Emergence of Techno-Project Managers in the Consulting Engineering Business Theme: Emerging Trends in Project Management Author: Mr. Sandip Shinde Co-Author: Dr. Urishanie Govender
Abstract: The consulting engineering industry is a collection of professionals, including engineers, architects and scientists who are lending integrated services and value-adding solutions on technical problems to their clients. Depending on the type and size of a client s project, the roles of professionals within consulting firms may range from purely technical, to coordinating or managerial, or a combination. It is therefore essential for such businesses to have groups of people who can sell their skills and demonstrate capabilities of delivering on-time, within budget and agreed client expectations. These are vital ingredients for winning clients work as well as confidence. To ensure effective control of project schedules and financials, growing consulting engineering firms are motivated to choose dual management functioning i.e. technical and project management. In light of various dual functioning impacts, it has become important to explore a common platform where the skills of the technical leader and project manager could complement each other. This is where we see the rise of Techno-Project Managers. The paper would discuss impacts of dual management functioning on the project parameters; demonstrated through qualitative impact evaluation survey, approach towards creating techno-project management environment, roles and responsibilities, utilisation strategy, etc. Key Words: Consulting Engineers, Techno-Project Managers, Halo Effect, Conflicts, Corroboration.
Table of Contents 1 Introduction 4 2 Organisational Managing Functions 5 2.1 Technical Managers 5 2.2 Project Managers 5 3 Effect of Dual Management Functioning 6 3.1 Clients Confidence 6 3.2 Decision Making 6 3.3 Superiority Conflicts 6 3.4 Team Attritions 7 3.5 Affordability 7 3.6 Halo Effect 7 4 Dual Management Functioning Impact Assessment 7 5 Emergence of Techno-Project Manager 9 5.1 Training Senior Technical Project Leaders 9 5.2 Developing Techno-Project Manager 10 5.2.1 Defining Competency Criteria 10 5.2.2 Identification and Assessment of Candidates 10 5.2.3 Professional Trainings and Certifications 11 5.2.4 Roles Requirements 11 5.2.5 Utilisation Strategy 12 6 Lessons Learnt 12 7 Conclusion 12 8 References 13 List of Figures Figure 1 Effect of Dual Functioning on Project Parameters 8
1 Introduction The consulting engineering business is simply a collection of professionals including engineers, architects and scientists, with a wide knowledge on specific fields or subject matters and is lending their services and expertise to identify innovative and value adding solutions to the technical problems. Most of these firms are either locally owned or international firms, with varying number of employees, that provide a wider range of services. The firms with a larger spectrum of specialised services have engineering professionals from various disciplines and speciality, and usually work in sector-wide teams. Their roles may range from purely technical, to coordinating or managerial, or any combination depending on the type and size of the client's project. The basic business driving force for these firms remains their technical acumens and expertise within their domain of works and services. Hence, it is essential for such conglomerates to have groups of people who can sell their expertise with effective responses that demonstrate their expertise and convictions. This is a vital ingredient for winning client s work as well as confidence. A project is defined as a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service or result [1]. The temporary nature of projects indicates that it has a defined beginning and end. The Project Management Institute (2015) reported that [2] only 64% of projects meet their goals with as little as 39% of all projects succeed (delivered on time, on budget, and with required features and functions). Highperforming organizations successfully complete 89% of projects, while low performers only complete 36% successfully. Low performers waste nearly 12 times more resources than high-performing organizations. The project success rate for infrastructure projects is reported as low [3]. This business brief suggests that the traditional technical manager s role can be enhanced to improve project success which will see the emergency of techno-project managers. The paper aims to demonstrate the value add of technoproject management expertise within infrastructure projects, their roles and competencies and recommends a phased approach for engineering companies to develop these managers within their organisations.
2 Organisational Managing Functions There could be common attributes in their functioning but to large extent the technical and project management functions operates in different environment and has separate roles to play. The roles of technical managers and project managers are discussed in subsequent sections. 2.1 Technical Managers The technical managers or project technical leads are those professional on projects who can offer sustainable engineering solutions to the technical problems based on best engineering practices, experiences from similar projects and within prevailing statutory regulations. These managers guide and mentor their teams and are aware of various design tools and technologies within the domain of their expertise. The project technical leaders are more concerned about meeting technical requirements of the project and through repetitive exposure to identical technical challenges, possess readily available design concepts and approaches. They also prepare technical reports and manage their team towards completing the design tasks applying best international practices. 2.2 Project Managers Project managers are project management professionals who have the overall responsibility for the successful initiation, planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of a project. They ensure that the project is completed on time, within budget, that the project's objectives are met and that everyone involved in project performs their tasks effectively. Project managers oversee that the project requirements are correctly understood, scope is properly defined and agreed, project risks are adequately identified and mitigations plans are prepared. In addition, they monitor and control the project progress indices viz. scope, budget and schedule as well as utilise the resources most efficiently to ensure that the desired results are achieved. They also, and the different interests of stakeholders are satisfied. The project manager has a combination of skills including an ability to ask penetrating questions, identify unstated assumptions and resolve conflicts, as well as the general management skills.
