Financial & Business Services Foundation
Project Management
From the Business Manager’s
Perspective
Business Manager Curriculum
February 2014
Facilitator: Jim Branden, MBA, PMP
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Instructor: Jim Branden, MBA, PMP
• NCSU – Bachelor's of Architecture, with Honors
– Licensed Architect (12 states)
• Florida Atlantic University, MBA
– Real estate developer
• Certified Urban Planner
– Land use plans for colleges & military installations (USA,
England, Germany & Japan)
• Project Management Professional (PMP®)
– Consultant & PM Trainer (Southeast US & Norway)
– Contributed editorial reviews to the Third and Fifth Editions of
“The Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge”
– Northeastern University, Boston – online instructor, Master’s
of Project Management – teach “Project Risk Management”
– UNC Charlotte, ITS PPMO Senior PM
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Agenda
• Project Team Dynamics
• Bird’s Eye-view of PM
• Business Manager’s Role in Projects
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Project Team Dynamics
From:
Diverse Skills / Viewpoints
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Toward:
Common Goal
To:
Success!
Team Formation
• Define “Cooperation” ~ “Collaboration”
• Bruce Tuckman: Five stages of team formation
– Forming – unclear about roles – drop your guard
– Storming – resolving personal conflicts; becoming respectful
& trusting – recognize differences
– Norming – establish common goal; each responsible for
helping achieve it – drop personal preferences in deference
to team’s success, i.e. cooperate
– Performing – function as unit – internally goal driven, i.e.
collaborate
– Adjourning – completing task – dissolve team
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Debrief “Team Project”
• Did you “feel” transitions across five stages?
• Which ones?
• How did conflict change in each stage?
• What might you have done about it?
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Project Team Dynamics – Who Are These People?
• Sponsor = Business Process Owner
• PM = Person with all responsibility and limited authority
– Not a “doer” ~ “conductor”!
• Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) = “E” stands for Ego
• Production Team = those who work on project
• Stakeholders = everybody who knows of, participates in &
affected by the project; not oblivious to it!
– Positive Stakeholders = those who want it to succeed by
participation and or support or benefit by it
– Negative Stakeholders = those who don’t want it to succeed,
or impede its success (inadvertently or _______)!
• Third-party = not contractually integral to project; may be
vendor or contractor supplying something to one party of
contract
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Project Team Dynamics
• Common goal(s) vs. personal or “my organization’s”
goals
• Borrowed resources – not fulltime on project
• Too many “Priority #1s”
• Late entry or early departure of key stakeholders
• Communications – key to success
– Understand “big picture” – which University Strategic Goal
does project support?
• Which does this program & your certification support? *
–
–
–
–
–
Clearly state Goal(s) of project
Everyone know how their “piece” fits into project’s goal(s)
Roles & responsibilities
Quality expectations
Schedule involvement
* See next slide
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University Strategic Goals
Goal #1: Deliver high quality, affordable, & effective educational programs that
produce educated & responsible citizens & competitive workforce.
Goal #2: Stimulate increased research, creative activities, & community
engagement with focus on programs & partnerships that address major needs
of Charlotte region.
Goal #3: Improve readiness of human resources & our academic,
administrative, physical, & technological infrastructure to efficiently &
responsibly operate urban research university serving 35,000 students.
Goal #4: Improve significantly base of supplemental non-state revenues for
academic programs & administrative support, physical facilities, & student
development, particularly need-based student financial aid.
Goal #5: Enhance opportunities for learning & working together in socially &
culturally diverse world.
Goal #6: Enhance quality of campus life & collegiate experience for students &
other members of campus community, both on-campus & in adjacent
University City neighborhoods.
Goal #7: Build local, state, & national awareness of & respect for
9 work of University & its people.
