CHAPTER 3
Working as a Project Manager
In this chapter, you will
•Explore the project manager role
•Understand the project manager’s influence
•Learn the project management competencies
•Learn to lead and manage a successful project
•Study project integration
As a PMP candidate, you’re likely already serving as a project manager in your organization. The PMP exam will test your knowledge of the typical roles and responsibilities of a project manager. You’ll need to be familiar with the most common types of activities and characteristics of a project manager. Be aware that this means you’ll need to recognize the roles and responsibilities for both predictive environments and adaptive environments, even if you don’t work with an organization that uses one of those approaches. I’ll address both environments in this chapter and what you can expect in either.
Where you work or will work as a project manager is likely different from where other readers of this book work or will work. Just as every project is unique, so, too, is the environment in which a project exists. Consider software development projects, construction projects, IT infrastructure projects, learning and development projects, and as many different types of projects as you can imagine. Each of these different projects operates in a distinct environment. The environment is a factor of influence in these projects and in your projects. Remember for your exam that there is no blanket approach that fits every scenario; how you best operate as a project manager in your organization depends on the environment.
Exploring the Project Manager Role
Project management is about getting things done. You already know that projects are temporary endeavors that don’t last forever. Project management is about getting the project started as quickly and as effectively as possible, and then leading the project team to completion: getting it done. Projects, especially in a predictive environment, often have no business value until they are complete. Consider a construction project: Generally, no one can use the new building until the construction project is done. The project has no value until the completed building begins to earn a return on investment. The longer a project takes to complete, the greater the exposure to risk, the more expensive the project is likely to be, and the more frustrated stakeholders will be because the project is still in progress. Project managers get it done.
Adaptive projects often have a series of releases, usually about every three to six months. Adaptive projects can realize and use benefits as soon as it makes good sense to do so. For example, a project may have multiple releases of software planned: Version 1, 1.1, 1.2, and so on. Each release, or increment, of the completed product enables the organization to realize business value—which is not something we can always do in a predictive project.
In either case, you can’t just charge in and start firing off assignments and putting people to work. Project management requires a structured approach. For starters, project managers are often involved in the project design before the project is even initiated. A project manager may meet with the portfolio review board, customers, and management to offer input before a project is selected, funded, initiated, and staffed. Project managers may work with business analysts (or take on the role of a business analyst) to gather requirements, create high-level estimates, and develop business cases and feasibility studies—all work that precedes project initiation.
The project manager has roles and responsibilities, but so do people on the project team. Roles are assigned to determine who does what on the project: developer, app tester, plumber, or technical writer, for example. In many projects, project team members, like the project manager, play multiple roles in a project. While the project manager is responsible for leading and managing the project team, the project team is responsible for completing their work assignments. Scrum projects, for example, call for the development team to be self-organizing and to determine who’ll complete what work in each iteration.
During planning, which is an iterative activity, the project manager and the project team will plan the work; next, they’ll execute the project work. As the project manager leads and manages the project team, she will rely on the project team’s expertise, experience, skills, and technical abilities to complete assignments. It’s unrealistic for the project manager to have the skills and depth of knowledge of each project team member. The project manager should rely on the expertise of the project team when it comes to planning, and then the project team members must complete their assignments as promised.
Defining the Agile Project Manager
To define the project management role in an adaptive project is tricky, because there are so many different agile approaches available. The flavor of agile project management will directly influence the project manager’s roles and responsibilities in the approach. You’ll need to recognize the project management roles and responsibilities for the most common adaptive approaches. For the most part, however, the principles of project management are similar in either adaptive or predictive approaches: follow the rules and get stuff done.
Throughout this book, I’ll reference the roles, principles, and attributes of project management as if they apply to all project management approaches, unless there’s a significant difference between the project management role in a predictive versus adaptive environment.
Here are the project management definitions for the most common adaptive (agile) project management approaches:
•Scrum There is no project manager. Instead, the project management role is divided among the three roles: the scrum master, the product owner, and the development team. The scrum master, the closest role to a predictive project manager role, serves as a coach, protects the development team from interruptions, gets the development team what they need, and makes certain all roles are following the Scrum rules.
•Kanban This project manager has typical project management duties but also follows the rules of Kanban and ensures that everyone is following the basic rules of Kanban. This means he’ll ensure that defects aren’t moving through the Kanban system, make sure that requirements are being completed, manage the WIP, maintain the Kanban board, and help stabilize the processes in the project.
•Lean The project manager in a Lean environment also has many of the traditional project management responsibilities, but he also must work with the team to promote efficiency, accuracy, and reduce waste. The Lean project manager will aim to identify bottlenecks, perform root cause analysis (RCA), and then take steps to improve bottleneck issues. Lean project management begins with defining the value the project creates and then planning with the team how to achieve that value by eliminating waste, improving the process, and serving the project team.
•XP There is no project manager. XP has two project management roles, which are typically fulfilled by different people who take on project management activities. The manager role tracks performance, ensures that everyone is following the rules, and leads the continual planning processes. The coach role coaches the team on the XP rules, remains calm even when others are panicking, helps the team become self-reliant, and intervenes only when there’s a problem that the team is overlooking.
Leading the Project Team
It’s been said that project managers manage things, but lead people. Project management is about doing whatever it takes to achieve the desired results. Leadership is all about motivating and inspiring individuals to work toward those expected results. Management and leadership go together in project management, and you’ll need both to be an effective project manager.
Most of us have worked for a project manager who hasn’t been all that motivating. A good project manager, like you, motivates and inspires people to see the vision and helps the project team realize how their work contributes to business value for the organization. The project manager needs to inspire the project team to overcome obstacles to get the work done. Motivation is a constant process, and the project manager must be able to motivate the team to move toward completion—instilling passion and providing inspiration for completing the work. Finally, motivation and inspiration must be real; the project manager must have a personal relationship with the project team members to help them achieve their goals.
EXAM TIP Remember that leadership can also come from project team members, not just from the project manager. A leader does not always have to be a single person; leadership can come from multiple sources. This is the concept of emergent leadership—anyone can emerge as a leader.
Communicating Project Information
Communication is all important in project management. You can summarize communication as who needs what information, when the information is needed, what’s the best modality to deliver the message, and who should have access to the information. As a project manager, you may spend most of your time communicating: talking with the project team, meeting with stakeholders, e-mailing management, coordinating with vendors, and more and more. If you’re a good communicator, you can be a great project manager.
