Running head: MODUAL 2: PAPER 1

Modula 2: Paper – Simulation A

Marissa Mallahan

October 25, 2020

OGL 321: Project Leadership, Strategy, and Scope

Arizona State University

Instructor Ben Pandya

MODUAL 2: PAPER 2

Modula 2: Paper – Simulation A

The success and failure of project are hinged on the decisions made by those in charge.

Poor decisions will lead to poor quality, delays, and at time frustration amongst team members.

Project management must make quality decisions to improve greater chance of succeeding. The

class’s simulation A was surrounded the Delphi Printers & Peripherals company, a small

electronic and peripheral manufacturer based in Santa Clara, California. As a senior project

manager, you are tasked with assembling and directing a product design team to develop a new

and innovative consumer printer. The simulation scenario offered a variety of challenges in areas

such as management strategy, cause and effect relationships and resources.

Management Strategy

The practice of project management is incorporated in our everyday life and is a practice

that has been around for ages. However, project methodologies have evolved over decades to

include “everything from resource management to network diagram development to leadership

and motivation techniques” (Saladis, Kerzner, & Kerzner, 2009, p.27). The succession of a

project is very depended on project manager or project leader’s ability to make quality decisions.

Jason Westland in an article on projectmanage.com defines project leaderships as “the act of

leading a team towards the successful completion of a project,” or “getting something done well

through other” (2016). During the simulation I found myself failing to lead my team in achieving

the desired outcome for the project. The management strategies such as using insights and

analysis was helpful, however, it was inconsistence. The inconsistency withing my leadership

decisions not only created frustration with the team member, but also, I became personally

frustrated at time with the feeling as if there were no adequate decision to be made.
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During the simulation I found it difficult to find a balance between team morale, assigned

budget, and task schedule. Reading the blog by Brad Egeland tittle ‘Project Scope, Schedule,

Resource – Pick Two’ really expanding my knowledge in the leading project. Egeland started by

highlighting the notion that in a perfect world we can have anything we want. However, he notes

that two area he focuses more on are the project scope and the project schedule (Egeland, 2013).

Per Egeland “the project scope is critical because it is what the project team is responsible for

delivering against” (2013). The project scope of the simulation gave the project manager the

flexibility as to the type of printer to design. The project scope also listed four possible products

from which to develop, while also providing the number of tasks required for each. The

company also had intelligence that a competitor is planning to launch a printer with the similar

feature and capabilities in six months, therefore our product needs to come to market sooner and

must compete effectively with theirs. The product schedule requires Delphi’s product to come

into the market in eighteen weeks. Management of a project schedule as pointed out by Egeland

(2013) is the sole responsibility of the project manager.

During multiple chances of the project simulation I was unable to keep the project on

schedule. Furthermore, I was more focus on staying within budget while balancing team morale.

Looking back as a project manager I lost sight on the scope and more importantly the project

schedule. One value takeaway from reading Egeland’s blog is that schedule “should be review

and revised weekly and used to drive the weekly project team meetings and more formal weekly

project status meetings with the project sponsor or customer” (2013). Throughout the many

attempts of the simulation I do not believe that I ever revised the schedule tab and analyze

number of tasks schedule in the coming week. Failure is doing so; I can imagine that affected the

project success. In my personal professional experience, I have been apart project where the
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project manager didn’t necessarily focus on the any these areas but mainly on achieving the

overall goal of the project.

Cause and Effect

Dennis Buede and Robert Powell in their book notes that “project manager must

understand the importance of decision-making and then consider each of their decision carefully”

(2009, p.2). However, it is not only the project manager decision that might have an adverse

effect on a project. Projects are affected by both internal and external environment of the

organization. Kailash Awati in his blog peaks on the effects of organization culture on the

success of a project. One notable statement he made was that “project failures can often be trace

back to dysfunctional structures and processes with the organization” (2013). Awati’s statement

does not necessarily resonate with simulation A, rather with my own organization. An example

would be the organization’s Travel Nurse program. The goal of the program is to attract nurses

to high needs area as result of the Covd-19. The program did not seem thoroughly planned out,

with hiring perimeters changing every other day, resulting in confusion. Brad Egeland (2013)

blog on the project scope, schedule, and resource can also be applied in context that upper

management did not set a realistic timeline to accomplish the desired level of recruitment.

The decisions I made in the simulation had variety on effects on the project. Focusing on

budget only resulted in the project failing behind schedule and at time caused frustration in team

members. While focusing on staying on schedule resulted in an explosion of the budget and team

morale.
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Resources

The resources available to any project management is important to the success of that

project. One notable thing is Brad Egeland’s work was that resource was not one of the two

important factors he would focus on, however, noted it was a vital part of the project (2013).

Egeland also notes that team members are professional and should not be micromanage (2013).

During the simulation I did notice that having too many meetings, one-on-one, and status stand-

up built into the schedule influenced the team morale and didn’t necessarily resulted in the team

moving ahead in schedule. However, reducing the number of meetings and other coaching

sessions resulted an increase in team morale. As a recruiter in my own professional life I do not

like to be feel like I am being micromanaged in anyway. My current manager is a micromanager

and it does cause frustration not just myself but with other team members as well. He sends

constant emails, requires updates, and status of project we are engage in a daily basis. He

monitors our daily activities closely.

Conclusion

Project managers or leaders are face with several challenges during a project. However,

many of the challenge faced can be address with adequate planning and quality decision making.

The authors noted within this paper addresses issues dealing with management strategies,

schedules, and resources. The assertions made by these authors are ones that I can agree with and

have experienced in my own professional career as noted. The resources cited in the paper have

also enhance my own understanding of project leadership. One significant example is having a

better understanding of where to place my focus during future simulation assignments.

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References

Awati, K. (2013). Eight to Late: Symptoms, not cause:” A system perspective on project failure.

Retrieved from https://eight2late.wordpress.com/about/

Buede, D. & Powell, R. (2009). Good Decision-Making” The Key to Project Success.

Knovel.com. Retrieved from

https://app.knovel.com/web/toc.v/cid:kpPMGMSD08/viewerType:toc/root_slug:project-

manager-s-guide/url_slug:project-manager-s-guide/?

Egeland, B. (2013). Project Scope, Schedule, Resource – Pick Two. Progress. Telerik.com.

Retrieved from http://www.bradegeland.com/blog/project-scope-schedule-resources-pick-

two

Saladis, F. P., Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2009). Bringing the pmbok guide to life: A

companion for the practicing project manager. ProQuest E-book Central. Retrieved from

https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu

Westland, J. (2016). What is Project Leadership? Retrieved from projectmanager.com

https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/what-is-project-leadership