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|storemode=property
|title=None
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2387/20190495.pdf
|volume=Vol-2387
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/icteri/DotsenkoCC19
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https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2387/20190495.pdf
Management of Critical Competencies in a Multi-Project
Environment
Nataliia Dotsenko1, Dmytro Chumachenko1 and Igor Chumachenko2
1National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”, Chkalow str., 17,
Kharkiv,Ukraine
2O. M. Beketov National University of Urban Economy in Kharkiv, Marshal Bazhanov str., 17,
Kharkiv, Ukraine
dichumachenko@gmail.com
Abstract. The issues of managing critical competencies in a multi-project envi-
ronment are considered. It is proposed to use the profile of critical competen-
cies. A process approach to the management of critical competencies in a multi-
project environment is proposed, the application of which will reduce the risks
of critical knowledge losses.
Keywords: critical competencies; project management; multi-project environ-
ment; human resource management
1 Introduction
Projects are implemented in an aggressive environment, which is usually associated
with the adverse impact of external factors (economic, political, actions of competi-
tors, etc.). The instability of the project environment leads to the fact that the heads of
organizations face the problem of losing the experienced staff involved in the project.
The reason for the loss of human resources in the project is also a subjective factor
(internal displacement, illness, retirement, relocation, death, etc.). For state-owned
enterprises, the issue of aging is acute. As part of ensuring the implementation of the
human resource management strategy in a multi-project organization, the formation of
a project team should provide for continuity and management improvement based on
the principles of knowledge management. Thus, despite the increased attention in
recent years to human resources management processes in project management, the
formation of effective teams with critical competencies for the project is relevant.
2 Literature Analysis
The transition from project management to program / portfolio management leads to
the formation of additional requirements for the management of critical knowledge of
the organization.
The formation of a multi-project environment is caused by the need to apply a uni-
fied methodology for managing large-scale (usually, territorially distributed) projects
united by common resources. The limited availability of resources in the implementa-
tion of projects leads to the need for a rational approach to their distribution [1-4].
At the management of critical knowledge in the nuclear industry, the focus is on
prevention of the loss of critical knowledge [5-7]. The issues of ensuring the success-
ful implementation of the project, the reliability of the functioning of the team are
considered in the basic standards and methodologies for project and program man-
agement (PMBok, Prince, P2M, etc.) [1-3].
Agile methodologies provide reliability and reduce the risks of losing critical
knowledge through the use of parallel programming, effective communications, flexi-
ble response to emerging changes, focusing on teamwork. The danger of losing critical
knowledge leads to the need to ensure the principles of redundancy in the formation of
the project team.
Thus, the actual task is to develop effective methods for managing critical compe-
tencies in a multi-project environment.
3 Main Research Material
When managing human resources in a multi-project environment, project manage-
ment must take into account that the project has critical knowledge.
Critical competences are defined by the job description and are particularly im-
portant for ensuring successful continuous operation of the organization. The presence
of critical competencies is mandatory for persons appointed to a certain position [4].
When forming a project team, it is necessary to take into account the specifics of
the project. As a result of the pre-project analysis, it is necessary to form a list of criti-
cal knowledge, on the basis of which a register of critical competencies is determined.
As the project team functions throughout the life cycle of the project, the require-
ments for competencies and critical knowledge can vary at different stages of the life
cycle.
It should be noted that in the project activity, additional critical knowledge must be
taken into account: experience in implementing similar projects; ability to organize
team work; communication intelligence. Under critical project knowledge, it is pro-
posed to consider the totality of knowledge, competences, methodologies, models and
methods necessary for the successful implementation of the project under given con-
straints. Project knowledge is the total knowledge of people who participate in the
planning and implementation of the project.
The level of criticality of knowledge in the project is determined by the specifics of
the project, its uniqueness and importance for the organization, the availability of
documented retrospective information.
In general, the critical competence of a multi-project is described by the following
characteristics:
threshold level of critical competence for the project - the minimum level of com-
petence that is required for project team members ( ) can be different in differ-
ent projects of the multi-project
the minimum number of project team members with this critical competence;
the time interval at which this critical competence is required.
Depending on the specifics of the organization and requirements for competencies,
a scale of measuring critical competencies is defined. For each critical competence,
the project establishes the required level of competence Lp.
Formation of the register of critical competences of the multi-project will allow de-
termining the directions of personnel development (Table 1).
Table 1.Registry of multi-project’s critical competences
Critical competencies Project P1 Project P2
Kcr1 10 40 17 - - -
Kcr2 20 60 35 15 30 30
Kcr3 20 30 20 20 50 50
Kcr4 20 20 50 - - -
Kcr5 15 20 20 20 24 24
Kcr6 20 30 30 20 25 30
Kcr7 15 50 46 30 35 35
Kcr8 30 20 30 20 20 25
Kcr9 40 45 45 - - -
Kcr10 - - - 10 20 20
Kcr11 - - - 30 35 35
Kcr12 - - - 15 20 20
As a result of the analysis of the critical competencies of the employees included in
the company's pool of resources and candidates for the project team, the actual level
of Lf critical competencies for team members in the project is determined.