3 Effect of Dual Management Functioning To ensure effective control of project schedules and financials, growing consulting engineering firms are motivated to opt for dual management functioning i.e. technical and project management. Apart from cultural shifts, such approach may lead to the following impacts: 3.1 Clients Confidence As is the nature of engineering businesses, the representatives of consulting engineering firms are expected to have readily available solutions and demonstrate their expertise on the subject matter, be the technical, project management or project finance aspects. To meet these requirements, both managing functions have either to walk together for every interaction with client or buy-in time for providing the information on their subject matter. The prior option being not always feasible and the, latter may not be approved by the Clients due to increased cost implications. 3.2 Decision Making Due to interdependence of both functions, who share different job requirements, the decision making process and scheduling becomes challenging. The decisions made in isolation may negatively impact either of the functions and/or the project. The project manager has to depend on the technical manager for technical inputs and visa -versa, especially where the technical manager requires the project manager s inputs on client requirements, design data and project performance status report, etc. It is common that the project manager may lean into client s pressure and, commits to the deliverables without evaluating processing time and understanding current work load of his technical team. To this end, the client s expectations may not be met. 3.3 Superiority Conflicts The job responsibilities and expertise of two functions always remain vulnerable to conflicts. The project management is more of a delivery deadline driven function whereas technical management is more of satisfying technical requirements of the project in conformance to best engineering practices. Generally, project technical leadership has better technical appreciation of project than the project managers and irrespective of working in a corroborative environment, conflict situations may arise. The deliverable dates proposed by project manager on occasions may prove unrealistic to the technical manager and his team.
3.4 Team Attritions Inadequate appreciation for the technical aspect of the project by the project manager, during preparation of the project management plan introduces risks that the assumptions, design timelines etc. may not remain valid as the project progresses. This will not only encroach on the profit margins of the project but will frustrate the project team who will be required to work under pressure or repeat work. The uncertainty created in the team will result in decreased motivation levels with some team members preferring to transit to other sectors or search for other opportunities external to the organisation. 3.5 Affordability For small project, it becomes unviable to incur the costs of both managers. Also, during lean work flow periods, which are normal trend in consulting business, it becomes uneconomical for these firms to meet the expense of both management functions. 3.6 Halo Effect As stated, a project manager s role is to ensure that the project deliverables are completed on time and within budget. It also includes but not limited to; monitoring project updates, visiting and interact with clients, making project decisions, etc. On the other hand, technical mangers are required to do the desktop work most of their time and are more concerned about meeting the project technical requirements. These cross functions get motivated towards each other s job profiles, remunerations, etc. missing their own traits, specialisations and limitations. The team member may decide to opt for choosing either side as carrier path and may become victims of the Halo Effect 1 (Edward, 1920). 4 Dual Management Functioning Impact Assessment The qualitative evaluation of the impacts on various project parameters i.e. scope, time, cost and quality due to dual organisational functioning are given in Figure 1. It is important to note that there are no standardised methods for this type of impact assessment. The parameters selected to assess the impacts, as unpacked in Section 3, are as follows: Client Confidence 1 The halo effect describes an error in thinking in w hich one make specific inferences about a person, thing or process based upon a single trait or general impression. It creates a bias in future analysis w hen you have a preconceived notion of prior performance.
Decision Making Superiority Conflicts Team Attrition Affordability Halo Effect The impact scale range is set from very low (1) to very high (5). The impact assessment was completed by randomly selected (n=12) senior and junior manager within GIBB (Pty) Ltd. The result of the assessment is presented in Figure 1. Figure 1 Effect of Dual Functioning on Project Parameters From Figure 1, it is important to note that none of the managers rated any of the project parameters below 3, which strongly indicates that the impact of the dual project functions are being experienced on a day-to-day basis on the projects that are undertaken within GIBB. This emphasises the need for a study to unpack the impacts of the technical and project management/ dual functions on the different project parameters.
