Project Management Fundamentals by Bonnie Biafore - A Video

Welcome Project Management Fundamentals | by Bonnie Biafore

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Is the Negotiator's Emotion Real?

After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in the spring of 2010, some media observers criticized President Barack Obama for seeming to be emotionally detached. Obama ultimately did display anger about the oil spill in a televised interview, only to be further critiqued on the grounds that his anger did not seem genuine.

Expressing anger can be an effective means of promoting cooperation from a negotiating counterpart, ample research has suggested. Yet the negative reaction to Obama’s delayed display of anger suggests that the effects of anger in negotiation may be more complicated.

The anecdote also raises the question of whether expressing contradictory emotions in the course of a negotiation can help us or hurt us. Two research studies recently published in The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology – ''The Consequences of Faking Anger in Negotiations,'' by Stephane Cote, Ivona Hideg and Gerben A. Van Kleef, and ''The Advantages of Being Unpredictable: How Emotional Inconsistency Extracts Concessions in Negotiation,'' by Marwan Sinaceur, Hajo Adam, Gerben A. Van Kleef and Adam D. Galinsky – explore these issues and provide guidance for using emotions appropriately in your business negotiations.

Anger can be a boon to negotiators, at least when it comes to claiming value. When our opponents appear angry, we tend to assume that they are tough, have ambitious goals and are unlikely to back down from their demands. Viewing angry negotiators as formidable opponents, we respond by making concessions and lowering our demands.

These conclusions were reached in lab experiments in which participants engaged in negotiation simulations with seemingly angry counterparts. The participants in these experiments had little reason to doubt that the anger expressed by the other parties was genuine, it should be noted. Their counterparts expressed their anger in written messages, for example. As a result, the study did not clarify whether negotiators could simply fake anger to reap some of its benefits.

Cote, Hideg and Van Kleef set out to examine whether pretending to be angry has the same effect in negotiation as actual anger. In one of their studies, the researchers assigned undergraduate students to play the role of seller in a simulated one-round negotiation for a used car. Participants were led to believe that the negotiation would be conducted via videoconferencing, unaware that their counterpart was an actor whose offer had been videotaped in advance.

The actor was filmed delivering his offer in three different ways: First with a neutral, emotionless demeanor, second with ''deep-acting’' anger, elicited by his memories of an actual event that had made him angry, and third with ''surface-acting’' anger in which he tried to express anger on his face while remaining emotionally neutral inside. The participants in the experiment were shown one of these three videos and then were asked whether they would accept the counterpart’s offer, which was the same in each condition.

Participants who viewed someone who seemed genuinely angry were less demanding than were those who viewed the neutral-seeming negotiator. By contrast, participants felt distrustful when their counterpart appeared to be faking anger and, as a result, made higher demands than did those facing a neutral counterpart.

The study suggests that, because of a lack of trust, people make high demands of people who fake their anger. They are also dissatisfied with their interactions with these negotiators and have little interest in dealing with them again. The results suggest that, unless you are a good actor, strategic displays of anger are likely to backfire.

Several historical figures, including Queen Elizabeth I and President Charles de Gaulle of France, were legendary for their quixotic behavior during conflicts and negotiations. These leaders appear to have believed that their inconsistency would surprise and unsettle those around them and induce compliance.

Maybe this description reminds you of a significant person in your life, or maybe you’ve found yourself fluctuating from one emotional state to the next in the course of a single negotiating session. It’s natural for our feelings to change during a negotiation, of course, but how will others react to our displays of different emotions?

In three experiments Van Kleef, Sinaceur Adam and Galinsky looked at whether emotional inconsistency and unpredictability affect counterparts’ concessions.

In one experiment undergraduate students believed that they were engaging in a simulated sale of mobile telephones with a counterpart via computer. In fact, the counterpart’s behavior was controlled by the experimenters.

