Unit-5

Staffing in software projects:-

Managing people:
A project team consists of different individuals with varying levels of authority. Their way of
operation is dependent on the organizational culture and the methodology in use.
How to manage project teams effectively

1. Ensure balance within the team.

2. Ensure visibility and transparency.
3. Ensure effective communication within the team.
4. Foster a culture of collaboration.
5. Value each suggestion and discuss progress with your team.
6. Establish success metrics and reward excelling members.
7. Delegate tasks to groom future leaders
8. Manage internal conflicts
9. Use all available resources at your disposal to facilitate teamwork.
10. Take part in regular team building activities and celebrations

Responsibilities of project teams are:

• Working with the project manager throughout the project life cycle
• Completing the assigned deliverables and meeting all project requirements
• Documenting the process
• Contributing to the team’s overall performance
• Presenting possible solutions to the managers in case of a bottleneck
• Keeping the project manager informed of the progress
 Organizational Behavior

Organizational behavior:
Organizational behavior can be defined as the understanding, prediction and management of
the human behavior that affects the performance of the organizations.
It is the study of human behavior in organizational settings, how human behavior interacts
with the organization, and the organization itself.
Organizational behavior theories inform real-world evaluation and management of groups of
people.
Fredrick Taylor attempted to analyse the most productive way of doing manual tasks.
Taylor’s three basic objectives :
1. To select the best man for the job.
2.To instruct them in the best methods
3.To give incentives in the form of higher wages to the best workers.
Key elements are:

1. People
2. Structure
3. Technology
4. External Environment

People:
Dynamic in nature as they interact with each other and also influence each other.Groups may
form,change and dissolve.Organizations are established to serve the people.
Structure:
There are two types of organizations, formal and informal.
• Informal organizations do not have a specified structure.
• Formal organizations are built based upon the objective set for it. Organizational
structure in such an organization is hierarchical in nature, with people at each level
having their own objectives.
Environment:
Study of the environment is very wide and encompasses economic, cultural, social,
government rules and regulations, legal aspects, political climate, demographics and its
impact.
Technology:
Managing technology is an important job of any management. It is an important element of
any unit. Selection of technology, procurement, installation, operation and maintenance is
important and no compromise should be made in procuring latest or advanced technology.
Objectives of Organizational Behavior:

1. Human resources approach

2. Contingency approach
3. System approach
4. Productivity approach
 Hackman and Oldham’s Job Characteristics Model:
The Job Characteristics Model is a theory that is based on the idea that a task in itself is the key
to the employee’s motivation.
In short, a boring and monotonous job with negative stress is disastrous to an employee’s
motivation whereas a challenging, versatile job has a positive effect on motivation.
In 1980, Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham presented the definitive form of the Job
Characteristics Model in their book ‘Work Redesign’. They also created the instruments Job
Diagnostic Survey (JDS) and the Job Rating Form (JRF) for assessing constructions based on
the theory.

Hackman and Oldham define the five job characteristics as follows:

Skill Variety:
Skill variety refers to the degree to which a job demands different activities in the execution of
the tasks, where various skills and talents of the working person are used.
A monotonous job with repetitive tasks doesn’t help the employee to develop a variety of
talents. A worker who does alternating work is probably more satisfied with his job than a
person who routinely produces the same work each and every day.
Having different tasks, more responsibility and more independence will be beneficial to a
person’s intrinsic motivation.
Task Identity:
This is the degree to which the work demands a complete process or product. This means that
a certain job within the package of tasks has a clear beginning and ending, allowing a person
to work on a complete process rather than small parts.
Employees often value carrying out a complete process. Such a work cycle ensures that they
are more involved in their work and will most likely feel more responsible than their colleagues
who only take on a small part of the process.
Task Significance:
Task significance is the degree to which the job has a substantial impact on the lives of other
people within the organisation, but also on society as a whole.
Feeling the meaningfulness of work is important for the employee’s motivation. This can be
encouraged when they help others to improve in a physical, financial, psychological or any
other field.
Autonomy:
Autonomy within a job refers to the degree to which an employee can work independently. The
freedom to plan the workday and set up new procedures that must be followed increases one’s
sense of responsibility, which in turn benefits motivation.
Feedback:
For the performance of the employees, it’s important that they are informed of the effectiveness
of their recent performances. Feedback can also have a positive effect on their motivation.
When managers tell employees they’re doing a good job, this will motivate them to continue
in the same way. When they hear that their actions didn’t meet the requirements, they will
respond accordingly and try to improve their performance.
Indexing Scores:
Scores can be given to all five indicators, which are subsequently combined. This number
functions as an indicator for the general motivating potential of a task or job that is examined.
The number, the index, will represent how the job positively or negatively impacts the
employee’s attitude and behaviour.
The number is called the MPS, the Motivating Potential Score. The formula for calculating the
MPS is as follows:
MPS = (skill variety + task identity + task significance) / 3 * autonomy * feedback

