. It is frequently used by project managers as they tend to lack legitimate power based on position. The fifth type of power is the expert. This power persuades people according to their knowledge and skills. It can be sued when others respect your opinion. The sixth type of power is information. It is based on the control of information. Project managers use this power frequently as their role is to convey information. The last power is connection. It is informal and is based on the users relationships with those who are influential. It is used when a project manager is working with project sponsors and during the negotiation for resources.
Types of project manager power to my current project
The two types of project manager power that I feel would be relevant to my current project are legitimate power and reward and coercive power. Legitimate power would be relevant as a project manager may fail to have the authority on telling the subordinates what to do. However, the project manager can ask team members in undertaking given activities and they are required to do so. One of the main obligations of a project manager is to help in planning and managing some of the projects. The core team members can be ordered by the project manager to perform certain actives. They would also be asked to help in planning the activities. Therefore, legitimate power is relevant as the project manager may be required to ask the subordinates to undertake some tasks that will impact the overall project.
The second type of project manager power is the reward and coercive power. A reward is not involved with money. An example of a reward is stimulating work. Enticing team members to perform well so that they can be given more interesting and/or challenging work in the future will help team members, projects, and organizations by improving and increasing competence. However, there are some instances where a person may not be able to perform and a project manager may have to use threats. Such cases may occur if some project team members perform while one or two members do not perform. Hardworking individuals value teamwork that works hard and maybe upset when some members fail to share (Kloppenborg, Anantatmula & Wells, 2019).
Outcomes resulting from managing projects and how the issues may be resolved
Several outcomes may result from managing projects. The first outcome is moral challenges. A project may be involved with some difficulty. In most instances, this happens when there are high demands and few milestones to celebrate. This challenge may be resolved by communicating, appraising progress, and enhancing or detracting the morale of team members. There is a need to reinforce the purpose of the project, encourage and support team members, and understanding what their concerns are.
The second challenge is quarter-mile stones to inch stones. A team develops a list of milestones when creating a project charter. However, on some projects, that is enough detail against which performance can be measured. On other projects, more detail is needed. The solution to resolve this issue is to check the progress frequently and not to let a team member who is not performing to derail a project.
The third outcome is the staff changes. This is an issue that is caused by factors such as poor appraisal, insufficient progress, and conflict among others. The solution to this issue is by treating every team member with respect and recognizes the changes that may be happening. When there are new members added to the team, they should be provided with project information and introductions.
The fourth outcome is discipline. On some projects, performance may be poor hence team members may require to be disciplined. This issue may be resolved by using coercive power. However, the need to discipline team members should be explained clearly and specific behaviors or lack of progress are documented. Additionally, specific improvement strategies should be developed. This will reduce the chances of further discipline.
Challenges a project manager may face when leading virtual or global project teams and strategies to deal with the challenges
The first challenge that a project manager may face when leading a virtual or global project team is role clarification. Progress of a project may lack due to misunderstandings in responsibilities. The strategy that can be used in dealing with this challenge is by clarifying roles. This is by providing a detailed responsibility for each team member.
The second challenge is the issues and lessons learned. In some instances, the issues reoccur. Without having strategies to deal with such issues, the project may not be a success. A strategy to deal with this challenge is by keeping issue logs. The logs may act as living documents of issues that may arise when leading a project team. Whenever there is a new issue, it should be added to the log. By resolving the issues, good lessons may be learned and this may help the future project team to avoid problems. Therefore, the lessons learned can then be documented and stored for retrieval.
The third challenge that may be faced is training needs. Lack of training may cause the failure of the project. Therefore, it is important to ensure that the immediate project needs are kept along with training needs in mind. Having an effective training for the project teams will help provide them with the required knowledge and skills.
The fourth challenge is poor communication. This may occur mostly in virtual teams. Such a team may lack informal, daily face-to-face communication which may lead to loss of information or miscommunication. The team members may end up doing for days without communication hence this may lead to a feeling of isolation. The solution to this problem is enhancing communication to increase everyday interactions. This can be done by creating smaller interdependent tasks and developing a partnership that may give the project team goals to achieve together (Lee, 2013).
The overall plan for communication management during the project
My overall plan for communication management during the project will identify the important information that will be communicated to all stakeholders in the project. The communication plan will include; the goals of the communication plan, information on stakeholders and their roles, types of information that will be shared, methods for communication, the frequency that each stakeholder would like to receive information. A more structured approach to communication will be used. The communication model used will comprise of the sender, message, and the receiver. The factors that will be considered will be language and cultural effects.
