Module 5 Presentation

Noelle Marietta
Arizona State University
OGL 321 Project Leadership
Prof. Cristen Mann
November 15, 2020
 Project Date

“The project date has been mandated from on high...It’s obvious

from this discussion that time is the primary driver on this project,
and the date can’t move. That means scope, budget, or quality will
have to be modified to accommodate the schedule”(Heldman). This
goes right along with our simulation in that our completion date
was made for 12 weeks, no choice. It never occurred to me to bring
down the level of the requested printer, therefore my budget was
sacrificed.
 People Factor

“If it weren’t for people, we could complete all our projects on

time, on schedule, and on budget. But then again, it takes people
to perform the tasks on the project, so I’m afraid we’re stuck with
them” (Heldman). No more I have seen this true than with this
past simulation, I had to be ever conscious of my team’s needs. It
took the most work out all the parts of the project I was
managing, yet without my team I wouldn’t be able to do
complete the project.
 Communication
“Whether it’s between upper management, middle or the team, it’s
disastrous to have poor communication. Everyone should feel free
to come forward to express their concern or give suggestions. When
everyone is on the same page and there’s transparency, workflow is
at an optimum level” (Lim). In the past simulations I found that I
could get away with very few meetings, and the kind of meetings
didn’t seem to matter so much. This time around, I had to pay
careful attention to my team to determine what kind of meetings
and how many they needed in order to thrive.
 Bad leadership
“Bad Leadership; when we see this word, leader, we usually think, the
project manager. However, the people at each management-level have
a responsibility to ensure that the project is successful. Management
should not micromanager but provide support to ensure that the PM
can follow through with the expectations placed upon them” (Lim).
This one hit home as I was very much so guilty of micromanaging in
those earlier simulations. I had to learn the importance of providing
my team with what they need and thereby listening to what they were
telling me. This went against my natural want to change everything
everytime things started to go downhill.
 Why
“In our project management world, we must have a reason for why
we are doing what we are doing. Without that why - the Immutable
Principles - we are just spending other people's money with a low
probability of success” (Alleman). To me this goes back to making
sure the project is a good fit for the problem at hand. Why are we
doing this project instead of a different one? Will this project solve
the problem the client has? Have we brainstormed to make sure that
there isn’t a better solution? We don’t want to complete the project
only to find that it did not solve the problem like projected.
 Critical Path
“Schedule risk will occur if critical path tasks aren’t completed on
time. When you miss one critical path task due date, the entire
schedule slips” (Heldman). The critical path reminds me of a
position we call “customer support” or CS at Starbucks. The CS
person has a cycle of tasks that they complete, such as fill ice, cups,
lids, milks, and the like. When one of those are missed it can throw
things off as the barista is left without what they need to make
drinks, and the CS person has to stop what they’re doing to refill
said product.
References:
Alleman, G. B. (2020, November 3). Theory versus Experiment. Retrieved November 15,
2020, from https://herdingcats.typepad.com/my_weblog/2020/11/theory-versus-
experiment.html

Heldman, K. (2005). Chapter 4 Preventing Scope and Schedule Risks, Project Manager's
Spotlight on Risk Management. San Francisco, California: Harbor Light Press.

Lim, R. (2020, October 23). Top 10 Main Causes of Project Failure. Retrieved November
15, 2020, from https://project-management.com/top-10-main-causes-of-project-failure/