DİPLOMATİK YAZIŞMA VE PROTOKOL - Deneme Sınavı - 13

You may feel “disconnected” from your technical discipline is not one of them

first users are not one of them

Managers focus on systems

Joint manageability is not one of them

Attending and passive participation in the meetings is not one of them

Project Manager (PM) has been described in different ways in many studies. A PM is the person who leads a project from its phases of initiation to closure in the project life cycle. This also includes the planning, managing people and resources, and performing of the project. Thus, the PM must possess disparate set of skills such as management of conflict, team and risk change, leadership, technical problem solving, and customer relationship. These skills could be extended, but the main point is: “The PM is the one who gets the jobs done!”. The answer is A.

Perfect visionary: The project manager needs to be able to see the few steps ahead and estimate the results of the existing actions. A visionary project manager can take the team members in the right direction and easily adapt to changes on their way. The answer is D.

Powerful communication skills: A PM must be a good communicator so that he/she can connect with people either in the project team or other at all levels. The PM must clarify the goal of the project together with the responsibilities and tasks of team members, expectations and feedback. The answer is B.

The Pros and Cons of Becoming a Project Manager 

Pros:

• It can often be a steppingstone to promotion.

• It provides a strong sense of accomplishment.

• There’s considerable variety: no two days are alike.

• There’s signicant freedom of choice.

• It aords the opportunity to eect change across the organization.

Cons:

• It requires signicant tolerance for politics.

• It requires signicant tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty.

• There’s a lot of responsibility, but little or no authority.

• You may feel “disconnected” from your technical discipline.

• You may be perceived by some as not having “a real job.”

The answer is D.

Pros:

• As a PM, there are various industries, companies and consultancy opportunities that you can work. Hence, you can be an IT project manager, a consulting project manager, or even a movie project manager. Thus, you have a chance to experience different environments.

• As your project topic and project teams change, you will always havethe opportunity to learn new things. 

• It can be a very valuable job to successfully close a project by thoroughly completing its steps and to see the results achieved by your team.

• You have an influential leadership position that canmake positive change at all levels of an organization.

Cons:

• Sometimes the requirements of a project, the steps to be taken later, and all the resources available to implement the project are vast question marks. A PM needs to develop the ability to act on uncertain conditions and focus on the next step.

• The ability of the project manager to manage team members, resources, and programs is often based on discussion with managers, department managers, and even other project managers. This brings a lot of responsibility but a lack of authority. PMs must have extensive interpersonal skills to deal with this.

• As mentioned under the pros, you may be a PM in an environment different from your occupation or background. You may feel that you are away from your technical discipline. 

• Since a project has a start and a finish date, a PM’s job is going to end when the project is completed. Therefore, it may be perceived that you do not have a real job by others.

The answer is C.

Leadership is the process by which PM influences the project team to get the job done! The leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization to achieve the goals. The answer is B.

The idea of leadership as a partnership is crucial for project management because it emphasizes the importance of all leaders ultimately dependent on their teams to achieve their project objectives. Four things are required to develop the idea of partnership between the project manager and the team:

1. Exchange of purpose: Partnerships require that every worker be responsible for defining the project’s vision and goals. A steady dialogue between the project manager and team members can create a consistent and widely shared vision. 

2. A right to say no: It is critical that all members of the project team feel they have the ability to disagree and to offer contrary positions. Supporting people’s right to voice their disagreements is a cornerstone of a partnership. Losing arguments is acceptable; losing the right to disagree is not. 

3. Joint accountability: In a partnership, each member of the project team is responsible for the project’s outcomes and the current situation, whether it is positive or shows evidence of problems. The project is shared among multiple participants and the results of the project are also shared.

4. Absolute honesty: Partnerships demand authenticity. An authentic atmosphere promotes straightforwardness and honesty among all participants. Because we respect each team member’s role on the project, we make an implicit pact that all information, both good and bad, becomes community information. Just as honesty is a cornerstone of successful marriages, it is critical in project team relationships.

The answer is E.

Joint accountability: In a partnership, each member of the project team is responsible for the project’s outcomes and the current situation, whether it is positive or shows evidence of problems. The project is shared among multiple participants and the results of the project are also shared. The answer is A.

A project team consists of a group of people who have come together to carry out activities that contribute to achieving the goal of a common task. A PM builds up a project team of skilled  employees from the same or different function areas to work on a project. In this sense, Sundstrom, Meuse and Futrell defined team as “an interdependent collection of individuals who work together towards a common goal and who share responsibility for specific outcomes of their organizations”. Since the project teams work on specific projects, this definition is generally appropriate.

Staffing and building a project team as well as encouraging cross-functional cooperation among team members are not supporting topics in project management but those are the key behavioral skills that PMs face and manage. Staffing and building will be introduced in the following section. A project team consists of team members from different departments of an organization, thus most project teams can be classified as cross-functional teams. The cross-functional team may include team members from the departments of Research and Development (RD), finance, marketing, human factors, etc. and from all levels of the organization. In addition, members may also be from external stakeholders such as suppliers and consultants. Pinto mentioned one project on project teams which has uncovered a set of critical factors that contribute to cross-functional cooperation. The answer is A.

Parker indicated four styles of team members where each contributed in different ways to the success of the team, and each style had a downside when carried to an extreme. According to Parker’s study:

• A Contributor is a task-oriented team member who enjoys providing the team with good technical information and data, does his or her homework, and then pushes the team to set high performance standards and to use their resources wisely. 

• A Collaborator is a goal-directed member who sees the vision, mission, or goal of the team as paramount but is flexible and open to new ideas, is willing to pitch in and work outside his or her defined role, and is able to share the limelight with other team members.

• A Communicator is a process-oriented member who is an effective listener and facilitator of involvement, conflict resolution, consensus building, feedback, and the building of an informal, relaxed climate. 

• A Challenger is a member who questions the goals, methods, and even the ethics of the team, is willing to disagree with the leader and others, and encourages the team to take well-conceived risks.

The answer is D.

Good foreign language skills is not one of the attributes of the project manager that determine their roles in a project.

Suppliers are external stakeholders. Resource manager, team members, program manager and sponsors are internal stakeholders.

Portfolio steering committee is one of the internal stakeholders.

The leadership is the action of leading a group of people or an organization to achieve the goals.