Stakeholder expectations will also be managed. Proactive actions will be undertaken to make the stakeholders feel that their needs and concerns are considered. Managing stakeholder expectations will allow communication channels to be open between stakeholders and project managers (Gronwald, 2017).This will ensure that the stakeholders are informed about potential risks, changes, and other information. This will help in building trust, resolving conflicts, and preventing any problems and increasing the feeling of belongingness to all parties involved.
The methods of communication will also be included in the communication management plan. Some of the methods that will be used include; weekly check-ins, meetings, either via the phone or video conferencing, status reports, project dashboards, surveys, and formal presentations among others. The plan will also include the frequency of communication. It will include how often each type of communication will be sent out. Communication frequency will also be scheduled.
References
Gronwald, K. D. (2017).Global Communication and Collaboration: Global Project Management, Global Sourcing, Cross-Cultural Competencies. Springer.
Kloppenborg, T. J., Anantatmula, V. S., & Wells, K. N. (2019).Contemporary Project Management. Cengage.
Lee, M. R. (2013).Leading virtual project teams: Adapting leadership theories and communications techniques to 21st century organizations. CRC Press. Planning Considerations for HR Project
Johnathan Bryant
Dr. Kenneth Lewis
HRM 517
August 21, 2020
Project planning is very important in the success of a project in an organization. This is because adequate planning helps the company have a clear picture of the manner at which the project can be handled until its outcome has been met by the organization. Because of this, a project manager must come up with a sophisticated plan that will help him or her achieve the goal of a given project. Lack of a good plan when it comes to running a project has the potential of leading to the failure of projects. So that failure can be avoided by project managers, there is a need for the manager to design a plan that will aid in the successful completion of the project. Thus, the project plan can be said to be the ultimate guide or the road map to a successful result of a project. This paper is going to look into some of the factors that make up a good project plan.
1. Scope
Various elements make up a good project plan. With these elements, the clarity and the dynamics of a good project have been fully defined. For this reason with their understanding, the success of a project is a total guarantee. Among the factors that make up an effective project, the plan is the project scope. A project scope being part of the project plan has various elements within it that make it an important aspect in the execution of any given project in an organization. According to Rouse, a project scope involves determining and documenting a list of specific project goals, deliverables, tasks, costs, and deadlines (Rouse, 2020). These elements that are within a project scope make it the ultimate blueprint of a project plan. The min importance of project scope is that it establishes and clearly defined the roles of each member of the company that is going to get involved in the implementation of the project. This means that every activity that will be played by every member of the organization who is directly involved in the projects execution will have to follow the project scope that will be designed by the project manager.
As the project gets executed, the project scope will help the members of the organization working on the project to stay focused throughout the entire project. Thus, they will all be able to make decisions that are in line with the requirements of the project as they work on the completion of the project. The other importance of the scope is that it contains all the relevant information about the project including the cost of the project, the risks involved in every step of the project, the cost of the project as well many other features. Because huge projects tend to change as the project gets implemented, a well-designed scope will help guide the changes that will be made so that the project can be completed like it is supposed to. So that the project scope can be effectively be implemented, good communication of its specifics to all the key players in the projects execution is very important.
Project scope is important in the implementation of projects because it contains all the information that the project contains. Because of this reason, the stakeholders of a give business or organization will have a better understanding of what is involved in the project. The other key significance that a project scope has in an organization is that it provides a guide that can be followed by all the managers of an organization can use to assign various tasks to all the people who will work on the project (Rouse, 2020). Thus, they can schedule the work required to complete a project and also create a good budget that will see through the completion of the given project. Lastly, a well-designed cope will help control the project. This implies that large projects will be controlled so that they cannot go beyond the established version of the project (Rouse, 2020).
2. Resourcing
Among the responsibilities that a project manager has towards the development of a successful project is the allocation of resources. Because of this factor, the efficiency of a “project manager in right estimation and prediction of resources for the project has an influencing impact on the success of a project (Nair et al. 2012).” Because project managers are the drivers of a project, they need to understand all the resources that a project needs. So that they can effectively be in a good position to do this, they have to identify all the requirements that a project has. After they have managed to identify the resources that the project needs they inform the shareholders of the company that provides the resources.
