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Effects of communication and organization
Effects of communication organization
and
P J Blankevoort
Project management is ‘coming of age’ as a profession, but while communication of data and information is essential to good management practice, it is often one of the neglected aspects. One of the most fundamental changes in modern project management is the use of computerized data-processing systems as management support. However, as even the process of two or more people communicating with each other is poorly understood, it is not surprising that uncontrolled introduction of these systems is effectively destroying established lines of communication. Problems of perception, communication and its effects on organizations are discussed. Keywords: munication,
project management, perception
organization,
com-
The theme for the 8th Internet World Congress on Project Management to be held in Rotterdam in 1985 is ‘Clarity for the nineties’. This title has been chosen in anticipation of professional project management ‘coming of age’ and then proceeding to the next phase in it’s lifecycle - the operation phase. During the coming years, it should become clear what belongs to professional management and what does not. Many tools and techniques have been developed or updated, and numerous papers on a great variety of subjects have been presented and published. By now, it should be possible to pick out the skills and knowledge necessary for professional project management. The logo of the 8th Congress shows the areas of project management that have already been defined into the broad subject outline. The ‘house of project management’ is already built. Concepts that belong to Nederlandse Philips 560OMD Eindhoven,
Bedrijven. Netherlands
This paper was prcscnted March 1979
138
Central
at an Internet
0263-7S63/84/030138-10
TEO,
Symposium’
Building in Jersey.
HCZS, UK,
$03.00 0 1984 Butterworth
the ‘inside’ and those that belong to the ‘outside’ of the ‘house’ are also generally accepted. Various ‘rooms’ have been defined, some lavishly furnished (with shining new computer support systems, for example). The red blocks in the logo symbolize the project lifecycle phases and the blue ones, the control systems of time, money, quality, information and organization. Looking back over the past 20 years, it is remarkable that the subject of project management has evoked so much discussion so suddenly. After all, projects have been managed for some considerable time, albeit with varying success. Something must have occurred to change ‘normal’ project management fundamentally. The disturbance may have been caused by the introduction of computers as new data-processing tools. Everywhere the use of data-processing systems, often euphemistically called information systems, has been energetically promoted as support for project managers. By definition, a project is a set of related activities aimed at achieving a predetermined goal executed by a number of specialists. To succeed, the communication of data between those specialists is essential. The story of the people of Babel building a magnificent tower is an example of what may happen if communication is disturbed during project realization. Perhaps, in this case, it was the vertical distance that created a problem when trying to communicate the data that the building people at the top needed from the people on the (shop) floor - they had no telephone at that time to help them. Even worse, of course, is that on any project everyone is going to speak their own language. (Their own technical jargon?) Figure 1 illustrates some of the impedances to communication between people. Communication of data and information is essential in project management, but it is often one of the neglected aspects.’ If the process of two or more people communicating with each other is not well understood, it is no wonder that uncontrolled introduction of dataprocessing systems effectively destroys the established
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd
Project
Management
words, we have ‘to furnish the still rather empty information room of the project management house’. This article is intended to be a small contribution to this furnishing. Although the subjects ‘communication’ and ‘organization’2 are already somewhat limited by relating them to projects and project management, the subjects are still large enough to necessitate a subdivision in order to make an effective and structured discussion of the problems possible. Aspects requiring particular consideration in any project are as follows: basic definitions, communication problems related to project management, informationand communication-supporting systems, training and education, normalization, standardization and agreements. BASIC
DEFINITIONS
In order to make a frame of reference for the discussion, some concepts and words must first be introduced and explained. The author can only attempt to communicate how he feels and reacts to some words, as communicated to him. In fact, this is one of the first problems to be encountered in the field of communication, the field of sending messages to someone else.
b
Project and project management There are many definitions of the word ‘project’. A satisfactory one is as follows. ‘A project is a set of (sometimes) interrelated activities all necessary to accomplish predefined goals within certain constraints.’ The constraints include a limited availability of resources and/or a defined duration. The project therefore consists of ‘something’ between a defined situation at a given time and another defined situation at a time in the future. That something is sometimes called ‘the process’; therefore a project is a process of change (Figure 2). In the above definition, something is taken for granted: the necessary activities are to be executed by people (or by people ‘supported’ by tools or machines). The need for the concept with the name ‘project’ arises if you want to tell someone else your future goals and the way you wish to accomplish the task. This only makes sense if there is someone else.
Organization
Figure 1. Some ren.wm for communication being dif~cl~lt: (a) problems of d~.~t~~ce; (b) language problems; (c) problems due to differences in speed; (d) problems due to people being at different levels
ways people have dealt with each other when managing projects. We are now in the middle of the ‘information revolution’. For the sake of clarity, it is important to discuss this information aspect more closely. In other
Vol 2 No 3 August
1984
A group of people working together in order to achieve one or more goals is called an’organization. When the thing to be achieved is a project goal, the group is called a project organization. All people and all things you may need to achieve the project goals are called resources. Thus people are resources of the project organization and the things (e.g. tools, material, machines, money, know how, etc.) are resources the people use to execute the project activities.
Communication Everyone
acquires
knowledge
about the ‘outside world’
139
Figure 2. Definition of a project: time t, to situation 2 at time tz
a set of activities (a process)
performed
to accomplish
the change from situation I at
fixed moment, by giving him insight into the situation, the progress of the process and the possible or expected effects of a defined process. In short, information is distinguished from data in that it is supporting or assisting someone in his job. In this way, information is directly related to a project (see Figures 4a and 4b).
by using his senses. People need to exchange parts of their knowledge with other people. This exchange of data may be called communication. The achievement of a goal by an organization will become more probable if there is a reliable exchange of knowledge between the people within the project organization. Therefore, at least four factors are involved in the communication between two people A and B: the persons A and B, the outside world as perceived by A and the outside world as perceived by B. The latter two perceptions may be as different as A and B are (Figure 3).
Information The word ‘information’ is derived from a Latin verb ‘informare’, meaning among other things ‘bringing in to form’. Based upon this notion we may define information as follows: ’ Information is any datum or system of data supporting a defined receiver in a given situation in the execution of his well described task at a
Totol
environment
I
I
I
I
Communication Exchange of knowledge
Figure 3. Communication the total environment
I40
and exchange
of knowledge
in
Figure 4a. Activity-orientated data: for example, chopping 20 trees for an estimated duration of 8 h, starting at 9.00 am, using a stoneage axe
Project
Management
Figure
4h. Goal-oriented
data: to return to civilization,
get a sharp stone,
make an axe, chop trees and make a ra
Project information can be divided into activityoriented information or process information and goaloriented information. Another distinction is that someone may receive information from other people or from the things in the world around him (Figure 5).
