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Project management & teamwork (b.e.s.t. series)

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This document provides an overview of project management and teamwork in engineering. It begins by asking what engineering is and noting that engineering is about design. It discusses how teamwork is important in engineering. The document explores modeling and the systems approach. It provides reflection questions for the reader and exercises.

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Karl A. Smith University of Minnesota Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, IA Madison,WI New York San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogoti Caracas Lisbon London Madrid MexicoCity Milan New Delhi Seoul Singapore Sydney Taipei Toronto
McGraw-Hill Higher Education ADivision of f i eMcGraw-HillCompanies PROJECT MANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORK Copyright O 2000 by The McGraw-Hill Companies,Inc. All rights reserved. Printedin the United States of America. Except as permittedunder the United States CopyrightAct of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributedin any form or by any means, or stored in a databaseor retrieval system, without the prior written permissionof the publisher. This book is printed on acid-free paper. ISBN 0-07-012296-2 Publisher: Thomas Casson Senior sponsoringeditor: Eric M. Munson Marketing manager: John ZWannemacher Project manager: Karen J. Nelson Production supervisor: Kari Geltemeyer Coordinatorfreelancedesign: Craig E. Jordan Compositor: ElectraGraphics, Inc. Qpeface: I O/12 Times Roman Printer: Quebecor Printing Book Group/Fai@eld Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Smith, Karl A. Project management and teamwork 1Karl A. Smith. p. cm.- (McGraw-Hill's BEST-basic engineeringseries and tools) ISBN 0-07-012296-2 1. Engineeringmanagement. 2. Teams in the workplace. 3. Industrialproject management. I. Title. II. Series.
When McGraw-Hill invited me to write a moduleon project management and team- work for their BEST series,I thought,What a terrific idea! I had been teaching proj- ect management and teamworkcourses for seniors in engineering;graduatestudents in professional master's programs,especially at the University of Minnesota's Cen- ter for the Development of Technological Leadership; and participants in short courses in the University of Minnesota's Executive Development Program, govern- ment agencies, and private companies. It would not have occurred to me to write a book for first-year students. I immediately embraced the idea and started work. I've been teaching a coursefor first-yearstudentsat the Universityof Minnesota for more than 20 years. It evolved intoa coursetitled How to Model It: Building Mod- els to Solve Engineering Problems, which I have been teaching with colleagues and undergraduatestudentteaching assistants for the past 10 years. We also wrote a book to accompany the course-How to Model It: Problem Solving for the Computer Age (Starfield,Smith, and Bleloch,1994). Since this course makes extensive use of proj- ect teams, I know that a book on project management and teamwork is needed. Teamwork and projects are at the heart of the approach I use in teaching stu- dents at all levels, including participants in faculty development workshops. I've learned that it isn't easy for students to work effectively in project teams or for fac- ulty to organize and manage them, but the potential for extraordinary work from teams makes it worth the effort. Also, projectsand teamwork are a central part of en- gineering work in the world outside the classroom. The first part of this book summarizes the context of engineering and stresses the importance of teamwork. The middle part focuses on the nature of projects and the project manager's role. The last part emphasizes the particulars on scheduling, monitoring, and documentation. Overall, my goals for readers of Project Manage- ment and Teamwork are the following: To understand the dynamics of team development and interpersonal problem solving. To identify strategies for accelerating the development of true team effective- ness. To understand the critical dimensionsof project scope, time, and cost manage- ment. To understandcritical technicalcompetenciesin project management. To explore a variety of "best practices"including anticipating, preventing, and overcoming barriers to project success. As you engage with this book, be sure to continually reflect on what you're learning and how you can apply it to the projects and teams you work on each day, iii
in classes, on the job, and in social, professional,and community organizations. An important key to success in projectsand teams is to routinely work at a "meta level." That means you are simultaneously thinking about the task and how well the team is working. Talk with others about how the projects and teams you're involved with are going,share successesand insights,and work togetherto identify and solve team problems. The personal story in the accompanying box describes some of the ques- tions I've grappled with and how I got interested in this project. I encourage you to develop your own stories as you work your way through this book. One of the messages of the story in the box is the importanceof checking a va- riety of resources to help formulate and solve the problems you encounter. Another message is that, although engineers spend some of their time working alone, engi- neering is not individual, isolated work. Collaborative problem solving and tearn- work are central to engineering. Engineers must learn to solve problems by them- selves,of course,but they must also learn to work collaboratively to effectively solve the other 95 percent of the problems they will face as professionalengineers.There may be a tendency to think that this 95 percent-this asking questions and search- PERSONAL STORY I have been involved in engineering, as a student and In response, my colleague would say, "Suppose as a professional, for over 30 years. Frequently I have that didn't work." grappled with the questions, What is the engineering "I'd assign the problem to one of my engineers to method? Is it applied science? Is it design? As a pro- check the literature to see if a solution was available in fessor I have struggled with the question, What should the literature." my students learn and how should they learn it? These "Suppose that didn't work," retorted my col- concerns prompted me to address the question, What league. is the nature of engineering expertise and how can it "Well, then I'd call my friends in other companies be developed effectively? to see if any of them had solved it." A study conducted by one of my colleagues Again my colleague would say, "Suppose that (Johnson, 1982) provides valuable insight into the ac- didn't work." tivities of engineers. My colleague was hired to collect "Then I'd call some vendors to see if any of them protocol from engineering experts while they solved had a solution." difficult problems. Working with a team of professors, My colleague, growing impatient at not hearing a he developed a set of difficult and interesting prob- problem solution, would say, "Suppose that didn't lems, which he took to chief engineers in large com- work." panies. In case after case the following scenario was At some stage in this interchange, the engineer repeated. would say, "Well, gee, I guess I'd have to solve it my- The engineer would read the problem and say, self." "This is an interesting problem." To which my colleague would reply, "What per- My colleague would ask, "How would you solve centage of the problems you encounter fall into this it?" category?" The engineer would say, "I'd check the engineers Engineer after engineer replied, "About five per- on the floor to see if any of them had solved it." cent"!
ing other sources for the solution-is either trivial or else unrelated to engineering. However, working with others to formulateand solve problems and accomplishjoint tasks is critical to success in engineering. Many people deserve credit for guidance in this project. Michael B. Mahler, a grad- uate student in civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, with whom I've taught and worked on project management for many years, provided enormous in- sight into the process of what will work for students and was a source of constant support and encouragement. Robert C. Johns co-taught the project management course with me at Minnesota and provided lots of good ideas. Anthony M. Starfield, co-creator of the first-year course, How to Model It, and co-author of the book by the same title encouraged me to use the questioning format of the How to Model It book to engage the reader.The five manuscriptreviewers provided terrific assistance. Holly Stark and Eric Munson of McGraw-Hill, and Byron Gottfried, Consulting Editor, initiated the idea and provided guidance throughout. A special note of thanks to my daughters, Riawa and Sharla Smith, who helped with the editing and the graphics. A special acknowledgment goes to Michigan State University, which provided me with a wonderful place to work on this project during my sabbatical leave. Another goes to David and Roger Johnson (whose cooperativelearning model pro- vides the theoreticalbasis for this book) for their great ideas, generosity, and stead- fast support. Most of all I thank the hundreds of students who learned from and with me in project management coursesfor their patience, perseverance, wonderful suggestions and ideas, and interest and enthusiasmin project management and teamwork. Please send your commentsand suggestionsto me at ksmith@tc.umn.edu. Johnson, P. E. 1982. Personal communication. Starfield,Anthony M.; Smith Karl A., and Bleloch,Andrew L. 1994. How to model it: Problem solving for the computer age. Edina, MN: Burgess.
Project management & teamwork (b.e.s.t. series)
Preface iii C h a p t e r 1 PROJECT MANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORKIN ENGINEERING What Is Engineering? 1 EngineeringDesign 3 Modeling and Engineering 3 Teamwork and Engineering 5 SystemsApproach 6 Reflection: Project Management and Teamwork in Engineering 8 Questions 9 Exercises 9 References 10 C h a p t e r 2 TEAMWORK 13 Leadership 27 Decision Making 29 Conflict Management 32 Teamwork Challengesand Problems 35 1 Reflection: Teamwork 36 Questions 37 Exercises 37 References 41 C h a p t e r 4 PROJECT MANAGEMENTPRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES 43 What Is a Project? 44 Keys to Project Success 45 Project Life Cycle 47 Project Planning 49 Reflection: Project Management 50 Questions 50 Definition of a Team 14 Exercise 51 Types of LearningTeams 15 Project Planning 51 Pseudo Learning Group 15 References 51 TraditionalClassroomLearning Group 16 Cooperative Learning Group 16 Chapter 5 High-PerformanceCooperative Learning Group 16 PROJECT MANAGER'S ROLE 53 Groups and Teams 17 Importance of Diversity 17 Characteristicsof Effective Teams 18 Questions 19 Exercises 20 References 20 C h a p t e r 3 TEAMWORKSKILLS AND PROBLEM SOLVING 23 Importanceof Task and Relationship 23 Organization: Group Norms 24 Communication 26 Changes in the Workplace 53 Changes in Project Management 56 Skills Necessary for Effective Project Managers 58 Project Manager's Role over the Project Life Cycle 59 Planning 59 Organizing 60 Staffing 60 Directing 61 Controlling 61 Questions 62 Exercise 62 References 63 vii
viii CONTENTS C h a p t e r 6 PROJECT SCHEDULING 65 Work Breakdown Structure 66 Critical Path Method 67 Forward Pass-Early Start (ES) and Early Finish (EF) 68 Backward Pass-Late Start (LS) and Late Finish (LF) 68 Critical Path 69 Floats 69 Gantt Charts and CritPath 70 Critical Path Method Summary 72 Bus Shelter Construction Example 72 Project Resourceand Cost Considerations 74 Resource Leveling 74 Cost Considerations 76 The Role of Computer-basedProject Management Software 78 Questions 78 Exercises 78 Reference 80 C h a p t e r 7 PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION 81 Meetings 81 Monitoring Group Effectiveness 83 Team Talk Analysis 86 Project Evaluation 89 Continual Evaluation 90 Building Quality into Projects 90 Questions 92 References 92 C h a p t e r 8 PROJECT MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATIONAND COMMUNICATIONS 95 Project Documentation 95 Journals and Notes 97 Project Communications 99 Getting Started, Keeping Going 100 Revising and Refining 100 Questions 100 References 101 C h a p t e r 9 PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE 103 Personal InformationManagers 103 Project ManagementSoftware 104 Project Managementand the World Wide Web 108 Questions 109 References 109 C h a p t e r 1 0 WHERE TO GOFROM HERE 111 References 113
c h a p t e r Project management and teamwork are rapidly gaining importance in engineering. Because teamworkand projectsin engineeringare receiving more and more empha- sis in business,industry,and government, they are also becoming common in engi- neering classes. In addition, teanis are used in classes because students working in well-structured teams'learn more, remember it longer, and develop problem-solving skills more fully than students working individually. Periodically throughout this book, I'll ask you to stop and reflect. I encourage you to take advantageof the opportunity. My goals are to give you a chance to describe what you know and to get you to think, so that when you read what I have to say about a topic you'll have a basisfor comparingand contrastingnew informationwith informationyou already have. Before you read ahead for various answers to the question "What is engineer- ing?'Complete the following Reflection. REFLECTION What is engineering, and what does it mean to learn to engineer in school? What is your experience with engineering? Did you learn about engineering in high school? I Do you have a brother or sister, mother or father, or other relative or friend who is an engi- neer? Take a minute to reflect on where you learned about engineering and what your im- pressions of engineering are. What did you come up with?
c H A P r E R 1 PROJECTMANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORK IN ENGMEERING Since there are few high school courses in engineering, it is relatively difficult for first-year college students to have gained much exposure to engineering.Yet we are surrounded by engineering accomplishments; they are so ubiquitous that we don't notice most of them. One of the foremost thinkersand writers on engineering, mechanicalengineeringprofessorBilly Koen,is noted for askingfour probing ques- tions of his audiences (Koen, 1984). The first is: 1. Can you name one thing in the room in which you are sitting (excluding your- self, of course) that was not developed,produced, or delivered by an engineer? Koen finds that the question is usually greeted with bewildered silence. I have posed his questions to hundreds of first-year students, and they have come up with some great suggestions: the air (but how does it get into the room?), dirt (trapped in peo- ple's shoes), electromagneticradiation (but the lights generate much more than the background). Almost everything that we encounter was developed,produced,or de- livered by an engineer or engineers. Koen's second question is: 2. Can you name a profession that is affecting your life more incisively than engi- neering? Again, students name several professions but on reflection note that if it were not for engineering, politicians would have a difficult time spreading their ideas; doctors, without their tools, would be severely limited in what they could do; lawyers wouldn't have much to read; and so forth. Things such as telephones,com- puters, airplanes, and skyscrapers-which have an enormous effect on our lives- are all productsof engineering. Koen's third question is: 3. Since engineering is evidently very important, can you now define the engi- neering method for solving a problem? Many students respond with a puzzled look, as if I am asking an unfair question. They note that they have a ready response to the question "What is the scientific method?'Students list things like "applied science," "problem solving," and "trial and error," but almost no one (over the 15 or so years that I've been askingthis ques- tion) says "design." If you were to ask practicing engineers the question "What is the engineering method?' they would likely respond "Engineering is design!"A group of national engineering leaders has said: Design in a major sense is the essence of engineering; it begins with the identifi- cation of a need and ends with a product or system in the hands of a user. It is primarily concerned with synthesis rather than the analysis which is central to en- gineering science. Design, above all else, distinguishes engineering from science. (Hancock, 1986) We'll explore the concept of engineering design next-and save Koen's fourth and final question for the end of the chapter.
If design is the essence of engineering, the next question is, What is design? The Ac- creditation Board for Engineering and Technology(ABET 1999),the group that ac- credits engineering programs, has defined engineering design as "the process of de- vising a system, component or process to meet a desired need." Researchers who carefully observe the engineering design process are increas- ingly noting that it is quite different from the formal process typically described in textbooks. For example, Eugene Ferguson (1992) writes: Those who observe the process of engineering design find that it is not a totallyfor- mal affair, and that drawings and specificationscome into existenceas a result of a social process. The various members of a design group can be expected to have di- vergent views of the most desirable ways to accomplish the design they are work- ing on.As Louis Bucciarelli(1994),an engineeringprofessor who has observeden- gineeringdesignersat work, pointsout,informal negotiations,discussions,laughter, gossip,and banter among membersof a design group often have a leavening effect on its outcome. Recent work on engineeringdesign indicates that it is a more social process than we once thought. Lany Leifer (1997) of the Stanford Center for Design Research claims that engineering design is "a social process that identifies a need, defines a problem, and specifies a plan that enables others to manufacture the solutions." Leifer's research shows that design is fundamentally a social activity. He describes practices such as "negotiating understanding," "conserving ambiguity," "tailoring engineering communications for recipients," and "manipulating mundane represen- tations." If design is the heart of engineering and design is a social process, then it fol- lows that project management and teamwork are essential to engineering. Many problems with engineering result from poor team dynamics and inadequate project management.In fact, Leifer notes,"Design team failure is usually due to failed team dynamics." A lot has been written about engineering and engineering design. Adams, (1991),Hapgood (1992),and Ferguson (1992),for example, have writtenfor general audiences and their works can give first-year students considerable insight into en- gineering. Many writers take a modeling approach to helping students learn about the engineering method and how to do engineering design. Two books that empha- size this connection between modeling and design, and extend it substantially, are Papalambros and Wilde (1988) and Chapman, Bahill, and Wymore (1992). Modeling in its broadest sense is the cost-effective use of one thing in place of an- other for some cognitive purpose (Rothenberg,1989). A model represents reality for
C H A PT E R 1 PROJECTMANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORK IN ENGINEERING the given purpose; the model is an abstraction of reality, however, in the sense that it cannot represent all aspects of reality. Models are characterizedby three essential attributes: 1. Reference: A model is of something (its referent). 2. Purpose: A model has an intended cognitive purpose with respect to its refer- ent. 3. Cost-effectiveness: A model is more cost-effective to use for this purpose than the referent itself would be. A problem that I often give to help studentslearn about these attributesof mod- eling involves determiningthe maximum number of Ping-Pong balls that could fit in the room they're sitting in. First I give them about 20 seconds and ask each person to guess. Next I ask them to work in groupsfor about 5 to 10 minutes to develop not only a numerical estimate but also a descriptionof the method they use. At this stage students typically model the room as a rectangular box and the ball as a cube. They then determine the number by dividing the volume of the room by the volume of a ball. I ask them what they would do if I gave them the rest of the class period to work on the problem. Sooner or later a student says, "Who cares how many Ping-Pong balls could fit in the room!" I thank that student and report that we can now stop. In any problem that involves modeling, the purpose must be specified. Without know- ing the purpose, we don't know how to use the model; the 20-second answer might be good enough. An essential aspect of modeling is the use of heuristics (Starfield, Smith, and Bleloch, 1994),which may be generally defined as methods or procedures that aid in discovery or problem solving.Although difficult to define, heuristicsare relatively easy to identify using the characteristicslisted by Koen (1984, 1985): 1. Heuristicsdo not guarantee a solution. 2. Two heuristics may contradict or give different answers to the same question and still be useful. 3. Heuristics permit the solving of unsolvable problems or reduce the search time to a satisfactorysolution. 4. The heuristic depends on the immediate context instead of absolute truth as a standard of validity. Thus, a heuristic is anything that provides a plausibleaid or directionin the solution of a problem but is in the final analysisunjustified, incapableof justification,and fal- lible. It is used to guide, to discover, and to reveal. Heuristics are also a key part of Koen's definition of the engineering method: The engineeringmethod is the use of heuristics to cause the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources.(p. 70) Typical engineering heuristics include (1) rules of thumb and orders of magnitude, (2) factors of safety, (3) circumstancesthat determine the engineer's attitude toward
TEAMWORKAND ENGINEERING his or her work, (4) procedures that engineers use to keep risk within acceptable bounds, and (5)rules of thumb that are important in resource allocation. Models and heuristicswill constitutea major part of this book. The critical path method (CPM) is a procedure for modeling complex projects with interdependent activities. Visual representations include Gantt charts and network diagrams. My goal is for you to develop the skills and confidence necessary to organize, manage, participate in, and lead project teams. This goal is consistent with current thinking about the purpose of engineering schools. W. Edwards Deming associate and engi- neering educator Myron Tribus (1996) summarized the purpose of engineering schools as follows: The purpose of a School of Engineering is to teach students to create value through the design of high quality products and systems of production, and services, and to organize and lead people in the continuous improvement of these designs. (p. 25) Notice that Tribus considers management an integral part of engineering. He also elaborates on the importance of group work for learning to engineer: The main tool for teaching wisdom and character is the group project. Experiences with group activities, in which the members of the groups are required to exhibit honesty, integrity, perseverance, creativity and cooperation, provide the basis for critical review by both students and teachers. Teachers will need to learn to function more as coaches and resources and less as givers of knowledge. (p. 25) The importance of teamwork in business and industry is embedded in the concepts of concurrent (or simultaneous)engineeringand total quality management. The fol- lowing quote elaborates on this point: In concurrent engineering (CE), the key ingredient is teamwork. People from many departments collaborate over the life of a product-from idea to obsolescence-to ensure that it reflects customers' needs and desires ...Since the very start of CE, product development must involve all parts of an organization, effective teamwork depends upon sharing ideas and goals beyond immediate assignments and depart- mental loyalties. Such behavior is not typically taught in the engineering schools of U.S. colleges and universities. For CE to succeed, teamwork and sharing must be valued just as highly as the traditional attributes of technical competence and cre- ativity, and they must be rewarded by making them an integral part of the engineer's performance evaluation. (Shina, 1991 p. 23) Project managementand teamwork are central to engineering.Learning how to organizeand manage projects,and to participateeffectively in projectteams, will not only serve you well in engineeringschool, where there are lots of group projects,but will also be critical to your success as a professionalengineer. The BoeingCompany uses the following checklist when considering new employees.
C H A PT E R 1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND TEAMWORKIN ENGINEERING Employer's checklist-Boeing Company J A good grasp of these engineeringfundamentals: Mathematics(includingstatistics) Physical and life sciences Informationtechnology J A good understandingof the design and manufacturingprocess (i.e., an understandingof engineering) J A basic understandingof the context in which engineeringis practiced, including: Economicsand business practice History The environment Customer and societal needs J A multidisciplinarysystems perspective J Good communication skills Written Verbal Graphic Listening J High ethical standards J An ability to think critically and creatively as well as independentlyand cooperatively J Flexibility-an ability and the self-confidence to adapt to rapidlmajorchange J Curiosityand a lifelong desire to learn J A profound understandingof the importanceof teamwork I SOURCE: ASEE Prism, December 1996, p. 1 1. In addition to teamwork, another idea emphasized not only in employer checklists like Boeing's but also in the new accreditation criteria for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology is that of systems and the systems approach. A system is a whole that cannot be divided up into independent parts (Ackoff, 1994).Systems are made up of sets of componentsthat work togetherfor a specified overall objective. The systems approach is simply a way of thinkingabout total sys- tems and their components. Five basic aspects must be kept in mind when thinking about the meaning of a system: (1) the whole system's objectives and, more specifically, the performance measures of the whole system; (2) the system's environment, including the fixed constraints; (3) the resources of the system; (4) the componentsof the system, their activities,goals, and measures of performance;and (5) the managementof the sys- tem (Churchman,1968). Systems thinkingis a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a frameworkfor seeing
interrelationshipsrather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots. It is a set of principles and a set of specific tools and techniques (Senge, 1990).Animplicationof the systemsapproachis that everybody involvedmust work togetherto improvewhole systems (Weisbord,1987). The systems approachis com- monly operationalized through learning organizations. Peter Senge (in Ray and Rinzler, 1993) lists five factors, or disciplines, that make up the art and practice of the learning organization: 1. Building shared vision. The idea of building shared vision stresses that you never quite finish it-it's an ongoing process. 2. Personal mastery. Learningorganizationsmust be fully committedto the devel- opment of each individual's personal mastery--each individual's capacity to create a life the way he or she truly wants. 3. Mental models. Our vision of current reality has everything to do with the third discipline-mental models-because what we really have in our lives is con- structions,internal pictures that we continually use to interpret and make sense out of the world. 4. Team learning. Individuallearning, no matter how wonderfulit is or how great it makes us feel, is fundamentallyirrelevant to organizations,because virtually all important decisions occur in groups. The learning units of organizationsare "teams,"groups of people who need one another to act. 5. Systems thinking. The last discipline, the one that ties them all together, is sys- tems thinking. As in many other projectmanagement books, a systemsthemewill be one of the integrating themes in this book. The idea of systems, along with that of the learning organization,has important contributionsto make not only to your study of project management but also to many other things you will be studying in engineering. Here,for example,are eight principles for learningfrom the Xerox Corporation(Jor- dan, 1997 p. 116): 1. Learning is fundamentallysocial. 2. Cracking the whip stifles learning. 3. Learning needs an environment that supports it. 4. Learning crosses hierarchical bounds. 5. Self-directedlearning fuels the fire. 6. Learning by doing is more powerful than memorizing. 7. Failure to learn is often the fault of the system, not the people. 8. Sometimes the best learning is unlearning. The above list indicates that the ideas in this book are important not only for your project work but also for your day-to-day work in engineeringschool. A 1998 survey indicated that design is the first and management is the third most frequent work activity reported by engineers (see Table 1.1).
C H A PT E R 1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND TEAMWORK IN ENGINEERING Table 1.1 Rank order of work activities, 1993 Activity Percent Mentioning 1. Design 66% 2. Computer applications 58 3. Management 49 4. Development 47 5. Accounting,etc. 42 6. Applied research 39 7. Quality or productivity 33 8. Employee relations 23 9. Sales 20 10. Basic research 15 11. Production 14 12. Professional services 10 13. Other work activities 8 14. Teaching 8 I SOURCE: Burton, Parker, and LeBold, 1998, p. 19. REFLECTION: PROJECT MANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORK IN ENGINEERING As I finished writing this book, I was reminded of a book I read almost 20 years ago-Excellence in Engineering, byW. H. Roadstrum(1978). The second edition is titled Being Successful as an Engineer (Roadstrum, 1988). In this edition, Road- strum remarks, "Engineering is almost completely divorced from this concept of routine and continuous. Engineeringwork is project work" (p. 7). Engineeringwork is project work! This is the essence of Roadstrum's book. The first two chapters, "What Engineering Is" and "The Engineer," cover ground similar to the material given in this chapter,but from a perspective about 12 years ago. Roadstrumthen ad- dresses"The Project and the Project Team"and "Project Control"in Chapters 3 and 4. AlthoughI had not looked at Roadstrum's book for several years, I was struck by the overlaps between his book and mine. Being Successful as an Engineer addresses a broad range of topics, including problemsolving,laboratorywork, design, researchand development, manufacturing and quality control, systems, proposal work, human relations, and creativity. Road- strum writes, "Design is the heart of the engineering process-its most characteris- tic activity." Furthermore,he states, "If you and I are going to understandengineer- ing, we'll have to understanddesign"(p. 97). Roadstrum elaborates on the role of the project engineer, with the following statement:
Every engineer looks forward to the time when he can have a project of his own. A project engineer has the best job in the business. He has ultimate responsibilityfor the work as a whole. He is the real architectof the project solution.Even more than his colleagues, he looks at the job as a whole from the beginning.He watches care- fully to make all details come together into a timely, economical,fresh, and effec- tive meetingof the need. (p. 166) Roadstrum's book and ideas no doubt influenced my decision to develop skills and expertise in project management; however, the specific reference lay dormant until now. I hope this book will influence your experience and practice of project man- agement in engineering. As a final note, recall the discussion from the beginning of the chapter of Pro- fessor Billy Koen's probing questions. Koen's fourth question is, "Lacking a ready answer[to the third question-What is the engineeringmethod?],can you then name a nationally known engineer who is wise, well read, and recognized as a scholar in the field of engineering--one to whom I can turn to find out what engineeringreally is?' To whom would you turn? Difficult, isn't it? No other professionlacks knowl- edgeable,clearlyrecognized spokespersons. I sincerelyhope that you'll help provide the leadership to make engineering better known. 1. What is engineering? How does engineering differ from science? What role does design play in engineering? 2. What is a model? Why are models useful in project management and in engi- neering? 3. What is a system? Why are many project management books organized around a systems approach? 1. Summarize your course work and experiences with engineering and design. What are some of the key things you've learned about engineers and engineer- ing? Do you have relatives or friends who are project managersor engineers?If so, talk with them. 2. Why should you, as a first-year engineering student, be interested in project management and teamwork? Take a minute and reflect. Jot down at least three reasons why a first-year engineering student should be interested in project managementand teamwork. What did you come up with? Did you say, for in- stance, that project management and teamwork are integral to engineering pro- fessional practice? 3. List your good experiences with projects and teamwork. Have you had experi- ence with a team that had extraordinary accomplishments?If so, describe the
situation, especially the characteristicsof the team that led to its success. What were some of the factors-a sense of urgency? a project too complex or time- line too short for one person to complete? or a need for synergisticinteraction? Ackoff, Russell L. 1994. The democratic corporation: A radical prescription for recreating corporate America and rediscovering success. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Adams, James L. 1991. Flying buttresses, entropy, and o-rings: The world of an engineel: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ABET. 1999. www.abet.org Bucciarelli,Louis. 1994. Designing engineers. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press. Burton, Lawrence, Linda Parker, and William K. LeBold. 1998. U.S. engineeringcareer trends. ASEE Prism, 7(9): 18-21. Chapman,William L., A. Terry Bahill, and A. Wayne Wymore. 1992. Engineering modeling and design. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Churchman, C. West. 1968. The systems approach. New York: Laurel. Ferguson,Eugene S. 1992. Engineering and the mind's eye. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Hancock, J. C., Chairman (1986). Workshop on undergraduateengineering education. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation. Hapgood,Fred. 1992. Up the infinite corridor: MZT and the technical imagination. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Jordan, Brigitte. 1996. 8 principles for learning. Fast Company 5 (October/November): 116. Koen, Billy V. 1984. Toward a definition of the engineering method. Engineering Education 75: 151-155. . 1985. Definition of the engineering method. Washington: American Society for EngineeringEducation. Leifer, Larry. 1997. A collaborativeexperiencein global product-based learning. November 18, 1997. NationalTechnological University Faculty Forum. Papalambros, Panos Y., and Douglass J. Wilde. 1988. Principles of optimal design: Modeling and computation. Cambridge,England: Cambridge University Press. Ray, Michael, and Alan Rinzler, eds. 1993. The new paradigm in business: Emerging strategies for leadership and organizationalchange. Los Angeles: TarcherIPerigee.
Roadstrum,W. H. 1988. Being successful as an engineer. San Jose: EngineeringPress. Roadstrum,W. H. 1978. Excellence in engineering. New York: Wiley. Rothenberg,Jeff. 1989. The nature of modeling. In Artijicial intelligence, simulation & modeling, edited by L. E. Widman, K. A. Loparo, and N. R. Nielsen. New York: Wiley: pp. 75-90. Senge, Peter. 1990. TheJifthdiscipline: The a n and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday. Shina,S. G. 1991. New rules for world-class companies.Special Report on ConcurrentEngineering,edited by A. Rosenblattand G. F. Watson. ZEEE Spectrum 28(7): 22-37. Tribus, Myron. 1996. Total quality managementin schools of business and engineering.In Academic initiatives in total quality for higher education, edited by Harry V. Roberts, 17-40. Milwaukee: ASQC Quality Press. Weisbord, Marvin R. 1987. Productive workplaces: Organizing and managing for dignity, meaning, and community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Project management & teamwork (b.e.s.t. series)
c h a p t e r Everyone has to work together; if we can't get everybody working toward common goals, nothing is going to happen. Harold K. Sperlich Former President, Chrysler Corporation Coming together is a beginning; Keeping together is progress; Working together is success. Henry Ford REFLECTION Think about a really effective team that you've been a member of, a team that accomplished extraordinary things and perhaps was even a great place to be. Start by thinking about teams in an academic, professional, or work setting. If no examples come to mind, then think about social or community-based teams. If again you don't conjure up an ex- ample, then think about sports teams. Finally, if you don't come up with a scenario from any of these contexts, then simply imagine yourself as a member of a really effective team. OK, got a picture of the team in mind? As you recall (or imagine) this highly effective team expe- rience, try to extract the specific characteristics of the team. What was it about the team that made it so effective? Please make a list. Look over the list you made in the above Reflection. Did you preface your list with "It depends"?The characteristicsof an effective team depend, of course, on the pur- pose of the team. In large measure,they depend on the team's task goals (those con- cerning what the team is to do) and maintenance goals (those concerning how the team functions). Michael Schrage (1991) states emphatically:
C H A P T E R 2 TEAMWORK [Pleople should understand that real value in the sciences, the arts, commerce, and, indeed one's personal and professional lives, comes largely from the process of col- laboration. What's more, the quality and quantity of meaningful collaboration often depend upon the tools used to create it ...Collaboration is apulposive relationship. At the heart of collaboration is a desire or need to: solve a problem, create, or dis- cover something. (p. 34) Within a set of constraints+xpertise, time, money, com- petition, conventional wisdom. (p. 36) Let's assume that it's a team that has both task and maintenance goals, since most effective teams not only have a job to do (a report to write, a project to com- plete, a presentation to give, etc.) but also a goal of getting better at working with one another. I've used the Reflection above with hundreds of faculty and students in work- shop and classroom settings. Here is a typical list of the characteristicsof effective teams: Good participation Respect Careful listening Common goal Sense of purpose Good meeting facilitation Leadership Empowered members Constructively managed conflict Members take responsibility Fun, liked to be there Effectivedecision making Katzenbach and Smith (1993)studied teamsthat performed at a variety of levels and came up with four categories. Pseudo teams are those that perform below the level of the average member. Potential teams don't quite get going but struggle along at or slightly above the level of the average member. Real teams perform quite well, and high-pelfomzing teams perform at an extraordinarylevel. Katzenbach and Smith then looked for common characteristics of real teams and high-performing teams. All real teams could be defined as follows: a small number of people with comple- mentaryskills who are committed to a common purpose,performancegoals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. High-performing teams met all the conditions of real teams and, in addition, had members who were deeply committed to one another's personal growth and success. REFLECTION Now think about the groups that are being used in your engineering classes. Think about your most successful or effective group project experience. What were the char- acteristics of the group? What were the conditions? Are they similar to your most effective groups?
High-performing cooperative group A Cooperative Individual members t Pseudo-group 5 ~ eof group Figure 2.1 Group performance There is nothingmagicalaboutteamworkin engineeringclasses. For example,while some types of learning teams increasethe qualityof classroomlife and facilitatestu- dent learning, others hinder student learning and create disharmony and dissatisfac- tion with classroom life. To use teamwork effectively, you must know what is and what is not a desirable characteristic. When you choose to use (or are asked or required to use) instructional groups, you must ask yourself,"What type of group am I involved in?Tigure 2.1 and the following may be helpful in answering that question. Students in a pseudo learning group are assigned to work together but they have no interest in doing so. They believe they will be evaluated by being ranked from the highest performerto the lowest performer. While on the surfacestudents talk to each other, under the surface they are competing. Because they see each other as rivals who must be defeated, they block or interfere with each other's learning, hide infor- mation from each other, attempt to mislead and confuseeach other, and distrusteach other. Students would achieve more if they were working alone.
C H A P T E R 2 TEAMWORK Studentsin a traditionalclassroom learninggroup are assigned to work togetherand accept that they must do so. Assignments are structured, however, so that very little joint work is required. Students believe that they will be evaluated and rewarded as individuals, not as members of the group. They interact primarily to clarify how assignments are to be done. They seek each other's information, but have no moti- vation to teach what they know to their groupmates. Helping and sharing are mini- mized. Some students loaf, seeking a free ride on the efforts of their more conscien- tious groupmates.The conscientious members begin to feel exploited and therefore do less. The sum of the whole is more than the potential of some of the members, but the more hard-working and conscientiousstudents would perform higher if they worked alone. Students in cooperativelearninggroups are assignedto work togetherand, given the complexityof the task and the necessityfor diverse perspectives, they are relieved to do so.They know that theirsuccessdependson the efforts of all groupmembers. The group format is clearly defined. First, the group goal of maximizing all members' learning provides a compelling common purpose that motivates members to roll up their sleeves and accomplish somethingbeyond their individualachievements.Sec- ond, group members hold themselves and each other accountable for doing high- quality work to achieve their mutual goals. Third, group members work face-to-face to produce joint results. They do real work together. Students promote each other's success through helping, sharing, assisting, explaining, and encouraging. They pro- vide both academic and personalsupport based on their commitmentto and concern for each other. Fourth, group members are taught teamwork skills and are expected to use them to coordinate their efforts and achieve their goals. Both task and main- tenance (team-building)skills are emphasized. All members share responsibilityfor providing leadership. Finally, groups analyze how effectively they are achieving their goals and how well members are working together, There is an emphasis on continual improvement of the quality of learning and teamwork processes. A recent guide to success in active learning is available in the book Strivingfor Excellence in College (Browne and Keeley, 1997). A high-performancecooperativelearning group meets all the criteria for being a co- operative learning group and outperforms all reasonable expectations, given its membership. What differentiatesthe high-performance group from the ordinary co- operativelearninggroupis the level of commitmentmembers have to each other and to the group's success. Jennifer Futernick, who is part of a high-performing,rapid- response team at McKinsey & Company, calls the emotional binding together of her teammates a form of love (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993). Ken Hoepner of the
Burlington NorthernIntermodalTransport Team (also described in Katzenbach and Smith) stated: "Not only did we trust each other, not only did we respect each other, but we gave a damn about the rest of the people on this team. If we saw somebody vulnerable, we were there to help." Members' mutual concern for each other's per- sonal growth enables high-performance cooperative groups to perform far above expectations,and also to have lots of fun. The bad news about extraordinarily high- performance cooperative learning groups is that they are rare. Most groups never achieve this level of development. I've been using the terms group and team interchangeablyand I will continue to do so throughout this book. The traditionalliteraturefocuses on groups, while recently some writers have been making distinctions between groups and teams. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) summarize the major differences between working groups and teams (see Table 2.1). Table 2.1 Not all groups are teams: How to tell the difference Working Group Team Strong, clearlyfocused leader Shared leadershiproles Individual accountability Individualand mutual accountability Purpose the same as the broader organizationalmission Specific team purposethat the team itself delivers Individualwork-products Collective work-products Runs efficientmeetings Encouragesopen-endeddiscussion and active problem-solving meetings Measuresits effectiveness indirectly by its influence on others Measuresperformance directly by assessing collectivework- products Discusses,decides, and delegates Discusses,decides, and does real work together I SOURCE: Katzenbach and Smith, 1993. From your perspective,are there any surprisesin Table 2.1?Many students em- phasize the importance of a strong leader, but Katzenbach and Smith indicate that real teams, as opposed to working groups, have shared leadership roles. Also notice that the literature on high-performance teams indicates that they are composed of members with complementary skills; that is, they're diverse. Often we must work with people who are differentfrom us or difficult to work with but whose skills,talents,expertise,and experienceare essential to the project. Work-,
C H A P T E R 2 TEAMWORK ing with a diverse group may seem impossible at times, but look at the example of Phil Jackson, former head coach of the Chicago Bulls basketball team. Can you imagine more a more diverse group than one made up of Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippin? Phil Jackson is an expert at managing diversity. Ethnic diversity is increasingin the workplace and in the broader society. Many predict that today's ethnic minorities will grow as a proportion of the population; in fact, His- panics are predicted to become the majority in the near future. Diversity has many faces, including preferred learning style (visual, auditory, kinesthetic);social background and experience;ethnic and cultural heritage;gender; and sexual orientation. The evidence from effective groups is that diversity is im- portant; that is, the better a group representsthe broader community, the more likely it is to make significant, creative, and acceptablecontributions. Participatingin and managing diverse groups are not always easy tasks, since diverse groups usually en- compass a wide range of ideas and priorities. The following are some steps you can take in learning to manage diverse groups more effectively (Cabanis,1997; Cherbe- neau, 1997): 1. Learn skillsfor working with all kinds of people. 2. Stress that effective teams are diverse. 3. Stress the importanceof requirements. 4. Emphasize performance. 5. Develop perspective-taking skills, i.e. putting yourself in other's shoes. 6. Respect and appreciate alternative perspectives. The Chicago Bulls' former head coach Phil Jackson has said, "Good teams be- come great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrenderthe 'me' for the 'we."' His 1995 book (coauthored with Hugh Delehanty), Sacred Hoops: Spiri- tual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior, offers terrific advice on organizing and man- aging extraordinarilyhigh-performingteams. The researchon highly effective teams both in the classroom(Johnson,Johnson,and Smith, 1991, 1998a, 1998b) and in the workplace (Bennis and Biederman, 1997; Hargrove, 1998; Katzenbach and Smith, 1993; Schrage, 1991, 1995) reveals a short list of the characteristicsof effective teams: 1. Positive interdependence. The group focuses on a common goal or single product. 2. Individual and group accountability. Each person takes responsibilityfor both his or her work and the overall work of the group. 3. Promotive interaction. The members do real work, usually face-to-face.
4. Teamwork skills. Each member has and practices effective communication (es- pecially careful listening), decision making, problem solving,conflict manage- ment, and leadership. 5. Group processing. The group periodically reflects on how well the group is working, celebrates the things that are going well, and problem-solves the things that aren't. Teams have become commonplace in engineering practice and are making in- roads in engineering education. The immense literature on teams and teamwork, ranges from very practical guides (e.g., Scholtes, Joiner, and Streibel, 1996; Bras- sand, 1995) to conceptual and theoretical treatises (e.g., Johnson and Johnson,1991; Hackman, 1990). Check out one of these to broaden and deepen your understanding of teamwork. Four books were highlighted in this chapter-Shared Minds: The New Technologiesof Collaboration (Schrage, 1991);TheWisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993); Organizing Ge- nius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration (Bennis and Biederman, 1997); and Mastering the Art of Creative Collaboration (Hargrove, 1998). These four books focus on extraordinary teams-teams that perform at unusually high levels and whose members experience accomplishments through synergistic interaction that they rarely experience in other settings. They provide lots of examples and insights into high-performance teams. Katzenbach and Smith, for example, give the follow- ing advice for building team performance: Establishurgency and direction. Select members based on skill and potential, not personalities. Pay attention to first meeting and actions. Set clear rules of behavior. Set some immediate performance-orientedtasks and goals. Challenge the group regularly with fresh information. Spend lots of time together. Exploit the power of positivefeedback, recognition, and reward. Effectiveteamwork is not easy to accomplish. Engineering professorDouglas J. Wilde said,"It's the soft stuff that's hard, the hard stuff is easy." (Leifer,1997) How- ever if you work at it, and continue to study and learn about effectiveteamwork, you will verylikelyhave many positive teamexperiences(andsave yourself a lot of grief). Chapter 3 presents specific skills and strategies needed for effective teamwork. 1. What are the characteristics of effective teams? How do you help promote them?
C H A P T E R 2 TEAMWORK 2. Where and how have teamwork skills been taught or emphasized to you? In school? social groups? professionalgroups?your family?Describe two or three instances where teamwork skills were emphasized. 3. How is increasing ethnic diversity affecting project teams? What are some strategiesfor effectively participatingon and managing diverse teams? 4. Students often remark, "But groups in school are different from groups in the workplace."The remark is delivered as a reason for not using groups in school. Is it a valid excuse? Summarize the major differencesbetween groups in school and groups in the workplace. How are these differencesbeneficial or harmful to the work of the group? What are some things that you can do to improve the school groups? 1. Check out a study of teams that have performed at extraordinarylevels. Some of the books listed in the referencesfor this chapter have temfic stories of stel- lar teams. You may want to check the library or do an electronic search of the literature.Summarizethe featuresof extraordinaryteams. Howdo they compare with the list provided in this chapter? Remember, this is a dynamic area of re- search with lots of new books and articles appearing each year. 2. Look for opportunities to participateon a superb team. Make a plan for partici- pating on a high-performance team. 3. Study the diversity of teams in your schoolor workplace,and note strategiesfor recognizing, valuing, and celebratingdiversity. Bennis, Warren, and Patricia Biederman. 1997. Organizing genius: The secrets of the creative organization. Reading, MA:Addison-Wesley. Brassand, Michael. 1995. The team memory jogger: A pocket guide for team members. Madison, M:GOALIQPC and Joiner Associates. Browne, M. Neil, and Stuart Keeley. 1997. Striving for excellence in college. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Cabanis,Jeannette. 1997. Diversity: This means you. PM Network 1l(10): 29-33. Cherbeneau,Jeanne. 1997. Hearing every voice: How to maximize the value of diversity on project teams. PM Network 1l(10): 34-36. Hackman, J. R. 1990. Groups that work (and those that don't): Creating conditions for effective teamwork. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Hargrove,Robert. 1998. Mastering the art of creative collaboration. New York: McGraw-Hill. Jackson,Phil, and Hugh Delehanty. 1995. Sacred hoops: Spiritual lessons of a hardwood warriol:Hyperion. Johnson, David W., and Frank P. Johnson. 1991. Joining together Group theory and group skills, 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Johnson, David W., Roger T. Johnson, and Karl A. Smith. 1991. Cooperative learning: Increasing college faculty instructional productivity,Washington: ASHE-ERIC Reports on Higher Education. . 1998a.Active learning: Cooperation in the college classroom, 2nd ed. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company. . 1998b.Maximizing instruction through cooperative learning. ASEE Prism 7(6): 24-29. Katzenbach, Jon, and Douglas Smith. 1993. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-per$omzance organization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Leifer, L. 1997. Design team performance: Metrics and the impact of technology. In S. M. Brown & C. J. Seidner, eds., Evaluating corporate training: Models and issues. Kluwer Academic Publishers: 297-320. Scholtes, Peter R., Brian L. Joiner, and Barbara J. Streibel. 1996. The team handbook, 2nd ed. Madison, WE JoinerAssociates. Schrage, Michael. 1991. Shared minds:The new technologies of collaboration. New York: Random House. .1995. No more teams! Mastering the dynamics of creative collaboration. New York: Doubleday.
Project management & teamwork (b.e.s.t. series)
- - c h a p t e r I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun. John D. Rockefeller If you can't operate as a team player, no matter how valuable you've been, you really don't belong at GE. John F. Welch CEO, General Electric REFLECTlON Have you been a member of a team that got the job done (wrote the report, finished the project, completed the laboratory assignment) but that ended up with the mem- bers hating one another so intensely they never wanted to see each other again? Most students have, and they find it very frustrating. Similarly, have you been a member of a team whose members really enjoyed one another's company and had a great time socially, but in the end hadn't finished the project? Again, most students have been a member of this type of group and they find it also a frustrating experience. Take a moment to recall your experiences with these two extremes of teamwork. - - - - IMPORTANCEOF TASK AND RELATIONSHIP As noted in Chapter 2, to be most effective, groups need to do two things very well: accomplishthe task and get betterat working with one another.Both of theserequire leadership-not just from a single person acting as the leader but also from every member contributing to the leadership of the group. This chapter focuses on team- work skills using a "distributed actions approach" to leadership. Distributed actions
C A PT E R 3 TEAMWORK SKILLS AND PROBLEMSOLVING are specific behaviors that group members engage in to help the group accomplish its task or to improve working relationships. Napier and Gershenfeld (1973) sum- marize many of these behaviors (see Table 3.1). Note the date--1973-which indi- cates that effective group work is not a new concept. Table 3.1 Group task and maintenance roles G m u ~Task Roles Gmup Maintenance Roles Initiating Encouraging Seeking information Expressingfeelings Giving information Harmonizing Seeking opinions Compromising Giving opinions Facilitating communications Clarifying Settingstandards or goals Elaborating Testing agreement Summarizing Following I SOURCE: Napier and Gershenfeld, 1973. To realize the benefits of a team culture requires a change in management be- havior, as shown in Table 3.2. If the behaviors listed on the right-handside of Table 3.2 are not common in the groups you participatein, read on. Table 3.2 Management behavior change needed for team culture From To Directing Competing Relying on rules Using organizational hierarchy Consistencylsameness Secrecy Passive acceptance Isolated decisions People costs Guiding Collaborating Focusing on the process Using a network Diversitylflexibility Opennesslsharing Risk taking Involvementof others People assets Results thinking Process thinking I SOURCE: McNeill, Bellamy, and Foster, 1995. A common way to promote more constructiveand productive teamwork is to have the teams create a set of guidelines for the group, sometimes called group norms.
Take a minute and list some things (attitudes, behaviors, and so on) that you have found or think that would help a group be more effective. Then compare your list with the following two lists, both of which are from McNeill, Bellamy, and Foster (1995). The first was adapted from the BoeingAirplaneGroup's training manual for team members, and the second is from the Ford Motor Company. Code of Cooperation 1. Every member is responsiblefor the team's progress and success. 2. Attend all team meetings and be on time. 3. Come prepared. 4. Carry out assignmentson schedule. 5. Listen to and show respect for the contributionsof other members; be an active listener. 6. Constructivelycriticize ideas, not persons. 7. Resolve conflictsconstructively. 8. Pay attention; avoid disruptivebehavior. 9. Avoid disruptive side conversations. 10. Only one person speaks at a time. 11. Everyone participates;no one dominates. 12. Be succinct; avoid long anecdotes and examples. 13. No rank in the room. 14. Respect those not present. 15. Ask questions when you do not understand. 16. Attend to your personal comfort needs at any time, but minimize team disrup- tion. 17. Have fun. 18. ? Ten Commandments: An Aflective Code of Cooperation Help each other be right, not wrong. Look for ways to make new ideas work, not for reasons they won't. If in doubt, check it out. Don't make negative assumptionsabout each other. Help each other win, and take pride in each other's victories. Speak positively about each other and about your organizationat every oppor- tunity. Maintain a positive mental attitude no matter what the circumstances. Act with initiativeand courage, as if it all depends on you. Do everything with enthusiasm;it's contagious. Whatever you want, give it away.
