Developing a Project Human Resource Plan

Why the Human Dimension Decides Project Fate

There is a persistent myth in project management that projects fail because of technical problems — a flawed design, an unreliable technology, a miscalculated load. The evidence tells a different story. The majority of project failures, from schedule delays to stakeholder mismanagement, are behavioural rather than technical. Projects are accomplished by people, and when people are misaligned, mismanaged, or misunderstood, no amount of technical rigour will save the outcome.

Derek Lidow arrived at the same conclusion through painful experience. After years of troubleshooting failed projects at International Rectifier, he identified motivation as the single most difficult "Duck" to align. The challenge is not merely asking people what they want — because when asked directly, people rarely give honest answers. They either haven't reflected deeply on their own motivations, or they fear that speaking frankly could be career-limiting. Lidow's response was to build a structured process for uncovering individual motivations through private meetings, probing questions, and careful attention to body language — a far cry from the tick-box HR processes that characterise many project environments.

Larraine Segil's research on dynamic leadership reinforces this. Her matrix of ten essential leadership traits places Intelligence — the talent to put the right people in the right place — alongside traits like Inspiration, Commitment, and Integrity. The organisational environment needed to support this? A resource commitment to learning, with corresponding investment in training and education. People are not interchangeable units; they are the primary determinant of project success.

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What Is Human Resource Planning?

Definition: Human resource planning is an ongoing process used to maintain the optimum use of project personnel for each task throughout the project lifecycle.

The PMBOK structures project human resource management into four processes:

The core objectives of human resource planning are deceptively simple:

• Ensure the best fit between personnel and tasks
• Minimise resourcing shortages
• Minimise resourcing surpluses

Achieving these objectives requires disciplined analysis, honest assessment of capabilities, and — crucially — ongoing adjustment as the project evolves.

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How It Works: From WBS to Team Performance

Step 1 — Analyse Tasks Through the WBS

The Work Breakdown Structure is not just a scope management tool — it is the foundation for resource planning. By examining individual tasks at the lowest level of the WBS, the project manager can determine two things: how many people each task requires, and what competencies those people must possess.

Project

Work Package 1

Work Package 2

Activity 1.1

Activity 1.2

Activity 2.1

Activity 2.2

Task — Skills: Engineering

Task — Skills: Drafting

Task — Skills: Procurement

Task — Skills: Site Management

Task — Skills: Commissioning

Task — Skills: QA/QC

Relationship details

From	Relationship	To
Project	leads to	Work Package 1
Project	leads to	Work Package 2
Work Package 1	leads to	Activity 1.1
Work Package 1	leads to	Activity 1.2
Work Package 2	leads to	Activity 2.1
Work Package 2	leads to	Activity 2.2
Activity 1.1	leads to	Task — Skills: Engineering
Activity 1.1	leads to	Task — Skills: Drafting
Activity 1.2	leads to	Task — Skills: Procurement
Activity 2.1	leads to	Task — Skills: Site Management
Activity 2.2	leads to	Task — Skills: Commissioning
Activity 2.2	leads to	Task — Skills: QA/QC

Lidow's Duck Alignment Theory adds an important nuance here. He notes that the WBS is excellent for identifying specific technical skills needed for anticipated subtasks, but it systematically omits the core general skills required for any change process: listening, communication and training, project leadership, process design, failure analysis, and planning. These six skills are often the difference between a team that delivers and one that disintegrates under pressure.

Step 2 — Structure the Project Organisation

Once tasks and skills are mapped, the project manager must create a structure that assigns people to work packages with clear reporting lines. The organisational structure must balance two competing needs: functional specialisation (grouping people by discipline) and project integration (ensuring cross-functional coordination).

Project Sponsor

Project Manager

Project Office Team

Engineering & Design Team

Communications Team

Construction Team

Project Officer — Admin

Project Officer — Finance

Project Officer — Scheduling

Architect

Civil Engineer

Client Liaison

Public Relations

Contractor 1

Contractor 2

Relationship details

From	Relationship	To
Project Sponsor	leads to	Project Manager
Project Manager	leads to	Project Office Team
Project Manager	leads to	Engineering & Design Team
Project Manager	leads to	Communications Team
Project Manager	leads to	Construction Team
Project Office Team	leads to	Project Officer — Admin
Project Office Team	leads to	Project Officer — Finance
Project Office Team	leads to	Project Officer — Scheduling
Engineering & Design Team	leads to	Architect
Engineering & Design Team	leads to	Civil Engineer
Communications Team	leads to	Client Liaison
Communications Team	leads to	Public Relations
Construction Team	leads to	Contractor 1
Construction Team	leads to	Contractor 2

On the Glaxo project studied by Winch, the structure was a deliberate matrix organisation. The Principal Architect Engineer (PAE) consortium was organised into six teams covering particular buildings, plus a central design team for standardisation across the site. This matrix was supported centrally by a Project Control Group. The key learning: no single organisational form is universally correct — the structure must serve the project's specific coordination demands.

