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Module 7 Writing Assignment

Evan Watkins

Arizona State University

OGL 324-Module 7

April 28th, 2021

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For this final writing assignment of this class, one challenge encountered in projects that

I wanted to explore in relation to resources was acquiring resources and what if you are unable

to acquire resources or lack resources needed for the successful completion of a project. In

module 4, we covered acquiring resources. Our learning objectives in the module overview

were to “Identify acquire resources inputs, outputs and tools and techniques within the acquire

resources process”. The next learning objective was too “Define skills utilized for interpersonal

and team building”. I will use these two objectives to take a look into a challenge within

acquiring resources.

I believe that the typical circumstances in which the issue of being unable to acquire

resources in order to successfully complete a project would lie within the input and output

section of acquiring resources in chapter nine of the PMBOK guide as well as in the tools and

techniques. The one major thing that I can see would cause an issue to arise would be within

the cost baseline and being an input of acquiring resources. The cost baseline basically says how

much money the project is predicted to cost and if that isn’t accurate as being an input in

acquiring resources, then you may have challenges in acquiring resources.

The next circumstance that I can see being the reason an issue would arrive is in the

tools and techniques section of acquiring resources and that is virtual teams and how poor

management of virtual teams can cause issues. Managing people on a virtual level can be more

difficult than in person, or at least requires a different approach to make people perform and

feel as if they are a part of a team.

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The last circumstance that I wanted to cover in what would cause a failure to acquire

resources is an output on the acquire resources section. I think that enterprise environmental

factors updates can have a huge impact one whether or not the project manager would be able

to acquire the resources necessary to successfully complete a project. One example of

enterprise environmental factors updates would be weather and that could have an impact on

resources. I think another big one would be government regulations. That could cause some

restrictions on what resources you can acquire as well as how you can acquire them.

Now I would like to discuss some recommendations on how to address this problem and

more specifically each issue that could lead to a challenge in acquiring resources. First, I would

like to talk about how to address is making an accurate cost baseline. You need an accurate cost

baseline in order to know how much money you will have in order to acquire resources. The

cost baseline could also dictate what quality or resources you are able to acquire based on how

much money is available for the project. So basically, my recommendation would be to ensure

you have an accurate cost baseline in order to understand what resources you are able to

acquire. This will also prevent any issues with money in relation to acquiring resources from

happening.

Next my recommendation would be for managing virtual teams properly to ensure they

are able to successfully work together and be a high performing team. In managing virtual

teams, it is important to make sure every member of the team feels that their opinion is valued

and that they feel respected and that their voice is heard in decision making. Virtual teams are

a huge tool and technique within the acquire resources section of the PMBOK in section 9.3 and
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is a big part of a successful output of being able to successfully acquire resources. The best way

to prevent any issues in managing virtual teams in the first place would simply to make sure

everyone has a voice, and no one feels that what they do does not matter, as it does matter

what everyone thinks.

Finally, the last recommendation for a problem is about enterprise environmental

factors updates and to basically understand them and stay on top of them to make sure that

none of the common ones would get in the way of acquiring resources. Some common

Enterprise Environmental Factors that you would want to be aware of when acquiring

resources would be political climate, existing human, and capital resources as well as the

market conditions and whether they are favorable or not. It is very important to take these into

account in order to successfully acquire resources. I would say that in order to prevent this

problem from occurring in the first place, you should be aware of enterprise environmental

factors and be up to date on them as they are constantly changing.