The participants, acting as the sellers, were able to negotiate three different issues in the course of five offers and counteroffers. Some of the participants received messages from the buyers which seemed emotionally consistent: either always happy or always angry from one round to the next. Others received messages that alternated between angry and happy from round to round.

As in past research, participants made more concessions to consistently angry counterparts than to consistently happy counterparts. Participants also made more concessions to emotionally inconsistent counterparts than to emotionally consistent ones.

In another of the team’s experiments, participants made more concessions to counterparts whose messages veered from angry to disappointed than they did to counterparts whose tone was consistently angry.

Across the experiments, people made greater concessions to counterparts who seemed emotionally inconsistent, probably because they felt they lacked control when negotiating with unpredictable counterparts – and therefore backed down in the face of this uncertainty.

The results suggest that we should remain aware of our tendency to concede too much when negotiating with people who seem emotionally unpredictable. Don’t take the findings as a green light to cultivate an aura of emotional inconsistency for yourself, however, because it remains unclear whether faking an unpredictable nature will harm you or hurt you.

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A Brief History of Project Management

In this brief history of project management I chart all the major developments and events in the discipline as far back as there are records. Although there has been some form of project management since early civilization, project management in the modern sense began in the 1950s.

2570 BC: The Great Pyramid of Giza Completed

The Pharaohs built the pyramids and today archaeologists still argue about how they achieved this feat. Ancient records show there were managers for each of the four faces of the Great Pyramid, responsible for overseeing their completion. We do know there was some degree of planning, execution and control involved in managing this project.

208 BC: Construction of the Great Wall of China

Later still, another of the Seven Wonders of the World was built. Since the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206BC), construction of the Great Wall had been a large project. According to historical data, the labour force was organised into three groups: soldiers, common people and criminals. The Emperor Qin Shihuang ordered millions of people to finish this project.

1917: The Gantt chart Developed by Henry Gantt (1861-1919)

One of the forefathers of project management, Henry Gantt is best-known for creating his self-named scheduling diagram, the Gantt chart. It was a radical idea and an innovation of worldwide importance in the 1920s. One of its first uses was on the Hoover Dam project started in 1931. Gantt charts are still in use today and form an important part of the project managers' toolkit.

1956: The American Association of Cost Engineers (now AACE International) Formed

Early practitioners of project management and the associated specialities of planning and scheduling, cost estimating, cost and schedule control formed the AACE in 1956. It has remained the leading professional society for cost estimators, cost engineers, schedulers, project managers and project control specialists since. AACE continued its pioneering work in 2006 releasing the first integrated process for portfolio, programme and project management with their Total Cost Management Framework.

1957: The Critical Path Method (CPM) Invented by the Dupont Corporation

Developed by Dupont, CPM is a technique used to predict project duration by analysing which sequence of activities has the least amount of scheduling flexibility. Dupont designed it to address the complex process of shutting down chemical plants for maintenance and then with maintenance completed restarting them. The technique was so successful it saved the corporation $1 million in the first year of its implementation.

1958: The Program Evaluation Review Technique (PERT) Invented for the U.S. Navy's Polaris Project

The United States Department of Defense's US Navy Special Projects Office developed PERT as part of the Polaris mobile submarine launched ballistic missile project during the cold war. PERT is a method for analyzing the tasks involved in completing a project, especially the time needed to complete each task and identifying the minimum time needed to complete the total project.

1962: United States Department of Defense Mandate the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Approach

The United States Department of Defense (DOD) created the WBS concept as part of the Polaris mobile submarine launched ballistic missile project. After completing the project, the DOD published the work breakdown structure it used and mandated that this procedure be followed in future projects of this scope and size. WBS is an exhaustive, hierarchical tree structure of deliverables and tasks that need to be performed to complete a project. Later adopted by the private sector, the WBS remains one of the most common and effective project management tools.

