This paper examines two distinct dimensions of program management. The first section applies Belbin's team role framework to two real-world projects — a corporate marketing plan for social work organizations and a motorcycle launch in India — identifying the Co-ordinator and Completer Finisher as the most appropriate team structures for each. The second section provides a detailed analysis of agile project management, contrasting it with conventional (waterfall) approaches. Key agile concepts such as defining the customer, features, and "done" are explored, alongside documentation practices and scope and risk management. The paper concludes that agile methods are better suited than traditional approaches for managing the dynamic, changing nature of modern software development projects.
In order to find a way through which the success of teams could be predicted, Dr. Meredith Belbin, a management psychologist, worked in collaboration with Henley Management College in the early 1970s. Business simulations were used to run experiments for the research. Participants were divided according to different psychological types, such as whether they were introvert or extrovert. It was his hope to find a perfect team mix. Within five years he was able to establish the fact that in particular types of projects, specific clusters or patterns could be used to predict the success of a team (Bennett, 2001). There is often a preference found among individuals regarding these clusters. He also established that no single team can ever be perfect for every task (Belbin, 1981; 1997; 2001).
Nine clusters were subsequently identified by Belbin. These clusters were called team roles, and he defined them as "the tendency of an individual to interrelate, behave, and contribute to others present in a team in a particular manner." Names were given to these clusters as well — some of which are Monitor, Shaper, Evaluator, and Plant. The purpose behind giving these names is that they provide a clue regarding the kind of behavior exhibited by an individual who occupies that cluster in the team (Belbin, 1996; 1997; 2000).
Belbin was able to predict which particular team would succeed in which particular scenario by studying the strengths that individuals would bring into a group in order to perform a specific task. This analysis reinforces the hypothesis that a team's success relies on the interdependence and mix of its members (Belbin, 1993; 1997; 2000; 2001).
In 2008 a change in the economic environment occurred and the world faced recession. In 2010, the UK Government borrowed finance from international sources in order to protect the British economy from collapsing. In the middle of that year there was a change in Government, and with this change came new financial policies designed to reduce UK debt. A decrease in Government spending was anticipated as a result of these policies, and it would be social work-related funding that would face a significant financial impact in 2011. These funds would be reduced by 7–20% from the funds available to the Scottish Government over four years.
The reduction in funding for social causes would require Marketing to seek other revenue options that would help social forums continue providing their services to a wider community.
The targets and activities explained in Marketing Operating Plan(s) have marketing strategies as their parameters. The following strategic priorities were identified:
Family Values building should be presented and reinforced in such a manner that excellence is provided in the development of moral and value building. More values should be identified, developed, and promoted in order to be added to the things that staff and society in general need to work upon. A balanced and demand-led portfolio should be supported, one that is able to meet the needs of both workers and the community. In order to support this field, profitable commercial activities should be identified, developed, and promoted to generate income. Through excellent employee relations and teamwork, a positive culture and development should be continued. Robust information should be maintained and provided in order to have effective external and internal communication with key stakeholders.
The social work should be positioned and reinforced with regard to family value building, establishing Centers of Excellence in values and moral development.
With the help of excellent teamwork and employee relations, the development of a positive culture should be continued. It is very important to learn not only to reward individuals but also to recognize the importance of these rewards during times of economic constraint, in which individuals have played their part in developing the importance of family and its values.
In order to improve the image of family building, its values and morals, it is important to seek external recognition from groups, events, and individuals who are working independently or have collaborated with the community at a wider level. The Human Resources as well as the Marketing and Sales Centre will conduct research through which external additional benefits will be provided to valued employees who have been working towards the promotion and development of family values.
Social interaction should be developed in the community, and the Marketing and Sales Team should make efforts to promote social activities, charitable functions, and similar events. In order to improve awareness of family values and morals, social workers will continue to promote the benefits of strong family bonds. Social workers will continue to develop their position as a support to communities and encourage people to become part of national and local organizations working towards the betterment of society as a whole. Workers have decided that in order to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their processes as well as the performance indicators, they will reward, promote, and recognize groups of employees and individuals.
The appropriate team structure for this project is one that consists of a team of Co-ordinators. Co-ordinators are considered to be calm, controlled, and confident people who mostly have a mature approach and outlook. The whole team is the focus of a Co-ordinator; he or she pays close attention to how team goals can be achieved and how all staff and employees should work together. One of the most important characteristics of a Co-ordinator is the ability to organize and control the team in a calm manner in order to ensure that the finest collective performance is achieved by making use of available resources (Belbin, 2001).
Allowable weaknesses:
A low level of creativity; a strong structural focus that may not always be clear on output.
Behaviors to avoid:
Taking credit when the team is successful or assigning blame when it faces failures; masking obstinacy or rigidity through the use of calm determination.
Top guidelines for Co-ordinators as managers:
Making use of your talents in order to get the most out of your team can be done quite easily from a positional advantage. A Co-ordinator should have clear objectives and should regularly monitor progress in order to make sure that sight of goals is not lost (Belbin, 2001).
Robust information should be maintained in order to have effective external and internal communication. Positive PR, views, and achievements should be communicated through magazines and newspapers. Within organizations doing social work, intranets should be used for the purpose of internal communication among staff and employees. There should be an internal material bulletin board containing all the agendas and goals that social workers need to work upon, helping all involved to understand what the agenda is and what needs to be done.
