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Project Management Companion Newsletter
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Welcome to the new year, we hope you achieve all the goals you have set out for yourself this year. The Project Management Companion has been updated during the break, there has been an addition of both Job Listing's for those of you looking for a new Project Management role and for those needing to brush up on their skills we now have the Project Management Companion bookstore. Regardless of what you wish to achieve within project management this year, you can rely on Project Management Companion to provide support .
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The functional manager versus the project manager
Do you really know the difference between the two, well the best way to explain the unique role of the PM is to contrast it with that of a functional manager in charge of one of a firm's functional departments such as marketing, engineering, or finance. Such department heads are usually specialists in the areas they manage. Being specialists, they are analytically oriented and they know something of the details of each operation for which they are responsible. When a technically difficult task is required of their departments, they know how to analyse and attack it. As functional managers, they are administratively responsible for deciding how something will be done, who will do it, and what resources will be devoted to accomplish the task.
A PM, by contrast, is usually a generalist with a wide background of experience and knowledge. A PM must oversee many functional areas, each with its own specialists. therefore what is required is an ability to put many pieces of a task together to form a coherent whole-that is, the project manager must be more skilled at synthesis, whereas the functional manager must be more skilled at analysis. The functional manager uses the analytic approach and the PM uses the systems approach.
So what is the systems approach, a system can be defined as a set of interrelated components that accepts inputs and produces outputs in a purposeful manner. This simple statement is a bit more complicated that it appears. First the word "purposeful" restricts our attention to systems that involve humans in some way. Machines are not purposeful, people are. Second, the notion of "inputs" and "outputs" implies some boundary across which the system's inputs arrive and outputs depart. This boundary differentiates the system from its "environment". Third, the nature of interrelationships between the components defines the "structure" of the system.
The analytic method focuses on breaking the components of a system into smaller and smaller elements. We are not saying that this is the wrong thing to do. It merely inadequate for understanding a complex system. Regardless of the dissector's skill or the degree to which, say, a frog is dissected, the dissection allows only a partial understanding of the total animal "frog". The systems approach maintains the policy that to understand a component, we must understand the system of which the component is a part. And to understand the system, we must understand the environment of which it is a part.
The PM is a facilitator. Knowing the technology, the functional manager has a basic technical knowledge required to oversee and advise subordinates on the best ways to handle their work and solve problems met in the normal course of that work. The PM may have detailed technical knowledge in one or two specific areas but he or she rarely has knowledge in depth beyond these few areas. The PM, cannot apply knowledge directly, but instead must facilitate co-operation between those who have various kinds of specialised knowledge and those who need it. This distinction between facilitator and specialist is a key element in the decision to generalists as PMs rather than specialists.
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Project Responsibilities
The PM's responsibilities are broad and fall primarily into three separate area: responsibility to the parent organisation, responsibility to the project, and responsibility to the members of the project team. Responsibilities to the firm itself include proper conservation of resources, timely and accurate project communications, and the careful competent management of the project.
It is very important to keep senior management of the parent organisation fully informed about the project's status, cost, timing, and prospects. Senior managers should be warned about likely future problems. The PM should note the chances of running over budget or being late, as well as methods available to reduce the likelihood of these dreaded events. Above all, the PM must never, never, never allow senior management to be surprised!
If the PM is in the middle of this turmoil. The PM must sort out understanding from misunderstanding, soothe ruffled feathers, balance petty rivalries, and cater to the demands of the clients.
PM must be concerned with the future of the people, and does not get involved in helping project workers with the transition back to their functional homes or to new projects, then as the project nears completion, project workers will pay more and more attention to protecting their own future careers and less to completing the project on time.
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