Organizational Input Requirements
A project manager is always faced with the task of pricing the jobs that he wants to hire employees to take on a given project. Such a project manager will have a variety of procedures that he can choose to follow in job pricing. The job pricing task is mainly carried out to ensure that the jobs are neither low priced nor high priced. The first step in establishing job prices is for a project manager to identify and carry out the benchmark job.
Benchmark jobs are the jobs that are already known and can be found in a similar form in other organizations. Such jobs are meant to represent other jobs across departments, pay levels; institution and job responsibilities. The project manager gets to familiarize himself with how other organizations are paying for similar jobs and responsibilities attached to a given job. This enables him to mimic the pay to their organizations (Kerzner, 2013).
Secondly, the project manager should carry out an appropriate survey. In this step, he should assign every job with its responsibilities. A job that carries more responsibilities should have a higher pay than a job with fewer responsibilities.
The project manager should then match the job with the basis of the essential functions required by the job and the job summary. Other personal related details such as; the level of education, experience requirements, skills available and reporting structure should also be included in job pricing. A variety of appropriate surveys should be conducted to guarantee that the jobs are averagely allocated to the best and appropriate price. Lastly, all jobs should be updated to a standard point in time using an efficient update factor (Norman, & Brotherton, 2008).
Start to Finish
Performance characteristics are a useful measure in determining the price that a certain job may attract. A person who is to be considered for a certain job post must have an outstanding performance record. There is no accurate medium that can be used to determine the performance of a given an individual. Nevertheless, there are some general characteristics that are directly attributed to excellent performance. A good communicator will always communicate and pass information to people at all levels.
Project managers identify communication as the second most vital skill that team members should possess. Such employees can effectively communicate their goals, performance and expectations and also get the feedback from the field. A leader and employees should also possess the negotiation skills where they can persuade people to ensure the team, and the project will have successful results. Performance is also ganged with integrity, enthusiasm, competence, team building skills and problem-solving skills (Kerzner, 2013).
Initial Pricing Activities
During any project pricing activities, there are important factors that a project manager should consider including in a work breakdown structure. During that process, all the stakeholders should meet to discuss the format that will be used in the project. This is done through the utilization of the teams, experience, expertise and creative thinking. The bottom-up estimation approach is considered as the most time-consuming method.
However, it is the most accurate since it has detailed project plans from the start of the project the end. The fist step that the manager should take is the identification of all project tasks that are required. The projects are then broken down into manageable sizes and assigned to different employees. The process helps in attributing costs and duration of work to every project unit, hence able to check the project standard for the broken-down structures (Williams, 2012).
The second step is to make estimates on tasks and then identify their dependencies. This creates a useful company’s reference point and future change in the management. Dependencies help the employees to adapt to the change in organizational structure, hence less need of changing the scope of work allocated. The last step is the process of determining the resources that are required, and when to complete the task.
A complete and accurate schedule is required where the manager is required to investigate the skills people, equipment, supplies, and the experience needed. However, during the project management venture risk are involved among them include the financial risk. According to this risk fund may run out when the project is continuing, hence makes it hard to deliver the project on time.
It is important to make strategic financial plans and have a wide range of sponsors and creditors who can provide support to the project. The second most predominant risk is an operational risk; this is common where new technology and practices are involved. The manager should consult with the relevant managers and expertise to eliminate the risk. Additionally, safety risk assessment protocol should be followed (Norman, & Brotherton, 2008).
Common Risk
The resources risk are the highest type of risk that the project can go through, employees and human resource are considered as the most valuable assets in any firm. Projects that involve a large number of employees are usually difficult to handle such a big number. In a situation where a firm may want to bring a new worker at a latter stage a project can be slow and may be completed at a later date than the agreed time. When an experienced and skilled employee leaves a project, the firm may suffer as they try to fill the vacant post left behind. It is essential to ensure that the firm has employees who are skilled in all areas to avoid a stop of the project when it is in session (Williams, 2012).
References
Kerzner, H. (2013). Project management a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (11th ed.). Hoboken, New York: John Wiley.
Norman, E., & Brotherton, S. (2008). Work breakdown structures the foundation for project management excellence. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.
Williams, C. (2012). Introduction to management: MGMTs a student-tested, faculty-approved approach: 5th Edition. Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.