MBA (Project Management) – 3rd Semester

PM0004 – Managing Human Resources in Projects

ASSIGNMENT SET-1

Q.1 Describe the following conflict resolution styles:

a. Avoidant Approach

b. Accommodating Approach

c. Consensus Approach

d. Collaborative Approach

Ans: a) Avoidant Approach: Some people will do anything to avoid a direct confrontation. They
agree even though they are opposed to the outcome. This style cannot be tolerated on the
project team. Each person’s input and opinion must be sought. It is the responsibility of the
project manager to make sure that this happens. A simple device is to ask each team member
in turn what he or she thinks about the situation and what he or she suggests be done about it.
Often this approach will diffuse any direct confrontation between two individuals on the team.

1(b) Accommodating Approach: Here, one party is ready for keeping the psychological door
open to the other party. When the issue is more important to oneself than to the other person,
this strategy works better under such situations. Forgetting or Forgiving on one issue may be
key to moving the conflict to a new level where issues may be discussed better. It can be a
useful, but a temporary fix among the parties.

c) Consensus Approach:
Consensus building is a process that a team can follow to reach agreement on which alternative
to proceed with for the item (action, decision, and so forth) under consideration. The
agreement is not reached by a majority vote, or any vote for that matter. Rather, the
agreement is reached through discussion, whereby each participant reaches a point when he or
she has no serious disagreement with the decision that is about to be taken. The decision will
have been revised several times for the participants to reach that point.

(d) Collaborative approach:

In this approach, the team looks for win-win opportunities. The approach seeks out a common
ground as the basis for moving ahead to a solution. This approach encourages each team
member to put his or her opinions on the table and not avoid the conflict that may result. At
the same time, team members do not seek to create conflict unnecessarily. The approach is
Constructive, not destructive.
Q.2 List and explain in brief the key features of a project.
Ans.: The key features of a project are: Planning utilities (product based planning for instance
- product breakdown structure, product flow diagram)
- Gantt chart
- Network diagram
- Resource management
- Risk management
- Issue management
- Daily log (optional)
- Calendar
- Work packages
- Checkpoints
- Snapshots
- Cost items (optional)
- Resource load diagram
- Cost diagram
- Reports
There are other features of PM software such as integration with mail server, SharePoint and
other collaboration portals. There are a lot of products for project management. Some include
- Microsoft Project
- Easy Projects .NET
- P2ware Planner
- FogBugz
A project plan can be considered to have five key characteristics that have to be managed:
- Scope: defines what will be covered in a project.
- Resource: what can be used to meet the scope.
- Time: what tasks are to be undertaken and when.
- Quality: the spread or deviation allowed from a desired standard.
- Risk: defines in advance what may happen to drive the plan off course, and what will be done
to recover the situation.
Balanced Plans
The sad thing about plans is you cannot have everything immediately. Many people plan using
planning software packages, without realising the tradeoffs that must be made. They assume
that if they write a plan down, reality will follow their wishes. Nothing is further from the truth.
The point of a plan is to balance:
- The scope, and quality Constraint against,
- The time and resource constraint,
- While minimizing the risks.

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Bad Plan Example
As an example this diagram shows what can happen. The scope is so large that there is no way
the time, resource, and quality constraints can result in the project delivering, which means
there are enormous risks. To salvage this plan, requires reducing the scope, increasing the time,
or resource, or lowering the quality standard. Any of which will reduce the risk of failure. The
key lesson is that plans have to be balanced within the project constraints if they are to deliver.
Test plans are a particular type of project plan and details about how the clauses of IEEE Std
829-1998 for test plans map against these five characteristics is in the Test Plans article.
Q.3 Write a note on human resource planning.

Ans.: A Project is a planned undertaking that requires a set of human tasks and activities
toward achieving a specific objective within a defined time period. Projects are temporary,
though they may last from few hours to many years; a team project involves a group of people
with complementary skills and experiences, working together to accomplish the goals and
objectives of the project. The purpose of the team is to develop and execute a work plan that
will meet the expectations of the project. Everyone on the team is committed and deducted to
the same thing meeting the goals of the project. Although the goals may be same, how the
team elects to execute the work plan is variable. Different team runs the same project
differently. This Variation is attributable to differences in people, process and interactions. The
interactions of a team are dependent on the collective knowledge, skills, experiences,
personalities, and behaviors of the group. Each person has personal preferences regarding how
to run the project and how to work within the project, People have different work and
communication styles, and these personal preferences and differences represent the diversity
of the team. All team members want the same thing (to achieve the project goals), but each
goes after it differently due to their diversity. This can generate both positive and negative
interactions. How well we mange human interactions is the key to the success of any project.
This is been grouped into six general areas.
· Problem solving
· Decision making
· Conflict resolution
· Consensus building
· Brainstorming
· Team meetings
Human Resource planning is an organized way to ensure that organizations employ the
right people. Human Resource planning is the staffing management plan which illustrates how
and when the team members are added/removed from the team. Human Resource planning is
utilized to decide and recognize. Human Resources with the necessary skills are essential for
the success of a project. Human Resource planning must think and plan for these factors and
widen Human Resource options.

The inputs for creating a Human Resource (HR) plan are:

Enterprise environmental factors: The enterprise environmental factors comprises of
individuals of an organization interacting and relating with one another. The enterprise
environmental factors that play a major role includes are existing organizational culture,
knowing how different technical disciplines work, existing Human Resources and policies and
procedures, interpersonal, logical and political issues with respect to Human Resources.
Organizational culture – Organizational culture is an idea in the field of organizational studies
and management which describes the psychology, attitudes, experiences, beliefs and values
(personal and cultural values) of an organization. It is defined as "the specific collection of
values and norms that are shared by people and groups in an organization and that controls the
way they interact with each other and with stakeholders outside the organization”. List the
Organizations or departments that are going to be engaged in the project. Enquire whether
there are any existing working arrangements between them. Know the formal and informal
relationships between the departments.
Technical – To accomplish the project successfully, list the fields of expertise needed.
Interpersonal – List formal and informal reporting relations existing among the team members.
Know the team member’s existing job descriptions.
Logistical – Find whether people are in different locations or time zones.
Political – List the individual goals and agendas of stakeholders. Find the informal authority
base and how that can impact the project. List the informal agreements that are present.

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