Communication is a two-way street that requires a sender and a receiver. Active listening is needed in important conversations. Active listening happens when the receiver of the message paraphrases what the sender has said to clarify and confirm the message. For example, if a project team member tells you that an assignment will be done in seven days, you’d respond that the work package will be done a week from today. This gives the project team member the opportunity to clarify that the work package will actually be done nine days from today because of the upcoming weekend—they’ll need seven working days to complete the assignment.
There are several communication avenues:
•Listening and speaking
•Written and oral
•Internal, such as project team member to team member
•External, such as the project manager to an external customer
•Formal, such as reports and presentations
•Informal, such as e-mails and impromptu hallway meetings
•Vertical, which follows the organizational flowchart
•Horizontal, such as manager to manager within the organizational flowchart
Communication management includes variables and elements unique to the flow of communication. Although I’ll discuss communications in full in Chapter 10, here are some key facts to know for now:
•Sender-receiver models Communication requires a sender and a receiver. Within the sender-receiver model may be multiple avenues to complete the flow of communication, but barriers to effective communication may be present as well. Other variables within this model include recipient feedback, surveys, checklists, and confirmation of the sent message.
•Media selection There are multiple choices of media for conveying information. Which medium is appropriate? Based on the audience and the information being sent, the medium should be in alignment. In other words, an ad hoc hallway meeting is probably not the best communication avenue to explain a large variance in the project schedule.
•Style The tone, structure, and formality of the message being sent should be in alignment with the audience and the content of the message.
•Presentation When it comes to formal presentations, the presenter’s oral and body language, visual aids, and handouts all influence the message being delivered.
•Meeting management Meetings are forms of communication. How the meeting is led, managed, and controlled all influence the message being delivered. Agendas, minutes, time boundaries, and order are mandatory for effective communications within a meeting. Meetings in adaptive environments often have specific rules, such as the duration of the meeting, the cadence, and the participants allowed.
Negotiating Project Terms and Conditions
You don’t always get what you want, and as a project manager, you’ll really know that’s true. Project managers must negotiate for the good of the project. In any project, the project manager, the project sponsor, and the project team will have to negotiate with stakeholders, vendors, and customers to reach a level of agreement acceptable to all parties involved in the negotiation process. Negotiation is about more than give-and-take and compromise; negotiating is about determining what’s most fair for everyone, deciding what’s best for the project, and respecting all parties in the process.
In some instances, typically in less-than-pleasant circumstances, negotiations may have to proceed with assistance. Specifically, mediation and arbitration are examples of assisted negotiations. Negotiation proceedings typically center on the following:
•Priorities
•Technical approach
•Project scope
•Schedule
•Cost
•Changes to the project scope, schedule, or budget
•Vendor terms and conditions
•Project team member assignments and schedules
•Resource constraints, such as facilities, travel issues, and team members with highly specialized skills
EXAM TIP For the exam, remember that the purpose of negotiations is to reach a fair agreement among all parties. Be respectful of all involved; you may have to work with them throughout the project and beyond.
Active Problem-Solving
Projects can be cumbersome and tedious, can have competing objectives, and can have constraints that seem to box in the project manager. Project management demands problem-solving. Problem-solving is the ability to understand the problem, identify a viable solution, and then implement a solution. Though you want to be accurate in your decision, you don’t want to take too long to act. This is why many project managers will say it’s better to fail fast—try your best option, and if it doesn’t work, adapt. In any project, countless problems require viable solutions. And like any good puzzle, the solution to one portion of the problem may create more problems elsewhere.
Active problem-solving is what the development team does in adaptive projects. They’ll examine the work, determine how much work they can feasibly complete in the next iteration, and then be self-organizing to determine who’ll do what work. Knowledge work, such as software development, is full of problem-solving. The XP framework, for example, takes problem-solving head-on by using paired programming to code, check, and partner on developing solid, quality code that works and that passes predefined tests.
Problem-solving requires a clear understanding of what the problem is—this means first defining the problem. A viable solution focuses on more than just the problem. In defining the problem, you must discern between its causes and effects. This requires root-cause analysis to identify the effects, which include the problem plus all the possible causes and combinations of causes. If a project manager treats only the symptoms of a problem rather than the cause of the problem, the symptoms will perpetuate and continue throughout the project’s life. Root-cause analysis looks beyond the immediate symptoms to the cause of the symptoms—which then affords opportunities for solutions.
Root-cause analysis doesn’t solve the problem, however; you’ll still need to implement your solution. Solutions can be presented from vendors, the project team, the project manager, or various stakeholders, which the PMBOK Guide refers to as “expert judgment.” In addition, a timely decision is needed, or the window of opportunity may pass, and then a new decision will be needed to address the problem. As in most cases, the worst thing you can do is nothing.
Identifying the Project Manager Influence
Project managers have a wide sphere of influence. The projects we manage can affect end users, customers, vendors, and the public, and people can still be affected even long after the project manager has retired. Projects can also be influenced by many different groups of people: end users, managers, vendors, the project team, and more. The influence you have as a project manager will often depend on your experience, your maturity within the organization, and the size of the project you’re managing.
Influence isn’t something we often think about as project managers, but it’s a factor that you should consider when planning and executing the project, and certainly when you’re communicating with stakeholders. Not that you must play politics, but a project manager must consider the implications of the project’s success, the communications between the project manager and project team, and the perceptions of the stakeholders regarding the project and its leadership. Over time and with experience in your organization, you’ll find it easier to understand the undercurrent of politics and the hidden messages in questions and comments, and you’ll have a broader, wiser view into what’s happening in the organization and how your project (and you) affects the environment. Figure 3-1 shows the levels of influence between stakeholders and project managers.
Figure 3-1 Stakeholder and project manager influence are connected.
For your PMP exam, consider the different levels of influence the project manager has on the following stakeholders:
•End users and customers The project manager is responsible to these people for what the project is creating, how the project may interfere with their lives as the project is in progress, and how the project will contribute to their lives once it is done.
•Stakeholders All the people and groups that are affected by the project and can affect the project are stakeholders that the project manager can influence for the betterment of the project.
•Project team The project manager leads and directs the team to reach the project’s objectives.
•Organizational managers The project manager will likely need to work with managers to have access to people, processes, and resources.
•Project management office The project manager will work with the project management office, if one exists, to manage the project and provide assets, directions, and support.
•Steering committee The project manager may have to report to the steering committee regarding the project status and progress.
•Governing bodies The project manager may have to report to internal project governance or to government agencies regarding how the project is adhering to laws and regulations.
•Sponsors The project sponsors will want information on the project status and decisions the project manager has made to keep the project moving forward toward its objectives.
•Suppliers Suppliers need to be informed of when resources and services are needed, and they are influenced by the project manager’s planning and the procurement policies of the organization.
