The Management of Human Resources within Projects: the Structures of the Project Team, the Responsibility Assignment Matrix

Abstract

The human resources management of a project includes the organization processes and the project team management. The human resources management processes inside the framework of a project imply human resources planning, delegating roles to the staff needed for the carrying out of the project, the development of the team measuring the individual performances, supplying feedback, settling matters and conflicts and coordinating the changes in order to improve the performances of the project. This article presents the selection decision of a project team structure and the Responsibility Assignment Matrix for a project regarding the creation of an agro-tourist hostel. The project aims the building up of an agro-tourist hostel called "Colt de rai" (Piece of Heaven), in Slanic Moldova area, Bacau County. The objective, both for the investors and their families, is the building up of a holiday place in a pure Romanian scenery, a place able to promote the nature beauty but also a comfort offered by the hostel.

Headnote

Abstract:

The human resources management of a project includes the organization processes and the project team management. The project team is formed by the team members and the project collaborators. The members of the project team are the basic team available during the project development. The project collaborators have only temporary tasks (sub-team). The responsibilities of the project team are: the activity inside the project; responsibilities for the execution in time and according to all the specifications of the working tasks, regular participation to the team meetings.

The human resources management processes inside the framework of a project imply human resources planning, delegating roles to the staff needed for the carrying out of the project, the development of the team - improving the competences and the interaction among the members of the team and between them and the team project management. - measuring the individual performances, supplying feedback, settling matters and conflicts and coordinating the changes in order to improve the performances of the project. The article presents the selection decision of a project team structure and the Responsibility Assignment Matrix for a project regarding the creation of an agro - tourist hostel. The project aims the building up of an agro - tourist hostel called "Colt de rai" ("Piece of Heaven"), in Slanic Moldova area, Bacau County. The objective, both for the investors and their families, is the building up of a holiday place in a pure Romanian scenery, a place able to promote the nature beauty but also a comfort offered by the hostel. The main objective of this project is the achieving of a profitable investment by building up this hostel, and also a holiday place for the company associates.

Keywords:

Project, team, structure, Responsibility Assignment Matrix

INTRODUCTION

Projects contain a lot of unknown facts, risks, generate many decisions and need someone to focus the team towards the project result. That is why, the team project management constitutes the great challenge of the project manager.

The first stage within the framework of the human resources management is the organizational planning. [4] .This activity implies documentation and allotting of roles within the project, of the responsibilities and setting up relations and dependences.

As an effect of the techniques used within the planning process, there will be identified the roles and the responsibilities delegated to each individual and group of persons. There will be identified the role of the project (who does and what) and the responsibilities (who decides and what) which must be delegated to the decisional committee, specific for the project. The roles and responsibilities will vary in time. The most numerous roles and responsibilities will be delegated to the decisional committee which is really involved within the work of the project, to the project manager, to other management project team members or individual participants.

The roles and the responsibilities of a project manager are generally very important but they differ significantly from one project to another according the applied area.

The drawing up of the roles and responsibilities must be tightly linked to the goal of the project. The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) is often used in this direction. At bigger projects, RAM can be realized a different levels.

Another element obtained as a result of planning is the staff management plan. This describes when and how human resources will be brought towards the project team. The management plan can be formal or informal, highly detailed or only sketched, based upon the needs of the project. It is a subsidiary element of the project plan. At the same time, the staff management plan includes, quite often, resources diagrams or explicative schemes. A special attention must be given to the way in which the project team members (individual or group) will be free of attributions the moment there will no need of them within the project framework.

The second stage within the framework of human resources management is staff recruiting. [4]. This involves the finding of the necessary human resources (individual or group), delegated to work inside the project. In most cases the human resources corresponding to positions are not available and from this reason, the project management team must give a higher attention that the available human resources involved in carrying out the project fulfill the required responsibilities. One or more organizations involved in the project can have policies or procedures for managing the recruited staff. These practices might action as a constraint in the process of staff acquisition.

For achieving a proper recruitment of the staff there is necessary of a recruitment plan. The recruitment plan includes the project staff necessary.