According to Hackman and Oldham, a low MPS score means that employees don’t
experience high intrinsic motivation and that the job or task must be redesigned.
From the equation, the conclusion can be drawn that feedback and autonomy have more impact
on motivation than the other indicators.

Furthermore, Hackman and Oldham indicate that an employee can only experience the three
psychological states if they have a high score on all five indicators.
Job Characteristics Model and psychological states:
The conceptual core of the theory is the series of three psychological states that mediate
between task attributes and the outcomes.
The psychological states apply to the individual, who assigns the scores himself, and therefore
doesn’t represent the characteristics or tasks within a certain job. When an employee assigns a
high score to all five job characteristics, he will experience all three of the psychological states
and he is highly intrinsically motivated.
The three psychological states are:
Experienced Meaningfulness:
The experienced meaningfulness of the work is the degree to which the employee experiences
the work to be inherent and meaningful, something that adds value to the experience.
Meaningfulness is characterised by three of the job characteristics discussed above: Skill
variation, task identity and task importance.
Experienced Responsibility:
The experienced feeling of responsibility is formed by the amount of autonomy the job offers
and demands.
Knowledge of Results:
Knowledge of results is formed by feedback systems within a company. It indicates the degree
to which the task holder is provided with direct and clear information on the effectiveness of
his or her performance.
Work-related Results:
The final part of the Job Characteristics Model describes that when the five core job
characteristics are present and the three psychological states are reached, the following results
are likely to be achieved for the employee concerned:
High Performance:
A good performance of an employee consists of high quality of the delivered work and a large
quantity of work. That is, productivity increases when the employee experiences the three
psychological states.
High Motivation
An employee can be motivated by external sources, such as monetary rewards, but the most
valuable motivation comes from within. Intrinsic motivation is attained through valuable,
responsible and autonomous work.
High Satisfaction
A simple definition of satisfaction is an employee’s level of satisfaction with his or her job.
Hulin and Judge provided a more complex definition for the satisfaction level, referring to a
multi-dimensional psychological reaction to someone’s job. These reactions can be both
cognitive, affective and behavioural.
Job Characteristics Model: moderators
Even Hackman and Oldham recognised that the Job Characteristics Model isn’t fully
waterproof and applicable to everyone. Different individuals will have a different view of the
same job that is considered to have a highly motivating potential.
This grey area is bridged by a set of inherent properties or characteristics. These are termed
moderators. The following moderators ensure that the gap between the function characteristics
and the psychological states is bridged:
Knowledge & Skill:
The knowledge and skill moderator states that an employee who has the knowledge, skills and
competences, has a better chance of experiencing positive emotions at work.
The reverse is also true. If an employee doesn’t feel he possesses the right knowledge or skills
to carry out this role, he will not experience the three psychological states and will therefore
become demotivated.
Growth Needs Strength:
‘Growth needs strength’ refers to the degree to which an employee desires to grow and develop.
If the employee has a high need to grow, he will most likely respond faster to new opportunities
and take on new challenges. This employee will more easily experience the three psychological
states.
However, if the employee doesn’t have the desire to grow, he won’t reach the psychological
states.
Context Satisfaction:
The context, working conditions, is the third moderator that can hinder access to the three
psychological states.
The context is about matters such as the manager, wage, benefits and job security. When the
employee is satisfied with all these ancillary matters, he will be more positive and reach the
psychological states more easily.
 Stress:
Stress is nothing but a condition where people get excited emotionally or in other words ” a
disturbed mental state” affecting their well-being.
The causal agents may be physiological which can be medically treated or emotional which
we are more worried about as emotionally unstable individuals cannot think properly which
again leads to physical distress.
Project Manager (PM) is no doubt one of the most stressful jobs out there as the PM is
directly responsible and accountable for the success or failure of a project. Some PMs believe
that they can handle and cope with the high level of stress but there are some who are
ignoring or refusing to recognize that they are under stress. The experience of stress is not
only impacting cognitive and behavioural performance, it can also have a negative impact on
your personal health, wellbeing, and family life.