These are stakeholders. One of the first processes you’ll need to complete in a project is stakeholder identification. The sooner you correctly identify all the stakeholders, the better your project will perform. People don’t like to be overlooked, especially when your endeavor is going to affect them. Stakeholders are linked to the project manager and influenced by the project manager. The better the project manager coordinates, plans, and communicates within each of these stakeholder spheres, the better the project manager can influence these groups for continued project support, improved synergy, and sustainability of the project within the organization.
Influencing the Project
No one sets out to fail on purpose, but it’s not unusual for projects to fail, miss their key performance objectives, or scrape across the finish line with a blown budget and late delivery. The success, or failure, of a project is indicative of how well the project manager led the project team, balanced constraints, executed the project plan, and monitored the project progress. The person with the greatest influence over a project is the project manager, and the project’s outcome is largely based on the project manager’s ability to influence the project to reach its objectives. Sure, some projects are doomed from the start because of lack of finances and qualified resources, an unrealistic schedule, or other problems, but these are the exceptions, not the rule. Besides, a good project manager will address these issues and risks with management and stakeholders to find solutions.
Communication and a positive attitude can do wonders for the success of a project. Communication is paramount in project management; project managers must communicate with stakeholders through a variety of methods: verbal, written, and nonverbal. Messages must be direct and appropriate for the audience, and the communication style should be tailored based on what’s being communicated to whom. Show me a project manager who doesn’t communicate well and I’ll show a project manager who’s not great at leading projects.
Project managers must communicate good and bad news, project status, and other project information throughout the life of the project. Communication isn’t one-way, however. The project manager will need to work with the team, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders to get these individuals to contribute to the conversation. This means asking questions, listening to stakeholder concerns, following up on ideas and promises, and keeping the project stakeholders involved, excited, and motivated to continue the project.
A positive attitude is also a key component of project success. Although it’s tough to quantify what constitutes a positive attitude, it’s easy to agree that those with bad attitudes may be unhappy in their lives, in their jobs, and with their organization. Unhappiness is demonstrated in the way an unhappy person manages his projects; this attitude affects the project team and the stakeholders, and it can create a hostile work environment—or, at a minimum, a project that is no fun to work on. Negative project managers are incapable of inspiring others, leading the project team, and motivating people to do good work. A bad attitude or a good attitude is an infectious thing; how you behave as a project manager is a signal of how your team will also behave.
Influencing the Organization
You know that no two projects are alike, and this also holds true for organizations. Every organization is unique in its policies, modes of operations, and underlying culture. There are particular political alliances, differing motivations, conflicting interests, and unique power struggles within every organization. So where does project management fit into this rowdy scheme? Right smack in the middle. You need to know your organizational structure, the governance, the politics, and how things get done where you work.
Organizations that are new to adaptive project management often struggle with the rules and ceremonies of the project life cycle. The project management role, whether that be the coach in XP or the scrum master in Scrum, has an added responsibility of teaching others how the adaptive approach operates and informing everyone that they must follow the rules to give the project its best shot at being successful. Initially, the new adaptive approach may flounder, as support may be weak and stakeholders may be skeptical. Over time, however, the successes of the development team and the constant support of the project management role can bolster efforts, and others in the organization will want to participate in or try the adaptive project management approach.
A project manager must understand the unspoken influences at work within an organization—as well as the formal channels that exist. An understanding of how to balance the implied and the explicit will enable the project manager to take the project from launch to completion. We all reference politics in organizations with disdain. However, politics aren’t always a bad thing. Politics can be used as leverage to align and direct people to accomplish activities—with motivation and purpose.
EXAM TIP Don’t read too much into the questions, as far as political aspirations and influences go. Take each question at face value and assume that all the information given in the question is correct.
As a project manager, you’ll also interact with other project managers within the organization. You’ll discuss projects, competition for resources, priorities, project funding, and alignment of project goals with organizational goals. Such networking among project managers isn’t gossip; the transfer of information helps each project manager see how his or her projects are faring and how decisions and events in the organization can affect projects and decisions, and it helps ensure their projects’ viability and quality. This informal network of project managers can influence how things get done in the organization.
Considering Social, Economic, and Environmental Project Influences
Large projects have more influences than smaller projects. In a larger project, you’ll likely have to deal with social, economic, and environmental influences—variables that can cause your project to falter, stall, or fail. You must take time to become aware of influences outside of traditional management practices. The acknowledgment of such influences, from internal or external sources, enables the project manager and the project team to plan how to react to these influences to help the project succeed.
Consider a construction project that will reduce traffic flow to one lane over a bridge. Obviously, stakeholders in this instance are the commuters who travel over the bridge. Social influences are the people who are frustrated by the construction project, the people who live near the project, and perhaps individuals or groups that believe their need for road repairs is more pressing than the need to repair the bridge. These issues must all be addressed, on some level, for the project team to complete the project work quickly and efficiently.
The economic influences in any organization are always present. The cost of a project must be weighed against the project’s benefits and perceived worth. Projects may succumb to budget cuts, project priority, or their own failure based on the performance to date. Economic factors inside the organization may also hinder a project from moving forward. In other words, if the company sponsoring the project is not making money, projects may get axed to curb costs.
Finally, environmental influence on, and created by, the project must be considered. Let’s revisit the construction project on the bridge. The project must consider the river under the bridge and how construction may affect the water and wildlife. You must consider not only the short-term effects that arise during the bridge’s construction, but also long-term effects that the construction may have on the environment.
In most projects, the social, economic, and environmental concerns must be evaluated, documented, and addressed within the project plan. Project managers cannot have a come-what-may approach to these issues and expect to be successful.
Considering International Influences
For your PMP exam, consider the effects of a project that takes place in more than one country. In these types of projects, how will the project manager effectively manage and lead the project team? How will teams in Chicago communicate with teams in Antwerp? What about the language barriers, time zone differences, currency differences, regulations, laws, and social influences? These concerns, which can become risks, must be considered early in the project. Tools can include teleconferences, travel, face-to-face meetings, team leaders, and subprojects.
As companies and projects span the globe to offer goods and services, the completion of those projects will rely more and more on individuals from varying educational backgrounds, social influences, and values. The project manager must create a plan that takes these issues into account.
Considering Cultural and Industry Influences
When you apply for the PMP exam, you’ll have the option of joining PMI, and I hope you take the opportunity! PMI will provide news and opportunities for learning, and it offers a great way to stay current on project management trends.
