SPM Unit4 Notes
SPM Unit4 Notes
UNIT V
5.1 Introduction- Understanding Behavior- Selecting the right person
Organizational behaviour
• Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) ‘the father of scientific management’
Taylor’s three basic objectives
– To select the best people for the job;
– To instruct them in the best methods;
– To give financial incentives in the form of piece work
• One problem: ‘group norms’
Much of the work of Taylor was in factories and mines, working with manual workers.
The ‘instruction in best methods’ involved breaking down a manual task into its
component activities, identifying the best way of carrying out those activities and then
teaching the workers to copy the approved method. This can be seen as treating the
workers as little better than automatons – but it is also the way the sporting coaches often
work!
The individual workers were encouraged to maximize output by paying them piece-rates
e.g. by the units processed.
One difficulty with this is that workers learn that increasing output can in fact lead to the
piece-rate being adjusted in a downward direction. Maximizing output can also be
physically and mentally exhausting. Groups of workers therefore tend to converge on an
agreed output rate which does not require a constant 100% effort.
Hawthorne effect
Theory X
The average human has an innate dislike of work
There is a need therefore for coercion, direction and control
People tend to avoid responsibility
Theory Y
Work is as natural as rest or play
External control and coercion are not the only ways of bringing about effort
directed towards an organization’s end
Commitment to objectives is a function of the rewards associated with their
achievement
The average human can learn to accept and further seek responsibility
The capacity to exercise imagination and other creative qualities is widely
distributed.
5.2 Instruction In The Best Methods – Motivation The Oldman - Hackman Job
Characteristics Model
Instruction in the best methods
MG6088/Software Project Management
Sri VIdya College of Engineering & Technology Lecturer Notes
• The induction of new staff should be carefully planned – worst case where new
recruit is simply ignored and not given any tasks
• Good induction leads to new recruit becoming productive more quickly
• Need to review staff progress frequently and provide feedback
• Need to identify training that could enhance staff effectiveness.
Motivation
• Motivation and application can often make up for shortfalls in innate skills
• Taylor’s approach - financial incentives
• Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
– motivations vary from individual to individual
– hierarchy of needs – as lower ones fulfilled, higher ones emerge
– Lowest level – food, shelter
– Highest level – self-actualization
Note: if any of the factors has a zero value, then motivation will be zero.
Example from the text book: expectancy – trying to use a compiler to compile
software code; the code has a bug which causes a compilation error regardless of what
you do. In this case motivation will collapse.
Instrumentality – you are working on removing a fault from a software tool used by a
client; you find that the client has given up using the tool and has acquired a different
one to do the job. Low perceived value of reward: a reward that everyone gets is less
highly regarded than one which only outstanding people get. Getting a first is more
valuable if only 5% of students get a first compared to where 90% get a first!
Software developers will tend to be associated with their code – task identity; analyst
programmers will have a to use a wider range of skills than lower level programmers
– more skill variety. If you have direct contact with the end-users of your software you
are likely to be more aware of the results of your work – task significance, and more
likely to get feedback on it.
Introduction:
Θ Software based systems will be huge, also software tool contains five million lines of code.
Θ So that the work is shared between individual software developers within teams and between
group of developers.
Θ Team working will enhance the communication between individual developers and within
teams and across teams.
Θ Team - Group of people who are working together.
- Small group environment
Θ The term Project Team refers all the people working on a project.
Θ The people who are working in project team may sit in different workgroups at some
distance from each other.
Θ These groups can also change over time.
Θ Thus individual developers are transfer between teams during the period of project start and
finish.
Θ Team is created to do joint assignment
Θ To perform the work assignments which are allocated to the staff, the organization needs one
form of coordination between groups and individuals within a project.
Θ Communication genres
- refers Method of Communication
- It is selected and developed to deal with particular need for project coordination.
- The arrangements for communication between stakeholders are documented in
communication plan
Θ This Team work has an influence on all stages of step wise project planning framework.
1. Identify Project scope and objectives
2. Identify Project Infrastructure
3. Analyse project characteristics
4. Estimate effort for each activity
5. Identify activity risks
6. Allocate resources
7. Review/publicize plan
Becoming a Team
The organization first analyzes how the small work groups are formed.