Let the multi-project include projects P1, P2, …, Pn.
The multi-project teamКmp consists of projects’ K1, K2 …, Knteams and multi-
project К0 management team:
n
К mp Ki (1)
i 0
For each project team, a critical competency profile Кcr is defined.
In general, the profile of the critical competencies of the multi-project team is the
integration of the critical competence profiles of the project teams that are part of the
multi-project and the critical competencies of the multi-project management team.
When implementing a multi-project, it is possible to redistribute the members of
the teams with critical competencies that are not active at this hour interval to other
projects.
Critical competencies for the multi-project, which can be ensured through redistri-
bution of resources denoted as Kz.
Considering the set Kz the profile of the critical competences of the multi-project
has the following form:
n
К сr mp Kcr i K z . (2)
i 0
To visualize the profile of the critical competencies of the project, a diagram (Fig. 1)
can be used, where the axes are critical competencies, and the values - the level of
competence criticality.
Кcr1
50
Кcr9 40 Кcr2
30
20
Кcr8 10 Кcr3
0
Кcr7 Кcr4
Кcr6 Кcr5
Fig. 1.Visualization of the profile of critical competencies of projectР1
Creation of the profile of the critical competencies of the multi-project / program /
portfolio of the organization's projects allows you to determine the competencies most
critical for the organization. Based on these data, a set of measures is being developed
to ensure the development of critical competencies.
Increasing the reliability of the project team can be achieved by introducing princi-
ples: reserving competencies at the stage of the project team formation [8], the for-
mation of adaptive project teams [9], taking into account the differentiation of access
rights and the possibility of combining the work [10, 11].
Let PHr = {PHr1, …, PHr6} is set of processes of human resources management in the
project [1]: PHr1 – resource management planning; PHr2 – evaluation of operation re-
sources; PHr3 – acquisition of resources; PHr4 – development of team; PHr5 – team man-
agement; PHr6 – resources control.
It is proposed to consider the following processes for managing the critical compe-
tencies of the project team: definition of specific knowledge and skills for the imple-
mentation of projects (F1); creation of a register of critical competencies (F2); deter-
mination of the level of their criticality (F3); analysis of the company's resource pool
for availability in the required number of employees with critical competencies at a
certain level (F4); creation of a roster of candidates for the team (F 5); formation of the
project team taking into account critical competencies (F6); monitoring of the register
of critical knowledge (F7); control over the change of the register of critical compe-
tencies in the course of the project implementation (F8); development of a project
team to maintain and develop critical knowledge (F 9); conducting post-project analy-
sis (PPA-analysis) in the aspect of management of critical competencies (F10).
In order to ensure knowledge management of the project team in a multi-project
environment throughout the life cycle, it is proposed to use the projection of the pro-
cesses of critical competencies management (CCM) on the human resource manage-
ment processes of the projects (Table 2).
Table 2. Example of projecting the processes of management of critical competences for hu-
man resources management
CCM Human resources management processes
processes
PHr1 PHr2 PHr3 PHr4 PHr5 PHr6
F1 + +
F2 + +
F3 + +
F4 + + +
F5 + +
F6 + +
F7 + + +
F8 + + +
F9 + + +
F10 + + + + + +
Similarly, we form projections for each project that is part of the multi-project / pro-
gram or project portfolio. In the proposed projection, you can indicate the degree of
influence on the process, which will allow you to trace the relationship of processes.
After constructing a contextual model of management processes for critical compe-
tencies, it is expedient to perform their decomposition. For modeling of processes it is
proposed to use the software product AllFusion Process Modeler.
Aware of the interrelationship of human resource management processes, the
changes taking place in one of the processes that lead to changes in others. For exam-
ple, if a control of resources(P Hr6) was performed within the critical competencies
control process (F8)and showed that there are not enough specialists with critical
competence in the project, the project manager should analyze the possibility of de-
veloping the necessary competence of the members of the existing project team(P Hr4)
or, if this is not possible, to purchase resources(P Hr3).
In order to reduce the influence of the subjective factor in the formation of the pro-
ject team, it is proposed to use specialized software [12, 13]. The developed software
package allows to formulate project teams under the given restrictions (reservation of
critical competencies, adaptive commands, prohibition on the combination of roles by
project team members).
4 Conclusions
Applying the process approach to managing critical competencies in a multi-project
environment will reduce the risks of losing critical knowledge in the organization,
which is especially important in the current economic situation.
A promising direction of the research is the development of methods for the for-
mation of project teams with the reservation of critical competencies.
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