Good project managers stay abreast of what’s happening in the project management community. They subscribe to newsgroups, read magazine articles, and take training to become more proficient in their role as a project manager. By staying current on what’s happening in project management trends, you can identify opportunities, learn about new standards, and share best practices. In addition, you can monitor what’s happening in your field: healthcare, construction, or information technology, for example. This will help you, as a project manager, identify trends, market conditions, and potential projects your organization may take on.
After you earn your PMP, you’ll likely take continuing education to earn professional development units (PDUs) to maintain your PMP certification. A great opportunity, especially as you’re learning more about agile approaches, is to add the PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) credential to your arsenal. Not only will you already have a good foundation in the Agile framework, but you’ll earn PDUs as you train to pass the PMI-ACP exam. Don’t view this education as a chore, but as an opportunity to continue to advance your career and the project management profession.
Building Project Management Skills
It takes time and dedication to earn the PMP. By earning this credential, you’re showing that you have both project management experience and project management knowledge. As I’ve mentioned, once you’re a PMP, you’ll need to maintain your certification with continuing education by earning PDUs. Your PMP certification is a three-year cycle, in which time you’ll earn 60 PDUs to maintain your PMP. If you fail to earn the 60 PDUs, you’ll lose your PMP status and must start the entire journey over—not a wise decision. I’ve met several people who’ve allowed their PMP to lapse and they’ve had to start the whole process over.
It’s not terribly difficult to earn PDUs. You can earn them by serving as a project manager, by volunteering for PMI events, by writing books and articles, and by participating in many other activities. On PMI’s web site (www.pmi.org), click the Certification link and look for the Continuing Certification Requirements System link to find complete rules and opportunities to earn PDUs. Not all your development can come through volunteering and events, however. As of this writing, PMPs will have to earn a minimum of 35 education PDUs and are allowed a maximum of 25 “giving back” PDUs for volunteering or contributing to the project management community.
Enhancing Skills and Competencies
Be smart about maintaining your PMP. If one of your goals with the PMP is to be marketable, then look for educational opportunities that’ll give you PDUs and help you earn new certifications. To earn PDUs to maintain your certification, you’ll attend online or in-person training. It’s a good idea to take stock of what you know, or don’t know, and choose your training accordingly. Consider your career goals, areas of your project management expertise that may be lacking, or what’s interesting to you. Take training that will benefit you—don’t just trudge through training because you must. Be smart! Choose training and education that will make you a better person and project manager, plus help you keep your PMP.
The PMBOK Guide walks through the five steps on the path for chosen competence (Figure 3-2) that we all move through as we learn new things:
Figure 3-2 PMI path for chosen conscious competence
1.Unconsciously incompetent You’re unaware of a skill that you don’t have.
2.Consciously incompetent You become aware that you don’t have the skill.
3.Consciously competent You learn and practice the skill to gain competence.
4.Unconsciously competent You can do the skill without even thinking about it.
5.Chosen conscious competence You practice and maintain the skill.
When we undertake a new endeavor, we begin by not being aware of a skill we don’t have. Then we learn about the skill, practice the skill, and maintain the skill to become an expert. There are four steps to become skilled and remain skilled as an individual:
1.We gather data, such as observations and facts, about the skill.
2.We process that raw data into useable information.
3.We use that information to gain knowledge and find a deeper understanding and practice of the skill.
4.We gain wisdom and master the skill through practice and knowledge.
Introducing the PMI Talent Triangle
In recent years, PMI has established a Talent Triangle to illustrate the three domains of education required for PMPs, as shown in Figure 3-3. As a PMP, you’ll need a total of 35 minimum PDUs. These hours are distributed across the three domains:
Figure 3-3 The PMI Talent Triangle requires education in all three domains.
•Technical project management
•Leadership
•Strategic and business management
You must have at least 8 PDUs from each of the three domains, which equal 24 of your 35 PDUs. The remaining 11 PDUs can be distributed across any of the three domains—you pick. When you sign up for training, be sure to confirm which domain, or combination of domains, of the PMI Talent Triangle the training contributes to. These three domains correlate to the three domains of the exam: People, Processes, and the Business Environment.
During your three-year certification cycle as a PMP, you must earn a total of 60 PDUs to maintain your certification. Of those PDUs, you’ll need 8 PDUs from technical training, 8 PDUs from leadership training, and 8 PDUs from strategic training. You can earn all 60 PDUs through education by attending a few seminars or taking a few online courses and you’re all set. Or you can volunteer at PMI events to earn up to 25 PDUs for your service, and attend educational activities for the remaining 35 PDUs to keep your certification. On PMI’s web site you can download a PDU Handbook that explains all the different ways you can earn PDUs.
Technical project management skills are the core skills you apply in your role as a project manager. You’ll focus on what it’ll take to get the project done: planning the project work, executing the plan, monitoring and controlling the project, and closing out phases and eventually the entire project. Within these process groups, you’ll choose and apply the necessary processes to keep the project moving toward its goals and objectives. You’ll also communicate the project status, keep stakeholders involved and informed, track finances, control changes, and manage issues. We’ll spend the bulk of our time in this book in the technical project management arena.
The PMI Talent Triangle also includes strategic and business management skills. In addition to managing the project, the project manager must examine the organization’s bigger picture regarding why the project is important and why it has been initiated and funded by the organization. The goal is to understand and communicate the business strategy, effectively plan and deliver the project for the organization, and maximize the business value of the project. You’ll need to understand how your project fits into the organization’s strategy, mission, tactics, and overall prioritization of projects. You’ll do this by managing the following:
•Risks and issues
•Project costs and budget
•Costs and benefits
•Business value
•Benefits realized by delivering the project
•Balance competing objectives, such as time, cost, and quality
Project managers provide leadership, the part of the PMI Talent Triangle that focuses on your ability to manage people. You’ll manage the project team, work with vendors, and keep stakeholders informed, involved, and excited about the project. Leadership means that you’ll be optimistic, collaborative, and able to manage conflicts that will creep up within the project. Project managers must build trust, address concerns with stakeholders, and be able to persuade, gain consensus, compromise, network, and provide a long-term view of how the project fits into the overall business strategy. A term you’ll see in agile project management is “servant leadership,” which means that while you’re the leader, you’re also supporting the project team and ensuring that they have what they need to do the work in the project.
Leadership requires the following qualities in a project manager:
•Respect for others
•Integrity and cultural sensitivity
•Problem-solving abilities
•Ability to give others credit
•Desire to learn and improve
•Ability to build and maintain relationships
Leadership in project management is about helping the team and business succeed. It’s about doing what’s right for the project, for the project team, and for the stakeholders. You’ll work to focus on what’s most important by prioritizing work, needs, and wants. Leaders act and make decisions, they are flexible and courageous, and they can deal directly with problems to rectify issues and keep the project moving forward.