It could be seen from Figure 1 that the effect on the various parameters discussed under Section 3 ranges from 3 (moderate) to over 4 (high) which implies that the managers within GIBB agree that there is a moderate to high impact on project parameters as a result of the dual functions relating to technical and project management. Three project management parameters viz. Client s confident, Decision making and Superiority Conflicts were rated as having very high impacts. Importantly, the project parameter Decision Making relating to Project Scope was rated the highest by the GIBB Managers. The implication is that project managers are increasing experiencing project scope creep due to the demands of the dual project management -technical functions of a project. In addition, project manager are committing to deliverables without evaluating processing time and understanding the work load of the technical team. To this end, there are risks that the client s expectations will not be met and there will be project overspend. 5 Emergence of Techno-Project Manager In light of various dual functioning impacts, it is pertinent to explore a common platform where the skills of the technical leader and project manager could complement each other. This would be achieved through creating a Techno-Project Manager environment within the performing organisations. In mature companies, the strategy could be; Training Senior Technical Project Leaders, and Developing Techno-Project Managers. 5.1 Training Senior Technical Project Leaders In mature organisations, creation of a techno-project management culture should comprise that the senior staff is required to be assessed on their competencies, encouraged and trained. Generally, the senior technical staffs of the company are good at delivering their domain specific tasks as well as to extent the general management aspects. However, the planned and systematic project and programme management training can add to their skills towards cost effective team/sector management. Programme management elements to be included in the development of these seniors include: Basic project management modules which will include scheduling, costing and team dynamics;
Contractual elements of the project specifically scope creep management and managing the client s changing expectations throughout the project life cycle Programme management which involves multiple projects within a department or sector Portfolio management which empowers the senior to manage sector level projects. 5.2 Developing Techno-Project Manager While developing the senior project technical leaders, it should be equally emphasised that the junior technical staff are also motivated and nurtured towards the techno-project manager culture. This could be achieved in two phase s viz. (i) to encourage the existing selected staff to attain the desired level of technical competency and then (ii) develop them to fulfilling Techno-Project Managers function through project management training interventions. This should be done carefully considering; individual s interests, aspirations, professional attributes and competencies. The following processes will prove handy to develop Techno-Project Managers: Defining competency criteria, Identification and assessment of the candidates, Professional Training and Certifications, Defining the Role Requirements, and Utilisation Strategy. 5.2.1 Defining Competency Criteria Based on area of the services provided, the minimum criteria s with time frame for achieving domain specific competencies should be established so that the aspirants are ensured to meet the technical competencies of the core business. Along with on-the-job mentoring and training, the candidates should be motivated to register with relevant professional bodies or institutions. 5.2.2 Identification and Assessment of Candidates During their growth as technical professionals and analysing their interests and professional traits, the individuals may be considered as a candidate for Techno-Project Manager route or a project technical leader. However, the necessity of achieving the technical competency should be declared upfront to these individuals.
Towards the end of the mentorship period; the individual should be examined to establish their technical competency followed by the evaluation to check their aptitude for them being groomed as Techno-Project Managers. During selection process it is pertinent to ensure that the selection is not a result of halo effect. 5.2.3 Professional Trainings and Certifications On selection, the individuals should be put through requisite project management as well as leadership training programs and should comprise of but not limited to scope management, quality management, risk management, time management, cost management and team management. During the training process, they may also be encouraged to acquire their accreditation equivalent to Professional Project Manager (PMP), PRINCE, etc. This not only adds value to the individual s competence but also add to the firm s marketability. 5.2.4 Roles Requirements The professional attributes of a Techno-Project Manager would be a combination of technical manager and a professional project manager. The minimum role requirements of Techno-Project Manager are, but not limited to, as following: - Understanding technical, commercial requirements and environmental impact of the project, - Delineate Project Scope of Works and get it approved by Client, - Make realistic project fees estimates, - Develop realistic and achievable Project Management Plan for agreed scope of works, - Breakdown scope of works to manageable work packages, - Identify skills require to perform the work packages and needs for teams external on-job training, - Develop deliverable schedule and guide project team on technical requirements, assumptions, etc. - Have interpersonal, communication and team management skills, - Get the project technical leader to committed for on-time deliverables, - Attend project meetings and manage project teams and other stakeholders, - Prepare and present project status reports to the stakeholders, - Manage and control project scope, cost, time, risks, quality of the project, - Ensure proper project close-out.
5.2.5 Utilisation Strategy Based on the experience, nature and complexities of the project handled by techno-projects managers; the may be categorised as; Candidate Techno-project Managers, and Senior Techno-project Managers. Depending on project size, budget, disciplines involved in project, the utilisation strategy the technomanagers may be devised. The small sized projects may be given to the candidate techno-project manager to manage and he can be mentored by senior project manager. There could be multiple techno-project managers involved on the project depending the disciplines involved and would be responsible managing their work packages. In such scenario, these project managers would be reporting to the senior. The different levels of project managers will allow for leveraging of resources within different project budget sizes. 6 Lessons Learnt Project management is gaining momentum within the consulting engineering environment. Organisations need to embrace project management principles and upskill their project engineers to be able to deliver on the changing client demands. Businesses must continue to deliver at the high quality technical demands while at the same time develop solutions for successful project management. 7 Conclusion The dual Techno-Project management function is affecting the project parameters with Client s Confident, Decision Making and Superiority conflicts being rated the highest. Hence, it is emphasised that within consulting engineering, there is a need for creating a project management environment and developing technical or domain specific project managers. The client s technical as well as other project requirements must be understood and complemented to address client expectation and risks of project scope. It is also essential for the firm to develop smooth transformation paths for individuals to move from their predominately technical function to embrace the project management function.
The emerging Techno-Project Managers would be well positioned to deliver successful projects and instil client confidence. These mangers would prove ideal choices for branding and marketing the firm and could be competent candidates for future leadership positions. 8 References [1] Project Management Institute, A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge, Fifth Edition, Project Management Institute, 2013. [2] https://www.wrike.com/blog/complete-collection-project-management-statistics-2015. [3] McKinsey Mega Projects, 2015 Report.