4.4.2 Relationship-oriented behaviours
Managing and coordinating work
Once the project work begins, the project manager's job is to manage the work, and coordinate the efforts of different team members and different bodies within the organisation, in order to achieve the project's objectives.
Managing change
Few projects, if any, work out exactly as they were initially planned. Problems arise that require changes to plans. These may be short term (e.g. delaying a particular task because a necess
4.3.2 Setting goals and objectives Whatever the structure and culture of an organisation and the range of people involved, goals and objectives are usually seen as a valuable management tool. This is as relevant to a project team as it is to a whole organisation. What I will focus on here are some of the tensions and ambiguities surrounding the management of goals, especially in the context of team development. To be effective in clarifying and achieving the team task, we need to take account of the variety of (often conflicti
4.3.1 ‘Players in the game’ A surprisingly large number of people in addition to the project manager and project team members can be involved in one way or another with projects. All of these people are important to some degree either because they are affected by the outcome of the project, or because they can affect its outcome, favourably or adversely. These various ‘players’ in the project ‘game’ may only be involved peripherally. It is important to be aware of who all the players are and what role they play
4.1 Types of projects Formal projects are a familiar part of nearly all work situations and are often a staple part of some organisations. Because of this it is worth looking at some of the features of formal projects and their management, as they have some different characteristics from other ongoing activities. To write about projects, we have to define what they are and describe how they arise. Projects and project work are often contrasted with process: ‘process’, in this sense, describes the normal
3.3 Conclusions The main points made in this reading have been: Groups cannot be understood simply in terms of the interactions between individual members because: Â individuals have contracts with the group as a whole and this is distinct from their relationships with other members of the group on a one-to-one basis; people behave differently in groups; there are simply too many poss
3.2.6 The creative cycle The creative cycle refers to the cycle of development that takes place within a single meeting of a group, as opposed to the longer-term cycle just described which may occur over many meetings. As in the case of the longer-term cycle, the creative cycle can be thought of as occurring in four phases: nurturing, energising, peak activity and relaxing (Author(s):
3.2.5 Group development Next on the list of priorities in the functioning of groups is the process of group development. One popular conception of the way in which groups ‘gel’ and become effective was first suggested by Tuckman (1965) and then extended by Tuckman and Jensen (1977). Tuckman originally identified four stages in this development process, which he named ‘forming’, ‘storming’, ‘norming’ and ‘performing’. These stages (see Author(s):
3.2.4 Functional and team roles When individuals are being selected for membership of a team, the choice is usually made on the basis of task-related issues, such as their prior skills, knowledge, and experience. However, team effectiveness is equally dependent on the personal qualities and attributes of individual team members. It is just as important to select for these as well. When we work with other people in a group or team we each bring two types of role to that relationship. The first, and more obvious, is our
6.5 Market experience It is some 20 years since the Topper project was conceived by Peter Bean, Technical Director of Rolinx and Ian Proctor, the designer of the original GRP boat. Sales initially were excellent, especially to sailing schools and clubs where there was much demand for a small, light and very safe sailing boat for children. But after that, the market became saturated, sales were heavily dependant on individuals and families, so decreased despite attempts to export the boat to the USA and Israel, for
6.4 Case history: the Topper boat Replacement of one polymeric material by another may be undertaken entirely for manufacturing reasons, and this is what happened in the redesign of the Topper dinghy for thermoplastic polymer. The dinghy was originally designed for hand lay-up GRP in 1969 by Ian Proctor, a well known designer of small boats and yachts (Figure 61
5.5.1 Non-uniform mixtures Moulded rubbers and plastics are compounds of a polymer matrix and a variety of additives. The mixing history of the material before and during the moulding process can have a critical influence upon the final product properties. If mixing is done badly then the microstructure of the moulding can be non-uniform. Lack of uniformity can cause variations of strength and other physical properties within the moulding. The degree of dispersion or distribution of relatively minor quantities of addit
4.1 Understanding the polymerization process Converting monomer to long chain polymer is the final step in the polymer manufacturing sequence. Polymerization is usually highly favourable in thermodynamic terms, mainly on energetic grounds because ordering molecules into linked chains is a process where the entropy is decreased. Heat is always given out during polymerization owing to the very favourable energetics of reaction, a point you may have noticed if you have ever made GRP parts for your car, for example! Advances in cataly
Stage 2: The situation analysed The first step is to develop a picture (called in soft systems terminology a rich picture) that encapsulates all the elements that people think are involved in the problem. Once the rich picture has been drawn, the analyst will attempt to extract ‘issues’ and key tasks. Issues are areas of contention within the problem situation. Key tasks are the essential jobs that must be undertaken within the problem situation. 1.5 Increasing complication, complexity and risk: the underlying relationship Figure 3 showed five commonly encountered problems of effecting different types of change. These are notionally located on a spectrum of change that ranges from no change at all, to complete revolution. The relationship suggested on the figure is that as the degree of change – represented 2.3 Style and rhetoric In the dialogues in Section 2.2, Plato, the author, is trying to point out convincingly the features of a ‘virtuous’ life and, therefore, offers templates for presenting a case with an ethical content. In looking at the style of the dialogues, most of Protagoras is in the form of a narrative similar to something you might find in a novel, as I suggested earlier. Meno is much more like a play script, but it is noticeable that Meno (the character) mostly agrees with what 1.2 Ethical examples But is this a tenable position? In other words, is it only the people who use the technologies who carry the ethical burden? Conversely, is ethics of any interest to engineers, programmers and scientists? What, in the first place, constitutes an ethical issue? To begin examining these questions, let's look at some examples. 7.2 Film properties In practice, we can hardly ever use just the fastest technique to put some material down onto the wafer. Before deciding how to deposit a particular layer, we must consider which film properties are important for the function of the device. The commonest requirements relate to uniformity, step coverage, composition, micro structure and stress. We shall consider each of these in detail. 1.3 The capacity of an MOS structure to store charge
Figure 1 shows a schematic section through an MOS structure and sets up a colour scheme that distinguishes the different layers. In this case the M-layer is provided by heavily doped polysilicon and the semiconductor base material is p-type silicon. 5.15 Further investigation is possible There are still many mysteries that surround the Tay Bridge disaster, largely because so little was recorded at the time of construction. For instance, questions remain about the details of reject rates for the castings, and modifications made to the first designs of the piers and their component parts. Although enlargement of the BoT set of pictures has helped clarify the various failure modes described by Henry Law and others at the enquiry, it has also revealed yet more mysteries. Wh 5.5 Evidence of Henry Law Henry Law's report is brief and to the point, and includes a substantial appendix giving detailed calculations of the effects of wind pressure on the structure (not included in Paper 1). Further information on his inspection of the remains – the two standing piers, the twelve wrecked piers the high girders and the train within – was given during his testimony before the enquiry. Law was able to examine the extant remains in considerable detail, and noticed numerous defects in the br
Example 1: Th
