OGL 320: Foundations of Project Management

Module 6 Reflection Worksheet

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Section 1: Quality Control

After you have watched the video of Jimmy Wales on the Birth of Wikipedia answer the
following questions:

1) What are your impressions of Wikipedia’s quality control process?

I was inspired by this video. I loved that Jimmy Wales empowered a group of volunteers and gave
them the tools and resources to help create Wikipedia. Allowing others to be creative and have freedom
can be very beneficial for a team. I’ve often found myself in teams where the project was very restrictive
and there was not a lot of wiggle room to give feedback or share my ideas. As a team member, I feel the
most productive when my thoughts and ideas are able to be shared freely to my leaders within a project. I
think it’s an important aspect to hear from others from all points of view within a project. The most
exciting part of a team is the diverse backgrounds, experiences, and personalities that come together.
Utilizing everyone’s uniqueness and strengths is what makes a team successful.

2) Do you think this is a reasonable approach? If so, why? If not, identify two specific
weaknesses?

I do believe that this is a reasonable approach. As a leader, I believe it is important to invest

in your people and get to know your team.

Section 2: Reflection

Look back at the previous modules, as well as this module’s content, before starting this section
of the worksheet in order to incorporate some specific examples from the course to illustrate you
points. Now that we have addressed project management from beginning to end, you are better
able to take an even more refined view of the process.

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1) Identify and explain at least THREE (3) of what you feel are the principles and practices of
effectively managing projects.

In all of our learnings throughout this course, I believe it’s safe to say that communication is
key in managing projects effectively. Communication is the heart of any project, without it
teams and goals quickly crumble. We see this in the “Ducor Chemical” case study. In the
very beginning, communication was weak and the project moved very quickly when it
shouldn’t have. A project manager was assigned and he was unable to communicate the
issues he was experiencing with the in-house rep or find a way to communicate effectively
with him, in the end the project was a failure as a result to poor planning and communication.

Thinking ahead. Obviously, any project comes with a great deal of planning. But to be highly
effective and successful, a project manager needs to think ahead and be prepared for all of the
risks associated with a project. We learned in the very beginning of this course about post
mortem thinking in a project and this approach has been proven to be highly effective. I tend
to associate this to the Titanic reading we had back in module 1. There were plenty of risks
involved in the planning and launch of the Titanic, but unfortunately not everything was well
thought out or planned. As a project manager, it is critical and necessary to think through
your project and weigh all of the risks involved in order to be successful.

Lastly, learning to work with people is highly important as a project manager. You are
working with a team to reach it’s goals and without the right people skills there can be
negative consequences. In my experience as a team member, I want to work for leaders who
respect me as a part of their team and are able to connect with me. Communication doesn’t
always have to be perfect, we’re all human after all, but feeling seen and valued by
leadership is huge. Project managers should be able to connect with their team and build
strong relationships. I believe this is a major aspect of what makes a project successful.

2) What areas of project management do you feel you excel (or at the very least have a strong
understanding)?

As a project manager, I excel at managing people. I get to know my team and all stakeholders
on a personal level and work towards building relationships. I’m very flexible in my
leadership style as I think it’s important to be able to identity and adapt into what others need
in a leader. I also have experience building relationships with vendors which helps add to the
success of my current projects at work. I’m able to work well with individuals who are
negative and help mediate issues that may arise with relationships or disagreements between
the team. Having emotional intelligence as a project manager has been extremely useful in
beneficial when working with many different individuals to achieve goals.

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 I also excel at thinking of the big picture in a project. As a leader, I’m always 10 steps ahead
of myself and am already thinking about what’s next. I have the ability to see my project
from all perspectives and put myself into the shoes of others (this would include team
members, stakeholders, partners, reps, etc.) This helps me anticipate the needs of others and
the project and has helped me be successful in the past. As a project manager, it is important
to have a global perspective and be open minded.

3) What areas do you feel you still have additional room for growth?

My area for improvement is definitely the financial and budget part of a project. I’ve had
experience mostly with team members and not going over allocated budget hours, but I never
had too much riding on finances as a leader in a retail setting. In my new office role, this is
something I will have to be more aware and cautious of. This class was my first experience
with anything budget related and I’m so thankful for the introduction. I’m already thinking
like a project manager in terms of finance and I believe it will set me up for success in my
future projects.

My biggest room for growth was shown through how I handled accountability in our group
project. I excel in a work environment with projects but found myself struggling with a
classroom environment project with fellow students. I was out of my comfort zone with this
one and failed to assign each of my classmates with their own assignments/tasks and instead
took on most of the workload. It was very unlike me and how I would have ran a project in
my office, I would not have allowed others to not pull their weight. My opportunity for
growth is to challenge myself in other projects outside of the workplace and step up in that
leadership role. This can be applied to both school and home. My fiancé has not been doing
his part in a project we started together and I haven’t held him accountable for it. One of my
main takeaways is to not only hold others accountable for not helping, but holding myself
accountable for not using my voice to lead us in the right direction as a team. We learned
from Margaret Heffernan’s Ted Talk to dare to use our voice and disagree when we believe in
something.

