Building The Team by Making Sushi Rolls

This post was inspired by my team lead's affection towards sushi rolls that has become a strong tradition for the part of our large team. We usually have a team-building session at our office kitchen every two months. I would say that was the place where I tried to make sushi roll by myself for the first time. 

Actually, sushi has become one of my favorite tool to develop my project teams. This allowed me - who was managing 3 different teams simultaneously at that time - to look at teams' players from a new perspective.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, my professional arenas before the IT-industry were insurance industry, sales and teaching activities in the university. All my previous team-building workshops contained some standard for Ukrainian market items: bowling, outings with a few team games. They were efficient enough increasing team's performance for some time, but it always was a big headache to get $400-500 from the top-management to organize that. No, they were not greedy for money, not a jot :). This is how the things always go in most Ukrainian companies whether they are in sales or in engineering industries. 

Processes Flowchart: Rita Mulcahy vs. PMI PMBOK 5. Project Initiating

Here is a short comparison of two popular charts of project management processes. One flowchart was taken from Rita Mulcahy - a recognized expert in PMP studies. The second comes from the latest PMI PMBOK 5th Edition. 

I know that "every man to his taste", but at the same time this comparison helped me to memorize all inputs, tools and techniques and output for each process. 

Many certified project managers confirm that memorizing and understandings of these charts are the keys to the successful PMP exam pass. At least 70% of all questions are within the processes flowchart. 

What Project Manger should know to accomplish projects

Six traits of a good project manager

Once I was lucky to get through the professional assessment by one of my previous employers. This hadn't happened to me for quite some time. Moreover, I had been evaluating others on my own for the last 4 years before I got a project-management position. So, that was a quite interesting experience to for me to feel myself an examination "victim". 

Besides a formal calculation based on some "points" for the completed projects an assessment of personality traits was applied through a tête-à-tête meeting with the examiner. That's why I can't help but share my observations and after-thoughts on that very raw evaluating "matrix". Here is a full list of criteria used to evaluate character traits that comes along with my comments describing why I am a bit far to support such subjective scoring. 

1.Results-oriented

As a rule, main project goals are to accomplish the approved scope and to get paid for the work done. Oh, yes, including schedules, quality metrics and within the approved budget. So, can "goal orientation" be measured other than having a satisfied customer and successfully completed projects? Is this a subjective criterion or can be interpreted in another way?

However, as it turned out the company scale also contained such points as number of team building activities, new future projects from the customer and team's professional skills development. In my opinion if a company requires some additional project goals, a project manager should be notified about this during the project initiation not at the closure or audit. All these internal objectives should be listed and detailed in some internal project charter. And ideally a project manager should be motivated to such goals accomplishment. Naturally, an additional budget must be assigned for team development. You must admit that it is almost impossible to develop your team having $0.00 for this. 

2.Acumen

I am serious. This metric was applied to measure how a project manager is fast in decision-making. In my humble opinion, speed is good in blood-suckers catching, but project managing. Project manager is neither a hockey-player nor a Formula-1 pilot. PM "class" does not depend on a flash-like speed. I think a timely decision is better than a quick one. 

3.Responsibility

A cowboy cannot accomplish projects. Hence, there are no other criteria except described in paragraph #1. 

4.Self-dependence

If a project manager is smart enough to make somebody pull the chestnuts out of the fire for him, then his or her managers should follow suit delegating authority and thinking of their professional aptitude. Yes, the statement sounds a bit rough notwithstanding honest enough at the same time. 

5.Stress resistance

Are you able to appraise such person's trait not having passed through the mill with him or her in "Survivor" show or being hostages by Somali pirates?  

6.Wavelengthmanship

Over the last decade of my "manager" status that was only once when I met a project manager who was afraid to give a ring to his customer. Do you know any formal procedures that are not subjective and that can appraise inter-personal skills? There are no such tools. All of them provide results that should be interpreted through the personal paradigm. 

Therefore, let's look at the first paragraph again as the exclusive criteria and metrics of true project manager qualification.

Which Project Organisation is Best suited for an engineering project, Matrix or Projectized and Why?

In my humble opinion a "projectized" organization is the most goal-oriented in engineering/construction projects. Project manager can control and engage necessary resources upon the project plan. Nevertheless, a good PM should always remember that he is the only "boss" controlling the project in projectized organization. 

Human resources are involved into the construction based on the needs upon the project plan. They cannot be shared among other projects as it might happen in matrix organizations. Since engineering/construction project's budgets are big enough the sponsor/product owner is interested in timely delivery most of all. That is why the project team should be considered to work within this single project concentrating their efforts on sponsor needs. 

Yes, the team and PM will have "no home" after the project's closure. However, what else would they expect after the construction has been finished and put to use?