Kyle Kledzik

OGL 321: Project Leadership

Arizona State University
March 27th, 2020
 I think that these resources definitely enhance my knowledge of project

leadership in many different ways. The biggest way that it affected myself and my

personal knowledge was the way at look at making decisions in regard to project

management. Coming into this class, I had taken one class about project management

and making decisions was just a means to an end. The book, A Project Manager’s

Guide to Making Successful Decisions, taught me about the overview of decisions

making and how it can affect the project management lifecycle. Decision making, is

what moves things forward, and allows a project to be finished. So many different

factors affect what happens in a project. No project can ever finish on time if people

didn’t make a decision about how resources should be used. So, after reading these

resources, I have made a new approach to how I make decisions.

Since this book is designed to teach us how to make focused decisions, I found it

very useful. Moving forward, in regard to projects, I will make my decisions in a

practical, information-based way. I want to take a strong look at the anatomy of what it

takes to make a decision. Each decision affects our project in a very radical way. It’s

important to frame our decisions and require identifications that move the project

management lifecycle forward. If the decision I am pondering doesn’t move the project

forward in any way, then I will know that decision is not the right one to make. So, I will

focus my decision making on facts. Does this move my project forward? Does this keep

me under budget? Does this meet my client’s needs? Does this keep my team’s stress

levels low? Those three factors, based on the information provided, need to be

answered before I can make decision. In regard to my project, I want to make logical

decisions, so that my project finishes on time and under budget. As the author states,
 “Projects traditionally have three overarching objectives – meeting the budget,

finishing on schedule, and meeting the client specifications. (product performance)

(Powell, 2009) These three factors need to be involved in all of the decisions that we

make when we are a project manager. If we make decisions that only make our team

happy, we will never finish a project on time and under budget that meets the client’s

needs. But, if I use those three parameters, added with my team’s stress, as factors for

making decisions, I feel that you will see a higher success rate in your projects.

When I was doing Scenario A, I found that my team’s stress level was the last

thing that I cared about. If I focused more on keeping my project under budget and on

time, I was able to get things done better, even if it meant some higher stress levels on

my team. In the simulation, I found that my team was able to complete less tasks if I had

less people, even if they were more talented and skilled. So, going forward I want to

make sure that I mix it up. Some weeks I want to frontload, better quality team members

and less of them, in order to get the project ahead. After that, I would want to use more

less skilled team members, to keep the project moving forward. In the end, I was able to

get the project done on time and improve my score each time. So, the scenario went

well for me.

I chose to read the blog “Herding Cats.” I have heard of this bog before, but I had

no idea that it was about project management. In the blog, it mentioned a quote from

Theodore Roosevelt. “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the

strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The

credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust

and sweat and blood.” I think this quote means a lot. A lot of time the people who get
the credit are the ones on the front lines, but the people who actually orchestrated and

create projects are the ones who deserve the credit. They work their butts off and keeps

everything in line and everyone happy, from their team to their clients. I want to take an

approach to project management where I am focused on doing the work and am not

afraid to get my hands dirty. I want to be the type of PM who is on the front lines and

willing to make it happen. From the background to the foreground, it’s important.
 References
BUEDE, ROBERT A. POWELL AND DENNIS M. (2018). Project managers guide to
making successful decisions. Place of publication not identified: READHOWYOUWANT
COM LTD.