1965: The International Project Management Association (IPMA) Founded

IPMA was the world's first project management association, started in Vienna by a group as a forum for project managers to network and share information. Registered in Switzerland, the association is a federation of about 50 national and internationally oriented project management associations. Its vision is to promote project management and to lead development of the profession. Since its birth in 1965, IPMA has grown and spread worldwide with over 40,000 members in more than 40 countries.

1969: Project Management Institute (PMI) Launched to Promote the Project Management Profession

Five volunteers founded PMI as a non-profit professional organisation dedicated to advance the practice, science and profession of project management. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania USA issued Articles of Incorporation for PMI in 1969 which signified its official start. During that same year, PMI held its first symposium in Atlanta, Georgia and had an attendance of 83 people. Since then, the PMI has become best known as the publisher of "A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)," considered one of the most essential tools in the project management profession today. The PMI offers two levels of project management certification, Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM) and Project Management Professional (PMP).

1975: PROMPTII Method Created by Simpact Systems Limited

PROMPTII was developed in response to an outcry that computer projects were overrunning on time estimated for completion and original budgets as set out in feasibility studies. It was not unusual to experience factors of double, treble or even ten-times the original estimates. PROMPTII was an attempt to set down guidelines for the stage flow of a computer project. In 1979 the UK Government's Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA) adopted the method for all information systems projects.

1975: The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Fred Brooks

In his book on software engineering and project management, Fred Brooks's central theme is that "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later." This idea is known as Brooks's law. The extra human communications needed to add another member to a programming team is more than anyone ever expects. It naturally depends on the experience and sophistication of the programmers involved and the quality of available documentation. Nevertheless, no matter how much experience they have, the extra time discussing the assignment, commitments and technical details as well as evaluating the results becomes exponential as more people are added. These observations are from Brooks's experiences while managing development of OS/360 at IBM.

1984: Theory of Constraints (TOC) Introduced by Dr. Eliyahu M. Goldratt in his Novel "The Goal"

TOC is an overall management philosophy that is geared to help organisations continually achieve their goal. The title comes from the view that any manageable system is limited in achieving more of its goal by a small number of constraints, and there is always at least one constraint. The TOC process seeks to identify the constraint and restructure the rest of the organisation around it by using Five Focusing Steps. The methods and algorithms from TOC went on to form the basis of Critical Chain Project Management.

1986 Scrum Named as a Project Management Style

Scrum is an agile software development model based on multiple small teams working in an intensive and interdependent manner. In their paper "The New New Product Development Game" (Harvard Business Review, 1986), Takeuchi and Nonaka named Scrum as a project management style. Later they elaborated on it in "The Knowledge Creating Company" (Oxford University Press, 1995). Although Scrum was intended for management of software development projects, it can be used to run software maintenance teams, or as a general project and programme management approach.

1987: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) Published by PMI

First published by the PMI as a white paper in 1987, the PMBOK Guide was an attempt to document and standardise accepted project management information and practices. The first edition was published in 1996, followed by a second in 2000, and third in 2004. The guide is one of the most essential tools in the project management profession today and has become the global standard for the industry.

1989: Earned Value Management (EVM) Leadership Elevated to Under-secretary of Defense for Acquisition

Although the earned value concept has been around on factory floors since the early 1900s, it only came to prominence as a project management technique in the late 1980s early 1990s. In 1989, EVM leadership was elevated to the Under-secretary of Defense for Acquisition, thus making EVM an essential part of programme management and procurement. In 1991, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney cancelled the Navy A-12 Avenger II Programme because of performance problems detected by EVM. The PMBOK Guide of 1987 has an outline of Earned Value Management (EVM) subsequently expanded on in later editions.

1989: PRINCE Method Developed From PROMPTII

Published by the UK Government agency CCTA, PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE) became the UK standard for all government information systems projects. A feature in the original method, not seen in other methods, was the idea of "assuring progress" from three separate but linked perspectives. However, the PRINCE method developed a reputation as being too unwieldy, too rigid and applicable only to large projects, leading to a revision in 1996.