Problem and problem solving If we want to discuss problems, it is reasonable to have some agreement about what we mean by the word ‘problem’. The definition by Keppner and Tregoe’ is particularly useful. They define problems by the difference between the situation one perceives and the situation one expects or wants to see. The difference between the actual and the expected situation is an unexpected problem. The difference between the actual and wanted situation (or projected situation) is a self-made problem. These problems may also be called
-!
Figure
6. Problem-solving
‘goal-problems’. The difference between what one actually ‘sees’ happening and what one expects to happen or should happen are respectively unexpected and self-made ‘process problems’. If these definitions of problems are accepted, a project can be defined as a goal-problem solving process. If a project is not progressing as it should or as expected and someone takes the necessary measures to correct this. those correcting actions may be defined as a process-problem solving process (Figure 6).
COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
RELATED
In order to discuss areas in project management where communication problems may arise, it is convenient to divide important management activities as follows: l l l
Figure 5. Data is derived from information both people and the environment
Vol 2 No 3 August
1984
coming from
l
making of plans, comparison, during execution, of reality with plan, in the case of an (unexpected) communication problem, stopping of other jobs, identification of corrective actions and alternative goals and drawing up of contingency plans,
141
l
making of decisions as to what to do next, updating of plans or making of new plans.
Each activity of this management cycle could be regarded as a project in its own right. For every (added) activity, someone specialized may be needed. A specialist may execute a certain job more efficiently, that is better, quicker and/or at lower costs. However, by introducing specialists the necessity of communication between them is also introduced. That means, the more complex the project organization, the more attention should be given to the communication processes. (If one does everything alone, one only needs to ‘communicate’ with oneself and to ‘absorb’ data from the environment - the most simple situation.) There are two kinds of communication. A person may acquire data and information from his environment without any direct or indirect support from other people. This is not communication in the real sense. Errors made in this process cause problems and may be called perception errors. Communication or exchange of data and information between two or more people may be hindered by communication errors. The communication errors may be found in the sender (sending errors), between sender and receiver (transmission faults) or in the receiver (reception errors).
Perception
Making a plan Here problems may be caused by two people ‘seeing’ or looking differently at a starting situation of a project. For example, two men travelling through a wood are blocked by a swollen river. The bridge is washed away. To cross the river one starts to cut trees to make a raft, the other starts walking along the river upstream, because he heard a faint noise of a sawmill behind the hills. It is well known, that a specialist often sees special things ordinary people fail to perceive. However, the specialist may pay so much attention to his particular hobby, that he does not recognize facts that are obviously perceived by everyone else. In Figure 7, it can be demonstrated that a mistake in a message is not always easily found if one’s attention is distracted by ‘more important things’. Figure 8 shows an animal called a cow by most people. Specialists looking more intensely at small parts of the world, however, may see something different. Differences in perception result in the generation of not one, but several, plans to accomplish the same goal.
J
142
Figure 8. To most people a cow, but a specialist may see something quite different
It is a good thing to have a choice of alternative plans, until everyone is persistent in implementing his own plan.
problems in project management
Figure 7. It is not always message
L
easy to find the error in the
Progress control In this activity, many perception problems are to be expected, because it is normal to have someone executing a job and somebody else watching and comparing the situation with the plan. This man is called a supervisor, the person put in a (higher) position to oversee the progress of the works. However, it may not always be true that someone at a distance perceives progress in the same way as someone executing the job, the specialist ‘in touch’ with the job, so to speak. Some kinds of progress are even impossible to observe (Figure 9). Many research and development activities are like catching a fish. Regular progress control might even be counter-productive.
Figure tion of earliest angler
9. Difficulty of progress control, activity descripnetwork ‘catch a pike’; minimum weight: I kg; start: 6.00 am; latest finish: 6.00 pm; resource.. (regional champion)
Project
Management
Progress control is also difficult if the activity is made invisible. The executor of the job may unconsciously do that, like standing between the spectators and the blackboard, writing some very interesting things on it. If resources experience corrective actions as a punishment they may even deliberately mask progress. Stopping jobs This activity is not often recognized as an important job of a project manager, but naturally one has to know which jobs are in progress and which have to be stopped in case of a change of plan. Letting people do unnecessary work is very demotivating. Creation of alternative actions and decisions These are mainly thinking processes. During the processes of stopping tasks and creating alternative actions, observations may need to be made about the environment, and it is here that errors are possible again. For instance, in testing the applicability of a proposed action, one may need to know whether the necessary tools are available. Potential misunderstandings may be reduced if this management job is executed by a team. COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT
PROBLEMS
IN PROJECT
Communication between machines (tools) can be made very reliable, but communication between machines and people is more difficult to realize at an acceptable level. Ideally, every machine should be adapted or adaptable to the person using it, but communication between people is a more complex process - so many things can go wrong. The principal areas, where a message to be sent by a person S (sender) to a person R (receiver) may be distorted or blocked in its path, are shown in Figure 10. If S wants to tell R something, he ‘aims’ his message in the direction he expects to find R. He estimates ‘the wavelength’ the receiver is tuned in to, so to speak. Then he sends the message. However, the content is consciously and unconsciously filtered; he cannot, does
r
Tronsmlsslon lOSSi?S
_
*IS not allowed
dlfferent
I
to tell
dIrectIon
J
I
L Figure IO. Loss of information a message
Vol 2 No 3 August
1984
in sending
and receiving
not want to or is not allowed to convey everything to R. The line between S and R may blurr part of the message. At the reception end, some information is filtered out, because R’s interests are slightly differently directed, ‘tuned to another station’. In addition, R cannot, does not want to or is ‘internally’ not allowed to understand parts of the received message. Realizing this possible loss of information, it is a miracle that people often communicate quite well. To achieve a reasonable communication level, people use two ‘techniques’: They try to get information from the receiver about the reception of their message. The ideal is a continuous feedback. They put a considerable degree of redundancy into the message. All kinds of ‘nonessentials’ are added, somehow related or associated with the message content. Thus communication is hopefully improved by sending a system of data. The data can be put together in various ways, giving approximately the same message. The sender then ‘looks’ for signals from the receiver to assess whether the receiver has assembled the data in the right way. Generally, people communicate by making sounds such as body movements or and visual changes, showing paper with symbols on it. Smell and touch are less often used. It is necessary to learn and remember the meaning of the signals, before one can communicate. Everything obtained as an input must be associated with other things. The more frequently something is connected with the same signal, the more that particular signal acquires a meaning. It is obvious therefore that communication will be difficult. The receiver and sender can quite easily learn different meanings of the same signal. For example, if someone calls: ‘watch that bank’, you may be warned not to stumble over it, to watch an unexpected financial manoeuvre or to put your ship on another course. For good understanding of a signal, one must know who is sending it, his situation and one’s own situation. The reverse situation, two different signals having the same meaning, may also cause problems. To prevent them, one must learn the other person’s language. To achieve a project goal, good communication between all the people related to the project is essential. All kinds of communication problems may occur at any stage of the project management process. Some problems with a high probability of appearance in certain management stages will now be discussed. Some explanations will be given, but they are personal opinions of the author and have, to his knowledge, not (yet) been tested. Making a plan One of the most difficult tasks is to tell someone else what you wish to achieve for the future. It is easier to describe a situation as it actually is. The task may be made easier by asking the other person to observe the environment. It is also easy to describe a situation in the past. More information is available and many items have a name - a common identification for an item, agreed to by both the sender and receiver. Conse-