Managing Politics in Projects
Yes, you’ll have to deal with office politics in project management. Stakeholders almost always have a political agenda, and they can try to leverage the project manager to get their way. Unfortunately, project managers often get mired in stakeholders’ competing objectives and succumb to office politics that can affect the project for the worse. Politics are really a way of describing how organizations operate—the undocumented, but present, undercurrent of how decisions are made within the organization. Project managers must understand how organizations work, who wields authority, and how to navigate through the politics, good or bad, to keep the project moving toward a successful conclusion.
Though the project manager may hope to avoid politics, it’s nearly impossible to do so; politics can begin with the perception of the project manager and the power he has. Perception of power refers to how other people—from the project team, to management, to stakeholders—view not just the project, but also the project manager. The project manager does have some power over the project and the perceptions others have of him.
Although every scenario is different, you should be familiar with several types of power that affect your role as a project manager and for your PMP exam:
•Positional power The project manager’s power is a result of the position she has as the project manager. This is also known as formal, authoritative, and legitimate power.
•Informational power The project manager has control over data gathering and distribution of information.
•Referent power The project manager is respected or admired because of the team’s past experiences with her. This is about the project manager’s credibility in the organization.
•Situational power The project manager has power because of certain situations in the organization.
•Personal or charismatic power The project manager has a warm personality that others like.
•Avoiding power The project manager refuses to act, get involved, or make decisions.
•Expert power The project manager has deep skills and experience in a discipline (for example, years of working in IT helps an IT project manager better manage IT projects).
•Reward power The project manager can reward the project team.
•Punitive or coercive power The project manager can punish the project team.
•Ingratiating power The project manager aims to gain favor with the project team and stakeholders through flattery.
•Pressure-based power The project manager can restrict choices to get the project team to perform the project work.
•Guilt-based power The project manager can make the team and stakeholders feel guilty to gain compliance in the project.
Notice that I’ve framed these from the project manager’s point of view, but the reality is that any stakeholder, from a customer to the project sponsor, can hold these powers. This is all part of the political side of organizations; being able to recognize the power being implemented can help you as project manager better manage a project and its outcomes.
VIDEO For a more detailed explanation, watch the Role of the Project Manager video now.
Serving as a Leader and Manager
Leadership and management are not the same things: Leadership is more about emotional intelligence and inspiring people to work together to achieve great things. Management is about getting things done. Management is concerned with the results and the work required to achieve those results. For the PMP exam, you’ll need to discern between leadership and management. Understand that management focuses on getting the project done, while leadership is about inspiring and motivating people. There are opportunities to do both on every project.
As a successful project manager, you’ll serve as both a leader and a manager. You’ll lead the team by showing them opportunities that help them accomplish the project, create something new, and complete the project work with an eye toward how the project contributes to business value for the organization. As a manager, you’ll keep the team organized and the work authorization moving, and you’ll address the knowledge area of project management. You’ll be accountable and hold the team accountable for the scope, costs, quality, risk management, and other facets of project management.
Learning Leadership Styles
Think about all of people you’ve worked for—specifically the managers you’ve admired. Think of how that individual led his team. Managers’ characteristics, such as their temperaments and values, made you admire them. Employees often look to their managers to determine what is acceptable behavior—how they treat others, their energy about the project, and their ethics. A manager’s characteristics, including project managers, inform how their team members behave. Leadership styles are the methods you and others employ to offer leadership within the project. That’s an important concept, because it’s not just the project manager who can offer leadership: the team, stakeholders, and even vendors can offer leadership at different times throughout the project.
Six leadership styles are utilized within organizations, and you should recognize these for your exam:
•Servant leadership The leader puts others first and focuses on the needs of the people he serves. Servant leaders provide opportunity for growth, education, autonomy within the project, and the well-being of others. Adaptive project management relies heavily on servant leadership, and you should recognize this term for your exam. The primary focus of servant leadership is service to others.
•Transactional leadership The leader emphasizes the goals of the project and offers rewards and disincentives for the project team. This is sometimes called management by exception, because it’s the exception that is rewarded or punished.
•Laissez-faire leadership The leader takes a hands-off approach to the project. This means the project team makes decisions, takes initiative in the actions, and creates goals. Although this approach can provide autonomy, it can make the leader appear absent when it comes to project decisions. Some newcomers to Agile feel that the scrum master is using laissez-faire leadership. Nope! The scrum master is involved, but she allows the team to be self-organizing and is available when problems erupt or the team needs help.
•Transformational leadership The leader inspires and motivates the project team to achieve the project goals. Transformational leaders aim to empower the project team to act, be innovative in the project work, and accomplish through ambition.
•Charismatic leadership The leader is motivating, has high energy, and inspires the team through strong convictions about what’s possible and what the team can achieve. Positive thinking and a can-do mentality are characteristics of a charismatic leader.
•Interactional leadership The leader is a hybrid of transactional, transformational, and charismatic leadership. The interactional leader wants the team to take action, is excited and inspired about the project work, yet still holds the team accountable for their results.
Creating a Leadership Persona
You need to define what it means to be a leader and how you’ll improve upon those leadership qualities as a project manager. When you think of a leader, you’ll likely think of a personality of someone who’s excited, inspiring, and leads by doing. Or maybe you think of a football coach giving a great half-time speech about overcoming the odds and winning the game. Or perhaps it’s some combination of leadership characteristics that motivate, inspire, and prove admirable. All of these traits are centered on the personality of a good leader.
For your PMP exam, you’ll need to recognize some personality traits that directly affect your ability to serve as a leader for your project team. These personality traits stem from experience, maturity, patterns of thinking, feelings, and repeated behavior. Recognize these personality traits:
•Authentic Show concern for others and accept who they are.
•Courteous Be polite and behave respectfully toward others.
•Creative Create, think through problems, and seek solutions through creativity.
•Cultural Be sensitive to cultural norms and beliefs.
•Emotional Show empathy, understand others’ emotions, and manage personal emotions.
•Intellectual Demonstrate intelligence and respect the intelligence of others.
•Managerial Use management aptitude in all aspects of the project.
•Political Understand the politics at play within an organization.
•Service-oriented Provide for others what they need to be successful.
•Social Be friendly and approachable, and understand the needs and wants of the project team and stakeholders.
•Systemic Understand existing frameworks and systems and build project systems to get things done in an orderly fashion.