1994: CHAOS Report First Published

The Standish Group collects information on project failures in the IT industry with the objective of making the industry more successful, showing ways to improve its success rates and increase the value of IT investments. The CHAOS report is a biennial publication.

1996: PRINCE2 Published by CCTA

An upgrade to PRINCE was considered to be in order and the development was contracted out, but assured by a virtual committee spread among 150 European organisations. Originally developed for IS and IT projects to reduce cost and time overruns; the second revision was made more generic an applicable to any project type.

1997: Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) Invented

Developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, Critical Chain Project Management is based on methods and algorithms drawn from his Theory of Constraints (TOC) introduced in his 1984 novel titled "The Goal." A Critical Chain project network will keep the resources levelly loaded, but will need them to be flexible in their start times and to switch quickly between tasks and task chains to keep the whole project on schedule.

1998: PMBOK Becomes a Standard

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recognises PMBOK as a standard in 1998, and later that year by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

2006: "Total Cost Management Framework" Release by AACE International

Total cost management is the name given by AACE International to a process for applying the skills and knowledge of cost engineering. It is also the first integrated process or method for portfolio, programme and project management. AACE first introduced the idea in the 1990s and published the full presentation of the process in the "Total Cost Management Framework."

2008: 4th Edition of PMBOK Guide Released

The fourth edition of the guide continues the PMI tradition of excellence in project management with a standard that is easier to understand and implement, with improved consistency and greater clarification. The updated version has two new processes not in the previous versions.

2009: Major PRINCE2 Revision by Office of Government Commerce (OGC)

A major revision has seen the method made simpler and more easily customisable, a common request from users. The updated version has seven basic principles (not in the previous version) that contribute to project success. Overall the updated method aims to give project managers a better set of tools to deliver projects on time, within budget and to the right quality.

What's Next?

With globalisation come ever bigger challenges and the need for increased speed-to-market with products and services. Projects become larger, more complex and increasingly difficult to manage. Teams are more diverse and spread across the world. The economic crisis pushes work offshore to low cost countries, which itself presents several issues. The world is changing and project management will need to change with it.

No doubt new techniques and better practices will arise as we push the boundaries of what is possible and new challenges arise. Human need drives us forward to a better future and with it will come improvements in the way we manage projects. When and where these developments will happen is uncertain, but they will happen.

Here's to the next hundred years!

courtesy:Mr. Duncan Haughey, PMP

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"Ten New Rules for Project Managers" ~ Hal Macomber

1. Embrace uncertainty.

Expect the unexpected. There is far more that we don't know and can't know than what we can anticipate. Be resilient to what life throws at you. Anticipate that your team will learn something along the way that can and should change what you have promised and how you can deliver on your promises. And when you take a set-back — we all do sometime or another — review the other nine rules for how you can work your way out of it.

2. Listen generously.

People are able to say what they can in the moment. For the most part, people are well-intended. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Take the time to listen. Ask questions. Seek others' opinions. And while you're at it, don't be so harsh on yourself.

3. Collaborate. Really collaborate.

Make it your rule to plan with those people who will be the performers of the plan. Don't wait 'til the project has gone south to get their help. Start out that way. Continue collaborating as the usual way you work through the project.

 4. Coordinate meticulously.

A project is an ever-evolving network of commitment. Keep that network activated by tending to the critical conversations. See that people are making clear requests, promises that have completion dates, and share opinions that advance the purposes of the project. Without attention to those critical conversations the project will drift.

5. Tightly couple learning with action.

Projects are wonderful opportunities to learn. Don't put that off for the after project lessons learned. Make it your habit to incorporate learning loops in all your project activities. Your team will appreciate it. Your customer will benefit from it. And best of all, it will make your job easier.

6. Build relationships intentionally.

Project teams come together as strangers. To do great work…innovation, learning, and collaboration…all take people who like and care for each other. Don't leave that to chance. Start your projects by building relationships among team members.