While forming a team it has five basic stages of development:
o Forming - Members of the group get to know each other
- Try to set up some rules about behavior
o Storming - Conflicts arise to get leadership
- Group’s methods of operation are established
o Norming - Conflicts are largely settled
- Group identity emerges
o Performing - Now tasks are at the hand
o Adjourning (Suspend or Stop)- Group disperse
Some training activities such as management games are needed to promote team building and
to people in the team work together.
The team may consists of different types of people such as
MG6088/Software Project Management
Sri VIdya College of Engineering & Technology Lecturer Notes
o The chair - Good at running meetings
- Strong but tolerant
o The plant - Good at generating ideas and solutions to the problems
o The monitor-evaluator - Good at evaluating ideas and solutions
- Think well at selecting best one
o The shaper - Who helps to direct team’s attention to the important issues
o The team Worker - Good at creating a good working environment
o The resource investigator - Skilled person to find resources ie) both
physical
resources and information
o The completer-finisher - Anxious (Worried) with completing tasks
o The company worker - Should be a good team player
- Willing to take tasks for team success
Problems occur when there is an imbalance between the role types of people in a group.
Group Performance`
In many projects, some solutions are needed about which tasks are carried out collectively as
a team and which are allotted to individuals.
It is defined by “Some work yields better results if carried out as a team while some things
are slowed down if the work is not partitioned on an individual basis”.
The group tasks are categorized into:
o Additive Tasks - Effects of each participant are added to get final result
- People involved are interchangeable
o Compensatory Tasks - Solutions of individual group members are pooled
- Errors of some are compensated by the inputs from
others
o Disjunctive Tasks - Means there is only one correct answer.
- It depends on someone coming up with one right
answer and others recognizing it as being correct
o Conjunctive Tasks - Means joining the tasks
- Progress is governed by the rate of slowest performer
- The overall task is not completed until all participants
have completed.
Decision Making
• Decision can be categorized as
– Structured
• Simple
• Routine
• Straightforward rules
– Unstructured
• More complex
• Requires degree of creativity
Delphi approach
To avoid dominant personalities intruding the following approach is adopted
1. Enlist co-operation of experts
2. Moderator presents experts with problem
3. Experts send in their recommendations to the moderator
4. Recommendations are collated and circulated to all experts
5. Experts comment on ideas of others and modify their own recommendation if so moved
6. If moderator detects a consensus, stop; else back to 4
Team ‘heedfulness’
• Football Team.
• Where group members are aware of the activities of other members that contribute to overall
group success
• Impression of a ‘collective mind’
• Some attempts to promote this:
– Egoless programming
– Chief programmer teams
– XP
– Scrum
Egoless programming
• Gerry Weinberg noted a tendency for programmers to be protective of their code and to resist
perceived criticisms by others of the code
Extreme programming
XP can be seen as an attempt to improve team heedfulness and reduce the length of
communication paths (the time between something being recorded and it being used)
• Software code enhanced to be self-documenting
• Software regularly refactored to clarify its structure
• Test cases/expected results created before coding – acts as a supplementary specification
• Pair programming – a development of the co-pilot concept
Scrum
• Named as an analogy to a rugby scrum – all pushing together
• Originally designed for new product development where ‘time-to-market’ is important
• ‘Sprints’ increments of typically one to four weeks
• Daily ‘scrums’ – daily stand-up meetings of about 15 minutes
• Unlike XP, requirements are frozen during a sprint
• At the beginning of the sprint there is a sprint planning meeting where requirements are
prioritized
At end of sprint, a review meeting where work is reviewed and requirements may be changed
or added to
Department Structure
• Functional Format
• Project Format
• Matrix Format
Functional Format
Project Organization
• Designed for realizing task-oriented teams.
• At the start of every project, a set of developers are assigned to it.
• Developers remain with the project until the completion of the project.
• Same team carries out all the project activities.