Opportunities should be maximized and risks regarding the use of social networks for communication should be managed. Social interactions should be increased between social workers. Accurate information should be present for press releases and publications in a form that would arouse interest in the community and attract more people. Negative and positive publicity should be responded to in such a way that the values of the organization are reflected. Communications materials and publicity should be monitored to ensure compliance with the values, policies, and procedures of the organization. A quarterly external news bulletin should be issued that highlights the achievements and awards received and given by the organization to individuals and employees.
On the regional and local levels the specialty engineering industry has very strong competition, whereas this competition is weak on the national level. It is difficult to obtain sales figures in this industry as very little business is done on a national scale.
In the engineering industry there is weak competition in the software-based segment of motorcycle production and relatively stronger competition in the paper segment. Right now a dominant market share is held by the paper segment, amounting to approximately 90%. The software segment is growing very quickly as well. The remaining 10% of the software-based share is divided among various firms. With the increase in popularity of the software-based segment, additional competition is expected to enter the market.
The overall promotion budget has been reduced by many companies throughout the nation as they have faced the need to reduce expenses. Most of these reductions have taken place in mass media advertising. This trend is likely to continue due to the weak and slowly growing economy.
The operations of the engineering company will not be significantly affected by political events or influences.
A great deal of attention has recently been paid to the issue of "junk mail." A large percentage of specialty advertising is distributed through the mail and some of it is considered to be "junk." Legislation may be introduced to control this tide of mail-delivered advertisement. However, the fact that more and more companies are diverting to this method suggests they do not fear increased legislation.
Personal digital assistants (PDAs) and personal information managers (PIMs) are now the major technological trends. If these trends continue to increase, there will soon be a need for software-based products to adapt to match this new technology.
Today, consumers have very little time with regards to leisure or work. Ease of use and convenience are the hallmarks of successful products. Therefore, it is very important for any product to be easy to use and to save time in order for consumers to adopt it.
The appropriate team structure for this project is one made up of Completer Finishers. The terms most often used to describe Completer Finishers are conscientious, painstaking, detailed, and orderly. They have an outstanding ability to follow through, and generally will not start something they cannot finish. One of the major contributions made by Completer Finishers is ensuring that all efforts being made by the team are as perfect as possible (Belbin, 2001).
Allowable weaknesses:
An unwillingness to delegate — they feel it is much better to get the job done themselves; putting more focus on detail even when it may affect the outcome of the whole project.
Behaviors to avoid:
Letting anxiety get the better of you and have a negative impact on the morale of the team; not letting team members help even when you are really overburdened.
Top guidelines for Completer Finishers as managers:
Try to achieve a balance between the practical outcomes required for the team and your personal need for perfection. Delegation should be done in an effective manner in order to avoid becoming overburdened (Belbin, 2001).
Agile project management is commonplace, and its popularity has increased over the years. "At the end of 2012, agile development process will replace 80% of software development projects. PMI's research shows that agile use has quadrupled from December 2008 to May 2011" (PMI, 2012).
Most people deem the agile approach to managing projects to be completely different from the conventional approach. The definition does vary from that defined in the Project Management Institute's Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide). In many editions of Kathy Schwalbe's Information Technology Project Management, a case study was given where key outputs shaped the planning, initiating, monitoring, controlling, executing, and closing of a project to make a website for a fictitious company called JWD Consulting. The case employed a waterfall or prescriptive approach; the product was completed and delivered as the project ended. The same project is revisited in the seventh edition, stressing the notable differences when an agile method is applied to managing the project. Teachers of project management must be well aware of agile methods and able to explain how they are employed and how they differ from conventional project management methods (PMI, 2012).
Teams do not generally simply decide to manage a project using agile method on a whim. It is more like determining whether to drive a car or fly in an airplane. The decision must be made logically for a specific situation. A person would take an airplane if a trip is to be kept to a minimum with the least sightseeing. If a tour with sightseeing along the way is necessary, then a car would apparently be selected (Schwalbe, 2014).
In the same way, organizations must use logic to decide whether to employ an agile or prescriptive approach for managing their projects. Projects involving inexperienced staff, dispersed teams, heavy criteria, and bigger risks benefit from a predictive approach to clarify requirements and establish a completion date. On the other hand, projects with less tight constraints that require more experienced and dedicated teams, small risks, fluid demands, and extensive scheduling are more aligned with the agile approach (Schwalbe, 2014).
The conventional project management approach deems rework and change to be a costly aspect of any software development project. It therefore tries to lessen and prevent change through documentation, planning, and design. Traditional project management assumes that if change occurs during a project, inadequate planning, design, and documentation are to blame. Conventional techniques advise a development path that moves in an orderly manner by establishing subsystems — foundational layers are laid first, then middle layers, and final touches are added last (Beck, 2000).
Correspondingly, agile project management deems the failure of a project to be an expensive byproduct of the software development process — that is, a product not shipped, gone awry, market value not realized, or quality issues arising (Beck, 2000). This means that change is inevitable and must be managed rather than prevented. Agile project management keeps documentation, planning, and designing to a minimum and is more focused on delivering a working product to the client in an efficient manner. Subsystems are built and programs are coded to support the necessary features along the way (Beck, 2000).
"Defining the three foundational agile concepts"
"Agile documentation practices and risk management approach"
Conventional project management is not adequate enough to cater to the changing nature of embedded software projects. In this context, agile project management is well positioned to aid and equip project managers as well as software development teams in coping with risks, budgets, schedules, and scopes. By embracing change rather than resisting it, and by keeping the focus on delivering working, valuable features to the client, agile methods ensure that a genuinely valuable product is created.
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