Don't lose faith. Have fun. Having an agreed-upon code of cooperation such as the ones listed above will help groups get started toward working effectively. However, if group members haven't developed the requisite communication, trust, loyalty, organization,leader- ship, decision-making procedures, and conflict management skills, then the group will very likely struggle or at least not perform up to its potential. One way a team can develop such a code is to create a team charter, which includes the following: Team name, membership,and roles. Team mission statement. Anticipatedresults (goals). Specific tactical objectives. Ground ruleslguiding principlesfor team participation. Shared expectationslaspirations. Team charters are typically created during a team meeting early in the project life cycle. Involvement of all team members in creating the charter helps build commit- ment of each to the project and other team members. A set of guidelines such as those listed above often help the team through this process. Effective communication-listening,presenting, persuading-is at the heart of ef- fectiveteamwork. The task and maintenanceroles listed above all involve oral com- munication. Here are the listening skills emphasized in Arizona State University's Introduction to EngineeringDesign (McNeill,Bellamy & Foster, 1995): Stop talking. Engage in one conversation at a time. Empathize with the person speaking. Ask questions. Don't interrupt. Show interest. Concentrateon what is being said. Don't jump to conclusions. Control your anger. React to ideas, not to the speaker. Listen for what is not said; ask questions. Share the responsibilityfor communication.
Three listening techniquesthey recommend are: Critical listening Separate fact from opinion. Sympathetic listening. Don't talk-listen. Don't give advice-listen. Don't judge-listen. Creativelistening. Exercisean open mind. Supplement your ideas with another person's ideas and vice versa. You may be wondering why so much emphasison listening. The typicalprofessional spends about half of his or her business hours listening and project managers may spend an even higher proportion of their time listening. Most people, however, are not 100 percent efficient in their listening. Typical listening efficiencies are only 25 percent (Taylor, 1998). The first list provides suggestions to help the listener truly hear what is being said and the secondhighlightsthat differentsituationscall for dif- ferent types of listening. REFLECTION Take a moment to thinkabout listening skillsand techniques. Do you listen I in all three ways listed above?Which are you best at? Which do you need to work on? A common notion is that leadership is a trait that some people are born with. An- other common notion is that a person's leadership ability depends on the situation. There is an enormous literature on leadership, so I'll provide only insights that I've found useful. I'll also try to guide you to more reading and resources on the topic. INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP REFLECTION What does it mean to lead a team? What I does it take? Take a moment to reflect on the characteristicsyou admire most in a leader. Jot down 8 to 10 of them. Compare with your team. Leadership authors Kouzes and Posner (1987, 1993) have asked thousands of people to list the characteristicsof leaders they admire. Table 3.3 lists the most com- mon responsesfrom their 1987 and 1993 studies. Many students and workshoppar- ticipants express surprise at the listing of honesty as the characteristic mentioned most often. They say it's a given. Apparently honesty is not a given for many
C H A PT E R 3 TEAMWORK SKILLSAND PROBLEMSOLVING Table 3.3 Characteristics of admired leaders 1987 U.S. Percentage of 1993 U.S. Percentage of Characteristic PeopleSelecting PeopleSelecting Honest Forward-looking Inspiring Competent Fair-minded Supportive Broad-minded Intelligent Straightforward 34 34 Courageous 27 33 Dependable 32 32 Cooperative 25 30 Imaginative 34 28 Caring 26 27 Mature 23 14 Determined 20 13 Ambitious 21 I0 Loyal 21 10 Self-controlled 13 5 Independent 13 5 I SOURCE: Kouzes and Posner, 1987, 1993. leaders in business and industry. In 1993, Kouzes and Posner also asked the respon- dents to list the most desirable characteristics of colleagues. Honest was number one again, with 82 percent selecting it. Cooperative, dependable, and competent were second, third, and fourth, with slightly over 70 percent of respondents select- ing each. Kouzes and Posner found that when leaders do their best, they challenge, in- spire, enable, model, and encourage. They suggest five practices and 10 behavioral commitmentsof leadership. Challenging the Process 1. Search for opportunities. 2. Experimentand take risks. Inspiring a Shared Vision 3. Envision the future. 4. Enlist others.
Enabling Others to Act 5. Foster collaboration. 6. Strengthen others. Modeling theWay 7. Set the example. 8. Plan small wins. Encouraging the Heart 9. Recognizeindividualcontributions. 10. Celebrate accomplishments. Peter Scholtes, author of the best-selling book The Team Handbook,also wrote The Leader's Handbook (1998). He offers the following six "New Competencies" for leaders: 1. The ability to think in terms of systems and knowing how to lead systems. 2. The ability to understand the variability of work in planning and problemsolv- ing. 3. Understanding how we learn, develop, and &prove; leading true learning and improvement. 4. Understandingpeople and why they behave as they do. 5. Understanding the interaction and interdependencebetween systems, variabil- ity, learning, and human behavior; knowing how each affects the others. 6. Giving vision, meaning, direction, and focus to the organization. In addition to group norms,communication,and leadership, teamwork depends on effective decision making and constructiveconflict management, describedin the next two sections. This section on decision making includes both strategies for decision making in groups and more general considerationsfor addressing ranking tasks. INDMDUAL AND GROUP REFLECTION How do you typically make decisions in I groups? Do you vote? Do you defer to the "expert"? Do you try to reach consensus? Take a moment to reflect on how the groups you participate in typically make decisions. What did you come up with? Compare your reflection with those of other group members. There are several approaches to making decisions in groups. Before exploring them, however, I suggest that you try a group decision-making exercise. Common
exercises to assist in the development of teamwork skills, especiallycommunication (sharing knowledge and expertise), leadership, and decision making are ranking tasks, such as the survival tasks, in which a group must decide which items are most important for survival in the desert, on the moon, or in some other difficult place. Ranking tasks are common in organizations that must select among alternative de- signs, hire personnel,or choose projects or proposalsfor funding. My favorite ranking task for helping groups focus on communication, leader- ship, decision making,and conflict resolutionis "They'll NeverTake UsAlive."This exercise, which includes both individual and group decision making, is included at the end of this chapter. Do it now. I GROUP REFIECWON 1 How did your group make the decision? Did you average your individual rankings? Vote? Did you discuss your individual high and low rankings and then work from both ends toward the middle? Did you try to reach consensus?Were you convinced by group members who seem to have "expert" knowledge? Did you start with the number of fatalities for one of the activities and work from there? I GROUP REFECTION 2 How well did your group work? What went well? What things could you do even better next time? The method a group uses to make a decision depends on many factors, includ- ing how important the decision is, and how much time there is. Groups should have a good repertoireof decision-makingstrategiesand a meansof choosing the one that is most appropriatefor the situation. Severalmethodshave been describedin the literaturefor making decisions.One of my favorites is from David Johnson and Frank Johnson (1991). The authors list seven methods for making decisions: 1. Decision by authority without discussion. The leader makes all the decisions without consulting the group. It is efficient but does not build team member commitmentto the decision. 2. Expert membel:Group decision made by letting the most expert member decide for the group. The difficultyis often deciding who has the most expertise,espe- cially when those with power or status in the group overestimatetheir expertise. 3. Average of members' opinions. Group decision based on average of individual group members' opinions. 4. Decision by authority afer discussion. Groupin which designatedleader makes decision after discussionwith the group. Effectiveness often depends on the lis- tening skills of the leader. 5. Minority control. Two or more members who constitute less than 50 percent of the group often makes decisions by (a) acting as an executive committee or (b) special problem solving sub group.
Highest Lowest Individual Average of Minority Majority Consensus individuals control control F9gure 3.1 Decision type and quality 6. Majority control. Decision by a majority vote is the most common method used 1 in the U.S. Discussion occurs only until at least 51 percent of the members de- cide on a course of action. 7 . Consensus. Consensusis probably the most effectivemethod of group decision making, but it also may take the most time. Perfect consensusis achieved when everyoneagrees.A lesser degreeof consensusis often accepted where everyone has had their say and will commit to the decision, but they may not completely agree with the decision. They note that the qualityof the decision and the time needed vary as a functionof the numberof peopleinvolvedin the decision-making method, as shown in Figure 3.1. David and Frank Johnson (1991) also list the following characteristicsof effec- tive decisions: 1. The resources of the group members are well used. 2. Time is well used. 3. The decision is correct, or of high quality. 4. The decision is put into effect fully by all the necessary members' commitments. 5. The problem-solving ability of the group is enhanced. GROUP REFLECTION How well did your groupdo on each of these five characteristics 1 of effectivedecisions? Typically, novice decision-makinggroups don't take full advantageof the skills and talentsof their members,and they often struggleto get started.Some researchers
report a series of stagesin team development (e.g., forming,storming,norming, per- forming)and offersuggestionsfor working througheach stage (Scholtes,Joiner,and Streibel, 1996). Also, if you ask a group to invest time and effort in making a deci- sion it is very important that the decision be implemented (or very good rationale provided for why it wasn't implemented).There are few things morefrustratingthan to be asked to spend lots of time and effort on work that goes nowhere. Conflict is a routine aspect of every project manager's job. Conflict is a situation in which an action of one person prevents, obstructs, or interferes with the actions of another person. On complex projects and tasks, highly talented and motivated peo- ple routinely disagree about the best ways to accomplish tasks and especially about how to deal with trade-offs among priorities.A conflict often is a moment of truth, since its resolutioncan follow either a constructiveor a destructivepath. INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION Write the word conflict in the center of a blank piece of paper and draw a circle around it. Quickly jot down all the words and phrases you associate with the word conflict by arranging them around your circle. Review your list of associations and categorize them as positive, negative, or neutral. Count the total number of positive,negative, and neutral associations,and calculate the per- centage that are positive.Did you have more than 90 percent positive? Less than 5 percent of the people who have done this Reflection in my classes and workshops have had more than 90 percent positive associations.The majority, in fact, have had less than 50 percent positive associations.Many have had less than 10 percent positive. The predominance of negative associations with conflict is one of the reasons conflict management is so difficult for project managers. Many people prefer to avoid conflict or to suppress it when it does arise. They become fearful, anxious, angry, or frustrated; consequently, the conflict takes a destructive path. The goal of this section is to help you develop a set of skills and proceduresfor guiding conflict along a more constructive path. I'd like to begin by asking you to complete a questionnaire to assess how you typically act in conflict situation. The "How I Act in Conflict" questionnaire is included as Exercise 2 at the end of this chapter.Take a few minutes to completeand score the questionnaire.Try to use pro- fessional conflictsand not personal conflictsas your point of reference. Set the questionnaire aside for a few minutes and read Exercise 3, the Ralph Springercasestudy.Work throughthe exercise, completing the rankingform at theend. GROUP ACTIVITY Share and discuss each member's results from Exercise 2. Discuss each of the possible ways to resolve the conflict.
High importance Force Withdraw Confront Compromise Smooth Low importance High importance Relationship Figure 3.2 Blake and Mouton conflict model Then compareyour individualresponsesfrom Exercise2 to your rankings in Exercise3. Note that each of the alternativeslisted in Exercise 3 represents one of the five strategies on the scoring form in Exercise2. Match the alternativesto the strategies they represent.Discuss similarities and differences in the order each group member would have used the strategies and the relative effectivenessof each. The five conflict strategies shown in Exercise 2-withdrawal, forcing, smooth- ing, compromise, and confrontation-were formulated into a model for analyzing approaches to conflict by Blake and Mouton (1964). The authors used two axes to represent the conflict strategies: (1) the importance of the goal, and (2) the impor- tance of the task. The placement of each of the five strategies according to this frameworkis shown in Figure 3.2. The five strategiesare described as follows: 1. Withdrawal. Neither the goal nor the relationship is important-you withdraw from the interaction. 2. Forcing. The task is important but not the relationship-use all your energy to get the task done. 3. Smoothing. The relationship is more important than the task. You want to be liked and accepted. 4. Compromise. Both task and relationship are important, but there is a lack of time-you both gain and lose something. 5. Confrontation.Task and relationshipare equally important.You define the con- flict as a problem-solvingsituation and resolve through negotiation.
Each of these strategies is appropriate under certain conditions.For example, if neither the goal nor the relationshipis important to you, then often the best thing to do is withdraw. If the relationshipis extremely important and the task is not so im- portant(at the time), then smoothingis appropriate.In many conflictsituations,both the task and the relationship are important. In these situations, confronting and ne- gotiating often lead to the best outcomes. A confrontation is the direct expression of one opponent's view of the conflict, and his or her feelings about it, and an invitation to the other opponent to do the same. Guidelines for Confrontation 1. Do not "hit and run."Confrontonly when there is time to jointly define the con- Rict and schedule a negotiatingsession. 2. Openly communicateyour feelings about and perceptionsof the issues involved in the conflict, and try to do so in minimally threatening ways. 3. Accurately and fully comprehend the opponent's views and feelings about the conflict. Negotiation is a conflict resolution process by which people who want to come to an agreement try to work out a settlement. Steps in Negotiating a Conflict 1. Confront the opposition. 2. Define the conflict mutually. 3. Communicatefeelings and positions. 4. Communicatecooperativeintentions. 5. Take the other person's perspective. 6. Coordinate the motivation to negotiate. 7. Reach an agreement that is satisfactoryto both sides. Constructively resolving conflicts through a confrontation-negotiation process takes time and practice to perfect, but it's worth it. Conflicts that do not get resolved at a personal level must be resolved at more time-consuming and costly levels- third-party mediation; arbitration;and, if all else fails, litigation. Finally,here are some heuristicsfor dealing with conflicts in long-termpersonal and professionalrelationships: 1. Do not withdraw from or ignore the conflict. 2. Do not engage in "win-lose" negotiations. 3. Assess for smoothing. 4. Compromise when time is short. 5. Confront to begin problem-solvingnegotiations. 6. Use your sense of humor.
TEAMWORKCHALLENGESAND PROBLEMS Remember that heuristics are reasonable and plausible, but not guaranteed. I suggest that you develop your own set of heuristicsfor dealing with conflict as well as for the other skills needed for effective teamwork. Some of my former students who now work as project managers emphasize during classroom visits that they spend a lot of time resolving conflicts--over meeting specifications, schedules, de- livery dates, interpersonal differences among team members-and that most con- flicts are dealt with informally. REFLECTION What are some of the most common challenges and problems you've had I working in groups?Please reflectfor a moment. Make a list. Has a professor ever had you do this in your teams? If so, it's a clear indication that the professor understands the importance of group processing for identifyingand solving problems. What's on your list? The challenges and problems you listed in the above reflection may have included the following: Members who don't show up for meetings or who don't show up prepared. Members who dominate the conversation. Members who don't participatein the conversation. Time wasted by off-task talk. Members who want to do the entire project because they don't trust others. Group meeting scheduling difficulties. No clear focus or goal. Lack of clear agenda, or hidden agendas. Subgroups excluding or ganging up on one or more members. Ineffective or inappropriatedecisions and decision-makingprocesses. Suppressionof conflict or unpleasantflare-ups among group members. Members not doing their fair share of the work. Lack of commitment to the group's work by some members. The problems listed above are commonlyencountered by students (and profes- sionals) working in groups. If they are not addressed they can turn a cooperative group into a pseudo group, as described in Chapter 2, where the group does worse than individualsworking alone. If the challengesare addressedin a problem-solving manner, then the group is likely to perform at much higher levels (and the members will have a much more positive experience). The following process is widely used to address group problems.
Step 1: Zdentijjing Challenges, Dificulties, and Barriers to EfSective Group Work Reflectindividually for a moment and start a list of challenges,barriers,or prob- lems facing the group. Share the individual lists and create a joint list that in- cludes at least one item from each group member. Do not solve (yet). Be realistic and specific. Work cooperatively. If more than one groupis involved,list challenges,barriers,and problemsfor all groups on an overhead projector or flip chart. Step 2: Addressing Barriers, Challenges, and Problems 1. Have each groupor (if only one groupis involved)each memberselectone item from the joint list. 2. Clarify: Make sure you have a common understandingof what the item means or represents. 3. Create three possibleactions that will solve or eliminate the barrier. 4. Prioritize the possible solutions: Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. 5. Focus on what will work; be positive and constructive. 6. Implement the solutions; report back; celebrate and spread the ones that are ef- fective. Caveat: Duringimplementationof group work expectsome challenges,barriers, and problems. Doing so will help you recognizea roadblock when it appears. When it does appear, apply the appropriate parts of Step 2. With one or more colleagues, develop three or more solutions. Implement one of these and then evaluate,replan, and retry. The problem identification, problem formulation, and problem-solving format described above does not guarantee that your teamwork experiences will be free from troubles. But having a format for getting problems out on the table and then dealing with them in a problem-solvingmanner usually reduces the frustration and interference of group problems. I've tried to address many of the highlightsof effective teamwork and team problem solving, but I've barely scratched the surface. Hundreds of books and articles have been written on effective teamwork, and I've listed a few of my favoritesin the ref- erence section (see, e.g., Fisher, Rayner, and Belgard, 1995; Goldberg,1995; Hack- man,1990; Katzenbach and Smith, 1993a, 1993b).As I mentioned earlier,one of the most widely used teamwork books is Scholtes, Joiner, and Streibel's (1996) The Team Handbook.
1. What other skills besides those mentioned in this chapter do you feel are essen- tial for successful groups? How about trust and loyalty, for example? I briefly dealt with trust and loyalty under the organizationsection, but you may want to emphasize them more. Check the references (e.g., David Johnson and Frank Johnson, 1991) for more. What other teamwork skills would you like to follow up on? 2. What are some of the strategiesfor developing a good set of working conditions in a group? 3. What are your reactions to the list of characteristicsof admiredleaders in Table 3.3?Were you surprised by the high ranking of honesty? 4. Why is conflict central to effective teamwork and project work? What are some strategiesfor effectively managing conflict? 5. Keep a log of problems you've faced in working on project teams. How do the problems change over the life of the group? 6. The next time a problem occurs in a group,try the problem-solving processout- lined in the chapter. How well did it work? I SOURCES: Office of the Surgeon General; National Center for Health Statistics. Product or Activity Accidents Alzheimer's disease Blood poisoning Cancer Diabetes Hardening of arteries Heart disease HIV and AIDS Homicide Kidney disease Liver disease Lung disease Pneumoniaand influenza Stroke Suicide Ranking Number of Fatalities
C H A PT E R 3 TEAMWORK SKILLSAND PROBLEM SOLVING On the accompanying chart, in alphabetical order, are listed the top 15 causes of death in the United States in 1997. The data were taken from an annual review of death certificates.Your task is to rank the productsand activitiesin order of the num- ber of deaths they cause each year. Place the number 1 next to the one that causes the most deaths, the number 2 by the one that causes the second most deaths, and so forth. Then, write in your estimate of the number of fatalities each product or activ- ity causes. Group Tasks 1. After individuals have filled in the chart, determine one ranking for the group. (Do not worry yet about the estimates for the number of fatalities.) 2. Every group member must be able to explain the rationalefor the group's rank- ing. 3. When your group finishes, and each member has signed the chart, (a)record your estimated number of fatalities in the U.S. for each, and then (b) compare your rankings and estimates with those of another group. 2. How I ACT IN CONFLICT The proverbs listed in the accompanying table can be thought of as descriptions of some of the different strategies for resolving conflicts. Proverbs state conventional wisdom, and the ones listed here reflect traditional wisdom for resolving conflicts. Read each carefully. Using the scale provided,indicate how typical each proverb is of your actionsin a conflict. Then score your responseson the chart at the end of the table. The higher the total score in each conflict strategy, the more frequently you tend to use that strategy. The lower the total score for each conflict strategy, the less frequently you tend to use that strategy. 5 =Very typical of the way I act in a conflict 4 = Frequently typical of the way I act in a conflict 3 =Sometimes typical of the way I act in a conflict 2 =Seldom typical of the way I act in a conflict 1 = Never typical of the way I act in a conflict 1. It is easier to refrain than to retreat from a quarrel. 2. If you cannot make a person think as you do, make him or her do as you think. 3. Soft words win hard hearts. 4. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. 5. Come now and let us reason together. 6. When two quarrel, the person who keeps silent first is the most praiseworthy. 7. Might overcomes right. 8. Smooth words make smooth ways. 9. Better half a loaf than no bread at all. 10. Truth lies in knowledge, not in majority opinion.
11. He who fights and runs away lives to fight anotherday. 12. He hath conquered well that hath made his enemies flee. 13. Kill your enemies with kindness. 14. A fair exchange brings no quarrel. 15. No person has the final answer, but every person has a piece to contribute. 16. Stay away from people who disagree with you. 17. Fields are won by those who believe in winning. 18. Kind words are worth much and cost little. 19. Tit for tat is fair play. 20. Only the person who is willing to give up his or her monopoly on truth can ever profit from the truths that others hold. 21. Avoid quarrelsome people, for they will only make your life miserable. 22. A person who will not flee will make others flee. 23. Soft words ensure harmony. 24. One gift for another makes good friends. 25. Bring your conflicts into the open and face them directly; only then will the best solution be discovered. 26. The best way of handling conflicts is to avoid them. 27. Put your foot down where you mean to stand. 28. Gentlenesswill triumph over anger. 29. Getting part of what you want is better than not getting anythingat all. 30. Frankness, honesty, and trust will move mountains. 31. There is nothing so importantthat you have to fight for it. 32. There are two kinds of peoplein the world, the winners and the losers. 33. When someone hits you with a stone, hit him or her with a piece of cotton. 34. When both peoplegive in halfway, a fair settlement is achieved. 35. By digging and digging, the truth is discovered. Scoring I SOURCE: Dovid Johnson and Roger Johnson, 1991
C HA Pr E R 3 TEAMWORK SKILLSAND PROBLEMSOLVING The following case gives you a chance to apply the Blake and Mouton (1964) con- flict model to a hypothetical situation. Read the case carefully and then label each of the possible actions from most to least effective and from most to least likely. You have been workingas a project manager in a large company for some time. You are friends with most of the other project managers and, you think, respected by all of them. A couple of months earlier, Ralph Springer was hired as a supervisor. He is getting to know the other project managers and you. One of the project managers in the company, who is a friend of yours, confided in you that Ralph has been say- ing rather nasty things about your looks, the way you dress, and your personal char- acter. For some reason you do not understand, Ralph has taken a dislike to you. He seems to be trying to get other project managers to dislike you also. From what you hear, there is nothing too nasty for him to say about you. You are worried that some people might be influenced by him and that some of your co-project managers are also beginningto talk about you behind your back.You are terribly upset and angry at Ralph. Since you have a good job record and are quite skilledin project manage- ment, it would be rather easy for you to get another job. Rank each of the following five courses of action from 1 (most effective, most likely) to 5 (least effective, least likely). Use each number only once. Be realistic. Effective Likely - - I lay it on the line. I tell Ralph I am fed up with the gossip. I tell him that he'd better stop talking about me behind my back, because I won't stand for it. Whether he likes it or not, he is going to keep his mouth shut about me or else he'll regret it. - - I try to bargain with him. I tell him that if he will stop gossiping about me I will help him get started and include him in the thingsother project managers and I do together. I tell him that others are angry about the gossiping and that it is in his best interest to stop. I try to persuade him to stop gossiping in return for something I can do. - - I try to avoid Ralph. I am silent whenever we are together. I show a lack of interest whenever we speak, look over his shoulder and get away as soon as possible. I want nothing to do with him for now. I try to cool down and ignore the whole thing. I intend to avoid him completely if possible. - - I call attention to the conflict between us. I describehow I see his actions and how it makes me feel. I try to begin a discussion in which we can look for a way for him to stop making me the target of his conversation and a way to deal with my anger. I try to see things from his viewpoint and seek a solution that will suit u; both. I ask him how he feels about my giving him this feedbackand what his point of view is. - - I bite my tongue and keep my feelings to myself. I hope he will find out that the behavior is wrong without my saying anythmg.I try to be extra nice and show him that he's off base. I hide my anger. If I hied to tell him how I feel, it would only make things worse.
Blake, R. R., and J. S. Mouton. 1964. The managerial grid. Houston: Gulf PublishingCompany. Fisher, Kimball, Steven Rayner, and William Belgard. 1995. Zps for teams: A ready reference for solving common team problems. New York: McGraw-Hill. Goldberg,David E. 1995. Life skills and leadership for engineers. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hackman,J. R. 1990. Groups that work (and those that don't): Creating conditionsfor effective teamwork. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Johnson, David W., and Frank P. Johnson, 1991. Joining together Group theory and group skills, 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Johnson, David W., and Roger T. Johnson, 1991. Teaching students to be peacemakers. Edina, MN: InteractionBook Company. Katzenbach, Jon R., and Douglas K. Smith. 1993a.The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-pe$omzance organization. Cambridge,MA: Harvard Business School Press. . 1993b. The discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review7 l(2): 111-20. Kouzes, J. M., and B. Z. Posner. 1987.The leadership challenge: How to get extraordinarythings done in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. . 1993. Credibility: How leaders gain and lose it, why people demand it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. McNeill, Barry, Lynn Bellamy, and Sallie Foster. 1995. Introductionto engineering design. Tempe,Arizona: ArizonaState University. Napier, Rodney W., and Matti K. Gershenfeld. 1973.Groups: Theory and experience. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Scholtes, Peter R. 1998. The leader's handbook: Making things happen, getting things done. New York: McGraw-Hill. Scholtes, Peter R., Brian L. Joiner, and Barbara J. Streibel. 1996. The team handbook, 2nd ed. Madison,WI: Joiner Associates. Taylor, James. 1999. A survival guide for project managers. New York: AMACOM.
Project management & teamwork (b.e.s.t. series)
c h a p t e r PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES This chapter discusses what a project is and explains why projects and project man- agement are receiving a lot of attention right now. The numberof books and articles on project management is growing almost exponentially. Something is happening here. Perhaps it is due in part to observationslike those in a recentProject Manage- ment Institute survey, which indicated that only a fraction of technology projectsin the United States finish on time. The percentages are startling: Close to half of the projectsstarted were neverfinished, and 30 percent were completed but took at least twice as long as expected;some took five times as long. Only 10 percent of the proj- ects were finished on time. The situation has changed a lot since the development of scheduling tools and strategiessuch as the critical path method (CPM) and the program evaluation and re- view technique PERT) in the 1950s. Laufer, Denker, and Shenhar (1993) have out- lined the evolution in the nature of project management. A summary of the changes is shown in Table 4.1. Laufer et al. emphasize that even as projects have become morecomplex,the time to accomplishthem has becomeshorter;thus, many projects require simultaneousmanagement. Ed Yourdon claims in his book Death March Projects (1997)that many projects must be completed in half the time, with half the budget, or with half the resources initially planned, hence the phrase "death march projects." However,Yourdon also claims that it is possible,almost excitingat times, to be a part of this type of project. - - - REFLECTION Think about your involvement with projects both in school and in otheras- pects of your life. Have you been involved in more and more projects in school?Think about I some of these projects. What are the distinguishing features of the projects you've been in- volved with? For example, did you have to make a presentation or write a report? Did you
Table 4.1 Evolution of models of proiect management Dominant Era of Project Central Concept Model Characteristics MainThrust Metaphor Means Scheduling(control) 1960s Simple, certain Coordinating Scheduling regional Information activities flights in an airline technology, planning specialists Teamwork 1970s Complex, Cooperation Conductinga Processfacilitation, (integration) certain between symphony definition or roles participants orchestra Reducinguncertainty 1980s Complex, Making stable Exploringan Search for (flexibility) uncertain decisions unknown country information, selective redundancy Simultaneity (dynamism) 1990s Complex, Orchestrating Directinga three- Experience, uncertain, contending ring circus with responsiveness, quick demands continuous and adaptability program modification based on live audience feedback have to give a performance, as in the production of a dramatic event such as a play? Have you participated in a science fair project or a design project? Please take a few minutes to reflect on changes in your involvement in projects, and make a list of the distinguishing features of these projects. What's on your list? Does it include items such as "common, overriding purpose and es- tablished goals"; "temporary" (i.e., clear beginning and end); "one-time activity"; "requires coordinating many interrelated activities";or "involves several people"? A dictionary of project management terms (Cleland and Kerzner, 1985) defines project as follows: [A project is] a combination of human and nonhuman resources pulled together in a temporary organization to achieve a specified purpose. Project is defined by Snead and Wycoff (1997) as "a nonroutine series of tasks directed toward a goal." In their helpful guide, the authors claim that "success de- pends on the ability to effectively complete projects." A textbook (Nicholas,1990) that I have used in my project management classes lists the following features of projects:
Definable purpose with established goals. Cost, schedule, and performance requirements. Multiple resources across organizationallines. One-time activity. Element of risk. Temporary activity. Process of phases; project life cycle. Based on this list of features you can see that projects are quite different from the ongoing, day-to-day work that most of us do. Each project is unique, is tempo- rary,has an element of risk, and has a definable purposewith establishedgoals.Two features of projects that I'd like to explore further are (1) cost, schedule, and per- formance requirements,and (2) process phases or project life cycle. Traditionally, project success has been measured according to three criteria: cost, time, and performance. Although studentsin classes often negotiatetime (especially due dates) and performance requirements, there is often less flexibility in profes- sional life. For example, the due dates for submitting research proposals to funding agenciesarerigid. One must get the proposalin beforethe deadlineor wait until next year (and hope the agency still is making grants in that particular area). In many large construction companies there are significant incentives for finishing a project on time, and major penaltiesfor finishing late. Some projects have been terminated when there were cost overruns; note the tragic demise of the SuperconductingSu- percollider (the multibilliondollar particle accelerator in Texas that was terminated by the U.S. Congress). Subsequentchapters of this book will explore how cost, time, and performance are operationalized, that is, how they are put into practice. Briefly, cost is opera- tionalized by budgets, time by schedules, and performanceby specifications. Cost, time, and performance.Is this it? Is this all that we need to attend to for successful projects? Many project management experts are discussing a fourth as- pect of project success--client acceptance.Pinto and Kharbanda (1995),for exam- ple, maintain that thereis a quadrupleconstrainton projectsuccess,which of course, increases the challenge of completing projects successfully (see Figure 4.1). The most common way in which client acceptance is operationalizedis to in- volve the client throughout the project. One of the most famous examples of this is Boeing's 777 project, in which customerswere involvedearly on and throughout the project. These customer airlines had a significant influence on how the 777 was de- signed and built. Boeing's vision was to build a high-qualityaircraft in an environ- ment of no secrecy and no rivalry. These new values were clarified in the following three statements (cited in Snead and Wycoff, 1997):
C H A PT E R 4 PROJECT MANAGEMENTPIUNCIPLESAND PRACTICES Figure 4.1 Project success: quadruple constraint I SOURCE: Pinto and Khorbanda, 1995. 1. Use a style of management unheard of in the industry: working together while building trust, honesty, and integrity. 2. In the past, people were afraid to state a problem because of the practice of killing the messenger. We will instead celebrate our problems and get them out into the open so we can work on them. 3. We must come with no limitationsin our mind. We must have a shared thought, vision, appreciation,and understanding of what we are going to accomplishto- gether. Boeing's long-range goals for the 777 helped create the environment described above: Design, develop, and produce a plane safer and more reliable than any other plane inaviationhistory that is state-of-the-art and service-ready on delivery, to be called the 777. Design, develop, and produce a program to empower a massive team of people to implement the "working together" philosophy while creating the 777. Phil Condit,Boeing's CEO, said,"The task for us at Boeing is to providea mas- sive change in thinking throughout the company-this is a cultural shift, and it isn't easy!" Boeing experienced many positive changes (and outcomes) during this process. The 777 was delivered on time and was under budget. Most significantly, however, it positively changed the "management-teamwork" paradigm from a hier- archical relationshipto a lateral relationship. If you'd like to explore Boeing's 777 project in more detail, the book 21st Cen-
PROJECT LIFE CYCLE tury Jet, by Karl Sabbagh, and the six-part PBS video series based on the book pro- vide rich insight into the process. REFLECTION Please reconsider the projects that came to mind during the Reflection at the beginning of this chapter. Did each project seem to go through a series of stages? If so, how would you characterize them? Think about how the activities and work on the project changed from beginning to end. Jot down your reflections. The prevailing view of the project life cycle is that projects go through distinct phases, such as the following: Conceiving and defining the project Planning the project Implementing the plan Completingand evaluatingthe project Operatingand maintaining the project A typical constructionproject has the followingseven phases (Kerzner, 1998): 1. Planning, data gathering, and procedures 2. Studies and basic engineering 3. Major review 4. Detail engineering 5. Detail engineering/constructionoverlap 6. Construction 7. Testing and commissioning Some people,however,perhapsin momentsof frustration,havedescribed the phases of a project in a more cynical way: 1. Wild enthusiasm 2. Disillusionment 3. Total confusion 4. Search for the guilty 5. Punishment of the innocent 6. Praise and honors for the nonparticipants These faults could often be avoided if project managers think about resource distributionover the project life cycle.
Conceiving I Planning I Implementing 1 Completing Phases Figure 4.2 Resource distributionover the project life cycle I REFLECTION Consider thefirst four phases of the project life cycle described above (con- ceiving, planning, implementing, and completing) and sketch how you think resources (peo- ple, money, etc) are distributed throughout the life of a project. What did you come up with? Continually increasing resources? Increasing then decreasing? Why did you draw the shape you did? A commondistributionof resources(people, materials, etc.) is shown in Figure 4.2. Project managersmust also consider how their ability to make changes and the cost of those changes vary over the project life cycle. Figure 4.3 shows the relation- ship between these two factors. Consider the essential message in Figure 4.3. Since Ability to influenceproject Cost to influenceproject Conceiving I Planning 1 Implementing 1 Completing Figure 4.3 Ability to change and cost to make changes over the proiectlife cycle
you have considerably more flexibility early in a project and it's cheaper to make changes,don't skimpon planningduring the early stages. Though this essential mes- sage probablymakes a lot of sense,it's one that is hard to implement.Because of the extraordinaryeagerness of many project managersand project team members to get going, careful and thorough planning is often neglected. This essential message could also be described as a project managementheuristic. (See Chapter1 for elab- oration on the meaning of heuristics and their importance in engineering.) Addi- tional examples of project managementheuristics are the following: Allocateresources to the weak link. Freeze the design-at some stage in the project (when about 75 percent of the time or resources are used up), the design must be frozen. Periodicallydiscuss the process and ask meta-levelquestions (e.g., What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How does it help?). A superb collection of modeling heuristics highly relevant to project manage- ment was presented by Ravindran,Phillips, and Solberg(1987): 1. Do not build a complicated model when a simple one will suffice. 2. Beware of molding the problem to fit the technique. 3. The deduction phase of modeling must be conducted rigorously. 4. Models should be validated prior to implementation. 5. A model should never be taken too literally. . 6. A model should neither be pressed to do, nor criticizedfor failing to do, that for which it was never intended. 7. Beware of oversellinga model. 8. Some of the primarybenefits of modeling are associatedwith the processof de- veloping the model. 9. A model cannot be any better than the information that goes into it. 10. Models cannot replace decision makers. The heuristicsgiven in both of the abovelists are importantwhen thinkingabout the project life cycle and will become crucially important when we look at the use of project scheduling models later in this book. Projects typically start with a statement of work (SOW) provided by the client. The statement of work is a narrative description of the work required for the project. In engineeringclasses, the statement of work is provided by the faculty member. Plan- ning starts with the development of a work breakdown structure (WBS). A WBS is "a deliverable-orientedgrouping of projectelements which organizes and defines the total scope of a project" (Duncan, 1996). There are typically three to six levels in a
WBS, such as program, project, task, and subtask. Developing a work breakdown structure is important for "scoping" a project, that is, determining the specific tasks that have to be completed, choosing appropriate groupings for these activities, and setting precedence and interdependence (what has to follow what and what can be going on at the same time). These two parts of projectplanning-the statementof work and the work break- down structure-are often neglected in traditional project management textbooks and classes, perhaps due to the eagerness to get to the nitty-gritty of project sched- uling by critical path analysis. However, carefully considering these two initial as- pects of project scoping is an important part of not skimping on planning. Project management is a relatively new profession and is growing at a remarkable rate. Fortune magazine called project management "Career Number 1" for the 1990s. When I was in engineering school in the late 1960s, project management courses weren't offered. Since I now teach several project managementcourses,I've had to learn it through experienceand research. Several of the books I've found use- ful and have used as texts in my courses are listed in the references(Culp and Smith, 1992; Eisner, 1997; Frame, 1994, 1995; Grady, 1992; Graham and Englund, 1997; Kerzner, 1998; Lewis, 1993, 1995a, 1995b, 1998; Lientz and Rea, 1995; Meredith and Mantel, 1994; Nicholas, 1990; Pinto and Kharbanda,1995; Snead and Wycoff, 1997; Taylor, 1999). Since project managementis an emergingfield and is changing quite rapidly, I encourage you to continue honing your skills and competencies. 1. What is a project?What are the key characteristicsof projects?How does proj- ect management differ from managementin general? 2. What are the three cardinal conditions of project success? 3. What has been your experience in completing projects on time, under budget, within specifications,and acceptable to the client? What is your batting aver- age? Is it better than the I0 percent figure cited by the Project ManagementIn- stitute survey? 4. How does your distribution of effort vary over the life of projects that you've worked on? Do you start strong and taper off? Or do you start slowly and build? Sketch out a graph that has effort on the ordinate (y) and time on the abscissa (x) for a typical project. Is your effort curve consistent with the bell-shaped curve shown in Figure 4.2? Is it different?Does most of your effort go in to the last few hours before the project is due? If much of your effort is applied in the closing hours of the project,perhapsyou are"freezingthe design"too late. How does your enthusiasm vary over the projectlife cycle?
5. Start developing a list of your own project management heuristics. There are several books that list rules of thumb, which are one type of heuristic. One of my favoritesis by Grady (1992). Now that you've had an opportunity to think about projects, project management, project life cycles, and project scoping, I'd like you to try applying what you've learned. Suppose you have two tickets to a fabulous concert and are planning a special dinner for two prior to the concert. Your menu consists of a very special soup and bakedchicken entrke.The soup must be boiled for 35 minutes,and you should allow 15 minutes to serve and consume it. The chicken dish requires a fair amount of preparation: you have to boil the rice for 30 minutes, brown the chicken in the fry- ing pan for 15 minutes, and place the rice and chicken in a baking dish in the oven for 15 minutes. It takes 5 minutes to prepare a sauce in the frying pan and 15 min- utes to boil the peas. (You only have two pots and one frying pan.) You have bought a good red wine; allow 5 minutes to uncork it (very carefully) and 30 minutes to let it stand before serving it. You plan to allow 25 minutes to serve and consume the en- tr6e and wine. How much time do you need to prepare and consume the meal? What representation(model) did yourgroup use to determinethe time? How did you keep track of which activitieshad to follow others and which could be going on at the same time? Cleland, D. I., and H. Kerzner. 1985. A project management dictionary of terms. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Culp, G., and A. Smith. 1992. Managing people (including yourself)for project success. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Duncan,William R. 1996. A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Eisner, H. 1997. Essentials of project management and systems engineering management.New York: Wiley. Frame, J. D. 1994. The new project management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. .1995. Managing projects in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Grady, Robert B. 1992. Practical sofhvare metrics for project management and process improvement. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
C A P r E R 4 PROJECTMANAGEMENT ~ ~ ' C I P L E SAND PRACTICES Graham, Robert J., and Randall L. Englund. 1997. Creating an environment for successful projects. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kerzner, H. 1998. Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling,and controlling,6th ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Laufer, A., G. R. Denker, and A. J. Shenhar. 1993. Simultaneous management: The key to excellence in capital projects. Unpublished manuscript. Lewis, James P. 1993. The project manger's desk reference: A comprehensive guide to project planning, scheduling,evaluation, control & systems. New York: Probus. . 1995a. Project planning, scheduling, & control: A hands-on guide to bringing projects in on time and on budget. New York: Probus. . 1995b. Fundamentalsof project management. New York: AMACOM. . 1998. Mastering project management:Applying advanced concepts of systems thinking, control and evaluation, resource allocation. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lientz, Bennet, and Kathryn Rea. 1995. Project management for the 21st century. San Diego: Academic Press. Meredith, J.R., and S. J. Mantel. 1994. Project management:A managerial approach. New York: Wiley. Nicholas, J. M. 1990. Managing business & engineering projects: Concepts and implementation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Pinto, J. K., and 0.P. Kharbanda. 1995. Successful project managers: Leading your team to success. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Ravindran,A., D. T. Phillips, and J. J. Solberg. 1987. Operations research: Principles and practices. New York: Wiley. Sabbagh, Karl. 1997. 2lst-century jet: The making and marketing of the Boeing 777. New York: Scribner. Snead, G. L., and J. Wycoff. 1997. To do, doing, done! A creative approach to managing projects and effectively finishing what matters most. New York: Fireside. Taylor, James. 1999. A survival guide for project managers. New York: AMACOM. Yourdon, Ed. 1997. Death march projects. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
c h a p t e r Project management is undergoing enormous changes, as Table 4.1 indicated, and thus the role of the project manager is changing. Before we explore the changes that are occurring in project management, let's explore changes that are occurring in business, industry, government, and education. - - - - - - I N D M W A L AND mouCREFLECTION Think about changes that have occurredin I the workplace (or school if that is your principal area of experience) in the past five years. Make a list of some of the most notable changes and compare it with other team members' lists. Students in my project management classes who do the above Reflection come up with lots of changes they're noticing-communications technology, computers, global marketplace,emphasis on quality, shortened time frames, and changing role and importance of knowledge workers. CHANGES IN THE WORKPLACE I Changes in the workplacehave been studied and summarized by numerous authors, including Byrne (1992). Changes occurring in how engineers work in business and industry,summarized in Table 5.1, have seriousimplicationsfor how we prepareen- gineering graduatesfor working in the 21st century. The changes that are occurring in business and industry suggest that we should consider changes in engineering education to prepare our graduates to function effectively in the "new paradigm" companies. The "Made in America" study
C H A P T P R S PROJECTMANAGER'S ROLE lbble 5.1 , Reinventing the corporation The Current Model Zlst-CenturyPrototype Organization Hierarchy Network Structure Self-sufficiency Interdependencies Worker expectations Security Personal growth Leadership Autocratic Inspirational Workforce Homogeneous Culturally diverse Work By individuals By teams Markets Domestic Global Advantage Cost Time Focus Profits Customers Resources Capital Information Governance Board of directors Varied constituents Quality What's affordable No compromises I SOURCE: Byrne, 1992. (Dertouzos,Lester, and Solow,1989) recommended that the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology should 1. Broaden its educational approach in the sciences, in technology, and in the hu- manities and should educate students to be more sensitive to productivity, to practical problems, to teamwork, and to the cultures, institutions, and business practices of other countries. 2. Create a new cadre of students and faculty characterized by (1) interest in, and knowledge of, real problemsand their societal,economic,and politicalcontext; (2) an ability to function effectively as members of a team creating new prod- ucts, processes, and systems; (3) an ability to operate effectively beyond the confines of a single discipline;and (4) an integrationof a deep understandingof science and technology with practical knowledge, a hands-on orientation, and experimentalskills and insight. 3. Revisesubjects to includeteam projects,practicalproblems,and exposureto in- ternational cultures. Encourage student teaching to instill a stronger apprecia- tion of lifelong learning and the teaching of others. Reinstitute a foreign- language requirementin the undergraduate admissions process. Changes in engineeringeducation were described in a paper in the Frontiers in Education Conference proceedings (Smith and Waller, 1997) and summarized in Table 5.2. If you're interested in learning more about new paradigms for engineer- ing education, you may view the paper on the World Wide Web at the ASEEIIEEE Frontiers in Education page. The premier issue of an exciting new engineering magazine, Today's Engineel; proposesthat we are at the dawning of a new age of engineering-thecrossroadsfor
Table 5.2 Comparison of old and new paradigms for college teaching Old Paradigm NewParadigm Knowledge Transferredfrom faculty to students Jointly constructedby studentsand faculty Students Passive vessel to be filled by faculty's knowledge Active constructor,discoverer, transformer of knowledge Mode of learning Memorizing Relating Faculty purpose Classify and sort students Develop students' competencies and talents Student goals Complete requirements, achieve certification Grow, focus on continuallifelonglearning within a discipline within a broader system Relationships Impersonal relationship among studentsand Personaltransaction among students and between faculty and students between faculty and students Context Competitive/iudividuaZistic Cooperativelearning in classroom and cooperative teams among faculty Climate Conformitylculturaluniformity Diversity and personal esteem; cultural diversity and commonality Power Faculty holds and exercises power, authority,and Students are empowered;power is shared among control studentsand between studentsand faculty Assessment Nom-referenced (i.e., graded "on the curve"); Criterion-referenced; typically performances and typically multiplechoice items; studentrating portfolios;continual assessment of instruction of instruction at end of course Ways of knowing Logico-scientific Narrative Epistemology Reductionist; facts and memorization Constructivist; inquiry and invention Technologyuse Drill and practice;textbook substitute; chalk and Problem solving, communication, collaboration, talk substitute informationaccess, expression Teaching Any expert can teach assumption Teachingis complex and requires considerable training I SOURCE: Smith and Walter, 1997 a changing professionalmodel (Gaynor, 1998). The editor, Gaynor, claims that this new model makes three demands on us: that we transcend traditional boundaries, that we think strategically, and that we develop a business perspective. Gaynoralso says that technicalcompetenceis an absolute requirement,but by itself is no longer sufficient. It must be integrated with breadth of vision, flexibility, customer focus, and business orientation. Changes like those outlined by Dertouzos and his colleagues (1989),as well as Gaynor (1998), are enormouslydifficult to implementin a direct,linear manner. The nature of change is described by Katzenbachand Smith (1993) through a "whitewa- ter raft ride" metaphor. The authors also list behavioral changes that are demanded by change. Major change, by its nature, is intentionally disruptive and largely unprogramma- ble. In comparing the management of major versus normal change, one top execu- tive said, "It used to be like 1-75. You'd lay it out from Toledo to Tampa. Now it's more like a whitewaterraft ride.You try to get the right people in the raft and do the best you can to steer it. But you never know what's just around the bend." (p. 208)
Katzenbachand Smith suggest several behavioralchanges that will help us perform in today's workplace (see Table 5.3). Table 5.3 Behavioral changes demanded by performancein the 1990s and beyond From To Individual accountability Mutual support, joint accountability,and trust-based relationships in addition to individual accountability Dividing those who think and decide from those who work Expecting everyone to think, work, and do and do Building functionalexcellencethrough each person executing a narrowset of tasks ever more efficiently Encouraging people to play multiple roles and work together interchangeably on continuous improvement Relying on managerial control Getting people to buy into meaningful purpose, to help shape direction,and to learn A fair day's pay for a fair day's work Aspiring to personal growth that expands as well as exploits each person's capabilities Peter Drucker (1993), who has written more articles for the Harvard Business Review than anyone else, recently described the changing views of the "manager" concept. Drucker stresses the idea of the "knowledge worker" and, consistent with this concept, focuses on skills and strategiesfor "managing the knowledge worker." In the 1920s,a manager was seen as one who was responsible for the work of sub- ordinates;in the 1950s,a managerwas one who was responsiblefor the performance of people; and in the 1990s,and beyond, a manageris one who is responsiblefor the application and performanceof knowledge. I INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION How are you feeling about all these impendingchanges?A bit overwhelmed,no doubt. Are you seeing changes in your educational experience?Is your college education on the cutting edge of modern practice?What do you think about the state of your education? Discuss with your group. Since so many changes are occurring in the workplace-including downsizing, rightsizing,and attending to the customer-is there any question that change is also occurring in project management?Management guru Tom Peters (1999) makes bold claims about the importance of project management in the following statement: "Those organizations that take project management seriously as a discipline, as a way of life, are likely to make it into the 21st century.Those that do not are likely to
find themselvesin good company with dinosaurs." (p. 128) Peters (1991), an engi- neering graduate who wrote a masters thesis on PERT charts, has also made the fol- lowing statements: "Tomorrow's corporationis a 'collection of projects.' " "Everyoneneeds to learn to workin teams with multipleindependentexperts- each will be dependent upon all the others voluntarilygiving their best." "The new lead actor~boss-the Project Manager-must learn to command and coach; that is, to deal with paradox." (p. 64) In the area of project management,several authors have summarized the most notable changes. Pinto and Kharbanda (1995) refer to our age as "The Age of Project Management." Key features of this age are the following: 1. Shortened market windows and product life cycles. 2. Rapid development of third-world and closed economies. 3. Increasinglycomplex and technical products. 4. Heightenedinternational competition. 5. The environmentof organizationalresource scarcity. Lientz and Rea (1995) list several trends that affect projects: Global competition Empowerment Rapid technologicalchange Focus on quality and continuous improvement Product obsolescence Measurement Organizationaldownsizing Interorganizationalsystems Business reengineering Furthermore, Lientz and Rea remind us that projects are set in time. They are also set in the context of organization, a legal system, a political system, a technol- ogy structure, an economic system, and a social system. These environmentalfac- tors do affect projects, and the project manager must respond to the resulting chal- lenges. If I haven't yet convinced you that there are many changes occurring in the business world and that the emergenceof projectmanagementis one of them, try the following Reflection. INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION Whatdoes it take tobe a good projectmanager?Take a few I minutes to think about the skills and competencies (and perhaps the attitudes) needed for ef- fective project management.Make a list. Compare your list with those of other students. Do you know any project managers? Do you have relatives or friends who do project work?Try to find someone you can interview to help you get your bearings on project man- agement.(See the exerciseat the end of this chapter.)Then revise your list.
