Acquire Project Team

00:01 Hello and welcome.

00:02 This module focuses on the aquire project team process from the PMBOK guide.

00:11 The difficulty is low and the memorization and exam importance are both ranked as medium.

00:20 The Acquire Project team process is one of four processes in total in the human resource management knowledge area.

00:30 It's the first of the three executing processes, so pay particular attention to it, because don't forget that 30 per cent of the questions in the PMP exam will come from executing processes, so you are bound to get questions that relate to this topic.

00:49 The particular domain task that this process helps us understand is the executing task one, which says acquire and manage project resources by following the human resource and procurement management plans in order to meet project requirements. We expected there to see the Human Resource Management Plan. Maybe the procurement management plans a bit of a surprise.

01:16 But don't forget, the procurement management plan can also focus on how you're going to bring in external consultants into your organization through a procurement process.

01:28 The key themes of this process, the Acquire Project team process, are that it's an executing process.

01:36 It carries out our staffing management plan, which is a subsidiary of our Human Resource Management Plan.

01:45 It focuses on getting the right people to work on the project, but keep in mind that getting the right people to work on your project may involve negotiation, particularly if you're in a functional or any form of Matrix organization.

02:02 You may have to go and negotiate with the functional managers.

02:08 The key inputs are our human resource management plan, because that provides guidance on how we're going to get the people we want on our project.

02:19 Enterprise environmental factors such as government legislation on employment conditions or employment law, health and safety considerations. These are all enterprise environmental factors we may need to take into account as an input into this process and, of course, our organizational processes.

02:40 Perhaps we have some blank templates or processes to guide the acquisition of individuals to work on our project.

02:49 The particular tools and techniques that we're going to use include pre assignment. Now this is probably what most of us experience most of the time. Individuals are pre assigned to our project, either during the initial initiation phases or during Planning phases.

03:08 We have no choice.

03:09 They are assigned to us.

03:12 Another total technique that may be useful as negotiation, particularly negotiation with the functional managers.

03:20 Now this can take some skill because don't forget the functional managers still have their own performance metrics to meet, and giving up their staff to work on your project may adversely impact upon their ability to meet those goals.

03:40 Acquisition, well, acquisition is simply the process of advertising.

03:44 It's putting it on the websites that people read or the newspapers or in the industry, publications that people read and advertising for positions.

03:53 Obviously, you would go through a full recruitment process there of interviews and CV screenings as well.

04:01 But in today's world, the creation of virtual teams where you assemble people virtually is also very common.

04:09 You're probably part of one at the moment.

04:12 The virtual team is good in terms of efficient use of resources in dispersed locations, but it has its own challenges as well.

04:22 Remember that the default it's best to have people co-located so where possible, get people co-located, which means they can see each other eye to eye.

04:34 People form the best relationships when they can see each other eye to eye. So a virtual team, whether it's the same people, whether it's a team members in the same building but on different floors, different buildings in the same city, different cities or even different countries, they can't always see each other. And one of our goals is to build a high performing team.

04:58 And the minute you get rid of co-location, building a high performing team becomes very, very difficult.

05:05 So virtual teams are a good idea in theory.

05:08 However, wherever possible, we would always bring them together for co-location and team building.

05:15 We may also choose to use multi-criteria decision analysis.

05:21 Now, this is a way to figure out who we want when we have multiple people to choose from based on different criteria.

05:29 We may choose length of experience, type of experience, personality type, do they fit within the rest of the team? Are they volunteering or are they being forced to work on the project? Are they available part time or full time? You can have multiple criteria to help you choose the right person to work on your project.

05:51 Let's look at some of those tools and techniques and a little more detail.

05:55 Pre assignment, which, as I've mentioned, is what most of us experience is where the roles are defined before the resources are allocated and people are assigned to them already and often happens even before a project begins.

06:11 The resources and the people are simply pre assigned to your project.

06:15 You have very little say in it.

06:18 Negotiation, as I've already mentioned, you will probably have to negotiate with functional managers and even people outside of the organization to get the people you want, particularly if you want them either part time or just for a defined period of time, say, for a couple of months.

06:36 Remember, you will need to be a skilled negotiator and form those relationships in order to improve the chances of you getting the people you want when you want them.

06:48 Acquisition, as I've already mentioned, this is the process of going out and advertising for the people that you want.

06:55 So even though these processes are called 'Aquire Project Team', don't confuse the total technique of acquisition with that.

07:04 Now we're going to go out and advertise, recruit, head hunt or shoulder tap and get people actively involved in our project that way.

07:15 Virtual teams, as I've already mentioned, their great in theory, but we should always try to get people in face to face proximity as often as possible.

07:28 Multi-criteria decision analysis is all of the criteria that you may take into account. In order to choose the right person to work on your job, things like experience, expertise, location, aptitude, aspirations, availability, all of those things are relevant criteria to take into account when looking to appoint team members to your project. The particular outputs that you'll have from the acquire project team process are individual project staff assignments, individual people now allocated to particular roles within your project.

08:06 And remember, those roles and responsibilities must be clearly defined to remove any ambiguity at all.

08:15 We may also output resource calendars now.

08:19 Resource calendars are the time when resources are available, so the default resource calendar is, of course, the Standard Working Week, Monday to Friday, starting at perhaps eight or nine o'clock in the morning, going through 'til five o'clock in the evening or six o'clock.

08:37 That's a resource calendar.

08:39 They may also have additional information like public holidays or vacation time.

08:45 They can also have additional information.

08:47 Maybe your resource only works Mondays and Tuesdays and works on another job Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.

08:54 So that's what a resource calendar is.

08:56 It specifies when a resource or resources is actually available to do the work and when they're not available.

09:04 The resource calendar is an output from this process, and it goes on to be an input into the develop schedule process because of course, it's one of the things you need to take into account when producing your project schedule.

09:18 We may also choose to produce relevant project management plan updates, make some improvements to our project management plan that reflect the difficulties or challenges we've had acquiring project team members.

09:32 So we may choose to make some minor updates to the Project Management Plan, particularly our Human Resource Management Plan, and if we've got it, our staffing management plan.

09:46 So in summary, the aquire project team process has been focused on getting the team members that we want that we've identified to work on our project.

09:59 It also signifies and signals the beginning of the process of taking a group of individuals and turning them in to a high performing project team.

10:13 Thank you very much.

10:15 This has been an introduction and overview to the Aquire Project Team process in the PMBOK guide.