Most of the "project management manuals" made by engineering enterprises are "hard management" content, while the "soft management" of project performance management and project organization management has very little content. It is the lack of understanding, attention and construction lag in the "soft management" of the project that lead to a series of practical problems that are difficult to solve in the implementation of engineering enterprise projects.
Based on the consulting practice and management research of american Management Consulting Company, this paper analyzes and reveals the project soft management, project soft management defects and the resulting project management problems, and puts forward specific suggestions for the construction of project soft management.
1. "Soft" and "hard" in project management
Starting from the basic understanding of modern management, according to the
management field, the effective completion of work objects requires four
aspects of management:
Organizational management, business management, functional management and performance management. Functional management provides specialized services for business management while controlling the business management process.
Performance management is committed to driving (incentivizing and restraining) various business entities and functional management entities - although performance management can be classified as functional management, it should be distinguished from general functional management in terms of functional differences, role objects and importance.
Projects are also work objects, and in general, management also needs these four aspects. Therefore, from the basic understanding of management, the content system of project management as a whole includes four parts: project organization management system, project business management system, project function management and control system, and project performance management system.
According to the functional types of management, management can be more fundamentally divided into three components:
System, procedure and mechanism. Procedures are further divided into business procedures (business processes) and management procedures (management processes). The system is the resource structure and power and responsibility structure for completing the task, and it is the advance arrangement of all material prerequisites (including human resources) required to complete the task.
Procedures are methods of doing things, in which business procedures refer to the decomposition and combination of business activities, and management procedures are the decomposition and combination of management activities.
The business process is the basic procedure, and the management procedure serves the business process and is a derivative of the business procedure.
The mechanism is the management component of people and
various actors composed of people, which can affect the attitude and attitude
of "resources" or "resource bodies" with subjective
initiative.
Hard part of management
Management is both the management of things and the management of people. The
management of things, such as logistics management, has more natural scientific
attributes, has strong certainty, and can be solved by more mathematical
methods - as a management science in the classification of management
discipline system, it is the "hard" part of management that solves
this type of management object;
The management of people has the general attributes of social science, poor certainty, and is affected by a large number of humanistic and social factors and other contingent environmental factors, which is difficult to solve by mathematical methods.
· A large number of compounds have
"management" of objects and people, and they present different
degrees of softness and hardness. Observe the three components of management,
business procedures are the management of things, which is the most "hard"
part of management, mechanisms are the management of people, which is the most
"soft" part of management, and the softness and hardness of the
system and management process are between the two - among them, the system is
generally more "hard" than the management process.
Among the four types of content systems of project management, the project
organization management system is the "institutional" content in
project management;
· The project performance management system is the "mechanism" content in management;
- · The project business management system includes two parts: the project business procedure system and the corresponding management procedure system, which are the "procedural" content in management, and the two parts correspond to the "business procedure" content and the "management procedure" content in the management respectively;
- The project function management and control system is the "management procedure" content in management. According to the previous understanding of "soft" and "hard" in management, there are soft parts and hard parts in the project management system.
- From the perspective of the general nature of the management system (regardless of the particularity of project management), in the project management system: the project business procedure system (such as procurement procedures) in the project business management system is the “hardest”;
Particularity
The project organization and management system is relatively
"hard"; The corresponding management procedure system in the project
business management system is relatively "soft"; The project function
management and control system is very "soft", and the project
performance management system is the most "soft".
Considering the particularity of project management - the project department is
a temporary organization of the organizational process, and there are changes
in project characteristics, even the project organization system is not as hard
as the conventional organizational system, but becomes more of a soft
management characteristic.
Therefore, in project management, except for the business
procedure system in the project business management system, all other
management content is soft management, and project performance management and
project organization management are typical soft management in project
management.
2. There are serious shortcomings in the soft management of the two major projects
In the Project Management Knowledge System Guide (3rd Edition), the American
Project Management Association divides project management into 44 management
processes by activity type and summarizes them into 9 areas.
From the perspective of management, the work done in this guide mainly focuses on the content of the project business management system and professional function management and control system, and the rest is more of a list of contents that need to be managed for project management. The guide has little coverage of project performance management and project organization management as soft management.
Training materials
Other project management training materials, although the
content is very complex, even a large amount of general management knowledge is
included, but there are also few defects in soft management, especially in
project performance management and project organization management.