Performing Project Integration
There’s some unfortunate wording in the PMBOK Guide that may confuse some people. The PMBOK Guide uses the word “integration” in Chapter 4, but integration, in the context of our discussion here, is different from project integration management, discussed in the PMBOK Guide. Integration management in this chapter addresses how the project is integrated with the goals, tactics, and vision of the organization—not just the project scope and knowledge areas. Integration at this level means that you’re working with the project sponsor to ensure that the goals and objectives of the project mesh with the goals and objectives of the organization. Projects must support the broader vision and purpose of the organization or the project likely isn’t contributing to business value and may have challenges garnering support within the organization.
At the project level, the project manager continues integration by leading and managing the project team. The people who have the greatest effect on project success are the project team members. The project manager can’t do everything, of course, and the project team will execute the project plan. When the project team executes the project plan, their work needs to support the goals of the project, which in turn must support the goals of the organization. If those two things are not in sync, the project will no doubt face challenges, issues, and unrest.
Integrating Processes
In Chapter 4 of this book and of the PMBOK Guide, you’ll read that project integration management addresses the interrelationship among the project processes. Processes are the predefined actions, such as quality control, that bring about a specific result. Process-level integration means that each process affects other processes throughout the project. Some processes may occur only one time, such as creating the project charter, while other processes can happen over and over as needed in the project, such as risk identification. Still, some processes may not occur at all: Consider the procurement processes in a project that won’t be purchasing anything from vendors. If you don’t need the processes, they won’t occur.
Don’t miss this important point: do only the processes that are needed and always do the most appropriate process when it’s needed. There is no blanket approach to project management, and processes can generally happen in any order that’s needed once the project is initiated and the charter is created. Yes, you’ll generally move into planning once the charter is created, but as the project is in motion, especially on larger projects, you’ll move on to the needed process, not necessarily the next process described in the PMBOK Guide. Of course, what you do with one process has a direct effect on other processes in your project.
The larger and more complex the project, the more processes you are likely to use. The more processes that are introduced and needed in a project, however, means you’ll need more project integration management. Project managers need not address only the processes of a project, but must also consider three other factors that contribute to the project’s complexity:
•Uncertainty in projects Some projects aren’t clear in requirements and what will happen throughout the project life cycle. Consider software development, long-term projects, and unknowns that are lurking in the work. Adaptive projects readily recognize the uncertainty and welcome change. Predictive projects see uncertainty as risk and are often risk-averse.
•Human behavior Perhaps the most complex aspect of project management is human behavior. People don’t always get along, and this can cause problems within the project that stem from behavior outside of the project.
•System behavior How your organization works is entirely different from how other organizations work. You’ll need to understand the business framework of what it takes to interact with employees, departments, and systems to manage the project.
Building Your Cognitive-Level Integration
When we first begin as project managers, we’re often assigned projects that are low priority, with easily achievable objectives. As we become more mature in the role of a project manager and have gained experience and insight into project management, we’re assigned more complex projects. It’s the experience that gives us the wisdom to manage the more complex projects.
The idea of integration at the cognitive level means that we rely not only on our experience—an excellent teacher—but we also learn from others. We take classes, read books, attend PMI chapter meetings; we make a deliberate effort to learn more so that we can manage projects more effectively. Cognitive-level integration is the act of learning on purpose, not just by doing, to ensure that we’re well-rounded in all knowledge areas of project management, even those areas we don’t touch frequently. That’s why your PMP exam will cover the whole breadth of project management, even if you have little experience in procurement, in risk management, or in any of the knowledge areas.
Examining Context-Level Integration
Context-level integration is the management of a project in consideration of how the project environment has changed, and is changing, in organizations today. Consider a project 20 or 30 years ago: social networking, texting, and virtual teams weren’t a reality back then, but these variables are certainly in play in most organizations today. As project managers, we need insight into how our projects will take advantage of these and other evolving project landscapes and how these elements can create benefits, or disruptions, to the project.
Your organization may allow texting and virtual teams in a project, while another organization doesn’t use those elements. This doesn’t mean that one is better than the other; they’re just different. Each facet of the context level brings benefits but also costs that can affect how a project moves forward. The project manager needs to understand what’s allowed to be used, what’s not allowed, what’s being ignored, and why.
Chapter Summary
This chapter focused on the foundations of what it means to be a project manager. I wouldn’t be surprised if you already recognize most of the information in this chapter if you’re currently serving as a project manager and working toward your PMP certification. However, don’t shrug off these elements, because you’ll likely see the information on your exam.
One of the most important parts of this chapter is recognizing the difference between project management and leadership. Management is about getting things done. Leadership is about aligning, motivating, and inspiring people. Be familiar with both aspects of project management, not just the mechanics of getting things done.
Management utilizes positional power to do the following:
•Maintain the project.
•Administrate duties.
•Focus on project systems.
•Control the project work.
•Focus on the next project achievements.
•Question how and when things will happen.
•Control and administer finances.
•Keep the status quo.
•Do the right things at the right time.
•Address issues and problem-solve.
Leadership influences and inspires people to do the following:
•Develop personality and skills.
•Perform their work with innovation.
•Build relationships.
•Trust one another.
•Examine the long-range vision of the project.
•Question why and what will happen.
•Challenge the status quo.
•Do the right things at the right time.
•Align with the organization’s vision with motivation and inspiration.
Some overlap exists between management and leadership, but the difference is in the attitude, the desire to do things well, and a positive mindset focused on serving others and serving in the best interest of the stakeholders, team, and organization.
The role of the project manager in any project management approach is to manage the project work, lead the project team, and get things done. While agile environments often don’t have a project manager role, agile projects still use the principles of project management and leadership. The project manager works with the project team to achieve the project objectives, contribute to business value, and coordinate the activities, communications, and events that happen within a project. Project managers facilitate processes to reach predefined results and then usher the project through initiating, planning, execution, monitoring and controlling, and ultimately into project closing.
Through experience and training, the project manager’s competency increases. The project manager should ascertain his level of skill in management and leadership areas; identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats; and then decide to improve upon his management prowess. The PMI Talent Triangle aims to address the three common areas of education for project managers: technical project management, leadership, and strategic and business management.
The role of the project manager isn’t just about managing project work and resources; it also includes leadership. Leadership is the ability to align, motivate, and inspire people to want to do the project work, succeed in their work lives, and focus on the long-range vision of the project. Leadership styles are the methods a project manager can utilize to help the project team members be inspired and motivated, and to perform well within the project.
Questions
1.You know that leadership and project management are not the same thing, but they are connected. Leaders and managers rely on communications within a project to help motivate, manage, and ensure that the project is moving forward toward its objectives. In communicating, the receiver restates what the sender has said to clarify the message and to enable the sender to offer more clarity if needed. What is this communication component called?