7. Keep your eye on the overall project promises.

Project work can be difficult. It is easy to loose sight of what we are doing and why we are doing it. Remind your team and yourself of the overall promises and how you are doing fulfilling those promises.

8. Take care of your project team.

We've come to accept that the customer comes first…the customer is always right. We can't take care of the customer if we first aren't taking care of our project team. It's a challenge. While there are some things we can do for the whole team, it comes down to taking care of each team member as the individual that he or she is. And to make it more difficult, then we must bring their various interests into coherence.

 9. Stay close to your customer.

Clients' concerns evolve over the life of a project. Take advantage of that to over-deliver. Stay in a conversation with your client to adjust what you are doing.

10. Adopt practices for exploring a variety of perspectives.

We think we see what we see, but we don't. We really see what we think. Remember the blind men and the elephant. Make it your habit to inquire what others see. You'll see more together.

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Controlling Schedule and Cost with Project Baselines - Bill Scott

Stakeholders measure projects by how well they are executed within the project constraints or baselines. A baseline is an approved plan for a portion of a project (+/- changes). It is used to compare actual performance to planned performance and to determine if project performance is within acceptable guidelines. Every project has at least four project baselines. There may be others, depending on the project and definitions used.

Project Baselines

• Budget
• Schedule
• Scope
• Quality

Schedule and Budget are the focus of this paper and the terms activity and work elements are synonymous. Schedule and cost (budget) are two of the major legs of the project constraint polygon. Without the schedule and budget baselines plans, one does not know where the project stands relative to planned schedule progress or planned budget performance. The schedule and budget baselines, along with other baselines, are developed in the planning phase of the project. The project plan is approved prior to execution by the project sponsor or an appropriate senior level manager.

The project plan includes the budget and schedule. Schedule determines when work elements (activities) are to be completed, milestones achieved, and when the project should be completed. The budget determines how much each work element should cost, the cost of each level of the work breakdown schedule (WBS), and how much the total project should cost. Actual performance can be compared to these plans to determine how well the project is progressing or finished. Schedules and budgets are interlocked, and most likely an increase in one causes an increase in the other.

Project Budget

The project budget is a financial plan for all project expenditures (cost). Success in project budget management depends on, amongst other things, the creation of a comprehensive, consistent, and reliable project budget. Some people want to use the term “accurate” in the above definition. But, the word “accurate” has no place in the project world. Reliable and consistent are the terms that should be used. By definition, the project budget cannot be accurate as it is an estimate. Normal ranges of project budget variability depends on the project, the organization, type of business (and many other factors) but usually falls within +/- 10%.

A. How to Develop a Project Budget

In the Project Management Body of Knowledge Guide® world, there are two processes to developing a project budget. The first process is Estimate Cost, which is often confused with the Determine Budget process. Both of these processes are normally preceded by a project management team planning process, which is executed as part of the Develop Project Management Plan. This planning process is known as the Project Cost Management or the Cost Management Plan. The Cost Management Plan outlines the processes involved in determining organizational cost categories, estimating, budgeting, and controlling cost, so that the project can be executed within the approved budget.

The Estimate Cost process is not only confused with Determine Budget but is also widely misunderstood. Many think that this process estimates the total cost of the project. But this is not correct, at least not directly. The Estimate Cost process estimates the cost for each of the work elements and records the basis of that cost. That is as far as Estimate Cost goes!

The second of the three processes in Project Cost Management is the Determine Budget process, which rolls work element cost upward, applies cost aggregation, applies project contingency, makes a cash flow estimate, and now you have a budget for the various levels of the WBS and the total project.

B. Why a Project Budget is Important

Based on the work above, we now have a budget for:

• Individual Activities
• Work Packages
• Deliverables
• The Total Project

This level of detail allows a project manager (PM) to evaluate the budget performance of the project from the top down or from the bottom up. If a work package is running over or is in danger of over running the budget, the project manager can drill down until he/she finds the problem or potential problem. The drill down can be by the PM or in conjunction with the assigned team member.

