White Paper

Project Management through the eyes of a Novice

prepared by: Farhaan Khan

date: 14th April 2008
version: 1.0

address:
Unit STA101 Rosebank Terrace North
25 Sturdee Ave Rosebank
telephone: +27 11 327 4505/7
cellphone: +27 82 572 5241
facsimile: +27 11 327 4508
email: info@allaboutprojects.co.za
 Contents

1.Introduction ..................................................................................................... 3 
2.The Project is an Organisation .............................................................................. 3 
3.Dimensions of Project Management........................................................................ 4 
4.The Project Manager .......................................................................................... 5 
5.The Project Sponsor........................................................................................... 5 
6.The Project Team.............................................................................................. 5 
7.Leadership ...................................................................................................... 6 

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8.Emotions ......................................................................................................... 7 
9.Communication ................................................................................................. 7 
10.Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 7 

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1. Introduction
“Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project
activities to meet project requirements” - PMBOK

“The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of the project and the motivation of all those
involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and
performance” PRINCE2

Different texts have different definitions of project management, but the basic elements of all
these definitions contain words like skills, time, cost, scope, performance, quality, tools,

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techniques and constraints.

These definitions and elements provide an impression of Project Management as a practice that
operates in a highly controlled environment, with strict standards and within strong boundaries.
This is often enough to intimidate people that are thinking of entering this profession or planning on
interacting with this profession.

It is only when one enters a project environment as a team member, project manager or a
champion that one appreciates the need for such a controlled environment and understands the
value that it provides. In order to support a controlled project environment many methodologies
have been developed and have been used as industry standards. These methodologies provide
Project Management professionals with a framework within which they can operate to achieve the
best results.

2. The Project is an Organisation

Since the project has a defined start and end date, it can be referred to as a temporary organisation
that comes together to achieve a specified goal and is then disbanded. In the authors opinion a
project environment should be set up as a mini organisation complete with its own vision, mission,
goals, objectives, roles and responsibilities and policies and rules.
Every member of this organisation should buy into the vision and mission, abide by the rules and
policies and respects each other’s roles and responsibilities. The temporary organisation should
have a defined organisational structure with clear lines of reporting. It should also have a marketing
or communications plan which would create awareness of the project and the implications and
benefits thereof.
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3. Dimensions of Project Management
Gray and Larson (2006) identify the technical and socio-cultural dimensions of project management
in the diagram below:

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Fig 1: Technical and Socio-cultural dimensions of Project Management

For a project manager to be effective at his job, it is imperative for him to be technically proficient
and socio-culturally sensitive. The skills required for both these dimensions vary greatly. The
elements of the technical dimension can be learned and followed by use of templates and
methodologies.

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In this white paper the author will concentrate more on the socio-cultural dimension than on the
technical dimension. Due to the vastness of the socio-cultural context, the author will not
necessarily enter into discussion on every element of the socio-cultural dimension from the diagram
above but will focus on those elements that stand out for the author and discuss the socio-cultural
skills required by the different role players in the project environment.

4. The Project Manager

Besides being responsible for the day to day management of the project, the project manager is
ultimately responsible for delivering the objectives of the project. He has a variety of
responsibilities that involve interaction with the project team, the project sponsor and
stakeholders.

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From figure 1 above, the technical dimension helps the project manager achieve structure and
control over the project. Equally importantly the socio-cultural facets of the project manager’s
responsibilities allow him to act as the cohesive agent that brings together all the elements of the
project environment to achieve the projects goals. It is therefore key for a project manager to
characterise leadership, strong emotional control and good relationship management skills.

5. The Project Sponsor

The project sponsor has the most important role within the project environment. He takes
responsibility for the key decisions of the project and also sets the stage for organisational “buy in”
and support for the project. Being the link between the business and the project, the project
sponsor is also the project manager’s weapon against organisational politics. In the author’s
opinion, a strong project sponsor must take an involved approach by constantly interacting with the
project manager and being aware of major issues and risks. This puts the project sponsor in a
position to pro-actively respond to any setbacks. Thus a successful project is likely to ensue when
the project manager and the project sponsor are able to work together in a way that helps achieve
the objectives of the project.

6. The Project Team

Ever drive a car without an engine? How about a car with a dysfunctional engine? A solid project
team forms the foundation of any successful project. It is therefore pivotal for the team to have an
exceptional grasp of the goals and objectives of the project. Generally speaking from a dimension
perspective as indicated in figure1, the project team’s influence on the project is likely to be more
from a technical rather than socio-cultural aspect.

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Having said this, a cohesive quality driven project team should be built on the basis of a common
understanding of their shared values, mission, vision and scope of the project. In addition to that,
unambiguous roles and responsibilities should be allocated to each member of the team.

7. Leadership
The author sees three levels of leadership emanating from the project environment.

Project 
Sponsor

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Direct Flow of Leadership Indirect Flow of Leadership
Project 
Manager

Project Team

Fig 2: Flow of leadership through the project organisation

Level 1: The project sponsor leads the project manager

The project sponsor provides leadership to the project manager on issues that can have major
implications on the progress of the project. These could be around sensitive decisions, dealing with
organisational politics, and understanding the culture of the organisation as well as obstacles in the
form of resistance to change.

Level 2: The project manager leads and directs the project team
The project manager’s role is the most visible and thus has the highest expectations of leadership.
The project team always looks to the project manager for guidance. The project manager therefore
has a responsibility to the project team to be a source of inspiration and a guiding light. A savvy
project manager understands people well and uses this to energise the project team and ensure
that the teams focus remains consistent without any deviations from the objectives.

Level 3: The members of the project team provide leadership to each other.
Leadership can come from anywhere in the project environment! As strange as this may sound, a
mature team is one that is willing to move forward, learn and achieve deliverables by embracing
guidance from each other.

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8. Emotions
Human emotions are one thing that cannot be tracked on a project schedule. In the high stress
environments that projects operate within, human emotions are almost always at play. Neither
project managers nor team members or even project sponsors are exempt from human emotions.
Negative emotions can direct a team’s energy away from the goal.

It is therefore the project manager’s responsibility to remain balanced and to attend to the
emotional needs of his team. One of the most important and challenging tasks of the project
manager is to manage the emotions of his project team in such a way that commitment to the
project is not compromised.

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9. Communication
Every project management text refers to communication as being instrumental to the success of a
project. Although the author is in full agreement with this, he believes that an effective practical
communication model for large projects is yet to be developed.

In this day and age when email is the most common form of communication, project communication
often gets lost in a myriad of perceived unimportant information. Other avenues have been
explored i.e. websites and hand outs, but these have a singular disjointed impact. A holistic
approach to communication would involve a multitude of communication techniques reinforcing the
message.

10. Conclusion
The skills required by a project manager from a socio-cultural perspective are not as easily gained
as those for the technical dimension of a project manager. These skills are honed over a number of
years through experience in managing people and interpersonal relationships.

Although this white paper only concentrated on the socio-cultural dimension of project
management, one should not underestimate the importance of the technical dimension of project
management. Project managers however benefit from the various methodologies that provide them
with frameworks that cover the technical dimension and allow them to execute a project in a
controlled and structured manner. It can therefore be seen that in order to execute a project
perfectly, a project manager would need to be extremely well versed in both the technical and
socio-cultural dimensions.

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