Module 03, Closure

***Q. I don't quite understand the author's concept of the PMs responsibilities (as listed on pg 89). In the organization I am familiar with, the PM was responsible for perhaps half of these areas. I am not familiar with a PM being responsible for areas such as staffing and budget. These are such large and important areas within the organization that they have their own functional managers. [A. Sometimes, but more often these are Staff Managers.]Perhaps I can't conceive of this concept because I've never worked for a large company, but it would seem to me that the larger the organization and project, the less likely that the PM could manage all these aspects of the project. Is the author simply referring to all the possible areas that the PM is involved, or is it more common that PMs are responsible for all these areas in larger organizations? Are the authors perhaps having delusions of grandeur?
A. Depends on the size of the project. If the project was to build a new wharf in the Philippines, and it was my company's only job there. I might be dispatched with one or two skilled staff people and some technical people, (and a letter of credit) and be expected to staff the entire job, pay the local taxes, etc., all with the scope of my PM duties.

***Q. An aspect that this chapter covers a bit too political correct is the code of ethics. Very often Project Managers are brought into situations where they run the risk of a complete project failure if they stick a 100% to the code of ethics. I hate this conflict but I had to realize that this happens all the time and that it is hard to avoid such situation.
I even heart ones following statement of a CEO: "It is sad to admit that in order to be a successful PM you have to have a pitch-black soul."
A. Yes indeed. One solution, at the personal level, is to avoid doing these things yourself. Some PM's trap or trick subordinates into "making the facilitating payment." Then their hands stay clean, but not their souls. Another method is to subcontract the bribery. That is how American Embassies do it. For example, if they can't get shipments through customs without a bribe, the embassy will hire an "airport expediting contractor" to pick up the shipments. A more advanced version of that is the "local partner," whose chief duty it to "take care of the government." The problem with both these, besides its effect on your soul, is that these folks now have an incentive to increase the demands of the crooks, and thus increase there importance to you and their cut of the money.

***Q. Muddiest: On page 98 in the essential characteristics of a project team number five it states that "egos must be strong enough that all can freely share credit and blame". Individuals that I have worked with that have some self-esteem are fine. I do not like working with people with high self-esteem or egos. People with high self-esteem or egos take credit but no blame. I also do not understand why the author even discussing taking credit or blame. In a crisis situation I never as PM issue blame. A PM has to deal with crisis management and not split the team by pointing figures, that happens much later. I agree that you need someone with high enough self-esteem so that they are not defensive in nature. Some parts of the paragraph I agree with but some do not make good sense.
A. High performance individuals that have obstreperous or obnoxious personalities are a problem with all kinds of management, not just project management. (Of course we can all be that way, at least sometimes and in some situations.) My perception is that the more technical and difficult a project, the more these type of people you come across. In non-technical or routine situations, people are sorted by interpersonal skills and seniority with the job. For difficult, technical jobs, these "people skills" are less important and more irritating. Here is something I wrote regarding the author's use of the term self-esteem.

*Q. Muddiest: The book tells us to "do this" and says that we must "do that" but it rarely says how. Assuming that all of this comes with experience and field-time, do we only get one chance to prove ourselves?
A. Perkins theory of management education is that with the education you only have to make the same mistake once or twice before you realize what you are doing wrong.

*Q. What I don't like is that we are hasting through these chapters very fast. Since most of the book chapters are pretty significant, I suggest taking some more time for each chapter. While I am saying this, I am very aware that this would compromise the amount of topics covered during the semester.
A. Yes, we have to cover a lot of material. This is an introductory course. Many of the chapters are full three-credit courses at a more advanced level. For example UAF's Engineers in Organizations, Engineering Economics, and Operations Research, CE 620 Civil Engineering Construction offer similar topics at much greater depth, as does our proposed course on management decisions. Courses offered at similar schools are Advanced Project Management and Scheduling, we have not sufficient demand to offer these.

Q. The least clear item in this module is the importance that is placed on getting the job done as the best attribute in selecting a project manager. While this should always be the bottom line, the way that the project is handled would seem to me to more important than just ensuring that the task is completed. Completing a project just for the sake of completing a project only alienates everyone involved and quite possibly prevents any of the associated parties from wishing to conduct business with this project manager again.
A. If your choices are getting a job done and making everyone mad at you versus not getting the job done and having everyone like you, that's not a good position to be in. For most external clients, "customer satisfaction" is part of the "project specifications." See next.

Comment: The most useful thing I learned in this module was about integrating two diverse cultures to successfully complete a project. I liked the example of Energo that the text discussed. It just seems like such an impossible feat to have two such different companies (a Middle Eastern developer and a European contractor) work together. But I guess it can happen!

Q. The aspect of the least clear, I would like to know how a PM from the United States should set out to do a project abroad. Should he/she first try to learn about the culture and language even before taking on the details of the project or is this something that would be site specific. I guess I would expect the later.
A. See above. Are you the only representative of your company in the country? Generally, in order to get the job or project, your company needs to know something about the country and its customs.

Q. 1. Can you please explain what the projects are for this class?
A. They give you a chance to explore a topic in some more depth. I felt this was better than a term paper.

Q. 2. Do you believe that customer satisfaction is its own category or do you think that it fits under performance, time, or budget?
A. (Talking about an external client:) Unless it's a cost reimbursable contract, the client is not too concerned with your budget. They are always concerned with the delivery time, which we separate from performance in project thinking, but non-project people think of on-time delivery as part of "performance."

Q. 3. What do you think of Figure 2, Characteristics of political behaviors, on page 30 of our text?
A. It's trying to get you to appreciate the environment of your project.