Developing Your HR Project Management Skills

Last Friday I attended my first North Ryde HR Network seminar at the Stamford Hotel. They had organised for David Byrum and Chris Geraghty from Kepner-Tregoe to present to HR professionals on their approach to project management, and this was something I haven’t learned a lot about, so I was keen to hear what they had to say.

Many of us in the room hadn’t heard of Kepner-Tregoe so I’ll tell you a little bit about them first.

Kepner-Tregoe  was founded in 1958 by Charles Kepner and Benjamin Tregoe. They provide consulting and training services to organizations throughout the world (actually they mentioned they service 44 countries in over 14 different languages!). There people are engineers and science grads who have held line management positions. Some of their clients include Cadbury, BlueScope Steel, BHP Billiton, CSR and Goodman Fielder.

Essentially they help organisations to actually implement their strategies by developing individuals and teams to use more effective problem-solving, decision-making and project execution methods. They told us they are known as ‘the process guys’.

Before I take you through their approach to project management, I’ll share a few of their insights into why we actually need project management.

One of the first things they talked about was the burning need for change. They argued that if the need wasn’t made explicitly clear, the organization would not be ready to move into solutions mode. This is illustrated in their ‘Needs Solution Cycle’ below.

A few key things I found interesting:

• Their definition of what a project was. They define it as ‘the vehicle to implement a decision that has already been made’, which again implies the need to identify the need, complete a thorough analysis and decide what needs to be done before launching the project.
• They say that projects typically fail at the definition point in the initial stages.
• Projects should come from the strategic plan not to drive strategy.

Kepner-Tregoe’s approach to Project Management

Based on three phases.

1)     Project definition

2)     Project Planning

3)     Project Implementation

View the presentation with further explanations on each component.

Finally I’ll leave you with their 10 project success factors- something to think about in terms of your own projects.

• Project team commitment

• Accurate initial cost estimates

• Project team capabilities

• Funding throughout the project

• Effectiveness of planning and control

• Minimum start-up difficulties

• Task Vs Social orientation of the team

• Absence of bureaucracy

• Project manager on site

• Clear criteria for success

If you are interested in joining this network, please email Zaklina Pecenpetelovska. The calendar of events for next year should be coming out in mid December.