Planning and Resource Management Capabilities - Case Study Example

Figure 0.1: Project Process Flow The process of making initial determinations of where resources will be sourced, either internally in the organization or through an external source was adequately dealt with. The outsourced resources were provided by Masinde Techno Company, who aided with the office equipment and additional software needed in the planning and resource process. The office space should meet anticipated needs of the team both in term of physical work environment and capacity. The work space and group pace must balance to meet work session and team meetings (Donald, 2005). There was also need to finalize office and material requirements such as desktop and network usage for each human resource category, negotiating with the sponsor as required, who was the client, The team members have different skills and are multi-skilled. There was need to have milt skilled teams to maximize on time and efficient, especially in terms of the programmer and training skills. The team structure was relatively organized with members of the project understanding their roles and their working and reporting relationships, with a huge shortcoming on the part of the project manager who clearly viewed improving the problem of the personnel service delivery at Pacific as an easy job, through which he lacked any feasible involvement in the project as the chief reporting agent. However, all team structures introduce some measure of inflexibility. It is important to understand that there is no “right” team structure for a project and that usually it depends on the organizational requirements and needs of the project and the ability of the project manager to shift the team member’s structure towards the organizational requirements (Antony, et al, 1980). More than one person was selected to interview the candidates. This was helpful and necessary in order to: • Gain the perspective of more than one person when making the staffing decision. Standard policies and procedures were followed in conducting the interviews as per the documentation reviewed with no basis of favouritism. The candidates were provided with an overview of the project.. Special considerations such as special terms and conditions travel and living arrangements, were provided (Donald, 2005). . Based on the policies and procedures and the Agreement with the Pacific, a broad set of objectives were developed for the project team. The objectives covered such areas as client satisfaction, quality, achievement of milestones, productivity and efficiency and teamwork (Mathis R & john h, 2007). . This was achieved first by defining a shared “team” mission or goal that is supportive of the project’s goals, the project team objectives, and presented a challenge that motivated the team. Ideas such as team names, team events and team rewards were nicely executed. This was evidenced by a cited example of one team called ‘The Simba Group’. Results-driven team structures were also encouraged. Elements of a results-driven team structure include: • Clearly defined roles, responsibilities and accountabilities • Effective communication system that allows the free flow of information • Means of self-monitoring for individual performance. The main ways of developing the team management would be to develop the team communication channels properly. Outlining proper channels of communication with the top management, the team members, and other stakeholders is always a great idea. Deciding on the right information to be passed from one department to another and the person to send it is always crucial, in this scenario, the leader of the team was sufficient to carry out the duty. Establishing leadership is important in managing the team in general (Lequeux & Jean-Louis, 2008). A supportive atmosphere within the team should be build to facilitate easy resolution of conflicts incase it arises. Under normal circumstances, conflicts within a group of people are fond to happen. Taking care to resolve them before they impact the team’s performance is very important. Due procedure was taken on release of an individual at the end or during the life of the project from his assigned tasks. This was done by comparing the latest individual status report with the operational schedule to determine if there is any work outstanding. . Recovery of portable items, such as identification badges and key is taken care of. There was effort put in to ensure that the team member left with a positive attitude about the project and the delivery organization. RECOMMENDATIONS Due to the lack of clear role, organization and responsibility of the project manager, it would have been wise to have two managers, where one project manager will oversee the day to day work of single team and offer feedback to other managers. The people’s manager is also required to take care of the people development interests such as promotion from one grade to another, increasing of salaries, career needs and interests. Under proper condition, an individual member of the team is supposed to have only one manager who will take care of all the things and is required to have less than fourteen members reporting to him/her, but under this case, this did not work. Again it depends on many factors – company policies, location, style of functioning and project needs. If the company does not suit the use of more one project manager, then in order to improve the planning and resource process, it is essential to crucially scrutinize the project manager’s qualifications and references as per the problem facing the organization, not withstanding his experience (Loh, et al, 2004). Training requirements needed specifically for the project such as plans for team-building activities as part of motivation management were not pursued for the human resource as part of the human resource plan. Preferably to enlarge the human resource base, senior and most important resources must be shared over several projects and applied in the project for critical activities such as design or architecture of the office established in modifying the phase of resource , planning, review and less experienced resources should be used for documentation. In terms of expanding the human resource plan, there would be the need to document the activities to expand the human resource plan. The team building exercises could be through site meetings instead of in the office meetings, extended offsite meeting and feedback. Enhanced communications in the plan could also be included through the team “war room”, involving team members in planning or establishing ground rules and having each other’s back, a means to encourage trust and team work in line with efficiency. There can also be business area specific activities that include team satisfaction survey and individual interviews. Existence of a predetermined work flow to show specific activities undertaken by specific individuals should be pursued with each individual taking up his assigned task with those who are multi tasked reporting to the appropriate chief reporting agent, who is the project manager in case of too much imposed, this will be improved by the application of Microsoft excel. There is need to analyze the team member’s individual status reports to formulate a picture of his/her overall performance on the project in order to assess performance, this should have been taken up by the project manager of West Consulting Team and the Human Resource Coordinator of Pacific. The consultations can be eased with the use if VIP Task Manager. This would have been done by use of reported actuals against estimates (Shaul, Levi & Tauber Doron, 2010). This would be viewed in terms of, was the member always on time or sometimes late? Were the individuals’ completion estimates reasonably accurate? What were the reasons? Did the effort of a team member’s contribution result in value to the project? Did he/she contribute at team meetings? Did he/she help others? Did the member came up with excellent ideas? Did he/she report potential problems in a timely manner? Did he/she support team decisions? Did he/she work with limited supervision? Did he/she gain the respect of the sponsor? CONCLUSIONS In conclusion, the choosing of the various planning and resource management tools was effectively done but the human resource element of the consulting company made a shortfall in their lack of use. It serves to prove a point that an organization cannot run itself and its backbone are the employees, regardless of the nature of the technology at their disposal. In this case, the Pacific should make use these tools provided by West Consulting Team taking into account that a team bound together in trust, commitment and proper leadership will go far together with the use of current planning and resource management like the ones mentioned above. Referencing Antony, J et al, 1980, Global planning and resource management: toward international decision making in a divided world, Pergamon Press, Minnesota. Davila T et al, 2007, The Creative Enterprise: Strategy, Greenwood Publishing Group, Redwood City. Donald W, 2005, National incident management system: principles and practice, Jones & Bartlett Learning, Chicago. Maizlish, B & Handler, R, 2005, IT portfolio management step-by-step: unlocking the business value of technology, John Wiley and Sons, Harvard. Mathis R & john h, 2007, human resource management, Cengage Learning, Atlanta. Head & Simon, (2005). The New Ruthless Economy. Oxford University press, Oxford. Lequeux & Jean-Louis, 2008, Manager Avec les ERP, Architecture Orientée Services (SOA). Paris: editions d'organisation. Loh, T et al, 2004, Critical elements for a successful ERP implementation in SME. International Journal of Production Research. Rüdiger P, 1990, Human resource management: an international comparison, Walter de Gruyter, London. 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