A.Active listening
B.Sender-receiver model
C.Communications planning
D.Leader listening
2.You are the project manager for your organization and you’re working with a new client to start a project at the client’s site. You and the client are negotiating the price, schedule, and other concerns for a contract for the new project. In the negotiating, you and the client should be negotiating for what result?
A.Best price for the contracted work
B.Fair agreement for both the client and the vendor
C.Most profit for the contracted work
D.Risk distribution between the two parties
3.You are the project manager of the Systems Upgrade Project for your organization. As a project manager, you want to influence the organization and the project team for the better. What two key aspects are most helpful in influencing your organization as a project manager?
A.Management and leadership
B.Communication skills and a positive attitude
C.Experience and knowledge
D.Experience and willingness to learn
4.Beth is a new project manager for her company and she’s working with her project team utilizing the Scrum approach to project management. In the Scrum environment, all of the roles take on the project management activities except for which one?
A.Product owner
B.Scrum master
C.Project team
D.Development team
5.Teresa is the project manager for her department. She has been working with her manager to examine her skills and her career. Her manager believes that Teresa should take more training in a project management information system to make her a better project manager in her organization. Teresa agrees, though she feels that she doesn’t know much about the project management information system her department uses. In the five steps of competence, where is Teresa with this realization?
A.Unconsciously competent
B.Consciously competent
C.Consciously incompetent
D.Unconsciously incompetent
6.As a PMP candidate in an environment utilizing XP, you understand that there is no project manager role in this framework. However, XP does utilize a role that is identified as a person who enforces the rules of XP, remains calm in times of trouble, and helps the team to become self-reliant. What is the name of this role in an XP environment?
A.Manager
B.Servant leader
C.Coach
D.Product owner
7.While management is about getting things done, leadership is said to be about motivating people. You know that leadership is a desirable trait for a project manager and is heavily referenced throughout the PMBOK Guide. Which one of the following characteristics is not an attribute of leadership?
A.Fiscal responsibility
B.Respect for others
C.Problem-solving ability
D.Desire to learn and improve
8.You are the project manager for your organization. Your current project has more than 100 stakeholders. Some of the stakeholders have competing objectives and are trying to leverage your project to meet their personal objectives. Influencing your organization requires which of the following?
A.An understanding of the organizational budget
B.Research and documentation of proven business cases
C.An understanding of formal and informal organizational systems
D.Positional power
9.Mark is a new project manager in his company. Before joining this company, Mark worked as a project manager for more than 20 years at an IT service provider. Mark has a deep understanding of electronics, software development, and data warehouse technology and is considered an expert in his field. His current project team, however, is pushing back on his recommendations and challenging his knowledge on the project. Since Mark is new, the project team reasons, he likely doesn’t understand how things work in the organization. What type of power does Mark have in this scenario?
A.Expert
B.Positional
C.Situational
D.Informational
10.What type of power does a project manager have when the team admires the project manager because they’ve worked with her before the current project or they know of her reputation as a project manager?
A.Situational
B.Referent
C.Personal
D.Expert
11.Holly is the project manager for her company and her team likes working for her. Holly has a good attitude, is easy to work with, and is a good planner. The project team views Holly as a member of management who can give them a good review and possibly affect a bonus payment if the project is completed on time. What type of power does this project manager have?
A.Punitive
B.Situational
C.Reward
D.Guilt-based
12.You can adapt several different tactics and leadership styles in a project. Which one of the following is the best description of being a servant leader?
A.The leader emphasizes the goals of the project and provides rewards and disincentives for the project team.
B.The leader puts others first and focuses on the needs of the people he serves.
C.The leader takes a hands-off approach to the project.
D.The leader inspires and motivates the project team to achieve the project goals.
13.You are the project manager for your department. As a project manager, you will have to use some positional power to keep the project moving forward. You’ll also need to develop leadership skills to align, motivate, and inspire people. Of the following choices, which one is most likely associated with management skills?
A.Focus on the next project achievements
B.Build relationships
C.Support the project team
D.Challenge status quo
14.You are the project manager for your organization. In your current project, you’re coaching Mary on the project management knowledge areas. Mary has questions about project integration management at the process level. Which one of the following is the best example of project integration management at the process level?
A.Poor quality management planning will likely affect the quality of the project deliverable.
B.A robust communication management plan is dependent on the number of stakeholders involved in the project.
C.Larger projects require more detail than smaller projects.
D.Planning is an iterative activity that will happen throughout the project.
15.You are the project manager of a project. The project team is experiencing some trouble with a new material that the project will utilize. You gather the team to lead an active problem-solving session. Which one of the following is the best definition of active problem-solving?
A.Define the problem and the desired solution.
B.Discern the cause and the effect of the problem.
C.Document the problem and its characteristics to see the whole effect.
D.Test the materials to identify the solution.
16.Dwight was the project lead for the IT Upgrade Project, and Jim was serving as the project manager. Because of a family emergency, Jim stepped down from the project and took a leave of absence. Management then asked that Dwight serve as the project manager for the remainder of the project. What type of power does Dwight now have?
A.Personal
B.Expert
C.Situational
D.Reward
17.A project manager is meeting with his project team. In this meeting, the top 10 percent of project team members are openly praised for their hard work. The bottom 10 percent of the project team members are disciplined and somewhat berated in the meeting. The balance of the project team is not addressed. What type of leadership is happening in this scenario?
A.Transactional leadership
B.Laissez-faire leadership
C.Interactional leadership
D.Pressure-based power
18.Harrold is the project manager for his organization, and he has seven people on his project team. Who is responsible for executing the project plan and creating the project deliverables?
A.Project lead
B.Project manager and the project team
C.Project manager
D.Project team
19.As a project manager, you need both leadership and management skills. Which one of the following statements best describes the difference between leadership and management in a project?
A.Management is the process of getting the results that are expected in the project. Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire individuals.
B.Management is the process of getting the results that are expected by the project stakeholders. Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire individuals to work toward those expected results.
C.Leadership is about creating excitement to be managed. Management is about managing the leadership.
D.Leadership is the process of getting the project team excited to create results that are expected by project stakeholders. Management is the ability to keep track of the project results.
20.Communication is paramount in project management and can best be summarized as follows: who needs what information, when do they need it, and what’s the best ______ to deliver the message? Choose the best answer:
A.person
B.resource
C.format
D.modality
Answers
1.A. Active listening is the participatory component of a conversation that confirms what was said and enables the sender to offer clarity, if needed. B is incorrect. The sender-receiver model shows how communication moves between two people. C is incorrect because communications planning is a project management process plan for who needs what information, when the information is needed, and in what modality. D, leader listening, is not a valid project management term so this choice is incorrect.