143
quently, the name is something that can be sent and received and is r&ted according to agreements with something “reat’ in a situation in the past or present. In trying to communicate a future sit~Iation, e.g. the project goals, one can only send symbolic ideas, related to meanings out of the past. However, it is a specific feature of f30~~0 .~~@etzs to communicate a future situation with the avail&& data (with a historical meaning). He uses many techniques to show someone else the future (as he sees it). He can do it with words, written. spoken or coded in binarv symbols. For exampIe: “This circle with number tenSin it means that the machine number six you ordered is packed and ready for shipment in hall ES*. This goat should be realized (should be made reai) next month!’ The receiver of such a message may buifd up from this data, together with a selection of data in his own possession, a complete ‘picture’ of a future situation. One of the problems encountered in project management when frying to implement network techniques (whether computer assisted or not) is caused by the use of symbols inappropriate to ‘painting’ a future situation. Design departments use better techniques. Drawings, printings and models are used to show pcopte future products. It is reaIiy too much to ask people to imagine that a square with some numbers and words on white paper is the new model T-Ford 1980 or the cathedrat in the new town to be buiit. In the near future, this drawback of network spanning will be changed. Soon the memory capacity of dataprocessing machines will be large enough to produce ‘rrat’ pictures (in stereo, if necessary). The problem will be CO find the people having the vision and at the same time the skills of an artist to make those pictures. Then one must find the people with the imagination to analyse the effects of these designs in order to choose the best ones out of the proposed alternatives?. Progress mntrd and stopping jobs These management phases invotve the co~~m~nicat~on of data connected with the present. Here probtems are more related to differences in assessment of the situatian, in seeing hindrances and (~pport~lnities. Tn these stages, one may be tempted to do the same as suggested in the section on making a plan. That is to present not only verbal or written notes about progress of the plan, but also to present. via modern electronic systems, the total picture of the situation right up to top management. There is a danger of by-passing middle m~~n~~gernentand supervision. Far too much data may be brought to top rn~~na~ern~nt in this way. Despite the fact that a top manager knows that he requires modern systems to run a large organizations it may be a mistake to expect him to become involved personally with running those systems, When trying to implement the tremendous potential of these tech“II this message were communicated by spceoh only. one coutd get the iden that the company named the v&us buildings after insects hall ‘hec’. hall ‘butterfly’ or ‘ant’. etc.
niques, it is worth remembering the political dimensions of the problem. When the organizati~~n fails, it is these systems and new techniques that show the manager has failed, and if he has been made personally responsible for the system he will go down with his s~~bordinates in the same way that a pilot must go down with his aircraft when it crashes. Hence, aversion to neatty prinfed progress reports could actuaIfy stem from the political level of the organization disliking their failures being shown in hard numbers. Creation of either corrective wtions or alternative goals communication could be enhanced by using more ‘holistic’ than sequential techniques. Tmagination is required to find creative ways out of situations that require one to improvise. imagination is also needed to anticipate the ways in which projects may be ‘sabotaged’ by fate. The notion of the so-called antiproject should be appreciated: the moment one begins planning a project, somewhere in the universe there is a ghostly project leader, planning antiproject. If both project leaders succeed in achieving their goals, nothing has happened (both projects annihilate each other), In order to succeed, one must attempt to visualize the antiproject and invent measures tu stay some steps ahead. The word “visualize’ demonstrates that the mind is working more with whnfe pictures than with sequent3 fines of reason. An idenf method of communicat~~~n would be the direct transfer of ‘dream pictures’ from one’s own brain to someone else’s so that discussion could take pface with both looking at exactly the same xhing.
An information-supporting system is a me:tns of improving the formation of i~~~orrn~~fion to enable one to make better decisions at the best possible moment. ~omm~~nication_sL~~~orting systems improve the process of sending. transferring and receiving inf~~rin~~tion. Tn the future. data-processing systems will become progressively cheaper and wit1 he able to produce complete pictures in addition to sequentially positioned data (sentences, rows, column numbers), Graphicat displays will soon be overtaken by the ‘real’ moving pictures we already see emitted from our television sets at home. This will have a strong impact on every stage of the project management process, positive as well as negative. In particular, the sending and receiving sides wit1 have to decide on certain issues. l What data will be put in and in what form? * How should data he put together to get the relevant information? * In what form should it be given to the receiver? * How should the output be interpreted? @ In what way does the receiver want to relate the data?
Answers will depend on the character of the persons putting data in and requesting information out of the system. That means that if one observes a system, operating s~tisfactor~ly~ it wili show the personalities on
the sending and receiving ends. A supporting system should be either ‘tailor made’ for the communicating people or perfectly neutral in respect to the data it contains and transports. Both kinds of system will be based upon a good relation between sender and receiver of data and information. They should know each other personally. This may become a problem, however. If people expect to be supported by increasingly sophisticated fast operating data-processing systems and then find out that they are asked to get thoroughly acquainted with all the people supposed to use the system, some of them may discover they do not like each other! Some experience has been gathered regarding the reactions of groups of 24 people, working together in a simulated multiproject situation. The same people were senders and receivers of written messages through a planning system and were communicating with each other person-to-person and in ‘offical’ meetings. The project problems they had to solve were partly made by themselves and partly made by some unknown entity (the antiproject leader). The supporting system worked as one unit. Everyone received information about the planning, and later the progress, of projects at the same time. Discussions and meetings were all timed exactly. This was a considerable drawback to the supporting planning and progress control system, once the most modern and sophisticated computer system in the world. For many people, the discipline necessary is not felt as ‘support’, but as a loss of freedom. (To ‘act quickly as a good manager should’.) One could ask what would happen if each of those 24 people acquired a monitor showing the data requested by them, linked to a database available to everyone. This game could be made as realistic as, for example, the training of pilots with a flight simulator. People in the model come to think of it as real. A less pleasant aspect of these developments may be that people in our society will become separated into two groups: one group experiencing the world contained in all the data-processing machines linked to each other, the other living in the real world perceived directly by their own senses. After some time, the two ‘worlds’ could diverge (see Figure 11). Fortunately, however, if you delete or erase an investment from the balance sheet, the machines purchased will not evaporate at the same time. One may still stumble over them.
quiet
prolert was cancelled o year ago He was SwItched outomotlcally to (I slmulatlon progrom.
