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Human Resources Management is one of the more interesting functional areas of programme management as it’s the only area that balances between the soft skills required for successful leadership and team-building contrasted with the more structured resources activities such as staffing management and organizational definition.

The four key elements of Human Resource Management are as follows:

Project leadership – A project will simply not work without an apt leader. A programme will fail without an appropriately skilled and motivated leadership team. Their job is to lead the overall programme team on a successful journey. This includes the implementation of a governance structure that is self-disciplined, focused on coaching, driven to communicate, politically savvy, technically experienced and embracing of core project management principles.

Recruitment, retention and roll-off – Any programme is as good as the people operating within it. Because of this the process of recruitment, retention and roll-off plays a central role in the successful delivery of a programme. In real terms this means the active determination of required skill levels for roles, recruitment planning to fulfill the identified skills gaps (both within and external to the organisation) against deadlines, definition & execution of retention strategies for key staff and pro-active management of attrition to minimize the impact to project / programme baselines.

Project organisation – Resources want to understand where they fit into the bigger picture and how their work drives forward the overall work of the programme. The activities to achieve this include the documentation of individual roles and responsibilities, mapping of organizational breakdown structure (OBS) to the work breakdown structure (WBS), utilization of cross-functional teams to support concurrencies, definition and maintenance of the OBS and encouragement of information communications. Depending on the programme organisation complexity this may include a combination of direct reporting to project management (project-based) or direct reporting to functional management. This combination of structures is called matrix management and is common is organisation which balance both operational and project-based work.

Project team-building – Once your team has been created it is important to maintain the momentum through a shared vision, objectives and strategy. This is supplemented by common tools, bought-into measures of success (team metrics) and periodic communication to maintain the points mentioned previously.

» Seven Deadly Sins of... Project Management: GLUTTONY

By Michael Cooch | Published 04/10/2008 | Human Resource Management | Rating:

Gluttony (latin: gula) is defined as ‘the over-indulgence and over-consumption of anything to the point of waste’. However as explained in the article we’ll be supplementing this with the, more expansive, view outlined by Thomas Aquinas.

In this article we will be exploring how weak planning, an imbalanced off-shore model, poor estimating and ineffective resource allocation can cause you all sorts of project pain. We'll also be investigating how Resource Management (as the penitence) can be used to bridle these project transgressions that constitute gluttony.

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» Programme Management Office (PMO): Headcount Sizing Guide

By Michael Cooch | Published 10/27/2006 | Human Resource Management , Programme / Project Management | Rating:

One of the questions most frequently posed to me when I'm consulted as a Programme Management Office expert is:

'How many people do I need to staff my PMO?'

Surely the answer falls in the same category as 'How long is a piece of string?'....or perhaps not...

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