2.B. The purpose of negotiations is to reach a fair agreement for all parties involved. A and C are incorrect because these two choices are mutually exclusive and not concerned with the other party in the contract. D, risk distribution, is not a valid choice because the fair agreement among the parties would address the risk distribution.
3.B. The two key aspects that are most helpful in influencing an organization are communication skills and a positive attitude. A is incorrect because management and leadership are values for a project manager, but they aren’t the most helpful aspects of influence. C is incorrect because experience and knowledge are self-contained skills and don’t do much to influence, inspire, and motivate others. D is incorrect because experience and a willingness to learn are good attributes and are intrinsic for a good project manager, but they will not influence the organization.
4.C. In Scrum, project management is sliced across the three roles of the product owner, the scrum master, and the development team. There is no role called the project team. A, B, and D are incorrect because they represent three roles that take on the project management activities.
5.C. Teresa is consciously incompetent because she is aware that she needs more training to be competent in a new skill. A is incorrect because unconsciously competent happens when Teresa can do the skill without even thinking about it. B is incorrect because when Teresa learns and practices the skill to gain competence she is being consciously competent. D describes the state when Teresa is unaware of a skill she doesn’t have.
6.C. XP doesn’t have a project manager role, but instead utilizes the role of coach. A coach in XP coaches the team on the XP rules, remains calm even when others are panicking, helps the team become self-reliant, and intervenes only when there’s a problem that the team is overlooking. A, manager, is incorrect. The manager in XP tracks performance, ensures that everyone is following the rules, and leads the continual planning processes. B, servant leader, describes the leadership approach for serving the team, but it isn’t a role in XP. D, product owner, is incorrect because this role is in Scrum projects and is responsible for maintaining the product backlog.
7.A. Fiscal responsibility is a desirable trait for project managers, but it’s a management skill rather than a leadership skill. B, C, and D are incorrect choices because leadership skills include respect for others, problem-solving abilities, and a desire to learn and improve.
8.C. To influence an organization (to get things done), a project manager must understand the explicit and implied organizational system within an organization. A is incorrect, because the project manager may not even have access to an organizational budget. B is incorrect because a proven business case may not map to every scenario when influencing an organization. D is incorrect because positional power may relate only to a small portion of an organization, not to multiple facets of influence.
9.B. Mark has positional power in this scenario because he’s new to the organization and the team doesn’t recognize his expertise in the technology. Positional power is also known as formal, authoritative, and legitimate power. A is incorrect because expert power means the team would recognize his expertise in the technology and respect his decisions. C is incorrect because situational power emerges because the project manager has power as a result of certain situations in the organization. D is incorrect because informational power means the individual has control of data gathering and distribution of information.
10.B. Of all the choices presented, referent power is the best answer. The project manager is respected or admired because her team can refer to her ability as a project manager because they have knowledge of past experiences with her. This is about the project manager’s credibility in the organization. A is incorrect because situational power means the project manager has power because of certain situations in the organization. C is incorrect because with personal power, the project manager is liked because of her personality rather than her experiences with the project team in the past. D is incorrect because expert power means the project manager has deep skills and experience in a discipline.
11.C. When the project team sees the project manager as someone who can reward them, the project manager has reward power. A, B, and D are not valid answers. Punitive power means the team thinks the project manager can punish them. Situational power is when the project manager has power based on unique situations within the organization. Guilt-based power describes a manager who makes the team feels guilty if they don’t complete their project work according to plan.
12.B. A servant leader puts others first and focuses on the needs of the people he serves. Servant leaders provide opportunity for growth, education, autonomy within the project, and the well-being of others. The primary focus of servant leadership is service to others. A is incorrect because this answer describes transactional leadership. C is incorrect because this answer describes a laissez-faire leadership approach. D is incorrect because this answer describes the transformational leadership style.
13.A. Management focuses on the next project achievements. B, C, and D are incorrect because these three choices are attributes of leadership. Leaders do build relationships, support the project team, and challenge the status quo. This isn’t to say that managers don’t do these things, but it’s the attribute of management versus the attribute of leadership in this question.
14.A. Of all the choices presented, this answer is the best example of project integration management. Project integration management at the process level means that what you do in one process can have a direct effect on other processes. It is true that poor quality management planning will likely affect the quality of the deliverables, which is linked to project integration management. B, C, and D are incorrect examples of project integration management at the process level. We’ll discuss more about project integration management in the next chapter of this book.
15.A. Active problem-solving begins with defining the problem and ends with implementing the desired solution. B is incorrect because the ability to discern between the cause and effect of the problem is only part of problem-solving. C is incorrect because documenting the problems is also only part of problem-solving. D is incorrect because testing the materials would be part of the discernment process to determine the cause of the problem, not the solution.
16.C. Dwight now has situational power and will become project manager because of a particular situation in the organization. A, personal power, means the project manager has a warm personality that others like. B is incorrect because expert power means that the project manager has deep skills and experience in a discipline, but Dwight was made project manager only because of the situation with Jim having to leave the project. D is incorrect because reward power means the project manager can reward the project team.
17.A. Transactional leadership means the leader emphasizes the goals of the project and offers rewards and disincentives for the project team. This is sometimes called management by exception, because it’s the exception that is rewarded or punished. B is incorrect because laissez-faire leadership means the leader takes a hands-off approach to the project. C is incorrect because the interactional leader wants the team to act, is excited and inspired about the project work, yet still holds the team accountable for their results. D is incorrect because pressure-based power is not a leadership type, but rather a type of power where the project manager can restrict choices to get the project team to perform the project work.
18.D. The project team members are responsible for executing the project plan and creating the project deliverables. A is incorrect because the project lead isn’t the only role responsible for executing the plan. B is tempting, but it is incorrect, because the project team is responsible for executing the plan—that is, doing the work to create the project deliverables—not the project manager. C, the project manager, isn’t the best answer because, although the project manager may be accountable for the project, it’s the project team that builds the project deliverables.
19.B. Of all the choices, this is the best answer. Management is the process of getting the results that are expected by project stakeholders. Leadership is the ability to motivate and inspire individuals to work toward those expected results. A, C, and D are incorrect because these statements do not correctly reflect the difference between management and leadership in a project.
20.D. Project communication can be summed up as follows: who needs what information, when do they need it, and what’s the best modality to deliver the message. A, B, and C are incorrect. Although these are tempting choices, none of them is the best answer to the question.