Chapter 63: Big Picture of Human Resource Management

As mentioned in the previous chapter, managing the resources in our project team is an art and not all project managers are efficient in doing that.

Trivia:
If you have at least a few years of work experience, you would have seen that the managers with whom you worked were variedly capable when it comes to managing your team. Some were very capable and motivated the team to perform at their highest level whereas some were a disaster which made the team scramble for cover the moment the manager walked into the room. So, as you can see, the abilities of the manager can make or break the team and hence we must ensure that we take care of our team in the best possible way.

Human resource management as part of project management means developing the human resource plan, acquiring the project team, developing the project team, and managing the project team. This includes:
• Acquire Project Team - This is the process of filling the roles determined during human resource planning with actual staff assignments.
• Develop Project Team - This is the process of developing an optimal team by improving the individual competencies, improving the interaction among the individual team members, and thereby improving the team environment.
• Manage Project Team - This is the process of tracking performance of and providing feedback to the individual team members, managing changes related to the team, and resolving issues.

The whole thing can be explained as a picture as below:

The project team has two dimensions: independence and interdependence. Each member has an independent assignment in the sense that the member owns that part of the work, is responsible for completing it, and must have the skills and competency to complete it. However, all these individual assignments may have dependencies among them, requiring the team members to interact with one another.

To summarize, you hire or recruit individual members for your team, but for the projects success, all of these individual recruits work as a team and work towards the common goal which is “Success of the Project”

To accomplish this, the team needs to be developed from the individuals and managed. Don't worry; we will be learning this aspect in the subsequent chapters.

Prev: Introduction to HR Management

Next: Acquiring a Project Team