Causes of Stress :

1. Unrealistic timeline
2. Working in a matrix system which PM does not have the full control of the resources
3. Lack of resources – human and/or equipment
4. Proliferation of virtual teams and cross cultural influences
5. Inter-group conflict in organization
6. Project environment
 Health and safety

• Health and safety issues that relate to the conduct of a project is considered here
• Responsibility for safety must be clearly defined at all levels. Top management must
be committed to the safety policy
• The delegation of responsibility for safety must be clear
• Those to whom responsibilities are delegated must understand the responsibilities and
agree to them
• Job description should include definitions of duties related to safety
• Deployment of a safety officer and the support of experts in particular technical
areas
• Consultation on safety
• An adequate budgeting for safety costs

Ethical and Professional concerns

Ethics relates to the moral obligation to respect the rights and interests of others – goes
beyond strictly legal responsibilities
Three groups of responsibilities:
• Responsibilities that everyone has
• Responsibilities that people in organizations have
• Responsibilities relating to your profession or calling
Ethical Issues in Project Management (& How to Deal with Them)
Accountability:
When things go wrong, it's human nature to try to avoid the consequences and place the
blame somewhere else. ...
Conflicts of Interest:
As a project manager, you should make sure that all parties involved in a project
understand your company’s standards for bidding and vendor selection, and that the
definition of a conflict of interest is clear to everyone.
Workplace Culture:
Project managers should be very familiar with their company’s code of conduct and
should ensure that all employees, contractors and business partners understand what is
expected of them.
Health and Safety Concerns:
On large enterprise projects, the stakes are high, and so is the pressure to get the job done.
Unfortunately, this pressure sometimes leads stakeholders to ignore or even conceal
issues that might jeopardize the health and safety of project team members or the public.

Working in teams
Importance:
Great teamwork in project management achieves three very important goals:
• Projects are completed on time and in full
• Individual team members feel more satisfied with their roles which gives them
extra motivation to perform
• A well-oiled team contributes to a healthy work environment.
Tip:
Good project managers know that the best way to help their team work together is by
delegating tasks and responsibilities clearly.
For example, if your team has to create an app and you have two front-end developers,
you should make the tasks and responsibilities very clear.
Real Life Strategy:
Problems are never something we want to experience, but they’re vital to improving
teamwork.
If you encourage your team to work together on solving projects and acknowledge
different perspectives, you’ll be able to spot risks earlier and mitigate them.
 Decision making:
It is a process by which individuals select a particular course of action among several
alternatives to produce a desired result.
Purpose :
To direct the resources of an organization towards a future goals and reduce the gap
between the actual position and desired position and the desired position through effective
problem solving and exploiting business opportunities
A decision is a choice made from various available activities and are closely related to:
• Goals and objectives of organization
• Organizational Structure
• Organizational Design
• Budgets
• Time Period
• Staff - Salaries, Wages, Working hours, promotion, demotion
• Research And design
Importance of Decision Making:
• Optimum and efficient utilization of resources
• Aids in Problem Solving and facing business challenges
• Helps in business growth and achieving objectives
• Facilitates effective management and innovation
• Motivates employees and improves overall business performance
 Organizational structures

• Organizational structure refers to the way a company or organization is set up.

• It is usually defined using a hierarchy chart that shows how groups or functions report
within the organization.
Levels:

Individual Level Analysis:

Includes individual level analysis such as characteristics and behaviours of employees

as well as thought processes that are attributed to them, such as motivation,
perceptions, personalities, attitudes, and values.

Group Level Analysis:

Includes group dynamics, decisions, power, organizational politics, conflict,

leadership, communication, etc.

Organization System Level Analysis:

Includes how people structure their working relationships as well as how

organizations interact with their external environment forces.