I SKILLSNECESSARY FOR EFFECTIVE PROJECT MANAGERS Barry Posner (1987) conducted a survey of project managers, asking them what it takes to be a good project manager. He got the following results: 1. Communications(84 percent of the respondentslisted it) a. Listening b. Persuading 2. Organizational skills (75 percent) a. Planning b. Goal setting c. Analyzing 3. Team-building skills (72 percent) a. Empathy b. Motivation c. Esprit de corps 4. Leadership skills (68 percent) a. Sets example b. Energetic c. Vision (big picture) d. Delegates e. Positive 5. Coping skills (59 percent) a. Flexibility b. Creativity c. Patience d. Persistence 6. Technological skills (46 percent) a. Experience b. Project knowledge Several authors have surveyed project managers and conducted extensive liter- ature searches to learn about essential project management skills. Pinto and Khar- banda (1995) list the following skills necessary for effective project managers: Planning: work breakdown, project scheduling, knowledge of project manage- ment software, budgeting and costing. Organizing: team building, establishing team structure and reporting assign- ments, defining team policies, rules, and protocols. Leading: motivation, conflict management, interpersonal skills, appreciationof team members' strengths and weaknesses,reward systems. Controlling: project review techniques, meeting skills, project close-out tech- niques. Lientz and Rea (1996) provide the following list of keys to success as a project manager:
Communicateregularly in person with key team members. Keep managementinformed. Keep informed on all aspects of the project. Delegate tasks to team members. Listen to input from team members. Be able to take criticism. Respond to andlor act on suggestionsfor improvement. Develop contingency plans. Address problems. Make decisions. Learn from past experience. Run an effective meeting. Set up and manage the project file. Use project management tools to generate reports. Understandtrade-offs involving schedule and budget. Have a sense of humor. -- - - INDMDUAL RIFLsCIION How do these lists compare with yours? Was there lots of I overlap? Were there categories of items that were on your list but not on these, and vice versa? Research by Jeffrey Pinto (1986) sought to quantify some of these factors by correlating them with their importance for system implementation(see the accom- panying box). "System implementation" may be interpreted as a successful project outcome. How does one implement all of the characteristics of effective project man- agers?There areso many.One way is toemploy a commonmodeling strategy,called salami tactics, in which a complex problem is broken into smaller, more manageable parts (Starfield, Smith, and Bleloch, 1994). The "slices" that I'll use are the phases in a typical project life cycle-planning, organizing,staffing, directing,and control- ling. PROJECT MANAGER'S ROLE OVER THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE During the planningstage, you as the project manager must establish project objec- tives and performance requirements. Remember to involve key participants in the process (since, according to an old rule of thumb, involvement builds commitment).
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS AND THEIR IMF'ORTANCEFOR SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION The followingfactors are listed in decreasingorder of 6. Technical tasks. Availability of the required tech- correlation. nology and expertise to accomplish the specific 1. Project mission. Initial clearly defined goals and technicalaction steps to bring the projecton-line. general directions. 7. Client acceptance. The act of "selling" final 2. Top management support. Willingness of top product to its ultimate intended users. management to provide the necessary resources 8. Monitoring and feedback. Timely provision of and authoritylpowerfor implementationsuccess. comprehensivecontrol information at each stage 3. Scheduleplans. Adetailedspecification of the in- in the implementationprocess. dividual action steps for system implementation. 9. Communication.The provisionof an appropriate 4. Client consultation. Communication, consulta- network and necessary data to all key actors in tion, and active listening to all parties impacted the project implementationprocess. by the proposed project. 10. Troubleshooting. Ability to handle unexpected 5. Personnel.Recruitment,selection,and trainingof crises and deviationsfrom plan. the necessary personnelfor theimplantationproj- ect team. SOURCE: Pinto, 1986. Establish well-defined milestones with deadlines. Try to anticipate problems and build in contingencies to allow for them. Carefully outline responsibilities, sched- ules, and budgets. The first step in organizingis to developa work breakdown structurethat divides the project into units of work. If the project is large and complex, then the next step is to create a project organization chart that shows the structure and relationships of key project members. Finally, schedules, budgets, and responsibilities must be clearly and thoroughly defined. The major portionof most projectsuccessesdependson the peopleinvolved with the project.You must define work requirementsand, to the extent possible, seek appro- priate input when selecting team members. Be sure to orient team members to the big picture of the project. Seek each team member's input to define and agree on scope, budget, and schedule. (Remember, involvement builds commitment, and usually a better product.) Set specific performance expectations with each team member.
The day-to-day directing of projects involves coordinating project components, in- vestigating potential problems as soon as they arise, and researchingand allocating necessary resources. Be sure to remember to display a positive, can-do attitude, and to be available to team members. Recognize team members' good work and guide necessary improvement. Keeping the project on course with respect to schedule, budget, and performance specificationsrequires paying attention to detail. Some things that usually help are the following: 1. Communicateregularly with team members. 2. Measureprojectperformanceby maintaininga recordof planned and completed work. 3. Chart planned and completed milestones. 4. Chart monthly project costs. 5. Document agreements, meetings, telephoneconversations. Enormouschangesare occurringin the way work and learningare done.You are probably experiencing some of these changes in your classes as you are asked to work on projects in groups and formulate and solve open-endedproblems. If you're working at an engineeringjob, you are surely experiencingsome of these changes. I've tried to provide a perspective on changes that are occurring both in the classroom and in the workplace. One of the most influential referenceson change is Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Efective People (1989), which has sold millions of copies. Covey lists these habits as follows: 1. Be pro-active: Take the initiative and the responsibilityto make things happen. 2. Begin with an end in mind: Start with a clear destination to understand where you are now, where you're going, and what you value most. 3. PutJirst thingsJirst: Manage yourself. Organizeand execute around priorities. 4. Think widwin: See life as a cooperative,not a competitive arena where success is not achieved at the expense or exclusionof the success of others. 5. SeekJirst to understand: Understand then be understood to build the skills of empathic listening that inspire openness and trust. 6. Synergize: Apply the principlesof cooperativecreativity and value differences. 7. Renew: Preserve and enhance 'your greatest asset, yourself, by renewing the physical, spiritual, mental, and sociaVemotiona1dimensionsof your nature. Countless students in my classes have said, "Covey's book changed my life!" The roles of project managers in engineering school and in the workplace are
complex and varied. Covey's list provides a good set of heuristics to guide project managers. Another classic that you may want to read is Frederick P. Brooks's The Mythical Man-Month. If this book, which is about softwareproject management, in- trigues you, then you may want to check out Steve McConnell's SofnYare Project Survival Guide. More and moreengineersare involvedin softwaredevelopment, and these two books will help you manage it. 1. What changes have you noted in the workplaceor school? Has your school un- dergone a schedule change recently, for example, from quarters to semesters? How do the changes you've noted compare with those listed in the chapter? 2. This chapteremphasized the changing natureof the workplaceand of engineer- ing work, and the needed project manager skills, based on past (and sometimes current) practice. What do you anticipate project manager skills will be in the future? What do the futurists-John Naisbitt,Watts Walker, Esther Dyson, and others-have to say about this? 3. What skills are essential for effective project managers? How can they be en- hanced and developed? 4. What does the literature report as keys to project success? How does this list compare with your experience? 5. This chapter organized the project manager's role around the life cycle. Are there other ways that come to mind for organizing the project manager's role? What are they? What are their advantagesand disadvantages? Interview a project manager, or someone who is involved with project work. Poten- tial interviewquestionsdeveloped by studentsin my projectmanagementclasses are listed below. This exercise will not only give you a chance to find out more about project management in practice (and refine your list of essential skills, competen- cies, and attitudes), but also may help you decide if it is a career path you'd like to pursue. 1. What is the main thrill or interesting reason for being a project manager? 2. Describe a typical work scheduleduring the week, including number of hours. 3. What directed you to become a project manager?Why not stay in engineering or some other form of business management? 4. Discuss instances of the project manager's role as a team leader and a team member. 5. Discuss the realm and responsibilitiesof the project manager.
6. What personal characteristicsare your best ally during the job's activities? 7. What skills have you had to develop or refine since becoming a project man- ager? 8. What personal goals are you strivingfor, personallyand professionally? 9. What are your weaknesses that slow you down? 10. What are a few of the frustrations of the job? 11. Describe the project manager's professionalcredibility and its value. 12. How does the company you work for consider the project manager and his or her responsibilitiesand opportunities? 13. Describe any battles to complete tasks in the most economical manner and still maintainquality or integrity. 14. How important is the project schedule and what purposes does it serve? 15. Discuss extent of interaction with project owners or clients. 16. What is the project manager's level of involvement with contract negotiations? 17. Discuss the project manager's interaction with other professionals (e.g., engi- neer or architect). 18. What methods does the project manager use to monitor adequate communica- tion between project owner, architect,client, and the job-site crew? 19. What accountingpractices does the project manager use for project budget and regular reviews? 20. Is financial compensationcommensuratewith the work?What other benefitsare there? Brooks, FrederickP., Jr. 1995. The mythical man-month: Essays on sofhvare engineering, anniversary ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Byrne, J. A. 1992. Paradigms for postmodern managers. BusinessWeek, Special Issue on Reinventing America, 62-63. Covey, Stephen R. 1989. The seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon & Schuster. Dertouzos, M. L., R. K. Lester, and R. M. Solow. 1989. Made in America: Regaining the productive edge. New York: Harper. Drucker, Peter F. 1993. Post-capitalist society. New York: Harper Business. Gaynor, G. H. 1998. The dawning of a new age: Crossroadsof the engineering profession. Today's Engineer l(1): 19-22. Katzenbach, Jon R., and Douglas K. Smith. 1993. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-pe$onnance organization. Cambrige, MA: Harvard BusinessSchool Press.
Lientz, Bennet, and Kathryn Rea. 1995. Project management for the 21st century. San Diego: Academic Press. McConnell, Steve. 1998. Sojiware survival guide: How to ensure yourfirst important project isn't your last. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. Peters, Thomas J. 1991. Managing projectstakes a special kind of leadership Seattle Post-Intelligencer,412911991, p. 64. Peters,Tom. 1999. The WOW project: In the new economy,all work is project work. Fast Company, 24, 116-128. Pinto, J. K. 1986. Projectimplementation: A determination of its critical success factors, moderators, and their relative importanceacross stages in the project life cycle. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh. Pinto, J. K., and 0.P. Kharbanda.1995. Successfil project managers: Leading your team to success. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Posner, Barry. 1987. Characteristicsof Effective Project Managers. Project Management Journal. (March) Smith, KarlA., and Alisha A. Waller. 1997. New paradigms for engineering education. Pittsburgh, PA: ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings. Starfield,A. M., K. A. Smith, and A. L. Bleloch. 1994. How to model it: Problem solving for the computer age. Edina, MN: Burgess.
c h a p t e r Project schedulingis a centralyet often overrated aspectof project management. For some the feeling is "We've got a schedule; we're done." Getting a schedule is just one importantstep in the process of projectmanagement.The real work begins when circumstancescause delays and pressures mount to revise the schedule. IWDMDUAL REFLECTION Think about how you typicallyschedulecomplex projects. I such as completinga major reportfor a class. Do you make a list of things to do? An outline? Do you draw a concept map? Or do you just start writing? In this chapter, we'll work our way through the details of the scheduling process. We'll learn the basics of the critical path algorithm and experiencefirsthand the ideas of forward pass, backward pass, critical path, and float. As you developan understandingof these concepts and procedures, you will gain insight into manag- ing projects with complex schedules. Let's revisit the meal-planningexercise from Chapter 4 (p. 51). Take a look at what you did for this exercise. If you didn't do it yet, go back and think about how you would tackle this task. We will use this exerciseas the projectexample through- out this chapter. REFLECTION What representation (model) did your group use to determine the time? I How did you keep track of which activitieshad to follow each other and which could be going on at the same time? How did you go about determining the total time the meal preparation and eating would take? Did you make a list? A timeline?Or did you approachthe problemin some other way?
A common approachfor scoping a projectis to preparea work breakdown structure (WBS). The WBS can be presented as a list or an organization chart. A one- level WBS for the meal-planning exercise would be "Prepare the meal," but this wouldn't be too helpfulin figuring out what had to be done.A two-levelWBS would include: Preparation Boil soup Boil rice Boil peas Brown chicken Prepare sauce Bake chicken, rice, and sauce Open wine and let it breathe Eating Eat soup Eat entrke This two-level WBS provides more specific guidance but still leaves a lot up to the chef (which is OK in many cases). A moreelaborate approachto preparinga WBS is to use Post-it notes to sort out the sequences. There are several possible sequencesfor the activities for this WBS, dependingon how you interpret the"properorder"of preparing this meal. One pos- sible WBS is shown in Figure 6.1. In this WBS only the activity names and the resource (Pot 1, etc.) that the ac- :pareSauce 'an Figure 6.1 Work breakdown structure
tivity uses are listed. Notice that I've made decisions about placing the sauce on the entrke before putting it in the oven, and having the wine with the entrke rather than with the soup. You may have chosen a differentsequence, perhaps to have the wine with the soup or to place the sauce on the entreeafter it is served. Later we'll explore how these choices affect the schedule. REFLECTION Have you used the WBS idea for scoping projects? If not, are there places I in your personal and professional life where you can immediately apply the WBS idea? How about engineering course or design projects you're working on? If you want more practice, try the office remodeling project exercise at the end of this chapter. Now that we have a WBS for the meal-planningproject, we can determine the min- imum time to complete it. To do this, we go through Figure 6.1, number each activ- ity and list the time it takes (see Figure 6.2). Examine the precedence network in Figure 6.2 to determine the minimum time to complete the project. Sum the indi- vidual activity durations along each path; for example, path 1+ 5 + 10 is 35 +15 + 25 = 75 minutes.Which path is longest? Provided that the numberof activitiesis not too large, problemsof this type can often be solved by hand. By sketching the relationshipsbetween the individualtasks, and takinginto accountthe amountof time each requiresfor completion,we can de- termine the total amount of time needed to get the whole process completed. Figure 6.2 Precedence network
", pare Sauce Wine Breathes FI Figure 6.3 Forward Pass When the number of tasks gets large-say, over 20-then it's quite challenging to keep track of everything by hand. A simple and systematic way of doing this is provided by the critical path method (CPM). This method represents the flow of tasks in the form of a network. To use it, we simply have to know the duration of each of the activities,and the predecessorsof each-that is, the set of activities that must have terminated before an activity can begin. FORWARD PASS-EARLY START (ES) AND EARLY FINISH (EF) The first step in the CPM is to run through the network from beginning to end and mark the earliest time that each activity can start. In Figure 6.3, this time is in the upper left-hand corner of each activity. This is clearly obtained by adding the earli- est start of its latest starting predecessorto that predecessor's duration. When two or more activities must be completed before the next one can start (such as Brown Chicken and Prepare Sauce before Bake Entrke), then the maximum must be used. The early finish (EF) time is determined by summing the early start (ES) and the du- ration (see Figure 6.3). BACKWARD PASS-LATE START (LS) AND LATE FINISH (LF) Similarly, a backward pass is made, establishingthe latest possiblestartingtime (late start,LS) that an activity can have, which is the latest start of the earlieststartingsuc- cessor, less the duration of the activity under consideration(see Figure 6.4). The re- sult is the late finish (LF) time.
3s Breathes 30 <A Figure 6.4 Backward Pass Activitiesfor which the earliest and latest times turn out to be equal are called crit- ical.That is, they cannot be delayed withoutdelaying the durationof the entire proj- ect. The path that these activitieslie on in the network is known as the critical path. The remainingnoncritical activities have some float (sometimesreferred to as slack) and can have their durations increased by some amount before they would become critical and delay the total duration. The amount by which termination of a noncritical activity can be delayed before it causes one of its successorsto be delayedis called the free float of thatactivity.Tech- nically, the free float (FF) is based on early start (ES) times and for any activity i is equal to the minimum early start for activities following activity i minus the early start for i minus the duration (D) for i. Algebraically, the free float is determined as follows: FF,= (ES;+ - ESi- D; The amount of slack an activity has before it would cause the path on which it lies to becomecritical is called the totalfloat. The total float of an activity is the min- imum (out of all of the paths on which it lies) of the sum of its free float and those of all activities ahead of it on the path. Thus an activity is critical if its total float is zero. Technically, the total float (TF) is the difference between the late start (LS) times and the early start (ES) times. Algebraically, the total float for an activity i is determined as follows:
TF, = LSi- ES,- LFi- EFi The numericalsolution to the meal-planning problemis given in Table 6.1. Table 6.1 Meal-planning exercise: critical path method results Early Late Float Current Critical Activity Name Duration Resources Start Finish Start Finish Total Free Start Path Open Wine Wine Breathes Boil Soup Eat Soup Boil Rice Boil Peas Brown Chicken Prepare Sauce Bake Entrke Eat Entr6e 0 15 15 20 15 0 0 No 5 35 20 50 15 15 5 No 0 35 0 35 0 0 0 Yes 35 50 35 50 0 0 5 Yes 0 30 5 35 5 35 0 No 30 45 60 75 30 30 30 No 0 15 20 35 35 20 0 No 15 20 45 50 30 30 15 No 30 45 35 50 5 5 30 No 50 75 50 75 0 0 50 Yes GANTT CHARTS AND CRITPATH Another common model for representing scheduling projects is a time-scaled net- work, called a Ganttchart, where the activitieshave been laid out on a time axis.The table and Gantt chart for the first eight activities,shownin Figure6.5, were prepared using the CritPath software program, which is available for downloading from the Figure 6.5 Gantt chart
If 1 lucup 1 4 0 3 3 5 0 0 0 (r 1s If 35 ll a 50 1 0 8 3 . 4 5 0 b p a &ilP*n 11 1 w ~ ~ 4 5 6 9 7 ~ 3 0 3 0 If 20 _ s *as_ rs-to- I, 5 xi 21) m $9 (5 _Lj WW -- -w wv -srre e.*we Figure 6.6 Algorithm stepper BESTWeb site and is bundled with How to Model It (Starfield, Smith, and Blelock, 1994).The CritPathprogram is set up to display only eight activities at a time. If you want to view the rest of it, download the CritPath program and play with it. If you are still having difficulty understanding the differencesbetween free and total float or are struggling with the critical path calculations,use the algorithmstep- per in the CritPath program. It will walk you through the process using a graphical representation (see Figure 6.6). Notice how there is no gap in the path that includes the activities Open Wine, Eat Soup, and Eat Entree? That means, of course, that they are on the critical path. Also notice how there is a gap after the activities Wine Breathes, Prepare Sauce, Bake Entrie, and Boil Peas;this meansthey have free float in addition to having total float. The activities Brown Chicken and Open Wine are followed by a gap farther down the path, but not by an immediategap; this means that they have total float but not free float. INDMDUAL REFLECTION Take a few minutes to think about the advantages and dir I advantagesof the two representationsof the meal-planning project-the precedencenetwork (Figure 6.4)and the Ganttchart (Figure 6.5).Whatare the unique features of each?What spe- cific features does each represent?Where is each appropriate? In the above Reflection, you may have concluded that both the precedence net- work and the Gantt chart are essential for understandingcomplex projectsand com- municatingprojectinformation.The Ganttchart is a time-scaled network, since time
is represented directly. It gives a clear picture of the duration of events, but it doesn't directly show the nature of the interdependence,that is, what has to follow what. The precedence network, on the other hand, clearly shows the interdepend- ence-precedence and simultaneity, that is, what has to follow what and what can be going on at the same time-but it doesn't directly show the time required for each activity. The CritPath program, like most project scheduling software, uses the prece- dence network representation to do the critical path calculations. Many people find the Gantt chart most useful for tracking project progress. In summary, the sequenceof steps to apply the critical path method to projectsched- uling is as follows: 1. Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS). 2. Connect the activities in the WBS by arrows that indicate the precedence. 3. Perform the critical path analysiscalculationseither by hand (for a simple prob- lem) or with computer software (for a complex problem). 4. Create graphical representations-a precedence network and a Gantt chart- that suit your purposes. Bus SHELTER CONSTRUCTIONEXAMPLE Now that we've worked through the meal-planning exercisein some detail, let's try another example. Consider the construction project outlined in Table 6.2. Note that the precedencerelationshipsare specified so you don't have to create a work break- down structure;however,developinga precedencenetworkis an importantstep.The resources column specifies the number of people requiredfor each task. Table 6.2 Bus shelter construction example Job Name Duration Resources Predecessors 1 Shelter Slab 2 2 5 2 ShelterWalls 1 1 1 3 Shelter Roof 2 2 2,4 4 Roof Beam 3 2 2 5 Excavation 2 3 6 Curb and Gutter 2 3 5 7 Shelter Seat 1 2 4,6 8 Paint 1 1 7 9 Signwork 1 2 2,6
/ Gutter Excavation m4Q p&~kp2--pqfBeam Figure 6.7 Precedence network for bus shelter Determine the minimum time required to complete the bus shelter. Develop a precedence network. Identify the critical path. Draw a Gantt chart for the project. Give it a try before looking further. (A precedencenetwork is sketched out in Figure 6.7.) Next, perform the critical path analysiscalculations.You may do this by hand if you want more practice, or you can use CritPath or another commercial project- schedulingprogram.The table and Gantt chart for the first eight activitiesare shown in Figure 6.8. ~ttChart F i g u ~6.8 Ganii chart for bus shelter
Table 6.3 Bus shelter construction: critical path method results Early Late Float Current Critical Activity Name Duration Resources Start Finish Start Finish Total Free Start Path 1 Shelter Slab 2 2 2 4 2 4 0 0 2 Yes 2 Shelter Walls 1 1 4 5 4 5 0 0 4 Yes 3 Shelter Roof 2 2 8 10 8 10 0 0 8 Yes 4 Roof Beam 3 2 5 8 5 8 0 0 5 Yes 5 Excavation 2 3 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 Yes 6 Curb and Gutter 2 3 2 4 6 8 4 1 2 No 7 Shelter Seat 1 2 8 9 8 9 0 0 8 Yes 8 Paint 1 1 9 10 9 10 0 0 9 Yes 9 Signwork 1 2 5 6 9 10 4 4 5 No Lookcarefullyat the critical path method resultsand the Gantt chart. Noticethat there is more than one critical path. The presence of multiple critical paths can be seen on the Algorithm Stepper feature of the CritPath program, since all the paths through the network are displayed. Get the CritPath software and try it. Table 6.3 shows the entire set of results for the bus shelter construction project. Try developing and setting up your next project using the critical path method. Do the calculations by hand a couple times to familiarize yourself with the forward pass and backward pass of the algorithm.Then use CritPath or another commercial project-schedulingprogram. Critical activities, having no slack, cannot be extended or shifted without upsetting the scheduled completion of the project. However, the slack afforded by noncritical activities can be exploited to provide the best distribution of resources over the du- ration of the entire project. For example, it might be difficult or expensive to hire more than a certain number of laborers at any one time. By shifting noncritical ac- tivities within their floats, it is possible to spread the distribution of labor more evenly over the span of the project. At other times it may be beneficial to load the distributionin a certain way, for example,if work over a holiday period is to be min- imized. Decisionsof these kinds can be made only when the constraints (e.g., earli- est and latest start times) of the schedule have been determined. Look at what hap- pens to the resourcehistogramfor the bus shelterprojectwhen you shift all activities to their early start times (Figure 6.9). What do you expect would happen if you shifted all activities to their late start times? See Figure 6.10.
Shelter Slab 2 i exri 2 * % c * ource Histc Figure 6.9 Resource histogram for bus shelter file EdL I ~ e wFrojecl Help 1 Task L~st ~rrent Early Late Float T I J C D C S C ~ ~ ~ ~ O ~~ D U E j ~ e ~lrtecsssing t i r ~ s18arl Inoat Isan ~mirh sdri midi T Q I ~ F W ~ Shelter Slab ' 2 n x r v 2 - i d '0 lo source ~fsto~rarn ' n Figure 6.10 Resource histogram-latest times CompareFigures 6.9 and 6.10 to help you decide what the best allocationof re- sources would be. Notice that there is not too much that you can do to level the re- sources in this case, which is sometimes the situation with real projects.
You may on some projects work through the critical path calculations and find that the required project duration is greater than the time you have available. Or, more commonly, you may get behind during the project due to bad weather, late deliver- ies, work delays, and so on. In such cases, you could, of course, go to your supervi- sor or professor and ask for an extension. Alternatively, you could add resources (e.g., people, overtime) to activities on the critical path to decrease their duration, thus decreasing the time for the entire project. Technically,this is known as "crash- ing" a project. Why wouldn't we add resources to noncriticalactivities?Let's work through the example shown in Table 6.4 to get a better sense of how this works. Table 6.4 Critical path method cost example Incremental Task Precedence Normal Time CrashTime Normal Cost Cost Per Day Figure 6.11 shows the normal schedule duration. The normal schedule cost is just the sum of the normal costs for the four activities-$2,700. Figure 6.1 1 Gantt chart for cost example
PROJECT RESOURCEAND COST CONSIDERATIONS 77 Figure 6.1 2 Gantt chart-all paths critical As the project manager you would have to choose which activities along the critical path to add resources to, in order to decrease their duration. What criteria would you use to choose the activities?Ordinarily, the project manager would crash the activities that had the minimum cost per unit of time saved. Often convenience, availability, and other factors must be considered. Let's look at what happens as we decrease the duration of activities on the crit- ical path for the examdleabove. The lowest cost choice is Activity D. By decreasing the duration of Activity D from 3 to 2, the overall project duration decreases to 10 and the cost increases to $2,700 +$200 =$2,900. Next we can add resources to Ac- tivity A to decrease it to 7. The overall project duration becomes 9, and the cost in- creases to $3,000.Adding more resourcestoA to decreaseit to 6 decreasesthe over- all project duration to 8 and increases the cost to $3,300. The updated Gantt chart is shown in Figure 6.12. We can continue to decrease the duration of the overall proj- ect, but now we must add resources to more than one activity and hence the cost in- creases at a higher rate. As you add resources to critical activities and decrease the duration along the critical path, eventually, more and more activities become critical. INDlWDlIIL AND GkOlBP REFLECTION What are some good strategies for using the float over the life of a project? Do you, for example, let things slide early on, thus using I the float up early? Or do you wait until later in the project to use the float? As a project man- ager, how do you recommend that the float be utilized?
It is not hard to see that if we were to add a few more activities,the problem would soon become unmanageableby hand. Further, if changes have to be made either to the order in which activities must occur, or in the time in which they can be com- pleted, the entire process would have to be repeated. The advantage of the critical path method is that it is indeed systematic.It can be described as a formal set of in- structions that can be followed by a computer. Alterations in the data can be made repeatedly and the problemquicklysolved,again by the machine.This would enable us to obtain the benefit of what-if analysis, the process of making changes and see- ing the effects of those changes immediately. Such analysis gives the user an intu- itive feel for the problem. The role of the computer will be addressedin more detail in Chapter 9. 1. What is a work breakdown structure (WBS)? Why is it important? What are some of the types of WBSs? 2. What is the critical path method (CPM)? What are free and total float? 3. Explain the differencesbetween resourceleveling and crashing a project. 4. How have you typically managed complex projects in the past? How well did the approach work? Not all projects merit taking the time to develop a schedule,since they can be managed by making a list or by using your day plan- ner. Where could you apply the critical path method and how do you expect it might help? 5. How does the CritPath program compare with other software packages you've used? With a spreadsheet,for example? 6. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of relying on project- scheduling algorithms? The following activities must be accomplished to complete an office remodeling project:
Activity Procure paint Procure new carpet Procure new furniture Remove old furniture Remove old carpet Scrub walls Paint walls Install new carpet Movein new furniture Estimated Duration (Days) 2 5 7 1 1 1 2 1 1 1. Create a possible work breakdown structure (WBS) for the remodeling project. 2. When can the new furniture be moved in? 3. What is the minimum project duration? 4. Which activitiesdo you have to pay close attentionto if you want to finishat the earliest possible time? Given the following set of project data, determine the smoothest distribution of re- sources.Assume resources are transferable. Task Duration Resources Predecessor 3. CRASHING Given the following project data, determine the normal schedulecost. Crash the proj- ect as far as possible. List the project durationand cost for each step along the way. Normal Crash Normal Incremental Task Precedence Time Time Cost Cost Per Day
Develop a work breakdown structure, precedence network, and Gantt chart for a project you're involved with. Complete the critical path analysis calculations. Use these representationsto guide the project and to review progress. Imagine you've just inherited a lakeside lot in Northern Minnesota (beautiful in the summer) that has an access road, electricity,and water and sewage disposal.You've also been given a modest sum with which to buy building materials. If you're hav- ing trouble imagining yourself being so lucky, consider the possibility that a friend or neighbor asked you for an estimate on how much it would cost to build a cabin and for help in designing and building. Engineers are often expected to know such things. How much would it cost for a modest, say 24-foot-square cabin? How long would it take you to build it? The cabin cost estimate project is a favorite of students in my project manage- ment classes. Since wehaven't done too much with cost estimating(it's usually done in engineering economics courses), I'll provide a little guidance. I suggest you take the following steps: I. Guess. Take a wild guess at what it would cost for materialsfor a modest cabin. 2. Look up the square-foot costs for typical residential construction ($50-$70 per square foot) and adjust it down for a modest cabin. Many students use $30 per square foot for a modest cabin. 3. Use a unit cost approach: a. Develop a floor plan. b. Create a detailed list of materials with associated quantities. c. Find the cost of the materials in a local building center brochure (or cost manual). d. Use a spreadsheet to list and calculate the total cost of the materials. 4. Compare the three cost estimates-guess, cost per square foot, and unit cost. Use the proceduresoutlinedin this chapter to determinehow long it would take you to build it; that is, developa WBS and a schedule using the critical path method. Starfield,A. M., K. A. Smith, and A. L. Bleloch. 1994. How to model it: Problem solving for the computer age. Edina, MN: Burgess. (Includes disk with CritPathand WinExp.)
Project management &amp; teamwork (b.e.s.t. series)
C H A P T E R 7 PROJECTMONITORINGAND EVALUATION Their purposeis unclear. Participantsare unprepared. Key people are absent or missing. The conversation veers off track. Participantsdon't discuss issues but instead dominate, argue, or take no part at all. Decisions made during the meeting are not followed up. I INDlWDUAL REFLECTION Think about some of your best (and worst) experiences in meetings. How do the complaints listed above compare with your experiences in meetings? What additional challenges have you encountered? What conditions contribute to best and worst experiences? What are some of the strategies you use or have seen used to counter the worst experiences? Five guidelinesfrom the book Meetings: Do's, Don'ts, and Donuts (Lippincott, 1994) can help alleviate some of the most common problems: 1. State in a couple of sentences exactly what you want your meeting to accom- plish. 2. If you think a meeting is the best way to accomplish this, then distribute an agenda to participantsat least two days in advance. 3. Set ground rules to maintain focus, respect, and order during the meeting. 4. Take responsibilityfor the meeting's outcome. 5. If your meeting isn't working, try other tools, such as brainstorming. Using a meeting process such as the one outlined in The Team Handbook (Scholtes, Joiner, and Streibel, 1996) can help. The authors describe the three-part meeting process as follows: Before Plan. Clarify meeting purpose and outcome. Identify meeting participants. Select methods to meet purpose. Develop and distribute agenda. Set up room. During Start: check-in, review agenda, set or review ground rules, clarify roles. Conduct--coverone item at a time, manage discussions, maintainfocus and pace.
How TO RUN A MEETING Plan the Meeting Allocate time on the basis of importance, not its Be clear on objectivesof the meeting. urgency. Be clear why you need the meeting. Structureand Control List the topics to be addressed. Put all evidence before interpretation and action. Inform Stop people from jumping back and going over old ground. Make sure everyoneknows exactly what is being discussed, why and what you want from the dis- Summarizeand Recall cussion. Summarize all decisions and record them with Anticipate what people and information may be the nameof the person responsiblefor any action. needed and make sure they are there. Prepare SOURCE: Adapted from the video "Meetings, BloodyMeetings," Prepare the logical sequence of items. starring JohnCleese 1993. Close-summarize decisions, review action items, solicit agenda items for next meeting, review time and place for next meeting, evaluate the meeting, thank participants. After Distributeor post meeting notes promptly. File agendas, notes, and other documents. Do assignments. The box "How to Run a Meeting" also provides good advice for running effective meetings. One common method for monitoring the effectiveness of group work is the plusldelta group processing approach typically attributed to the Boeing Company. Near the end of the meeting the group stops working on the task and spends a few minutes discussinghow well they worked. The group makes a list that records what went wellon one side (+) and what they could do even better on the other (A). Other methods include individual reflection, using instruments such as the one in Figure 7.1. Members fill in the chart and then discuss each other's scores and comments. More complex monitoringinvolvescollectingdata on individualparticipationin the team. Several observationforms are available.The one I start studentswith in my project management classes is shown in Figure 7.2. Any task or maintenance be- havior (see Chapter 3) may be listed in the rows. Group members take turns observ-
For each trait, rate the team on a scale of 1 to 5: 1= Not present (opposite trait present) 2 =Very poor (not much evidence of positive trait) 3 = Poor (some positive trait seen) 4 = Good (positive trait evident more than opposite trait) 5 =Very good (large amounts of evidence of positive trait) Positive mait Score Comments Safety Inclusion Free interaction Appropriate level of interdependence Cohesiveness Tmst Conflict resolution Influence Accomplishment Growth I SOURCE: Uhlfedler, 1997. Figurn 7.1 A sample individual reflection instrument ing the group and recording each member's participation.They then provide feed- backabout the group's functioningduring the processingphase. A rule of thumb that I commonly use is "Keep the feedback specific, descriptive, immediate, and posi- tive." I give negative feedback only if the person requests it. If negative feedback is requested, the person is usually ready to hear it. Only then will it be helpful. More rules include the following,from Scholtes (1988): Guidelines for Constructive Feedback Acknowledge the need for feedback. Give positive feedback. Give negative feedback only if the recipient asks for it. Understand the context. Know when to give feedback. Know how to give feedback: Be descriptive. Don't use labels. Don't exaggerate. Don't be judgmental. Speak for yourself. Talk first about yourself, not about the other person. Phrase the issue as a statement, not a question. Restrict your feedback to things you observed. Help people hear and accept your compliments when giving positive feedback.
Observation Category Names Total Task Contributesideas Maintenance Encourages Total Notes: Observation Directions: 1. Move your chair so you can see each member of the group clearly without interactingwith them. 2. Write the name of each person in the group at the top of one of the columns on the observation sheet. 3. Watch each person systematically. As you see each person display one of the two behaviors specified (contributesideas or encourages),place a hatch mark below his or her name, in the box to the right of the appropriatebehavior. 4. Task means anythingthat helps the group accomplish its task. For example,Contributesideas means giving an idea related to one of the questions on the worksheet andlorto somethingsaid by another group member related to the task. 5. Maintenance means anythingthat helps improve working relationshipsin the group. Encourages means praisingothers' ideas or inviting others to contribute. 6. You may make some notations below the grid that may help you explain some scoring. 7. When time is called, total the hatch marks in each column and across each row. 8. When you give feedback to the group you will only give them the column totals and the row totals. Let them see the sheet. Do not interpret what you saw, or what the totals might suggest. You may be tempted to soften what you say. Don't allow this to happen.You are not criticizing; you are only reporting what you saw, related to very specific behaviors. 9. It is the job of the group to discuss what the totals might suggest about how they functioned as a group, and to develop one or two sentences that capture this thought. Figure 7.2 Observation Sheet
- -- C H A PT E R 7 PROJECT MONITORINGAND EVALUATION Totals Process Shutting out Bringing in Figure7.3 Xerox's Interactive Skills Coding Worksheet Another form that I've found very useful is shown in Figure 7.3. This was de- veloped by Xerox Corporation and is included in the company's interactive skills workbook (1986). On facing page is a table that defines and gives examples of be- havior categories listed in the worksheet. The purpose of collecting data on group functioning by observing and other means is not only to provide data for monitoring but also to help each member at- tend to how the group is performing. Even if you don't have an opportunity to sys- tematicallyobservea team, read the definitions and examples in Figure 7.3 and think about how you can expand your repertoireof behaviors. An even more sophisticated approach to processing the work of teams was devel- oped by Domellon (1996), who claims, "Not all groups are teams." Although, as I mentioned in Chapter 2, the words group and team are often used interchangeably, it is important to distinguish between the gathering of people into groups and the purposefulformationof a team. A team, accordingto Donnellon,is "a groupof peo- ple who are necessary to accomplish a task that requires the continuous integration of the expertise distributedamong them"(p. 10). Donnellon studied team talk and devised six dimensions along which to assess teams: identification (with what group team members identify); interdependence (whether team members felt independentfrom or interdependentwith one another);
Definitions and Examples Behavior Category Definition Examples Proposing A behaviorthat puts forward a new suggestion, proposal, or course of action. Building A behavior that usually takes the form of a proposal, but that actually extends or develops a proposal made by another person. Supporting A behavior that makes a conscious and direct declaration of agreement with or support for another person, or for theirconceptsand opinions. Disagreeing A behavior that statesa direct disagreement or which 'let's deal with that one tomorrow." "I suggest we add more resourcesto.. ." "...and your plan would be even better if we added a second reporting stage" ''If I can take that further, we could also use the system to give us better cost control." "Yes, I go along with that." "Sounds OK to me." "Fine. I accept that." "No, I don't agree with that.'' raises obstacles and objections to another person's 'LYourthird point just isn't true." concepts or opinions. Disagreeing is about issues. 'What you're suggesting won't work." Defendinglattacking A behaviorthat attacks another person, either directly or by defensiveness. Defendinglattacking usually involve value judgments and often contain emotional overtones. They are usually about people, not issues. Testing understanding A behavior that seeks to establish whether or not an earliercontribution has been understood. It differs from seeing information in that it is an attempt to ensureagreement or consensus of some kind, and refers to a prior question or issue. Summarizing A behaviorthat summarizes or restates, in a compact form, the content of previous discussions or events. Seeking information A behavior that seeks facts, opinions, or clarification from another person. Giving information A behavior that offers facts, opinions, or clarification to other people. Bringingin* A behaviorthat invites views or opinions from a member of the group who is not actively participating in the discussion. Shuttingout* A behavior that excludes another person or persons, or reduces their opportunity to contribute. Interrupting is the most common form of shutting out. Figure 7.3 Xerox's Interactive Skills Coding Worksheet (Continued) I *Characteristic of a process behavior. "That's stupid.'' "... and your third point is either stupid or an out-and-outlie." "Don't blame me, it's not my fault; it's John's responsibility." "Can I just check to be sure we're talking about the same thing here?" "Can I take it that we all now agree on this?" "So far, we have agreed (a)To divide responsibilities, (b) To meet weekly (c)To finish the draft proposal by .. ." "What timeline did we agree to?" "Can anyone tell me what page that table is on?" "Have you checked that thoroughly?" "I remembera case like that last year." "There are at least three alternatives." "Dick, have you anything to say on this one?" "Cheryl has been very quiet. I wonder whether she has anything she would like to say here." Jose: "What do you think, Bob?" Karl: "What I think is.. ." (Karl is shuttingout Bob.) power differentiation(how much team members use the differencesin their organi- zational power); social distance (whether team members feelclose to or distant from one another socially);conflict management tactics (whether members use the tactics
of forceor collaborationto managetheirconflicts);and negotiation process (whether the team uses a win-lose or a win-win process). Donnellon then used these dimen- sions to differentiate between nominal teams and real teams, as shown in Table 7.1. Table 7.1 Nominal versus real groups Nominal Team Real Team - - - Identification Functional group Team Interdependence Independence Interdependence Power differentiation High Low Social distance Distant Close Conflict management tactics Forcing, accommodating,avoiding Confronting, collaborating Negotiationprocess Win-lose Win-win I SOURCE: Donnellon, 1996. The dimensions shown in the table are consistent with the underlying concep- tual framework in this book. I encourage you to examine the groups and teams you're in along these dimensions. Donnellon's team talkaudit for assessing team dy- namics is included in her book. Use this instrument to attend to the team talk, reflect on what it tells you about the team, and then plan how you will discuss the assess- ment with the team. Donnellon also described five types of teams based on the categorization in her six dimensions. In Table 7.2, I've summarized some of the more direct paths. Think about where your team fits. Table 7.2 Team talk dimensions Power Social Conflict Identification Interdependence Differentiation Distance Negotiation Management FYofile Team High Low Close Win-win Collaborative Collaborative Team Moderate Low Close Win-win Force-avoid Mostly collaborative Team Moderate High Close Emergent Both High High Distant Win-lose Forceavoid Adversarial Both Low High Distant Win-lose Force-avoid Adversarial Function Low Low Distant Nominal Function Low-independence High Distant Win-lose Force-avoid Doomed I SOURCE: Donnellon, 1996. Donnellon's work indicates that there are very few paths to collaborative team profiles, a conclusion borne out in the work of Katzenbach and Smith (1993), and Bennis and Beiderman (1997), whose case studies note that very few teams per-
form at the highest levels. With these dimensions in mind, carefully examine your group and team experiences and then explicitly discuss the performance (function- ing) of your team to help you decide (1) to leave if your team is doomed, (2) refine the team if you're in the middle, or (3) celebrate and continue performing if you're a collaborativeteam. Using the monitoring and processingformats described above to systematically reflect on the team's performance on both task and maintenance dimensions will help the team achieve its goals and help the members get better at working with one another. Group processing takes time and commitment,and is typically difficult for highly motivated, task-oriented individuals. Spending a little bit of carefully struc- tured time on how the team is functioning can make an enormous differencein the team's effectiveness and quality of the working environment. At the end of a project it is important, and often a requirement,to conduct an evalu- ation. Tjpically, a set of project evaluation questions guides this process. The fol- lowing, generatedby Haynes (1989),is a typical set of questions: 1. How close to scheduledcompletion was the project actually completed? 2. What did we learn about scheduling that will help us on our next project? 3. How close to budget was final project cost? 4. What did we learn about budgeting that will help us on our next project? ~ 5. Upon completion,did the project output meet client specifications without ad- ditional work? 6. What, if any, additional work was required? 7. What did we learn about writingspecifications that will help us on our next proj- ect? 8. What did we learn about staffing that will help us on our next project? 9. What did we learn about monitoring performance that will help us on our next project? 10. What did we learn about taking correctiveaction that will help us on our next project? 11. What technologicaladvances were made? 12. What tools and techniques were developed that will be useful on our next proj- ect? 13. What recommendationsdo we have for future research and development? 14. What lessonsdid we learnfrom our dealings with serviceorganizationsand out- side vendors? 15. If we had the opportunity to do the project over, what would we do differently?
