Teamwork and Project Management

Karl A. SmithEngineering Education – Purdue University

STEM Education Center/ Civil Eng - University of Minnesotaksmith@umn.edu

http://www.ce.umn.edu/~smith

Engineers Leadership InstituteMinnesota Society for

Professional Engineers

November 18, 2011

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Teambuilding and Project Management Perspectives

• Capitalizing on individual differences• Leading a team to consensus; the importance

of buy-in• Expanding a team’s capabilities• Perspectives on the role of project manager• Key components to project and/or team

success• Project coordination

• What is your experience in teamwork and project management?– 1-3: limited experience (1) to very experienced (3)

• What is your level of familiarity with project management tools and strategies?– 1-3: low (1) to high (3)

• What do you feel are important considerations about teamwork and project management?

• What are challenges you have faced with teamwork and project management?

What do you already know about Teamwork and Project Management?

[Background Knowledge Survey]

What is a Project?• A project is a combination of human and

nonhuman sources pulled together in a temporary organization to achieve a specified purpose. Cleland and Kerzner, 1985

• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), 2004

• A project is a sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities that have one goal or purpose and that must be completed by a specific time, within budget, and according to specification. Wysocki, 2011. 4

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The Project ManagementBody of Knowledge is thesum of knowledge withinthe profession of projectmanagement

PMBOK

www.pmi.org

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Project Management – Agile/Adaptive

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Types of Projects

• On-going operations – Traditional Project Management – PMBOK

• Innovation – Adaptive Project Framework – Wysocki

Types of Projects – Exploitation vs Exploration (March, 1991)

Exploiting Old Ways: Organizing for Routine Work

Exploring New Ways: Organizing for Innovative Work

Drive out variance Enhance variance

See old things in new ways

See old things in new ways

Replicate the past Break from the past

Goal: Make money now Goal: Make money later

March, J.G. 1991. Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organizational Science, 2, 71-87

Explore - Exploit• James March (1991) Exploration and exploitation in

organizational learning• Roger Martin (2010) Design of Business –

Characteristics of exploration and exploitation, Table 1-1, p. 20

• Govindarajan and Trimble (2010) The Other Side of Innovation, Key differences between typical planning processes for the Performance Engine and best practices for innovation, Table 4.1, p. 99

• Scott Page (2010) Understanding Complexity – Lecture 5 Explore Exploit: The Fundamental Trade-Off

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Percentage of Current Work that is Project Work

0-25 26-50 51-75 76-1000

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Number of Projects Currently Working On

0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 20+0

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Response

Response

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Distribution Between Supporting Innovation and Supporting On-

Going Operations

25-75 50-50 75-250

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Response

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Percentage of Current Work that is Project Work

0-25 26-50 51-75 76-1000

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Number of Projects Currently Working On

0-5 6-10 11-15 16-20 20+0

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Response

Response

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Distribution Between Supporting Innovation and Supporting On-

Going Operations

25-75 50-50 75-250

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Response

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Developing Project Management Expertise

• What is expertise?• What is project management expertise?• Why is this important?• How to develop expertise?

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Expertise Implies:

• a set of cognitive and metacognitive skills

• an organized body of knowledge that is deep and contextualized

• an ability to notice patterns of information in a new situation

• flexibility in retrieving and applying that knowledge to a new problem

Bransford, Brown & Cocking. 1999. How people learn. National Academy Press.

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Expert Project Managers

1. Take a moment to recall one of your expert project managers

2. Describe him or her briefly3. Listen as others describe their

expert project managers4. List common characteristics

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Characteristics of Expert Project Managers1. ?

What is takes to be a good project manager--Barry Posner (1987)

Communications (84% of the respondents listed it)

ListeningPersuading

Organizational skills (75%)PlanningGoal-settingAnalyzing

Team Building Skills (72%)EmpathyMotivationEsprit de Corps

Leadership Skills (68%)Sets ExampleEnergeticVision (big picture)DelegatesPositive

Coping Skills (59%)FlexibilityCreativityPatiencePersistence

Technological Skills (46%)ExperienceProject Knowledge

Acquisition of ExpertiseFitts P, & Posner MI. Human Performance. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1967.

• Cognition: Learn from instruction or observation what knowledge and actions are appropriate

• Associative: Practice (with feedback) allowing smooth and accurate performance

• Automaticity: “Compilation” or performance and associative sequences so that they can be done without large amounts of cognitive resources

“The secret of expertise is that there is no secret. It takes at least 10 years of concentrated effort to develop expertise.” Herbert Simon

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Paradox of Expertise

• The very knowledge we wish to teach others (as well as the knowledge we wish to represent in computer programs) often turns out to be the knowledge we are least able to talk about.

