(Human) Resource Management

January 26, 2009 | by

Well, the numbers are crunched, sliced and diced, and our new research report on Resource Management Challenges has been posted on our website ... and while I can't say the results hold any big surprises, there are a few things I wanted to hold up and point at (which I will do, actually, in person, at our Strategy & Projects Summit in Cambridge this May.)

In an earlier post, I wrote about one of the (human) resource challenges pointed to in this report: the fact that executives often assume there are plenty of resources to accomplish planned work when, in fact, there are not. (This is a research finding so familiar to most of us from our daily work lives that it probably warrants a resounding "Well, duh!" We can only hope that some executives will read it and recognize themselves in it ...)

The other finding that I put under the heading "(human) resource challenge" centers on tools for resource management. Once again, the findings merely validate the sense of disappointment with tools that has become almost a cliché. If I worked in the software field, it would give me a headache to read that, while almost half (47.9%) of all organizations use automated information systems to assist in resource management functions, they are lukewarm at best when describing the value of those systems. Almost half (47.3%) thought that the tools did not accurately calculate resource forecasts. More than half (55%) said their managers did not use the systems consistently or effectively.

As we all know, software only works well when it has good data to work from, and skilled users. That's why this is a (human) resource challenge. Bad experiences with tools of any kind, in our experience, result from poor preparation for their implementation. The best project management software in the world won't raise the PM maturity level of an organization with poor management support for the process and resistant or untrained users.

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5 Comments on (Human) Resource Management

Paul Lombard says:

Jim
  Thanks for the info. Your findings validate what I have been hearing in conversations with PMO leaders and “C” Level personnel. A tool is only as good as the environment in which it operates. I remember Deming saying that people behave in accordance with the system they are in. It seems as though that thought could be extended to technology as well. One senior PMO leader told me his boss said the following; “I don’t mind if we implement a resource planning tool as long as it doesn’t interfere with my resource assignment prerogative!”
He decided to hold off on purchasing in order to do some change management.
  A question I would like the group to respond to is; At what level of maturity should a PMO or organization be at in order to use Project Resource Management tools effectively?

Paul Lombard, PMP
PM College

Posted on January 27, 2009 at 9:14 am

Josh Nankivel says:

Thanks for the post Jim!  One thing I’ve always struggled to understand is why many organizations and software implementations never take some rudimentary things into account.  For instance:

Parkinson’s law
Student syndrome
Bad multi-tasking

It also seems to me that most people don’t appreciate the value of their (human) resources’ time.  We should look around when in a meeting and take the average hourly resource cost times number of people in the room and figure out a rough guess of how much the meeting is costing the company.  Did it deliver 1.5x or 2x that cost in value to the organization?  It’s a fuzzy and subjective exercise, but it gets people thinking before they require people attend discussions in which they have no direct stake or decision to make.

Josh Nankivel
Univ. of Cali Santa Cruz Extension
Art of Project Management

Posted on February 2, 2009 at 3:43 pm

Dona Curry, PMO Director says:

There are two fundamental prerequisite processes embedded in an organization’s project management methodology - which in and of itself must be championed by management - to ensure the Resource Management tool is effective, reliable and a truly a business asset to all levels of the organization.

Both of these processes are part of the Project Planning Phase:

1) After the project scope has been finalized, all work packages including identifying detailed tasks, effort, dependencies and resource assignments cannot/should not be done in isolation or solely by the Project Manager.  Resource Managers - and where needed, subject matter experts - need to be involved and provide direct input into planning the detail work.  All projects should feed the Resource Management system.  Resource Managers need to manage hours available for project work and operational/support work in the Resource Management system.

2)  The PM must define and communicate the method to be used by all project team members to report/record actual effort to complete work.  The PM must also define and communicate how project progress will be quantitatively measured - that is, based on the actual data being reported by all project team members.

Too many times, a tool is implemented without thorough consideration given to business processes that the tool should supplement - not replace.  If an organization’s project management methodology is barely breathing or non-existent, deploying tools that broadcast unreliable or inconsistent data will only provide more nails for the project management coffin!

Posted on February 3, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Jeannette Cabanis-Brewin says:

Right you are, Dona. In fact, one of the main takeaways we derived from the Resource Management results was gotten by looking at what the worst performers in the study scored highest on ... and it showed that they simply weren’t doing basic project management right in any area! The list of “worst practices” the low-performing companies engaged in included:
-Too many unplanned requests
-Unrealistic schedules and budgets
-Scope creep
-Too many pet projects jumping the queue
-Poorly defined deliverables.
Obviously, adding a resource management tool to this kind of environment is just automating dysfunction.

Posted on February 5, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Paul Lombard says:

Dona and Jeanette;
  Your discussion about resource loading and practices makes me think about the relationship between maturity and effective resource management via PMO’s and Portfolio’s. I have heard that in order to be effective at Portfolio management of projects and ergo resources you need to be at least at level 3 project management maturity. Would you agree?

Posted on February 20, 2009 at 9:29 am

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