In recruiting staff, the project management team must take into consideration the characteristics of the potential employees, which include, but they did not limit only to the following aspects:

* Past experience - the person or the group worked at something similar in the past? did they successfully achieved their tasks?

* The staff interests - is the group or the person interested in working for this project?

* The staff characteristics - is the group or the person capable to work together as a team?

* Availability - will the group or the person be available within the necessary time interval?

* Competences and craftsmanship - what competences are necessary and what level?

One of the most frequent staff recruitment technique is negotiation, staff recruitment being negotiated in most projects. For example, it is probable that the project management team has to negotiate with:

* the functional responsible manager, in order to be sure that the project will receive corresponding staff and in time;

* Other project management teams from the inside the actual organization, in order to find and allot strong specialized exterior resources, closer to the requirements.

Another method for staff recruiting is the external one, which can be used in order to obtain the services of an individual person or groups in order to fulfill the actions of the project. The external recruitment is necessary when there is a lack of personnel inside the organization.

The third stage within the framework of the human resources management is the team development [4]. This includes intensifying the abilities of the decisional committee, for contributing as individual persons, and intensification of the team abilities, to function as a team. The individual development (managerial and technical) is the necessary base for the team development. The development as a team is critical, in order to have a project fully achieving its objectives.

The development of the team within a project is often complicated when the members or individuals are responsible both to the functional manager and to the project manager.

At the same time, the project team should face periodically the expectations of those situated outside the project.

The last stage of the human resources management is the project staff planning. Starting with the necessary of activities to be carried out for each part of the project there must be an estimation of the amount of human resources available in achieving tasks. It results a numeric value (usually a subunitary one) representing the necessary human/month for the carrying out of the respective activity. If a project has many organizational partners, it will be specified for each of them the necessary human/month. The total of the necessary human/month at the level of the organization is obtained by doing an algebraic estimated values addition at the level of each project partner.

1. THE STRUCTURES OF THE PROJECT TEAM

According to the structure of the organization achieving the project and of the constraints imposed by the way in which the resources enter into the project and become members of the project team, the structure of the team may be of many kinds [3]:

1.1. Functional team

A functional team is a team in which the activity is carried out by groups functionally organized (and such teams can execute a project work). In the organizations in which the functional structure is rigid, a project passes from a functional team to another, until the it's end. A characteristic of such a type of team is the fact that every employee has a single superior.

1.2. The project (single) team

A project team (or the single team) comprises persons working at a project within the framework of the same organizational department, as a rule under the direction of a team manager. If such a team succeeds in carrying out a project it has the chance to remain with the same structure for the following projects too. This usually happens within the organizations in which there is a carrying out of the projects one by one having more or less a similar structure - for instance those producing software or the building ones.

Compared to other team structures, in a single team the closing atmosphere which appears better succeeds to put aside the eventual communication difficulties. Though it should be given more attention to the communication with other factors interested in the project (the management of the organization, the line managers, the staffo the other departments etc.) which should not be neglected.

1.3. Matrix structure team

A matrix structure is characterized by the fact that an employee can be responsible to more managers, for different aspects of his/her activity. For what they do in the project the employees are led by the respective project manager, for the other aspects of their work (measuring performance, training, promotion or "routine" tasks), there are the line managers of the functional services to be responsible. In this form of organizing, the staff coming from different functional fields (design, software development, production, and marketing) is "lent" or transferred in different project teams, full time or part time. Thus the project manager has at his disposal a very clear defined team and assumes the responsibility and the control of the activity inside the project.

Many of the employees comprised in project activities continue to do the received tasks. The line managers of the functional departments are responsible for these tasks, for the performance standards of their employees' activities and also for assuring their instruction and professional training. In such a structure it is important to avoid the problems which may appear because of the double subordination of the employees - "the problem of the two bosses". In order to solve this matter, the team must build inside good human relations and an efficient communication.