Figure II. developments
AND
EDUCATION
The direction of training and education will be aimed at teaching people to use the new systems and to program and develop their own systems. The enormous production capacity of data processors will increase competition, and companies will persuade many people to find as many applications as possible. However, applications can only be found when users know the capability of the machines. A problem may develop if it is not realized that in teaching people to use all kinds of data-transmitting and processing apparatus, we may forget to teach them to communicate with each other. How can someone be trained to put himself at the receiving end when he is putting data into a system at the sending end and vice versa? This kind of education has nothing to do with microprocessors, computers or
Vol 2 No 3 August
lY84
Importance
of
being
aware
of
current
displays. It is about understanding oneself and learning to understand and accept other people. Until now, there has been a tendency to separate the education and training of people into two divisions. These urgently need to be integrated into one education system in order to manage the tools we have created for ourselves. Otherwise, the story of the sorcerer’s apprentice will come true. Another problem to be solved in the near future is the collapse of the status of certain specialists. Within living memory, a group of people performed an unchallenged function. The law officers, accountants, public notaries, clerks, etc. are all the people having a special status because they know how data should be, and is allowed to be, related to make sense. They all may lose their indispensability. Project management will be influenced by this kind of revolution. Today, we already see symptoms of it in discussions about project costs accounting and budget control systems. For example: l
TRAINING
maklng
He IS some Important decnons He doesn’t know the
l l
Which file should be controlled by the accountant: the content of the computer master file or the official books of the administrator, written and undersigned by him? Why not let a computer do the accountancy control? One accountant with a computer can control all industries in the Netherlands. Who should he report to?
In order not to run into a chaotic situation, it may be concluded that much training and education in effective and relevant use of the new systems is necessary. NORMALIZATION, AGREEMENTS
STANDARDIZATION
AND
Communication is only possible if both the receiver and sender know what the signals, sent and received, mean. They agree upon a relation between meaning
145
and the symbols transmitted in a codebook or a dictionary. If one does not want to be understood by someone else, one must make one’s own (secret) codebook. If people speak different languages and want to communicate with each other, they must exchange language dictionaries. It is a pity that we are not yet very far advanced in defining the language of project management. International projects, in particular, where people of various nationalities and cultures have to cooperate, are seriously hampered. This is not only due to the difference in language, but also because people insist on using the symbols and glossary they have invented themselves for, essentially, the same tasks. Does it matter that an activity can be symbolized by a rectangle or by an arrow? You may answer: ‘No, as long as you tell each other what symbol you use.’ But by accepting both symbols you only make the world more complicated. A newcomer might even think you are keeping some secrets from him. (A problem we have encountered in cooperating with developing countries.) An example of an already mentioned type of misunderstanding is shown in Figure 12 (a solution of the problem presented in Figure 5). Members of Internet have made a significant gesture by supporting steps to arrive at a common project management ‘language’. People of the medical profession use Latin to communicate data and information to perform their job in case they do not talk the same mother tongue, and to prevent misunderstandings to the detriment of the patients. With this concept in mind, it has been decided that the English language should be the ‘Latin’ of the project management profession. Of course, only individual participants at an Internet international seminar in Zurich have declared their support of this idea, and it cannot be given any official status, but the declaration, made then and there, is of significance, because so many people with broad project management experience supported it. This puts some responsibilities on the shoulders of the English-speaking people, to work hard on the standardization of terms, symbols and glossaries. The British Standards Institute (BSI) committee have worked hard and the time has come when other nations should start to connect terms, symbols and glossaries of their own native tongue to the BSI documents. POSSIBLE
PROBLEMS
Various aspects lar consideration. Planning
of managing
Progress l
l
l
a project
require
see
the
control
of corrective
actions
Is the concept of planning the antiproject so. how can we make use of it?
Education
useful?
If
and training
What kind of training do we think will be necessary in the near future? What kind of training is already lacking or forgotten? What needs to be the content of future project management training courses? Should we try to develop a general training in communication and the use of project management information systems or should we train the people involved just before starting particular projects? What are the circumstances in which one (or both) training alternatives are needed?
particu-
phase
Should we train people to explain their project goals better to other people? If yes, how? How can we get people to plan not only the project, but also the contingency plans? How can the new methods of processing complete pictures in project planning systems be used for project management?
people cannot may occur
What effects can we expect when people in the project increasingly communicate with each other via a data-processing system? Are the above concepts correct or should we control each project separately with the support of a ‘tailor made’ microprocessor/computer? What are the selection criteria?
Creation
TO DISCUSS
How can we demonstrate the importance of planned projects goals to other people? These people include o the people influenced by the project goal, o The people to execute the jobs, o the bodies ordering the project goals, o the environment.
146
Figure 12. If communicating entire object, misunderstandings
Job execution l
l
How one can manage jobs of the kind that are very obvious, like the example of catching a shown in Figure 9. These kinds of jobs can be found in research development. How can we manage innovation, coordinate thinking processes of various people? you need to manage them?
not fish and or Do
Standardization l
What steps should be taken to arrive at an international standardization of terms, symbols and glossaries for project management?
Project
Management
Organization l What effects on the project organization can be expected when all visual and oral communication is done via data-processing systems? l How can we acquire more knowledge about the way people communicate with each other? What research should be done? These questions demonstrate again that one fool may ask more than a thousand wise men could answer. However, this shows clearly that, to get some clarity for the nineties, mutual agreements are needed to support communication between people projecting the future.
REFERENCES Blankevoort, P J ‘Communication and project management’ Proc. Int. Internet Symp. Communication in Project Management Jersey, UK (26-30 March 1979) Blankevoort, P J ‘Systems information and effective
Vol 2 No 3 August
1984
action’ Znt. 1. Proj. Manage. Vol 2 No 1 (February 1984) pp 36-38 3 Kepner, C H and Tregoe, B B The rational manager: a systematic approach to problem-solving and decision-making McGraw-Hill, USA (1965) Pieter Jan Blankevoort was born on 20 December 1929 and studied at the Technical University of Delft, qualifying in 1955. After completing his military service, he joined Philips in 1957. He worked in several mechanical development departments of the audio and video divisions until 1966, when he moved to the Technical Eficiency and Organization Department. Here he is a consultant on efficiency and effectiveness of R & D, and his main areas are VAI VE, implementation of project management systems, educatic:z and training, and creativity.