In practice, the soft management defects in the project management of
engineering companies are also very significant. The project management system
(system) of the engineering company is reflected in the "Project
Management Manual" formulated by the company.
The "Project Management Manual" of a typical engineering company consists of 9 parts, each of which is a sub-book: project management booklet, project control book (including planning control, material control, document control, cost control, cost control, etc.), design management book, procurement management book, construction management book, commissioning and start-up management book, quality management book, HSE management book, project financial management and accounting books.
General Books
From the content of the 9 sub-books, the project management general book, in addition to the overall provisions on project management, specifically stipulates the organizational structure and job responsibilities of the project department, which belongs to the content of project organization and management. Other volumes also have some organizational and management contents, such as the provisions of the procurement management book on the procurement team, the provisions of the quality management book on the quality management group, etc.;
Procurement management book, design management book,
construction management book, test run and start-up management book, except for
some of the contents of organizational management, all of them are business
management content, such as procurement procedures in procurement management
and management procedures for procurement links. Except for a small number of
organizational and management contents, the other sub-volumes are all
professional function management and control content.
Only from the composition of the content system of the project management
manual of the engineering company, it can be found that there are serious
deficiencies in the project performance management. In fact, from the
perspective of the depth and breadth of the content involved in each booklet,
except for the "hard" management of the project business procedure
system, which is well constructed, there are different forms of defects in
other contents (all soft management).
From the perspective of severity and the root cause of the
impact on project implementation, the defects in project performance management
and project organization management are the most serious and should be paid
attention to first.
1. Defects in project organization and management: limited to the scope of the project department, the system is seriously incomplete
The project organization system includes the main body of all the resources
involved in the project, not the project department itself. The management of
the project organization should be the management of the complete
organizational system of the project, and the management content should include
four aspects:
First, organizational change management.
Based on the company's resource characteristics and strategic positioning, the organizational model suitable for the company's project type is designed to meet the needs of project management, and the implementation arrangements for the corresponding transformation or optimization of the organization are made.
Second, the standardized management of the project organization system.
Based on the company's resource characteristics and organizational model, the differences of the project are classified, and on this basis, the organizational system of different types of projects is designed as a standard model;
Third, organize the division of labor and management.
Based on the complete functions, activities and rights and responsibilities decomposition system of project management, the project department and the permanent department of the enterprise are systematically divided into labor and allocated rights and responsibilities;
Fourth, project organization and plan management.
Make specific plans for the organizational structure, organizational boundaries (exclusive positions, scope of exclusive resources), organizational processes and management regulations at each stage of the project, and plan with other projects Together.
It is included in the project implementation process for complete management. At present, the project organization management of the engineering company is essentially only a general definition of the organizational structure and division of responsibilities of the project department, which is far from enough in the boundary of the project organization system.
It is only a small fragment of the complete project
management system in the content of project organization management - the lack
of construction of organizational change management before the fragment, the
standardization management of the project organization system and the division
of labor management of the organization, the lack of preparation of the project
organization plan after the fragment, and the lack of management of the
implementation of the project organization plan.
Functional participation
Many people unconsciously equate project management with the project
department's management of the project, the project organization system with
the project department's organizational system, and the project organization
and management with the project department's organization and management.
This understanding is very one-sided, because the complete project production process also includes the participation of many permanent departments in the enterprise organization system - permanent functional departments participate in functions and professional control; The permanent business department not only provides resources, but also directly participates in production in a subcontractor-like nature, but the project department is the central business unit and management entity. In addition, once external entities in the market participate in project production, they naturally form an integral part of the project organization system and should also be included in the business organization and management scope of the project department at the highest level.
When considering project organization management (including
other project soft management), engineering companies should not only focus on
the project department, but also do longitudinal thinking through the
organization and cross-organization.
2. Defects in project performance management: incomplete, non-standardized, and lack of incentives and restraints
The project performance management system should include three parts: the
project performance index system, the project-based income distribution system
of project personnel and participating departments, and the project-based
evaluation system of project personnel and participating departments;
There are two types of departments and personnel in terms of management objects:
- The company's permanent departments and personnel participating in the project, and the departments and personnel in the project department;
- In terms of performance: on the one hand, it is reflected in the company's performance management system, and on the other hand, it is reflected in the project performance management plan prepared by the project department.
At present, the practice of engineering companies is only to formulate project performance indicators in advance, prepare reports on project progress and cost control during the event, and provide them to the company and owners and other related parties - to a large extent, to meet the needs of communication and management, and give certain rewards to the leaders of the project department and other corresponding personnel after the project final accounts.