4) Retake the Mind Tools Quiz from Module 1.

a. Revisit the Module 1 Mindtools Table
b. Copy and paste it below
c. Complete the final two columns of the table
i. Inserting your new scores
ii. Reflecting why your scores are different or the same

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 (Insert your completed table below.)

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 Aspect Initial Initial Reflection
Score (Module 1)
(out of 10)
Project 7 These results are accurate. I’m
Integration able to see “the big picture” and
create a vision for our goal.
Viewing the project from other
perspectives allows me to
anticipate all of the elements
needed in order for successful in
planning and execution. I hope
to score higher next time and
improve this aspect because I
believe it is one of my strengths.
Scope 8 This result was the most
Management surprising to me because I
scored low in “communication”.
During my reflection of my
communication score, I found it
was mainly due to my challenge
in keeping an open line of
communication with
stakeholders. I’m interested to
learn more about this aspect and
see if I score the same in
module 6. This was a surprising
score, but I keep finding out
more and more about myself as
I continue with these quiz
results! I’m looking forward to
developing this aspect in
particular. I believe improving
my communication will also
improve scope management.
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Final Comparison Reflection
Score (Module 6)
(Module 6)
7 I agree with this score. I wish I I
would have scored higher like my
original goal was to, but as leaders
we are constantly growing and
evolving and I am confident in
myself to excel in project
integration even more so than I do
now.
8 I now have a better understanding
of what scope management means
and I have found myself
integrating this into my projects at
work. I’m pleasantly surprised
with this score as from the
beginning I thought this could be
an area of improvement. I now
understand that scope
management is important in
keeping a project on track and I
actually am able to do this
effectively. As I mentioned during
my reflection, I wanted to improve
my communication skills. I
believe I have improved very
much in my confidence from first
starting this class.
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 Schedule 13 Schedule Management was my
Management highest score of all of the
aspects. I thought for sure I
would score highest on “people
management” as I normally do
when taking leadership
assessments. I was pleasantly
surprised and pleased with
having my strengths show
through in another aspect! I’m
very good at time management
and judging how long we need
to spend on a task. Hopefully
this applies, but a strength of
mine is assessing my team’s
strengths and weaknesses (as
well as my own) and
implementing our strengths in
different areas of the project for
maximum efficiency and to
reach goals quickly. I look
forward to understanding my
strengths in schedule
management and applying it to
my current projects.
Cost 5 As someone who is a big picture
Management thinker, I am able to see all
perspectives of a project. I’ve
been successful in the past in
estimating the amount of
resources and hours allocation
needed to complete a project
and meet sales goals. As an
example, while working at
Target I had a large project that
needed to be done in a certain
amount of hours allocated to our
department by corporate. I had
to carefully plan the schedule
and make sure we did not go
over payroll as a store as well.
The way I was successful in
executing this was looking at all
of our departments and
borrowing hours and also
minimizing labor in departments
where we could afford to spend
less. I believe this experience
could be transferrable to cost
management. Although this is
my only experience with
budgeting, I believe I can
improve this score as I begin to
learn more.
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13 I’m not surprised by scoring the
same in schedule management.
This is an area I feel extremely
confident in and where my talents
shine through. I’ve been able to
apply this strength through this
course by helping my classmates
in our group work through
timelines for our project and
discussing the planning. I believe
that this strength will help me in
my future project management
classes and knowing and
understanding how to utilize it
will be extremely beneficial.
7 Improvement!! I am very proud of
myself for the improvement I have
made in cost management. As I
mentioned previously, this is an
area of opportunity and growth for
me as a project manager. By
taking this class, I have become
more aware of the role budget and
finances play into a project and it
has helped me think like a project
manager in those terms. I have
even seen improvement in my
current job and I have pitched in
to help with our expenses and
project budgets. This is something
I would have never done without
having the exposure I did in this
class. Although my rating only
went up by two points, that is a
huge accomplishment for me and I
am looking forward to challenging
myself to be more budget aware as
a project manager and help
improve this department in my
current job.
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 Quality 11 This aspect is one I need to
Management learn more about. I have a
general understanding of what it
means, but as we continue in
this class I believe it will start to
make more sense. A strength of
mine is anticipating the needs of
others, so when they ask for
something specific I’m able to
creatively find ways and
solutions to implement that into
a project. Learning about the
four phases of PDCA was a
helpful tool to learn about and I
plan to incorporate this into my
daily projects. During module 6,
I would like to reflect on
checking project outcomes and
how they are consistent with
needs.
People 7 I was surprised to have received
Management a 7 out of 10, when I usually
score highest in this category
with previous leadership
assessments. Analyzing myself
as a project manager has given
me a whole new perspective for