1.4. Contract teams

These teams are brought from the outside of the company, under a contract, for executing some works inside the project, the responsibility for achieving the works being definitely assumed by the project manger. The activity of such kind of teams is more difficult to be directly controlled by the beneficiary of the project. But in order the beneficiary better evaluate the success, the project manager should permanently be careful at the outside employees' behavior in executing the different parts of the activity.

An alternative of this form of team is called external team. Such a team carries out its activity in another production space than the project manger, which is obliged to solve the further difficulties coming out of the "distance management". Every type of team has its advantages and disadvantages, each of them can be or not adequate for certain projects, or even for certain tasks inside a project. It is not unusual that the project teams be mixed. Thus, we may find inside a team executing a project both persons working full time and are totally responsible to the project manager and persons working part time being responsible to the project manager only for the hours done inside the respective project. The last ones are asked by the project when there is a need for specialists.

1.5. The structure of a team project for achieving an agrotouristic boarding house

Business structure of the agrotouristic boarding house project "Piece of Heaven" (WBS) is shown in figure 1.

The structure of the chosen project team for the WBS project is presented in figure 2. It is a mixed structure of matrix type and on contract. The project manger of the Consulting firm Cornerstone Consulting SRL is employed on contract. Is working full time and he is responsible to the executive manger and has a collaboration with the director of the firm in order to successfully finish the project. The assistant manager and the architect from the Dindeal SRL are subordinated to several managers for different aspects of their work. The building engineer and his team, to the building company and they will work under contract. Besides them, there are other persons involved in the basic activity at the Dindeal SRL: interior designers - from the firm Design Constructing SRL, administrator and accountant, - from the EdCont SRL, a responsible of public relations in order to establish contacts with the outside world and promote the hostel - from Cool Web Graphix SRL. They all will work on contract, part time, there being an agreement signed with the managing staff of every firm implied and they will not carry out any supplementary hours except the 8 working hours. They are responsible both to the project manager and to the managers of the associated companies.

The following aspects are the base for taking the decision when making up the structure of the mixed, matrix and contract project team:

1 . When working for the SC Dindeal SRL the additional working hours approved by the Labor Code is used inside the firm for assuring its direct needs. If for the implementation of the project there had been used only the employees of the company, the protection and security norms would not have been respected.

2. This kind of structure determines the optimal use of the resources and the eliminating of useless time of the activity done by any employee contributing to the project achievement, enabling the parallel development of other tasks of the project team members.

3. As a result of the implementation of the project the incomes of the firm will grow, at the same time with the efficiency, having direct implications upon the enlargement of the profit and, implicitly, upon the dividends of the associates. The SC Dindeal SRL's employees and the associates, when achieving the project, they will have the possibility to beneficiate of a number of seven days free staying in order to recover after the working activity carried out. These aspects will determine a higher interest and of the incentives from the part of the mangers of the associate firms to achieve the project.

4. Achieving profit, the project attracts specialists from the associate firms, a fully satisfactory proved solution.

5. Taking into consideration that the Dindeal SRL has an activity of nearly 15 years, the associates of the firm know each other and have already developed good interpersonal, professional relations, a fact determined a fruitful collaboration based upon mutual support and trust.

6. Because of the lack of experience in the field of the projects implementation, there has been found the solution to contact consultancy firms, an experienced project manger in order to coordinate the activity, assure communication and thus the success of the project. The responsibility of realizing the project is assumed by the project manger, who will permanently collaborate with the assistant manager, as the representative of the firm which the beneficiary of the firm.

The decision is considered to be a good one due to the following advantages:

1. The costs associated to the project are lower by means of using a combined team, compared to the solution of forming a unique team or a contract based one.

2. The use of an experienced team, having a high professional training belonging to the Dindeal SRL Company and from the associated companies (these companies have financial resources involved in SC Dindeal SRL accounting 49% of the social capital) thus determining optimal conditions for successfully achieving the project.

3. The risks linked to the administration and promotion of the hostel is reduced and the future tourist objective has assured the premise of a good functioning.

4. At the end of the project the personnel involved in carrying out the activity will have the possibility to recover by spending the vacation at the hostel.