In terms of content, there is a lack of income distribution system and evaluation system for project personnel and participating departments; In terms of objects, the company's permanent departments and personnel participating in the project and the departments and personnel in the project department are not regarded as management objects.
So naturally there is no effective incentive and restraint on these objects at all:
In terms of form, although the company's performance management system exists, it is more of a conventional performance management system based on departments and meeting linear functional management, rather than a performance management system based on projects and meeting the needs of project management.
As for the performance management plan of a specific
project, it is fundamentally like the project organization management plan,
which is incomplete and is not included in the content system of project plan
management. In addition, in the performance management process, the current
practice is neither complete nor continuous.
In the project management of many engineering companies, the current defects of
the project performance management system are even more serious than the
defects of project organization and management. It is this defect that makes
the level of project management of many companies stay in the change of
production organization form, and the management is still only to manage
projects with the practice of managing enterprises, or using enterprise
management instead of project management.
3. Project implementation problems caused by project soft management defects
Project organization management and project performance management have a
significant impact on the other two major contents of project management -
project business management and professional function management and control,
because the first two contents are the "system" and
"mechanism" of project management, and the latter two contents are
only the "procedures" in project management - without a good
institutional foundation and mechanism guarantee, no matter how good the
program design is.
It is difficult to get good operation. The defects of project organization management and project performance management first lead to problems in project business management and professional function management and control, and then directly manifest as project implementation problems that are easy for people to observe through project business management problems and professional function management and control problems.
Therefore, a series of practical problems in the project implementation process are fundamentally caused by the above two soft management problems.
Here are some of the most representative project implementation issues:
1. The professional control function is weak, and the project management is
only closed at the project department level.
The company's project management department is the functional service department and functional control department of the project. Functional services serve the project manager and other members of the project team, or serve the project department; Functional control serves the general manager and other leaders of the company, or serves the company.
Without control,
project management is only at the project department level – which means loss
of control for the company. Judging from the current development, the function
of the engineering company to implement routine control of the project
department is very weak.
The professional control function of the engineering company is weak, which is
related to the two major soft management defects. The defects in project
organization and management make the division of labor and the positioning of
rights and responsibilities between the project department and the company's
permanent department have "omissions", "mistakes" and
"touches".
In the process of project implementation, the defects of
project performance management make the lack of incentives and constraints for
relevant controllers and controlled personnel, resulting in a lack of execution
in professional control.
2. Lack of complete and timely information description of project status and upload to the enterprise management system.
Whether it is the performance of the function control function or the operation of the performance management system, the support of the information foundation is indispensable. It can be said that project information management is the foundation of project management.
However, the current project management of many engineering companies is very lacking in the description of the status information of project completion and uploading to the company's conventional management system, and even some engineering companies do not have a clear design for information management in the system design.
Project information
management is one of the four major contents of project management, which is
the same as the weak professional function control function mentioned earlier,
and is fundamentally caused by the defects of project organization management
and project performance management.
The above problems caused by the two major soft management defects in the
management and control of professional functions, together with the two major
soft management defects themselves, lead to business management problems, which
are also directly manifested in other problems in project implementation:
3. It is difficult to put the main body responsible for the project in place.
On the one hand, the participants of the project department
lack the direct connection between interests and responsibilities, and on the
other hand, they lack the organizational foundation of project management.
4. Frequent exception management.
Due to the lack of professional control and necessary information upload, it is difficult for the company's permanent departments and senior leaders of the company to grasp the real situation of the project. Engineering companies must understand that although exception management is effective in solving schedule problems.
It has no effect on cost management and quality and safety
management - the biggest feature of cost management and quality and safety
management is good and continuous process control, otherwise, once it occurs,
it is difficult to reverse.
5. Internal production is more unbalanced.
The response of exception management to progress is the
imbalance of internal production. Project production itself is characterized by
imbalance, and the management of schedule exceptions has increased this
imbalance. Too unbalanced production not only affects the physical and mental
health of production personnel, but also affects the performance of production
capacity.
6. Low operating efficiency.
It is prominently reflected in the serious delay in project
progress and poor control of project costs. The progress problem is generally
understood by the engineering company, and has become the central work of
project management in recent years, and it can even be said that
"satisfied with the completion of the project" has become the whole
of project management in the previous stage. However, due to the problem of
poor cost control, many engineering companies have not had time to pay full attention
or respond to it due to the entanglement of schedule problems.