Matrix Format
• Extension of functional format
• Provide advantage of both functional and Project structures
• Pool of functional specialists is assigned to different projects as needed
• The member assigned to a project has to report to both the managers ( functional and project)
• Weak or Strong
• Depending upon the relative authority of the functional managers and the project managers
• Strong – Functional Managers authority
• Weak – Project Managers authority
Disadvantages:
• Multiplicity of authority – Conflicts
Coordination Dependencies
• Area of CSCW(Computer Supported Cooperative work) interested in
identifying the types of coordination where computer tools could be of
assistance
• Coordination Theory – Useful Classification of coordination dependencies
• Coordination Dependencies
• Shared Resources
- Scarce technical experts
• Producer-Consumer(‘RightTime’)Relationships
- Product being delivered
- Product Flow Diagram (helps)
• Task-subtask dependencies
- A sequence of subtasks carried out
- PFD(helps)
• Accessibility(‘right-place’) dependencies
- Availability of Ambulance
- In Information and communications technology(ICT) less obvious –
Delivery & Installation of ICT equipment.
• Usability(‘right thing’) dependencies
- Fitness for purpose
- Satisfaction-prototype
- Legislative changes
• Fit Requirements
- Integration testing
Tools
• PFD
• Microsoft Project
o Decision making; allocation of resources
o Within projects and across a portfolio of projects
o Producer consumer; task-subtask dependencies
• Use of Change Management and Configuration management
Dependencies
• Ian McChesney – Research Report
o A person can be go between for staff
o EMails
Advantages
Reduction in staff cost- salary lower
Overheads reduction-accomodation,social security payments,training
Flexible use of staff
Productivity higher
Specialized staff
Different time zones-(code n test)
Challenges
Work distributed to contractors- Careful
Procedures-formally expressed
Coordination- difficult
Payment(fixed price/piece-rate)
Lack of trust
Quality Assesment
Differenct time zones Communication and coordination
• Intermediate stages
– Often involves the paralled detailed design of components
– Need for clarification of interfaces etc
– Favours same time/different place
• Implementation stages
– Design is relatively clear
Communications plans
• As we have seen choosing the right communication methods is crucial in a
project
• Therefore, a good idea to create a communication plan
• Stages of creating a communication plan
– Identify all the major stakeholders for the project
– Create a plan for the project
– Identify stakeholder and communication needs for each stage of the
project
– Document in a communication plan
5.7 Leadership
Types of authority/power
Position power
• Coercive power – able to threaten punishment
• Connection power – have access to those who do have power
• Legitimate power – based on a person’s title conferring a special status
• Reward power – able to reward those who comply
Personal power
• Expert power: holder can carry out specialist tasks that are in demand
• Information power: holder has access to needed information
• Referent power: based on personal attractiveness or charisma
Leadership styles
Leadership styles
decision-making
autocrat democrat
implementation
directive
permissive
45
Essentially staff want hands-on management when they need guidance. Once they
know the job they want to be left to get on with it!
WHAT IS STRESS?
Stress is your mind and body’s response or reaction to a real or imagined threat, event
or change.
The threat, event or change are commonly called stressors. Stressors can be internal
(thoughts, beliefs, attitudes or external (loss, tragedy, change).
EUSTRESS
Eustress or positive stress occurs when your level of stress is high enough to
motivate you to move into action to get things accomplished.
DISTRESS
Distress or negative stress occurs when your level of stress is either too high or too
low and your body and/or mind begin to respond negatively to the stressors.
ALARM STAGE
As you begin to experience a stressful event or perceive something to be stressful
psychological changes occur in your body. This experience or perception disrupts
your body’s normal balance and immediately your body begins to respond to the
stressor(s) as effectively as possible.
EXAMPLES
Cardiac - increased heart rate
Respiratory - increased respiration
Skin - decreased temperature
Hormonal - increased stimulation of adrenal genes which produce an adrenal rush.
RESISTANCE STAGE
During this stage your body tries to cope or adapt to the stressors by beginning a
process of repairing any damage the stressor has caused. Your friends, family or co-
workers may notice changes in you before you do so it is important to examine their
feedback to make sure you do not reach overload.
EXAMPLES
Behavior indicators include: lack of enthusiasm for family, school, work or life in
general, withdrawal, change in eating habits, insomnia, hypersomnia, anger, fatigue.
EXHAUSTION STAGE
During this stage the stressor is not being managed effectively and the body and
mind are not able to repair the damage.
Avoidant Appraisal-focused
Ignoring Cognitive restructuring
Escaping Knowledge/skills
Biofeedback
Utilizes machines that monitor physiological responses
Useful for decreasing tension headaches, asthma attacks, hypertension and
phobias.
Meditation / Imagery
Relies on deep breathing
Facilitated by images of peace and relaxation