Key to the success of a project is the level of sponsorship and direction offered by senior management in the Project Board. Understanding the Project Board as a group, and the performance of the individuals fulfilling the Project Board roles, will identify how well-versed the Project Board is in directing a project. Recognizing what is at work and handling it appropriately are skills essential to the Project Manager.
This post discusses some issues concerning people, politics and the Project Board.
INTRODUCTION
Project Boards which have a good understanding of management by exception and tolerance levels for time, cost, quality, scope, risk and benefits, authority versus responsibility, the three-way partnership between business, users and suppliers (especially when the suppliers is external) should, from the Project Manager's view, be easier to work with. They will be likely to want to follow the ‘event-driven’ approach that is key to successful Project Boards.
Project Boards getting together for the first time may experience problems in letting go of the day-to-day control of the project or display a tendency towards the ‘You ae the Project Manager, you sort it out’ approach. The degree to which the Project Manager is able to involve and draw support from the Project Board plays a large part in the smooth running of a project. To do this effectively, the Project Manager needs to be aware of how the foibles of individuals on the Project Board, and the politics within the Project Board and between it and the organization, can come into play. Recognizing what is at work and handling it appropriately are skills essential to the Project Manager.
The Project Manager may have managed projects many times before, but new Project Board members could be in uncharted waters, possibly feeling extremely vulnerable, all the more so on business-critical projects. Project Managers need to be sensitive to this vulnerability and identify ways of making the Project Board members more comfortable in their role, for example, by having time-driven, as opposed to time-driven, Project Board meetings or allowing more technically focused direction to enable them to feel more at ease. The Project Manager also has to demonstrate that the project is under effective control. This may be at the temporary expense of some of the fundamental principles of the organization theme of PRINCE2.
However, Project Manager should always be working to a strategy that ensures the Project Board adopts the principles in the longer term, whilst being aware of the risks that may be there in the transition period.
TRAITS OF PROJECT BOARD MEMBERS
Despite having defined roles and role descriptions, Project Board members may well have characteristics and hidden agendas that could be damaging to the project and Project Manager.
The following draws together typical traits found in some Project Board members. There are two key points that should be remembered: first, that there are other traits and that some people can display either a combination or extremes of particular traits, and second, these traits can have positive aspects. For example, the strength of the natural leader in overcoming obstacles, and the precision of the micro-manager who ensures the finer points of the project are covered, etc. These positive aspects are not discussed here as it is the negative aspects that pose the most risk to the success of the project.
The table below outlines some common traits found amongst Project Board members.
| Senior ditherers | Example behavior: A senior manager who will not make a decision or will defer a decision until they see in which direction the rest of the group is going. |
| Potential issues: This can be a significant problem if the ditherer is the Executive on the Project Board. The Project Manager will need to work hard to spell out choices and to present the favored option clearly. |
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| Natural leaders | Example behavior: Natural leaders drive the project along: they make the ideal project champion and will move major obstacles out of the way of the Project Manager in order to get things done. |
| Potential issues: The Project Manager must ensure that the natural leader does not ignore major issues and risks just because they may slow the project down. |
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| Terrorists | Example behavior: Terrorists come in several forms; the more extreme terrorist seems determined to wreck the project at every opportunity. |
| Potential issues: Terrorists can be the type that do not want change, no matter what it is. they could also be under threat from the project, i.e. it could be a project that reduces their role, lowers their status in the organization, reduces their team or even makes them redundant. |
| Terrorism can also be generated by the perceived threat of being upstaged by the Project Manager, especially in a high profile project where the terrorist feels it should be them in the driving seat. |
| One other type of terrorist may exist in other projects where a Project Manager or Project Board member may be aggrieved at having their resources and funding redirected to the new project. |
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| Micro-managers | Example behavior: This type of character is usually identified by phrases such as ‘Show me in detail’, ‘I used to do this for a living, let me help you with detail’, ‘I want to understand the underlying data here’. |
| Potential issues: The Project Manager needs to be clear if there is a genuine nervousness with the information presented and therefore a need to increase the person's confidence in both the Project Manager and the information. |
| This is significantly different to the senior manager who wants to get into the detail so that they can meddle. The validity and age of the experience, i.e. how up-to-date a manager is in their understanding of the issues, is a key deciding factor in whether the Project Manager should allow this detailed study. |
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| Statesmen | Example behavior: Statesmen, like terrorists, come in different forms. Some will use projects to achieve their own aims, either through the status of being on the Project Board and the ability to influence other members of senior management or be trying to influence the project's deliverables. |
| Potential issues: Statesmen can be difficult and sometimes (from a project viewpoint) dangerous people to deal with. They are prone to changing their minds after making agreements; they can also remain squeaky clean whilst organizing a mutiny. |
Developing strategies to cope with these potential issues can pose significant challenges for the Project Manager, especially if a mix of traits is displayed or the positive side of the trait needs to be covered.