147
and
P J Blankevoort
Project management is ‘coming of age’ as a profession, but while communication of data and information is essential to good management practice, it is often one of the neglected aspects. One of the most fundamental changes in modern project management is the use of computerized data-processing systems as management support. However, as even the process of two or more people communicating with each other is poorly understood, it is not surprising that uncontrolled introduction of these systems is effectively destroying established lines of communication. Problems of perception, communication and its effects on organizations are discussed. Keywords: munication,
project management, perception
organization,
com-
The theme for the 8th Internet World Congress on Project Management to be held in Rotterdam in 1985 is ‘Clarity for the nineties’. This title has been chosen in anticipation of professional project management ‘coming of age’ and then proceeding to the next phase in it’s lifecycle - the operation phase. During the coming years, it should become clear what belongs to professional management and what does not. Many tools and techniques have been developed or updated, and numerous papers on a great variety of subjects have been presented and published. By now, it should be possible to pick out the skills and knowledge necessary for professional project management. The logo of the 8th Congress shows the areas of project management that have already been defined into the broad subject outline. The ‘house of project management’ is already built. Concepts that belong to Nederlandse Philips 560OMD Eindhoven,
Bedrijven. Netherlands
This paper was prcscnted March 1979
138
Central
at an Internet
0263-7S63/84/030138-10
TEO,
Symposium’
Building in Jersey.
HCZS, UK,
$03.00 0 1984 Butterworth
the ‘inside’ and those that belong to the ‘outside’ of the ‘house’ are also generally accepted. Various ‘rooms’ have been defined, some lavishly furnished (with shining new computer support systems, for example). The red blocks in the logo symbolize the project lifecycle phases and the blue ones, the control systems of time, money, quality, information and organization. Looking back over the past 20 years, it is remarkable that the subject of project management has evoked so much discussion so suddenly. After all, projects have been managed for some considerable time, albeit with varying success. Something must have occurred to change ‘normal’ project management fundamentally. The disturbance may have been caused by the introduction of computers as new data-processing tools. Everywhere the use of data-processing systems, often euphemistically called information systems, has been energetically promoted as support for project managers. By definition, a project is a set of related activities aimed at achieving a predetermined goal executed by a number of specialists. To succeed, the communication of data between those specialists is essential. The story of the people of Babel building a magnificent tower is an example of what may happen if communication is disturbed during project realization. Perhaps, in this case, it was the vertical distance that created a problem when trying to communicate the data that the building people at the top needed from the people on the (shop) floor - they had no telephone at that time to help them. Even worse, of course, is that on any project everyone is going to speak their own language. (Their own technical jargon?) Figure 1 illustrates some of the impedances to communication between people. Communication of data and information is essential in project management, but it is often one of the neglected aspects.’ If the process of two or more people communicating with each other is not well understood, it is no wonder that uncontrolled introduction of dataprocessing systems effectively destroys the established
& Co (Publishers)
Ltd
Project
Management
words, we have ‘to furnish the still rather empty information room of the project management house’. This article is intended to be a small contribution to this furnishing. Although the subjects ‘communication’ and ‘organization’2 are already somewhat limited by relating them to projects and project management, the subjects are still large enough to necessitate a subdivision in order to make an effective and structured discussion of the problems possible. Aspects requiring particular consideration in any project are as follows: basic definitions, communication problems related to project management, informationand communication-supporting systems, training and education, normalization, standardization and agreements. BASIC
DEFINITIONS
In order to make a frame of reference for the discussion, some concepts and words must first be introduced and explained. The author can only attempt to communicate how he feels and reacts to some words, as communicated to him. In fact, this is one of the first problems to be encountered in the field of communication, the field of sending messages to someone else.
b
Project and project management There are many definitions of the word ‘project’. A satisfactory one is as follows. ‘A project is a set of (sometimes) interrelated activities all necessary to accomplish predefined goals within certain constraints.’ The constraints include a limited availability of resources and/or a defined duration. The project therefore consists of ‘something’ between a defined situation at a given time and another defined situation at a time in the future. That something is sometimes called ‘the process’; therefore a project is a process of change (Figure 2). In the above definition, something is taken for granted: the necessary activities are to be executed by people (or by people ‘supported’ by tools or machines). The need for the concept with the name ‘project’ arises if you want to tell someone else your future goals and the way you wish to accomplish the task. This only makes sense if there is someone else.
Organization
Figure 1. Some ren.wm for communication being dif~cl~lt: (a) problems of d~.~t~~ce; (b) language problems; (c) problems due to differences in speed; (d) problems due to people being at different levels
ways people have dealt with each other when managing projects. We are now in the middle of the ‘information revolution’. For the sake of clarity, it is important to discuss this information aspect more closely. In other
Vol 2 No 3 August
1984
A group of people working together in order to achieve one or more goals is called an’organization. When the thing to be achieved is a project goal, the group is called a project organization. All people and all things you may need to achieve the project goals are called resources. Thus people are resources of the project organization and the things (e.g. tools, material, machines, money, know how, etc.) are resources the people use to execute the project activities.
Communication Everyone
acquires
knowledge
about the ‘outside world’
139
Figure 2. Definition of a project: time t, to situation 2 at time tz
a set of activities (a process)
performed
to accomplish
the change from situation I at
fixed moment, by giving him insight into the situation, the progress of the process and the possible or expected effects of a defined process. In short, information is distinguished from data in that it is supporting or assisting someone in his job. In this way, information is directly related to a project (see Figures 4a and 4b).
by using his senses. People need to exchange parts of their knowledge with other people. This exchange of data may be called communication. The achievement of a goal by an organization will become more probable if there is a reliable exchange of knowledge between the people within the project organization. Therefore, at least four factors are involved in the communication between two people A and B: the persons A and B, the outside world as perceived by A and the outside world as perceived by B. The latter two perceptions may be as different as A and B are (Figure 3).
Information The word ‘information’ is derived from a Latin verb ‘informare’, meaning among other things ‘bringing in to form’. Based upon this notion we may define information as follows: ’ Information is any datum or system of data supporting a defined receiver in a given situation in the execution of his well described task at a
Totol
environment
I
I
I
I
Communication Exchange of knowledge
Figure 3. Communication the total environment
I40
and exchange
of knowledge
in
Figure 4a. Activity-orientated data: for example, chopping 20 trees for an estimated duration of 8 h, starting at 9.00 am, using a stoneage axe
Project
Management
Figure
4h. Goal-oriented
data: to return to civilization,
get a sharp stone,
make an axe, chop trees and make a ra
Project information can be divided into activityoriented information or process information and goaloriented information. Another distinction is that someone may receive information from other people or from the things in the world around him (Figure 5).
