Project Management: Leadership, Ethics, Outsourcing, Contracts

This document delves into the multifaceted aspects of project management, exploring the crucial role of leadership and its impact on project success. It examines the qualities of an effective project manager, emphasizing communication, responsibility, delegation, transparency, and strategic organizational management. The implications of ethical leadership are then discussed, highlighting its positive influence on workplace culture, teamwork, and productivity, as well as the potential consequences of unethical practices. The advantages and disadvantages of project outsourcing are analyzed, along with strategies for selecting a suitable outsourcing partner, particularly for software testing. Finally, the document defines various contract types, including fixed-price, cost-reimbursable, time and material, and unit price contracts, explaining their appropriate applications in different project scenarios. This comprehensive overview provides valuable insights for anyone involved in project management, offering practical guidance and a deeper understanding of key concepts.

1. Discuss how project managers can be good leaders.
Project managers function as mini -CEOs and manage both “hard” technical details and “soft”
people issues.
For a project manager to be a good leader:
1. He should possess a good communication skill with both stakeholders and team members
as he is able to share the vision, the goals, plans and strategies to all the people concerned in
the different hierarchies.
2. He should be responsible, have authority and accountability. The project manager should
be responsible to complete a task as he is given specific authority to perform it. He should
also be accountable for a task if failure to adequately perform that task carries professional
consequences.
3. He should possess a good delegation. He must be aware of the weaknesses and strength of
his team members and delegate tasks accordingly. He needs to prioritize the tasks and make
the team members believe in their abilities for specific tasks.
4. He should be transparent in the way when he takes important decisions, creates a
document or holds a meeting of interest to others, all the information produced should be
shared and used with everyone related to the project.
5. He should manage the organisation by convincing senior managers software projects are
not costs burden. A project is successful if its costs are justified by its benefits. Project
manager should establish track record of successful projects to reverse dangerous attitudes
in senior management. He should show the senior management that improving project
management practices will help them meet their goals. He should not underestimate the
project with “easy to describe” with “easy to implement” and change the approach to the
project when necessary.
6. He should be able to manage his team by avoiding management pitfalls such as accept
criticism, make his mistakes publicly, do not manage from his gut and do not expect consensus
all the time. He should avoid micromanagement by not be afraid to let the team members do
mistakes. He should address performance problems early and work with each member to
develop a performance plan.

2. What are the implications of ethics in leadership?
Ethics is about making the best possible decisions concerning people, resources and the
environment.
The ethical leader understands that positive relationships built on respect, openness, and
trust are critical to creating an ethical organization environment. The underlying principles of
ethical leadership are: integrity, honesty, fairness, justice, responsibility, accountability, and
empathy.
The implications of those ethics in leadership are:
1. It helps to create a healthier workplace culture.
There is a positive effect on workers as they know that they will be treated with respect. The
relationship between leaders and employees nurture and focuses on building on strong
relationship.
2. Strong teamwork and productivity
In a workplace where there is openness, integrity and community, strong teams are formed
and eventually grow. Hence there is strong motivation and better performance.
3. It helps maintain a moral course in turbulent times.
Sometimes, there may be conflicts between team members. Good leaders solve those
conflicts and sensitize the team members about what is right or wrong. The leaders maintain
a positive environment by distributing enough time to the team members and try to elevate
a better working environment.
However, a leader not having followed the ethics correctly may lead to severe implication on
the organisation.
The following implications are as followed:
1. Reputation.
Going over a project’s budget can affect the reputation of your overall business and project
managers.
2. Financial stability
Projects that go over budget can affect financial stability. Amplifying of cost and time
estimations, exaggerating pay-offs of project proposals, increased prices can cause projects
to take more time and money than initially planned.
3. Productivity
Due to limited time, the quality of the work is reduced by accepting shoddy work via a quick
fix. Any delay can have negative impacts for the project and the company. This places great
pressure on the team leader and the team.

3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of project outsourcing?
Advantages:
1. To reduce both fixed and recurrent costs
2. To allow the client organisation to focus on its core business
3. To access skills and technologies
4. To provide flexibility
5. To increase accountability
Disadvantages
1. Problems with quality can arise if the outsourcing provider does not have proper
processes.
2. There is potential loss of control over the project.
3. There may be interpersonal conflicts.
4. The risk of losing sensitive data and loss of confidentiality.
5. Hidden costs and legal problems may arise if the outsourcing terms and conditions are
not clearly defined.
4. Suppose that you were to outsource the testing of your software. State
your strategies for selecting the right company for this task.
1. Before starting to look for an outsourcing partner, make it easy on yourself by carefully
defining the geography in which you would like to search.
2. Decide on price or quality.
Price-first vendors will often provide a fixed-bid quote for your project, and tend to be more
focused in terms on transactions than focused on a long-term relationship. Their expertise
lies in finding resources and quickly deploying them for clients with little supervision.
3. Reputation in the market
The credibility and relevance of the testing partner are crucial. Proper research on the
company’s leadership and reputation in the market should be checked before offering the
project to a company.
4. Put your candidates to the test.
Ask certain core questions you can ask during an initial phone conversation to make sure a
potential partner is a good cultural, philosophical and methodological fit for your company
and project.
5. Reliability. The outsourcing vendor you are looking for should be highly reliable in terms
of service delivery.
6. Security
Protecting data is very important from a business perspective. The outsourcing providers
have information security policies & standards.

7. Flexibility & Scalability
Outsourcing agreements demand a degree of flexibility to ensure that the timescale
fluctuations are met. Flexibility should be decided by examining factors like robustness,
modifiability, new capability, and ease of exit.
5. Define the types of contract and explain in which conditions they can be
applied.
1. Cost plus incentive fee (CPIF).
The buyer pays the seller for allowable performance costs plus a predetermined fee and an
incentive bonus.
2. Cost plus fixed fee (CPFF)
The buyer pays the seller for allowable performance costs plus a fixed fee payment usually
based on a percentage of estimated costs.
3. Cost plus percentage of costs (CPPC)
The buyer pays the seller for allowable performance costs plus a predetermined percentage
based on total costs.
Types of contracts:
1. Fixed-price or lump-sum – fixed price contract is used when the contractors undertake to
be responsible for executing the complete contract work for a stated total sum of money, it
involves a fixed total price for a well-defined product or service and lump-sum contract is
used when all the works are agreed before they begin.
2. Cost-reimbursable - involve payment to the seller for direct and indirect costs. A cost
reimbursable contract is used where the nature or scope of the work to be carried out
cannot be properly defined at the outset, and the risks associated with the works are high,
such as, emergency.
3. Time and material (T&M) contracts - hybrid of both fixed-price and cost-reimbursable,
often used by consultants. T&M Contract may be used only when it is not possible at the
time of placing the contract to estimate accurately the extent or duration of the work or to
anticipate costs with any reasonable degree of confidence.
4. Unit price contracts - require the buyer to pay the seller a predetermined amount per unit
of service. They are used for construction work consisting of repetitive tasks that are easily
measured.