The table below outlines some high-level points that could be considered when attempting to deal with these people.
| Senior ditherers | Focus attention on needs as opposed to wants when asking for decisions.
Focus on process and make the decision look routine.
Limit the range of options that have to be picked when asking for a decision.
Try to gain an understanding as to why decision-making is difficult.
Use support of other managers to aid decision-making. |
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| Natural leaders | Use risk management as a mechanism to demonstrate the impact of what can happen if an issue is not thought through.
Ensure every impact analysis for every change is thorough. |
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| Terrorists | Utilize support from the project sponsor.
Arrange a one-to-one meeting and ask for direct criticism about some of the issues. |
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| Micro-managers | Utilize support from experts within the team in order to provide detail.
Concentrate on the process used to gather information.
Gain buy-in early. |
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| Statesmen | Introduce formality.
Keep detailed notes.
Focus on the processes. |
APPOINTING THE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TEAM
Two activities of the Starting up a Project process in a PRINCE2® project are all about designing and appointing the project management team, starting with the Executive, followed by the Project Manager, then the rest of the team. Whilst this is clearly the best and recommended approach, there are often other sequences of events that may occur, including a Project Manager appointing an Executive.
With due regard to the potential challenges presented by the types of characters mentioned above, awareness of them is often the only weapon, since their appointment may be a fait accompli.
The Executive
There are typically three scenarios that determine the method of appointing the Executive:Self-appointment
This will be the case if, for example, the project is part of a programme. In this situation the project mandate produced by the programme will specify whom this is to be - perhaps the Programme Manager or another person in a programme management role.
The self-appointment may also occur in situations where this project is a follow-on from a previous one. For example, the first project may have identified other products to be built and therefore the recommendation of examining the issue would have been to start a new project after the current one had finished.
Incumbent role
For a project that has originated by another route (new strategy, market opportunity) then the Executive will most likely have been involved in securing funding for the project via the organization's project approval process and will therefore already be in the role.
Selection
There may be situations where there is a Project Manager in place and based on their recommendation an Executive is suggested, then appointed. This may occur on projects that are being re-initiated or re-scoped. The original Executive may now no longer be the most appropriate person. In these cases the process described later for identifying and appointing other team members can be used to aid the decision-making process.
A good Executive for a Project Board would display four key characteristics:Authority
The person should be senior enough within the organization to make strategic decisions about the project (based on the Business Case). PRINCE2® is very clear about authority being consistent with accountability, hence ‘senior enough’.
Credibility
It should be remembered that credibility within the organization plays a significant part in the Executive's ability to lead and direct the project.
Ability to delegate
A key part of the Executive's role is ensuring that the Project Manager is given enough ‘space’ to manage the project by keeping Project Board activity at the right level, i.e. directing a project. They should not be involved in the detail of how the project is managed, nor in the specialist content of the project.
Availability
An Executive who meets all the above characteristics is of little value to the project if he or she is not available to make decisions and provide direction to the Project Manager.
The Project Manager
The assumptions made throughout this blog post is that the reader is the Project Manager and has already been appointed as such on the project. But how did you become Project Manager and what criteria did the Executive use to identify and appoint you?
Assuming that the Executive is the first to be appointed (although, as stated earlier, this may not be the case), their first task is to find a suitable Project Manager. The Project Manager undertakes a significant proportion of the project management and therefore project management competencies rather than specialist expertise are a crucial requirement of the role.
Whilst some of the existing management theories (e.g. McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y, Herzberg's theory, Kolb and Fry's motivation cycle, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Adair's action centered leadership, etc.) can be used to identify the characteristics of a Project Manager, the project management role is so diverse in scope that a wide range of characteristics may ‘fit’.
For example, Henry Mintzberg in his study of managerial work identified that managers, to a greater or lesser extent, have an interpersonal role, an informational role a decisional role. Mintzberg sub-divided these further under each of these heading roles:
| Interpersonal roles | Leader
Liaison
Figurehead |
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| Informational roles | Monitor
Disseminator
Spokesperson |
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| Decisional roles | Entrepreneur
Disturbance handler
Resource allocator
Negotiator |
Project Managers have to perform all of these roles on a daily basis. In addition, they have to be self-aware enough to know which role to step into at what time and for what audience.