C H A PT E R 7 . PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION Evaluation doesn't have to occur only at the end of the project; it is often initiated when a project falls behind schedule or goes over budget. You have probably been involvedin group projectsthat got behind scheduleor used more resourcesthat were initially allocated. INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION How have you dealt with projects that get behind schedule or use more resources than were initially allocated? What are some of the strategies you've used? Take a few minutes and reflect on dealing with delays and cost overruns. There are lots of internal things you can do with your project team to address delays and resource excesses. Sometimes it's necessary to try to change external conditions to address delays and overruns. Here's a list of some things you can do: 1. Recover later in the project. If there are early delays or overruns, review the scheduleand budget for recovery later.This is a common strategyin many proj- ects. How often have you done extraordinarywork at the last minute,especially the night before the project is due? 2. Reduce project scope. Considereliminatingnonessentialelementsor containing scope creep. Engineers often find better ways of doing things during projects and are sometimes perfectionists,so there is a tendency for the scope to creep. 3. Renegotiate. Discuss with the client the possibilityof extending the deadline or increasing the budget. How often have you asked a professorfor an extension? This is a common strategy, but sometimes there is not flexibility. 4. Add resources. Adding resources-people, computers, and so on-to a project (activitiesalong the critical path,as you learned in Chapter6)can reducethe du- ration. The increased costs must be traded off with the benefits of the reduced schedule. 5. Offer incentives or demand compliance. Sometimesby offeringincentives (pro- vided you don't endanger peoples' lives or sacrifice performancespecification) you can get a project back on track. Other times you may have to demand that people do what they said they would do. 6. Be creative. If the delay is caused by resources that have not arrived, you may have to accept substitutions,accept partial delivery, or seek alternativesources. - I BUILDING QUALITYINTO PROJECTS Evaluationand continualimprovement often becomean ongoing part of projectsand company culture.Often this aspectof company or organizationalcultureis described
BUILDINGQUALITY INTO PROJECTS Table 7.3 Thinking about quality Old New -- -- - Competition motivates people to do better work For every winner there's a loser Pleaseyour boss Scapegoating pinpoints problems Focus improvementson individual processes Find the cause and fix the problem The job is complete if specifications have been met Inspection and measurementensurequality Risks and mistakes are bad You can complete your education Bosses command and control Bosses have to know everything Short-termprofitsare best You don't have to be aware of your basic beliefs Do it now I SOURCE: Dobyns and Crowford-Mason, 1994. Cooperation helps people do more effective work Everyone can win Please your customer Improve the system Focus on the purpose of the overall system, and how the processes can be improved to serveit better First, acknowledgethere is variation in all thingsand people; see if the problemfalls in or outside the system Continual improvementis an unending journey A capable process, shared vision and aim, good leadership, and training are major factors in creating quality Risks are necessary and some mistakes inevitable when you practice continual improvement Everyone is a lifelonglearner Bosses help workerslearn and make improvements The team with a good leader knows and can do more Significant achievementin a complex world takes time You must be conscious of your beliefs and constantly examine and test them to see if they continue to be true Thinkfirst, then act as a quality initiative.Table7.3 providesa set of insightfulcontrasts between old and new thinking about quality. Engineers are often required to help develop a quality initiative in their organi- zation.You may have been involvedin a quality initiativein your work or school.Al- though there has been some attention paid to quality in schools (see Langford and Cleary,1995, for example), much of the emphasis on quality has been in the work- place. Business and industry have taken the lead, as indicated,for example, by Ford Motor Company's motto "Quality is job one." Some quality basics include a systems perspective, emphasis on the customer, and understanding variation. Knowledgeof sources of variation, especially ways of measuring and documenting them, and strategies for reducing variability and main- taining consistent quality are essential. Further reading on quality is contained in the references by Deming (1993, 1996),Bowles and Harnrnond (1991), Dobyns and Crawford-Mason (1994), Bras- sand (1989),Sashkin& Kiser (1994), and Walton (1986).You may also want to con- sult a basic textbook on quality, such as Summers (1997).
92 C HA PT E R 7 PROJECT MONITORINGAND EVALUATION 1. Where did you develop skills for monitoring the work on project teams? Have you had an opportunity to observe a project team? If so, where? What did you learn from the experience?Do you try to attend to what's happening within the group while it is working? 2. What can you do to improve the functioning of teams during "boring and use- less" meetings?List things you can do and strategiesfor doing them. Try them out! 3. Check out some of the ethnographicresearch on work in organizations,such as Brown and Duguid (1991) article in Organizational Science. (The paper is also availableon the Xerox PaloAlto Research CenterWeb site). How does research affect your view of work in organizations? 4. What are some strategiesfor building quality into projects? 5. How can project evaluation, which is often seen as a punitive process, become a more positive and constructive process? What are things that project team members and managers can do to make evaluation an ongoing part of project work? Bennis,W., and P. W. Biederman.1997. Organizing genius: The secrets of creative collaboration. Reading: Addison-Wesley. Bowles, J., and J. Hammond. 1991. Beyond quality: How 50 winning companies use continuous improvement. New York: Putnam. Brassand, Michael. 1989. The memory jogger plus: Featuring the seven managementand planning tools. Methuen, MA: GOALIQPC. Brown, John Sealy, and Paul Duguid. 1991. Organizationalknowledge and communitiesof practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organizational Science 2(1): 40-57. Cleese, J., and A. Jay. 1993. Meetings, bloody meetings. London: Video arts. Derning, W. E. 1986. Out of crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Center for Advanced EngineeringStudy. .1993. The new economics for industry, government, education. Cambridge,MA: MIT Center for Advanced EngineeringStudy. Dobyns, Lloyd, and Clare Crawford-Mason.1994. Thinking about quality: Progress, wisdom, and the Deming philosophy. New York: Times. Donnellon,Anne. 1996. Team talk: The power of language in team dynamics. Cambridge,MA: Harvard BusinessSchool Press.
Dressler, C. 1996. Cited in Lewis, J. P. 1998. Team-basedproject management. New York:AMACOM. Haynes, M. E. 1989. Project management: From idea to implementation. Los Altos, CA: Crisp Publications. Katzenbach, Jon R., and Douglas K. Smith. 1993. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-pe$ormance organization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Langford, David P., and Barbara A. Cleary. 1995. Orchestrating learning with quality. Milwaukee:ASQC Quality Press. Lippincott, S. 1994. Meetings: Do's, don'ts, and donuts: The complete handbook to successful meetings. Pittsburgh: Lighthouse Point Press. Peters, Thomas J. (with Nancy Austin). 1989. A passion for excellence. New York: Knopf. . 1999. The WOW project: In the new economy, all work is project work. Fast Company 24 (May): 116-28. Sashkin, Marshall, and Kenneth J. Kiser. 1993. Putting total quality management to work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Scholtes,Peter. 1988. The team handbook: How to use teams to improve quality. Madison,WI: Joiner Associates. Scholtes,Peter R., B. L. Joiner, and B. J. Streibel. 1996. The team handbook, 2nd ed. Madison, WI: JoinerAssociates. Summers, Donna C. S. 1997. Quality. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Uhlfedler, H. 1997. Ten critical traits of group dynamics. Quality Progress 30(4): 69-72. Walton, M. 1986. The Deming management method. New York: Putnam. Xerox Corporation. 1986. Leadershipthrough quality: Interactive skills workbook. Stamford,CT: Xerox Corporation.
Project management &amp; teamwork (b.e.s.t. series)
c h a p t e r "A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse," cried Shakespeare's Richard III.Al- though most of us no longer need horses to travel, we need good documentationfor successful projects, lest we findourselves crying, "Good documentation,good doc- umentation! My career for good documentation." This chapteris organized into two sections-ProjectDocumentation and Project Communications.Projectdocumentationis stressedbecauseit is often neglectedand because there are many other fine resourcesfor project communication (i.e., reports and presentations), such as A Beginner's Guide to Technical Communication, by Anne Eisenberg (1998). Why are project documentationand record keeping important?To answer this ques- tion you only have to think about a time you had to pick up the pieces from a team member and pull them togetherinto a report or presentation.Was everythingeasy to follow and understand, or did you have to fill in or reconstructmuch of the work? Problem solving, especially if it involves developing a computer program, is particularlysusceptibleto gaps in documentation.Thinkabout how well you've doc- umented projects you've been involved in. Did you insert lots of comments in your programsor spreadsheetsto let the next user know what you'd done and why? Many of the problem-solving and program-writing assignments students hand in lack sufficientdocumentation;thus, the faculty member cannot assess whetherthe proceduresare correct (even if the answer isn't). The lack of documentationmakes it very difficult for faculty to grade the report.
C H A PT E R 8 PROJECT MANAGEMENTDOCUMENTATIONAND COMMUNICATIONS Project documentation is important because, as Leifer's (1997) research at the Stanford University Center for Design Research indicates, "all design is redesign" and the more information and insight you provide those who follow you, the better job they will be able to do. Of course, this works for you, too,.when you follow up on someone else's work. REFLECTION Take a few minutes to think about the types of project records that should be kept. Make a list. Next, think about the characteristics of good records. List several attri- butes of good records. Compare your list with those of other team members. What did you come up with? How easy or hard was it for you to think about types of documents and the characteristics of good documentation? Many engineersprefer to focus on solving the problem,developing the product, or just getting the job done rather than on documentation, which they see as a nec- essary (and often unpleasant)burden. For comparison, here are lists that were developed by the participants in the Minnesota Department of Transportation's Project ManagementAcademy: Types of Records Formal Informal Specifications Survey notes Drawings Inspectionreports Schedules Photographslvideotapes Budgets Notes--personal and meeting Contracts Incident reports Change orders Telephonele-maillfaxmemos and notes On-site log- Commitmentlogs datelweatherltime/personnellequipment Characteristicsof Good Records Easily accessible Consistentformat Thorough4ate and time,client Secure Organizedand legible Cost effective Comprehensive-tableof contents Flexible Rightmedia Nearly 200 forms were recently compiled by the Project ManagementInstitute (PMI) in a book titled Project Management Forms (Pennypacker, Fisher, Hensley, and Parker, 1997). PMI members shared their forms, checklists, reports, charts, and
other documents to help readers get started or to improve their current documenta- tion. More informationis available on the PMI Web site (www.pmi.org). Notebooks and journals are terrific ways to document work for your own personal use, and there are many examplesof their significance in patent applicationsor even Nobel Prize considerations. Think, for example, of how the notebooks of Charles Kettering (inventor of auto electric cash register and automobile ignition systems) and Shockley, Brattain,and Bardeen (inventors of the transistor)helped establish in- tellectual property rights. Also consider Bill Gates recently paid $30 million for Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicestel; one of da Vinci's survivingjournals. Students in ERG 291, a freshman design course at Michigan State University, are required to keep a laboratory notebooMacadernicjournal. The box "Academic Journal"includes a description of the documentationrequirements. Chapter 7 of Understanding Engineering Design (Birmingham,Cleland, Driver and Maffin, 1997),Information in design, begins with the following sharply focused statementon the importanceof information: "Theraw materialof the design process is information, and therefore the designer's principal skill is one of information handling"(p. 108). The authors stress five categoriesof action that operate on infor- mation: 1. Collection 2. Transformation 3. Evaluation 4. Communication 5. Storage Furthermore they stress that these categories are used at all stages of the design process. One of the challenges to personal notebooks and journals is that they are not easily shareable. Lack of easy access to others' work and thinking makes for con- siderable problems in team-based project work. Larry Leifer and his colleagues at Stanford have devised an electronic notebook that is accessible on the World Wide Web. The Personal Electronic Notebook with Sharing (PENS) (Hong, Toye, and Leifer, 1995) supports and implements Web-mediated selective sharing of one's working notes. Electronic mail is another common form of sharing thinking about projects. Numerous software products, such as Lotus Notes, provide a means for sharing informationelectronically. Electroniccalendars and personal data assistants (PDAs) often have features for jointly scheduling meetings by viewing others' cal- endars. PDAs and electronic calendars also provide excellent means for keeping records. The image in Figure 8.1 is from the desktop interface of a Palm Pilot elec- tronic calendar.
98 C H A P T E R 8 PROJECT MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATIONAM) COMMUNICATIONS ACADEMIC JOURNAL What Is a Journal? Ajournalis a place to practice writ- Suggestions: ing and thinking. It differsfrom a diary in thatit should 1. choose a notebook you are with. A not be merely a personal recording of the day's events. 8Y2" x 11" hardback bound book with numbered It differs from your class notebook in that it should not pages would be a good choice. be merely an objective recording of academic data. 2. Date each entry including time of day. Think of your journal rather as a personal record of your educational experience in this class. For example, 3. Don't hesitate to write long entries and develop you may want to use your journal while working on a your thoughts as fully as possible. design project to record reflections on the class. 4. Include sketches and drawings. What toWrite. Use yourjournal to record personal 5. Use a pen. reactions to class, topics, students, teachers. Make notes to yourself about ideas, theories,concepts, prob- '. a new p age for each new enw' lems, etc. Record your thoughts, ideas, and readings; 7. Include both "academic" and "personal"entries; argue with the instructor; express confusion; and ex- mixed or separate as you desire. plore possible approaches to problems in the course. Interaction-ProfessorI'll ask to see your journal Be sure to include (1)criticalincidentsthathelpedyou at leasttwice during the I,11read selected entries learn or gain insight, and (2) distractions that inter- and, upon occasion, argue with you or comment on fered with your learning. your comments. Mark any entry that you consider pri- Whento Write.Try to write in yourjournal at least vate and donyt want me to read and I'llgladly honor three or four times a week . . . aside from classroom your request. A good journal will contain numerous entries. It is important to develop the habit of using long entries and reflective It should be your journaleven when you are not in an academicen- used regularly. vironment. Good ideas, questions, etc., don't always Interaction-Correspondent.Choose a fellow stu- wait for convenient times for you to record them. [A dent in your close collection of friends to read and re- man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket and spond to your journal entries. write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that Conclusions. Make a table of contents of signifi- come unsought for are the most valuable and should cant entries. At the end of the semester write a two- be securedbecause they seldom return. Francis Bacon page summary. In addition, submit an evaluation of (1561-1626)J. whether the journal enhanced or detracted from your How toWrite. You should write in a style that you experience.Was it worth the effort? feel most comfortable with. The point is to think on paper without worryingabout the mechanicsof writing. The quantity you write is as important as the quality. SOURCE: Adapted from T. Fulwiler. 1987. Teaching with writ- The languagethat expresses yourpersonal voice ing. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.Revised by B. S.Thompson be used. Namely, language that comes natural to you. in consultation with K. A. Smith and R. C. Rosenberg, 1998. Notice that in addition to having several calendaroptions, it also has an address book, a to-do list, a memo pad, and an expensesection. PDAs such as the Palm Pilot providefor portability, backing up, and electronicsharing. In addition,all of the sec- tions may be quickly searched, which makes for easy information.They will likely become an essential tool for project managers. Chapter 9 discusses computer-based tools further.
Figure 8.1 Palm Pilot PDA desktop view Presentingyour ideas to others both in written and oral form is essential to success- ful projects. You may, however, feel a combination of excitement and anxiety about report writingand public presentation. Some of the best advice I ever got on presentationsis to know your audience; know your objective; and be simple, concise, and direct. This brief section follows that advice. Communicationsneed to be tailored to the recipients whether they be your col- leagues on the team, your supervisor,or your client. Common ways to tailor com- munications are to learn more about the recipientsthrough surveys,interviews,or in- formal conversations. REFLECTION Take a minute to reflecton some possible objectivesin a presentation orre- port. Try to think beyond "Because it's an assignment in this class."As much as possible tie I your list to actual experiencesthat you've had. Discuss these with other team members. One of the best references on simple, concise, and direct writing is Strunk and White's (1979) Elements of Style. One of my favorites is Williams's (1997) Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace.
C H A P T E R 8 PROJECT MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATIONAND COMMUNICATIONS A practicecommonlycalled freewritingmay help you get over the barrier that many of us face when starting to write a report or preparefor an oral presentation.A help- ful implementationof freewritingis Natalie Goldberg's advicefor "writingpractice" in her book Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (1986): 1. Keep your hand moving. (Don't pause to reread the line you have just written. That's stalling and trying to get control of what you're saying.) 2. Don't cross out. (That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn't mean to write, leave it.) 3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, gramrnal:(Don't even care about stay- ing within the margins and lines on the page.) 4. Lose control. 5. Don't think. Don't get logical. 6. Go for the jugulal: (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.) REVISING AND REFINING After you complete a draft of your paper or presentationI encourage you to share it with others. Many papers and reports must undergo a formal review process, but I recommendthat you offer your work for informal review with a colleagueor friend. Although it's hard for many of us to share our work with others before we feel it is ready, we can often save a lot of time and get a much better product by asking oth- ers for comments. At some stage in the process, of course, you must "freeze the design"and sub- mit the report or give the presentation. Be sure to solicit feedback (in a constructive mode), reflect on it, and considerchangesfor the next timeyou write a reportor give a presentation. Leaving an excellent paper and electronic record is likely to increase in impor- tance in projects and project management. Now is the time to develop skills and strategies for effective documentation. Similarly, communicating effectively both orally and in writing will continue to be extremely importantfor project success. 1. What is your experiencedocumentinggroup projects?Is it a routine activity?If so, describe examples of "excellent documentation." If not, consider how can you build the development of good documentationinto the ongoing process of project work.
2. What are some of the types of records that must be maintained for projects? What are the characteristicsof good records? 3. What is your experience with electronic documentation?What are the advan- tages and disadvantagesof electronic records (compared with paper records)? 4. Describe the characteristics of good presentations. Are good presentations the norm in your experience?Why or why not? 5. Describe your experiences keeping an academic journal. What are some of the heuristics that helped make it effective for you? 6. Learning to become a better writer and presenter requires effort and practice. How are you planning to improve your writing and presentingskills? What are some of your favorite resources? Eisenberg,A. 1998. A beginner's guide to technical communication. New York: WCBIMcGraw-Hill. Goldberg, N. 1986. Writing down the bones: Freeing the writer within. Boston: Shambhala. Hong, J.; G. Toye; and L. Leifer. 1995. Personal Electronic Notebook with Sharing. In Proceedings of the IEEE FourthWorkshop on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE). Berkeley Springs, WV. Leifer, L. 1997. A collaborativeexperiencein global product-based-learning. NationalTechnological University Faculty Forum. November 18, 1997. Pennypacker, James S.; Lisa M. Fisher; Bobby Hensley; and Mark Parker. 1997. Project management forms. Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Strunk,W. Jr., and E. B. White. 1979. The elements of style, 3rd ed. New York: Macrnillan. Williams, J. M. 1997. Style: Ten lessons in clarity and grace. New York: Longman.
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c h a p t e r "The more time we spend on planning a project, the less total time is required for it. Don't let today's busywork schedule crowd planning time out of your schedule." Edward Bliss, Getting Things Done. A wide variety of software tools is availableto help the project manager and project team members accomplishtheir goals. These range from personalinformation man- agers (P1Ms)-which include electroniccalendars,address books, to-do lists, memo pads,and sometimesexpense reports-to full-fledged project management programs that do scheduling, resource leveling, tracking,and so on. Personal information managers help project managers keep track of appointments, critical deadlines, notes, and expenses. Many providefor access to calendars over a network or over the Internet,a feature that makes it easy to schedulemeetings. Most calendars can be synchronized between personal data assistants (PDAs), handheld devices such as the Palm Pilot, and portable computers that make it possible to eas- ily take the information into the field. See Chapter 8 for a sample screen from the Palm Pilot desktop. Paper calendars and planners, although inexpensive, cannot be backed up easily (except by photocopying),nor can the information be shared with others very easily (which has its advantages). INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION What type of calendar or planner are you currently using? I Is it a small paper datebook or a leather-bound three-ringbinder?What are the principaluses that you make of your planner?
Figure 9.1 Sidekick PIM, desktop view An example from the daily calendar view from the Sidekick personal informa- tion manager is illustrated in Figure 9.l. Personal information managers and personal data assistants are mainly used to manage time, priorities, and contacts. They help project managers attend to the de- tails that are crucial for successful teamwork and project management. Comprehensive project management software such as Microsoft Project is used on complex projects to accomplishgoals and complete projectson time, within budget, and at a level of quality that meets the client's expectations. The basic functions of the critical path analysisaspectof these programsis summarized in Chapter6, where the CritPath program is featured. The two most common views used by commercialprojectmanagementsoftware are the Gantt chart and the precedence network chart, sometimes referred to as a program evaluation and review technique (PERT) chart. Figures 9.2 and 9.3 show examples of the Gantt chart and PERT chart views, respectively, from Microsoft Project. Examples of the Gantt chart and PERT chart viewsfrom the Primavera software program are shown in Figures9.4 and 9.5, respectively.These Primavera views show the activity detail for a highlighted activity; this allows the project manager to quickly get lots of detailedinformationon any activity, which makes it easy to track, manage, and update information.
Figure 9.2 Microsoft Proiect--Gantt chart Figure 9.3 Microsoft Proiect-PERT chart MicrosoftProject and Primavera are the two most widely used project manage- ment softwarepackages. In a survey regarding projectmanagement toolsby Fox and Spence (1998), 48 percent of the respondentsreported using Microsoft Project and 14 percent reported using Primavera.
Figure 9.4 Primavera-Gantt chart Figure 9.5 Primavera-PERT char1 Pollack-Johnson and Liberatore(1998) reported similarfigures-nearly50 per- cent for MicrosoftProjectand 21 percentfor Primavera-and provided extensive in- formation on how these packages are used. The median size of projects included in
this study was a little over 150 activities, and the median number of resources was 16. A high percentageof respondentssaid they regularly update the information,and about 62 percent of the respondents said they use resource schedulinglleveling. The Project Management Institute receritly launched a major project manage- ment softwaresurvey,availableboth in print and on CD-ROM (Cabanis,1999). The survey Compares and contrasts the capabilities of a wide variety of project manage- ment tools. Provides a forum for users and vendors to meet and match requirements and possibilities. Prompts vendors to become more responsive to customer needs. Prompts users to create a method for software tool selection within their own companies. Categorizes software tools into six areas of functionality aligned with the knowledge areas of PMI's Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowl- edge ( P M B O P Guide): scheduling, cost management, risk management, human resources management, communications management, and process management. As with the use of all software tools, it is important that project management software serve and not enslave the project manager. Also, if you invest time and money in commercial project management software, you should use it to organize and manage your projects and not simply to write reports. Lientz and Rea (1995) offer the following suggestionsfor using project management software: 1. Set up the basic schedule information: name of project file, name of project, project manager; input milestones, tasks and their estimated duration, interde- pendencies between tasks; input resourcesfor each task. 2. Periodicallyupdate the schedule by indicatingtasks completed,delayed,and so forth, as well as changes in resources. 3. On an as-needed basis, perform what-if analysis using the software and data. Uses of project management software include reporting (use schedule to pro- duce graphs and tables for meetings); tracking (log project work and effort in terms of completed tasks); analysis (perform analysis by moving tasks around, changing taskinterdependencies,changingresourcesand assignments,and then seeing the im- pact on the schedule);costing and accounting (assign costs to resources);and time- keeping (enter the time and tasks worked on by each member of the project team.). Unofficial reports indicate that over 1 million copies of Microsoft Project have been sold. That's a lot of people scheduling projects. Advertisements for civil engi- neering positions often include familiarity with project management software,espe- cially Primavera.Lots of books, short courses,and multimedia trainingprogramsare available to help you learn to use these tools. Some of the books I've found useful are included in the references (Day, 1995; Lowery, 1994; Marchman, 1998). This is
a rapidly changing area, so to keep current you should stay tuned to resources such as the Project Management Institute, especially via its Web site (www.pmi.org). If you are not familiar with browsing and searchingthe Internet, a good resourceis In- troduction to the Internet for Engineers (Greenlaw and Hepp, 1999). Project management, like many other things-bookstores, newspapers, computer suppliers-has developed a Web presence. As mentioned above, the Project Man- agement Institute has a very thorough Web site and provides access to the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOKrM Guide). A few project managementWeb sites I have found useful are the following: Project Management Institute-http://www.pmi.org HMS Project ManagementArticles- http://www.hmssoftware.ca/articles/art list.htm1 ALLPM: The Project Manager's Home Page-&p:Nallpm.comlindex.htm Project Control Tower-http://www.4pm.coml WELCOM: Project Management for a Changing World- http://www.welcom.coml NewGrange Center for Project Management-- Project Management LeadershipGroup-http://www.pmlg.org Web-enabled project management is gaining momentum and will probably change some businesses, as it is currently doing in the construction industry (Roe and Pfair, 1999; Doherty, 1999).Web-enabled project management couples both the communication aspects (e-mail, fax, voice and multimedia, intranet, extranet) with the project management aspects (scheduling,document and file management, proj- ect administration,job photos, job cost reports, and project status reports). Doherty (1999) cites several reasons for using a project extranet: Fewer communication errors between project team members. Up-to-the-minuteintelligenceon all the decisionsand collectiveinformationre- lated to a project. Less expense for messengers,couriers, copying, and blueprints. Customizedsites for each project and customizedaccess for each user. Security. Since project management is about planning, scheduling, monitoring,and con- trolling, projectsthat have a central project file located at a Web site rather than in a project notebook (or in the project manager's head) have enormous benefits. The challengeinvolves moving from our comfort zones of familiar practice and learning new tools and approaches.
1. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of different calendarlplanner for- mats-pocket planner, three-ring binder, pocket electronic organizer, and com- puter-based personal data assistant. 2. What are the major types of projectmanagementsoftware?What are their com- mon uses? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Gantt chart and the prece- dence network (or PERT) charts available in commercial project management software? 4. How could you apply Lientz and Rea's suggestions for using project manage- ment software to a project you're currently involved in? 5. Check out project management on the World Wide Web. Keep a record of your findings in a journal. Cabanis, Jeannette. 1999. Project management sofnvare survey. Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Day, Peggy. 1995. Microsoft Project 4.0: Setting project management standards. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Doherty, Paul. 1999. Site seeing. Civil Engineering 69(1): 3841. Feigenbaum, Leslie. 1998. Construction scheduling with Primavera project plannel: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Fox, Terry L., and J. Wayne Spence. 1998. Tools of the trade: A survey of project management tools. Project Management 29(3): 20-27. Greenlaw, Raymond, and Ellen Hepp. 1999. Introduction to the Internetfor engineers. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lientz, Bennet, and Kathryn Rea. 1995. Project management for the 21st century.San Diego: AcademicPress. Lowery, Gwen. 1994. Managing projects with Microsoft Project 4.0. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Marchman, David A. 1998. Construction scheduling with Primavera project planner. Albany, NY: Delmar. Pollock-Jackson,Bruce, and Matthew J. Liberatore. 1998. Project management software usage patterns and suggested research directions for future development. Project management 29(2): 19-28. Roe, Arthur G., and Matthew Phair. 1999. Connection crescendo. ENR (May 17): 22-26.
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c h a p t e r Projects and teams are going to be with you for the rest of your life, no matter what profession you eventually work in. They are already prevalent in engineering, med- icine, law, and most areas of business and industry. Even if you become a college professor, you will probably be involved in projects and teams, especially on re- search projectsand with your graduatestudents. Now you have made a start at learn- ing how to effectively participatein project management and teamwork. In addition to learning how to participateeffectively,I hope you've developed skills for manag- ing and leading a team. There are lots of additional resources available, and I hope you willcontinueto read about project managementand teamwork.Moreimportant, I hope you will talk with colleagues(fellow students and faculty)about project man- agement and teamwork. If you aspire to become a project manager, I encourage you to check out the Project Management Institute. PMI has a special student member- ship rate, and your membership in this organizationwill help connect you with proj- ect management professionals. Most professional organizations, such as American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), have a divi- sion that emphasizes engineering management. Check these out as you become a student member of the professionalorganization in your discipline. Periodicallyreflecting on your experiences,writing down your reflections(as I have asked you to do throughout this book), processing them alone and with others, and reading and studyingfurther will help ensure that your project and team experi- ences become ever more constructive. A sustained effort will ensure that you con- tinue to learn and grow. If you are in a team or projectsituation that is not working well, rather than just endure it and hope it will pass quickly, try some of the ideas in this book for im- proving the team or project.Suggest that the team members discuss how effectively they are working. For example, suggest a quick, individually written plusldelta pro- cessing exercise to survey the team. Successful project work and teamwork do not
just magically happen;each takes continual attention not only to the task but also to how well the group is working. And this is work. The satisfaction and sense of ac- complishmentthat come from effective teamwork and projectwork are worth the ef- fort. There are just so many things that can't be accomplished any other way. The more you learn during your undergraduate years, the easier it will be for you after graduation. Paying attention to these skills now will save you what previous gener- ations of engineering graduates have had to endure-learning project management and teamwork skills on the job in addition to all the other complex things they had to learn. As you work with this book and the ideas and strategies for effective project management and teamwork, pleasethink about what else you need to know. Develop a learning and teaching plan for yourself and your project and team members. The resources listed at the end of each chapter in this book only barely scratch the sur- face of all the resources that are available. Check out a few of them. Add your own favorites. Share your list with colleagues.As mentioned earlier several students I've worked with have found Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People very helpful(see Chapter5).Covey's book is also a perennialbest-seller.The earlier you learn the skills and strategiesfor effective project work and teamwork, the more productive you will be and the easier life will be for you later. Start now. Although the up-front goal of this book is to facilitate the development of proj- ect management and teamwork skills in engineering students, the deeper goal is to change the climate in engineering courses and programsfrom competitive or nega- tive interdependence to cooperative or positive interdependence; from suspicion, mistrust, and minimal tolerance of others to acceptance, trust, and valuing others; from an egocentric "What's in it for me?' to a communal "How are we doing?'; from a sense of individual isolation and alienation to a sense of belonging and ac- ceptance. I recognize that these are lofty goals, but until we take more responsibil- ity not only for our own learning and development but also for the learning and de- veIopment of others, we will not benefit from synergisticinteraction. If you find that project management and teamwork, and perhaps even leader- ship, are of great interest to you, then you may want to read some of the business magazines such as Business Week or the Haward Business Review, and perhaps even my favorite, Fast Company. Check out your local bookseller or Internet book- store for some spare-time reading on these topics. You'll find an enormous literature available. If you're more interested in project management and teamwork specifically within engineering and technology, then I suggest that you look into some of the books and video documentaries on projects, such as Karl Sabbagh's work-Sky- scraper and 21st Century Jet. The first project managementbook I encountered, many years ago, was written by Harold Kerzner. Kerzner was one of the first advocatesof a systems approach to project management. I'd like to give the last word to him, a list of 16 points to proj- ect managementmaturity (and you know by now that I really likelists), from the lat- est edition (1998) of his tome on project management:
1. Adopt a project management methodology and use it consistently. 2. Implement a philosophy that drives the company toward project management maturity and communicateit to everyone. 3. Commit to developing effective plans at the beginning of each project. 4. Minimize the scope changes by committing to realistic objectives. 5. Recognize that cost and schedule management are inseparable. 6. Select the right person as the project manager. 7. Provide executives with project sponsor information, not project management information. 8. Strengthen involvement and support of line management. 9. Focus on deliverables rather than resources. 10. Cultivateeffective communication,cooperation,and trust to achieve rapid proj- ect management maturity. 11. Share recognitionfor projectsuccess with the entire project team and line man- agement. 12. Eliminate nonproductive meetings. 13. Focus on identifyingand solving problemsearly, quickly, and cost-effectively. 14. Measure progress periodically. 15. Use project management software as a tool-not as a substitute for effective planningor interpersonalskills. 16. Institute an all-employee training program with periodic updates based upon documentedlessons learned. Kerzner, Harold. 1998. Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling, 6th ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Sabbagh, Karl. 1996. Twenty-Jirstcentury jet: The making and marketing of the Boeing 777. New York: Scribners. Sabbagh, Karl. 1991. Skyscraper: The making of a building. New York: Penguin.
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Accountability,18 Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology,3,6 Ackoff, Russell L., 6, 10 Activity ranking, 8 Adams, James L., 3, 10 Age of Project Management,57 American Society of Civil Engineers, 111 American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 111 Analysis, 107 ArizonaState University's Introduction to Engineering Design, 26 Austin, Nancy, 93 Average of members' opinions, 30 Backward pass, 68-69 Bacon, Francis, 98 Bahill,A. Teny, 3, 10 Bardeen, John, 97 Beginner's Guide to Technical Communication(Eisenberg), 95 Behavioral changes, 56 Belgard, William, 36.41 Bellamy, Lynn, 24, 25,26,41 Bennis, Warren, 18, 19, 20, 88, 92 Biedennan,Patricia W., 18, 19,20, 88,92 Blake, R. R., 33,41 Bleloch,A. L., 4,64,71,80 Bliss, Edward, 103 Boeing Company code of cooperation, 25 employerchecklist, 5-6 group effectiveness,83 777 project, 4547 Bowles, J., 91, 92 Brassand, Michael, 19, 20, 91, 92 Brattain, WalterH., 97 Brooks, Frederick P., Jr., 62,63 Brown, John Sealy, 92 Brown, S. M., 21 Browne, M. Neil, 16, 20 Bucciarelli, Louis, 3, 10 Burlington Northern International Transport Team, 17 Burton, Lawrence, 8, 10 BusinessWeek, 112 Byrne, J. A,, 53-54,63 C Cabanis,Jeannette, 18,20,107, 109 Case studies conflict management,40 project scheduling, 80 Chapman, William L., 3, 10 Cherbeneau, Jeanne, 18,20 Chicago Bulls, 18 Churchman, C. West, 6,10 Classroom learning group, 16 Cleary,Barbara A., 91,93 Cleese, John, 83,92 Cleland, D.I.,44, 51 Client acceptance, 45-46.60 Client consultation, 60 Code of cooperation, 25-26 Codex Leicester (Leonardo), 97 College teaching, 55 Communication,60; see also Project communication Communicationskills, 26-27 of project manager, 58 Compromise, 33 Computer-basedproject management software, 78 Concurrent engineering, 5 Condit, Phil, 46 Conflict definition, 32 steps in negotiating, 34 Conflict management,32-35 case, 40 tactics, 87-88 Conflict strategies, 33-34 Confrontation, 33 guidelines for, 34 Consensus, 31 Constructivefeedback, 84-86 Continual evaluation, 90 Controlling, 58 role of project manager,61 Cooperative learning group, 16 Coping skills, 58 Cost-effectivenessof models, 4 Cost factors, 45 Costing and accounting, 107 Covey, Stephen R., 61,63,112 Crawford-Mason,Clare, 91,92 Creative listening, 27 Criticallistening, 27 Critical path, 69 Criticalpath method, 5,43 backward pass, 68-69 example, 72-74 forward pass, 68 Gantt charts, 70-74 for project scheduling, 67-74 summary of, 72 Criticalsuccess factors, 60 CritPath software program, 70-74, 104 Culp, G., 50,51 Day, Peggy, 107, 109 Death March Projects (Yourdon),43 Decision by authority, 30 Decision making methods, 30-31 in teams, 29-32 Decisions, effective, 31 Delays, 90 Delehanty,Hugh, 18,21 Deming,W. Edwards, 5,91,92 Denker,G. R., 43,52 Dertouzos, M. L., 54.55.63
Design; see Engineering design Directing role of project manager,61 Distributed actions approach, 23-24 Diversity,17-18 Dobyns, Lloyd, 91,92 Doherty, Paul, 108, 109 Donnellon, Anne, 86-88,92 Dressier, C., 81, 93 Drucker,Peter F., 56, 63 Duguid, Paul, 92 Duncan, William R., 49, 51 Fortune, 50 Forward pass, 68 Foster, Sallie,24, 25, 26.41 Fox, Terry L., 105, 109 Frame, J. D., 50,51 Free floater,69 Freewriting, 100 Frontiers in Education Conference, 54 Fulwiler,T., 98 Futernick, Jennifer, 16 Early-start-early finish, 68 Effective teams, 13-14 characteristics, 18-19 Eisenberg, Anne, 95, 101 Eisner, H., 50, 51 Elements of Style (Strunk & White), 99 Employer checklists, 5-6 Engineering, 1-2 behavioralchanges, 56 managementin, 5 modeling in, 3-5 professional organizations, I II project management, &9 systems approach, G 3 teamwork in, 5-6, 8-9 Engineering design, 2 as social process, 3 Engineering education, suggested changesin, 53-55 Engineering heuristics,4-5 Englund, Randall L., 50,52 Excellence in Engineering (Roadstrum), 8-9 Expert member, 30 Fast Company, 112 Feedback, 60 Feigenbaum, Leslie, 109 Ferguson, Eugene S., 3, 10 Fisher, Kimball, 36,41 Fisher, Lisa M., 96, 101 Floats, 69 Forcing, 33 Ford, Henry, 13 Ford Motor Company code of cooperation, 25-26 motto, 91 Gantt charts, 5,70-74, 104-106 Gates, Bill, 97 Gaynor,G. H., 55,63 Gersheufeld, Matti K., 24,41 Goldberg, David E., 36.41 Goldberg, Natalie, 100, 101 Grady, Robert B., 50, 52 Graham, Robert J., 50,52 Greenlaw,Ray, 108, 109 Group accountability,18 Group effectiveness,83-86 constructivefeedback, 84-86 Group maintenance roles, 24 Group norms, 24 Group performance, 15 Group processing, 19 Group projects, 5 Groups compared to teams, 17, 86 nominal or real, 88 Group task roles, 24 Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 107, 108 Hackman, J. R., 19, 20, 36,41 Hammond, J., 91.92 Hancock, J. C., 2, 10 Hapgood, Fred, 3, 10 Hargrove, Robert, 18,20 Harvard Business Reviao, 56, 112 Haynes, M. E., 89,93 Hensley,Bobby, 96, 101 Hepp, Ellen, 108, 109 Heuristics, 4-5,49 High-performancecooperative learning group, 16-17 High-performing teams, 14 Hoepner, Ken, 16-17 Hong, J., 97, 101 How to Model It (Starfieldet al.), 71 Identification, 86 Individual accountability,18 Institutefor Electricaland Electronic Engineers, 111 InteractiveSkills Coding Worksheet, 86-87 Interdependence, 86 Introduction to Engineering Design, 26 J Jackson,Phil, 18,21 Jay, A., 92 Johnson, DavidW., 19, 21, 30-31,39,41 Johnson,Frank P., 19,21,41 Johnson, Roger T., 18,21,30-3 1,39,41 Joiner, Brian L., 19,21, 32, 36,41, 82,93 Jordan, Brigitte, 7, 10 Jordan, Michael, 18 Journals, 97-99 K Katzenbach,Jon R., 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 36,41,55-56,63, 88,93 Keeley, Stuart, 16, 20 Kermer, Harold, 44,47,51,52, 112, 113 Kenering, Charles, 97 Kharbanda, 0.P., 45, 46, 50, 52, 57, 58, 64 Kiser, Kenneth J., 91, 93 Knowledgeworkers, 56 Koen, Billy V., 2, 4, 9, 10 Kouzes, J. M., 27-28,41 Langford,David P., 91,93 Late start-latefinish, 68-69 Laufer, A., 43, 52 Leader's Handbook (Scholtes), 29 Leadership behavioralcommitment, 28-29 characteristics, 27-28 competencies of, 29 distributed actions approach, 23-24 Leadership skills,58 Learningprinciples, 7
Learning teams, 15-17 LeBold, William K., 8, 10 Leifer, Lany, 3, 10, 21, 96-97, 101 Leonardo da Vinci, 97 Lester, R. K., 54,55, 63 Lewis, James P., 50,52, 93 Liberatore, MatthewJ., 106, 109 Lientz, Bennet, 50,52,57,58,64, 107, 109 Lippincott, S., 82, 93 Listening techniques, 27 Loparo, K. A,, 11 Lotus Notes, 97 Lowery, Gwen, 107, 109 "Made in America" study, 53-54 Maintenance roles, 24 Majoritycontrol, 31 Management behavior change, 24 in engineering, 5 Managing diversity,17-18 Mantel,S. J., 50, 52 Marchman, David A., 107, 109 MassachusettsInstituteof Technology, 54 Mastering the Art of Creative Collaboration (Hargrove), 19 McConnell,Steve, 62,64 McKinsey & Company, 16 McNeill, Bany, 24, 25,26,41 Meetings conducting, 83 guidelinesfor, 82 major complaints about, 81-82 process, 82-83 Meetings: Do's, Don't's, and Donuts (Lippincott), 82 Mental models, 7 Meredith, J. R., 50, 52 Michigan State University, 97 Microsoft Project, 104-107 Minnesota Department of Transportation Project ManagementAcademy, 96 Minority control, 30 Modeling, 3-5 Models amibutes of, 4 and heuristics, 5 of project management, 44 project management heuristics, 49 Monitoring, 60 Mouton, J. S., 33,41 Mythical Man-Month (Brooks), 62 Napier, RodneyW., 24,41 Negotiationprocess, 88 Network diagrams, 5 New-paradigmcompanies,53-54 Nicholas, J. M., 44, 50, 52 Nielsen, N. R., 11 Nominal teams, 88 Noncritical activities, 69 Notebooks,97-99 Organizational skills, 58 Organizing Genius (Bennet & Biederman), 19 Organizing role of project manager, 60 Palm Pilot, 97, 98, 103 Papalambros, PanosY., 3, 10 Parker, Linda, 8, 10 Parker, Mark, 96, 101 Pennypacker,James S., 96, 101 Performance, 45 Personal data assistant, 97, 103 Personal Electronic Notebook with Sharing, 97 Personal information managers, 103-104 Personal mastery, 7 Personnel selection,60 PERT (program and evaluation review technique), 43 charts, 104-106 Peters, Thomas J., 56-57, 64, 81, 93 Pfair, Matthew,108, 109 Phillips, D. T., 49, 52 Pinto, Jeffrey K., 45,46, 50,52,57, 58, 59, 60,64 Pippin, Scottie,18 Planning role of project manager, 59-60 Planning skills, 58 Pollack-Johnson, Bruce, 106, 109 Positive interdependence, 18 Posner, Bany Z., 27-28,41,58,64 Potential teams, 14 Power differentiation, 87 Primaverasoftware, 104-107 Problem solving, 95 Project communication,99-100 Project documentation characteristics, 95-97 journals and notes, 97-99 types of records, 96 Project engineer, 8-9 Project evaluation continual, 90 quality issues, 90-91 questions for, 89 Project life cycle, 47-49 project manager role controlling, 61-62 directing, 61 organizing, 60 planning, 59-60 staffing,60 Project management, 5,8-9 changes in, 53,56-57 Kerzner's guidelines, 112-113 models of, 44 and World WideWeb, 108 Project Management Forms (Pennypacker et al.), 96 Project managementheuristics, 49 Project Management Institute on-time finish survey, 43 on project documentation, 96 software survey, 107 Web site study, 108 Project managementsoftware, 78 main types, 104-107 survey, 107 uses, 107-108 Project managers behavioralchanges, 56 changing roles,53-54 role in project life cycle, 59-62 skills for effectiveness,58-59 Project mission, 60 Project monitoring group effectiveness,83-86 at meetings, 81-83 team talk analysis, 86-89 Project planning, 49-50 Projects, 44-45 bringing quality to, 9CL91 client acceptance, 45-46, 60 constraints on success, 45-46 cost considerations, 76-77 critical success factors, 60 delays and resource excess, 90 keys to success of, 45-47
Projects-Cont on-time completion, 43 resource considerations, 74-75 Project scheduling, 65 case study, 80 critical path method, 67-74 resource and cost considerations, 74-77 work breakdown structure, 66-67 Project teams, 5 Promotive interaction, 18 Pseudolearninggroup, 15 Pseudo teams, 14 Purpose, 4 I Q-R Quality, contrasting views of, 90-91 Ranking work activities, 8 Ravindran,A., 49, 52 Ray, Michael, 7, 10 Rayner,Steven, 36.41 Rea, Kathryn, 50,52,57,58,64, 107, 109 Real teams, 14,88 Records, 96 Reference, 4 Relationships, 23-24 Reporting, 107 Resource considerations, 74-75 Resource excesses, 90 Richard 111,95 Rinzler, Alan, 7, 10 Roadstrum,W. H., 8-9, 11 Roberts, Harry V.,11 Rockefeller, John D., 23 Rodman, Dennis, 18 Roe, Arthur G., 108, 109 Rosenberg, R. C., 98 Rosenblatt,A., 11 Rothenberg, Jeff, 3, 11 S Sabbagh, Karl, 47,52,112, 113 Sacred Hoops (Jackson & Delahanty), 18 Salami statistics, 58 Sashkin, Marshall, 91,93 Schedule plans, 60 Senge, Peter, 7, 11 Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey), 61, 112 Shakespeare, William,95 Shared Minds (Schrage), 19 Shared vision, 7 Shenhar,A. J., 43.52 Shina, S. G.. 5, 11 Shockley,William B., 97 Siedner, C. J., 21 Skyscraper (Sabbagh), 112 Slack, 69 Smith, A., 50.5 1 Smith, Douglas K., 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 36,41,55-56,63,88,93 Smith, Karl A., 4, 18, 21,54,55,64,71, 80,98 Smoothing, 33 Snead, G. L., 45,52 Social distance, 87 Social process, 3 Software Project Survival Guide (McConnell),62 Software tools personal information managers, 103-104 for project management,104-108 Solberg, J. J., 49, 52 Solow, R. M., 54,55, 63 Spence, J. Wayne, 105, 109 Sperlich, Harold K., 13 Staffing role of project manager, 60 Stanford University Center for Design Research, 3,96 Starlield,A. M., 4, 64, 71, 80 Statementof work, 49 Streibel, Barbara J., 19, 21, 32, 36,41, 82,93 Striving for Excellence in College (Browne & Keeley), 16 Strunk,W., Jr., 99, 101 Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Williams), 99 Summers, Donna C. S., 91,93 Superconducting Supercollider, 45 Sympathetic listening, 27 Systems, 6 Systems approach, 6-8 Systems thinking, 6-7 Scholtes, peter R., 19, 21, 29, 32, 36,41, 82, 84, 93 School of Engineering, 5 T Schrage,Michael, 13-14, 18, 19,21 Task roles, 24 Senad, G. L., 44,45,50 Tasks, 23-24 Taylor, James, 27,41,50, 52 Team-buildingskills,58 Team charter, 26 Team development,32 Team effectiveness, 18-19 Team Handbook (Scholtes et al.), 29, 36, 82 Team learning, 7 Team performance, advice on, 19 Teams; see also Learning teams categories of, 14 compared to groups, 17.86 effective, 13-14 literatureon, 19 Team talk analysis, 86-89 Teamwork, 56,8-9 challenges and problems, 35-36 importance of diversity,17-18 literatureon, 19 Teamwork skills, 18-19 communicationskills, 26-27 conflict management, 32-35 decision making, 29-32 group norms, 24 leadership, 27-29 tasks and relationships, 23-24 Technical tasks, 60 Technological skills,58 Thompson, B. S., 98 Timefactors,45 Time-keeping,107 Time-scaled network, 70 Today's Engineel; 54-55 Top managementsupport, 60 Total float, 69 Total quality management,5 Toye,G., 97,101 Tracking, 107 Traditional classroom learninggroup, 16 Tribus, Myron, 5, 11 Troubleshooting,60 21st Century Jet (Sabbagh), 4647, 112 Uhlfedler, H., 84, 93 Understanding Engineering Design (Birminghamet al.), 97 Virtual representations, 5 W Waller, AlishaA., 54,55,64 Walton, M., 91,93 Watson, G. F., 11
Weisbord,Marvin R., 7, 11 Welch, JohnF., 23 White, E. B., 99, 101 Widman,L.E., 11 Wilde, Douglass J., 3, 10, 19 Williams, J. M., 99, 101 Wisdom of Teams (Katzenbach & Smith), 19 Withdrawal,33 Work activities, 8 X-Y Work breakdown structure, 49-50,6&67 xer0,corporation Workplace changes, 53-56 InteractiveSkills Coding Worksheet, World Wide Web, 97, 108 86-87 Writing Down the Bones (Goldberg), 100 learning principles, 7 Writing skills,99-100 Yourdon, Ed, 43,52 Wycoff, J., 44,45,50,52 Wymore, A. Wayne, 3, 10
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Project management &amp; teamwork (b.e.s.t. series)

  • 1. Karl A. Smith University of Minnesota Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, IA Madison,WI New York San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogoti Caracas Lisbon London Madrid MexicoCity Milan New Delhi Seoul Singapore Sydney Taipei Toronto
  • 2. McGraw-Hill Higher Education ADivision of f i eMcGraw-HillCompanies PROJECT MANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORK Copyright O 2000 by The McGraw-Hill Companies,Inc. All rights reserved. Printedin the United States of America. Except as permittedunder the United States CopyrightAct of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced or distributedin any form or by any means, or stored in a databaseor retrieval system, without the prior written permissionof the publisher. This book is printed on acid-free paper. ISBN 0-07-012296-2 Publisher: Thomas Casson Senior sponsoringeditor: Eric M. Munson Marketing manager: John ZWannemacher Project manager: Karen J. Nelson Production supervisor: Kari Geltemeyer Coordinatorfreelancedesign: Craig E. Jordan Compositor: ElectraGraphics, Inc. Qpeface: I O/12 Times Roman Printer: Quebecor Printing Book Group/Fai@eld Library of Congress Cataloging-in-PublicationData Smith, Karl A. Project management and teamwork 1Karl A. Smith. p. cm.- (McGraw-Hill's BEST-basic engineeringseries and tools) ISBN 0-07-012296-2 1. Engineeringmanagement. 2. Teams in the workplace. 3. Industrialproject management. I. Title. II. Series.