7. Design optimization and interface management problems are more difficult to solve.
This aspect directly affects cost control and project
schedule. The solution of this problem requires the implementation of
procedures and responsibilities in place on the one hand - project organization
and management are the foundation, and on the other hand, it is necessary to
improve the cooperation of project production by all kinds of relevant
personnel, that is, starting from incentives and the consistent design of
interests - perfect project performance management is essential. However, due
to the two major soft management shortcomings in project management,
engineering companies make it even more difficult to solve such problems that
are difficult to solve.
4. Project soft management construction ideas
First, strengthening the understanding of project management is the first step in the construction of project soft management.
Some people understand project management as nothing more than "project management", which is equivalent to restoring project management to the original state of practice, it is no longer a concept in management science, and it does not contain any specific content.
From the 3rd and 4th centuries to the present, project management has developed into an overall concept with specific connotations and rich content systems. Only by understanding project management as a specific concept at the current point in time can the project management of our country enterprises stand on the most advanced and complete results of human management practice from the beginning.
From the perspective of improving the understanding and awareness of project management, it is first necessary to have a complete understanding of the current concept and connotation of project management.
On this basis, it is also necessary for engineering companies to further improve the level of understanding in three aspects (the American Management Consulting Company believe that the understanding reflected in the current knowledge system of project management itself is also narrow):
In nature, project management is a management idea about changing management objects, and the corresponding content and method system.
It completes the targeted management of different management objects by developing supplementary temporary organizations and individual management on the basis of permanent organization and conventional management.
From the perspective of understanding, from the general perspective of management, project management should be regarded as a type of organizational management mode to complete project-based work, and it should be viewed in parallel with other types of organizational management models.
In terms of the scope of understanding, project management
should be included in the scope of the overall organizational management of the
enterprise for systematic thinking. Only by truly improving to this level of
understanding can we discover the project soft management problems discussed in
this article and find the correct solution ideas.
Second, to build and improve project soft management.
It is necessary to change the organizational management environment in a supporting manner. From the perspective of the operation process of a single project, project management is the "core", organizational management is the "shell", and the operation of the "core" of project management is inseparable from the support of the shell environment of organizational management.
When building and improving project soft management, the permanent department and routine management of the enterprise should be regarded as the "organizational management environment" of project management.
The reform of the project organization and management
environment involves the design of the organizational model and specific
structure of the engineering company, the rearrangement of the functions and
responsibilities of the permanent department, the company's budget management
and performance management system, and the income distribution and evaluation
system of employees.
The change of organizational management environment is very necessary to build
and improve project soft management. For example, project management requires
companies to establish a project-based budget management and economic
accounting system, and requires that the economic relationship between
departments and the economic system of the enterprise are all based on the
project value stream.
Many engineering
companies are still the traditional department-based budget management and
economic accounting system. For another example, project management requires
more direct interest associations and responsibility constraints, that is,
income distribution and performance appraisal based on the project. First, the
income distribution and assessment of the core personnel of the project team
(department) directly comes from the project team, and then the overall income
and overall assessment of non-core personnel (such as those who adopt weak
matrix management) directly comes from the project team; The income and
assessment of the department are the statistical results based on the
distribution and assessment of their respective personnel. However, the
allocation and evaluation system of many engineering companies is not like
this, and it is still a traditional department-based and top-down approach.
Third, the project soft management system itself is constructed.
At present, in the process of project management system construction, "soft management construction is seriously lagging behind" is a prominent problem, many engineering companies in the construction of project management system, mainly focus on the construction of "hard management", the vast majority of the "project management manual" is about this aspect, and there are very few "soft management" construction on project performance management system, project organization management system and project information management. In this regard, combined with the practical experience of American Management Consulting Company in providing management consulting services for engineering companies.
Three suggestions are put forward:
(1) When compiling the project management manual, the engineering company may wish to add two sub-books: the project organization management book and the project performance management book;
(2) In the preliminary preparation stage of the specific project implementation process, two plans are added: the project organization management plan and the project performance management plan, which are included in the overall system of the project plan for management;
(3) In the organizational structure of the project department, a project performance management team (department) is added to be specifically responsible for project performance management. In addition, the functions of the project administration team (department) are redefined to increase and strengthen the execution function of its project organization and management plan.
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