Module 6

Decision-Making Standards and Procedures

The decision-making process in project management is a dynamic process that requires efficient and effective choices made to ensure project success. The procedures and standards of decision-making set the precedence of project costs, logic models and standards of communication, and lay the groundwork for recognizing risk and project execution.

Click on the video below to begin 'Module 6: Decision-Making Standards and Procedures'. Click "CC" on the bottom-right corner of the video to view closed captions or alternatively, read the transcript below the video.

When you complete this module, scroll to the bottom of this page for further instructions.

Content Created by Xiomara Ortiz Video Created by Xiomara Ortiz

Transcript:

Course Objectives

In this section of your course, you will learn:

Why decision making is imperative for project success.
Practices of decision making and approaches for optimal success.
What factors may delay decision making that lead to failures of the project.

The course takes a deeper dive into who is involved in making decisions, practices of meetings, what type of decisions are being made, and organization environment when discovering change.

Who Makes the Decisions?

The Work Breakdown structure and the Board organize a procedure of constructing the project management team. This procedure helps the organization layout the personnel who have the authority to make decisions. Each project is unique and may require different personnel to aid in expertise and efficiency of decision making. The project manager and the team are responsible for daily operations and major decisions for the progress and ultimate success of the project.

Good project teams share these characteristics:

Focus on the goal that needs to be achieve
Analyze available data
Take into consideration project and organizational constraints
Manage risk and implement risk responses
Follow a “Reasonable” process
Respect and Develop team members

Client Involvement

When looking at the decision making process, one must consider client expectations. Client Supplier relationship is crucial to building relationships and managing the expectations of the client to achieve a successful project. Some clients may want to be involved in every major decision whereas some other clients expect to only receive updates of status to the project.

Listed are types of client involvement that are formulated at the start of a project to understand expectations.

Partnering Approach - A joint development process that has a high client involvement.
Milestone Approach - This approach states that the client gets involved and updated during only milestone periods within a project. Thus there is a lower sense of client involvement.
- However there can be minimal milestones within a project and a client could revert to pop up check ins or add additional meetings for updates. This can be cost ineffective and put excess pressure on the task performers.

Criteria for Decision Making

Decision Making procedures can be minor to major decisions. Procedures for decision making can be seen at all levels surrounding a project from the scope of work, logistics, project costs, procurement, project execution, close-out and evaluations of a project. It can be seen that there are common criteria to consider for effective decision making.

Time - it has been said that time is money. In research studies, the value of time is dependent on the context of the decision. There is also a higher value of time when there is a higher value to quality of the good or service as well as when there is a short waiting period to receive the good or service.
Cost - When using a cost benefit analysis, decision making should have a need of manageability of cost relative to the project and financing possibilities. Cost can also be addressed as risk that can be factored into decision making.
Quality - Decisions should be made to provide quality service towards the project. Quality of a decision can also be considered as an expectation needed to perform a successful project.
Scope - Decisions made should consider the deliverables of the project, constraints and parameters of the project, and logistics needed to complete the project.

Approaches to Decision Making

Program managers are used to help make good decisions that are time-efficient in order to move the project along. The approaches used or preferred by the project manager can be a major contributor to project success.

The types of approaches to decision making have been researched by top organizations and management styles that can be used to make decisions.

There are ranges from formal to informal approaches, that look at client involvement, tema gatherings and communication strategies.

And there are rational and non-rational approaches that look at logical and intuitive evaluations.

An example of a Formal Approach is what many people called meetings.

Meetings are formal scheduled gatherings for groups of people to establish an integrative and collaborative environment.
- A Meeting-Flow approach is designed as a proactive style of meeting to utilize the results of the last meeting and tasks performed to propel forward actions to future tasks. Rather than a traditional style of meeting where there are to-do lists and follow up conversations.

Informal Approaches:

Some examples are seen as Lunch with clients, conference calls, communication strategies of email.

Rational Approaches:

Assumes a sequential approach for gathering data, brainstorming and troubleshooting ideas, and consensus of all decision makers to implement decisions.
- Due to the dynamic decision making process and uniqueness to every project, this approach does not consider ambiguity or unexpected circumstances to every decision.

Non-Rational Approaches

Are seen as Intuitive decisions - based on learned experience.
This approach also uses Qualitative data gathered from the organization- For example, decisions can be based on Interactions you’ve had with training staff or the work environment encourages intuitive management styles

Deeper Dive

The following video is meant to take a deeper dive into the approaches of decision making, time expectations, and decision types and the reliability of those decisions.

Making the Efficient and Effective Decision

Considering some of the Decision making approaches and management styles, making the decision requires a development of legitimacy. Legitimacy focuses on a sense of consistency, confidence and trust as the project manager toward decision making.

An exploratory study noted how top management organizations make efficient and effective decisions. The following characteristics were seen made by all the tested organizations:

(i) the decision making process was intuitive, qualitative and relatively fast - no more than a few weeks;

(ii) most decision makers do not have profound knowledge on Project management best practices; and

(iii) the decision making process was driven more by internal motivation (for example, communication, efficiency) than by external motivations such as customers, client involvement, regulation

Delays in decision making

Delays in decision making can lead to the ultimate failure of a project. All projects have time expectations and deadlines to continue the schedule of the project and ensure success. Thus avoiding delays in the decision making process will benefit the progress of the project.

Here are factors that may delay the project:

Collaboration:
- Studies prove that stronger previous collaboration relationships in decision groups contribute to more timely decision-making.
- Large decision groups should be avoided because coordination of meetings can take a while to schedule and lack of effective communication can delay a decision. Another reason is that larger groups have a harder time reaching a consensus and may lead to a delay in decision-making.
Revisiting decisions and Change Orders
- Cultivating an environment that personnel can bring forth new innovative ideas to solve problems can make revisiting decisions more efficient and effective for the project.
- During a project new information can be brought about and may lead to adjusting previous decisions. Without a procedure of how to revisit these decisions a delay could be a result.
- Change documents must be made if deliverables of the project change. The Board should create a record for requests and approvals of change. If procedures are not in place, delays to the project will occur.

Review of Decision Making:

Different types of projects imply different challenges for decision making.
The Board will work with a Project Team to make efficient and effective decisions to progress the project. Considerations to client involvement and expectations aid to the success of a project.
Decisions should consider time, cost, quality and scope of the project.
Best decision making approaches from top management organizations can be nonrational with intuitive evaluations, have internal motivations and fast acting. Formal meetings can be used for building legitimacy and consistency in communication and consensus of decision making.
Delays to decision making can lead to a failure of a project. Some factors that can lead to delays in a decision is collaboration with decision groups. The larger the size of a decision group the harder it is to coordinate meeting times, share information, and cultivate a consensus in a timely manner. New found information can lead to revisiting decisions and without a change of order procedure decision making process can be delayed and setback project deadlines.

What’s Next

Be sure to connect the idea and concepts used in decision-making as you take a look at risk analysis in the next lesson. Before you move on to the next module, let's take a quick quiz!

Click the button in the bottom-right corner of the webpage labeled "Module 6 Quiz" to proceed.

Module 6 Quiz

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