Problem 1: Responsibility

Team members will normally be in the organisatio's hierarchy, so will have a line manager

They will also be reporting to the project manager, often this is not the line manager, so they will have two managers

They will be given work not part of their normal work (projects are "novel")

Organisation

• the participants in a project are agreed up front
• their responsibilities are defined in writing
• this must be agreed by all concerned

Problem 2: Co-ordination

Team members won't know what they should do

They won't know when to do it

Plans

• Time
• Money (expenditure)
• Quality
• Contingency or exceptions

Problem 3: Control

Team members will be working on a project not necessarilly driven by their department, so project work might not always be given high priority

The project manager won't normally be the line manager of every team member

The project manager can't be closely involved in every task in progress

Controls

• feedback
• monitoring
• progress reporting to senior management

Problems and solutions

It may be helpful to consider project management under the three headings mentioned:

Organisation

• allocating responsibilities

Plans

• co-ordinating activities

Controls

• monitoring progress and quality

Other topics

Comments please to: dwfarthi@glam.ac.uk

© 1999, University of Glamorgan