Part 4 of 7 - 2nd Book that Influenced My Project Management Career

 

This is Part 4 in a series about a second book that affected the development of my skills in the business of managing projects and program of projects    The book -  Human Factors in Project Management by Paul C. Dinsmore – published in 1990 by AMACOM-American Management Association.  

The series contains articles on:  1)  A Classical View of Project Management.    2)  Planning and Strategy.   3)  Project Interfacing.   4)  Using Managerial Time.    5)  Negotiations.   6)  Decision Making.  7)  Managing Changes. 

This article summarizes the key points in Chapter 8 – Using Managerial Time and it provides commentary relating the content to PMI’s Project Management Book of Knowledge – 6^th Edition (PMBOK).

Some clients use a percentage of direct labor in design and construction contracts to determine the value of managerial time for a project.    Some consultants may use a similar estimating process.  Some project managers may estimate the managerial costs by hard estimates for activities needed to meet the client’s requirements and expectations.

The contract documents specify managerial activities, services and deliverables required from the assigned management teams.   The requirements are usually concentrated in the Scope of Work (SOW) in a consultant service contract and in the Division 1 specifications in a construction contract.  In addition to the requirements, experiential data may help clarify the estimated cost based on historical averages for manpower usage and expenses on other contract with the client and similar clients in the industry domain.

One of the best ways to understand and formulate the costs is to create a chart of managerial activities, services and deliverables and to assign manhours over a defined period of time, such as monthly – the most common recurring period on construction projects.   Best practices for estimating project management team costs would include input from experienced project managers, including the PM that will be used for the contract.   The managerial items will cover a variety of personnel including PM assistances and  support staff for estimates, schedules, knowledge/records management, quality, safety, budget/financial  administration, contract administration, reporting and process expediter. 

Dinsmore presents a table of managerial items, which was created from survey response from project professionals, that illustrates a good template for generating an estimate of manhours necessary for managerial activities.    Models can be prepared for each contract type, contract requirements, and unwritten client expectations.   The Table includes:

Once the Models are prepared, activities and manhours can be adjusted based on the available budget negotiated for the project.   The adjustments may means that low priority low value activities can be trimmed or increased accordingly.   However – in some cases funding partners and oversight agencies may not be flexible in reducing the scope for project management activities, services and deliverables.  

Dinsmore identifies behaviors in the project team that cause high manhour usage and create inefficiencies in work flows including:  A)  Difficulty in saying “no.”   B)  Lack of self-discipline.   C)  Lack of time management.   D)  Less than fully competent employees.  E)  Excessive bureaucracy in the organization  F)  Poor utilization of administrative staff.   G)  Tendency to centralize, rather than delegate.  

As a result, Dinsmore discusses other strategies that may be helpful assessing alternatives including:  A) Delegate more.   B)  Do less work.  C)  Let things slide (delay).   D)  Work longer (more hours).   E)  Work harder (faster).   

PMBOK Chapter 3-The Role of Project Manager includes the quality and skills for project leadership.

Focusing on important things including:

• Continuously prioritizing work by reviewing and adjusting as necessary
• Finding and using a prioritization method that work for them and the project
• Differentiating high-level strategic priorities, especially those related to critical success factors for the project
• Maintaining vigilance on primary project constraints
• Remaining flexible on tactical priorities
• Being able to sift through massive amounts of information to obtain the most important information.

PMBOK Chapter 4.3.2-Develop Project Management Plan identifies Expert Judgment for determining the resources and skills levels needed to perform project work, and prioritizing the work on a project to ensure the project resources are allocated to the appropriate work at the appropriate time.

Commentary:    Soft costs for project management services are often secondary to direct hard costs for delivering the intended project assets.   While understandable, the soft costs for project management services should not be underestimated or go overlooked.  PM services are essential to manage execution risks that could affect the project schedule and costs.    I routinely monitor and assess manhour usage and cost of PM services and deliverables with the expectations of the client/owner.   A simple chart of monthly activities and deliverables and the estimated manhours can be reviewed with PMO management and the client/owner to evaluate needed adjustments to PM scope to better align with expectations.