As well as identifying the characteristics and skills of the Project Manager, the Executive will need to balance the needs of the project, its risk to the organization, the extent of change and the availability of internal resource.
There could be a case for employing an external Project Manager of the extent of change will be high. Bringing in an objective ‘outsider’ avoids cultural and/or personal attachments to the status quo. Also, an external Project Manager may be appropriate if a large part of the project is being contracted out to a third party whose Project Manager will perform the PRINCE2® Project Manager role and Team Manager role for that specialist group.
There should be a role description for the Project Manager that the incumbent should sign. It is vitally important to ensure the role is clearly defined and is especially important when an external Project Manager is involved.
Other Project Board members
The activity of identifying all the project interests, allocating these to appropriate Project Board roles, selecting people to undertake those roles and providing the Project Board with terms of reference may stem from previous work, a feasibility study for example.
If it is not clear who should perform these roles then a simple process can be followed to ensure that the most appropriate structure is put in place.Identify and describe project deliverables (from the project mandate)
Identify all project interests
Allocate interests to roles
Prepare draft role descriptions
Allocate named people to roles
Appoint Project Board members and finalize role descriptions
The Project Manager should recommend, in discussion with the Executive, the appropriate project management team for the project.
It is up to the Project Manager to design a suitable team structure, scaling it to the project size, risk and complexity. The Project Board needs to represent all of the interested parties or stakeholders in the organization (the users), and involve any suppliers (internal or external) that have been identified (this is early in the project so it still might not be known who the stakeholders are or how they will be represented in the Project Board).
There are a number of issues here about keeping the size of the Project Board as small as possible whilst still representing all business, user and supplier interest. A number of studies have demonstrated that smaller teams perform significantly better than larger ones. Weinberg, in particular, demonstrated that communication channels between members of a team increase geometrically as the team size increases. Thus, with three people there are three communication channels, with four people there are six channels and with five people there are ten channels and so on (the mathematical formula for this is (n(n-1))/2 where n is the number of people involved).
Producing a matrix of stakeholder against project products helps split the project stakeholders (who need to be part of the Communication Management Strategy) from the project decision makers (who need to be on the Project Board).
In projects that impact on a large user community, some organizations have benefited from involving user groups. These groups discuss user issues and risks and pass recommendations to the Senior User on the Project Board. If a user group is involved, it is necessary to define at the outset who is authorized to represent its collective view and how this will operate.
The decision on whether to include external suppliers on the Project Board may be a cultural one based on fear of divulging commercial or financial information. Leaving them out of the project direction could cause delays due to the lack of supplier resources to deal with change and to address major specialist/technical issues. It is the Executive's decision as to how this dilemma is solved practically.
Charles Handy, a leading management thinker, identified that one of the key problems when working in large teams or complex environments is ‘role ambiguity’, knowing what your role is and how it fits with the rest of the team. Handy explaind that in these large team environment roles ofen overlap, causing tension and confusion within the team. To avoid this, role descriptions should be produced which detail the duties required of each person who might potentially fulfil the various roles.
These may be based upon the role descriptions from the PRINCE2® manual, but tailored to suit the project. If there is a project office, they may hold template role descriptions.
The role descriptions should be competency-based, describing the suitable knowledge, experience and skills required, as well as the personal characteristics required. These can be used to match the competencies of likely candidates that the Project Manager and Executive have identified. This is done for a number of reasons:To confirm that candidates are suitable for the project
To explain the project commitments
To secure the candidate's agreement (by signature)
To identify any support that the candidate may require to carry out their role successfully
To identify the starting point for the candidate's induction to the project
To decide how the Project Assurance role will be performed.
If there are political undercurrents at play in the appointment of an individual this will become apparent when using this approach. Appropriate action can be taken to ensure that, whilst the appointment may be required, the Project Board does not suffer as a result of lack of competency in a particular area.
The Project Board's first challenge is to knit together and perform as a team. This may require some facilitation and support as it goes through the cycle of forming, storming, norming and performing (theory of Tuckman and Jensen). The tailored role descriptions and Directing a Project process from PRINCE2® will help with the norming stage of the cycle. The aim is to move through all the Directing a Project activities with a minimum of conflict.
SUMMARY
The role of the Project Board on a project is crucial to the project's success. The quality of the input from the Project Board also impacts on the smooth running of a project and it is the Project Manager's responsibility to elicit that input in the right way and at the right time.
This means understanding the personalities involved, their personal and political agendas and steering a course to ensure project interests are at the forefront of everyone's minds and actions when they need to be.