NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

needs to tell a trained nurse about the
importance of good bed side manners. No one
ever needs to tell a trained hospitality
professional about the need for demonstrating
courtesy with guests. No one needs to tell a
counselor about the importance of empathy. All
of them have been pre-socialized to the key
behavioral demands of their roles.
No one needs to tell a project manager that
change is a part of his job. He understood this
even before he starts his career in the industry.
Diagram 1: Drawn by Varsha.
He knows that the IT industry is synonymous
with change. He learns that everything about
the industry, its business model, its technology,
its processes, its products and its people keeps
changing and evolving constantly.
In fact the Software Engineering Institutes now
universally acclaimed CMM model specifies
five levels of maturity of the processes of a
software organization. CMM offers a
framework for evolutionary process
improvement. Originally applied to software
development (SE-CMM), it has been expanded
to cover other areas including Human
Resources (P-CMM) and Software Acquisition.
Level 5 of this model is all about Optimising -
Continuous Improvement - Process Change
Management, Technology Change
Management and Defect Prevention.
In fact the evolution of P- CMM a is recognition
of the critical role of people in securing quality
and some of strategic objectives of this model
include workforce development, reduction of
individual dependencies, people motivation
and retention.
In reality however, despite the best of processes,
much seems to depend on the abilities of the
project manager who seems to play a pivotal
role in managing all this change.
So, what really are the dimensions of change
in a project manager's life? What does he do
well and what is he struggling with? What are
the competencies he could get better at? These
are some of the questions we will address in
this article.
The Seven Dimensions of Change
In my assessment, an average project manager
has to contend with seven critical dimensions
of change in his every day work. These
dimensions are obviously of varying levels of
complexity and ease of management as
depicted in the diagram. I have therefore
classified these dimensions into three levels of
complexity.
Diagram 2: Ganesh Chella model of Seven
Dimensions of Change
Level One Change Management Challenges
• Client Requirements
Most project managers seem extremely
proficient in accepting this element of change.
November 2007 NHRD Journal 49