Problem and problem solving If we want to discuss problems, it is reasonable to have some agreement about what we mean by the word ‘problem’. The definition by Keppner and Tregoe’ is particularly useful. They define problems by the difference between the situation one perceives and the situation one expects or wants to see. The difference between the actual and the expected situation is an unexpected problem. The difference between the actual and wanted situation (or projected situation) is a self-made problem. These problems may also be called
-!
Figure
6. Problem-solving
‘goal-problems’. The difference between what one actually ‘sees’ happening and what one expects to happen or should happen are respectively unexpected and self-made ‘process problems’. If these definitions of problems are accepted, a project can be defined as a goal-problem solving process. If a project is not progressing as it should or as expected and someone takes the necessary measures to correct this. those correcting actions may be defined as a process-problem solving process (Figure 6).
COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT
RELATED
In order to discuss areas in project management where communication problems may arise, it is convenient to divide important management activities as follows: l l l
Figure 5. Data is derived from information both people and the environment
Vol 2 No 3 August
1984
coming from
l
making of plans, comparison, during execution, of reality with plan, in the case of an (unexpected) communication problem, stopping of other jobs, identification of corrective actions and alternative goals and drawing up of contingency plans,
141
l
making of decisions as to what to do next, updating of plans or making of new plans.
Each activity of this management cycle could be regarded as a project in its own right. For every (added) activity, someone specialized may be needed. A specialist may execute a certain job more efficiently, that is better, quicker and/or at lower costs. However, by introducing specialists the necessity of communication between them is also introduced. That means, the more complex the project organization, the more attention should be given to the communication processes. (If one does everything alone, one only needs to ‘communicate’ with oneself and to ‘absorb’ data from the environment - the most simple situation.) There are two kinds of communication. A person may acquire data and information from his environment without any direct or indirect support from other people. This is not communication in the real sense. Errors made in this process cause problems and may be called perception errors. Communication or exchange of data and information between two or more people may be hindered by communication errors. The communication errors may be found in the sender (sending errors), between sender and receiver (transmission faults) or in the receiver (reception errors).
Perception
Making a plan Here problems may be caused by two people ‘seeing’ or looking differently at a starting situation of a project. For example, two men travelling through a wood are blocked by a swollen river. The bridge is washed away. To cross the river one starts to cut trees to make a raft, the other starts walking along the river upstream, because he heard a faint noise of a sawmill behind the hills. It is well known, that a specialist often sees special things ordinary people fail to perceive. However, the specialist may pay so much attention to his particular hobby, that he does not recognize facts that are obviously perceived by everyone else. In Figure 7, it can be demonstrated that a mistake in a message is not always easily found if one’s attention is distracted by ‘more important things’. Figure 8 shows an animal called a cow by most people. Specialists looking more intensely at small parts of the world, however, may see something different. Differences in perception result in the generation of not one, but several, plans to accomplish the same goal.
J
142
Figure 8. To most people a cow, but a specialist may see something quite different
It is a good thing to have a choice of alternative plans, until everyone is persistent in implementing his own plan.
problems in project management
Figure 7. It is not always message
L
easy to find the error in the
Progress control In this activity, many perception problems are to be expected, because it is normal to have someone executing a job and somebody else watching and comparing the situation with the plan. This man is called a supervisor, the person put in a (higher) position to oversee the progress of the works. However, it may not always be true that someone at a distance perceives progress in the same way as someone executing the job, the specialist ‘in touch’ with the job, so to speak. Some kinds of progress are even impossible to observe (Figure 9). Many research and development activities are like catching a fish. Regular progress control might even be counter-productive.
Figure tion of earliest angler
9. Difficulty of progress control, activity descripnetwork ‘catch a pike’; minimum weight: I kg; start: 6.00 am; latest finish: 6.00 pm; resource.. (regional champion)
Project
Management
Progress control is also difficult if the activity is made invisible. The executor of the job may unconsciously do that, like standing between the spectators and the blackboard, writing some very interesting things on it. If resources experience corrective actions as a punishment they may even deliberately mask progress. Stopping jobs This activity is not often recognized as an important job of a project manager, but naturally one has to know which jobs are in progress and which have to be stopped in case of a change of plan. Letting people do unnecessary work is very demotivating. Creation of alternative actions and decisions These are mainly thinking processes. During the processes of stopping tasks and creating alternative actions, observations may need to be made about the environment, and it is here that errors are possible again. For instance, in testing the applicability of a proposed action, one may need to know whether the necessary tools are available. Potential misunderstandings may be reduced if this management job is executed by a team. COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT
PROBLEMS
IN PROJECT
Communication between machines (tools) can be made very reliable, but communication between machines and people is more difficult to realize at an acceptable level. Ideally, every machine should be adapted or adaptable to the person using it, but communication between people is a more complex process - so many things can go wrong. The principal areas, where a message to be sent by a person S (sender) to a person R (receiver) may be distorted or blocked in its path, are shown in Figure 10. If S wants to tell R something, he ‘aims’ his message in the direction he expects to find R. He estimates ‘the wavelength’ the receiver is tuned in to, so to speak. Then he sends the message. However, the content is consciously and unconsciously filtered; he cannot, does
r
Tronsmlsslon lOSSi?S
_
*IS not allowed
dlfferent
I
to tell
dIrectIon
J
I
L Figure IO. Loss of information a message
Vol 2 No 3 August
1984
in sending
and receiving
not want to or is not allowed to convey everything to R. The line between S and R may blurr part of the message. At the reception end, some information is filtered out, because R’s interests are slightly differently directed, ‘tuned to another station’. In addition, R cannot, does not want to or is ‘internally’ not allowed to understand parts of the received message. Realizing this possible loss of information, it is a miracle that people often communicate quite well. To achieve a reasonable communication level, people use two ‘techniques’: They try to get information from the receiver about the reception of their message. The ideal is a continuous feedback. They put a considerable degree of redundancy into the message. All kinds of ‘nonessentials’ are added, somehow related or associated with the message content. Thus communication is hopefully improved by sending a system of data. The data can be put together in various ways, giving approximately the same message. The sender then ‘looks’ for signals from the receiver to assess whether the receiver has assembled the data in the right way. Generally, people communicate by making sounds such as body movements or and visual changes, showing paper with symbols on it. Smell and touch are less often used. It is necessary to learn and remember the meaning of the signals, before one can communicate. Everything obtained as an input must be associated with other things. The more frequently something is connected with the same signal, the more that particular signal acquires a meaning. It is obvious therefore that communication will be difficult. The receiver and sender can quite easily learn different meanings of the same signal. For example, if someone calls: ‘watch that bank’, you may be warned not to stumble over it, to watch an unexpected financial manoeuvre or to put your ship on another course. For good understanding of a signal, one must know who is sending it, his situation and one’s own situation. The reverse situation, two different signals having the same meaning, may also cause problems. To prevent them, one must learn the other person’s language. To achieve a project goal, good communication between all the people related to the project is essential. All kinds of communication problems may occur at any stage of the project management process. Some problems with a high probability of appearance in certain management stages will now be discussed. Some explanations will be given, but they are personal opinions of the author and have, to his knowledge, not (yet) been tested. Making a plan One of the most difficult tasks is to tell someone else what you wish to achieve for the future. It is easier to describe a situation as it actually is. The task may be made easier by asking the other person to observe the environment. It is also easy to describe a situation in the past. More information is available and many items have a name - a common identification for an item, agreed to by both the sender and receiver. Conse-