  • 3. When McGraw-Hill invited me to write a moduleon project management and team- work for their BEST series,I thought,What a terrific idea! I had been teaching proj- ect management and teamworkcourses for seniors in engineering;graduatestudents in professional master's programs,especially at the University of Minnesota's Cen- ter for the Development of Technological Leadership; and participants in short courses in the University of Minnesota's Executive Development Program, govern- ment agencies, and private companies. It would not have occurred to me to write a book for first-year students. I immediately embraced the idea and started work. I've been teaching a coursefor first-yearstudentsat the Universityof Minnesota for more than 20 years. It evolved intoa coursetitled How to Model It: Building Mod- els to Solve Engineering Problems, which I have been teaching with colleagues and undergraduatestudentteaching assistants for the past 10 years. We also wrote a book to accompany the course-How to Model It: Problem Solving for the Computer Age (Starfield,Smith, and Bleloch,1994). Since this course makes extensive use of proj- ect teams, I know that a book on project management and teamwork is needed. Teamwork and projects are at the heart of the approach I use in teaching stu- dents at all levels, including participants in faculty development workshops. I've learned that it isn't easy for students to work effectively in project teams or for fac- ulty to organize and manage them, but the potential for extraordinary work from teams makes it worth the effort. Also, projectsand teamwork are a central part of en- gineering work in the world outside the classroom. The first part of this book summarizes the context of engineering and stresses the importance of teamwork. The middle part focuses on the nature of projects and the project manager's role. The last part emphasizes the particulars on scheduling, monitoring, and documentation. Overall, my goals for readers of Project Manage- ment and Teamwork are the following: To understand the dynamics of team development and interpersonal problem solving. To identify strategies for accelerating the development of true team effective- ness. To understand the critical dimensionsof project scope, time, and cost manage- ment. To understandcritical technicalcompetenciesin project management. To explore a variety of "best practices"including anticipating, preventing, and overcoming barriers to project success. As you engage with this book, be sure to continually reflect on what you're learning and how you can apply it to the projects and teams you work on each day, iii
  • 4. in classes, on the job, and in social, professional,and community organizations. An important key to success in projectsand teams is to routinely work at a "meta level." That means you are simultaneously thinking about the task and how well the team is working. Talk with others about how the projects and teams you're involved with are going,share successesand insights,and work togetherto identify and solve team problems. The personal story in the accompanying box describes some of the ques- tions I've grappled with and how I got interested in this project. I encourage you to develop your own stories as you work your way through this book. One of the messages of the story in the box is the importanceof checking a va- riety of resources to help formulate and solve the problems you encounter. Another message is that, although engineers spend some of their time working alone, engi- neering is not individual, isolated work. Collaborative problem solving and tearn- work are central to engineering. Engineers must learn to solve problems by them- selves,of course,but they must also learn to work collaboratively to effectively solve the other 95 percent of the problems they will face as professionalengineers.There may be a tendency to think that this 95 percent-this asking questions and search- PERSONAL STORY I have been involved in engineering, as a student and In response, my colleague would say, "Suppose as a professional, for over 30 years. Frequently I have that didn't work." grappled with the questions, What is the engineering "I'd assign the problem to one of my engineers to method? Is it applied science? Is it design? As a pro- check the literature to see if a solution was available in fessor I have struggled with the question, What should the literature." my students learn and how should they learn it? These "Suppose that didn't work," retorted my col- concerns prompted me to address the question, What league. is the nature of engineering expertise and how can it "Well, then I'd call my friends in other companies be developed effectively? to see if any of them had solved it." A study conducted by one of my colleagues Again my colleague would say, "Suppose that (Johnson, 1982) provides valuable insight into the ac- didn't work." tivities of engineers. My colleague was hired to collect "Then I'd call some vendors to see if any of them protocol from engineering experts while they solved had a solution." difficult problems. Working with a team of professors, My colleague, growing impatient at not hearing a he developed a set of difficult and interesting prob- problem solution, would say, "Suppose that didn't lems, which he took to chief engineers in large com- work." panies. In case after case the following scenario was At some stage in this interchange, the engineer repeated. would say, "Well, gee, I guess I'd have to solve it my- The engineer would read the problem and say, self." "This is an interesting problem." To which my colleague would reply, "What per- My colleague would ask, "How would you solve centage of the problems you encounter fall into this it?" category?" The engineer would say, "I'd check the engineers Engineer after engineer replied, "About five per- on the floor to see if any of them had solved it." cent"!
  • 5. ing other sources for the solution-is either trivial or else unrelated to engineering. However, working with others to formulateand solve problems and accomplishjoint tasks is critical to success in engineering. Many people deserve credit for guidance in this project. Michael B. Mahler, a grad- uate student in civil engineering at the University of Minnesota, with whom I've taught and worked on project management for many years, provided enormous in- sight into the process of what will work for students and was a source of constant support and encouragement. Robert C. Johns co-taught the project management course with me at Minnesota and provided lots of good ideas. Anthony M. Starfield, co-creator of the first-year course, How to Model It, and co-author of the book by the same title encouraged me to use the questioning format of the How to Model It book to engage the reader.The five manuscriptreviewers provided terrific assistance. Holly Stark and Eric Munson of McGraw-Hill, and Byron Gottfried, Consulting Editor, initiated the idea and provided guidance throughout. A special note of thanks to my daughters, Riawa and Sharla Smith, who helped with the editing and the graphics. A special acknowledgment goes to Michigan State University, which provided me with a wonderful place to work on this project during my sabbatical leave. Another goes to David and Roger Johnson (whose cooperativelearning model pro- vides the theoreticalbasis for this book) for their great ideas, generosity, and stead- fast support. Most of all I thank the hundreds of students who learned from and with me in project management coursesfor their patience, perseverance, wonderful suggestions and ideas, and interest and enthusiasmin project management and teamwork. Please send your commentsand suggestionsto me at ksmith@tc.umn.edu. Johnson, P. E. 1982. Personal communication. Starfield,Anthony M.; Smith Karl A., and Bleloch,Andrew L. 1994. How to model it: Problem solving for the computer age. Edina, MN: Burgess.
  • 7. Preface iii C h a p t e r 1 PROJECT MANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORKIN ENGINEERING What Is Engineering? 1 EngineeringDesign 3 Modeling and Engineering 3 Teamwork and Engineering 5 SystemsApproach 6 Reflection: Project Management and Teamwork in Engineering 8 Questions 9 Exercises 9 References 10 C h a p t e r 2 TEAMWORK 13 Leadership 27 Decision Making 29 Conflict Management 32 Teamwork Challengesand Problems 35 1 Reflection: Teamwork 36 Questions 37 Exercises 37 References 41 C h a p t e r 4 PROJECT MANAGEMENTPRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES 43 What Is a Project? 44 Keys to Project Success 45 Project Life Cycle 47 Project Planning 49 Reflection: Project Management 50 Questions 50 Definition of a Team 14 Exercise 51 Types of LearningTeams 15 Project Planning 51 Pseudo Learning Group 15 References 51 TraditionalClassroomLearning Group 16 Cooperative Learning Group 16 Chapter 5 High-PerformanceCooperative Learning Group 16 PROJECT MANAGER'S ROLE 53 Groups and Teams 17 Importance of Diversity 17 Characteristicsof Effective Teams 18 Questions 19 Exercises 20 References 20 C h a p t e r 3 TEAMWORKSKILLS AND PROBLEM SOLVING 23 Importanceof Task and Relationship 23 Organization: Group Norms 24 Communication 26 Changes in the Workplace 53 Changes in Project Management 56 Skills Necessary for Effective Project Managers 58 Project Manager's Role over the Project Life Cycle 59 Planning 59 Organizing 60 Staffing 60 Directing 61 Controlling 61 Questions 62 Exercise 62 References 63 vii
  • 8. viii CONTENTS C h a p t e r 6 PROJECT SCHEDULING 65 Work Breakdown Structure 66 Critical Path Method 67 Forward Pass-Early Start (ES) and Early Finish (EF) 68 Backward Pass-Late Start (LS) and Late Finish (LF) 68 Critical Path 69 Floats 69 Gantt Charts and CritPath 70 Critical Path Method Summary 72 Bus Shelter Construction Example 72 Project Resourceand Cost Considerations 74 Resource Leveling 74 Cost Considerations 76 The Role of Computer-basedProject Management Software 78 Questions 78 Exercises 78 Reference 80 C h a p t e r 7 PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION 81 Meetings 81 Monitoring Group Effectiveness 83 Team Talk Analysis 86 Project Evaluation 89 Continual Evaluation 90 Building Quality into Projects 90 Questions 92 References 92 C h a p t e r 8 PROJECT MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATIONAND COMMUNICATIONS 95 Project Documentation 95 Journals and Notes 97 Project Communications 99 Getting Started, Keeping Going 100 Revising and Refining 100 Questions 100 References 101 C h a p t e r 9 PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE 103 Personal InformationManagers 103 Project ManagementSoftware 104 Project Managementand the World Wide Web 108 Questions 109 References 109 C h a p t e r 1 0 WHERE TO GOFROM HERE 111 References 113
  • 9. c h a p t e r Project management and teamwork are rapidly gaining importance in engineering. Because teamworkand projectsin engineeringare receiving more and more empha- sis in business,industry,and government, they are also becoming common in engi- neering classes. In addition, teanis are used in classes because students working in well-structured teams'learn more, remember it longer, and develop problem-solving skills more fully than students working individually. Periodically throughout this book, I'll ask you to stop and reflect. I encourage you to take advantageof the opportunity. My goals are to give you a chance to describe what you know and to get you to think, so that when you read what I have to say about a topic you'll have a basisfor comparingand contrastingnew informationwith informationyou already have. Before you read ahead for various answers to the question "What is engineer- ing?'Complete the following Reflection. REFLECTION What is engineering, and what does it mean to learn to engineer in school? What is your experience with engineering? Did you learn about engineering in high school? I Do you have a brother or sister, mother or father, or other relative or friend who is an engi- neer? Take a minute to reflect on where you learned about engineering and what your im- pressions of engineering are. What did you come up with?
  • 10. c H A P r E R 1 PROJECTMANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORK IN ENGMEERING Since there are few high school courses in engineering, it is relatively difficult for first-year college students to have gained much exposure to engineering.Yet we are surrounded by engineering accomplishments; they are so ubiquitous that we don't notice most of them. One of the foremost thinkersand writers on engineering, mechanicalengineeringprofessorBilly Koen,is noted for askingfour probing ques- tions of his audiences (Koen, 1984). The first is: 1. Can you name one thing in the room in which you are sitting (excluding your- self, of course) that was not developed,produced, or delivered by an engineer? Koen finds that the question is usually greeted with bewildered silence. I have posed his questions to hundreds of first-year students, and they have come up with some great suggestions: the air (but how does it get into the room?), dirt (trapped in peo- ple's shoes), electromagneticradiation (but the lights generate much more than the background). Almost everything that we encounter was developed,produced,or de- livered by an engineer or engineers. Koen's second question is: 2. Can you name a profession that is affecting your life more incisively than engi- neering? Again, students name several professions but on reflection note that if it were not for engineering, politicians would have a difficult time spreading their ideas; doctors, without their tools, would be severely limited in what they could do; lawyers wouldn't have much to read; and so forth. Things such as telephones,com- puters, airplanes, and skyscrapers-which have an enormous effect on our lives- are all productsof engineering. Koen's third question is: 3. Since engineering is evidently very important, can you now define the engi- neering method for solving a problem? Many students respond with a puzzled look, as if I am asking an unfair question. They note that they have a ready response to the question "What is the scientific method?'Students list things like "applied science," "problem solving," and "trial and error," but almost no one (over the 15 or so years that I've been askingthis ques- tion) says "design." If you were to ask practicing engineers the question "What is the engineering method?' they would likely respond "Engineering is design!"A group of national engineering leaders has said: Design in a major sense is the essence of engineering; it begins with the identifi- cation of a need and ends with a product or system in the hands of a user. It is primarily concerned with synthesis rather than the analysis which is central to en- gineering science. Design, above all else, distinguishes engineering from science. (Hancock, 1986) We'll explore the concept of engineering design next-and save Koen's fourth and final question for the end of the chapter.
  • 11. If design is the essence of engineering, the next question is, What is design? The Ac- creditation Board for Engineering and Technology(ABET 1999),the group that ac- credits engineering programs, has defined engineering design as "the process of de- vising a system, component or process to meet a desired need." Researchers who carefully observe the engineering design process are increas- ingly noting that it is quite different from the formal process typically described in textbooks. For example, Eugene Ferguson (1992) writes: Those who observe the process of engineering design find that it is not a totallyfor- mal affair, and that drawings and specificationscome into existenceas a result of a social process. The various members of a design group can be expected to have di- vergent views of the most desirable ways to accomplish the design they are work- ing on.As Louis Bucciarelli(1994),an engineeringprofessor who has observeden- gineeringdesignersat work, pointsout,informal negotiations,discussions,laughter, gossip,and banter among membersof a design group often have a leavening effect on its outcome. Recent work on engineeringdesign indicates that it is a more social process than we once thought. Lany Leifer (1997) of the Stanford Center for Design Research claims that engineering design is "a social process that identifies a need, defines a problem, and specifies a plan that enables others to manufacture the solutions." Leifer's research shows that design is fundamentally a social activity. He describes practices such as "negotiating understanding," "conserving ambiguity," "tailoring engineering communications for recipients," and "manipulating mundane represen- tations." If design is the heart of engineering and design is a social process, then it fol- lows that project management and teamwork are essential to engineering. Many problems with engineering result from poor team dynamics and inadequate project management.In fact, Leifer notes,"Design team failure is usually due to failed team dynamics." A lot has been written about engineering and engineering design. Adams, (1991),Hapgood (1992),and Ferguson (1992),for example, have writtenfor general audiences and their works can give first-year students considerable insight into en- gineering. Many writers take a modeling approach to helping students learn about the engineering method and how to do engineering design. Two books that empha- size this connection between modeling and design, and extend it substantially, are Papalambros and Wilde (1988) and Chapman, Bahill, and Wymore (1992). Modeling in its broadest sense is the cost-effective use of one thing in place of an- other for some cognitive purpose (Rothenberg,1989). A model represents reality for
  • 12. C H A PT E R 1 PROJECTMANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORK IN ENGINEERING the given purpose; the model is an abstraction of reality, however, in the sense that it cannot represent all aspects of reality. Models are characterizedby three essential attributes: 1. Reference: A model is of something (its referent). 2. Purpose: A model has an intended cognitive purpose with respect to its refer- ent. 3. Cost-effectiveness: A model is more cost-effective to use for this purpose than the referent itself would be. A problem that I often give to help studentslearn about these attributesof mod- eling involves determiningthe maximum number of Ping-Pong balls that could fit in the room they're sitting in. First I give them about 20 seconds and ask each person to guess. Next I ask them to work in groupsfor about 5 to 10 minutes to develop not only a numerical estimate but also a descriptionof the method they use. At this stage students typically model the room as a rectangular box and the ball as a cube. They then determine the number by dividing the volume of the room by the volume of a ball. I ask them what they would do if I gave them the rest of the class period to work on the problem. Sooner or later a student says, "Who cares how many Ping-Pong balls could fit in the room!" I thank that student and report that we can now stop. In any problem that involves modeling, the purpose must be specified. Without know- ing the purpose, we don't know how to use the model; the 20-second answer might be good enough. An essential aspect of modeling is the use of heuristics (Starfield, Smith, and Bleloch, 1994),which may be generally defined as methods or procedures that aid in discovery or problem solving.Although difficult to define, heuristicsare relatively easy to identify using the characteristicslisted by Koen (1984, 1985): 1. Heuristicsdo not guarantee a solution. 2. Two heuristics may contradict or give different answers to the same question and still be useful. 3. Heuristics permit the solving of unsolvable problems or reduce the search time to a satisfactorysolution. 4. The heuristic depends on the immediate context instead of absolute truth as a standard of validity. Thus, a heuristic is anything that provides a plausibleaid or directionin the solution of a problem but is in the final analysisunjustified, incapableof justification,and fal- lible. It is used to guide, to discover, and to reveal. Heuristics are also a key part of Koen's definition of the engineering method: The engineeringmethod is the use of heuristics to cause the best change in a poorly understood situation within the available resources.(p. 70) Typical engineering heuristics include (1) rules of thumb and orders of magnitude, (2) factors of safety, (3) circumstancesthat determine the engineer's attitude toward
  • 13. TEAMWORKAND ENGINEERING his or her work, (4) procedures that engineers use to keep risk within acceptable bounds, and (5)rules of thumb that are important in resource allocation. Models and heuristicswill constitutea major part of this book. The critical path method (CPM) is a procedure for modeling complex projects with interdependent activities. Visual representations include Gantt charts and network diagrams. My goal is for you to develop the skills and confidence necessary to organize, manage, participate in, and lead project teams. This goal is consistent with current thinking about the purpose of engineering schools. W. Edwards Deming associate and engi- neering educator Myron Tribus (1996) summarized the purpose of engineering schools as follows: The purpose of a School of Engineering is to teach students to create value through the design of high quality products and systems of production, and services, and to organize and lead people in the continuous improvement of these designs. (p. 25) Notice that Tribus considers management an integral part of engineering. He also elaborates on the importance of group work for learning to engineer: The main tool for teaching wisdom and character is the group project. Experiences with group activities, in which the members of the groups are required to exhibit honesty, integrity, perseverance, creativity and cooperation, provide the basis for critical review by both students and teachers. Teachers will need to learn to function more as coaches and resources and less as givers of knowledge. (p. 25) The importance of teamwork in business and industry is embedded in the concepts of concurrent (or simultaneous)engineeringand total quality management. The fol- lowing quote elaborates on this point: In concurrent engineering (CE), the key ingredient is teamwork. People from many departments collaborate over the life of a product-from idea to obsolescence-to ensure that it reflects customers' needs and desires ...Since the very start of CE, product development must involve all parts of an organization, effective teamwork depends upon sharing ideas and goals beyond immediate assignments and depart- mental loyalties. Such behavior is not typically taught in the engineering schools of U.S. colleges and universities. For CE to succeed, teamwork and sharing must be valued just as highly as the traditional attributes of technical competence and cre- ativity, and they must be rewarded by making them an integral part of the engineer's performance evaluation. (Shina, 1991 p. 23) Project managementand teamwork are central to engineering.Learning how to organizeand manage projects,and to participateeffectively in projectteams, will not only serve you well in engineeringschool, where there are lots of group projects,but will also be critical to your success as a professionalengineer. The BoeingCompany uses the following checklist when considering new employees.
  • 14. C H A PT E R 1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND TEAMWORKIN ENGINEERING Employer's checklist-Boeing Company J A good grasp of these engineeringfundamentals: Mathematics(includingstatistics) Physical and life sciences Informationtechnology J A good understandingof the design and manufacturingprocess (i.e., an understandingof engineering) J A basic understandingof the context in which engineeringis practiced, including: Economicsand business practice History The environment Customer and societal needs J A multidisciplinarysystems perspective J Good communication skills Written Verbal Graphic Listening J High ethical standards J An ability to think critically and creatively as well as independentlyand cooperatively J Flexibility-an ability and the self-confidence to adapt to rapidlmajorchange J Curiosityand a lifelong desire to learn J A profound understandingof the importanceof teamwork I SOURCE: ASEE Prism, December 1996, p. 1 1. In addition to teamwork, another idea emphasized not only in employer checklists like Boeing's but also in the new accreditation criteria for the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology is that of systems and the systems approach. A system is a whole that cannot be divided up into independent parts (Ackoff, 1994).Systems are made up of sets of componentsthat work togetherfor a specified overall objective. The systems approach is simply a way of thinkingabout total sys- tems and their components. Five basic aspects must be kept in mind when thinking about the meaning of a system: (1) the whole system's objectives and, more specifically, the performance measures of the whole system; (2) the system's environment, including the fixed constraints; (3) the resources of the system; (4) the componentsof the system, their activities,goals, and measures of performance;and (5) the managementof the sys- tem (Churchman,1968). Systems thinkingis a discipline for seeing wholes. It is a frameworkfor seeing
  • 15. interrelationshipsrather than things, for seeing patterns of change rather than static snapshots. It is a set of principles and a set of specific tools and techniques (Senge, 1990).Animplicationof the systemsapproachis that everybody involvedmust work togetherto improvewhole systems (Weisbord,1987). The systems approachis com- monly operationalized through learning organizations. Peter Senge (in Ray and Rinzler, 1993) lists five factors, or disciplines, that make up the art and practice of the learning organization: 1. Building shared vision. The idea of building shared vision stresses that you never quite finish it-it's an ongoing process. 2. Personal mastery. Learningorganizationsmust be fully committedto the devel- opment of each individual's personal mastery--each individual's capacity to create a life the way he or she truly wants. 3. Mental models. Our vision of current reality has everything to do with the third discipline-mental models-because what we really have in our lives is con- structions,internal pictures that we continually use to interpret and make sense out of the world. 4. Team learning. Individuallearning, no matter how wonderfulit is or how great it makes us feel, is fundamentallyirrelevant to organizations,because virtually all important decisions occur in groups. The learning units of organizationsare "teams,"groups of people who need one another to act. 5. Systems thinking. The last discipline, the one that ties them all together, is sys- tems thinking. As in many other projectmanagement books, a systemsthemewill be one of the integrating themes in this book. The idea of systems, along with that of the learning organization,has important contributionsto make not only to your study of project management but also to many other things you will be studying in engineering. Here,for example,are eight principles for learningfrom the Xerox Corporation(Jor- dan, 1997 p. 116): 1. Learning is fundamentallysocial. 2. Cracking the whip stifles learning. 3. Learning needs an environment that supports it. 4. Learning crosses hierarchical bounds. 5. Self-directedlearning fuels the fire. 6. Learning by doing is more powerful than memorizing. 7. Failure to learn is often the fault of the system, not the people. 8. Sometimes the best learning is unlearning. The above list indicates that the ideas in this book are important not only for your project work but also for your day-to-day work in engineeringschool. A 1998 survey indicated that design is the first and management is the third most frequent work activity reported by engineers (see Table 1.1).
  • 16. C H A PT E R 1 PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND TEAMWORK IN ENGINEERING Table 1.1 Rank order of work activities, 1993 Activity Percent Mentioning 1. Design 66% 2. Computer applications 58 3. Management 49 4. Development 47 5. Accounting,etc. 42 6. Applied research 39 7. Quality or productivity 33 8. Employee relations 23 9. Sales 20 10. Basic research 15 11. Production 14 12. Professional services 10 13. Other work activities 8 14. Teaching 8 I SOURCE: Burton, Parker, and LeBold, 1998, p. 19. REFLECTION: PROJECT MANAGEMENTAND TEAMWORK IN ENGINEERING As I finished writing this book, I was reminded of a book I read almost 20 years ago-Excellence in Engineering, byW. H. Roadstrum(1978). The second edition is titled Being Successful as an Engineer (Roadstrum, 1988). In this edition, Road- strum remarks, "Engineering is almost completely divorced from this concept of routine and continuous. Engineeringwork is project work" (p. 7). Engineeringwork is project work! This is the essence of Roadstrum's book. The first two chapters, "What Engineering Is" and "The Engineer," cover ground similar to the material given in this chapter,but from a perspective about 12 years ago. Roadstrumthen ad- dresses"The Project and the Project Team"and "Project Control"in Chapters 3 and 4. AlthoughI had not looked at Roadstrum's book for several years, I was struck by the overlaps between his book and mine. Being Successful as an Engineer addresses a broad range of topics, including problemsolving,laboratorywork, design, researchand development, manufacturing and quality control, systems, proposal work, human relations, and creativity. Road- strum writes, "Design is the heart of the engineering process-its most characteris- tic activity." Furthermore,he states, "If you and I are going to understandengineer- ing, we'll have to understanddesign"(p. 97). Roadstrum elaborates on the role of the project engineer, with the following statement:
  • 17. Every engineer looks forward to the time when he can have a project of his own. A project engineer has the best job in the business. He has ultimate responsibilityfor the work as a whole. He is the real architectof the project solution.Even more than his colleagues, he looks at the job as a whole from the beginning.He watches care- fully to make all details come together into a timely, economical,fresh, and effec- tive meetingof the need. (p. 166) Roadstrum's book and ideas no doubt influenced my decision to develop skills and expertise in project management; however, the specific reference lay dormant until now. I hope this book will influence your experience and practice of project man- agement in engineering. As a final note, recall the discussion from the beginning of the chapter of Pro- fessor Billy Koen's probing questions. Koen's fourth question is, "Lacking a ready answer[to the third question-What is the engineeringmethod?],can you then name a nationally known engineer who is wise, well read, and recognized as a scholar in the field of engineering--one to whom I can turn to find out what engineeringreally is?' To whom would you turn? Difficult, isn't it? No other professionlacks knowl- edgeable,clearlyrecognized spokespersons. I sincerelyhope that you'll help provide the leadership to make engineering better known. 1. What is engineering? How does engineering differ from science? What role does design play in engineering? 2. What is a model? Why are models useful in project management and in engi- neering? 3. What is a system? Why are many project management books organized around a systems approach? 1. Summarize your course work and experiences with engineering and design. What are some of the key things you've learned about engineers and engineer- ing? Do you have relatives or friends who are project managersor engineers?If so, talk with them. 2. Why should you, as a first-year engineering student, be interested in project management and teamwork? Take a minute and reflect. Jot down at least three reasons why a first-year engineering student should be interested in project managementand teamwork. What did you come up with? Did you say, for in- stance, that project management and teamwork are integral to engineering pro- fessional practice? 3. List your good experiences with projects and teamwork. Have you had experi- ence with a team that had extraordinary accomplishments?If so, describe the
  • 18. situation, especially the characteristicsof the team that led to its success. What were some of the factors-a sense of urgency? a project too complex or time- line too short for one person to complete? or a need for synergisticinteraction? Ackoff, Russell L. 1994. The democratic corporation: A radical prescription for recreating corporate America and rediscovering success. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Adams, James L. 1991. Flying buttresses, entropy, and o-rings: The world of an engineel: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ABET. 1999. www.abet.org Bucciarelli,Louis. 1994. Designing engineers. Cambridge,MA: MIT Press. Burton, Lawrence, Linda Parker, and William K. LeBold. 1998. U.S. engineeringcareer trends. ASEE Prism, 7(9): 18-21. Chapman,William L., A. Terry Bahill, and A. Wayne Wymore. 1992. Engineering modeling and design. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. Churchman, C. West. 1968. The systems approach. New York: Laurel. Ferguson,Eugene S. 1992. Engineering and the mind's eye. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Hancock, J. C., Chairman (1986). Workshop on undergraduateengineering education. Washington, DC: National Science Foundation. Hapgood,Fred. 1992. Up the infinite corridor: MZT and the technical imagination. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Jordan, Brigitte. 1996. 8 principles for learning. Fast Company 5 (October/November): 116. Koen, Billy V. 1984. Toward a definition of the engineering method. Engineering Education 75: 151-155. . 1985. Definition of the engineering method. Washington: American Society for EngineeringEducation. Leifer, Larry. 1997. A collaborativeexperiencein global product-based learning. November 18, 1997. NationalTechnological University Faculty Forum. Papalambros, Panos Y., and Douglass J. Wilde. 1988. Principles of optimal design: Modeling and computation. Cambridge,England: Cambridge University Press. Ray, Michael, and Alan Rinzler, eds. 1993. The new paradigm in business: Emerging strategies for leadership and organizationalchange. Los Angeles: TarcherIPerigee.
  • 19. Roadstrum,W. H. 1988. Being successful as an engineer. San Jose: EngineeringPress. Roadstrum,W. H. 1978. Excellence in engineering. New York: Wiley. Rothenberg,Jeff. 1989. The nature of modeling. In Artijicial intelligence, simulation & modeling, edited by L. E. Widman, K. A. Loparo, and N. R. Nielsen. New York: Wiley: pp. 75-90. Senge, Peter. 1990. TheJifthdiscipline: The a n and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday. Shina,S. G. 1991. New rules for world-class companies.Special Report on ConcurrentEngineering,edited by A. Rosenblattand G. F. Watson. ZEEE Spectrum 28(7): 22-37. Tribus, Myron. 1996. Total quality managementin schools of business and engineering.In Academic initiatives in total quality for higher education, edited by Harry V. Roberts, 17-40. Milwaukee: ASQC Quality Press. Weisbord, Marvin R. 1987. Productive workplaces: Organizing and managing for dignity, meaning, and community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • 21. c h a p t e r Everyone has to work together; if we can't get everybody working toward common goals, nothing is going to happen. Harold K. Sperlich Former President, Chrysler Corporation Coming together is a beginning; Keeping together is progress; Working together is success. Henry Ford REFLECTION Think about a really effective team that you've been a member of, a team that accomplished extraordinary things and perhaps was even a great place to be. Start by thinking about teams in an academic, professional, or work setting. If no examples come to mind, then think about social or community-based teams. If again you don't conjure up an ex- ample, then think about sports teams. Finally, if you don't come up with a scenario from any of these contexts, then simply imagine yourself as a member of a really effective team. OK, got a picture of the team in mind? As you recall (or imagine) this highly effective team expe- rience, try to extract the specific characteristics of the team. What was it about the team that made it so effective? Please make a list. Look over the list you made in the above Reflection. Did you preface your list with "It depends"?The characteristicsof an effective team depend, of course, on the pur- pose of the team. In large measure,they depend on the team's task goals (those con- cerning what the team is to do) and maintenance goals (those concerning how the team functions). Michael Schrage (1991) states emphatically:
  • 22. C H A P T E R 2 TEAMWORK [Pleople should understand that real value in the sciences, the arts, commerce, and, indeed one's personal and professional lives, comes largely from the process of col- laboration. What's more, the quality and quantity of meaningful collaboration often depend upon the tools used to create it ...Collaboration is apulposive relationship. At the heart of collaboration is a desire or need to: solve a problem, create, or dis- cover something. (p. 34) Within a set of constraints+xpertise, time, money, com- petition, conventional wisdom. (p. 36) Let's assume that it's a team that has both task and maintenance goals, since most effective teams not only have a job to do (a report to write, a project to com- plete, a presentation to give, etc.) but also a goal of getting better at working with one another. I've used the Reflection above with hundreds of faculty and students in work- shop and classroom settings. Here is a typical list of the characteristicsof effective teams: Good participation Respect Careful listening Common goal Sense of purpose Good meeting facilitation Leadership Empowered members Constructively managed conflict Members take responsibility Fun, liked to be there Effectivedecision making Katzenbach and Smith (1993)studied teamsthat performed at a variety of levels and came up with four categories. Pseudo teams are those that perform below the level of the average member. Potential teams don't quite get going but struggle along at or slightly above the level of the average member. Real teams perform quite well, and high-pelfomzing teams perform at an extraordinarylevel. Katzenbach and Smith then looked for common characteristics of real teams and high-performing teams. All real teams could be defined as follows: a small number of people with comple- mentaryskills who are committed to a common purpose,performancegoals, and an approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. High-performing teams met all the conditions of real teams and, in addition, had members who were deeply committed to one another's personal growth and success. REFLECTION Now think about the groups that are being used in your engineering classes. Think about your most successful or effective group project experience. What were the char- acteristics of the group? What were the conditions? Are they similar to your most effective groups?
  • 23. High-performing cooperative group A Cooperative Individual members t Pseudo-group 5 ~ eof group Figure 2.1 Group performance There is nothingmagicalaboutteamworkin engineeringclasses. For example,while some types of learning teams increasethe qualityof classroomlife and facilitatestu- dent learning, others hinder student learning and create disharmony and dissatisfac- tion with classroom life. To use teamwork effectively, you must know what is and what is not a desirable characteristic. When you choose to use (or are asked or required to use) instructional groups, you must ask yourself,"What type of group am I involved in?Tigure 2.1 and the following may be helpful in answering that question. Students in a pseudo learning group are assigned to work together but they have no interest in doing so. They believe they will be evaluated by being ranked from the highest performerto the lowest performer. While on the surfacestudents talk to each other, under the surface they are competing. Because they see each other as rivals who must be defeated, they block or interfere with each other's learning, hide infor- mation from each other, attempt to mislead and confuseeach other, and distrusteach other. Students would achieve more if they were working alone.
  • 24. C H A P T E R 2 TEAMWORK Studentsin a traditionalclassroom learninggroup are assigned to work togetherand accept that they must do so. Assignments are structured, however, so that very little joint work is required. Students believe that they will be evaluated and rewarded as individuals, not as members of the group. They interact primarily to clarify how assignments are to be done. They seek each other's information, but have no moti- vation to teach what they know to their groupmates. Helping and sharing are mini- mized. Some students loaf, seeking a free ride on the efforts of their more conscien- tious groupmates.The conscientious members begin to feel exploited and therefore do less. The sum of the whole is more than the potential of some of the members, but the more hard-working and conscientiousstudents would perform higher if they worked alone. Students in cooperativelearninggroups are assignedto work togetherand, given the complexityof the task and the necessityfor diverse perspectives, they are relieved to do so.They know that theirsuccessdependson the efforts of all groupmembers. The group format is clearly defined. First, the group goal of maximizing all members' learning provides a compelling common purpose that motivates members to roll up their sleeves and accomplish somethingbeyond their individualachievements.Sec- ond, group members hold themselves and each other accountable for doing high- quality work to achieve their mutual goals. Third, group members work face-to-face to produce joint results. They do real work together. Students promote each other's success through helping, sharing, assisting, explaining, and encouraging. They pro- vide both academic and personalsupport based on their commitmentto and concern for each other. Fourth, group members are taught teamwork skills and are expected to use them to coordinate their efforts and achieve their goals. Both task and main- tenance (team-building)skills are emphasized. All members share responsibilityfor providing leadership. Finally, groups analyze how effectively they are achieving their goals and how well members are working together, There is an emphasis on continual improvement of the quality of learning and teamwork processes. A recent guide to success in active learning is available in the book Strivingfor Excellence in College (Browne and Keeley, 1997). A high-performancecooperativelearning group meets all the criteria for being a co- operative learning group and outperforms all reasonable expectations, given its membership. What differentiatesthe high-performance group from the ordinary co- operativelearninggroupis the level of commitmentmembers have to each other and to the group's success. Jennifer Futernick, who is part of a high-performing,rapid- response team at McKinsey & Company, calls the emotional binding together of her teammates a form of love (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993). Ken Hoepner of the
  • 25. Burlington NorthernIntermodalTransport Team (also described in Katzenbach and Smith) stated: "Not only did we trust each other, not only did we respect each other, but we gave a damn about the rest of the people on this team. If we saw somebody vulnerable, we were there to help." Members' mutual concern for each other's per- sonal growth enables high-performance cooperative groups to perform far above expectations,and also to have lots of fun. The bad news about extraordinarily high- performance cooperative learning groups is that they are rare. Most groups never achieve this level of development. I've been using the terms group and team interchangeablyand I will continue to do so throughout this book. The traditionalliteraturefocuses on groups, while recently some writers have been making distinctions between groups and teams. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) summarize the major differences between working groups and teams (see Table 2.1). Table 2.1 Not all groups are teams: How to tell the difference Working Group Team Strong, clearlyfocused leader Shared leadershiproles Individual accountability Individualand mutual accountability Purpose the same as the broader organizationalmission Specific team purposethat the team itself delivers Individualwork-products Collective work-products Runs efficientmeetings Encouragesopen-endeddiscussion and active problem-solving meetings Measuresits effectiveness indirectly by its influence on others Measuresperformance directly by assessing collectivework- products Discusses,decides, and delegates Discusses,decides, and does real work together I SOURCE: Katzenbach and Smith, 1993. From your perspective,are there any surprisesin Table 2.1?Many students em- phasize the importance of a strong leader, but Katzenbach and Smith indicate that real teams, as opposed to working groups, have shared leadership roles. Also notice that the literature on high-performance teams indicates that they are composed of members with complementary skills; that is, they're diverse. Often we must work with people who are differentfrom us or difficult to work with but whose skills,talents,expertise,and experienceare essential to the project. Work-,
  • 26. C H A P T E R 2 TEAMWORK ing with a diverse group may seem impossible at times, but look at the example of Phil Jackson, former head coach of the Chicago Bulls basketball team. Can you imagine more a more diverse group than one made up of Dennis Rodman, Michael Jordan, and Scottie Pippin? Phil Jackson is an expert at managing diversity. Ethnic diversity is increasingin the workplace and in the broader society. Many predict that today's ethnic minorities will grow as a proportion of the population; in fact, His- panics are predicted to become the majority in the near future. Diversity has many faces, including preferred learning style (visual, auditory, kinesthetic);social background and experience;ethnic and cultural heritage;gender; and sexual orientation. The evidence from effective groups is that diversity is im- portant; that is, the better a group representsthe broader community, the more likely it is to make significant, creative, and acceptablecontributions. Participatingin and managing diverse groups are not always easy tasks, since diverse groups usually en- compass a wide range of ideas and priorities. The following are some steps you can take in learning to manage diverse groups more effectively (Cabanis,1997; Cherbe- neau, 1997): 1. Learn skillsfor working with all kinds of people. 2. Stress that effective teams are diverse. 3. Stress the importanceof requirements. 4. Emphasize performance. 5. Develop perspective-taking skills, i.e. putting yourself in other's shoes. 6. Respect and appreciate alternative perspectives. The Chicago Bulls' former head coach Phil Jackson has said, "Good teams be- come great ones when the members trust each other enough to surrenderthe 'me' for the 'we."' His 1995 book (coauthored with Hugh Delehanty), Sacred Hoops: Spiri- tual Lessons of a Hardwood Warrior, offers terrific advice on organizing and man- aging extraordinarilyhigh-performingteams. The researchon highly effective teams both in the classroom(Johnson,Johnson,and Smith, 1991, 1998a, 1998b) and in the workplace (Bennis and Biederman, 1997; Hargrove, 1998; Katzenbach and Smith, 1993; Schrage, 1991, 1995) reveals a short list of the characteristicsof effective teams: 1. Positive interdependence. The group focuses on a common goal or single product. 2. Individual and group accountability. Each person takes responsibilityfor both his or her work and the overall work of the group. 3. Promotive interaction. The members do real work, usually face-to-face.
  • 27. 4. Teamwork skills. Each member has and practices effective communication (es- pecially careful listening), decision making, problem solving,conflict manage- ment, and leadership. 5. Group processing. The group periodically reflects on how well the group is working, celebrates the things that are going well, and problem-solves the things that aren't. Teams have become commonplace in engineering practice and are making in- roads in engineering education. The immense literature on teams and teamwork, ranges from very practical guides (e.g., Scholtes, Joiner, and Streibel, 1996; Bras- sand, 1995) to conceptual and theoretical treatises (e.g., Johnson and Johnson,1991; Hackman, 1990). Check out one of these to broaden and deepen your understanding of teamwork. Four books were highlighted in this chapter-Shared Minds: The New Technologiesof Collaboration (Schrage, 1991);TheWisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization (Katzenbach and Smith, 1993); Organizing Ge- nius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration (Bennis and Biederman, 1997); and Mastering the Art of Creative Collaboration (Hargrove, 1998). These four books focus on extraordinary teams-teams that perform at unusually high levels and whose members experience accomplishments through synergistic interaction that they rarely experience in other settings. They provide lots of examples and insights into high-performance teams. Katzenbach and Smith, for example, give the follow- ing advice for building team performance: Establishurgency and direction. Select members based on skill and potential, not personalities. Pay attention to first meeting and actions. Set clear rules of behavior. Set some immediate performance-orientedtasks and goals. Challenge the group regularly with fresh information. Spend lots of time together. Exploit the power of positivefeedback, recognition, and reward. Effectiveteamwork is not easy to accomplish. Engineering professorDouglas J. Wilde said,"It's the soft stuff that's hard, the hard stuff is easy." (Leifer,1997) How- ever if you work at it, and continue to study and learn about effectiveteamwork, you will verylikelyhave many positive teamexperiences(andsave yourself a lot of grief). Chapter 3 presents specific skills and strategies needed for effective teamwork. 1. What are the characteristics of effective teams? How do you help promote them?
  • 28. C H A P T E R 2 TEAMWORK 2. Where and how have teamwork skills been taught or emphasized to you? In school? social groups? professionalgroups?your family?Describe two or three instances where teamwork skills were emphasized. 3. How is increasing ethnic diversity affecting project teams? What are some strategiesfor effectively participatingon and managing diverse teams? 4. Students often remark, "But groups in school are different from groups in the workplace."The remark is delivered as a reason for not using groups in school. Is it a valid excuse? Summarize the major differencesbetween groups in school and groups in the workplace. How are these differencesbeneficial or harmful to the work of the group? What are some things that you can do to improve the school groups? 1. Check out a study of teams that have performed at extraordinarylevels. Some of the books listed in the referencesfor this chapter have temfic stories of stel- lar teams. You may want to check the library or do an electronic search of the literature.Summarizethe featuresof extraordinaryteams. Howdo they compare with the list provided in this chapter? Remember, this is a dynamic area of re- search with lots of new books and articles appearing each year. 2. Look for opportunities to participateon a superb team. Make a plan for partici- pating on a high-performance team. 3. Study the diversity of teams in your schoolor workplace,and note strategiesfor recognizing, valuing, and celebratingdiversity. Bennis, Warren, and Patricia Biederman. 1997. Organizing genius: The secrets of the creative organization. Reading, MA:Addison-Wesley. Brassand, Michael. 1995. The team memory jogger: A pocket guide for team members. Madison, M:GOALIQPC and Joiner Associates. Browne, M. Neil, and Stuart Keeley. 1997. Striving for excellence in college. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Cabanis,Jeannette. 1997. Diversity: This means you. PM Network 1l(10): 29-33. Cherbeneau,Jeanne. 1997. Hearing every voice: How to maximize the value of diversity on project teams. PM Network 1l(10): 34-36. Hackman, J. R. 1990. Groups that work (and those that don't): Creating conditions for effective teamwork. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
  • 29. Hargrove,Robert. 1998. Mastering the art of creative collaboration. New York: McGraw-Hill. Jackson,Phil, and Hugh Delehanty. 1995. Sacred hoops: Spiritual lessons of a hardwood warriol:Hyperion. Johnson, David W., and Frank P. Johnson. 1991. Joining together Group theory and group skills, 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Johnson, David W., Roger T. Johnson, and Karl A. Smith. 1991. Cooperative learning: Increasing college faculty instructional productivity,Washington: ASHE-ERIC Reports on Higher Education. . 1998a.Active learning: Cooperation in the college classroom, 2nd ed. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company. . 1998b.Maximizing instruction through cooperative learning. ASEE Prism 7(6): 24-29. Katzenbach, Jon, and Douglas Smith. 1993. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-per$omzance organization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Leifer, L. 1997. Design team performance: Metrics and the impact of technology. In S. M. Brown & C. J. Seidner, eds., Evaluating corporate training: Models and issues. Kluwer Academic Publishers: 297-320. Scholtes, Peter R., Brian L. Joiner, and Barbara J. Streibel. 1996. The team handbook, 2nd ed. Madison, WE JoinerAssociates. Schrage, Michael. 1991. Shared minds:The new technologies of collaboration. New York: Random House. .1995. No more teams! Mastering the dynamics of creative collaboration. New York: Doubleday.
  • 31. - - c h a p t e r I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than any other ability under the sun. John D. Rockefeller If you can't operate as a team player, no matter how valuable you've been, you really don't belong at GE. John F. Welch CEO, General Electric REFLECTlON Have you been a member of a team that got the job done (wrote the report, finished the project, completed the laboratory assignment) but that ended up with the mem- bers hating one another so intensely they never wanted to see each other again? Most students have, and they find it very frustrating. Similarly, have you been a member of a team whose members really enjoyed one another's company and had a great time socially, but in the end hadn't finished the project? Again, most students have been a member of this type of group and they find it also a frustrating experience. Take a moment to recall your experiences with these two extremes of teamwork. - - - - IMPORTANCEOF TASK AND RELATIONSHIP As noted in Chapter 2, to be most effective, groups need to do two things very well: accomplishthe task and get betterat working with one another.Both of theserequire leadership-not just from a single person acting as the leader but also from every member contributing to the leadership of the group. This chapter focuses on team- work skills using a "distributed actions approach" to leadership. Distributed actions
  • 32. C A PT E R 3 TEAMWORK SKILLS AND PROBLEMSOLVING are specific behaviors that group members engage in to help the group accomplish its task or to improve working relationships. Napier and Gershenfeld (1973) sum- marize many of these behaviors (see Table 3.1). Note the date--1973-which indi- cates that effective group work is not a new concept. Table 3.1 Group task and maintenance roles G m u ~Task Roles Gmup Maintenance Roles Initiating Encouraging Seeking information Expressingfeelings Giving information Harmonizing Seeking opinions Compromising Giving opinions Facilitating communications Clarifying Settingstandards or goals Elaborating Testing agreement Summarizing Following I SOURCE: Napier and Gershenfeld, 1973. To realize the benefits of a team culture requires a change in management be- havior, as shown in Table 3.2. If the behaviors listed on the right-handside of Table 3.2 are not common in the groups you participatein, read on. Table 3.2 Management behavior change needed for team culture From To Directing Competing Relying on rules Using organizational hierarchy Consistencylsameness Secrecy Passive acceptance Isolated decisions People costs Guiding Collaborating Focusing on the process Using a network Diversitylflexibility Opennesslsharing Risk taking Involvementof others People assets Results thinking Process thinking I SOURCE: McNeill, Bellamy, and Foster, 1995. A common way to promote more constructiveand productive teamwork is to have the teams create a set of guidelines for the group, sometimes called group norms.
  • 33. Take a minute and list some things (attitudes, behaviors, and so on) that you have found or think that would help a group be more effective. Then compare your list with the following two lists, both of which are from McNeill, Bellamy, and Foster (1995). The first was adapted from the BoeingAirplaneGroup's training manual for team members, and the second is from the Ford Motor Company. Code of Cooperation 1. Every member is responsiblefor the team's progress and success. 2. Attend all team meetings and be on time. 3. Come prepared. 4. Carry out assignmentson schedule. 5. Listen to and show respect for the contributionsof other members; be an active listener. 6. Constructivelycriticize ideas, not persons. 7. Resolve conflictsconstructively. 8. Pay attention; avoid disruptivebehavior. 9. Avoid disruptive side conversations. 10. Only one person speaks at a time. 11. Everyone participates;no one dominates. 12. Be succinct; avoid long anecdotes and examples. 13. No rank in the room. 14. Respect those not present. 15. Ask questions when you do not understand. 16. Attend to your personal comfort needs at any time, but minimize team disrup- tion. 17. Have fun. 18. ? Ten Commandments: An Aflective Code of Cooperation Help each other be right, not wrong. Look for ways to make new ideas work, not for reasons they won't. If in doubt, check it out. Don't make negative assumptionsabout each other. Help each other win, and take pride in each other's victories. Speak positively about each other and about your organizationat every oppor- tunity. Maintain a positive mental attitude no matter what the circumstances. Act with initiativeand courage, as if it all depends on you. Do everything with enthusiasm;it's contagious. Whatever you want, give it away.
