What does the project team do while the project manager is in the initatiing and planning phase of the project? In addition, does the project manager have a lot of idle time after the planning phase?
I want to get a first-hand account of how the workload, and type of work, looks for the project manager throughout the project lifecylce as well as for the project team. Thank you for your input in advance. Saving Changes...
In many case the team is not fully formed during the early stages of a project. The work has to be defined at a high level first, then as the resources requirements are better understood to complete the work, the team grows to bring in people with the right skills. Sometimes people are brought in early to protect staffing levels, but the PM might be challenged to keep them busy as the work to be performed is still TBD. They may be assigned to preliminary activities such as trade studies, but that's not necessarily their competency.
In the execution phase, the PM may be busy with change management, risk management, project reviews (technical and business management), as well as fire-fighting, removing road blocks for the team, and dealing with cost and schedule variance.
On other projects, the PM may indeed have a lot of idle time during part of the project execution phase. In some types of projects, there can be long periods between when the work is committed and completed. The execution team (e.g. engineering) is hard at work with the designs, but there's not much to see. In those cases, I've often moved on to other hot projects and another person comes in as more of an Operations manager, at least until the build and testing ramps up and things get busy again. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Jonatan
During initiation, only the key players from the team are assigned and involved in the project. As we progress to the planning phase, more members join.
For example, during initiation, we involve: Head of Contracts, Head of Procurement, Construction Manager, Control Manager and Engineering Manager.
As the project moves forward, we assign the rest of the team like Cost Engineer, Project Engineers, and so on.
The PM, especially during planning, doesn't have any idle time. Planning is crucial and the involvement of the PM is key - We do spend lots of time communicating and engaging with stakeholders.
During execution, when everything kicks-off, the PM might have some relief time (I won't call it idle time), but he constantly needs to be Monitoring the project in so many directions.
It is a highly demanding job for the PM and his team but that's the nature of what we do.
Hope this helps.
RK Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
It is a difficult question to answer because, at least in my personal experience along the years, it will depends on the type of product to be created, the type of team (virtual, distributed along the countries, etc), the type of engagement (contractors, head counts, etc) and environmental conditions. The best is to add people "on demmand" but this is risky in the last times, mainly when software component is included. Saving Changes...
To add to the great feedback which Keith, Rami & Sergio provided I'd simply say that the overall level of involvement and what activities the PM is required to perform also depends on the expectations on the role of a PM and the organizational PM maturity.
You got a very good feedback from Kiron, Sergio, Rami and Keith. Please be advised that due to unique nature of the projects, any combination of these things may happen. However, a lot of thing needs to be done after planning by PM. So it does not necessarily mean that he/she is free afterwards. Saving Changes...
Keith SellarsIT Manager| Georgia Federal-State Inspection ServiceBainbridge, Ga, United States
I think the answer to this question varies from project to project and situation to situation. From personal experience, my job duties dictate that I cannot operate strictly/only as a Project Manager. Unfortunately, my organization does not have a "Project Manager" position so I took it upon myself to become one as a collateral duty. In my case, I rarely ever have idle time, so each day involves managing whatever project(s) may be going on, managing my development team, and other IT Manager duties. Most of the answers that I've already seen posted are spot on. With just about any project, the planning stage is indeed action-filled, but what comes next, the monitoring, the oversight, the servant leadership skills, managing stakeholder expectations - if you run a project correctly, I think you will rarely have idle time on your hands. Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Jonatan,
the effort spent by different roles (PM and SME) changes during the project and often is represented by a resource histogram (how much hours planned per week per resource type/role).
You are right, at the beginning of a project, the PM and some key resources analyse the situation and plan for the rest of the project while SMEs (subject matter experts) may not even be assigned to the project. This changes while the team is being built up.
Another aspect is that the terms initiating and planning are better not used as phases in a project life cycle, showing a sequence on the timeline. Initiating and planning are 2 of the 5 process groups, which are repeated throughout the project and are not restricted to the time when starting the project. Saving Changes...
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