143
quently, the name is something that can be sent and received and is r&ted according to agreements with something “reat’ in a situation in the past or present. In trying to communicate a future sit~Iation, e.g. the project goals, one can only send symbolic ideas, related to meanings out of the past. However, it is a specific feature of f30~~0 .~~@etzs to communicate a future situation with the avail&& data (with a historical meaning). He uses many techniques to show someone else the future (as he sees it). He can do it with words, written. spoken or coded in binarv symbols. For exampIe: “This circle with number tenSin it means that the machine number six you ordered is packed and ready for shipment in hall ES*. This goat should be realized (should be made reai) next month!’ The receiver of such a message may buifd up from this data, together with a selection of data in his own possession, a complete ‘picture’ of a future situation. One of the problems encountered in project management when frying to implement network techniques (whether computer assisted or not) is caused by the use of symbols inappropriate to ‘painting’ a future situation. Design departments use better techniques. Drawings, printings and models are used to show pcopte future products. It is reaIiy too much to ask people to imagine that a square with some numbers and words on white paper is the new model T-Ford 1980 or the cathedrat in the new town to be buiit. In the near future, this drawback of network spanning will be changed. Soon the memory capacity of dataprocessing machines will be large enough to produce ‘rrat’ pictures (in stereo, if necessary). The problem will be CO find the people having the vision and at the same time the skills of an artist to make those pictures. Then one must find the people with the imagination to analyse the effects of these designs in order to choose the best ones out of the proposed alternatives?. Progress mntrd and stopping jobs These management phases invotve the co~~m~nicat~on of data connected with the present. Here probtems are more related to differences in assessment of the situatian, in seeing hindrances and (~pport~lnities. Tn these stages, one may be tempted to do the same as suggested in the section on making a plan. That is to present not only verbal or written notes about progress of the plan, but also to present. via modern electronic systems, the total picture of the situation right up to top management. There is a danger of by-passing middle m~~n~~gernentand supervision. Far too much data may be brought to top rn~~na~ern~nt in this way. Despite the fact that a top manager knows that he requires modern systems to run a large organizations it may be a mistake to expect him to become involved personally with running those systems, When trying to implement the tremendous potential of these tech“II this message were communicated by spceoh only. one coutd get the iden that the company named the v&us buildings after insects hall ‘hec’. hall ‘butterfly’ or ‘ant’. etc.
niques, it is worth remembering the political dimensions of the problem. When the organizati~~n fails, it is these systems and new techniques that show the manager has failed, and if he has been made personally responsible for the system he will go down with his s~~bordinates in the same way that a pilot must go down with his aircraft when it crashes. Hence, aversion to neatty prinfed progress reports could actuaIfy stem from the political level of the organization disliking their failures being shown in hard numbers. Creation of either corrective wtions or alternative goals communication could be enhanced by using more ‘holistic’ than sequential techniques. Tmagination is required to find creative ways out of situations that require one to improvise. imagination is also needed to anticipate the ways in which projects may be ‘sabotaged’ by fate. The notion of the so-called antiproject should be appreciated: the moment one begins planning a project, somewhere in the universe there is a ghostly project leader, planning antiproject. If both project leaders succeed in achieving their goals, nothing has happened (both projects annihilate each other), In order to succeed, one must attempt to visualize the antiproject and invent measures tu stay some steps ahead. The word “visualize’ demonstrates that the mind is working more with whnfe pictures than with sequent3 fines of reason. An idenf method of communicat~~~n would be the direct transfer of ‘dream pictures’ from one’s own brain to someone else’s so that discussion could take pface with both looking at exactly the same xhing.
An information-supporting system is a me:tns of improving the formation of i~~~orrn~~fion to enable one to make better decisions at the best possible moment. ~omm~~nication_sL~~~orting systems improve the process of sending. transferring and receiving inf~~rin~~tion. Tn the future. data-processing systems will become progressively cheaper and wit1 he able to produce complete pictures in addition to sequentially positioned data (sentences, rows, column numbers), Graphicat displays will soon be overtaken by the ‘real’ moving pictures we already see emitted from our television sets at home. This will have a strong impact on every stage of the project management process, positive as well as negative. In particular, the sending and receiving sides wit1 have to decide on certain issues. l What data will be put in and in what form? * How should data he put together to get the relevant information? * In what form should it be given to the receiver? * How should the output be interpreted? @ In what way does the receiver want to relate the data?
Answers will depend on the character of the persons putting data in and requesting information out of the system. That means that if one observes a system, operating s~tisfactor~ly~ it wili show the personalities on
the sending and receiving ends. A supporting system should be either ‘tailor made’ for the communicating people or perfectly neutral in respect to the data it contains and transports. Both kinds of system will be based upon a good relation between sender and receiver of data and information. They should know each other personally. This may become a problem, however. If people expect to be supported by increasingly sophisticated fast operating data-processing systems and then find out that they are asked to get thoroughly acquainted with all the people supposed to use the system, some of them may discover they do not like each other! Some experience has been gathered regarding the reactions of groups of 24 people, working together in a simulated multiproject situation. The same people were senders and receivers of written messages through a planning system and were communicating with each other person-to-person and in ‘offical’ meetings. The project problems they had to solve were partly made by themselves and partly made by some unknown entity (the antiproject leader). The supporting system worked as one unit. Everyone received information about the planning, and later the progress, of projects at the same time. Discussions and meetings were all timed exactly. This was a considerable drawback to the supporting planning and progress control system, once the most modern and sophisticated computer system in the world. For many people, the discipline necessary is not felt as ‘support’, but as a loss of freedom. (To ‘act quickly as a good manager should’.) One could ask what would happen if each of those 24 people acquired a monitor showing the data requested by them, linked to a database available to everyone. This game could be made as realistic as, for example, the training of pilots with a flight simulator. People in the model come to think of it as real. A less pleasant aspect of these developments may be that people in our society will become separated into two groups: one group experiencing the world contained in all the data-processing machines linked to each other, the other living in the real world perceived directly by their own senses. After some time, the two ‘worlds’ could diverge (see Figure 11). Fortunately, however, if you delete or erase an investment from the balance sheet, the machines purchased will not evaporate at the same time. One may still stumble over them.
quiet
prolert was cancelled o year ago He was SwItched outomotlcally to (I slmulatlon progrom.