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Teamwork and Project Management Exercise

Project Life Cycle

The engineering method is design under constraints – Wm. Wulf, President, National Academy of Engineering

The engineering method is the use of heuristics to cause the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources – Billy Koen, Mechanical Engineering Professor, UT-Austin, author Discussion of the Method

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Design-Build Project

• Teams of 3-4 – randomly assigned• Experience entire project life cycle in

about 30 minutes• Goal is for all teams to meet the

specification (design requirement)• Attend to both the task and the team

work

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Team Member Roles

•Task Recorder•Process Recorder•Time Monitor•Materials Manager

Design objectiveDesign and build a tower at least 25 cm high that can support a stack of textbooks. The tower is built from index cards and office tape.

Design rulesMaterials are 100 index cards and one roll of office tapeCards can be folded but not tornNo piece of tape can be longer than 2 inchesTower cannot be taped to the floorTower must be in one piece, and easily transported in one handTime to design and build: 15 minutesHeight is measured from the ground to the lowest corner of the book placed on topTower must support book for at least 10 seconds before the measurement is madeRoom must be cleaned up before measurements are made.

Group Processing Plus/Delta Format

Plus (+)Things That Group Did Well

Delta (∆)Things Group Could Improve

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Teamwork & Project Management Heuristics--Examples

• Identify the weak link and Allocate resources to the weak link• Freeze the design--at some stage in the project (when about 75% of the time or resources are used up) the design must be frozen• Discuss the process and ask meta-level questions, e.g., What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How does it help?

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35Wysocki & Rudd, Figure 2.8, page 47

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What is a project?(Cleland and Kerzner, 1985; Nicholas, 1990)

• … a combination of human and nonhuman sources pulled together in a temporary organization to achieve a specified purpose.

• Features– Definable purpose with established goals– Cost, time and performance requirements– Multiple resources across organizational lines– One-time activity– Element of risk– Temporary activity– Process with phases/ project life cycle

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Performance, Cost, and Time Project Targets

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Project Success: Quadruple Constraint

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Successful Projects

1. Take a moment to recall one of your most successful projects

2. Describe it briefly3. Listen as others describe their

successful projects4. List common characteristics

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Characteristics• ?

A recent survey of technology projects in the United States by the Project Management Institute reveals some startling percentages. Close to half of the projects started were never finished, 30% were completed but took at least twice as long as expected, some took 5 times as long. Only 10% of the projects were finished on time.

Standish Group Survey of Software Project – 1994 (Lewis, 2000, p. 109)

17% Succeeded50% Revised33% Failed

Critical Success Factors and Their Importance for System Implementation (Listed in decreasing order of correlation)[Pinto (1986), See Smith (2004), p. 67]

1.Project mission. Initial clearly defined goals and general directions.2.Top management support. Willingness of top management to provide the

necessary resources and authority/power for implementation success.3.Schedule plans. A detailed specification of the individual action steps for system

implementation.4.Client consultation. Communication, consultation, and active listening to all

parties impacted by the proposed project. 5.Personnel. Recruitment, selection, and training of the necessary personnel for

the implantation project team. 6.Technical tasks. Availability of the required technology and expertise to

accomplish the specific technical action steps to bring the project on-line. 7.Client acceptance. The act of "selling" final product to its ultimate intended

users. 8.Monitoring and feedback. Timely provision of comprehensive control

information at each stage in the implementation process. 9.Communication. The provision of an appropriate network and necessary data to

all key actors in the project implementation process. 10.Troubleshooting. Ability to handle unexpected crises and deviations from plan.

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Top Ten Reasons Why Projects Succeed (Standish Group, 2000)• Executive management support• User involvement• Experienced project manager• Clear business objectives• Minimized scope• Standardized infrastructure• Firm basic requirements• Formal methodology• Reliable estimates• Skilled staff

Wysocki & Rudd, p. 34

Predictors of Lowered Project SuccessWilliam M. Hayden

• Unrealistic project work plans• Inability to deal early with suspected problem

issues• Technical complexities not well

communicated to team members• Conflict between client expectations and the

state of deliverables• Insufficient involvement on the part of senior

management early in the life cycle

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Session Summary(Minute Paper)

Reflect on the session:

1. Most interesting, valuable, useful thing you learned.

2. Things that helped you learn.

3. Comments, suggestions, etc

4. Pace: Too slow 1 . . . . 5 Too fast5. Relevance: Little 1 . . . 5 Lots6. Instructional Format: Ugh 1 . . . 5 Ah

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Q4 – Pace: Too slow 1 . . . . 5 Too fast (3.3)Q5 – Relevance: Little 1 . . . 5 Lots (4.3)Q6 – Format: Ugh 1 . . . 5 Ah (4.7)

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ISE 5101 – Fall 2011 – Session 1