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Zachary Buller

OGL 320

Professor Thompson

28 February 2022

Project Practices and Principles

Projects, like many other things come in a variety of shapes and sizes. It is up to project

managers like us to have a set of practices and procedures to help us better lead a team or group

to the completion point of a project. After thoroughly studying and extensive research, I have

concluded that there is no perfect way to run a project. Projects are like people in a sense. People

are born and raised by their parents and their outcome and views of life has some effect from

their upbringing by their parents. However, it is ultimately up to that person to continue to live

their life the best way they can or have a lack of interest in their own well being and only dream

of a better life. Projects can turn in many directions. A project manager can follow their typical

routine to guide the project to better success for its overall completion and satisfaction of team

members, ultimately meeting the end goal of the project. But projects also can have many

complications that can jostle them around which could cause a project to fall off course and lose

its connection to its purpose and end goal.

One of the most effective principles to project management is understanding your end

goal or outcome. What is the purpose of a project and who will it benefit? “Goal” is a powerful

work that helps many people provide a maximum amount of effort to not only meet their goal

but exceed their goal as well. In project management, having a goal in mind allows the manager

to have a vision and see the end result, while forcing them to create a plan tailored to the needs
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of a project to exceed their personal goal. Setting goals now creates a sense of pride that leaders

cherish while building their genuine desire to make a project be the best it can be.

Another important aspect of effective project managing is understanding clear roles and

responsibilities of managing a project. It is a crucial role that leaders understand the strengths

and weaknesses of various team members when developing and implementing a project. We are

all better at some things than others, and a project manager must see these traits in others. If a

project manager can see who excels in some tasks, this allows them with greater opportunities to

build their team to operate effectively and efficiently. With a manager that is able to see the

strengths in people, they now need to delegate. Most of us can see in people what they are good

at and what they are not good at. But a project manager needs to understand how critical it is to

continually provide people with work they excel in to complete a project on time while still

meeting their end goals. Finally, project managers must understand risk of a given project. There

are typically three values of risk a project manager will base their project status on. On the

optimistic side, a project manager will assume less risk is likely and determine the project to end

far sooner than originally anticipated. Then there’s the middle, the project manager knows there

will be some setbacks. These setbacks won’t cause too much delay to the project and should

allow it to finish right on time. Finally high risk can be determined by the project manager giving

them more time to complete the project but will likely put it slightly behind schedule. Whether

you’re an optimistic or pessimistic project manager, it is critical to understand and implement

effective time management to have an accurate timeline on important project milestones.

Throughout this course, I have learned that projects are like people and not all people are

the same. The same can be said about a project. Although their overall goal is the same, every

project is going to be prepared a little differently to meet its end goal. I have also learned that
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people can be the greatest strength and greatest weakness to a project. Previously I listed some

principles of project management that I found to be some of the most important. When a project

consists of a leader that is unable to grasp key fundamentals of project principles, this will likely

make the project operate far less efficiently and likely fall behind. On the other hand, a project

manager that has mastered all the principles and knows how to implement these principles upon

the best people will allow for smoother projects with better overall outcomes.

Like I mentioned before that all people are created a little differently. I’ve grown my

understanding on what this truly means in project management. There are a few options to help

utilize someone’s skillset to the maximum amount. A Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM)

helps project managers determine connections between work and how a team member can

provide work. The problem with a RAM is that it doesn’t help you look for a unique skillset in a

person but helps you organize skills to skillsets in a project. Because of this I have grown in

several ways to look deeper into a person and understand what truly makes them unique and how

their unique set of skills can accomplish more within different fields of a project.

As much as I have grown in my understanding of project management, there is still more

that is yet to be learned. I would really like to further grow my knowledge of project

management in a specific field. Whether this field is in construction, community leadership or

information technology, just to name a few. I do believe I have a good understanding of the

general purpose of project management, and what makes it unique, but I would like to grow my

understanding in a specific field. Understanding the financial technicalities of a project is crucial

to its success. Currently, I have very little knowledge of how a project operates financially and

would love to grow in this aspect as well. Project management has taught me many exciting, new

things, but there is always more to learn.

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Works Cited

Das, Tamal, and Tamal Das (326 Articles Published) . “10 Personality Traits to Become a
Successful Project Manager.” MUO, Make Use Of..., 21 Nov. 2021,
https://www.makeuseof.com/personality-traits-become-successful-project-manager/.

Duffy, Jill. “The Best Project Management Software for 2022.” PCMAG, PCMag, 14 Dec. 2021,
https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-project-management-software.

Harvard Business Review. HBR Guide to Project Management. Harvard Business Review Press,
2013.

Hering, Beth Braccio. “9 Project Management Career Paths: Industries, Salary, and More.”
FlexJobs Job Search Tips and Blog, FlexJobs.com, 15 Feb. 2022,
https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/project-management-career-paths/.