Figure II. developments
AND
EDUCATION
The direction of training and education will be aimed at teaching people to use the new systems and to program and develop their own systems. The enormous production capacity of data processors will increase competition, and companies will persuade many people to find as many applications as possible. However, applications can only be found when users know the capability of the machines. A problem may develop if it is not realized that in teaching people to use all kinds of data-transmitting and processing apparatus, we may forget to teach them to communicate with each other. How can someone be trained to put himself at the receiving end when he is putting data into a system at the sending end and vice versa? This kind of education has nothing to do with microprocessors, computers or
Vol 2 No 3 August
lY84
Importance
of
being
aware
of
current
displays. It is about understanding oneself and learning to understand and accept other people. Until now, there has been a tendency to separate the education and training of people into two divisions. These urgently need to be integrated into one education system in order to manage the tools we have created for ourselves. Otherwise, the story of the sorcerer’s apprentice will come true. Another problem to be solved in the near future is the collapse of the status of certain specialists. Within living memory, a group of people performed an unchallenged function. The law officers, accountants, public notaries, clerks, etc. are all the people having a special status because they know how data should be, and is allowed to be, related to make sense. They all may lose their indispensability. Project management will be influenced by this kind of revolution. Today, we already see symptoms of it in discussions about project costs accounting and budget control systems. For example: l
TRAINING
maklng
He IS some Important decnons He doesn’t know the
l l
Which file should be controlled by the accountant: the content of the computer master file or the official books of the administrator, written and undersigned by him? Why not let a computer do the accountancy control? One accountant with a computer can control all industries in the Netherlands. Who should he report to?
In order not to run into a chaotic situation, it may be concluded that much training and education in effective and relevant use of the new systems is necessary. NORMALIZATION, AGREEMENTS
STANDARDIZATION
AND
Communication is only possible if both the receiver and sender know what the signals, sent and received, mean. They agree upon a relation between meaning
145
and the symbols transmitted in a codebook or a dictionary. If one does not want to be understood by someone else, one must make one’s own (secret) codebook. If people speak different languages and want to communicate with each other, they must exchange language dictionaries. It is a pity that we are not yet very far advanced in defining the language of project management. International projects, in particular, where people of various nationalities and cultures have to cooperate, are seriously hampered. This is not only due to the difference in language, but also because people insist on using the symbols and glossary they have invented themselves for, essentially, the same tasks. Does it matter that an activity can be symbolized by a rectangle or by an arrow? You may answer: ‘No, as long as you tell each other what symbol you use.’ But by accepting both symbols you only make the world more complicated. A newcomer might even think you are keeping some secrets from him. (A problem we have encountered in cooperating with developing countries.) An example of an already mentioned type of misunderstanding is shown in Figure 12 (a solution of the problem presented in Figure 5). Members of Internet have made a significant gesture by supporting steps to arrive at a common project management ‘language’. People of the medical profession use Latin to communicate data and information to perform their job in case they do not talk the same mother tongue, and to prevent misunderstandings to the detriment of the patients. With this concept in mind, it has been decided that the English language should be the ‘Latin’ of the project management profession. Of course, only individual participants at an Internet international seminar in Zurich have declared their support of this idea, and it cannot be given any official status, but the declaration, made then and there, is of significance, because so many people with broad project management experience supported it. This puts some responsibilities on the shoulders of the English-speaking people, to work hard on the standardization of terms, symbols and glossaries. The British Standards Institute (BSI) committee have worked hard and the time has come when other nations should start to connect terms, symbols and glossaries of their own native tongue to the BSI documents. POSSIBLE
PROBLEMS
Various aspects lar consideration. Planning
of managing
Progress l
l
l
a project
require
see
the
control
of corrective
actions
Is the concept of planning the antiproject so. how can we make use of it?
Education
useful?
If
and training
What kind of training do we think will be necessary in the near future? What kind of training is already lacking or forgotten? What needs to be the content of future project management training courses? Should we try to develop a general training in communication and the use of project management information systems or should we train the people involved just before starting particular projects? What are the circumstances in which one (or both) training alternatives are needed?
particu-
phase
Should we train people to explain their project goals better to other people? If yes, how? How can we get people to plan not only the project, but also the contingency plans? How can the new methods of processing complete pictures in project planning systems be used for project management?
people cannot may occur
What effects can we expect when people in the project increasingly communicate with each other via a data-processing system? Are the above concepts correct or should we control each project separately with the support of a ‘tailor made’ microprocessor/computer? What are the selection criteria?
Creation
TO DISCUSS
How can we demonstrate the importance of planned projects goals to other people? These people include o the people influenced by the project goal, o The people to execute the jobs, o the bodies ordering the project goals, o the environment.
146
Figure 12. If communicating entire object, misunderstandings
Job execution l
l
How one can manage jobs of the kind that are very obvious, like the example of catching a shown in Figure 9. These kinds of jobs can be found in research development. How can we manage innovation, coordinate thinking processes of various people? you need to manage them?
not fish and or Do
Standardization l
What steps should be taken to arrive at an international standardization of terms, symbols and glossaries for project management?
Project
Management
Organization l What effects on the project organization can be expected when all visual and oral communication is done via data-processing systems? l How can we acquire more knowledge about the way people communicate with each other? What research should be done? These questions demonstrate again that one fool may ask more than a thousand wise men could answer. However, this shows clearly that, to get some clarity for the nineties, mutual agreements are needed to support communication between people projecting the future.
REFERENCES Blankevoort, P J ‘Communication and project management’ Proc. Int. Internet Symp. Communication in Project Management Jersey, UK (26-30 March 1979) Blankevoort, P J ‘Systems information and effective
Vol 2 No 3 August
1984
action’ Znt. 1. Proj. Manage. Vol 2 No 1 (February 1984) pp 36-38 3 Kepner, C H and Tregoe, B B The rational manager: a systematic approach to problem-solving and decision-making McGraw-Hill, USA (1965) Pieter Jan Blankevoort was born on 20 December 1929 and studied at the Technical University of Delft, qualifying in 1955. After completing his military service, he joined Philips in 1957. He worked in several mechanical development departments of the audio and video divisions until 1966, when he moved to the Technical Eficiency and Organization Department. Here he is a consultant on efficiency and effectiveness of R & D, and his main areas are VAI VE, implementation of project management systems, educatic:z and training, and creativity.
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