The acquisition of the resources that a project requires is done with the guide of the project managers because they effectively understand the scope of the project that they are working on. After the resources have been provided, the project managers then look into the project requirements and allocate the resources according to the demands of every phase that the project has. In cases where the resources that a project requires are scarce or not available in an organization due to some factors, sourcing the resources from other organizations and individuals who can easily have access to them is an option that project managers consider.
3. Budgeting
Various costs are incurred by an organization while working on any given project. Thus the costs have to be well managed so that a project can be completed like it is supposed to. Because of this factor, having a good budget is very important during the execution of any given project. Kwon and Kang have stated in their article that project budgets are funds estimated during the planning phase based on what the project is expected to cost at completion. It is very difficult to estimate project budgets accurately before executing the projects due to a lack of information and risks (Kwon & Kang, 2018). The difficulty that is associated with the creation of a project budget is associated with the risks because as the development of the project goes on during its implementation, there are various changes that the project demand when these changes are made, there are issues that develop. Some of these complications might need immediate attention of the organization and extra funds that were not budgeted initially. Because of this reason, project managers have to make sure that there are funds that have been set aside that will help them take care of any complication that might be met while executing a project.
4. Risks
Risks happen during the implementation of projects this implies that project managers have to work hard and make sure that they manage to handle the risks that may meet as they work on projects. Junior, R, and Carvalho suggest that Risk management has been one of the major concerns of executives and professionals involved with projects today, especially after the financial crisis that shook the world in 2008 (Juniro & Carvalho, 2013). The reason as to why the management of risks is very important in the handling of projects is because failure to effectively manage the risks that any project faces endangers the existence of the project. This is because little risks that might not be looked into could turn fatal and incur the organization more expenses that can result to lose in an organization. Besides the losses that might be met by the managers of any organization, there is the likeliness of the organization losing complete grip on the project which might lead to the failure of that given project. Thus, there is need for the project managers to effectively manage the risks that projects face so that they can be in a good position to maintain and stay within the range of the budget that was created before the launching of the project and the extra costs that the risks might incur to the organization after they have been solved. Because of this, there is a need for a project plan to include the possible measures that can be followed in case risks are met as the project is implemented.
Many other factors can be used to create a good project plan. However, the detailed information that has been discussed herein plays a crucial role in the implementation of any given project. The project scope can be used by the project managers and other parties involved in the execution of the project so that the project can be completed. With the guidance of the scope, the projects budget, allocation of resources, and other factors such as the handling of risks that can arise during the implementation of any given project can be easily attained by the people working on that given project and the organization at large.
References
Kwon,H., & Kang,C.W. (2018). Improving project budget estimation accuracy and precision by analyzing reserves for both identified and unidentified risks.Project Management Journal,50(1), 86-100.https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818810963
Nair,G., Suma,V., & Kumar,S. (2012). Impact Analysis of Allocation of Resources by Project Manager on Success of Software Projects.International Conference on Data Mining and Computer Engineering.
Rabechini Junior,R., & Monteiro de Carvalho,M. (2013). Understanding the impact of project risk management on project performance: An empirical study.Journal of technology management & innovation,8, 11-12.https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-27242013000300006
Rouse,M. (2020).What is project scope?SearchCIO.https://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/project-scope Running head: Progress, Results, and Finalizing the HR Project 1
Running head: Progress, Results, and Finalizing the HR Project 7
Progress, Results, and Finalizing the HR Project
Johnathan Bryant
Dr. Kenneth Lewis
HRM 517: Managing Human Resource Projects
August 28, 2020
Direct and Manage Project Work
Project management plans guide the work that is supposed to be done by project managers and other people that work in the project management teams. Thus, the act that involves the performances of project managers and the leading of projects regarding the project management plan that has been designed to guide the execution of the project at hand can be said to be directing and management of projects and the work that is involved in the projects that are being worked on by companies and organizations. While working on individual projects, the projects manager implements all the changes that have been approved to see through the work in the project. When this is being done, the objective that is with the project manager the achievement of the objectives that the project has. The main advantage that is associated with direct and project work is that is the ultimate guide of the project work that offers the overall management of the activities within the project. This paper is going to discuss the details of direct and manage project work that is affiliated with the project plan that was designed in the previous assignment.
In many cases, the majority of the tasks that are handled by the HR of an organization is the regulation of the performances in the management of projects that are being worked on by an organization (Pollock, 2018). This involves the creation of a good working environment that creates room for effectively adequate productivity of the employees in the organization to meet the projects demands. While working on any given project, the two main considerations that should be kept in mind by the project managers and the people working on that given project is the demands of the consumers of the services or the products that are being