  • 34. Don't lose faith. Have fun. Having an agreed-upon code of cooperation such as the ones listed above will help groups get started toward working effectively. However, if group members haven't developed the requisite communication, trust, loyalty, organization,leader- ship, decision-making procedures, and conflict management skills, then the group will very likely struggle or at least not perform up to its potential. One way a team can develop such a code is to create a team charter, which includes the following: Team name, membership,and roles. Team mission statement. Anticipatedresults (goals). Specific tactical objectives. Ground ruleslguiding principlesfor team participation. Shared expectationslaspirations. Team charters are typically created during a team meeting early in the project life cycle. Involvement of all team members in creating the charter helps build commit- ment of each to the project and other team members. A set of guidelines such as those listed above often help the team through this process. Effective communication-listening,presenting, persuading-is at the heart of ef- fectiveteamwork. The task and maintenanceroles listed above all involve oral com- munication. Here are the listening skills emphasized in Arizona State University's Introduction to EngineeringDesign (McNeill,Bellamy & Foster, 1995): Stop talking. Engage in one conversation at a time. Empathize with the person speaking. Ask questions. Don't interrupt. Show interest. Concentrateon what is being said. Don't jump to conclusions. Control your anger. React to ideas, not to the speaker. Listen for what is not said; ask questions. Share the responsibilityfor communication.
  • 35. Three listening techniquesthey recommend are: Critical listening Separate fact from opinion. Sympathetic listening. Don't talk-listen. Don't give advice-listen. Don't judge-listen. Creativelistening. Exercisean open mind. Supplement your ideas with another person's ideas and vice versa. You may be wondering why so much emphasison listening. The typicalprofessional spends about half of his or her business hours listening and project managers may spend an even higher proportion of their time listening. Most people, however, are not 100 percent efficient in their listening. Typical listening efficiencies are only 25 percent (Taylor, 1998). The first list provides suggestions to help the listener truly hear what is being said and the secondhighlightsthat differentsituationscall for dif- ferent types of listening. REFLECTION Take a moment to thinkabout listening skillsand techniques. Do you listen I in all three ways listed above?Which are you best at? Which do you need to work on? A common notion is that leadership is a trait that some people are born with. An- other common notion is that a person's leadership ability depends on the situation. There is an enormous literature on leadership, so I'll provide only insights that I've found useful. I'll also try to guide you to more reading and resources on the topic. INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP REFLECTION What does it mean to lead a team? What I does it take? Take a moment to reflect on the characteristicsyou admire most in a leader. Jot down 8 to 10 of them. Compare with your team. Leadership authors Kouzes and Posner (1987, 1993) have asked thousands of people to list the characteristicsof leaders they admire. Table 3.3 lists the most com- mon responsesfrom their 1987 and 1993 studies. Many students and workshoppar- ticipants express surprise at the listing of honesty as the characteristic mentioned most often. They say it's a given. Apparently honesty is not a given for many
  • 36. C H A PT E R 3 TEAMWORK SKILLSAND PROBLEMSOLVING Table 3.3 Characteristics of admired leaders 1987 U.S. Percentage of 1993 U.S. Percentage of Characteristic PeopleSelecting PeopleSelecting Honest Forward-looking Inspiring Competent Fair-minded Supportive Broad-minded Intelligent Straightforward 34 34 Courageous 27 33 Dependable 32 32 Cooperative 25 30 Imaginative 34 28 Caring 26 27 Mature 23 14 Determined 20 13 Ambitious 21 I0 Loyal 21 10 Self-controlled 13 5 Independent 13 5 I SOURCE: Kouzes and Posner, 1987, 1993. leaders in business and industry. In 1993, Kouzes and Posner also asked the respon- dents to list the most desirable characteristics of colleagues. Honest was number one again, with 82 percent selecting it. Cooperative, dependable, and competent were second, third, and fourth, with slightly over 70 percent of respondents select- ing each. Kouzes and Posner found that when leaders do their best, they challenge, in- spire, enable, model, and encourage. They suggest five practices and 10 behavioral commitmentsof leadership. Challenging the Process 1. Search for opportunities. 2. Experimentand take risks. Inspiring a Shared Vision 3. Envision the future. 4. Enlist others.
  • 37. Enabling Others to Act 5. Foster collaboration. 6. Strengthen others. Modeling theWay 7. Set the example. 8. Plan small wins. Encouraging the Heart 9. Recognizeindividualcontributions. 10. Celebrate accomplishments. Peter Scholtes, author of the best-selling book The Team Handbook,also wrote The Leader's Handbook (1998). He offers the following six "New Competencies" for leaders: 1. The ability to think in terms of systems and knowing how to lead systems. 2. The ability to understand the variability of work in planning and problemsolv- ing. 3. Understanding how we learn, develop, and &prove; leading true learning and improvement. 4. Understandingpeople and why they behave as they do. 5. Understanding the interaction and interdependencebetween systems, variabil- ity, learning, and human behavior; knowing how each affects the others. 6. Giving vision, meaning, direction, and focus to the organization. In addition to group norms,communication,and leadership, teamwork depends on effective decision making and constructiveconflict management, describedin the next two sections. This section on decision making includes both strategies for decision making in groups and more general considerationsfor addressing ranking tasks. INDMDUAL AND GROUP REFLECTION How do you typically make decisions in I groups? Do you vote? Do you defer to the "expert"? Do you try to reach consensus? Take a moment to reflect on how the groups you participate in typically make decisions. What did you come up with? Compare your reflection with those of other group members. There are several approaches to making decisions in groups. Before exploring them, however, I suggest that you try a group decision-making exercise. Common
  • 38. exercises to assist in the development of teamwork skills, especiallycommunication (sharing knowledge and expertise), leadership, and decision making are ranking tasks, such as the survival tasks, in which a group must decide which items are most important for survival in the desert, on the moon, or in some other difficult place. Ranking tasks are common in organizations that must select among alternative de- signs, hire personnel,or choose projects or proposalsfor funding. My favorite ranking task for helping groups focus on communication, leader- ship, decision making,and conflict resolutionis "They'll NeverTake UsAlive."This exercise, which includes both individual and group decision making, is included at the end of this chapter. Do it now. I GROUP REFIECWON 1 How did your group make the decision? Did you average your individual rankings? Vote? Did you discuss your individual high and low rankings and then work from both ends toward the middle? Did you try to reach consensus?Were you convinced by group members who seem to have "expert" knowledge? Did you start with the number of fatalities for one of the activities and work from there? I GROUP REFECTION 2 How well did your group work? What went well? What things could you do even better next time? The method a group uses to make a decision depends on many factors, includ- ing how important the decision is, and how much time there is. Groups should have a good repertoireof decision-makingstrategiesand a meansof choosing the one that is most appropriatefor the situation. Severalmethodshave been describedin the literaturefor making decisions.One of my favorites is from David Johnson and Frank Johnson (1991). The authors list seven methods for making decisions: 1. Decision by authority without discussion. The leader makes all the decisions without consulting the group. It is efficient but does not build team member commitmentto the decision. 2. Expert membel:Group decision made by letting the most expert member decide for the group. The difficultyis often deciding who has the most expertise,espe- cially when those with power or status in the group overestimatetheir expertise. 3. Average of members' opinions. Group decision based on average of individual group members' opinions. 4. Decision by authority afer discussion. Groupin which designatedleader makes decision after discussionwith the group. Effectiveness often depends on the lis- tening skills of the leader. 5. Minority control. Two or more members who constitute less than 50 percent of the group often makes decisions by (a) acting as an executive committee or (b) special problem solving sub group.
  • 39. Highest Lowest Individual Average of Minority Majority Consensus individuals control control F9gure 3.1 Decision type and quality 6. Majority control. Decision by a majority vote is the most common method used 1 in the U.S. Discussion occurs only until at least 51 percent of the members de- cide on a course of action. 7 . Consensus. Consensusis probably the most effectivemethod of group decision making, but it also may take the most time. Perfect consensusis achieved when everyoneagrees.A lesser degreeof consensusis often accepted where everyone has had their say and will commit to the decision, but they may not completely agree with the decision. They note that the qualityof the decision and the time needed vary as a functionof the numberof peopleinvolvedin the decision-making method, as shown in Figure 3.1. David and Frank Johnson (1991) also list the following characteristicsof effec- tive decisions: 1. The resources of the group members are well used. 2. Time is well used. 3. The decision is correct, or of high quality. 4. The decision is put into effect fully by all the necessary members' commitments. 5. The problem-solving ability of the group is enhanced. GROUP REFLECTION How well did your groupdo on each of these five characteristics 1 of effectivedecisions? Typically, novice decision-makinggroups don't take full advantageof the skills and talentsof their members,and they often struggleto get started.Some researchers
  • 40. report a series of stagesin team development (e.g., forming,storming,norming, per- forming)and offersuggestionsfor working througheach stage (Scholtes,Joiner,and Streibel, 1996). Also, if you ask a group to invest time and effort in making a deci- sion it is very important that the decision be implemented (or very good rationale provided for why it wasn't implemented).There are few things morefrustratingthan to be asked to spend lots of time and effort on work that goes nowhere. Conflict is a routine aspect of every project manager's job. Conflict is a situation in which an action of one person prevents, obstructs, or interferes with the actions of another person. On complex projects and tasks, highly talented and motivated peo- ple routinely disagree about the best ways to accomplish tasks and especially about how to deal with trade-offs among priorities.A conflict often is a moment of truth, since its resolutioncan follow either a constructiveor a destructivepath. INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION Write the word conflict in the center of a blank piece of paper and draw a circle around it. Quickly jot down all the words and phrases you associate with the word conflict by arranging them around your circle. Review your list of associations and categorize them as positive, negative, or neutral. Count the total number of positive,negative, and neutral associations,and calculate the per- centage that are positive.Did you have more than 90 percent positive? Less than 5 percent of the people who have done this Reflection in my classes and workshops have had more than 90 percent positive associations.The majority, in fact, have had less than 50 percent positive associations.Many have had less than 10 percent positive. The predominance of negative associations with conflict is one of the reasons conflict management is so difficult for project managers. Many people prefer to avoid conflict or to suppress it when it does arise. They become fearful, anxious, angry, or frustrated; consequently, the conflict takes a destructive path. The goal of this section is to help you develop a set of skills and proceduresfor guiding conflict along a more constructive path. I'd like to begin by asking you to complete a questionnaire to assess how you typically act in conflict situation. The "How I Act in Conflict" questionnaire is included as Exercise 2 at the end of this chapter.Take a few minutes to completeand score the questionnaire.Try to use pro- fessional conflictsand not personal conflictsas your point of reference. Set the questionnaire aside for a few minutes and read Exercise 3, the Ralph Springercasestudy.Work throughthe exercise, completing the rankingform at theend. GROUP ACTIVITY Share and discuss each member's results from Exercise 2. Discuss each of the possible ways to resolve the conflict.
  • 41. High importance Force Withdraw Confront Compromise Smooth Low importance High importance Relationship Figure 3.2 Blake and Mouton conflict model Then compareyour individualresponsesfrom Exercise2 to your rankings in Exercise3. Note that each of the alternativeslisted in Exercise 3 represents one of the five strategies on the scoring form in Exercise2. Match the alternativesto the strategies they represent.Discuss similarities and differences in the order each group member would have used the strategies and the relative effectivenessof each. The five conflict strategies shown in Exercise 2-withdrawal, forcing, smooth- ing, compromise, and confrontation-were formulated into a model for analyzing approaches to conflict by Blake and Mouton (1964). The authors used two axes to represent the conflict strategies: (1) the importance of the goal, and (2) the impor- tance of the task. The placement of each of the five strategies according to this frameworkis shown in Figure 3.2. The five strategiesare described as follows: 1. Withdrawal. Neither the goal nor the relationship is important-you withdraw from the interaction. 2. Forcing. The task is important but not the relationship-use all your energy to get the task done. 3. Smoothing. The relationship is more important than the task. You want to be liked and accepted. 4. Compromise. Both task and relationship are important, but there is a lack of time-you both gain and lose something. 5. Confrontation.Task and relationshipare equally important.You define the con- flict as a problem-solvingsituation and resolve through negotiation.
  • 42. Each of these strategies is appropriate under certain conditions.For example, if neither the goal nor the relationshipis important to you, then often the best thing to do is withdraw. If the relationshipis extremely important and the task is not so im- portant(at the time), then smoothingis appropriate.In many conflictsituations,both the task and the relationship are important. In these situations, confronting and ne- gotiating often lead to the best outcomes. A confrontation is the direct expression of one opponent's view of the conflict, and his or her feelings about it, and an invitation to the other opponent to do the same. Guidelines for Confrontation 1. Do not "hit and run."Confrontonly when there is time to jointly define the con- Rict and schedule a negotiatingsession. 2. Openly communicateyour feelings about and perceptionsof the issues involved in the conflict, and try to do so in minimally threatening ways. 3. Accurately and fully comprehend the opponent's views and feelings about the conflict. Negotiation is a conflict resolution process by which people who want to come to an agreement try to work out a settlement. Steps in Negotiating a Conflict 1. Confront the opposition. 2. Define the conflict mutually. 3. Communicatefeelings and positions. 4. Communicatecooperativeintentions. 5. Take the other person's perspective. 6. Coordinate the motivation to negotiate. 7. Reach an agreement that is satisfactoryto both sides. Constructively resolving conflicts through a confrontation-negotiation process takes time and practice to perfect, but it's worth it. Conflicts that do not get resolved at a personal level must be resolved at more time-consuming and costly levels- third-party mediation; arbitration;and, if all else fails, litigation. Finally,here are some heuristicsfor dealing with conflicts in long-termpersonal and professionalrelationships: 1. Do not withdraw from or ignore the conflict. 2. Do not engage in "win-lose" negotiations. 3. Assess for smoothing. 4. Compromise when time is short. 5. Confront to begin problem-solvingnegotiations. 6. Use your sense of humor.
  • 43. TEAMWORKCHALLENGESAND PROBLEMS Remember that heuristics are reasonable and plausible, but not guaranteed. I suggest that you develop your own set of heuristicsfor dealing with conflict as well as for the other skills needed for effective teamwork. Some of my former students who now work as project managers emphasize during classroom visits that they spend a lot of time resolving conflicts--over meeting specifications, schedules, de- livery dates, interpersonal differences among team members-and that most con- flicts are dealt with informally. REFLECTION What are some of the most common challenges and problems you've had I working in groups?Please reflectfor a moment. Make a list. Has a professor ever had you do this in your teams? If so, it's a clear indication that the professor understands the importance of group processing for identifyingand solving problems. What's on your list? The challenges and problems you listed in the above reflection may have included the following: Members who don't show up for meetings or who don't show up prepared. Members who dominate the conversation. Members who don't participatein the conversation. Time wasted by off-task talk. Members who want to do the entire project because they don't trust others. Group meeting scheduling difficulties. No clear focus or goal. Lack of clear agenda, or hidden agendas. Subgroups excluding or ganging up on one or more members. Ineffective or inappropriatedecisions and decision-makingprocesses. Suppressionof conflict or unpleasantflare-ups among group members. Members not doing their fair share of the work. Lack of commitment to the group's work by some members. The problems listed above are commonlyencountered by students (and profes- sionals) working in groups. If they are not addressed they can turn a cooperative group into a pseudo group, as described in Chapter 2, where the group does worse than individualsworking alone. If the challengesare addressedin a problem-solving manner, then the group is likely to perform at much higher levels (and the members will have a much more positive experience). The following process is widely used to address group problems.
  • 44. Step 1: Zdentijjing Challenges, Dificulties, and Barriers to EfSective Group Work Reflectindividually for a moment and start a list of challenges,barriers,or prob- lems facing the group. Share the individual lists and create a joint list that in- cludes at least one item from each group member. Do not solve (yet). Be realistic and specific. Work cooperatively. If more than one groupis involved,list challenges,barriers,and problemsfor all groups on an overhead projector or flip chart. Step 2: Addressing Barriers, Challenges, and Problems 1. Have each groupor (if only one groupis involved)each memberselectone item from the joint list. 2. Clarify: Make sure you have a common understandingof what the item means or represents. 3. Create three possibleactions that will solve or eliminate the barrier. 4. Prioritize the possible solutions: Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. 5. Focus on what will work; be positive and constructive. 6. Implement the solutions; report back; celebrate and spread the ones that are ef- fective. Caveat: Duringimplementationof group work expectsome challenges,barriers, and problems. Doing so will help you recognizea roadblock when it appears. When it does appear, apply the appropriate parts of Step 2. With one or more colleagues, develop three or more solutions. Implement one of these and then evaluate,replan, and retry. The problem identification, problem formulation, and problem-solving format described above does not guarantee that your teamwork experiences will be free from troubles. But having a format for getting problems out on the table and then dealing with them in a problem-solvingmanner usually reduces the frustration and interference of group problems. I've tried to address many of the highlightsof effective teamwork and team problem solving, but I've barely scratched the surface. Hundreds of books and articles have been written on effective teamwork, and I've listed a few of my favoritesin the ref- erence section (see, e.g., Fisher, Rayner, and Belgard, 1995; Goldberg,1995; Hack- man,1990; Katzenbach and Smith, 1993a, 1993b).As I mentioned earlier,one of the most widely used teamwork books is Scholtes, Joiner, and Streibel's (1996) The Team Handbook.
  • 45. 1. What other skills besides those mentioned in this chapter do you feel are essen- tial for successful groups? How about trust and loyalty, for example? I briefly dealt with trust and loyalty under the organizationsection, but you may want to emphasize them more. Check the references (e.g., David Johnson and Frank Johnson, 1991) for more. What other teamwork skills would you like to follow up on? 2. What are some of the strategiesfor developing a good set of working conditions in a group? 3. What are your reactions to the list of characteristicsof admiredleaders in Table 3.3?Were you surprised by the high ranking of honesty? 4. Why is conflict central to effective teamwork and project work? What are some strategiesfor effectively managing conflict? 5. Keep a log of problems you've faced in working on project teams. How do the problems change over the life of the group? 6. The next time a problem occurs in a group,try the problem-solving processout- lined in the chapter. How well did it work? I SOURCES: Office of the Surgeon General; National Center for Health Statistics. Product or Activity Accidents Alzheimer's disease Blood poisoning Cancer Diabetes Hardening of arteries Heart disease HIV and AIDS Homicide Kidney disease Liver disease Lung disease Pneumoniaand influenza Stroke Suicide Ranking Number of Fatalities
  • 46. C H A PT E R 3 TEAMWORK SKILLSAND PROBLEM SOLVING On the accompanying chart, in alphabetical order, are listed the top 15 causes of death in the United States in 1997. The data were taken from an annual review of death certificates.Your task is to rank the productsand activitiesin order of the num- ber of deaths they cause each year. Place the number 1 next to the one that causes the most deaths, the number 2 by the one that causes the second most deaths, and so forth. Then, write in your estimate of the number of fatalities each product or activ- ity causes. Group Tasks 1. After individuals have filled in the chart, determine one ranking for the group. (Do not worry yet about the estimates for the number of fatalities.) 2. Every group member must be able to explain the rationalefor the group's rank- ing. 3. When your group finishes, and each member has signed the chart, (a)record your estimated number of fatalities in the U.S. for each, and then (b) compare your rankings and estimates with those of another group. 2. How I ACT IN CONFLICT The proverbs listed in the accompanying table can be thought of as descriptions of some of the different strategies for resolving conflicts. Proverbs state conventional wisdom, and the ones listed here reflect traditional wisdom for resolving conflicts. Read each carefully. Using the scale provided,indicate how typical each proverb is of your actionsin a conflict. Then score your responseson the chart at the end of the table. The higher the total score in each conflict strategy, the more frequently you tend to use that strategy. The lower the total score for each conflict strategy, the less frequently you tend to use that strategy. 5 =Very typical of the way I act in a conflict 4 = Frequently typical of the way I act in a conflict 3 =Sometimes typical of the way I act in a conflict 2 =Seldom typical of the way I act in a conflict 1 = Never typical of the way I act in a conflict 1. It is easier to refrain than to retreat from a quarrel. 2. If you cannot make a person think as you do, make him or her do as you think. 3. Soft words win hard hearts. 4. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. 5. Come now and let us reason together. 6. When two quarrel, the person who keeps silent first is the most praiseworthy. 7. Might overcomes right. 8. Smooth words make smooth ways. 9. Better half a loaf than no bread at all. 10. Truth lies in knowledge, not in majority opinion.
  • 47. 11. He who fights and runs away lives to fight anotherday. 12. He hath conquered well that hath made his enemies flee. 13. Kill your enemies with kindness. 14. A fair exchange brings no quarrel. 15. No person has the final answer, but every person has a piece to contribute. 16. Stay away from people who disagree with you. 17. Fields are won by those who believe in winning. 18. Kind words are worth much and cost little. 19. Tit for tat is fair play. 20. Only the person who is willing to give up his or her monopoly on truth can ever profit from the truths that others hold. 21. Avoid quarrelsome people, for they will only make your life miserable. 22. A person who will not flee will make others flee. 23. Soft words ensure harmony. 24. One gift for another makes good friends. 25. Bring your conflicts into the open and face them directly; only then will the best solution be discovered. 26. The best way of handling conflicts is to avoid them. 27. Put your foot down where you mean to stand. 28. Gentlenesswill triumph over anger. 29. Getting part of what you want is better than not getting anythingat all. 30. Frankness, honesty, and trust will move mountains. 31. There is nothing so importantthat you have to fight for it. 32. There are two kinds of peoplein the world, the winners and the losers. 33. When someone hits you with a stone, hit him or her with a piece of cotton. 34. When both peoplegive in halfway, a fair settlement is achieved. 35. By digging and digging, the truth is discovered. Scoring I SOURCE: Dovid Johnson and Roger Johnson, 1991
  • 48. C HA Pr E R 3 TEAMWORK SKILLSAND PROBLEMSOLVING The following case gives you a chance to apply the Blake and Mouton (1964) con- flict model to a hypothetical situation. Read the case carefully and then label each of the possible actions from most to least effective and from most to least likely. You have been workingas a project manager in a large company for some time. You are friends with most of the other project managers and, you think, respected by all of them. A couple of months earlier, Ralph Springer was hired as a supervisor. He is getting to know the other project managers and you. One of the project managers in the company, who is a friend of yours, confided in you that Ralph has been say- ing rather nasty things about your looks, the way you dress, and your personal char- acter. For some reason you do not understand, Ralph has taken a dislike to you. He seems to be trying to get other project managers to dislike you also. From what you hear, there is nothing too nasty for him to say about you. You are worried that some people might be influenced by him and that some of your co-project managers are also beginningto talk about you behind your back.You are terribly upset and angry at Ralph. Since you have a good job record and are quite skilledin project manage- ment, it would be rather easy for you to get another job. Rank each of the following five courses of action from 1 (most effective, most likely) to 5 (least effective, least likely). Use each number only once. Be realistic. Effective Likely - - I lay it on the line. I tell Ralph I am fed up with the gossip. I tell him that he'd better stop talking about me behind my back, because I won't stand for it. Whether he likes it or not, he is going to keep his mouth shut about me or else he'll regret it. - - I try to bargain with him. I tell him that if he will stop gossiping about me I will help him get started and include him in the thingsother project managers and I do together. I tell him that others are angry about the gossiping and that it is in his best interest to stop. I try to persuade him to stop gossiping in return for something I can do. - - I try to avoid Ralph. I am silent whenever we are together. I show a lack of interest whenever we speak, look over his shoulder and get away as soon as possible. I want nothing to do with him for now. I try to cool down and ignore the whole thing. I intend to avoid him completely if possible. - - I call attention to the conflict between us. I describehow I see his actions and how it makes me feel. I try to begin a discussion in which we can look for a way for him to stop making me the target of his conversation and a way to deal with my anger. I try to see things from his viewpoint and seek a solution that will suit u; both. I ask him how he feels about my giving him this feedbackand what his point of view is. - - I bite my tongue and keep my feelings to myself. I hope he will find out that the behavior is wrong without my saying anythmg.I try to be extra nice and show him that he's off base. I hide my anger. If I hied to tell him how I feel, it would only make things worse.
  • 49. Blake, R. R., and J. S. Mouton. 1964. The managerial grid. Houston: Gulf PublishingCompany. Fisher, Kimball, Steven Rayner, and William Belgard. 1995. Zps for teams: A ready reference for solving common team problems. New York: McGraw-Hill. Goldberg,David E. 1995. Life skills and leadership for engineers. New York: McGraw-Hill. Hackman,J. R. 1990. Groups that work (and those that don't): Creating conditionsfor effective teamwork. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Johnson, David W., and Frank P. Johnson, 1991. Joining together Group theory and group skills, 4th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Johnson, David W., and Roger T. Johnson, 1991. Teaching students to be peacemakers. Edina, MN: InteractionBook Company. Katzenbach, Jon R., and Douglas K. Smith. 1993a.The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-pe$omzance organization. Cambridge,MA: Harvard Business School Press. . 1993b. The discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review7 l(2): 111-20. Kouzes, J. M., and B. Z. Posner. 1987.The leadership challenge: How to get extraordinarythings done in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. . 1993. Credibility: How leaders gain and lose it, why people demand it. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. McNeill, Barry, Lynn Bellamy, and Sallie Foster. 1995. Introductionto engineering design. Tempe,Arizona: ArizonaState University. Napier, Rodney W., and Matti K. Gershenfeld. 1973.Groups: Theory and experience. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Scholtes, Peter R. 1998. The leader's handbook: Making things happen, getting things done. New York: McGraw-Hill. Scholtes, Peter R., Brian L. Joiner, and Barbara J. Streibel. 1996. The team handbook, 2nd ed. Madison,WI: Joiner Associates. Taylor, James. 1999. A survival guide for project managers. New York: AMACOM.
  • 51. c h a p t e r PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES This chapter discusses what a project is and explains why projects and project man- agement are receiving a lot of attention right now. The numberof books and articles on project management is growing almost exponentially. Something is happening here. Perhaps it is due in part to observationslike those in a recentProject Manage- ment Institute survey, which indicated that only a fraction of technology projectsin the United States finish on time. The percentages are startling: Close to half of the projectsstarted were neverfinished, and 30 percent were completed but took at least twice as long as expected;some took five times as long. Only 10 percent of the proj- ects were finished on time. The situation has changed a lot since the development of scheduling tools and strategiessuch as the critical path method (CPM) and the program evaluation and re- view technique PERT) in the 1950s. Laufer, Denker, and Shenhar (1993) have out- lined the evolution in the nature of project management. A summary of the changes is shown in Table 4.1. Laufer et al. emphasize that even as projects have become morecomplex,the time to accomplishthem has becomeshorter;thus, many projects require simultaneousmanagement. Ed Yourdon claims in his book Death March Projects (1997)that many projects must be completed in half the time, with half the budget, or with half the resources initially planned, hence the phrase "death march projects." However,Yourdon also claims that it is possible,almost excitingat times, to be a part of this type of project. - - - REFLECTION Think about your involvement with projects both in school and in otheras- pects of your life. Have you been involved in more and more projects in school?Think about I some of these projects. What are the distinguishing features of the projects you've been in- volved with? For example, did you have to make a presentation or write a report? Did you
  • 52. Table 4.1 Evolution of models of proiect management Dominant Era of Project Central Concept Model Characteristics MainThrust Metaphor Means Scheduling(control) 1960s Simple, certain Coordinating Scheduling regional Information activities flights in an airline technology, planning specialists Teamwork 1970s Complex, Cooperation Conductinga Processfacilitation, (integration) certain between symphony definition or roles participants orchestra Reducinguncertainty 1980s Complex, Making stable Exploringan Search for (flexibility) uncertain decisions unknown country information, selective redundancy Simultaneity (dynamism) 1990s Complex, Orchestrating Directinga three- Experience, uncertain, contending ring circus with responsiveness, quick demands continuous and adaptability program modification based on live audience feedback have to give a performance, as in the production of a dramatic event such as a play? Have you participated in a science fair project or a design project? Please take a few minutes to reflect on changes in your involvement in projects, and make a list of the distinguishing features of these projects. What's on your list? Does it include items such as "common, overriding purpose and es- tablished goals"; "temporary" (i.e., clear beginning and end); "one-time activity"; "requires coordinating many interrelated activities";or "involves several people"? A dictionary of project management terms (Cleland and Kerzner, 1985) defines project as follows: [A project is] a combination of human and nonhuman resources pulled together in a temporary organization to achieve a specified purpose. Project is defined by Snead and Wycoff (1997) as "a nonroutine series of tasks directed toward a goal." In their helpful guide, the authors claim that "success de- pends on the ability to effectively complete projects." A textbook (Nicholas,1990) that I have used in my project management classes lists the following features of projects:
  • 53. Definable purpose with established goals. Cost, schedule, and performance requirements. Multiple resources across organizationallines. One-time activity. Element of risk. Temporary activity. Process of phases; project life cycle. Based on this list of features you can see that projects are quite different from the ongoing, day-to-day work that most of us do. Each project is unique, is tempo- rary,has an element of risk, and has a definable purposewith establishedgoals.Two features of projects that I'd like to explore further are (1) cost, schedule, and per- formance requirements,and (2) process phases or project life cycle. Traditionally, project success has been measured according to three criteria: cost, time, and performance. Although studentsin classes often negotiatetime (especially due dates) and performance requirements, there is often less flexibility in profes- sional life. For example, the due dates for submitting research proposals to funding agenciesarerigid. One must get the proposalin beforethe deadlineor wait until next year (and hope the agency still is making grants in that particular area). In many large construction companies there are significant incentives for finishing a project on time, and major penaltiesfor finishing late. Some projects have been terminated when there were cost overruns; note the tragic demise of the SuperconductingSu- percollider (the multibilliondollar particle accelerator in Texas that was terminated by the U.S. Congress). Subsequentchapters of this book will explore how cost, time, and performance are operationalized, that is, how they are put into practice. Briefly, cost is opera- tionalized by budgets, time by schedules, and performanceby specifications. Cost, time, and performance.Is this it? Is this all that we need to attend to for successful projects? Many project management experts are discussing a fourth as- pect of project success--client acceptance.Pinto and Kharbanda (1995),for exam- ple, maintain that thereis a quadrupleconstrainton projectsuccess,which of course, increases the challenge of completing projects successfully (see Figure 4.1). The most common way in which client acceptance is operationalizedis to in- volve the client throughout the project. One of the most famous examples of this is Boeing's 777 project, in which customerswere involvedearly on and throughout the project. These customer airlines had a significant influence on how the 777 was de- signed and built. Boeing's vision was to build a high-qualityaircraft in an environ- ment of no secrecy and no rivalry. These new values were clarified in the following three statements (cited in Snead and Wycoff, 1997):
  • 54. C H A PT E R 4 PROJECT MANAGEMENTPIUNCIPLESAND PRACTICES Figure 4.1 Project success: quadruple constraint I SOURCE: Pinto and Khorbanda, 1995. 1. Use a style of management unheard of in the industry: working together while building trust, honesty, and integrity. 2. In the past, people were afraid to state a problem because of the practice of killing the messenger. We will instead celebrate our problems and get them out into the open so we can work on them. 3. We must come with no limitationsin our mind. We must have a shared thought, vision, appreciation,and understanding of what we are going to accomplishto- gether. Boeing's long-range goals for the 777 helped create the environment described above: Design, develop, and produce a plane safer and more reliable than any other plane inaviationhistory that is state-of-the-art and service-ready on delivery, to be called the 777. Design, develop, and produce a program to empower a massive team of people to implement the "working together" philosophy while creating the 777. Phil Condit,Boeing's CEO, said,"The task for us at Boeing is to providea mas- sive change in thinking throughout the company-this is a cultural shift, and it isn't easy!" Boeing experienced many positive changes (and outcomes) during this process. The 777 was delivered on time and was under budget. Most significantly, however, it positively changed the "management-teamwork" paradigm from a hier- archical relationshipto a lateral relationship. If you'd like to explore Boeing's 777 project in more detail, the book 21st Cen-
  • 55. PROJECT LIFE CYCLE tury Jet, by Karl Sabbagh, and the six-part PBS video series based on the book pro- vide rich insight into the process. REFLECTION Please reconsider the projects that came to mind during the Reflection at the beginning of this chapter. Did each project seem to go through a series of stages? If so, how would you characterize them? Think about how the activities and work on the project changed from beginning to end. Jot down your reflections. The prevailing view of the project life cycle is that projects go through distinct phases, such as the following: Conceiving and defining the project Planning the project Implementing the plan Completingand evaluatingthe project Operatingand maintaining the project A typical constructionproject has the followingseven phases (Kerzner, 1998): 1. Planning, data gathering, and procedures 2. Studies and basic engineering 3. Major review 4. Detail engineering 5. Detail engineering/constructionoverlap 6. Construction 7. Testing and commissioning Some people,however,perhapsin momentsof frustration,havedescribed the phases of a project in a more cynical way: 1. Wild enthusiasm 2. Disillusionment 3. Total confusion 4. Search for the guilty 5. Punishment of the innocent 6. Praise and honors for the nonparticipants These faults could often be avoided if project managers think about resource distributionover the project life cycle.
  • 56. Conceiving I Planning I Implementing 1 Completing Phases Figure 4.2 Resource distributionover the project life cycle I REFLECTION Consider thefirst four phases of the project life cycle described above (con- ceiving, planning, implementing, and completing) and sketch how you think resources (peo- ple, money, etc) are distributed throughout the life of a project. What did you come up with? Continually increasing resources? Increasing then decreasing? Why did you draw the shape you did? A commondistributionof resources(people, materials, etc.) is shown in Figure 4.2. Project managersmust also consider how their ability to make changes and the cost of those changes vary over the project life cycle. Figure 4.3 shows the relation- ship between these two factors. Consider the essential message in Figure 4.3. Since Ability to influenceproject Cost to influenceproject Conceiving I Planning 1 Implementing 1 Completing Figure 4.3 Ability to change and cost to make changes over the proiectlife cycle
  • 57. you have considerably more flexibility early in a project and it's cheaper to make changes,don't skimpon planningduring the early stages. Though this essential mes- sage probablymakes a lot of sense,it's one that is hard to implement.Because of the extraordinaryeagerness of many project managersand project team members to get going, careful and thorough planning is often neglected. This essential message could also be described as a project managementheuristic. (See Chapter1 for elab- oration on the meaning of heuristics and their importance in engineering.) Addi- tional examples of project managementheuristics are the following: Allocateresources to the weak link. Freeze the design-at some stage in the project (when about 75 percent of the time or resources are used up), the design must be frozen. Periodicallydiscuss the process and ask meta-levelquestions (e.g., What are we doing? Why are we doing it? How does it help?). A superb collection of modeling heuristics highly relevant to project manage- ment was presented by Ravindran,Phillips, and Solberg(1987): 1. Do not build a complicated model when a simple one will suffice. 2. Beware of molding the problem to fit the technique. 3. The deduction phase of modeling must be conducted rigorously. 4. Models should be validated prior to implementation. 5. A model should never be taken too literally. . 6. A model should neither be pressed to do, nor criticizedfor failing to do, that for which it was never intended. 7. Beware of oversellinga model. 8. Some of the primarybenefits of modeling are associatedwith the processof de- veloping the model. 9. A model cannot be any better than the information that goes into it. 10. Models cannot replace decision makers. The heuristicsgiven in both of the abovelists are importantwhen thinkingabout the project life cycle and will become crucially important when we look at the use of project scheduling models later in this book. Projects typically start with a statement of work (SOW) provided by the client. The statement of work is a narrative description of the work required for the project. In engineeringclasses, the statement of work is provided by the faculty member. Plan- ning starts with the development of a work breakdown structure (WBS). A WBS is "a deliverable-orientedgrouping of projectelements which organizes and defines the total scope of a project" (Duncan, 1996). There are typically three to six levels in a
  • 58. WBS, such as program, project, task, and subtask. Developing a work breakdown structure is important for "scoping" a project, that is, determining the specific tasks that have to be completed, choosing appropriate groupings for these activities, and setting precedence and interdependence (what has to follow what and what can be going on at the same time). These two parts of projectplanning-the statementof work and the work break- down structure-are often neglected in traditional project management textbooks and classes, perhaps due to the eagerness to get to the nitty-gritty of project sched- uling by critical path analysis. However, carefully considering these two initial as- pects of project scoping is an important part of not skimping on planning. Project management is a relatively new profession and is growing at a remarkable rate. Fortune magazine called project management "Career Number 1" for the 1990s. When I was in engineering school in the late 1960s, project management courses weren't offered. Since I now teach several project managementcourses,I've had to learn it through experienceand research. Several of the books I've found use- ful and have used as texts in my courses are listed in the references(Culp and Smith, 1992; Eisner, 1997; Frame, 1994, 1995; Grady, 1992; Graham and Englund, 1997; Kerzner, 1998; Lewis, 1993, 1995a, 1995b, 1998; Lientz and Rea, 1995; Meredith and Mantel, 1994; Nicholas, 1990; Pinto and Kharbanda,1995; Snead and Wycoff, 1997; Taylor, 1999). Since project managementis an emergingfield and is changing quite rapidly, I encourage you to continue honing your skills and competencies. 1. What is a project?What are the key characteristicsof projects?How does proj- ect management differ from managementin general? 2. What are the three cardinal conditions of project success? 3. What has been your experience in completing projects on time, under budget, within specifications,and acceptable to the client? What is your batting aver- age? Is it better than the I0 percent figure cited by the Project ManagementIn- stitute survey? 4. How does your distribution of effort vary over the life of projects that you've worked on? Do you start strong and taper off? Or do you start slowly and build? Sketch out a graph that has effort on the ordinate (y) and time on the abscissa (x) for a typical project. Is your effort curve consistent with the bell-shaped curve shown in Figure 4.2? Is it different?Does most of your effort go in to the last few hours before the project is due? If much of your effort is applied in the closing hours of the project,perhapsyou are"freezingthe design"too late. How does your enthusiasm vary over the projectlife cycle?
  • 59. 5. Start developing a list of your own project management heuristics. There are several books that list rules of thumb, which are one type of heuristic. One of my favoritesis by Grady (1992). Now that you've had an opportunity to think about projects, project management, project life cycles, and project scoping, I'd like you to try applying what you've learned. Suppose you have two tickets to a fabulous concert and are planning a special dinner for two prior to the concert. Your menu consists of a very special soup and bakedchicken entrke.The soup must be boiled for 35 minutes,and you should allow 15 minutes to serve and consume it. The chicken dish requires a fair amount of preparation: you have to boil the rice for 30 minutes, brown the chicken in the fry- ing pan for 15 minutes, and place the rice and chicken in a baking dish in the oven for 15 minutes. It takes 5 minutes to prepare a sauce in the frying pan and 15 min- utes to boil the peas. (You only have two pots and one frying pan.) You have bought a good red wine; allow 5 minutes to uncork it (very carefully) and 30 minutes to let it stand before serving it. You plan to allow 25 minutes to serve and consume the en- tr6e and wine. How much time do you need to prepare and consume the meal? What representation(model) did yourgroup use to determinethe time? How did you keep track of which activitieshad to follow others and which could be going on at the same time? Cleland, D. I., and H. Kerzner. 1985. A project management dictionary of terms. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Culp, G., and A. Smith. 1992. Managing people (including yourself)for project success. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Duncan,William R. 1996. A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Eisner, H. 1997. Essentials of project management and systems engineering management.New York: Wiley. Frame, J. D. 1994. The new project management. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. .1995. Managing projects in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Grady, Robert B. 1992. Practical sofhvare metrics for project management and process improvement. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
  • 60. C A P r E R 4 PROJECTMANAGEMENT ~ ~ ' C I P L E SAND PRACTICES Graham, Robert J., and Randall L. Englund. 1997. Creating an environment for successful projects. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Kerzner, H. 1998. Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling,and controlling,6th ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Laufer, A., G. R. Denker, and A. J. Shenhar. 1993. Simultaneous management: The key to excellence in capital projects. Unpublished manuscript. Lewis, James P. 1993. The project manger's desk reference: A comprehensive guide to project planning, scheduling,evaluation, control & systems. New York: Probus. . 1995a. Project planning, scheduling, & control: A hands-on guide to bringing projects in on time and on budget. New York: Probus. . 1995b. Fundamentalsof project management. New York: AMACOM. . 1998. Mastering project management:Applying advanced concepts of systems thinking, control and evaluation, resource allocation. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lientz, Bennet, and Kathryn Rea. 1995. Project management for the 21st century. San Diego: Academic Press. Meredith, J.R., and S. J. Mantel. 1994. Project management:A managerial approach. New York: Wiley. Nicholas, J. M. 1990. Managing business & engineering projects: Concepts and implementation. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Pinto, J. K., and 0.P. Kharbanda. 1995. Successful project managers: Leading your team to success. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Ravindran,A., D. T. Phillips, and J. J. Solberg. 1987. Operations research: Principles and practices. New York: Wiley. Sabbagh, Karl. 1997. 2lst-century jet: The making and marketing of the Boeing 777. New York: Scribner. Snead, G. L., and J. Wycoff. 1997. To do, doing, done! A creative approach to managing projects and effectively finishing what matters most. New York: Fireside. Taylor, James. 1999. A survival guide for project managers. New York: AMACOM. Yourdon, Ed. 1997. Death march projects. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
  • 61. c h a p t e r Project management is undergoing enormous changes, as Table 4.1 indicated, and thus the role of the project manager is changing. Before we explore the changes that are occurring in project management, let's explore changes that are occurring in business, industry, government, and education. - - - - - - I N D M W A L AND mouCREFLECTION Think about changes that have occurredin I the workplace (or school if that is your principal area of experience) in the past five years. Make a list of some of the most notable changes and compare it with other team members' lists. Students in my project management classes who do the above Reflection come up with lots of changes they're noticing-communications technology, computers, global marketplace,emphasis on quality, shortened time frames, and changing role and importance of knowledge workers. CHANGES IN THE WORKPLACE I Changes in the workplacehave been studied and summarized by numerous authors, including Byrne (1992). Changes occurring in how engineers work in business and industry,summarized in Table 5.1, have seriousimplicationsfor how we prepareen- gineering graduatesfor working in the 21st century. The changes that are occurring in business and industry suggest that we should consider changes in engineering education to prepare our graduates to function effectively in the "new paradigm" companies. The "Made in America" study
  • 62. C H A P T P R S PROJECTMANAGER'S ROLE lbble 5.1 , Reinventing the corporation The Current Model Zlst-CenturyPrototype Organization Hierarchy Network Structure Self-sufficiency Interdependencies Worker expectations Security Personal growth Leadership Autocratic Inspirational Workforce Homogeneous Culturally diverse Work By individuals By teams Markets Domestic Global Advantage Cost Time Focus Profits Customers Resources Capital Information Governance Board of directors Varied constituents Quality What's affordable No compromises I SOURCE: Byrne, 1992. (Dertouzos,Lester, and Solow,1989) recommended that the MassachusettsInstitute of Technology should 1. Broaden its educational approach in the sciences, in technology, and in the hu- manities and should educate students to be more sensitive to productivity, to practical problems, to teamwork, and to the cultures, institutions, and business practices of other countries. 2. Create a new cadre of students and faculty characterized by (1) interest in, and knowledge of, real problemsand their societal,economic,and politicalcontext; (2) an ability to function effectively as members of a team creating new prod- ucts, processes, and systems; (3) an ability to operate effectively beyond the confines of a single discipline;and (4) an integrationof a deep understandingof science and technology with practical knowledge, a hands-on orientation, and experimentalskills and insight. 3. Revisesubjects to includeteam projects,practicalproblems,and exposureto in- ternational cultures. Encourage student teaching to instill a stronger apprecia- tion of lifelong learning and the teaching of others. Reinstitute a foreign- language requirementin the undergraduate admissions process. Changes in engineeringeducation were described in a paper in the Frontiers in Education Conference proceedings (Smith and Waller, 1997) and summarized in Table 5.2. If you're interested in learning more about new paradigms for engineer- ing education, you may view the paper on the World Wide Web at the ASEEIIEEE Frontiers in Education page. The premier issue of an exciting new engineering magazine, Today's Engineel; proposesthat we are at the dawning of a new age of engineering-thecrossroadsfor
  • 63. Table 5.2 Comparison of old and new paradigms for college teaching Old Paradigm NewParadigm Knowledge Transferredfrom faculty to students Jointly constructedby studentsand faculty Students Passive vessel to be filled by faculty's knowledge Active constructor,discoverer, transformer of knowledge Mode of learning Memorizing Relating Faculty purpose Classify and sort students Develop students' competencies and talents Student goals Complete requirements, achieve certification Grow, focus on continuallifelonglearning within a discipline within a broader system Relationships Impersonal relationship among studentsand Personaltransaction among students and between faculty and students between faculty and students Context Competitive/iudividuaZistic Cooperativelearning in classroom and cooperative teams among faculty Climate Conformitylculturaluniformity Diversity and personal esteem; cultural diversity and commonality Power Faculty holds and exercises power, authority,and Students are empowered;power is shared among control studentsand between studentsand faculty Assessment Nom-referenced (i.e., graded "on the curve"); Criterion-referenced; typically performances and typically multiplechoice items; studentrating portfolios;continual assessment of instruction of instruction at end of course Ways of knowing Logico-scientific Narrative Epistemology Reductionist; facts and memorization Constructivist; inquiry and invention Technologyuse Drill and practice;textbook substitute; chalk and Problem solving, communication, collaboration, talk substitute informationaccess, expression Teaching Any expert can teach assumption Teachingis complex and requires considerable training I SOURCE: Smith and Walter, 1997 a changing professionalmodel (Gaynor, 1998). The editor, Gaynor, claims that this new model makes three demands on us: that we transcend traditional boundaries, that we think strategically, and that we develop a business perspective. Gaynoralso says that technicalcompetenceis an absolute requirement,but by itself is no longer sufficient. It must be integrated with breadth of vision, flexibility, customer focus, and business orientation. Changes like those outlined by Dertouzos and his colleagues (1989),as well as Gaynor (1998), are enormouslydifficult to implementin a direct,linear manner. The nature of change is described by Katzenbachand Smith (1993) through a "whitewa- ter raft ride" metaphor. The authors also list behavioral changes that are demanded by change. Major change, by its nature, is intentionally disruptive and largely unprogramma- ble. In comparing the management of major versus normal change, one top execu- tive said, "It used to be like 1-75. You'd lay it out from Toledo to Tampa. Now it's more like a whitewaterraft ride.You try to get the right people in the raft and do the best you can to steer it. But you never know what's just around the bend." (p. 208)
  • 64. Katzenbachand Smith suggest several behavioralchanges that will help us perform in today's workplace (see Table 5.3). Table 5.3 Behavioral changes demanded by performancein the 1990s and beyond From To Individual accountability Mutual support, joint accountability,and trust-based relationships in addition to individual accountability Dividing those who think and decide from those who work Expecting everyone to think, work, and do and do Building functionalexcellencethrough each person executing a narrowset of tasks ever more efficiently Encouraging people to play multiple roles and work together interchangeably on continuous improvement Relying on managerial control Getting people to buy into meaningful purpose, to help shape direction,and to learn A fair day's pay for a fair day's work Aspiring to personal growth that expands as well as exploits each person's capabilities Peter Drucker (1993), who has written more articles for the Harvard Business Review than anyone else, recently described the changing views of the "manager" concept. Drucker stresses the idea of the "knowledge worker" and, consistent with this concept, focuses on skills and strategiesfor "managing the knowledge worker." In the 1920s,a manager was seen as one who was responsible for the work of sub- ordinates;in the 1950s,a managerwas one who was responsiblefor the performance of people; and in the 1990s,and beyond, a manageris one who is responsiblefor the application and performanceof knowledge. I INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION How are you feeling about all these impendingchanges?A bit overwhelmed,no doubt. Are you seeing changes in your educational experience?Is your college education on the cutting edge of modern practice?What do you think about the state of your education? Discuss with your group. Since so many changes are occurring in the workplace-including downsizing, rightsizing,and attending to the customer-is there any question that change is also occurring in project management?Management guru Tom Peters (1999) makes bold claims about the importance of project management in the following statement: "Those organizations that take project management seriously as a discipline, as a way of life, are likely to make it into the 21st century.Those that do not are likely to
  • 65. find themselvesin good company with dinosaurs." (p. 128) Peters (1991), an engi- neering graduate who wrote a masters thesis on PERT charts, has also made the fol- lowing statements: "Tomorrow's corporationis a 'collection of projects.' " "Everyoneneeds to learn to workin teams with multipleindependentexperts- each will be dependent upon all the others voluntarilygiving their best." "The new lead actor~boss-the Project Manager-must learn to command and coach; that is, to deal with paradox." (p. 64) In the area of project management,several authors have summarized the most notable changes. Pinto and Kharbanda (1995) refer to our age as "The Age of Project Management." Key features of this age are the following: 1. Shortened market windows and product life cycles. 2. Rapid development of third-world and closed economies. 3. Increasinglycomplex and technical products. 4. Heightenedinternational competition. 5. The environmentof organizationalresource scarcity. Lientz and Rea (1995) list several trends that affect projects: Global competition Empowerment Rapid technologicalchange Focus on quality and continuous improvement Product obsolescence Measurement Organizationaldownsizing Interorganizationalsystems Business reengineering Furthermore, Lientz and Rea remind us that projects are set in time. They are also set in the context of organization, a legal system, a political system, a technol- ogy structure, an economic system, and a social system. These environmentalfac- tors do affect projects, and the project manager must respond to the resulting chal- lenges. If I haven't yet convinced you that there are many changes occurring in the business world and that the emergenceof projectmanagementis one of them, try the following Reflection. INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION Whatdoes it take tobe a good projectmanager?Take a few I minutes to think about the skills and competencies (and perhaps the attitudes) needed for ef- fective project management.Make a list. Compare your list with those of other students. Do you know any project managers? Do you have relatives or friends who do project work?Try to find someone you can interview to help you get your bearings on project man- agement.(See the exerciseat the end of this chapter.)Then revise your list.