Bird’s Eye-View of Project Management
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Concepts / Terms / Overview
• Brandenism: “Processes: sustain
organizations;
Projects: improve or grow them”
• “Portfolio”
– Collection of unrelated “Programs”
• “Program”
– Collection of related “Projects”
• “Project”
– “Unique”, limited “duration” effort to produce
“deliverables”
– “Unique”: Not exactly same as before
– “Duration”: Calendar time (usually working days)
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Project Management (PM)
• Define: “PM”?
• What variables affect projects?
• How do you know you finished?
• What is successful PM?
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Complexity of PM
• Multiple agendas
• Diverse personalities
• Uncertain information:
– Known-knowns
– Known-Unknowns
– Unknown-unknowns
• Variables:
–
–
–
–
–
Costs
Time
Quality
Vendors
“I know you believe you understand what you think I said;
I’m not sure you realize what you heard is not what I
meant!”
– Coordination
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Time
• Brandenism: “Each hour has only one “last minute”;
don’t expect me to do more than 8 things in a day!”
• Milestone – point in time (deadline) @
the “last minute”
• Effort – what we do before the
“last minute”
• Duration – number of days between
milestones & total calendar length
of project
• Buffer – time reserved (before or after)
milestone to keep us on schedule
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LEVEL OF EFFORT
Overview of Project Lifecycle
TIME 
Initiating
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Planning
Executing
Closing
Monitoring & Controlling
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Norming
Forming
Storming
Performing
Adjourning
Tuckman’s Stages
Conflict in Projects: Think Positive!
•
•
•
•
•
•
Projects lead to change
Change produces uncertainty
Uncertainty raises doubts
Doubts color opinions
Opinions differ between people
Differences between people leads to conflicts
• Therefore: all projects include (embrace) conflict
•
•
•
•
•
Conflict raises questions
Questions stir debate
Debate shows pros & cons
Pros & cons justify decisions
Decisions approve change
• Therefore: Conflict produces better Projects!
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Concepts / Terms
• Planning – “Scope Statement”
– Brandenism: “Scope EXPLICITLY in or IMPLICITLY out”
– Who? (HR & Stakeholders)
– How long? (Time: when, effort & duration)
– How bad? (Quality)
– Need-to-Know? (Communications)
– Opportunities / Threats? (Risk)
– Make or Buy? (Procurement)
– Coordination (Integration)
– Budget? (Cost)
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Concepts / Terms
• “Deliverables”
–
–
–
–
“Effort” (verb) produces “Work” (noun)!
Barbequing may or may not produce Bar-B-Q!
Every project produces all 3 “works”
“Products”, “Service” or “Result”
• “WBS” Work Breakdown Structure = “DBS”
Deliverable Breakdown Structure (Brandenism)
• What are Business Managers’ Deliverables:
–
–
–
–
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Budget
Requisition
Purchase Order
Inter-Departmental Invoices (IDI)
Concepts / Terms
• Planning
– “Risk” – Opportunities / Threats
• “Positive Responses” – Exploit – Enhance –
Share – Accept
• “Negative Responses” – Avoid – Transfer –
Mitigate - Accept
• “Mitigate” – Brandenism: “Third worst risk
response!”
– “Baselines” – Scope – Time – Cost = “Triple
Constraints”
C
T
C
T
C
T
C
-T
Scope
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S
S
S
S
Role of Business Manager in Project
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Role of Business Manager in Project
• Questions to ask:
– What does “done” look like? (Scope)
– What is my role, responsibility & authority?
– What “Business Manager Deliverables” are
required?
– When are “Business Manager Deliverables”
required?
– With whom will I interact?
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Wrap Up
• What “Ah-ha” moments did you have?
• What did you learn that you can use?
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Key Points
• PM – has all responsibility; little authority
• Iterative planning produces better
projects
• If you don’t plan ahead – you’re planning to
fail
• Project management includes:
– Diverse “knowledge areas” e.g. specialties
(SMEs)
– Producing “products, services & results”
– “Mitigation is third worst negative risk
response”
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