myself as a leader. It has given
me new insights into what needs
to be improved. I found the
“forming–storming–norming–
performing” very useful. The
storming stage in team
development is critical and is
something that is happening in
my office currently as a we start
a new project. I will utilize this
model and track the results for
module 6.
Communication 6 This score is a fair assessment.
As I have reflected on the other
aspects so far, I understand that
I have a lot to improve on with
my communication skills in
project management. I
understand I need to be better
about developing relationships
and communicating with
stakeholders in the right way.
My way isn’t always best and I
want to learn to be more
adaptable to others and their
communication style. It is my
goal to be more adaptable and
confident in myself to improve
this aspect.
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9 This result is interesting to me.
I’m not sure why it dropped from
an 11 to a 9. I mentioned in my
reflection that this is an area I
would like to learn more about.
This score to me means that this
area is where I need to improve on
the most. I recently got promoted
to a new role in my office where I
will be managing projects. It is my
plan to partner with my supervisor
and focus on quality management
within a project. Knowing what I
can improve on is going to be
high;y effective as I continue my
journey as a leader and project
manager.
9 My score increased by two. This
means a lot to me because I deeply
care about my team and building
strong relationships. I mentioned
in my reflection that I was
surprised by scoring lower. This
shows growth and that I was able
to take my score and challenge
myself to do better. I did practice
the “forming–storming–norming–
performing” stages in team
development and it is something I
plan to use in the future as I had
recent success with it. I have
utilized this model and have
learned a lot as a leader. I consider
this score a success and I’m proud
of the personal growth and
accountability I have shown.
5 I still have much to improve on
with communication, I wish this
score would have been higher, that
was my overall goal for this class.
I know it needs to improved on
and I now understand to partner
with my leaders and work on this
aspect of myself. I can say that
this class as inspired me and
pushed me to confront myself as a
leader and try better. The case
study have been extremely
beneficial as a I learn how to
communicate as a leader and have
difficult conversations.
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 Risk 6 Risk management is what I
Management thought I would score higher on.
As I’ve mentioned previously,
I’m great at thinking and
planning ahead. I’m usually
developing contingency plans in
my mind and preparing for the
unexpected as I work through a
project. To gain more
experience in this aspect, I will
use a Risk Impact/Probability
Chart. Getting familiar with
these tools will help me in the
future and hopefully raise my
score for next time.
Project 7 Project Procurement is what I
Procurement believe I need the most help in
understanding. My
understanding is that
procurement could be related to
my experience working at
Target and having to work
closely with vendors. We had a
pepsi promotional set that had a
strict deadline, and due to poor
planning and communication we
did not have enough product on
order to fulfill or project need. I
had to go over budget by
expediting shipping of the
product needed and also
working overtime/going over
payroll. My goal is to
understand this aspect and be
confident in my answer for
module 6. As I continue on in
this class I believe I will
develop a better understanding
of project procurement.
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5 I don’t necessarily agree with this
score. I’m not too sure why I
scored lower than my first initial
test, but I believe this shows me
that maybe I need to improve on
risk management as well. Using
the risk impact/probability chart
has helped me tremendously in my
new role in the office and I am
thinking critically more than ever
in my projects. Being aware of the
risks helps make your project
successful. I plan to be aware of
this score and continue to grow
and work on this aspect of project
management.
6 I agree with my previous
statement. I am still needing
support with Project Procurement.
I believe I have struggled with this
the most during our lessons and
projects and need continued
support. By being able to
acknowledge and address needing
support in this category, I believe
I can strengthen my skills as a
project manager. Project
Procurement is something I will
begin to understand and have
more exposure to in future project
management classes and real life
experiences with my new role at
work. I have the opportunity to
work with vendors once again in
this role and I will continue to
improve this aspect/
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 General Project 8 I was surprised by this score. I
Management was happy to receive a higher
Skills score than what I had assumed
with having little experience. I
do have experience leading
projects and a team, but I did
not have these reflection and
resources to help me develop
my project management skills. I
want to work on my negotiation
skills going forward to help with
my growth. I’m very interested
to see what my score will be
later on in this class and if I can
improve my general project
management skills overall.
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9 I am very happy that this result
was higher, even if it is only by 1
point. I have been challenging
myself throughout the course of
this class by working on my
negotiation skills and to be able to
think like a project manager. This
class helped me realize that I do
have what it takes to be successful
in project management, it’s about
learning to utilize your talents and
resources. This has been a great
introduction and I can not wait to
continue my journey and look
back on all of the growth I will
have achievedz when I think back
to this class. Thank you!
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