  • 66. I SKILLSNECESSARY FOR EFFECTIVE PROJECT MANAGERS Barry Posner (1987) conducted a survey of project managers, asking them what it takes to be a good project manager. He got the following results: 1. Communications(84 percent of the respondentslisted it) a. Listening b. Persuading 2. Organizational skills (75 percent) a. Planning b. Goal setting c. Analyzing 3. Team-building skills (72 percent) a. Empathy b. Motivation c. Esprit de corps 4. Leadership skills (68 percent) a. Sets example b. Energetic c. Vision (big picture) d. Delegates e. Positive 5. Coping skills (59 percent) a. Flexibility b. Creativity c. Patience d. Persistence 6. Technological skills (46 percent) a. Experience b. Project knowledge Several authors have surveyed project managers and conducted extensive liter- ature searches to learn about essential project management skills. Pinto and Khar- banda (1995) list the following skills necessary for effective project managers: Planning: work breakdown, project scheduling, knowledge of project manage- ment software, budgeting and costing. Organizing: team building, establishing team structure and reporting assign- ments, defining team policies, rules, and protocols. Leading: motivation, conflict management, interpersonal skills, appreciationof team members' strengths and weaknesses,reward systems. Controlling: project review techniques, meeting skills, project close-out tech- niques. Lientz and Rea (1996) provide the following list of keys to success as a project manager:
  • 67. Communicateregularly in person with key team members. Keep managementinformed. Keep informed on all aspects of the project. Delegate tasks to team members. Listen to input from team members. Be able to take criticism. Respond to andlor act on suggestionsfor improvement. Develop contingency plans. Address problems. Make decisions. Learn from past experience. Run an effective meeting. Set up and manage the project file. Use project management tools to generate reports. Understandtrade-offs involving schedule and budget. Have a sense of humor. -- - - INDMDUAL RIFLsCIION How do these lists compare with yours? Was there lots of I overlap? Were there categories of items that were on your list but not on these, and vice versa? Research by Jeffrey Pinto (1986) sought to quantify some of these factors by correlating them with their importance for system implementation(see the accom- panying box). "System implementation" may be interpreted as a successful project outcome. How does one implement all of the characteristics of effective project man- agers?There areso many.One way is toemploy a commonmodeling strategy,called salami tactics, in which a complex problem is broken into smaller, more manageable parts (Starfield, Smith, and Bleloch, 1994). The "slices" that I'll use are the phases in a typical project life cycle-planning, organizing,staffing, directing,and control- ling. PROJECT MANAGER'S ROLE OVER THE PROJECT LIFE CYCLE During the planningstage, you as the project manager must establish project objec- tives and performance requirements. Remember to involve key participants in the process (since, according to an old rule of thumb, involvement builds commitment).
  • 68. CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS AND THEIR IMF'ORTANCEFOR SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION The followingfactors are listed in decreasingorder of 6. Technical tasks. Availability of the required tech- correlation. nology and expertise to accomplish the specific 1. Project mission. Initial clearly defined goals and technicalaction steps to bring the projecton-line. general directions. 7. Client acceptance. The act of "selling" final 2. Top management support. Willingness of top product to its ultimate intended users. management to provide the necessary resources 8. Monitoring and feedback. Timely provision of and authoritylpowerfor implementationsuccess. comprehensivecontrol information at each stage 3. Scheduleplans. Adetailedspecification of the in- in the implementationprocess. dividual action steps for system implementation. 9. Communication.The provisionof an appropriate 4. Client consultation. Communication, consulta- network and necessary data to all key actors in tion, and active listening to all parties impacted the project implementationprocess. by the proposed project. 10. Troubleshooting. Ability to handle unexpected 5. Personnel.Recruitment,selection,and trainingof crises and deviationsfrom plan. the necessary personnelfor theimplantationproj- ect team. SOURCE: Pinto, 1986. Establish well-defined milestones with deadlines. Try to anticipate problems and build in contingencies to allow for them. Carefully outline responsibilities, sched- ules, and budgets. The first step in organizingis to developa work breakdown structurethat divides the project into units of work. If the project is large and complex, then the next step is to create a project organization chart that shows the structure and relationships of key project members. Finally, schedules, budgets, and responsibilities must be clearly and thoroughly defined. The major portionof most projectsuccessesdependson the peopleinvolved with the project.You must define work requirementsand, to the extent possible, seek appro- priate input when selecting team members. Be sure to orient team members to the big picture of the project. Seek each team member's input to define and agree on scope, budget, and schedule. (Remember, involvement builds commitment, and usually a better product.) Set specific performance expectations with each team member.
  • 69. The day-to-day directing of projects involves coordinating project components, in- vestigating potential problems as soon as they arise, and researchingand allocating necessary resources. Be sure to remember to display a positive, can-do attitude, and to be available to team members. Recognize team members' good work and guide necessary improvement. Keeping the project on course with respect to schedule, budget, and performance specificationsrequires paying attention to detail. Some things that usually help are the following: 1. Communicateregularly with team members. 2. Measureprojectperformanceby maintaininga recordof planned and completed work. 3. Chart planned and completed milestones. 4. Chart monthly project costs. 5. Document agreements, meetings, telephoneconversations. Enormouschangesare occurringin the way work and learningare done.You are probably experiencing some of these changes in your classes as you are asked to work on projects in groups and formulate and solve open-endedproblems. If you're working at an engineeringjob, you are surely experiencingsome of these changes. I've tried to provide a perspective on changes that are occurring both in the classroom and in the workplace. One of the most influential referenceson change is Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Efective People (1989), which has sold millions of copies. Covey lists these habits as follows: 1. Be pro-active: Take the initiative and the responsibilityto make things happen. 2. Begin with an end in mind: Start with a clear destination to understand where you are now, where you're going, and what you value most. 3. PutJirst thingsJirst: Manage yourself. Organizeand execute around priorities. 4. Think widwin: See life as a cooperative,not a competitive arena where success is not achieved at the expense or exclusionof the success of others. 5. SeekJirst to understand: Understand then be understood to build the skills of empathic listening that inspire openness and trust. 6. Synergize: Apply the principlesof cooperativecreativity and value differences. 7. Renew: Preserve and enhance 'your greatest asset, yourself, by renewing the physical, spiritual, mental, and sociaVemotiona1dimensionsof your nature. Countless students in my classes have said, "Covey's book changed my life!" The roles of project managers in engineering school and in the workplace are
  • 70. complex and varied. Covey's list provides a good set of heuristics to guide project managers. Another classic that you may want to read is Frederick P. Brooks's The Mythical Man-Month. If this book, which is about softwareproject management, in- trigues you, then you may want to check out Steve McConnell's SofnYare Project Survival Guide. More and moreengineersare involvedin softwaredevelopment, and these two books will help you manage it. 1. What changes have you noted in the workplaceor school? Has your school un- dergone a schedule change recently, for example, from quarters to semesters? How do the changes you've noted compare with those listed in the chapter? 2. This chapteremphasized the changing natureof the workplaceand of engineer- ing work, and the needed project manager skills, based on past (and sometimes current) practice. What do you anticipate project manager skills will be in the future? What do the futurists-John Naisbitt,Watts Walker, Esther Dyson, and others-have to say about this? 3. What skills are essential for effective project managers? How can they be en- hanced and developed? 4. What does the literature report as keys to project success? How does this list compare with your experience? 5. This chapter organized the project manager's role around the life cycle. Are there other ways that come to mind for organizing the project manager's role? What are they? What are their advantagesand disadvantages? Interview a project manager, or someone who is involved with project work. Poten- tial interviewquestionsdeveloped by studentsin my projectmanagementclasses are listed below. This exercise will not only give you a chance to find out more about project management in practice (and refine your list of essential skills, competen- cies, and attitudes), but also may help you decide if it is a career path you'd like to pursue. 1. What is the main thrill or interesting reason for being a project manager? 2. Describe a typical work scheduleduring the week, including number of hours. 3. What directed you to become a project manager?Why not stay in engineering or some other form of business management? 4. Discuss instances of the project manager's role as a team leader and a team member. 5. Discuss the realm and responsibilitiesof the project manager.
  • 71. 6. What personal characteristicsare your best ally during the job's activities? 7. What skills have you had to develop or refine since becoming a project man- ager? 8. What personal goals are you strivingfor, personallyand professionally? 9. What are your weaknesses that slow you down? 10. What are a few of the frustrations of the job? 11. Describe the project manager's professionalcredibility and its value. 12. How does the company you work for consider the project manager and his or her responsibilitiesand opportunities? 13. Describe any battles to complete tasks in the most economical manner and still maintainquality or integrity. 14. How important is the project schedule and what purposes does it serve? 15. Discuss extent of interaction with project owners or clients. 16. What is the project manager's level of involvement with contract negotiations? 17. Discuss the project manager's interaction with other professionals (e.g., engi- neer or architect). 18. What methods does the project manager use to monitor adequate communica- tion between project owner, architect,client, and the job-site crew? 19. What accountingpractices does the project manager use for project budget and regular reviews? 20. Is financial compensationcommensuratewith the work?What other benefitsare there? Brooks, FrederickP., Jr. 1995. The mythical man-month: Essays on sofhvare engineering, anniversary ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. Byrne, J. A. 1992. Paradigms for postmodern managers. BusinessWeek, Special Issue on Reinventing America, 62-63. Covey, Stephen R. 1989. The seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon & Schuster. Dertouzos, M. L., R. K. Lester, and R. M. Solow. 1989. Made in America: Regaining the productive edge. New York: Harper. Drucker, Peter F. 1993. Post-capitalist society. New York: Harper Business. Gaynor, G. H. 1998. The dawning of a new age: Crossroadsof the engineering profession. Today's Engineer l(1): 19-22. Katzenbach, Jon R., and Douglas K. Smith. 1993. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-pe$onnance organization. Cambrige, MA: Harvard BusinessSchool Press.
  • 72. Lientz, Bennet, and Kathryn Rea. 1995. Project management for the 21st century. San Diego: Academic Press. McConnell, Steve. 1998. Sojiware survival guide: How to ensure yourfirst important project isn't your last. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press. Peters, Thomas J. 1991. Managing projectstakes a special kind of leadership Seattle Post-Intelligencer,412911991, p. 64. Peters,Tom. 1999. The WOW project: In the new economy,all work is project work. Fast Company, 24, 116-128. Pinto, J. K. 1986. Projectimplementation: A determination of its critical success factors, moderators, and their relative importanceacross stages in the project life cycle. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation. Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh. Pinto, J. K., and 0.P. Kharbanda.1995. Successfil project managers: Leading your team to success. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Posner, Barry. 1987. Characteristicsof Effective Project Managers. Project Management Journal. (March) Smith, KarlA., and Alisha A. Waller. 1997. New paradigms for engineering education. Pittsburgh, PA: ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings. Starfield,A. M., K. A. Smith, and A. L. Bleloch. 1994. How to model it: Problem solving for the computer age. Edina, MN: Burgess.
  • 73. c h a p t e r Project schedulingis a centralyet often overrated aspectof project management. For some the feeling is "We've got a schedule; we're done." Getting a schedule is just one importantstep in the process of projectmanagement.The real work begins when circumstancescause delays and pressures mount to revise the schedule. IWDMDUAL REFLECTION Think about how you typicallyschedulecomplex projects. I such as completinga major reportfor a class. Do you make a list of things to do? An outline? Do you draw a concept map? Or do you just start writing? In this chapter, we'll work our way through the details of the scheduling process. We'll learn the basics of the critical path algorithm and experiencefirsthand the ideas of forward pass, backward pass, critical path, and float. As you developan understandingof these concepts and procedures, you will gain insight into manag- ing projects with complex schedules. Let's revisit the meal-planningexercise from Chapter 4 (p. 51). Take a look at what you did for this exercise. If you didn't do it yet, go back and think about how you would tackle this task. We will use this exerciseas the projectexample through- out this chapter. REFLECTION What representation (model) did your group use to determine the time? I How did you keep track of which activitieshad to follow each other and which could be going on at the same time? How did you go about determining the total time the meal preparation and eating would take? Did you make a list? A timeline?Or did you approachthe problemin some other way?
  • 74. A common approachfor scoping a projectis to preparea work breakdown structure (WBS). The WBS can be presented as a list or an organization chart. A one- level WBS for the meal-planning exercise would be "Prepare the meal," but this wouldn't be too helpfulin figuring out what had to be done.A two-levelWBS would include: Preparation Boil soup Boil rice Boil peas Brown chicken Prepare sauce Bake chicken, rice, and sauce Open wine and let it breathe Eating Eat soup Eat entrke This two-level WBS provides more specific guidance but still leaves a lot up to the chef (which is OK in many cases). A moreelaborate approachto preparinga WBS is to use Post-it notes to sort out the sequences. There are several possible sequencesfor the activities for this WBS, dependingon how you interpret the"properorder"of preparing this meal. One pos- sible WBS is shown in Figure 6.1. In this WBS only the activity names and the resource (Pot 1, etc.) that the ac- :pareSauce 'an Figure 6.1 Work breakdown structure
  • 75. tivity uses are listed. Notice that I've made decisions about placing the sauce on the entrke before putting it in the oven, and having the wine with the entrke rather than with the soup. You may have chosen a differentsequence, perhaps to have the wine with the soup or to place the sauce on the entreeafter it is served. Later we'll explore how these choices affect the schedule. REFLECTION Have you used the WBS idea for scoping projects? If not, are there places I in your personal and professional life where you can immediately apply the WBS idea? How about engineering course or design projects you're working on? If you want more practice, try the office remodeling project exercise at the end of this chapter. Now that we have a WBS for the meal-planningproject, we can determine the min- imum time to complete it. To do this, we go through Figure 6.1, number each activ- ity and list the time it takes (see Figure 6.2). Examine the precedence network in Figure 6.2 to determine the minimum time to complete the project. Sum the indi- vidual activity durations along each path; for example, path 1+ 5 + 10 is 35 +15 + 25 = 75 minutes.Which path is longest? Provided that the numberof activitiesis not too large, problemsof this type can often be solved by hand. By sketching the relationshipsbetween the individualtasks, and takinginto accountthe amountof time each requiresfor completion,we can de- termine the total amount of time needed to get the whole process completed. Figure 6.2 Precedence network
  • 76. ", pare Sauce Wine Breathes FI Figure 6.3 Forward Pass When the number of tasks gets large-say, over 20-then it's quite challenging to keep track of everything by hand. A simple and systematic way of doing this is provided by the critical path method (CPM). This method represents the flow of tasks in the form of a network. To use it, we simply have to know the duration of each of the activities,and the predecessorsof each-that is, the set of activities that must have terminated before an activity can begin. FORWARD PASS-EARLY START (ES) AND EARLY FINISH (EF) The first step in the CPM is to run through the network from beginning to end and mark the earliest time that each activity can start. In Figure 6.3, this time is in the upper left-hand corner of each activity. This is clearly obtained by adding the earli- est start of its latest starting predecessorto that predecessor's duration. When two or more activities must be completed before the next one can start (such as Brown Chicken and Prepare Sauce before Bake Entrke), then the maximum must be used. The early finish (EF) time is determined by summing the early start (ES) and the du- ration (see Figure 6.3). BACKWARD PASS-LATE START (LS) AND LATE FINISH (LF) Similarly, a backward pass is made, establishingthe latest possiblestartingtime (late start,LS) that an activity can have, which is the latest start of the earlieststartingsuc- cessor, less the duration of the activity under consideration(see Figure 6.4). The re- sult is the late finish (LF) time.
  • 77. 3s Breathes 30 <A Figure 6.4 Backward Pass Activitiesfor which the earliest and latest times turn out to be equal are called crit- ical.That is, they cannot be delayed withoutdelaying the durationof the entire proj- ect. The path that these activitieslie on in the network is known as the critical path. The remainingnoncritical activities have some float (sometimesreferred to as slack) and can have their durations increased by some amount before they would become critical and delay the total duration. The amount by which termination of a noncritical activity can be delayed before it causes one of its successorsto be delayedis called the free float of thatactivity.Tech- nically, the free float (FF) is based on early start (ES) times and for any activity i is equal to the minimum early start for activities following activity i minus the early start for i minus the duration (D) for i. Algebraically, the free float is determined as follows: FF,= (ES;+ - ESi- D; The amount of slack an activity has before it would cause the path on which it lies to becomecritical is called the totalfloat. The total float of an activity is the min- imum (out of all of the paths on which it lies) of the sum of its free float and those of all activities ahead of it on the path. Thus an activity is critical if its total float is zero. Technically, the total float (TF) is the difference between the late start (LS) times and the early start (ES) times. Algebraically, the total float for an activity i is determined as follows:
  • 78. TF, = LSi- ES,- LFi- EFi The numericalsolution to the meal-planning problemis given in Table 6.1. Table 6.1 Meal-planning exercise: critical path method results Early Late Float Current Critical Activity Name Duration Resources Start Finish Start Finish Total Free Start Path Open Wine Wine Breathes Boil Soup Eat Soup Boil Rice Boil Peas Brown Chicken Prepare Sauce Bake Entrke Eat Entr6e 0 15 15 20 15 0 0 No 5 35 20 50 15 15 5 No 0 35 0 35 0 0 0 Yes 35 50 35 50 0 0 5 Yes 0 30 5 35 5 35 0 No 30 45 60 75 30 30 30 No 0 15 20 35 35 20 0 No 15 20 45 50 30 30 15 No 30 45 35 50 5 5 30 No 50 75 50 75 0 0 50 Yes GANTT CHARTS AND CRITPATH Another common model for representing scheduling projects is a time-scaled net- work, called a Ganttchart, where the activitieshave been laid out on a time axis.The table and Gantt chart for the first eight activities,shownin Figure6.5, were prepared using the CritPath software program, which is available for downloading from the Figure 6.5 Gantt chart
  • 79. If 1 lucup 1 4 0 3 3 5 0 0 0 (r 1s If 35 ll a 50 1 0 8 3 . 4 5 0 b p a &ilP*n 11 1 w ~ ~ 4 5 6 9 7 ~ 3 0 3 0 If 20 _ s *as_ rs-to- I, 5 xi 21) m $9 (5 _Lj WW -- -w wv -srre e.*we Figure 6.6 Algorithm stepper BESTWeb site and is bundled with How to Model It (Starfield, Smith, and Blelock, 1994).The CritPathprogram is set up to display only eight activities at a time. If you want to view the rest of it, download the CritPath program and play with it. If you are still having difficulty understanding the differencesbetween free and total float or are struggling with the critical path calculations,use the algorithmstep- per in the CritPath program. It will walk you through the process using a graphical representation (see Figure 6.6). Notice how there is no gap in the path that includes the activities Open Wine, Eat Soup, and Eat Entree? That means, of course, that they are on the critical path. Also notice how there is a gap after the activities Wine Breathes, Prepare Sauce, Bake Entrie, and Boil Peas;this meansthey have free float in addition to having total float. The activities Brown Chicken and Open Wine are followed by a gap farther down the path, but not by an immediategap; this means that they have total float but not free float. INDMDUAL REFLECTION Take a few minutes to think about the advantages and dir I advantagesof the two representationsof the meal-planning project-the precedencenetwork (Figure 6.4)and the Ganttchart (Figure 6.5).Whatare the unique features of each?What spe- cific features does each represent?Where is each appropriate? In the above Reflection, you may have concluded that both the precedence net- work and the Gantt chart are essential for understandingcomplex projectsand com- municatingprojectinformation.The Ganttchart is a time-scaled network, since time
  • 80. is represented directly. It gives a clear picture of the duration of events, but it doesn't directly show the nature of the interdependence,that is, what has to follow what. The precedence network, on the other hand, clearly shows the interdepend- ence-precedence and simultaneity, that is, what has to follow what and what can be going on at the same time-but it doesn't directly show the time required for each activity. The CritPath program, like most project scheduling software, uses the prece- dence network representation to do the critical path calculations. Many people find the Gantt chart most useful for tracking project progress. In summary, the sequenceof steps to apply the critical path method to projectsched- uling is as follows: 1. Develop a work breakdown structure (WBS). 2. Connect the activities in the WBS by arrows that indicate the precedence. 3. Perform the critical path analysiscalculationseither by hand (for a simple prob- lem) or with computer software (for a complex problem). 4. Create graphical representations-a precedence network and a Gantt chart- that suit your purposes. Bus SHELTER CONSTRUCTIONEXAMPLE Now that we've worked through the meal-planning exercisein some detail, let's try another example. Consider the construction project outlined in Table 6.2. Note that the precedencerelationshipsare specified so you don't have to create a work break- down structure;however,developinga precedencenetworkis an importantstep.The resources column specifies the number of people requiredfor each task. Table 6.2 Bus shelter construction example Job Name Duration Resources Predecessors 1 Shelter Slab 2 2 5 2 ShelterWalls 1 1 1 3 Shelter Roof 2 2 2,4 4 Roof Beam 3 2 2 5 Excavation 2 3 6 Curb and Gutter 2 3 5 7 Shelter Seat 1 2 4,6 8 Paint 1 1 7 9 Signwork 1 2 2,6
  • 81. / Gutter Excavation m4Q p&~kp2--pqfBeam Figure 6.7 Precedence network for bus shelter Determine the minimum time required to complete the bus shelter. Develop a precedence network. Identify the critical path. Draw a Gantt chart for the project. Give it a try before looking further. (A precedencenetwork is sketched out in Figure 6.7.) Next, perform the critical path analysiscalculations.You may do this by hand if you want more practice, or you can use CritPath or another commercial project- schedulingprogram.The table and Gantt chart for the first eight activitiesare shown in Figure 6.8. ~ttChart F i g u ~6.8 Ganii chart for bus shelter
  • 82. Table 6.3 Bus shelter construction: critical path method results Early Late Float Current Critical Activity Name Duration Resources Start Finish Start Finish Total Free Start Path 1 Shelter Slab 2 2 2 4 2 4 0 0 2 Yes 2 Shelter Walls 1 1 4 5 4 5 0 0 4 Yes 3 Shelter Roof 2 2 8 10 8 10 0 0 8 Yes 4 Roof Beam 3 2 5 8 5 8 0 0 5 Yes 5 Excavation 2 3 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 Yes 6 Curb and Gutter 2 3 2 4 6 8 4 1 2 No 7 Shelter Seat 1 2 8 9 8 9 0 0 8 Yes 8 Paint 1 1 9 10 9 10 0 0 9 Yes 9 Signwork 1 2 5 6 9 10 4 4 5 No Lookcarefullyat the critical path method resultsand the Gantt chart. Noticethat there is more than one critical path. The presence of multiple critical paths can be seen on the Algorithm Stepper feature of the CritPath program, since all the paths through the network are displayed. Get the CritPath software and try it. Table 6.3 shows the entire set of results for the bus shelter construction project. Try developing and setting up your next project using the critical path method. Do the calculations by hand a couple times to familiarize yourself with the forward pass and backward pass of the algorithm.Then use CritPath or another commercial project-schedulingprogram. Critical activities, having no slack, cannot be extended or shifted without upsetting the scheduled completion of the project. However, the slack afforded by noncritical activities can be exploited to provide the best distribution of resources over the du- ration of the entire project. For example, it might be difficult or expensive to hire more than a certain number of laborers at any one time. By shifting noncritical ac- tivities within their floats, it is possible to spread the distribution of labor more evenly over the span of the project. At other times it may be beneficial to load the distributionin a certain way, for example,if work over a holiday period is to be min- imized. Decisionsof these kinds can be made only when the constraints (e.g., earli- est and latest start times) of the schedule have been determined. Look at what hap- pens to the resourcehistogramfor the bus shelterprojectwhen you shift all activities to their early start times (Figure 6.9). What do you expect would happen if you shifted all activities to their late start times? See Figure 6.10.
  • 83. Shelter Slab 2 i exri 2 * % c * ource Histc Figure 6.9 Resource histogram for bus shelter file EdL I ~ e wFrojecl Help 1 Task L~st ~rrent Early Late Float T I J C D C S C ~ ~ ~ ~ O ~~ D U E j ~ e ~lrtecsssing t i r ~ s18arl Inoat Isan ~mirh sdri midi T Q I ~ F W ~ Shelter Slab ' 2 n x r v 2 - i d '0 lo source ~fsto~rarn ' n Figure 6.10 Resource histogram-latest times CompareFigures 6.9 and 6.10 to help you decide what the best allocationof re- sources would be. Notice that there is not too much that you can do to level the re- sources in this case, which is sometimes the situation with real projects.
  • 84. You may on some projects work through the critical path calculations and find that the required project duration is greater than the time you have available. Or, more commonly, you may get behind during the project due to bad weather, late deliver- ies, work delays, and so on. In such cases, you could, of course, go to your supervi- sor or professor and ask for an extension. Alternatively, you could add resources (e.g., people, overtime) to activities on the critical path to decrease their duration, thus decreasing the time for the entire project. Technically,this is known as "crash- ing" a project. Why wouldn't we add resources to noncriticalactivities?Let's work through the example shown in Table 6.4 to get a better sense of how this works. Table 6.4 Critical path method cost example Incremental Task Precedence Normal Time CrashTime Normal Cost Cost Per Day Figure 6.11 shows the normal schedule duration. The normal schedule cost is just the sum of the normal costs for the four activities-$2,700. Figure 6.1 1 Gantt chart for cost example
  • 85. PROJECT RESOURCEAND COST CONSIDERATIONS 77 Figure 6.1 2 Gantt chart-all paths critical As the project manager you would have to choose which activities along the critical path to add resources to, in order to decrease their duration. What criteria would you use to choose the activities?Ordinarily, the project manager would crash the activities that had the minimum cost per unit of time saved. Often convenience, availability, and other factors must be considered. Let's look at what happens as we decrease the duration of activities on the crit- ical path for the examdleabove. The lowest cost choice is Activity D. By decreasing the duration of Activity D from 3 to 2, the overall project duration decreases to 10 and the cost increases to $2,700 +$200 =$2,900. Next we can add resources to Ac- tivity A to decrease it to 7. The overall project duration becomes 9, and the cost in- creases to $3,000.Adding more resourcestoA to decreaseit to 6 decreasesthe over- all project duration to 8 and increases the cost to $3,300. The updated Gantt chart is shown in Figure 6.12. We can continue to decrease the duration of the overall proj- ect, but now we must add resources to more than one activity and hence the cost in- creases at a higher rate. As you add resources to critical activities and decrease the duration along the critical path, eventually, more and more activities become critical. INDlWDlIIL AND GkOlBP REFLECTION What are some good strategies for using the float over the life of a project? Do you, for example, let things slide early on, thus using I the float up early? Or do you wait until later in the project to use the float? As a project man- ager, how do you recommend that the float be utilized?
  • 86. It is not hard to see that if we were to add a few more activities,the problem would soon become unmanageableby hand. Further, if changes have to be made either to the order in which activities must occur, or in the time in which they can be com- pleted, the entire process would have to be repeated. The advantage of the critical path method is that it is indeed systematic.It can be described as a formal set of in- structions that can be followed by a computer. Alterations in the data can be made repeatedly and the problemquicklysolved,again by the machine.This would enable us to obtain the benefit of what-if analysis, the process of making changes and see- ing the effects of those changes immediately. Such analysis gives the user an intu- itive feel for the problem. The role of the computer will be addressedin more detail in Chapter 9. 1. What is a work breakdown structure (WBS)? Why is it important? What are some of the types of WBSs? 2. What is the critical path method (CPM)? What are free and total float? 3. Explain the differencesbetween resourceleveling and crashing a project. 4. How have you typically managed complex projects in the past? How well did the approach work? Not all projects merit taking the time to develop a schedule,since they can be managed by making a list or by using your day plan- ner. Where could you apply the critical path method and how do you expect it might help? 5. How does the CritPath program compare with other software packages you've used? With a spreadsheet,for example? 6. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of relying on project- scheduling algorithms? The following activities must be accomplished to complete an office remodeling project:
  • 87. Activity Procure paint Procure new carpet Procure new furniture Remove old furniture Remove old carpet Scrub walls Paint walls Install new carpet Movein new furniture Estimated Duration (Days) 2 5 7 1 1 1 2 1 1 1. Create a possible work breakdown structure (WBS) for the remodeling project. 2. When can the new furniture be moved in? 3. What is the minimum project duration? 4. Which activitiesdo you have to pay close attentionto if you want to finishat the earliest possible time? Given the following set of project data, determine the smoothest distribution of re- sources.Assume resources are transferable. Task Duration Resources Predecessor 3. CRASHING Given the following project data, determine the normal schedulecost. Crash the proj- ect as far as possible. List the project durationand cost for each step along the way. Normal Crash Normal Incremental Task Precedence Time Time Cost Cost Per Day
  • 88. Develop a work breakdown structure, precedence network, and Gantt chart for a project you're involved with. Complete the critical path analysis calculations. Use these representationsto guide the project and to review progress. Imagine you've just inherited a lakeside lot in Northern Minnesota (beautiful in the summer) that has an access road, electricity,and water and sewage disposal.You've also been given a modest sum with which to buy building materials. If you're hav- ing trouble imagining yourself being so lucky, consider the possibility that a friend or neighbor asked you for an estimate on how much it would cost to build a cabin and for help in designing and building. Engineers are often expected to know such things. How much would it cost for a modest, say 24-foot-square cabin? How long would it take you to build it? The cabin cost estimate project is a favorite of students in my project manage- ment classes. Since wehaven't done too much with cost estimating(it's usually done in engineering economics courses), I'll provide a little guidance. I suggest you take the following steps: I. Guess. Take a wild guess at what it would cost for materialsfor a modest cabin. 2. Look up the square-foot costs for typical residential construction ($50-$70 per square foot) and adjust it down for a modest cabin. Many students use $30 per square foot for a modest cabin. 3. Use a unit cost approach: a. Develop a floor plan. b. Create a detailed list of materials with associated quantities. c. Find the cost of the materials in a local building center brochure (or cost manual). d. Use a spreadsheet to list and calculate the total cost of the materials. 4. Compare the three cost estimates-guess, cost per square foot, and unit cost. Use the proceduresoutlinedin this chapter to determinehow long it would take you to build it; that is, developa WBS and a schedule using the critical path method. Starfield,A. M., K. A. Smith, and A. L. Bleloch. 1994. How to model it: Problem solving for the computer age. Edina, MN: Burgess. (Includes disk with CritPathand WinExp.)
  • 90. C H A P T E R 7 PROJECTMONITORINGAND EVALUATION Their purposeis unclear. Participantsare unprepared. Key people are absent or missing. The conversation veers off track. Participantsdon't discuss issues but instead dominate, argue, or take no part at all. Decisions made during the meeting are not followed up. I INDlWDUAL REFLECTION Think about some of your best (and worst) experiences in meetings. How do the complaints listed above compare with your experiences in meetings? What additional challenges have you encountered? What conditions contribute to best and worst experiences? What are some of the strategies you use or have seen used to counter the worst experiences? Five guidelinesfrom the book Meetings: Do's, Don'ts, and Donuts (Lippincott, 1994) can help alleviate some of the most common problems: 1. State in a couple of sentences exactly what you want your meeting to accom- plish. 2. If you think a meeting is the best way to accomplish this, then distribute an agenda to participantsat least two days in advance. 3. Set ground rules to maintain focus, respect, and order during the meeting. 4. Take responsibilityfor the meeting's outcome. 5. If your meeting isn't working, try other tools, such as brainstorming. Using a meeting process such as the one outlined in The Team Handbook (Scholtes, Joiner, and Streibel, 1996) can help. The authors describe the three-part meeting process as follows: Before Plan. Clarify meeting purpose and outcome. Identify meeting participants. Select methods to meet purpose. Develop and distribute agenda. Set up room. During Start: check-in, review agenda, set or review ground rules, clarify roles. Conduct--coverone item at a time, manage discussions, maintainfocus and pace.
  • 91. How TO RUN A MEETING Plan the Meeting Allocate time on the basis of importance, not its Be clear on objectivesof the meeting. urgency. Be clear why you need the meeting. Structureand Control List the topics to be addressed. Put all evidence before interpretation and action. Inform Stop people from jumping back and going over old ground. Make sure everyoneknows exactly what is being discussed, why and what you want from the dis- Summarizeand Recall cussion. Summarize all decisions and record them with Anticipate what people and information may be the nameof the person responsiblefor any action. needed and make sure they are there. Prepare SOURCE: Adapted from the video "Meetings, BloodyMeetings," Prepare the logical sequence of items. starring JohnCleese 1993. Close-summarize decisions, review action items, solicit agenda items for next meeting, review time and place for next meeting, evaluate the meeting, thank participants. After Distributeor post meeting notes promptly. File agendas, notes, and other documents. Do assignments. The box "How to Run a Meeting" also provides good advice for running effective meetings. One common method for monitoring the effectiveness of group work is the plusldelta group processing approach typically attributed to the Boeing Company. Near the end of the meeting the group stops working on the task and spends a few minutes discussinghow well they worked. The group makes a list that records what went wellon one side (+) and what they could do even better on the other (A). Other methods include individual reflection, using instruments such as the one in Figure 7.1. Members fill in the chart and then discuss each other's scores and comments. More complex monitoringinvolvescollectingdata on individualparticipationin the team. Several observationforms are available.The one I start studentswith in my project management classes is shown in Figure 7.2. Any task or maintenance be- havior (see Chapter 3) may be listed in the rows. Group members take turns observ-
  • 92. For each trait, rate the team on a scale of 1 to 5: 1= Not present (opposite trait present) 2 =Very poor (not much evidence of positive trait) 3 = Poor (some positive trait seen) 4 = Good (positive trait evident more than opposite trait) 5 =Very good (large amounts of evidence of positive trait) Positive mait Score Comments Safety Inclusion Free interaction Appropriate level of interdependence Cohesiveness Tmst Conflict resolution Influence Accomplishment Growth I SOURCE: Uhlfedler, 1997. Figurn 7.1 A sample individual reflection instrument ing the group and recording each member's participation.They then provide feed- backabout the group's functioningduring the processingphase. A rule of thumb that I commonly use is "Keep the feedback specific, descriptive, immediate, and posi- tive." I give negative feedback only if the person requests it. If negative feedback is requested, the person is usually ready to hear it. Only then will it be helpful. More rules include the following,from Scholtes (1988): Guidelines for Constructive Feedback Acknowledge the need for feedback. Give positive feedback. Give negative feedback only if the recipient asks for it. Understand the context. Know when to give feedback. Know how to give feedback: Be descriptive. Don't use labels. Don't exaggerate. Don't be judgmental. Speak for yourself. Talk first about yourself, not about the other person. Phrase the issue as a statement, not a question. Restrict your feedback to things you observed. Help people hear and accept your compliments when giving positive feedback.
  • 93. Observation Category Names Total Task Contributesideas Maintenance Encourages Total Notes: Observation Directions: 1. Move your chair so you can see each member of the group clearly without interactingwith them. 2. Write the name of each person in the group at the top of one of the columns on the observation sheet. 3. Watch each person systematically. As you see each person display one of the two behaviors specified (contributesideas or encourages),place a hatch mark below his or her name, in the box to the right of the appropriatebehavior. 4. Task means anythingthat helps the group accomplish its task. For example,Contributesideas means giving an idea related to one of the questions on the worksheet andlorto somethingsaid by another group member related to the task. 5. Maintenance means anythingthat helps improve working relationshipsin the group. Encourages means praisingothers' ideas or inviting others to contribute. 6. You may make some notations below the grid that may help you explain some scoring. 7. When time is called, total the hatch marks in each column and across each row. 8. When you give feedback to the group you will only give them the column totals and the row totals. Let them see the sheet. Do not interpret what you saw, or what the totals might suggest. You may be tempted to soften what you say. Don't allow this to happen.You are not criticizing; you are only reporting what you saw, related to very specific behaviors. 9. It is the job of the group to discuss what the totals might suggest about how they functioned as a group, and to develop one or two sentences that capture this thought. Figure 7.2 Observation Sheet
  • 94. - -- C H A PT E R 7 PROJECT MONITORINGAND EVALUATION Totals Process Shutting out Bringing in Figure7.3 Xerox's Interactive Skills Coding Worksheet Another form that I've found very useful is shown in Figure 7.3. This was de- veloped by Xerox Corporation and is included in the company's interactive skills workbook (1986). On facing page is a table that defines and gives examples of be- havior categories listed in the worksheet. The purpose of collecting data on group functioning by observing and other means is not only to provide data for monitoring but also to help each member at- tend to how the group is performing. Even if you don't have an opportunity to sys- tematicallyobservea team, read the definitions and examples in Figure 7.3 and think about how you can expand your repertoireof behaviors. An even more sophisticated approach to processing the work of teams was devel- oped by Domellon (1996), who claims, "Not all groups are teams." Although, as I mentioned in Chapter 2, the words group and team are often used interchangeably, it is important to distinguish between the gathering of people into groups and the purposefulformationof a team. A team, accordingto Donnellon,is "a groupof peo- ple who are necessary to accomplish a task that requires the continuous integration of the expertise distributedamong them"(p. 10). Donnellon studied team talk and devised six dimensions along which to assess teams: identification (with what group team members identify); interdependence (whether team members felt independentfrom or interdependentwith one another);
  • 95. Definitions and Examples Behavior Category Definition Examples Proposing A behaviorthat puts forward a new suggestion, proposal, or course of action. Building A behavior that usually takes the form of a proposal, but that actually extends or develops a proposal made by another person. Supporting A behavior that makes a conscious and direct declaration of agreement with or support for another person, or for theirconceptsand opinions. Disagreeing A behavior that statesa direct disagreement or which 'let's deal with that one tomorrow." "I suggest we add more resourcesto.. ." "...and your plan would be even better if we added a second reporting stage" ''If I can take that further, we could also use the system to give us better cost control." "Yes, I go along with that." "Sounds OK to me." "Fine. I accept that." "No, I don't agree with that.'' raises obstacles and objections to another person's 'LYourthird point just isn't true." concepts or opinions. Disagreeing is about issues. 'What you're suggesting won't work." Defendinglattacking A behaviorthat attacks another person, either directly or by defensiveness. Defendinglattacking usually involve value judgments and often contain emotional overtones. They are usually about people, not issues. Testing understanding A behavior that seeks to establish whether or not an earliercontribution has been understood. It differs from seeing information in that it is an attempt to ensureagreement or consensus of some kind, and refers to a prior question or issue. Summarizing A behaviorthat summarizes or restates, in a compact form, the content of previous discussions or events. Seeking information A behavior that seeks facts, opinions, or clarification from another person. Giving information A behavior that offers facts, opinions, or clarification to other people. Bringingin* A behaviorthat invites views or opinions from a member of the group who is not actively participating in the discussion. Shuttingout* A behavior that excludes another person or persons, or reduces their opportunity to contribute. Interrupting is the most common form of shutting out. Figure 7.3 Xerox's Interactive Skills Coding Worksheet (Continued) I *Characteristic of a process behavior. "That's stupid.'' "... and your third point is either stupid or an out-and-outlie." "Don't blame me, it's not my fault; it's John's responsibility." "Can I just check to be sure we're talking about the same thing here?" "Can I take it that we all now agree on this?" "So far, we have agreed (a)To divide responsibilities, (b) To meet weekly (c)To finish the draft proposal by .. ." "What timeline did we agree to?" "Can anyone tell me what page that table is on?" "Have you checked that thoroughly?" "I remembera case like that last year." "There are at least three alternatives." "Dick, have you anything to say on this one?" "Cheryl has been very quiet. I wonder whether she has anything she would like to say here." Jose: "What do you think, Bob?" Karl: "What I think is.. ." (Karl is shuttingout Bob.) power differentiation(how much team members use the differencesin their organi- zational power); social distance (whether team members feelclose to or distant from one another socially);conflict management tactics (whether members use the tactics
  • 96. of forceor collaborationto managetheirconflicts);and negotiation process (whether the team uses a win-lose or a win-win process). Donnellon then used these dimen- sions to differentiate between nominal teams and real teams, as shown in Table 7.1. Table 7.1 Nominal versus real groups Nominal Team Real Team - - - Identification Functional group Team Interdependence Independence Interdependence Power differentiation High Low Social distance Distant Close Conflict management tactics Forcing, accommodating,avoiding Confronting, collaborating Negotiationprocess Win-lose Win-win I SOURCE: Donnellon, 1996. The dimensions shown in the table are consistent with the underlying concep- tual framework in this book. I encourage you to examine the groups and teams you're in along these dimensions. Donnellon's team talkaudit for assessing team dy- namics is included in her book. Use this instrument to attend to the team talk, reflect on what it tells you about the team, and then plan how you will discuss the assess- ment with the team. Donnellon also described five types of teams based on the categorization in her six dimensions. In Table 7.2, I've summarized some of the more direct paths. Think about where your team fits. Table 7.2 Team talk dimensions Power Social Conflict Identification Interdependence Differentiation Distance Negotiation Management FYofile Team High Low Close Win-win Collaborative Collaborative Team Moderate Low Close Win-win Force-avoid Mostly collaborative Team Moderate High Close Emergent Both High High Distant Win-lose Forceavoid Adversarial Both Low High Distant Win-lose Force-avoid Adversarial Function Low Low Distant Nominal Function Low-independence High Distant Win-lose Force-avoid Doomed I SOURCE: Donnellon, 1996. Donnellon's work indicates that there are very few paths to collaborative team profiles, a conclusion borne out in the work of Katzenbach and Smith (1993), and Bennis and Beiderman (1997), whose case studies note that very few teams per-
  • 97. form at the highest levels. With these dimensions in mind, carefully examine your group and team experiences and then explicitly discuss the performance (function- ing) of your team to help you decide (1) to leave if your team is doomed, (2) refine the team if you're in the middle, or (3) celebrate and continue performing if you're a collaborativeteam. Using the monitoring and processingformats described above to systematically reflect on the team's performance on both task and maintenance dimensions will help the team achieve its goals and help the members get better at working with one another. Group processing takes time and commitment,and is typically difficult for highly motivated, task-oriented individuals. Spending a little bit of carefully struc- tured time on how the team is functioning can make an enormous differencein the team's effectiveness and quality of the working environment. At the end of a project it is important, and often a requirement,to conduct an evalu- ation. Tjpically, a set of project evaluation questions guides this process. The fol- lowing, generatedby Haynes (1989),is a typical set of questions: 1. How close to scheduledcompletion was the project actually completed? 2. What did we learn about scheduling that will help us on our next project? 3. How close to budget was final project cost? 4. What did we learn about budgeting that will help us on our next project? ~ 5. Upon completion,did the project output meet client specifications without ad- ditional work? 6. What, if any, additional work was required? 7. What did we learn about writingspecifications that will help us on our next proj- ect? 8. What did we learn about staffing that will help us on our next project? 9. What did we learn about monitoring performance that will help us on our next project? 10. What did we learn about taking correctiveaction that will help us on our next project? 11. What technologicaladvances were made? 12. What tools and techniques were developed that will be useful on our next proj- ect? 13. What recommendationsdo we have for future research and development? 14. What lessonsdid we learnfrom our dealings with serviceorganizationsand out- side vendors? 15. If we had the opportunity to do the project over, what would we do differently?
