ICPM

What can you do if a participant at your project status meeting is only a representative and has no power to make decisions provide information?

As a proactive and proficient project manager you have done everything possible to guaranty that the right people show up at your weekly or monthly project status meetings.

One of the most important traits of a leader is "Confidence". Confidence is sometimes appearing as knowing what to do. Both Customers and project team members expect the Project Manager to have the answer.  The team will come to the PM asking what to do in a given situation. Sometimes answer is easy, other times.... Someone once said to me: “People are coming to me with problems, but when I ask about possible solutions they often provide a well-thought out, reasonable solution which is usually a good resolution. However, they are hesitant to make decision on their own and wait for the PM to make it for them. Can this be thought of as "Risk Transfer"? Sure... Team members don’t want to make decisions, even when they’re rather safe decisions, they would rather transfer the risk of the decisions outcome to the PM. Makes sense right? I'm sure you've seen this before in a project you've lead. A good leader is one who knows what to do and looks confident with his decisions. When the PM appears as though he/she doesn’t know what to do, you can be sure the project team is even in worse condition.

This is a subsidiary plan to the Project management plan which includes the processes of staff acquisition, time-table of staff acquisition, team member release criteria, staff training requirements, policies for reward and recognition, compliance requirements and safety protocol.

Staffing is generally represented by a Resource Histogram - A resource histogram illustrates the employee’s time and activities accordingly. The host organization’s management may choose to utilize this information to make decisions about other organizational goals that require time and effort from the project contributors. 

Project scope management, according to the PMBOK, constitutes 'the processes to ensure that the project includes all of the work required, and only the work required, to complete the project successfully.' Project scope management has several purposes: 

The project plan is a key integrative document that uses the outputs of the other planning processes to create a consistent, coherent document that is the guide to both project execution and project control. Be familiar with what the project plan is used for and what items are often included in a project plan. The PM uses it to guide project execution, to document our planning assumptions, to document planning decisions regarding some of the alternatives that we have chosen. We use it to facilitate communication among the stakeholders and define key management reviews as to content, expense, and timing. It is a baseline for progress measurement and project control.

The project management plan can be either summary level or detailed, and can be composed of one or more subsidiary plans and other components. Each of the subsidiary plans and components is detailed to the extent required by the specific project.

The Develop Project Management Plan process includes the actions necessary to define, integrate, and coordinate all subsidiary plans into a project management plan. The project management plan content will vary depending upon the application area and complexity of the project. This process results in a project management plan that is updated and revised through the Integrated Change Control process. It also defines how the project is executed, monitored and controlled, and closed. The purpose of planning is to develop a Project Plan.

Subsidiary plans

• Project scope management plan
• Schedule management plan
• Cost management plan
• Quality management plan
• Process improvement plan
• Staffing management plan
• Communication management plan
• Risk management plan
• Procurement management plan

Other key components include, but are not limited to:

• Milestone list
• Resource calendar
• Schedule baseline
• Cost baseline
• Quality baseline
• Risk register