Step 3 — Build the Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)

The RAM — often implemented as a RACI chart — maps WBS activities to team roles, clarifying who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for each deliverable.

Key: S = Sign-off | A = Accountable | R = Responsible | C = Consulted

The RAM eliminates ambiguity. When every team member can see their responsibilities mapped against the project's deliverables, the risk of tasks falling through the cracks — or being duplicated — is dramatically reduced.

Step 4 — Define Performance Measures

Each role within the project must have clearly defined performance criteria covering:

• Recruitment and selection standards — what competencies are required?
• Key performance indicators — how will contribution be measured?
• Professional development requirements — what growth is expected?
• Tracking of employee development and well-being — is the person thriving or struggling?
• Reward and recognition levels — how will excellent performance be acknowledged?

A Wall Street Journal survey found that the five most significant motivators for employees were: organisational communication effectiveness, the job's effect on family life, the intrinsic interest of the work, the quality of direct management, and a sense of control over work content. Money ranked sixteenth. This finding aligns with Lidow's emphasis on understanding personal motivations — and with Segil's observation that dynamic leaders create organisational environments offering "opportunities for advancement and reward" alongside "small work groups and flexible work behaviour."

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Evaluating Team Performance: The Full Toolkit

No single evaluation method captures the complete picture. Effective project managers use a combination:

Richard Rudman's Principle: "You cannot make valid judgements on another person's performance unless you have a shared understanding of what they set out to achieve and what you wanted them to achieve."

The implication is that performance evaluation begins at planning, not at review time. If targets are not set collaboratively from the outset, any subsequent evaluation is unfair and uninformative.

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The HR Management Lifecycle

Analyse tasks via WBS

Map skills to tasks

Build org structure

Create RAM / RACI

Define performance measures

Acquire team members

Induct and equip

Develop skills

Monitor performance

Resolve conflicts

Debrief team

Document lessons learned

Release resources

Feed into corporate knowledge

Relationship details

From	Relationship	To
Planning	leads to	Execution
Execution	leads to	Close
Close	leads to	Out

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The Pitfalls: Where HR Management Goes Wrong

1. Treating people as interchangeable. Assigning whoever is available rather than whoever is competent is the fastest path to poor quality and team demoralisation. Lidow's Skill Duck insists that the right skills must be confirmed — not assumed — before work begins.

2. Ignoring motivation. Lidow warns that when a project appears to have resource problems even after adequate resources have been allocated, the real issue is usually the Motivation Duck or the Skill Duck — either the team is not committed to the objectives, or a required capability is missing.

3. Planning for review but not for performance. Rudman's research shows that managers consistently over-invest in performance review and under-invest in performance planning. Setting clear, collaborative targets at the beginning is more valuable than any end-of-phase assessment.

4. Neglecting professional development. The project environment is inherently temporary, but the people are not. Failing to invest in their growth during the project — through training, mentoring, and stretch assignments — wastes an opportunity and signals that the organisation views team members as expendable.

5. Conflict avoidance. Unresolved interpersonal conflict does not dissipate — it metastasises. Project managers must implement and maintain procedures for interpersonal communication, counselling, and conflict resolution, taking remedial action early rather than hoping problems will resolve themselves.

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Key Takeaways

• HR management spans four PMBOK processes: Plan, Acquire, Develop, and Manage the project team.
• The WBS is the foundation for HR planning — it reveals both the number of people needed and the competencies required.
• The Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RACI) eliminates ambiguity about who does what.
• Motivation matters more than money. Understanding individual motivations — Lidow's hardest Duck — is essential for team alignment.
• Performance planning precedes performance review. Targets must be set collaboratively at the beginning, not imposed at the end.
• Segil's dynamic leadership model reminds us that the organisational environment must actively support the people within it — through learning opportunities, flexible structures, career progression, and honest feedback mechanisms like 360-degree review.