  • 98. C H A PT E R 7 . PROJECT MONITORING AND EVALUATION Evaluation doesn't have to occur only at the end of the project; it is often initiated when a project falls behind schedule or goes over budget. You have probably been involvedin group projectsthat got behind scheduleor used more resourcesthat were initially allocated. INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION How have you dealt with projects that get behind schedule or use more resources than were initially allocated? What are some of the strategies you've used? Take a few minutes and reflect on dealing with delays and cost overruns. There are lots of internal things you can do with your project team to address delays and resource excesses. Sometimes it's necessary to try to change external conditions to address delays and overruns. Here's a list of some things you can do: 1. Recover later in the project. If there are early delays or overruns, review the scheduleand budget for recovery later.This is a common strategyin many proj- ects. How often have you done extraordinarywork at the last minute,especially the night before the project is due? 2. Reduce project scope. Considereliminatingnonessentialelementsor containing scope creep. Engineers often find better ways of doing things during projects and are sometimes perfectionists,so there is a tendency for the scope to creep. 3. Renegotiate. Discuss with the client the possibilityof extending the deadline or increasing the budget. How often have you asked a professorfor an extension? This is a common strategy, but sometimes there is not flexibility. 4. Add resources. Adding resources-people, computers, and so on-to a project (activitiesalong the critical path,as you learned in Chapter6)can reducethe du- ration. The increased costs must be traded off with the benefits of the reduced schedule. 5. Offer incentives or demand compliance. Sometimesby offeringincentives (pro- vided you don't endanger peoples' lives or sacrifice performancespecification) you can get a project back on track. Other times you may have to demand that people do what they said they would do. 6. Be creative. If the delay is caused by resources that have not arrived, you may have to accept substitutions,accept partial delivery, or seek alternativesources. - I BUILDING QUALITYINTO PROJECTS Evaluationand continualimprovement often becomean ongoing part of projectsand company culture.Often this aspectof company or organizationalcultureis described
  • 99. BUILDINGQUALITY INTO PROJECTS Table 7.3 Thinking about quality Old New -- -- - Competition motivates people to do better work For every winner there's a loser Pleaseyour boss Scapegoating pinpoints problems Focus improvementson individual processes Find the cause and fix the problem The job is complete if specifications have been met Inspection and measurementensurequality Risks and mistakes are bad You can complete your education Bosses command and control Bosses have to know everything Short-termprofitsare best You don't have to be aware of your basic beliefs Do it now I SOURCE: Dobyns and Crowford-Mason, 1994. Cooperation helps people do more effective work Everyone can win Please your customer Improve the system Focus on the purpose of the overall system, and how the processes can be improved to serveit better First, acknowledgethere is variation in all thingsand people; see if the problemfalls in or outside the system Continual improvementis an unending journey A capable process, shared vision and aim, good leadership, and training are major factors in creating quality Risks are necessary and some mistakes inevitable when you practice continual improvement Everyone is a lifelonglearner Bosses help workerslearn and make improvements The team with a good leader knows and can do more Significant achievementin a complex world takes time You must be conscious of your beliefs and constantly examine and test them to see if they continue to be true Thinkfirst, then act as a quality initiative.Table7.3 providesa set of insightfulcontrasts between old and new thinking about quality. Engineers are often required to help develop a quality initiative in their organi- zation.You may have been involvedin a quality initiativein your work or school.Al- though there has been some attention paid to quality in schools (see Langford and Cleary,1995, for example), much of the emphasis on quality has been in the work- place. Business and industry have taken the lead, as indicated,for example, by Ford Motor Company's motto "Quality is job one." Some quality basics include a systems perspective, emphasis on the customer, and understanding variation. Knowledgeof sources of variation, especially ways of measuring and documenting them, and strategies for reducing variability and main- taining consistent quality are essential. Further reading on quality is contained in the references by Deming (1993, 1996),Bowles and Harnrnond (1991), Dobyns and Crawford-Mason (1994), Bras- sand (1989),Sashkin& Kiser (1994), and Walton (1986).You may also want to con- sult a basic textbook on quality, such as Summers (1997).
  • 100. 92 C HA PT E R 7 PROJECT MONITORINGAND EVALUATION 1. Where did you develop skills for monitoring the work on project teams? Have you had an opportunity to observe a project team? If so, where? What did you learn from the experience?Do you try to attend to what's happening within the group while it is working? 2. What can you do to improve the functioning of teams during "boring and use- less" meetings?List things you can do and strategiesfor doing them. Try them out! 3. Check out some of the ethnographicresearch on work in organizations,such as Brown and Duguid (1991) article in Organizational Science. (The paper is also availableon the Xerox PaloAlto Research CenterWeb site). How does research affect your view of work in organizations? 4. What are some strategiesfor building quality into projects? 5. How can project evaluation, which is often seen as a punitive process, become a more positive and constructive process? What are things that project team members and managers can do to make evaluation an ongoing part of project work? Bennis,W., and P. W. Biederman.1997. Organizing genius: The secrets of creative collaboration. Reading: Addison-Wesley. Bowles, J., and J. Hammond. 1991. Beyond quality: How 50 winning companies use continuous improvement. New York: Putnam. Brassand, Michael. 1989. The memory jogger plus: Featuring the seven managementand planning tools. Methuen, MA: GOALIQPC. Brown, John Sealy, and Paul Duguid. 1991. Organizationalknowledge and communitiesof practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organizational Science 2(1): 40-57. Cleese, J., and A. Jay. 1993. Meetings, bloody meetings. London: Video arts. Derning, W. E. 1986. Out of crisis. Cambridge, MA: MIT Center for Advanced EngineeringStudy. .1993. The new economics for industry, government, education. Cambridge,MA: MIT Center for Advanced EngineeringStudy. Dobyns, Lloyd, and Clare Crawford-Mason.1994. Thinking about quality: Progress, wisdom, and the Deming philosophy. New York: Times. Donnellon,Anne. 1996. Team talk: The power of language in team dynamics. Cambridge,MA: Harvard BusinessSchool Press.
  • 101. Dressler, C. 1996. Cited in Lewis, J. P. 1998. Team-basedproject management. New York:AMACOM. Haynes, M. E. 1989. Project management: From idea to implementation. Los Altos, CA: Crisp Publications. Katzenbach, Jon R., and Douglas K. Smith. 1993. The wisdom of teams: Creating the high-pe$ormance organization. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Langford, David P., and Barbara A. Cleary. 1995. Orchestrating learning with quality. Milwaukee:ASQC Quality Press. Lippincott, S. 1994. Meetings: Do's, don'ts, and donuts: The complete handbook to successful meetings. Pittsburgh: Lighthouse Point Press. Peters, Thomas J. (with Nancy Austin). 1989. A passion for excellence. New York: Knopf. . 1999. The WOW project: In the new economy, all work is project work. Fast Company 24 (May): 116-28. Sashkin, Marshall, and Kenneth J. Kiser. 1993. Putting total quality management to work. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. Scholtes,Peter. 1988. The team handbook: How to use teams to improve quality. Madison,WI: Joiner Associates. Scholtes,Peter R., B. L. Joiner, and B. J. Streibel. 1996. The team handbook, 2nd ed. Madison, WI: JoinerAssociates. Summers, Donna C. S. 1997. Quality. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Uhlfedler, H. 1997. Ten critical traits of group dynamics. Quality Progress 30(4): 69-72. Walton, M. 1986. The Deming management method. New York: Putnam. Xerox Corporation. 1986. Leadershipthrough quality: Interactive skills workbook. Stamford,CT: Xerox Corporation.
  • 103. c h a p t e r "A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse," cried Shakespeare's Richard III.Al- though most of us no longer need horses to travel, we need good documentationfor successful projects, lest we findourselves crying, "Good documentation,good doc- umentation! My career for good documentation." This chapteris organized into two sections-ProjectDocumentation and Project Communications.Projectdocumentationis stressedbecauseit is often neglectedand because there are many other fine resourcesfor project communication (i.e., reports and presentations), such as A Beginner's Guide to Technical Communication, by Anne Eisenberg (1998). Why are project documentationand record keeping important?To answer this ques- tion you only have to think about a time you had to pick up the pieces from a team member and pull them togetherinto a report or presentation.Was everythingeasy to follow and understand, or did you have to fill in or reconstructmuch of the work? Problem solving, especially if it involves developing a computer program, is particularlysusceptibleto gaps in documentation.Thinkabout how well you've doc- umented projects you've been involved in. Did you insert lots of comments in your programsor spreadsheetsto let the next user know what you'd done and why? Many of the problem-solving and program-writing assignments students hand in lack sufficientdocumentation;thus, the faculty member cannot assess whetherthe proceduresare correct (even if the answer isn't). The lack of documentationmakes it very difficult for faculty to grade the report.
  • 104. C H A PT E R 8 PROJECT MANAGEMENTDOCUMENTATIONAND COMMUNICATIONS Project documentation is important because, as Leifer's (1997) research at the Stanford University Center for Design Research indicates, "all design is redesign" and the more information and insight you provide those who follow you, the better job they will be able to do. Of course, this works for you, too,.when you follow up on someone else's work. REFLECTION Take a few minutes to think about the types of project records that should be kept. Make a list. Next, think about the characteristics of good records. List several attri- butes of good records. Compare your list with those of other team members. What did you come up with? How easy or hard was it for you to think about types of documents and the characteristics of good documentation? Many engineersprefer to focus on solving the problem,developing the product, or just getting the job done rather than on documentation, which they see as a nec- essary (and often unpleasant)burden. For comparison, here are lists that were developed by the participants in the Minnesota Department of Transportation's Project ManagementAcademy: Types of Records Formal Informal Specifications Survey notes Drawings Inspectionreports Schedules Photographslvideotapes Budgets Notes--personal and meeting Contracts Incident reports Change orders Telephonele-maillfaxmemos and notes On-site log- Commitmentlogs datelweatherltime/personnellequipment Characteristicsof Good Records Easily accessible Consistentformat Thorough4ate and time,client Secure Organizedand legible Cost effective Comprehensive-tableof contents Flexible Rightmedia Nearly 200 forms were recently compiled by the Project ManagementInstitute (PMI) in a book titled Project Management Forms (Pennypacker, Fisher, Hensley, and Parker, 1997). PMI members shared their forms, checklists, reports, charts, and
  • 105. other documents to help readers get started or to improve their current documenta- tion. More informationis available on the PMI Web site (www.pmi.org). Notebooks and journals are terrific ways to document work for your own personal use, and there are many examplesof their significance in patent applicationsor even Nobel Prize considerations. Think, for example, of how the notebooks of Charles Kettering (inventor of auto electric cash register and automobile ignition systems) and Shockley, Brattain,and Bardeen (inventors of the transistor)helped establish in- tellectual property rights. Also consider Bill Gates recently paid $30 million for Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Leicestel; one of da Vinci's survivingjournals. Students in ERG 291, a freshman design course at Michigan State University, are required to keep a laboratory notebooMacadernicjournal. The box "Academic Journal"includes a description of the documentationrequirements. Chapter 7 of Understanding Engineering Design (Birmingham,Cleland, Driver and Maffin, 1997),Information in design, begins with the following sharply focused statementon the importanceof information: "Theraw materialof the design process is information, and therefore the designer's principal skill is one of information handling"(p. 108). The authors stress five categoriesof action that operate on infor- mation: 1. Collection 2. Transformation 3. Evaluation 4. Communication 5. Storage Furthermore they stress that these categories are used at all stages of the design process. One of the challenges to personal notebooks and journals is that they are not easily shareable. Lack of easy access to others' work and thinking makes for con- siderable problems in team-based project work. Larry Leifer and his colleagues at Stanford have devised an electronic notebook that is accessible on the World Wide Web. The Personal Electronic Notebook with Sharing (PENS) (Hong, Toye, and Leifer, 1995) supports and implements Web-mediated selective sharing of one's working notes. Electronic mail is another common form of sharing thinking about projects. Numerous software products, such as Lotus Notes, provide a means for sharing informationelectronically. Electroniccalendars and personal data assistants (PDAs) often have features for jointly scheduling meetings by viewing others' cal- endars. PDAs and electronic calendars also provide excellent means for keeping records. The image in Figure 8.1 is from the desktop interface of a Palm Pilot elec- tronic calendar.
  • 106. 98 C H A P T E R 8 PROJECT MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATIONAM) COMMUNICATIONS ACADEMIC JOURNAL What Is a Journal? Ajournalis a place to practice writ- Suggestions: ing and thinking. It differsfrom a diary in thatit should 1. choose a notebook you are with. A not be merely a personal recording of the day's events. 8Y2" x 11" hardback bound book with numbered It differs from your class notebook in that it should not pages would be a good choice. be merely an objective recording of academic data. 2. Date each entry including time of day. Think of your journal rather as a personal record of your educational experience in this class. For example, 3. Don't hesitate to write long entries and develop you may want to use your journal while working on a your thoughts as fully as possible. design project to record reflections on the class. 4. Include sketches and drawings. What toWrite. Use yourjournal to record personal 5. Use a pen. reactions to class, topics, students, teachers. Make notes to yourself about ideas, theories,concepts, prob- '. a new p age for each new enw' lems, etc. Record your thoughts, ideas, and readings; 7. Include both "academic" and "personal"entries; argue with the instructor; express confusion; and ex- mixed or separate as you desire. plore possible approaches to problems in the course. Interaction-ProfessorI'll ask to see your journal Be sure to include (1)criticalincidentsthathelpedyou at leasttwice during the I,11read selected entries learn or gain insight, and (2) distractions that inter- and, upon occasion, argue with you or comment on fered with your learning. your comments. Mark any entry that you consider pri- Whento Write.Try to write in yourjournal at least vate and donyt want me to read and I'llgladly honor three or four times a week . . . aside from classroom your request. A good journal will contain numerous entries. It is important to develop the habit of using long entries and reflective It should be your journaleven when you are not in an academicen- used regularly. vironment. Good ideas, questions, etc., don't always Interaction-Correspondent.Choose a fellow stu- wait for convenient times for you to record them. [A dent in your close collection of friends to read and re- man would do well to carry a pencil in his pocket and spond to your journal entries. write down the thoughts of the moment. Those that Conclusions. Make a table of contents of signifi- come unsought for are the most valuable and should cant entries. At the end of the semester write a two- be securedbecause they seldom return. Francis Bacon page summary. In addition, submit an evaluation of (1561-1626)J. whether the journal enhanced or detracted from your How toWrite. You should write in a style that you experience.Was it worth the effort? feel most comfortable with. The point is to think on paper without worryingabout the mechanicsof writing. The quantity you write is as important as the quality. SOURCE: Adapted from T. Fulwiler. 1987. Teaching with writ- The languagethat expresses yourpersonal voice ing. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook.Revised by B. S.Thompson be used. Namely, language that comes natural to you. in consultation with K. A. Smith and R. C. Rosenberg, 1998. Notice that in addition to having several calendaroptions, it also has an address book, a to-do list, a memo pad, and an expensesection. PDAs such as the Palm Pilot providefor portability, backing up, and electronicsharing. In addition,all of the sec- tions may be quickly searched, which makes for easy information.They will likely become an essential tool for project managers. Chapter 9 discusses computer-based tools further.
  • 107. Figure 8.1 Palm Pilot PDA desktop view Presentingyour ideas to others both in written and oral form is essential to success- ful projects. You may, however, feel a combination of excitement and anxiety about report writingand public presentation. Some of the best advice I ever got on presentationsis to know your audience; know your objective; and be simple, concise, and direct. This brief section follows that advice. Communicationsneed to be tailored to the recipients whether they be your col- leagues on the team, your supervisor,or your client. Common ways to tailor com- munications are to learn more about the recipientsthrough surveys,interviews,or in- formal conversations. REFLECTION Take a minute to reflecton some possible objectivesin a presentation orre- port. Try to think beyond "Because it's an assignment in this class."As much as possible tie I your list to actual experiencesthat you've had. Discuss these with other team members. One of the best references on simple, concise, and direct writing is Strunk and White's (1979) Elements of Style. One of my favorites is Williams's (1997) Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace.
  • 108. C H A P T E R 8 PROJECT MANAGEMENT DOCUMENTATIONAND COMMUNICATIONS A practicecommonlycalled freewritingmay help you get over the barrier that many of us face when starting to write a report or preparefor an oral presentation.A help- ful implementationof freewritingis Natalie Goldberg's advicefor "writingpractice" in her book Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within (1986): 1. Keep your hand moving. (Don't pause to reread the line you have just written. That's stalling and trying to get control of what you're saying.) 2. Don't cross out. (That is editing as you write. Even if you write something you didn't mean to write, leave it.) 3. Don't worry about spelling, punctuation, gramrnal:(Don't even care about stay- ing within the margins and lines on the page.) 4. Lose control. 5. Don't think. Don't get logical. 6. Go for the jugulal: (If something comes up in your writing that is scary or naked, dive right into it. It probably has lots of energy.) REVISING AND REFINING After you complete a draft of your paper or presentationI encourage you to share it with others. Many papers and reports must undergo a formal review process, but I recommendthat you offer your work for informal review with a colleagueor friend. Although it's hard for many of us to share our work with others before we feel it is ready, we can often save a lot of time and get a much better product by asking oth- ers for comments. At some stage in the process, of course, you must "freeze the design"and sub- mit the report or give the presentation. Be sure to solicit feedback (in a constructive mode), reflect on it, and considerchangesfor the next timeyou write a reportor give a presentation. Leaving an excellent paper and electronic record is likely to increase in impor- tance in projects and project management. Now is the time to develop skills and strategies for effective documentation. Similarly, communicating effectively both orally and in writing will continue to be extremely importantfor project success. 1. What is your experiencedocumentinggroup projects?Is it a routine activity?If so, describe examples of "excellent documentation." If not, consider how can you build the development of good documentationinto the ongoing process of project work.
  • 109. 2. What are some of the types of records that must be maintained for projects? What are the characteristicsof good records? 3. What is your experience with electronic documentation?What are the advan- tages and disadvantagesof electronic records (compared with paper records)? 4. Describe the characteristics of good presentations. Are good presentations the norm in your experience?Why or why not? 5. Describe your experiences keeping an academic journal. What are some of the heuristics that helped make it effective for you? 6. Learning to become a better writer and presenter requires effort and practice. How are you planning to improve your writing and presentingskills? What are some of your favorite resources? Eisenberg,A. 1998. A beginner's guide to technical communication. New York: WCBIMcGraw-Hill. Goldberg, N. 1986. Writing down the bones: Freeing the writer within. Boston: Shambhala. Hong, J.; G. Toye; and L. Leifer. 1995. Personal Electronic Notebook with Sharing. In Proceedings of the IEEE FourthWorkshop on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WETICE). Berkeley Springs, WV. Leifer, L. 1997. A collaborativeexperiencein global product-based-learning. NationalTechnological University Faculty Forum. November 18, 1997. Pennypacker, James S.; Lisa M. Fisher; Bobby Hensley; and Mark Parker. 1997. Project management forms. Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Strunk,W. Jr., and E. B. White. 1979. The elements of style, 3rd ed. New York: Macrnillan. Williams, J. M. 1997. Style: Ten lessons in clarity and grace. New York: Longman.
  • 111. c h a p t e r "The more time we spend on planning a project, the less total time is required for it. Don't let today's busywork schedule crowd planning time out of your schedule." Edward Bliss, Getting Things Done. A wide variety of software tools is availableto help the project manager and project team members accomplishtheir goals. These range from personalinformation man- agers (P1Ms)-which include electroniccalendars,address books, to-do lists, memo pads,and sometimesexpense reports-to full-fledged project management programs that do scheduling, resource leveling, tracking,and so on. Personal information managers help project managers keep track of appointments, critical deadlines, notes, and expenses. Many providefor access to calendars over a network or over the Internet,a feature that makes it easy to schedulemeetings. Most calendars can be synchronized between personal data assistants (PDAs), handheld devices such as the Palm Pilot, and portable computers that make it possible to eas- ily take the information into the field. See Chapter 8 for a sample screen from the Palm Pilot desktop. Paper calendars and planners, although inexpensive, cannot be backed up easily (except by photocopying),nor can the information be shared with others very easily (which has its advantages). INDIVIDUAL REFLECTION What type of calendar or planner are you currently using? I Is it a small paper datebook or a leather-bound three-ringbinder?What are the principaluses that you make of your planner?
  • 112. Figure 9.1 Sidekick PIM, desktop view An example from the daily calendar view from the Sidekick personal informa- tion manager is illustrated in Figure 9.l. Personal information managers and personal data assistants are mainly used to manage time, priorities, and contacts. They help project managers attend to the de- tails that are crucial for successful teamwork and project management. Comprehensive project management software such as Microsoft Project is used on complex projects to accomplishgoals and complete projectson time, within budget, and at a level of quality that meets the client's expectations. The basic functions of the critical path analysisaspectof these programsis summarized in Chapter6, where the CritPath program is featured. The two most common views used by commercialprojectmanagementsoftware are the Gantt chart and the precedence network chart, sometimes referred to as a program evaluation and review technique (PERT) chart. Figures 9.2 and 9.3 show examples of the Gantt chart and PERT chart views, respectively, from Microsoft Project. Examples of the Gantt chart and PERT chart viewsfrom the Primavera software program are shown in Figures9.4 and 9.5, respectively.These Primavera views show the activity detail for a highlighted activity; this allows the project manager to quickly get lots of detailedinformationon any activity, which makes it easy to track, manage, and update information.
  • 113. Figure 9.2 Microsoft Proiect--Gantt chart Figure 9.3 Microsoft Proiect-PERT chart MicrosoftProject and Primavera are the two most widely used project manage- ment softwarepackages. In a survey regarding projectmanagement toolsby Fox and Spence (1998), 48 percent of the respondentsreported using Microsoft Project and 14 percent reported using Primavera.
  • 114. Figure 9.4 Primavera-Gantt chart Figure 9.5 Primavera-PERT char1 Pollack-Johnson and Liberatore(1998) reported similarfigures-nearly50 per- cent for MicrosoftProjectand 21 percentfor Primavera-and provided extensive in- formation on how these packages are used. The median size of projects included in
  • 115. this study was a little over 150 activities, and the median number of resources was 16. A high percentageof respondentssaid they regularly update the information,and about 62 percent of the respondents said they use resource schedulinglleveling. The Project Management Institute receritly launched a major project manage- ment softwaresurvey,availableboth in print and on CD-ROM (Cabanis,1999). The survey Compares and contrasts the capabilities of a wide variety of project manage- ment tools. Provides a forum for users and vendors to meet and match requirements and possibilities. Prompts vendors to become more responsive to customer needs. Prompts users to create a method for software tool selection within their own companies. Categorizes software tools into six areas of functionality aligned with the knowledge areas of PMI's Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowl- edge ( P M B O P Guide): scheduling, cost management, risk management, human resources management, communications management, and process management. As with the use of all software tools, it is important that project management software serve and not enslave the project manager. Also, if you invest time and money in commercial project management software, you should use it to organize and manage your projects and not simply to write reports. Lientz and Rea (1995) offer the following suggestionsfor using project management software: 1. Set up the basic schedule information: name of project file, name of project, project manager; input milestones, tasks and their estimated duration, interde- pendencies between tasks; input resourcesfor each task. 2. Periodicallyupdate the schedule by indicatingtasks completed,delayed,and so forth, as well as changes in resources. 3. On an as-needed basis, perform what-if analysis using the software and data. Uses of project management software include reporting (use schedule to pro- duce graphs and tables for meetings); tracking (log project work and effort in terms of completed tasks); analysis (perform analysis by moving tasks around, changing taskinterdependencies,changingresourcesand assignments,and then seeing the im- pact on the schedule);costing and accounting (assign costs to resources);and time- keeping (enter the time and tasks worked on by each member of the project team.). Unofficial reports indicate that over 1 million copies of Microsoft Project have been sold. That's a lot of people scheduling projects. Advertisements for civil engi- neering positions often include familiarity with project management software,espe- cially Primavera.Lots of books, short courses,and multimedia trainingprogramsare available to help you learn to use these tools. Some of the books I've found useful are included in the references (Day, 1995; Lowery, 1994; Marchman, 1998). This is
  • 116. a rapidly changing area, so to keep current you should stay tuned to resources such as the Project Management Institute, especially via its Web site (www.pmi.org). If you are not familiar with browsing and searchingthe Internet, a good resourceis In- troduction to the Internet for Engineers (Greenlaw and Hepp, 1999). Project management, like many other things-bookstores, newspapers, computer suppliers-has developed a Web presence. As mentioned above, the Project Man- agement Institute has a very thorough Web site and provides access to the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOKrM Guide). A few project managementWeb sites I have found useful are the following: Project Management Institute-http://www.pmi.org HMS Project ManagementArticles- http://www.hmssoftware.ca/articles/art list.htm1 ALLPM: The Project Manager's Home Page-&p:Nallpm.comlindex.htm Project Control Tower-http://www.4pm.coml WELCOM: Project Management for a Changing World- http://www.welcom.coml NewGrange Center for Project Management-- Project Management LeadershipGroup-http://www.pmlg.org Web-enabled project management is gaining momentum and will probably change some businesses, as it is currently doing in the construction industry (Roe and Pfair, 1999; Doherty, 1999).Web-enabled project management couples both the communication aspects (e-mail, fax, voice and multimedia, intranet, extranet) with the project management aspects (scheduling,document and file management, proj- ect administration,job photos, job cost reports, and project status reports). Doherty (1999) cites several reasons for using a project extranet: Fewer communication errors between project team members. Up-to-the-minuteintelligenceon all the decisionsand collectiveinformationre- lated to a project. Less expense for messengers,couriers, copying, and blueprints. Customizedsites for each project and customizedaccess for each user. Security. Since project management is about planning, scheduling, monitoring,and con- trolling, projectsthat have a central project file located at a Web site rather than in a project notebook (or in the project manager's head) have enormous benefits. The challengeinvolves moving from our comfort zones of familiar practice and learning new tools and approaches.
  • 117. 1. Describe the advantages and disadvantages of different calendarlplanner for- mats-pocket planner, three-ring binder, pocket electronic organizer, and com- puter-based personal data assistant. 2. What are the major types of projectmanagementsoftware?What are their com- mon uses? 3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Gantt chart and the prece- dence network (or PERT) charts available in commercial project management software? 4. How could you apply Lientz and Rea's suggestions for using project manage- ment software to a project you're currently involved in? 5. Check out project management on the World Wide Web. Keep a record of your findings in a journal. Cabanis, Jeannette. 1999. Project management sofnvare survey. Newton Square, PA: Project Management Institute. Day, Peggy. 1995. Microsoft Project 4.0: Setting project management standards. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Doherty, Paul. 1999. Site seeing. Civil Engineering 69(1): 3841. Feigenbaum, Leslie. 1998. Construction scheduling with Primavera project plannel: Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Fox, Terry L., and J. Wayne Spence. 1998. Tools of the trade: A survey of project management tools. Project Management 29(3): 20-27. Greenlaw, Raymond, and Ellen Hepp. 1999. Introduction to the Internetfor engineers. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lientz, Bennet, and Kathryn Rea. 1995. Project management for the 21st century.San Diego: AcademicPress. Lowery, Gwen. 1994. Managing projects with Microsoft Project 4.0. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Marchman, David A. 1998. Construction scheduling with Primavera project planner. Albany, NY: Delmar. Pollock-Jackson,Bruce, and Matthew J. Liberatore. 1998. Project management software usage patterns and suggested research directions for future development. Project management 29(2): 19-28. Roe, Arthur G., and Matthew Phair. 1999. Connection crescendo. ENR (May 17): 22-26.
  • 119. c h a p t e r Projects and teams are going to be with you for the rest of your life, no matter what profession you eventually work in. They are already prevalent in engineering, med- icine, law, and most areas of business and industry. Even if you become a college professor, you will probably be involved in projects and teams, especially on re- search projectsand with your graduatestudents. Now you have made a start at learn- ing how to effectively participatein project management and teamwork. In addition to learning how to participateeffectively,I hope you've developed skills for manag- ing and leading a team. There are lots of additional resources available, and I hope you willcontinueto read about project managementand teamwork.Moreimportant, I hope you will talk with colleagues(fellow students and faculty)about project man- agement and teamwork. If you aspire to become a project manager, I encourage you to check out the Project Management Institute. PMI has a special student member- ship rate, and your membership in this organizationwill help connect you with proj- ect management professionals. Most professional organizations, such as American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), have a divi- sion that emphasizes engineering management. Check these out as you become a student member of the professionalorganization in your discipline. Periodicallyreflecting on your experiences,writing down your reflections(as I have asked you to do throughout this book), processing them alone and with others, and reading and studyingfurther will help ensure that your project and team experi- ences become ever more constructive. A sustained effort will ensure that you con- tinue to learn and grow. If you are in a team or projectsituation that is not working well, rather than just endure it and hope it will pass quickly, try some of the ideas in this book for im- proving the team or project.Suggest that the team members discuss how effectively they are working. For example, suggest a quick, individually written plusldelta pro- cessing exercise to survey the team. Successful project work and teamwork do not
  • 120. just magically happen;each takes continual attention not only to the task but also to how well the group is working. And this is work. The satisfaction and sense of ac- complishmentthat come from effective teamwork and projectwork are worth the ef- fort. There are just so many things that can't be accomplished any other way. The more you learn during your undergraduate years, the easier it will be for you after graduation. Paying attention to these skills now will save you what previous gener- ations of engineering graduates have had to endure-learning project management and teamwork skills on the job in addition to all the other complex things they had to learn. As you work with this book and the ideas and strategies for effective project management and teamwork, pleasethink about what else you need to know. Develop a learning and teaching plan for yourself and your project and team members. The resources listed at the end of each chapter in this book only barely scratch the sur- face of all the resources that are available. Check out a few of them. Add your own favorites. Share your list with colleagues.As mentioned earlier several students I've worked with have found Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People very helpful(see Chapter5).Covey's book is also a perennialbest-seller.The earlier you learn the skills and strategiesfor effective project work and teamwork, the more productive you will be and the easier life will be for you later. Start now. Although the up-front goal of this book is to facilitate the development of proj- ect management and teamwork skills in engineering students, the deeper goal is to change the climate in engineering courses and programsfrom competitive or nega- tive interdependence to cooperative or positive interdependence; from suspicion, mistrust, and minimal tolerance of others to acceptance, trust, and valuing others; from an egocentric "What's in it for me?' to a communal "How are we doing?'; from a sense of individual isolation and alienation to a sense of belonging and ac- ceptance. I recognize that these are lofty goals, but until we take more responsibil- ity not only for our own learning and development but also for the learning and de- veIopment of others, we will not benefit from synergisticinteraction. If you find that project management and teamwork, and perhaps even leader- ship, are of great interest to you, then you may want to read some of the business magazines such as Business Week or the Haward Business Review, and perhaps even my favorite, Fast Company. Check out your local bookseller or Internet book- store for some spare-time reading on these topics. You'll find an enormous literature available. If you're more interested in project management and teamwork specifically within engineering and technology, then I suggest that you look into some of the books and video documentaries on projects, such as Karl Sabbagh's work-Sky- scraper and 21st Century Jet. The first project managementbook I encountered, many years ago, was written by Harold Kerzner. Kerzner was one of the first advocatesof a systems approach to project management. I'd like to give the last word to him, a list of 16 points to proj- ect managementmaturity (and you know by now that I really likelists), from the lat- est edition (1998) of his tome on project management:
  • 121. 1. Adopt a project management methodology and use it consistently. 2. Implement a philosophy that drives the company toward project management maturity and communicateit to everyone. 3. Commit to developing effective plans at the beginning of each project. 4. Minimize the scope changes by committing to realistic objectives. 5. Recognize that cost and schedule management are inseparable. 6. Select the right person as the project manager. 7. Provide executives with project sponsor information, not project management information. 8. Strengthen involvement and support of line management. 9. Focus on deliverables rather than resources. 10. Cultivateeffective communication,cooperation,and trust to achieve rapid proj- ect management maturity. 11. Share recognitionfor projectsuccess with the entire project team and line man- agement. 12. Eliminate nonproductive meetings. 13. Focus on identifyingand solving problemsearly, quickly, and cost-effectively. 14. Measure progress periodically. 15. Use project management software as a tool-not as a substitute for effective planningor interpersonalskills. 16. Institute an all-employee training program with periodic updates based upon documentedlessons learned. Kerzner, Harold. 1998. Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling, 6th ed. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. Sabbagh, Karl. 1996. Twenty-Jirstcentury jet: The making and marketing of the Boeing 777. New York: Scribners. Sabbagh, Karl. 1991. Skyscraper: The making of a building. New York: Penguin.
  • 123. Accountability,18 Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology,3,6 Ackoff, Russell L., 6, 10 Activity ranking, 8 Adams, James L., 3, 10 Age of Project Management,57 American Society of Civil Engineers, 111 American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 111 Analysis, 107 ArizonaState University's Introduction to Engineering Design, 26 Austin, Nancy, 93 Average of members' opinions, 30 Backward pass, 68-69 Bacon, Francis, 98 Bahill,A. Teny, 3, 10 Bardeen, John, 97 Beginner's Guide to Technical Communication(Eisenberg), 95 Behavioral changes, 56 Belgard, William, 36.41 Bellamy, Lynn, 24, 25,26,41 Bennis, Warren, 18, 19, 20, 88, 92 Biedennan,Patricia W., 18, 19,20, 88,92 Blake, R. R., 33,41 Bleloch,A. L., 4,64,71,80 Bliss, Edward, 103 Boeing Company code of cooperation, 25 employerchecklist, 5-6 group effectiveness,83 777 project, 4547 Bowles, J., 91, 92 Brassand, Michael, 19, 20, 91, 92 Brattain, WalterH., 97 Brooks, Frederick P., Jr., 62,63 Brown, John Sealy, 92 Brown, S. M., 21 Browne, M. Neil, 16, 20 Bucciarelli, Louis, 3, 10 Burlington Northern International Transport Team, 17 Burton, Lawrence, 8, 10 BusinessWeek, 112 Byrne, J. A,, 53-54,63 C Cabanis,Jeannette, 18,20,107, 109 Case studies conflict management,40 project scheduling, 80 Chapman, William L., 3, 10 Cherbeneau, Jeanne, 18,20 Chicago Bulls, 18 Churchman, C. West, 6,10 Classroom learning group, 16 Cleary,Barbara A., 91,93 Cleese, John, 83,92 Cleland, D.I.,44, 51 Client acceptance, 45-46.60 Client consultation, 60 Code of cooperation, 25-26 Codex Leicester (Leonardo), 97 College teaching, 55 Communication,60; see also Project communication Communicationskills, 26-27 of project manager, 58 Compromise, 33 Computer-basedproject management software, 78 Concurrent engineering, 5 Condit, Phil, 46 Conflict definition, 32 steps in negotiating, 34 Conflict management,32-35 case, 40 tactics, 87-88 Conflict strategies, 33-34 Confrontation, 33 guidelines for, 34 Consensus, 31 Constructivefeedback, 84-86 Continual evaluation, 90 Controlling, 58 role of project manager,61 Cooperative learning group, 16 Coping skills, 58 Cost-effectivenessof models, 4 Cost factors, 45 Costing and accounting, 107 Covey, Stephen R., 61,63,112 Crawford-Mason,Clare, 91,92 Creative listening, 27 Criticallistening, 27 Critical path, 69 Criticalpath method, 5,43 backward pass, 68-69 example, 72-74 forward pass, 68 Gantt charts, 70-74 for project scheduling, 67-74 summary of, 72 Criticalsuccess factors, 60 CritPath software program, 70-74, 104 Culp, G., 50,51 Day, Peggy, 107, 109 Death March Projects (Yourdon),43 Decision by authority, 30 Decision making methods, 30-31 in teams, 29-32 Decisions, effective, 31 Delays, 90 Delehanty,Hugh, 18,21 Deming,W. Edwards, 5,91,92 Denker,G. R., 43,52 Dertouzos, M. L., 54.55.63
  • 124. Design; see Engineering design Directing role of project manager,61 Distributed actions approach, 23-24 Diversity,17-18 Dobyns, Lloyd, 91,92 Doherty, Paul, 108, 109 Donnellon, Anne, 86-88,92 Dressier, C., 81, 93 Drucker,Peter F., 56, 63 Duguid, Paul, 92 Duncan, William R., 49, 51 Fortune, 50 Forward pass, 68 Foster, Sallie,24, 25, 26.41 Fox, Terry L., 105, 109 Frame, J. D., 50,51 Free floater,69 Freewriting, 100 Frontiers in Education Conference, 54 Fulwiler,T., 98 Futernick, Jennifer, 16 Early-start-early finish, 68 Effective teams, 13-14 characteristics, 18-19 Eisenberg, Anne, 95, 101 Eisner, H., 50, 51 Elements of Style (Strunk & White), 99 Employer checklists, 5-6 Engineering, 1-2 behavioralchanges, 56 managementin, 5 modeling in, 3-5 professional organizations, I II project management, &9 systems approach, G 3 teamwork in, 5-6, 8-9 Engineering design, 2 as social process, 3 Engineering education, suggested changesin, 53-55 Engineering heuristics,4-5 Englund, Randall L., 50,52 Excellence in Engineering (Roadstrum), 8-9 Expert member, 30 Fast Company, 112 Feedback, 60 Feigenbaum, Leslie, 109 Ferguson, Eugene S., 3, 10 Fisher, Kimball, 36,41 Fisher, Lisa M., 96, 101 Floats, 69 Forcing, 33 Ford, Henry, 13 Ford Motor Company code of cooperation, 25-26 motto, 91 Gantt charts, 5,70-74, 104-106 Gates, Bill, 97 Gaynor,G. H., 55,63 Gersheufeld, Matti K., 24,41 Goldberg, David E., 36.41 Goldberg, Natalie, 100, 101 Grady, Robert B., 50, 52 Graham, Robert J., 50,52 Greenlaw,Ray, 108, 109 Group accountability,18 Group effectiveness,83-86 constructivefeedback, 84-86 Group maintenance roles, 24 Group norms, 24 Group performance, 15 Group processing, 19 Group projects, 5 Groups compared to teams, 17, 86 nominal or real, 88 Group task roles, 24 Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 107, 108 Hackman, J. R., 19, 20, 36,41 Hammond, J., 91.92 Hancock, J. C., 2, 10 Hapgood, Fred, 3, 10 Hargrove, Robert, 18,20 Harvard Business Reviao, 56, 112 Haynes, M. E., 89,93 Hensley,Bobby, 96, 101 Hepp, Ellen, 108, 109 Heuristics, 4-5,49 High-performancecooperative learning group, 16-17 High-performing teams, 14 Hoepner, Ken, 16-17 Hong, J., 97, 101 How to Model It (Starfieldet al.), 71 Identification, 86 Individual accountability,18 Institutefor Electricaland Electronic Engineers, 111 InteractiveSkills Coding Worksheet, 86-87 Interdependence, 86 Introduction to Engineering Design, 26 J Jackson,Phil, 18,21 Jay, A., 92 Johnson, DavidW., 19, 21, 30-31,39,41 Johnson,Frank P., 19,21,41 Johnson, Roger T., 18,21,30-3 1,39,41 Joiner, Brian L., 19,21, 32, 36,41, 82,93 Jordan, Brigitte, 7, 10 Jordan, Michael, 18 Journals, 97-99 K Katzenbach,Jon R., 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 36,41,55-56,63, 88,93 Keeley, Stuart, 16, 20 Kermer, Harold, 44,47,51,52, 112, 113 Kenering, Charles, 97 Kharbanda, 0.P., 45, 46, 50, 52, 57, 58, 64 Kiser, Kenneth J., 91, 93 Knowledgeworkers, 56 Koen, Billy V., 2, 4, 9, 10 Kouzes, J. M., 27-28,41 Langford,David P., 91,93 Late start-latefinish, 68-69 Laufer, A., 43, 52 Leader's Handbook (Scholtes), 29 Leadership behavioralcommitment, 28-29 characteristics, 27-28 competencies of, 29 distributed actions approach, 23-24 Leadership skills,58 Learningprinciples, 7
  • 125. Learning teams, 15-17 LeBold, William K., 8, 10 Leifer, Lany, 3, 10, 21, 96-97, 101 Leonardo da Vinci, 97 Lester, R. K., 54,55, 63 Lewis, James P., 50,52, 93 Liberatore, MatthewJ., 106, 109 Lientz, Bennet, 50,52,57,58,64, 107, 109 Lippincott, S., 82, 93 Listening techniques, 27 Loparo, K. A,, 11 Lotus Notes, 97 Lowery, Gwen, 107, 109 "Made in America" study, 53-54 Maintenance roles, 24 Majoritycontrol, 31 Management behavior change, 24 in engineering, 5 Managing diversity,17-18 Mantel,S. J., 50, 52 Marchman, David A., 107, 109 MassachusettsInstituteof Technology, 54 Mastering the Art of Creative Collaboration (Hargrove), 19 McConnell,Steve, 62,64 McKinsey & Company, 16 McNeill, Bany, 24, 25,26,41 Meetings conducting, 83 guidelinesfor, 82 major complaints about, 81-82 process, 82-83 Meetings: Do's, Don't's, and Donuts (Lippincott), 82 Mental models, 7 Meredith, J. R., 50, 52 Michigan State University, 97 Microsoft Project, 104-107 Minnesota Department of Transportation Project ManagementAcademy, 96 Minority control, 30 Modeling, 3-5 Models amibutes of, 4 and heuristics, 5 of project management, 44 project management heuristics, 49 Monitoring, 60 Mouton, J. S., 33,41 Mythical Man-Month (Brooks), 62 Napier, RodneyW., 24,41 Negotiationprocess, 88 Network diagrams, 5 New-paradigmcompanies,53-54 Nicholas, J. M., 44, 50, 52 Nielsen, N. R., 11 Nominal teams, 88 Noncritical activities, 69 Notebooks,97-99 Organizational skills, 58 Organizing Genius (Bennet & Biederman), 19 Organizing role of project manager, 60 Palm Pilot, 97, 98, 103 Papalambros, PanosY., 3, 10 Parker, Linda, 8, 10 Parker, Mark, 96, 101 Pennypacker,James S., 96, 101 Performance, 45 Personal data assistant, 97, 103 Personal Electronic Notebook with Sharing, 97 Personal information managers, 103-104 Personal mastery, 7 Personnel selection,60 PERT (program and evaluation review technique), 43 charts, 104-106 Peters, Thomas J., 56-57, 64, 81, 93 Pfair, Matthew,108, 109 Phillips, D. T., 49, 52 Pinto, Jeffrey K., 45,46, 50,52,57, 58, 59, 60,64 Pippin, Scottie,18 Planning role of project manager, 59-60 Planning skills, 58 Pollack-Johnson, Bruce, 106, 109 Positive interdependence, 18 Posner, Bany Z., 27-28,41,58,64 Potential teams, 14 Power differentiation, 87 Primaverasoftware, 104-107 Problem solving, 95 Project communication,99-100 Project documentation characteristics, 95-97 journals and notes, 97-99 types of records, 96 Project engineer, 8-9 Project evaluation continual, 90 quality issues, 90-91 questions for, 89 Project life cycle, 47-49 project manager role controlling, 61-62 directing, 61 organizing, 60 planning, 59-60 staffing,60 Project management, 5,8-9 changes in, 53,56-57 Kerzner's guidelines, 112-113 models of, 44 and World WideWeb, 108 Project Management Forms (Pennypacker et al.), 96 Project managementheuristics, 49 Project Management Institute on-time finish survey, 43 on project documentation, 96 software survey, 107 Web site study, 108 Project managementsoftware, 78 main types, 104-107 survey, 107 uses, 107-108 Project managers behavioralchanges, 56 changing roles,53-54 role in project life cycle, 59-62 skills for effectiveness,58-59 Project mission, 60 Project monitoring group effectiveness,83-86 at meetings, 81-83 team talk analysis, 86-89 Project planning, 49-50 Projects, 44-45 bringing quality to, 9CL91 client acceptance, 45-46, 60 constraints on success, 45-46 cost considerations, 76-77 critical success factors, 60 delays and resource excess, 90 keys to success of, 45-47
  • 126. Projects-Cont on-time completion, 43 resource considerations, 74-75 Project scheduling, 65 case study, 80 critical path method, 67-74 resource and cost considerations, 74-77 work breakdown structure, 66-67 Project teams, 5 Promotive interaction, 18 Pseudolearninggroup, 15 Pseudo teams, 14 Purpose, 4 I Q-R Quality, contrasting views of, 90-91 Ranking work activities, 8 Ravindran,A., 49, 52 Ray, Michael, 7, 10 Rayner,Steven, 36.41 Rea, Kathryn, 50,52,57,58,64, 107, 109 Real teams, 14,88 Records, 96 Reference, 4 Relationships, 23-24 Reporting, 107 Resource considerations, 74-75 Resource excesses, 90 Richard 111,95 Rinzler, Alan, 7, 10 Roadstrum,W. H., 8-9, 11 Roberts, Harry V.,11 Rockefeller, John D., 23 Rodman, Dennis, 18 Roe, Arthur G., 108, 109 Rosenberg, R. C., 98 Rosenblatt,A., 11 Rothenberg, Jeff, 3, 11 S Sabbagh, Karl, 47,52,112, 113 Sacred Hoops (Jackson & Delahanty), 18 Salami statistics, 58 Sashkin, Marshall, 91,93 Schedule plans, 60 Senge, Peter, 7, 11 Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Covey), 61, 112 Shakespeare, William,95 Shared Minds (Schrage), 19 Shared vision, 7 Shenhar,A. J., 43.52 Shina, S. G.. 5, 11 Shockley,William B., 97 Siedner, C. J., 21 Skyscraper (Sabbagh), 112 Slack, 69 Smith, A., 50.5 1 Smith, Douglas K., 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 36,41,55-56,63,88,93 Smith, Karl A., 4, 18, 21,54,55,64,71, 80,98 Smoothing, 33 Snead, G. L., 45,52 Social distance, 87 Social process, 3 Software Project Survival Guide (McConnell),62 Software tools personal information managers, 103-104 for project management,104-108 Solberg, J. J., 49, 52 Solow, R. M., 54,55, 63 Spence, J. Wayne, 105, 109 Sperlich, Harold K., 13 Staffing role of project manager, 60 Stanford University Center for Design Research, 3,96 Starlield,A. M., 4, 64, 71, 80 Statementof work, 49 Streibel, Barbara J., 19, 21, 32, 36,41, 82,93 Striving for Excellence in College (Browne & Keeley), 16 Strunk,W., Jr., 99, 101 Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace (Williams), 99 Summers, Donna C. S., 91,93 Superconducting Supercollider, 45 Sympathetic listening, 27 Systems, 6 Systems approach, 6-8 Systems thinking, 6-7 Scholtes, peter R., 19, 21, 29, 32, 36,41, 82, 84, 93 School of Engineering, 5 T Schrage,Michael, 13-14, 18, 19,21 Task roles, 24 Senad, G. L., 44,45,50 Tasks, 23-24 Taylor, James, 27,41,50, 52 Team-buildingskills,58 Team charter, 26 Team development,32 Team effectiveness, 18-19 Team Handbook (Scholtes et al.), 29, 36, 82 Team learning, 7 Team performance, advice on, 19 Teams; see also Learning teams categories of, 14 compared to groups, 17.86 effective, 13-14 literatureon, 19 Team talk analysis, 86-89 Teamwork, 56,8-9 challenges and problems, 35-36 importance of diversity,17-18 literatureon, 19 Teamwork skills, 18-19 communicationskills, 26-27 conflict management, 32-35 decision making, 29-32 group norms, 24 leadership, 27-29 tasks and relationships, 23-24 Technical tasks, 60 Technological skills,58 Thompson, B. S., 98 Timefactors,45 Time-keeping,107 Time-scaled network, 70 Today's Engineel; 54-55 Top managementsupport, 60 Total float, 69 Total quality management,5 Toye,G., 97,101 Tracking, 107 Traditional classroom learninggroup, 16 Tribus, Myron, 5, 11 Troubleshooting,60 21st Century Jet (Sabbagh), 4647, 112 Uhlfedler, H., 84, 93 Understanding Engineering Design (Birminghamet al.), 97 Virtual representations, 5 W Waller, AlishaA., 54,55,64 Walton, M., 91,93 Watson, G. F., 11
  • 127. Weisbord,Marvin R., 7, 11 Welch, JohnF., 23 White, E. B., 99, 101 Widman,L.E., 11 Wilde, Douglass J., 3, 10, 19 Williams, J. M., 99, 101 Wisdom of Teams (Katzenbach & Smith), 19 Withdrawal,33 Work activities, 8 X-Y Work breakdown structure, 49-50,6&67 xer0,corporation Workplace changes, 53-56 InteractiveSkills Coding Worksheet, World Wide Web, 97, 108 86-87 Writing Down the Bones (Goldberg), 100 learning principles, 7 Writing skills,99-100 Yourdon, Ed, 43,52 Wycoff, J., 44,45,50,52 Wymore, A. Wayne, 3, 10