Types:

• Functional Organizational Structure

• Matrix Organizational Structure –
o Balanced matrix
o Strong Matrix
o Weak Matrix
• Project Based Organization Structure
 Dispersed and Virtual teams
A virtual team (aka “virtual workgroup”) is a group of people who participate in common
projects by making collaborative efforts to achieve shared goals and objectives. These people
perform tasks and jobs in a virtual work environment created and maintained through IT and
software technologies.
Types of Virtual Teams:
Global virtual team:
As a rule, these teams are located in different countries and cities all over the world. They
can be employees of several companies which join their efforts and resources (incl.
people, technology, money) to perform shared outsourced projects and achieve common
goals.
Local virtual team:
Members of a local virtual workgroup usually belong to the same company. That
company is either big or small, and it has enough resources (technology is essential) to
establish and maintain virtual team workplaces and organize its employees into a
productive remote group.
The combination of activities for assembling, building, organizing, controlling, and supervising
the virtual teamwork is called virtual team management. It is an essential part of project team
collaboration.
Advantages :

• Reduced rents and technology savings

• Lower transportation costs and less time spent on commuting
• Instant communication and information exchange
Disadvantages:
• Poorer control of virtual groups (this may result in reduced trust in virtual teams),
because there are no direct control tools
• Problems to establish good virtual team leadership (comparing to “physical” team
leading)
• Unfitness to the projects which require on-site control and management
Communications genres:

• Communication is a critical factor in project management. There are instances where

projects have failed because of miscommunication and communication gaps.
• Project managers fill this gap by devising a good communication mechanism that will
help him to communicate with the team members as well as stakeholders, sponsors,
top-tier management and all the people who are connected to the project.
 • If an effective communication methodology is not followed by the project manager, it
may lead to many discrepancies and ultimately may also lead to project failure, which
is not appropriate for the organization.
• It is also important that the right information is delivered to the right person.
• So, project managers have the responsibility to properly channelize the communication
process, so that the right persons receive the right information.
• Another important point that project managers must make a note of is that the
information sent must be clear, concise and informative.
Communication plans:
A project management communication plan identifies how important information will be
communicated to stakeholders throughout the project. It also determines who will be receiving
the communication, how those people will receive it, when they'll receive it, and how often
they should expect to receive that information.
Steps For successful communication plans:
1. Define the Purpose and Approach
Plan Purpose is the first item in the document. I would however, highly recommend creating it
last, so that you can pull from the entire plan and make sure that you’ve hit all the high points.
2. List Goals and Objectives

Above mentioned are the Components of Project Communication

• Promote awareness of the project inside the company or outside of it
• Increase employee acceptance or increase project traction company-wide
• Give an avenue for stakeholders to provide feedback
3. Research and Assign Roles
Some roles will have more responsibility than others. The project lead will be expected to
contribute more through the course of the project than the project sponsor. On the other hand,
each individual or group will be expected to provide the proper communication when it’s
requested.
4. Determine Methods
The tools and methods you’ll be using can span a variety of mediums. Some messages will
need to come in the form of presentations or meetings. Others can be accomplished using an
email or text message.
5. Pinpoint High Level Communications
Taking things a step further for important communication events, you must clearly outline the
methods, frequency, and roles within the project communication plan. These can be internal
status reports, staff meetings, project update presentations, or the kick-off.

Leadership:
Leadership is the ability to get things done through others,focusing the efforts of a group of
people toward a common goal and enabling them to work as a team.
A project leader is someone who leads a project, but that doesn’t really get to the bottom of this
seemingly simple title. There are project managers, who are responsible for many of the aspects
that we associate with leadership. They assemble the team, devise the plan and manage
resources to maintain the schedule and keep within budget.
Attributes of a Good and Ideal Leader:
• They are grounded and centered
• They are aware and mindful
• They create solutions
• They are analytical
• They can evaluate risk
• They can generate a sense of urgency
• They are insightful
• They build cohesion
• They motivate people
• They achieve results
There are two types of leaders:
• Transactional Leaders
They guide or motivate their followers in the direction of established goals by clarifying
role and task requirements
• Transformational Leaders
They inspire followers to transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization,
and who are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on his or her followers.