Motivational Theories
Five theories are of particular importance: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, McGregor’s theory X and theory Y, Ouchi’s Theory Z, Herzberg’s theory of motivation, and the expectancy theory.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs - According to Maslow, people work to take care of a hierarchy of needs. The pinnacle of their needs is self-actualization. People want to contribute, prove their work, and use their skills and ability. Five layers of needs, from the bottom-up, are:
Acquiring the Project Team
Recruiting Team Members - The project manager has to follow the rules of the host organization. The PM must be aware of, and work well with, the levels of authority. If the PM is working within a Functional matrix, then he must be prepared to allow the employee’s functional manager to determine things like availability and the PM must provide feedback to the functional manager regarding performance. The PM has little authority to perform these tasks.
Project Human Resources
The Project Human Resource Management questions on the PMP® certification exam focus heavily on organizational structures, roles and responsibilities of the project manager, team building, and conflict resolution. The Project Human Resource Management processes include the following:
Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance covers all activities from design, development, production, installation, servicing and documentation. It introduced the sayings "fit for purpose" and "do it right the first time". It includes the regulation of the quality of raw materials, assemblies, products and components; services related to production; and management, production, and inspection processes. One of the most widely used paradigms for QA management is the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act) approach, also known as the Shewhart cycle. The main goal of QA is to ensure that the product fulfills or exceeds customer expectations. PDCA (also known as the Deming Cycle, Shewhart cycle, or Deming Wheel) is an iterative four-step quality control strategy.
Quality Planning
The PMBOK defines quality planning as “identifying which quality standards are relevant to the project and determining how to satisfy them”. A key output of the planning process should be the quality management plan for the project.
Cost-Benefit Analysis - This is the process of determining the pros and cons of implementing any process, product, or activity. When it comes to project management, cost-benefit is concerned with the benefits of quality management activities versus the costs of the quality management activities. There are two major considerations with the benefit/cost analysis in quality management:
Cost Budgeting
Cost budgeting involves aggregating the estimated costs of individual schedule activities or work packages to establish a total cost baseline for measuring project performance. The project scope statement provides the summary budget. However, schedule activity or work package cost estimates are prepared prior to the detailed budget requests and work authorization.
Schedule Control
From a time management point of view, time control or project control is about the schedule baseline and any changes that might occur. The schedule baseline is the original, approved project schedule and becomes the standard used to measure schedule performance. Schedule control is concerned with:
Integrated Change Control
The purpose of overall change control is to influence factors that create change so the change is beneficial, determine when a change has occurred, and manage actual changes when they do occur. This process is concerned with coordinating changes across the entire project. Performed from project Inception through Completion. A Change Control System is used to evaluate and approve or kickback change requests for the project. Changes requests stem from suggestions of the stakeholders. The PM must be careful; certain changes may lead to additional Time and Cost. The PM uses Integrated Change Control to: