Project Management: Today’s Realities

Complete plans are but a ‘best effort’ of planning team based on information and guidance received. The larger the project, the greater the chance that the plan will change through either new guidance or up-dated information being received. Plans are ‘living documents’ that change as competitive and environmental systems change, Continual up-date of information and additional planning are typically required throughout the life of the project.
Implementation of plans requires that communications and coordination take on added emphasis. Teams, rather than fixed organizational structures, are the order of the day. Integration becomes supreme as organizational processes are crossed as needed, and when needed, pulls together synchronized and quality efforts to produce customer value.
For many managers, who grew up in a ‘command and control’ culture, the new paradigm of ‘consensus and consent’ management is disquieting. They will need to adapt to the new way of getting things done – that is, by sharing the decision making and power in the project. Managers have become the servants of those they choose to rule. This new world is concerned with flexibility in strategies, markets, projects, resources, and people.
In the past, we managed as if the optimization of the parts of the organization – research, manufacturing, engineering, marketing, product development, and so forth – would lead to the optimization of the whole of the organization. Today, we optimize the integration of the organizational processes by using project teams as focal points to pull together the human and nonhuman resources needed to do the job. The major breakthroughs in improving organizational efficiency and effectiveness have come about because of the management of the organizational processes rather than the functional entities of the organization. The management of the organizational processes through a self-directed team has finally captured the essence of the interdependencies of the organizational functions.
All planning efforts need to consider the new world and dynamic changes that occur, some on a daily basis. Planning does provide the framework and the thought process to visualize the work required to build a product or service that brings benefits to the customers. Planning also gives a foundation from which to initiate change, when required to meet new situations. No plan is perfect to carry one through an entire project, but a good plan does provide a path from which one can adjust to meet the changes.

Adapt from: PROJECT MANAGEMENT; STRATEGIC DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION:- DAVID I. CLELAND and LEWIS R. IRELAND.

The new era Challenges in Strategic Management.

There are three challenges facing all strategists nowadays;

1) Deciding whether the process be more art or scientific.

This perspective contends that firms need to systematically assess their external and internal environments, conduct research, making evaluation, perform analyses and decide the action. Art process more likely crafting the artistic model, which suggests that strategic decision, could be based primarily on holistic thinking, intuition, creativity and imagination. Whereas scientific process rejected all strategies that emerge from emotion, hunch, creativity and politics. It insists on more formality and should be more deliberate process. These two approaches are not mutually exclusive, because of the livelihood of countless employees and shareholder may hinge on the effectiveness of strategic decision. It’s not wise for strategist to rely too much on ‘gut feeling’ and opinion instead of data, competitive intelligence and analysis in formulating the strategies.

2) Deciding whether strategies should be visible or hidden

Good reasons to keep the strategy process visible and open;
a) All stakeholders and employees can readily contribute to the process with excellent ideas.
b) Investor, creditors and stakeholder have greater basis for supporting a firm when they know what the firm is doing and where the firm is going.
c) Visibility promotes democracy.
d) Participation and openness enhance understanding, commitment and communication within the firm.

Good reasons to keep strategies hidden from all but top-level executives;
a) Free dissemination of a firm’s strategies may easily translate into competitive intelligence for rival firms who could exploit the firm given that information.
b) Secrecy limits critics, second guessing and hindsight.
c) Participant in a visible strategy process become more attractive to rival firms who may lure them away.
d) Secrecy limits rival firms from imitating or duplicating the firm’s strategies and undermining them.

3) Deciding whether to used top-down or bottom-up approach.

i) Top-down contend that top executive are taking responsibility to make key strategy decisions.
ii) Bottom-up advocates argue that lower and middle level managers and employees who will be implementing the strategies need to be actively involved in the process of formulating the strategies to ensure their support and commitment.
What ever decision is made, the real key to effective strategic management is to accept the premise that the planning process is important than the written plan, because strategy is a continuous process involving-planning, measuring and revising. In today rapid changes environment; business become more uncertainty and strategist should be more alert with the changes and act accordingly to them.

Job Analysis: Reasons to Conduct, View from HRM Functions

Job analysis is define as the systematic process of determining skill, duties, and knowledge require for performing specific jobs in organization. It’s done through two important factors; Job Descriptions to state tasks, responsibilities and duties of employees and Job Specification to outline minimum knowledge, skills and abilities require, performing the task. Each job as most of people believe requires difference knowledge, skill and ability levels and obviously effective human resource planning must take this requirement into consideration.
Each of human resources management function has their specific view regarding this. This article shall review part of the HRM function related to this matter. All areas of staffing would be haphazard if the recruiters are not qualified to the need of jobs stated. Job analysis through its two factors (description and specification) will help an organization to recruit and select its most valuable asset with clear guidelines. These two factors also will provide human resource executive with an information to identified training and development require by an employee to perform better. With regard to performance appraisal, employees should be evaluated in terms of how well they accomplish the duties specified in their job descriptions and any specific goals that may have been establish.
From an organization internal perspective, the more significant its duties and responsibilities, the more the job is worth. Jobs that require greater knowledge, skills, and abilities should be worth more to the organization. In the area of compensation and benefits, it is helpful to know the relative value of a particular job to the company before a monetary value is placed on it and Job Analysis shall provide this function to the human resource executive. Information derived from Job Analysis is also valuable in identifying safety and health considerations. Employers normally are requiring by law to state whether a job is hazardous or other wise and this requirement shall be reflected by the Job Analysis.
Job Analysis information is also important in employee and labor relations. When a promotion, transfer and demotion being consider, the job description shall provides a standard for evaluation and comparison of talent. Regardless of whether the firm is unionized, information obtained through Job Analysis can often lead to more objective human resource decisions.
Part of all, a proper prepared Job Analysis is particularly important for supporting the legality of employment practices. Job Analysis data are needed to defend decisions involving promotion, transfer and demotion. In others word, Job Analysis will provides the basis for tying the functional areas together and the foundation for developing a sound human resource program. Job Analysis also may determine how important it is for employees to be team players and work well in group situations. Other traits that might be discovered through Job Analysis include the ability to work more than one system.

Plan Evaluation

Evaluation is a critical component of all planning stage and it is said to be the most important part of design stage. The development of evaluation framework will allow managers to assess the effectiveness of planning and management process.
Although it may be obvious, it is worth restating that the purpose of an evaluation is to draw conclusion and finding about the performance of the planning process being evaluated.
It’s enables managers to determine if the plan is working to meet its objective and provides an opportunity to see if it is still relevant to used and pursed the current decisions plan.
It is not right to say that the purpose of the evaluation is solely to make changes since the findings sometime may be to reinforce an approach or set of tools currently being used, thereby strengthening their support.
The first step in developing an evaluation framework is to consider the ‘evaluation logic’ (define as the thinking and development of indicator that consistent with a judgment of planning process.) especially if the evaluation form has a focus on impact evaluation.
The “evaluation logic’ normally has four steps to be considered; they are (1) Establishing criteria, (2) Constructing standard, (3) Measuring performance and comparing with standard, and (4) Synthesizing and integrating evidence into a judgment of ‘worth’.

Project Planning

Why is Project Planning so important? The answer is simply because decisions made in the early phase of the project will set the direction and force with which the project move forwards. As the project moves through its life cycle, the ability to influence the outcome of the project declines, this is so because the development of project is taking important step into the unknown with the hope of creating something that did not previously exist, as much information as possible is needed to predict the possible and probable outcomes.
Project Planning is an important part of the ‘deciding’ aspect of the project team’s job to think about the project future in relationship to its present in such a way that resources can be allocated in the best manner to suits the project’s proposal.
Project Planning involves the development of a strategy for the commitment of resources to support the project objectives and goals. Its, reflects the strategic plan of the organization in providing guidance in the likely forthcoming ‘strategic fit’ of the ‘stream of project’ in the organization.
Project Planning is a rational determination of how to initiate, sustain, and terminate a project. It’s interrelated with controls, and prescribes the path to be followed in executing the project. Controls in others hand are the means to collect, analyze, compare and correct, thus are an integral part of Project Planning.
Project Planning addresses work to be accomplished during a project to meet the defined goals and objectives. Its also identifies those activities and strategies that are detrimental to a project’s successful completion. The planning process entails a system of continual elaboration of details until there is visibility into the work.
The optimum Project Planning provides the appropriate level of detail to guide the performing to successful completion of the work. The most to remember is too much detail clouds the directions and makes the plan cumbersome, whereas too little detail might leaves gaps in the instructions and opens the door for error in work processes.
Thus, Project Planning should go parallel with its two brothers, Strategic Planning and Operation Planning so that the organization goals and objectives can be achieve and prospers will be with the organization.

CORPORATE ORGANIZATION

Today’s companies form as a result of trends in economy; mergers or acquisitions, diversification, and alliances. With all, there are still certain functions identifiable in most corporate organizations, which command the attention of its managers. These functions are;
Strategic Planning, Guiding the corporation from the broadest perspective. Strategic planning helps upper-level managers provide the corporation’s direction, defining and refining its mission in the process, and then will help develop corporate goal. Good strategic planning seeks to anticipate change and then plan for it, its also foster a feeling of confidence about what is likely to produce success.
Marketing, This function is the closest to the customer. Its job is to identify customer needs and translate them back to the firm for its reaction. It role is therefore critical. To support its efforts, marketing works with advertising to state the company’s offering in terms that are attractive to the buyer. Sales is a part of the marketing function and is the front line, the place where information about customer needs and desires penetrates and gains the attention of the company.
Engineering, Research and Development, when marketing function had identified a new need or potential market; they feed the information to Engineering, Research and Development function, whose function is the development and refine of the product and the process that manufacture it. This function design develops, and test the product through all stages until it is ready for market launch. They interact with customers who participate in the testing of new product prior to launching, the design may change based on feed-back response, manufacturing procedures or price of material and labor. This function is most in touch with what will be available in the future. One of the important is identification and implementation of solutions, because the end result of the designers’ work will affect purchasing, shop-floor operation, capacity requirements and human resources.
Human Resources; This function must seek, attract and keep individuals having the skills, human qualities, and experience required by the operation management system. Its normally take into account the human component: educational level, work ethic, habits, and expectations of the labor pool; believing that there are no bad employees, only employees placed in wrong positions. Effective use of employees will provide a company with a valuable source of innovation and productivity gains. They work with the proverb: “Dissatisfaction unexpressed is potential trouble; ideas not presented represent lost potential.”
Purchasing; The crucial role played by this function is selecting inputs that will support the company’s orientation and vision because the performance of any operating division is ultimately dependent on goods and services supplied to it by this function.
Logistics; This function may be called inventory management as inputs arrive, scheduling while in the transformation process, and distribution when outputs are en route to the customer. Smooth or poor coordination of the flow from supplier of materials to delivery to the customer has repercussions throughout the channel. Delays in delivery to customers mean delays in payment received and that has an impact on the company’s cash flow.
Finance; This function serves as an interface between the firm’s managers and the financial community: banks, investment firms, and stockholders. These entities have a stake in the company’s success or failure, and at all times are poise to assist, advice, provides support, or withdraw it. This function must be knowledgeable about the firm’s creditworthiness. The financial community watches the impact of all decisions done, basing its ratings on the wisdom of the decision makers.
A Team Operation; In the best of all possible worlds, operations management works hand in glove with the other functions, alert to any harmful fragmentation or lack of communication (two-way street, both side must aware all needs and expectation of their colleague).

PREPARING FOR THE FUTURE – ENVIRONMENT FACTOR

The environment is one of the challenges facing today’s manager. In an earlier time, negative effects from organization activities were absorbed unobtrusively by the surroundings with the belief nature can heal by its own. As population density increased and consumption skyrocketed, this fact ceased to be true. Because there is no border for the nature, what occurs in one place on the planet has an impact on the rest of it. The manager’s challenge is to care enough about the future without imperiling today’s operations, and the decisions are not simple.
It is not unfortunate that the issue of environmental responsibility traditionally has been cast in ethical terms. While this stance is valid, and ultimately the reason for been good stewards of the planet, it does not help managers handle all the information required to make good decisions or quantify what is needed for decision making. In addition, consumers are often inconsistent, demanding recycled paper, for instance, and then choosing to buy whiter paper from the original source.
Certainly for the last few decades, we have witnessed significant progress in the handling of the most blatantly offensive effects of these factories processes, but to make the right decision upon the matter is not clear-cut path. As example, take the supermarket checkout stand. “Would you like plastic or paper for your groceries?” We’re still to choose between less than desirable alternatives since paper even if recycle still uses trees; whereas plastic uses hydrocarbons and definitely is not easy to recycle. Decision faced by operations managers are most likely the above case and infinitely more complex to pursue.
Furthermore, if manager do not see to their societal responsibility, others especially community at which their factory operate will demand compliance. A corporation is not its own island in community waters, for others are affected by its decisions: property owner, investor, the larger public and tomorrow’s adults. Surely we have learned by now that groups that do not police their own ranks effectively are sure targets for policing by others, be they governmental agencies or community organizations.
The alternatives for an operations manager are therefore to react or to take a leadership role, becoming knowledgeable about potential negative effect of the process manage by them and proposing ways to handle the unfortunate. In the long term, if we are to manage our economy’s activities for tomorrow rather than today, responsibility for the environment is not a choice to avoid, but a must to consider.

ADAPTING to CHANGE

“In today’s business environment, more than in any preceding era, the only constant is change. Successful organizations effectively manage change, continuously adapting their bureaucracies, strategies, systems, product, and cultures to survive the shocks and prosper from the forces that decimate the competition.” – Robert waterman, Jr. (1987)

The strategic-management process is based on the belief that an organization should continually monitor its internal and external events and trends so that timely changes can be made as needed; this is so because the rate and magnitude of changes which might affect organizations are increasing dramatically. The strategic-management is aimed at allowing organizations to adapt effectively to change over the long run. The need to adapt to change will leads organizations to key strategic-management questions such as ‘What kind of business should we do?’, ‘How customers are changing?’ and so on.
By adapting to change, Strategic management allows an organization to be more proactive than reactive in shaping its future; allows an organization to initiate and influence activities which might exert control over its own destiny. Historically, the principal benefit is to help an organization to formulate better strategies through the used of more systematic, logical, and rational approach to strategic choice.
Two of most important changes which might helps are change in communication and change in involvement. The manner in which strategic management is carried out is also important. A major aim of the process is to achieve the understanding of and commitment for all managers and employees. It’s obvious that when all managers and employees understand what the organization is doing and why, they often feel that they are a part of the firm and become committed to assisting it. They will become surprisingly creative and innovative when they understand and at the end, will support the organizations mission, objectives, and strategies. Change in communication will provide the opportunity to the empowerment, the act of strengthening employees’ sense of effectiveness by encouraging them to participate in decision making and to exercise initiative and imagination, and rewarding them for doing so.
The empowerment process then will lead to the change in involvement. Through involvement in the process, line managers become ‘owner’ of the strategy. Ownership of strategies by the people who have to execute them is a key to success, but it’s a must to keep in mind that strategic management is not a guarantee for success; it can be dysfunctional if conducted haphazardly.

Planning, Management and the difference.

Everyone, everyday undertakes some form of planning. Looking at the choices of when to meet a colleague, or what time and where to go fishing, requires planning. So ‘planning’ is usually taken in everyday language to mean the process of charting future activities. To ‘have a plan” is to be in possession of a way of proceeding. In this context planning has two core components:
1) Determining aims for what is to be achieved in the future.
2) Clarifying the steps required to achieve those aims.
These two components may be view as common to all plans and planning exercises. However, different types of plans and planning initiatives may interpret these two components in contrasting ways. Thus, give a way to the third component which is not as important as above but a must in planning; the measures that must be put in place to monitor a plan’s effectiveness in meeting its anticipated aims.
There are perhaps as many types of plans as there are people attempting to classify them. Some governments have their Department of Planning which as the name suggests, has as one of its core activities the production and administration of formalized systems of planning. However, despite the large number of plans, and different approaches to planning, the vast majority of plans and planning initiatives can be characterized as either strategic or operational.
Strategic planning is the highest-order of planning; attempts to provide a context within which more detailed plans are designed to set and achieve specific objectives. It sets broad objectives and outlines the approaches required to achieve them, it neither attempt to give detailed objectives, nor to give a step by step description of all actions required to achieve the objectives.
In contrast, operational planning sets the directions and steps to achieve on-ground management actions. As the name suggests, it dictates localized operations, has to detail exactly where, and how, operations will be carried out. The contents of typical operational plans include details such as designs, costing and schedules of works.
“Manage” like planning, also has a number of meanings. It can mean the ability to handle a situation, or it can indicate control through the direct application of power, knowledge and skills, or through their delegation. Managers in business circles are people who are ‘in control’ of the organization through the delegation of responsibility to employees and service providers. Thus manager could be interpreted to mean directing or overall control of the organizations that oversee the day-to-day activities.
Management also can be divided into two categories; strategic and operational. Strategic management being the process of determining an organization long term direction and performance, whereas, operational being the activities of controlling on the ground actions.

Corporate Social Responsibility

“When in doubt, do what’s right” – General Norman Schwarzkopf, once advise, The image of the business world would be in much better shape if this simple advice had been followed.
At the time, when a corporation behaves as if it has a conscience, it is said to be socially responsible. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the implied, enforce, or felt obligation of managers, acting in their official capacity, to serve or protect the interests of groups other than themselves. It is how a company behaves toward society and certainly more than words being said.
It’s normally involves values such as respect, integrity, being connected and excellence. An organization’s top management usually determines an approach to social responsibility. However, often they made decisions that did not parallel to the expectations of society.
What ever reasons being given, CSR is vital and since it can create an impression of being great place to work and of the company as an asset to the communities where it operates, top management should revise the role of it and determines the best approach and avoid decisions which can jeopardize corporate image.
To overcome the negative publicity of corporate misdeeds and to restore trust, organizations nowadays conducting audits of their social responsibility activities together with financial ones, This audit, known as Social audit; a systematic assessment of a company’s activities in terms of its social impact. The idea behind social audit would go well beyond a simple listing and involve determining the benefits to socially oriented business activity.
As general, there are nine steps recommended for establishing and implementing a CSR program. These steps are listed as below:
1) Developed program structure and assigned a person to be in charged and responsible for the program.
2) Review of what company is presently doing with regards to CSR.
3) Determine shareholders’ expectations and perspectives.
4) Write policy statement covering CSR areas such as environmental, social and community issue.
5) Develop a set of company objectives and action plan to implement the policies.
6) Create quantitative and qualitative targets and key performance indicators based on core business.
7) Communicate with the stakeholders.
8) Determine the CSR program progress.
9) Report the CSR progress.

Objectives and Management

Objectives are thing which essential in managing. An educator once said; “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” Whatever reasons are given, an objective should always be something which is quantitative, measurable, realistic, understandable, challenging, hierarchical, obtainable, and congruent among effected units. Clearly established objectives will provide direction, allow synergy, aid in evaluation, establish priorities, reduce uncertainty, minimize conflicts, stimulate exertion, and aid in both the allocation of resources and the design of jobs. Objectives especially the long terms are an important measure of managerial performance.
Hence, manager (especially who involve in carving the strategies for organization) should avoid the alternative ways to “not managing by objectives”. Normally these alternatives could be divided into four categories;
a) Managing by Extrapolation
This type of managing adheres to the principle “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The idea is to keep on doing about the same things in the same ways because things are going well.

b) Managing by Crisis
This type is based on the belief that the true measure of a really good strategist is the ability to solve problems and because there are plenty of crisis and problems, strategy manager ought to bring their time and energy to bear on solving the most pressing problems of the day. Managing by Crisis is actually a form of reacting rather than acting and of letting events dictate the; what and when of management decisions.

c) Managing by Subjectives
Based on the idea that there is no general plan for which way to go and what to do; just do the best you can to accomplish what should be done. As conclusion; “Do your own thing, the best way you know how”. (Subordinates are left to figure out WHAT is happening and WHY.)

d) Managing by Hope
Based on fact that the future is laden with great uncertainty and that if we try and do not succeed, then HOPE our second or third attempt will succeed. Decisions are predicted on the hope that they will work and the good times are just around the corner, especially if luck and good fortune are on our side.

Rain Water Management

Dams, ponds and pipelines are apart from the traditional development of water sources. However, rainwater harvesting is a refreshing approach towards an integrated, environment friendly and sustainable urban water resources development initiative.
I many part of the world, the uses of rainwater are expending in order to accommodate the needs of the environment and growing water supply demands. Unfortunately, for most of it, this is the only choice. In addition to providing a dependable and locally controlled water supply, proper rainwater management can also provide tremendous environmental benefits. It can help in reducing or mitigating urban flash flood problems through a reduction of peak storm runoff, and also assist in reducing sedimentation and pollution problems. The utilization of rainwater harvesting should also be related to other aspects of living like food and water security, environmental rehabilitation, protecting wetlands and now in coping with climate change.
Rainwater management focuses on providing the right storm water solution. With a full range of new technologies, rainwater management can provide an engineered solution for many of our needs. A good rainwater management system can be a cost effective approach to the escalating issue of water conservation and management for now and the future. However, there has been a change in thinking on the single function view of traditional ‘storm water management’ to the integrated and comprehensive perspective that is captured by the term ‘rainwater management’.
Storm water suggests there is a problem, whereas rainwater is a resource. Traditional storm water management is reactive. I only deals with the consequences of rare extreme events. Rainwater management, on the other hand, is proactive in managing all rainfall events that occur in a year. Rainwater management integrates drainage infrastructure planning with relevant planning processes, in order to address the impact of rainwater on community values. I is a necessity in the planning processes, the approach of design with nature to integration of rainwater management with community.
The desired outcome is to improve both natural and built environments in an urban setting. This means determining how rainwater management objectives can be integrated with land development processes and tools to mitigate the cumulative impact of landscape alteration, and produce cumulative watershed landscape benefits. In general, rainwater management is aimed at resolving existing problems and protecting environmental resources as both are associated with land use change, either past or proposed.

Strategic Management’s Stages of Action

The stages of Strategic Management consists of three; Formulation, Implementation and Evaluation.
Formulation includes developing a vision and mission, identifying an organization’s external opportunities and threats, determining internal strengths and weaknesses, establishing long-term objectives, generating alternative strategies, and choosing particular strategies to pursue. Issues involve, include deciding what new businesses to enter, what business to abandon, how to allocate resources, whether to expand operations or diversify, whether to enter international markets, whether to merge or form a joint venture, and how to avoid a hostile takeover. Formulation decisions commit an organization to specific products, markets, resources, and technologies over an extended period of time. Its, determine long-term competitive advantages, for better or worse, the decisions have major multifunction consequences and enduring effects on an organization. Top managers have the best perspective to understand fully the ramifications of formulation decisions; they have the authority to commit the resources necessary for implementation.
Implementation requires an organization to establish annual objectives, devise policies, motivate employees, and allocate resources so that formulation can be executed. Its, includes developing a supportive-culture, creating an effective organization structure, redirecting marketing efforts, preparing budgets, developing and utilizing information systems, and linking employee compensation to organizational performance. It’s known as ‘action stage’, means to mobilize employees and managers to put formulation into action. It’s considered to be the most difficult stage, requires personal discipline, commitment, and sacrifice. Its activities affect all employees and managers in an organization. The challenge of the implementation is to stimulate managers and employees throughout an organization to work with pride and enthusiasm toward achieving stated objective.
The final stage is the evaluation, used to know when particular strategies are not working well; it’s primary means for obtaining the good information, since all strategies are subject to future modification due to external and internal factors changes. There are three activities involved: (1) reviewing external and internal factors (base on current strategy), (2) measuring the performance, and (3) taking corrective actions. Evaluation is needed because of the fact, that success today is no guarantee of success tomorrow.

Human Resource’s Changing Role:-Who Performs the HRM Tasks?

The person or units who perform the HRM tasks have changed dramatically in recent years. This restructuring has often resulted in a shift in who carries out each function, not an elimination of the previously identified HR functions. Some organizations continue to perform the majority of HR functions within the firm. However, as internal operations are reexamined, questions are raised, such as: Can some HR tasks be performed more efficiently by line managers or outside vendors? Can some HR tasks be centralized or eliminated altogether? One apparent fact is that all functions within today’s organizations are being scrutinized for cost cutting, including HR. All units must operate under a lean budget in this competitive global environment and HR is no exception.
As a shift is made from Human Resource Manager (an individual who normally acts in an advisory or staff capacity, working with other managers regarding human resource matters), in allocating who will perform the human resource function, many HR departments continue to get smaller because others are now accomplishing certain functions. Shared service centers (a center that takes routine, transaction-based activities dispersed throughout the organization and consolidates them in one place.), outsourcing (process of transferring responsibility for an area of service and its objectives to an external provider), and line managers (individuals directly involved in accomplishing the primary purpose of the organization) nowadays assist in the accomplishment of human resource activities. This shift permits HR to shed its administrative image and focus on more strategic and mission-oriented activities.

Who is the Project Manager?

From Engineers to Managers, but still Engineers:-Who should be the Project Manager?

The term Project Manager is rather generic and not too long ago, there had been a rather interesting discourse on “Who should be the Property Manager?”
Should it be the Architect or Engineer or Quality Surveyor or other professionals or even other proclaimed professions?
When professions tussle for territorial control, it will be the consumers who come out losers. It is important for professionals to avoid using legislation for territorial expansion, and they should keep in mind public and consumer interests at all times. Otherwise, if any sector of the professionals (or so proclaimed professionals) decides to manipulate legal loopholes to park themselves as having the sole rights to a particular trade, we may witness the emergence of ‘white’ collar professional trade unions which dictates that for e.g only Business Management degree holders have the right to set up businesses and so forth.
When, where additional management responsibility is added, the engineer’s status is then enhanced and one can then be re-designated as a manager to encompass his skill (technical or management). Thus, globally can have a Project Engineers reporting to a Project (Engineering) Manager, and the same goes for Construction Manager, Maintenance Manager, Building Manager, Procurement Manager and so forth.
Be it the plain Engineer, Engineering Manager or Manager, they will still have to perform fundamental engineering tasks on top of management. The same scenario will hold true for other professions along the same title track…….

The Brief Story about Project Management

Project management has evolved many centuries of used. It was not until the 1950s that the literature began to reflect the evolving theory and practice of this discipline. An early rudimentary form of project management was used over the centuries in the creation of artifacts and cultural enhancements in world societies.
Project management, as a methodology for efficiency accomplishing work, continues to advance both in its application to different situations and in the refinement of the process for a wide variety of efforts. Examples of projects through artifacts and literature that span more than 5000 years demonstrate the utility and versatility of project management as effecting change in an organization through the judicious use of resources to create and deliver products, services, and organization change.
For more than 50 centuries, project management has evolved to become the principal means for dealing with change in modern organizations. Nowadays, project management is widely known and acknowledged as the means to convert resources to create something more valuable. People of many nations on earth embrace project management concepts and practices to design, develop, and deliver products and services.
As general there are five basic principles of Project Management, they are;
a) A study of the historical evaluation of project management can enhance an understanding of contemporary project management.
b) The practice of project management precedes the development of related literature in the field.
c) Project management has evolved from practice and theory of general management.
d) Changes in antiquity were aided and facilitated through early forms of project management.
e) Projects were the building blocks of change in ancient societies.
Although project management has taken nearly 5000 years to evolve to its current state, there are still improvements to be realized because of global nature of economy and the growing number of international projects. It is anticipated that project management will evolve to accommodate new needs and resultant demands for better efficiencies. All these change will take advantage of new technology for information interchange, raising the level of competence in project management for all participants, and changes to methodologies to bridge across processes. Project Management professional associations will play a major role in advancing the state of the art through volunteer efforts and sharing experiences.

Capacity Building

The ancient Chinese philosopher; Lao Tse said:
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a life time.”

Based on this proverb, the fishermen in Central Vasayas region of Philippines develop a new proverb which dominates in their community-based fisheries management program. The proverb goes;
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, Teach a man to fish and he will eat until the resource is depleted, but teach the community to manage its fishery resources and it will prosper for generations to come.”

This might bring the meaning for “Capacity Building” as a term used to describe initiatives which aim to increase the capability of those charged with managing the coast to make sound planning and management decisions. This term can be used to encompass a great number of apparently different activities, all of which are focused on supporting and improving coastal management decisions.

The focus of “Capacity Building” activities is on the ‘human capacity’ of individual decision makers and coastal managers as well as the ‘institutional capacity’. The distinction between human and institutional capacity is a useful one; human capacity building is centered on training and professional development, while institutional aims to improve institutional arrangement for coastal management.

The nature and scope of capacity building programs will vary with the range of staff functions of organization. This programs play a critical role in providing the knowledge, skills and confidence to participate in decision making for irrespective of the administrative level or management focus, individuals and institutional.

The Future of Project Management

The need for rapid change under controlled situations dictates that the future demand for projects and the inherent management of those projects will drive the need for newer and better practices and techniques to prosecute the work. The mantra of ‘faster, cheaper, quicker’ will continue to be the driving force for many senior manager to achieve their business and strategic goals. Seeking and selection of less expensive human resources to achieve organizational objectives will also drive how projects are conceived and implemented either as international projects or as projects with foreign suppliers of components of projects.
Technology which plays a major role will continue to grow, to support the function of resource selection, resource allocation and resource tracking to reduce waste of effort for human resources assigned to projects. Its also play an important role in capturing information that relates to project risks and risk management.
Project portfolio management – the selection and management of projects as groups – will expand in use to make the best use of resources. Grouping of multiple projects will be a routine matter to obtain the most efficiency and effectiveness from human resources. In future, project will be smaller, but complex in their management. Complexity to managing projects will be inherent in the number of owners involved in the project and the geographic separation of components of the projects such as international projects spanning several borders. Trends which can affect the growth and application of project management in the future are:
a) Reengineering, rethinking and radical design application.
b) Concurrent engineering application.
c) Benchmarking initiatives to establish new performance standards for the enterprise.
d) Business development opportunities.
e) Improvements in managing operational and strategic change.
f) Influence of stakeholder.
g) The use of alternative team organizational design to cope with the need for integration.
h) Downsizing and restructuring of organization.
i) The relative roles of ‘manager’ and ‘leaders’ will continue to come under scrutiny and redefinition.
j) The role of traditional first level supervisors changing from a traditional to a facilitator, coach, mentor, counselor, coordinator and oversight person.
k) Global competition will drive the demand for project management services.
l) The maturation of a philosophy of strategic management is reflected in more proactive strategic planning and execution strategies.
The contribution of projects management has been modified to cope with management discipline. These modifications and their likely continuation include:
a) Acceptance of the “matrix” organizational as normal business process.
b) Acceptance of the importance of project planning as a means for determining the resources required and how these resources will be used during the life cycle of the project.
c) Opportunities for workers to perform managerial and leadership functions.
d) Individuals recognize that “self-control” is important to their productivity.
e) New applications for project management will continue to grow both for profit and not for profit.
f) Issues over scarce energy resources will create new demands for more efficiency in projects.
g) Experience and competency of management team will be the major criteria for selection of project team.
h) New products and services will be created at unprecedented rates, because of competitive factors emerging through relentless changes to the global marketplace.

A Change in HR Job Titles

There is no doubt that the job of HR professionals is changing. Certainly, job descriptions will have to be rewritten. The use of terms “generalist” and “specialist” may become less common. Here is one person’s view of the types of future jobs for HR professionals.
The CFO for HR is the numbers expert who determines the value of HR and analyzes the cost effectiveness of various HR practices. The internal consultant assists manager to recruit, interview, hire and retain the talent that is needed and advises talent managers on legal and ethical matters.
The manager is responsible for finding, developing and keeping the employees who will best accomplish the firm’s objectives. This individual is answerable for moving workers through the organization from hiring until they leave the organization.
The vendor manager determines which functions can be handled better and less expensively out-side the organization.
The self-service leader works with many functions that have been centralized, such as benefits and pension administration, which employees can access from their desktop computers.
Whether any of this entire list will ultimately evolve is debatable. The only certainty is that HR jobs are in a state of flux.

The Unique Characteristics of Coastal Area

Stating that the coast is unique because it is where land and oceans meet may appear rather obvious, but it is a fact of great significance. It is the interaction between marine and terrestrial environments that makes the coast unique-and due to this it is uniquely challenging to manage.
The challenge is compounded by the fact that the coast suffers the consequences of land use decisions often made a great distance from the coast in catchments draining to the zone itself. Just imaging, land used changes in agriculture and forestry that cause erosion and pollution, or building-up irrigation dams that reduce the flows of water and sediment load into coastal zones from upstream, all will show up in coast area in one form or another through sedimentation or erosion, salinity changes or increased toxic blooms.
The transition between land and oceans produce diverse and productive ecosystems, which have been prove to prosper human well-being. As human population grow and increase their level of socio-economic development, the pressure on coastal resources will also increase and making the management of this area even more difficult. Management become more challenging when major administrative boundaries commonly follow high or low water lines, bisecting coastal areas and dividing the management of the land from that of the ocean. Furthermore, administrative boundaries can follow the centre of rivers and estuaries, splitting their management between two neighboring authorities and results in dividing natural units such as bays and sediment cells.
The uniqueness is further enhanced by the value of its resources such as fish and offshore mineral reserves, and more recently aquaculture sites, considered by the populace to be common property, also in high demand for subsistence use, recreation and economic development. Exploitation of resources raises their value, with a consequential demand for equitable resource allocation. Therefore, resource planning often forms an integral part of coastal management programs.

Project Management History.

A review of the results of projects in antiquity reveals evidence in three primary forms:
* Artifacts
* Cultural strategies
* Literature and documents
It was the 1950s, when project management was formally recognized as a distinct contribution arising from the management discipline. Prior uses of Project Management (PM) had a focus on three major factors, i.e cost (budget), schedule (time) and technical performance (specification). Since the early 1950s, names and labels have been given to the elements of the project management discipline, helping to facilitate its further development as a profession.
From earliest recorded times, people have worked together toward designing anf creating projects. Although the term “project management” did not come into wide use until the 1950s, its history is much longer that the term itself. For the period prior to 1950 back through antiquity, there is very limited documentation and literature, but from 1950s to the present time, there is a growing abundance of articles, books and papers that can be used to build a contemporary model of project management.

Human Capital Management – A Strategic Role for Human Resources.

A company’s human capital asset is the collective sum of the attributes, life experience, knowledge, inventiveness, energy, and enthusiasm that its people choose to invest in their work. Human Capital Management (HCM) is the task of measuring the cause and effect relationship of various Human Resource Management (HRM) programs and policies on the bottom line of the firm. HCM attempts to obtain additional productivity from workers; it is in this area that HR can truly play a significant role. Human capital assessment leads to a different kind of role for HR. HR executives can help a corporation build a strategy map, helps senior management view the complex roles and to measure and manage changes in philosophy for organizations.
With human capital management, an attempt is made to determine the relationships that exist between certain HR actions and the bottom line. Instead of assuming that all employees react in the same way, a profile of each employee may be developed and analyzed for cause and effect. However, HCM decisions must be tailored to fit the culture of each company. It is not a one-size-fits-all situation. A big difference between HCM and old-era HR is that instead of trying to emulate what other companies are doing, a manager attempts to discover what is best for their company…

Coastal Area Definition

“Coastal Zone” or “Coastal Area” is the name given to the boundary between the land and the ocean which is not clearly define line on a map, but occurs through gradual transition region. Defining this boundary is of more than academic interest to coastal planners and managers. This definition is essential for government to create administrative systems, or set out policies to guide decision making within this fragile area. Generally, Coastal planners and managers define this area by two ways;

a) Definitions by Biophysical ;

The line that joins land and ocean is constantly moving, with the rise and fall of tides and the passing storms, creating a region of interaction between land and sea. Parts like beaches, coastal marshes, mangroves and fringing coral reefs are part that clearly has strong interactions between land and ocean. Whereas, there is part that may be more distant from immediate coast but still play an important role in shaping coastal environment, one of the most important is the river, which act as freshwater and sediment storage and deliver for coastal environment. Therefore a coastal area can be defined as “the band of dry land and adjacent ocean space including water and submerged land in which terrestrial processes and land uses directly affect oceanic processes and uses.”(Ketchum 1972) This definition based on the interaction between oceanic and terrestrial processes and uses: coastal areas contain land, which interact with the ocean in some way; also ocean space which interacts with the land. To summarize, Coastal area:
a) Contain both land and ocean components.
b) Have land and ocean boundaries that are determined by the degree of influence of the land on the ocean and the ocean on the land;
c) Constantly changing in width, depth or height.


b) Definition through Policy-oriented

Policy-oriented limits the coastal definition in four possible ways;

a) Fixed distance definitions
Specify a fixed distance away from the coast, which is considered ‘coastal’, usually apply to the limit of governmental jurisdiction.

b) Variable distance definitions
Definitions are set from some measure of the coast, usually high water mark, boundaries are not fixed, but vary along the coast according to;
• physical features
• biological features
• constructed landmarks
• administrative boundaries

c) Definition according to use
Definition depends upon the purpose for which the definition is intended. From both management and scientific points of view, the extent of coastal area will vary according to the nature of management issue, by using 4 concepts;
• an administratively designated area
• an ecosystem area
• a resource base area
• a demand area

d) Hybrid definitions
Definitions mix one type of definition for the landward limit of the coastal area and another for the seaward limit. Commonly practiced by governments that have a fixed limit of jurisdiction over near shore waters.