One other very powerful tool that helps in the analysis of project budget performance is the Earned Value Method (EVM). EVM can assist you in evaluating project budget performance (what are you accomplishing for the funds you are expending) and in calculating a Cost Performance Index (CPI), which is a representation of the effectiveness of your spending. EVM can calculate a Cost Variance (CV), which is the difference between the value of the work completed and the amount of funds expended to accomplish that work. This will tell you the magnitude of the over– or under-run or if you are on budget. EVM can be applied down to the work element level, if the appropriate level of detail exists.

Variance analysis is another tool to help the PM understand why work elements (or above) are over– or underbudget. The Cost Management Plan probably sets thresholds for overruns (say 10%), a different threshold for under runs (say 15%), to trigger your attention. Understanding why work elements are overrunning will assist the PM todevelop solutions (action plans) to bring the project back within acceptable ranges. Understanding why work elements are significantly under budget assist the PM in feeding this information forward to new project budget development.

Regardless of experience, care, or execution effort, project budget variances will occur. This is just a fact of the project world. While they cannot all be eliminated, they can be reduced for future projects. Some (not many) projects will finish very close to the budget. More projects will finish within acceptable ranges (+/-10%). Others (we hope not many) will finish well outside the acceptable range (>10% over or under). Using the techniques outlined here will reduce the number of projects in this category and reduce the size of the over runs.

C. Tips on How to Successfully Manage a Project Budget

Capture all of the scope (scope statement, WBS, and WBS dictionary). If you do not capture the total project scope correctly, there is little hope that the project can be executed for the budget or schedule.

Insist on input from all stakeholders. Penetrate through stated needs and include implied needs.

• Determine the various cost categories used at the organization.
• Develop Project Team and Project Management Team trust.
• Develop a reliable, consistent, sufficiently detailed WBS and time decomposition structure.
• Estimate Cost and Determine Budget.
• Stop scope and grade creep. Eliminate gold plating. None of these adds value to the project. Your team is your first line of defense.
• Perform EVM, variance, and trend analysis.
• Continuously communicate to stakeholders on project status, project direction, and what the project will look like at completion.
• Use organizational process assets (OPA) to develop, analyze, and challenge.
• Take action when indicated! Sooner rather than later.

Bill Scott is a Professional Skills Instructor at Global Knowledge Training LLC.

This article was originally published in Global Knowledge’s Business Brief e-newsletter.

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Collaborative & Efficient team work, within a Construction Project Management environment, can produce innovative solutions to problems.

A Prestige German car company Porsche demonstrate how collaborative team working, within a construction project management environment, can produce an innovative design of an ocean front apartment block in Miami with an innovative parking solution to limited space. The building will feature a robotic parking system allowing owners to park their cars in their own garage adjacent to their residence using a lift.

Watch the video below

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What is Construction Project Management?

If you have been thinking about building a block of units, apartments or businesses, you may also have been thinking about how on earth you are going to manage it. A construction project management service can be a great way of ensuring that your building job is completed on time and to schedule, but what sort of process do they follow?

Planning and Feasibility

This step involves looking at the property and determining whether it is actually feasible to undertake the project you have in mind. If it is, the management service will look into building permits and all the other areas that need to be planned prior to construction commencing.

Conceptual Planning and Engineering

In this step actual plans for the project are drawn up and the final design of the building (what it will look like) is finalized. These plans will then be passed on to an engineer who will tell you whether they are okay to go ahead or whether any changes need to be made to ensure structural integrity.

Procurement and Construction

This step involves all of the contractors and subcontractors being chosen to work on the project, as well as sourcing suppliers for all the various materials they will need. Finally, you are given the go ahead for onsite construction to commence and your building begins to take shape.

In the final step of the process, the construction project management service presents the finished building to you. You are given the chance to walk through and point out where any mistakes or damage has occurred; once this has all been rectified, the project is deemed finished and accepted. You are now ready to sell the units or apartments or to rent them out as desired.

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