5. The project team manager has a previous experience in the implementation of similar activities and he is aware of the importance of respecting dead-lines, costs and quality. Being full-time employed, the manager will dedicate all the necessary time for the project.

This type of combined team brings, however, some small disadvantages which must be taken into consideration:

1 . The tasks of each team member are complex and sometime difficult to be achieved when working with personnel partially working and being under a double subordination of some direct and indirect chiefs.

2. There can appear conflicts among managers as concerns the human resources distribution;

3. The frustration feeling of the team members, towards the end of the project, especially when finding out that there is the possibility of no longer working together for future projects, especially for the reason that the project manger, belonging to a specialized management project company, has no subordination relations to the SC Dindeal SRL company and its associates and they risk to have no disposition for future projects. But obtaining successful results they could, though, remain as the same team for future projects.

Comparing the above stated advantages and the disadvantages, we consider that the choice of a combined team, of a matrix - contract type, proves to be a very good decision.

2. RESPONSIBILITY ASSIGNMENT MATRIX

The most used form to visualize the distribution of roles and responsibilities within the context of the area of the project is the matrix RAM (Responsibility Assignment Matrix): for each activity identified in the project there are identified the responsibilities of the project team. [1], [2]. There will be only one responsible for the activity, but there can be other participants, too. There can put into the matrix responsibilities such as: "who signs" or "who is auditing" certain activities. In most projects, the team achieves only a part of the necessary activities. Another part is executed by the client, and another one by the subcontractors.

The project team also comprises representatives of the subcontractors or of those responsible of the contracts done with them.

In most cases, we work with subcontractors. For this reason, in RAM we must take care to mention (on the subcontracted activities) the representative of the firm which we are working with or the responsible of the subcontract from the inside the contracted team (according to the complexity of the activity).

The RAM organization depends upon a series of factors:

- the type of the project team

- the qualifications and the skills of the team members

- the presentation of the implementation institution

- the budget of the project (it is possible to not afford working with subcontractors and it is possible to be cheaper hiring personnel).

The RAM for the project is presented in Table no. 1.

CONCLUSIONS

The human resources management inside the projects aims the growth of the team performance by matching the competences of the team members to the project needs, but also to forming a close project team applying team-building method. It is also necessary to follow the evolution of the professional performances of the team members and solving the problems linked to motivation, conflict solving, managing relations inside the team, others.

When selecting a project team, the manager generally wants that the members of the staff had worked together previously, and they had a balanced set of skills and abilities, had professional ethics and flexibility. The main thing a project manager should look for when selecting team members is competence. Besides this, there are others aspects to be taken into consideration such as: efficiency - the activities should to be done well and fast - and the capacity to relate with other people.

In order to be considered a good project manager it will be ideal to form a project team which has the required competences, which is available and has the necessary competence level, it does not cost much and it is motivated and interested in the project. In reality, it seldom happens to be able to choose the project team following the above mentioned criteria and often one must succeed in realizing the project with the staff that has been distributed by other managers in that project.

References

References

[1] Doval S, Clarise Z, (2005), Responsibility Assignment Matrix in Project Management, http://press.teleinteractive.net/yackity/2005/03/28/responsibility_assignment_matrix_in_proj , accessed on 25th March 2011

[2] Nguyen, S, (2011), PMP Concepts: The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM), http://pmreviews.org/20 1 1/0 1/05/pmp-concepts-the-responsibility-assignment-matrix-ram/, accessed on 1st of April 2011

[3] http://management.ccmimm.ro/data/cursuri/management_4.pdf, accessed on April 2, 201 1

[4] http://wv^v.tenstep.ro/MetodologiileTenStep/ProjectManagementProcess/8ManagementulEchipei/lProcese.aspx, accessed on 20th March 201 1

Supplementary recommended readings

[1] Gareis, R, Happy Projects, (2006), Second Edition, ASE Publishing House, Bucharest

[2] Turbit, N, (2005), Managing Project Team Members, http://www.projectperfect.com.au/info_managing_project_team_members.php, accessed on 25th March 2011