"Post Mortem" Review

1. Are you proud of our finished deliverables (project work products)? If yes, what's so good

about them? If no, what's wrong with them?

At my former work place, we were not able to complete deliverables and due to this failure, the department lost funding and the department was eliminated leaving the team members without unemployed.  I am not proud because the deliverables were not completed effectively due to lack of Project Management follow up. This failure was caused by management failing to supervise the Project Manager who tended:

·         To be absent during the work week

·         When PM appeared at the work place, she demanded completed tasks to be edited or modified without giving a reasonable explanation for the abrupt changes

·         Team member meetings were rarely held and those were ineffective

·         Team member morale disappeared

·         Team members opted to leave the organization

·         PM failed to review, verbally confirm, or obtain written confirmation of team member responsibilities or confirmed team member intention to participate in the project

·         PM failed to scope the project

2. What was the single most frustrating part of our project?

The most frustrating part of the project did not know what to expect from the Project Manager.

3. How would you do things differently next time to avoid this frustration?

In the future, I would assure that the project was scoped in a professional manner by assuring that:

·         Understand who are the clients and what are their project needs

·         Understand client budget and time limit of the project

·         Assure that all objectives assigned to the project are  clearly defined

·         Communicate clearly by holding regular meetings with client, team members, and stakeholders

·         Assure that team members understand their role and responsibilities within the project 

·         Assure that all team members understand the time limits ad cost of the proposed project

·         Obtain team member agreement in writing of what their responsibilities will be in the life of the project

·         Assure that a Statement of Work is signed by all team members, client and stakeholders

·         Assure that a structured Work Breakdown and  Linear Responsibility Chart is prepared during  the planning process

·         Assure that all stakeholders communicate effectively verbally and in writing

·         Assure that we are all aware of “Scope Creep” and understand how to prevent unplanned incidents to occur

·         Review and test sections of the project as those are   completed to confirm their effectiveness

·         Communicate those results to client and  team members

·         Reward team members who stay on task as they complete their portion of the project

·         Communicate to client and all team members when the project is ready to Close

4. What was the most gratifying or professionally satisfying part of the project?

The most gratifying part of the project was effectively communicating with clients and providing exceptional customer service.

5. Which of our methods or processes worked particularly well?

The method that worked well was communicating effectively with the clients.

6. Which of our methods or processes were difficult or frustrating to use?

Trying to convince the Project Manager that her presence and feedback was imperative in order to support the success of the project.

7. If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about the project, what would you

change?

If I would have been part of the Management team, I would have replaced the Project Manager and would have required him or her to hold regular team meetings and to effectively communicate and eventually train the team members how to complete their assigned tasks ( if they did not know how or would have access adequate training sessions)  in order to support the progress and completion of the project.   If I could wave a magic wand, I would assure that the Project Manager understands that by knowing the needs of the project, by understanding what strategies can be used, by understanding how to plan the objectives of the project and by not shying away from understanding the limitations of a project will assist a project manager to outline the intent, the objectives, the constraints and assumptions that will support the successful completion of any given project.

8. Did our stakeholders, senior managers, customers, and sponsor(s) participate effectively? If

not, how could we improve their participation?

The customers or stakeholders did participate effectively as they worked directly with the team members while understanding that the team was not being supported by the Project Manager.

Reference

Greer, M. (2010). The Project Management Minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/59896/CRS-CW-5089754/EDUC_6145_readings/PM-Minimalist-Ver-3-Laureate.pdf

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Art of Effective Communication in Project Management

Effective communication can be viewed as an art because an individual should feel confident when talking to others, he or she should always be themselves, should be patient while listening to others speak, should think before speaking to others, should be able to ask questions when not sure of a topic being discussed, and the individual should keep away from sensitive topics such as religion, politics, and/or personal life experiences.

In project management, the project manager, should be able to effectively communicate to his team members and stakeholders about the prospective project.  A project manager should be able to select team members, schedule meetings, assign tasks and explain what is the timeline and budget to get a project initiated, scoped, followed through, define deliverables and close the project.  An effective project manager will assure that all team members understand what their responsibilities will be and assure that team members commit to their responsibilities by preparing a Statement of Work (SOW) and assuring that all team members sign the SOW understanding the work that they are expected to complete in a timely fashion.  The Project Manager should be able to follow up by creating emails and submitting those to all stakeholders to assure that everyone is on the same page and if unexpected issues are present those should be discussed in order to find timely resolution.  A Project Manager should be able to find constructive ways to assure that all stakeholders do communicate with each other to create a collaborative work environment.  If team members experience difficulty communicating with each other, the Project Manager should be aware of this type of Scope Creep in order to assist team members to resolve barriers of supportive communication.  If a Project Manager believes that a team member is not compliant or is unable to complete an assigned task, he or she should be able to interview another qualified candidate that will commit to complete the assigned task and all team members should be aware of the change of team member and what task he or she has been hired to complete.  Portney et al (2008) wrote in Project Management textbook Project Managers are responsible for a variety of communication activities during the life of a project …Communications can be formal or informal, written or verbal” (p. 367).  “According to the Art of Effective Communication media (2010), a Project Manager can use three different modalities to clearly enhance communications with project stakeholders and those are by the means of emails, voicemail, and face to face.  By the use of an email, a Project Manager can convey communication by creating a message that can be used to ask a request where the intent will be to allow both parties to communicate effectively while a record of contacts can be created.  By the use of voicemails, the message conveyed can set the tone as to what the sender needs from the receiver of the voice mail.  By the use of face to face communication, the Project Manager can meet with a stakeholder in his office, or in any given location at the workplace to confirm information related to the actual project.  Face to face communications can also take place during a scheduled meeting or by the use of Skype with the intent to hold a direct conversation of what may be needed by any of the parties.  The intent of any of the abovementioned communications is to connect the parties or users in order to allow them to come together to allow them to create meaningful content.  It is clear that the Internet will allow multiple users to participate in creating data for the purpose of active collaboration.  In Project Management, it is imperative that the Project Manager communicates with members of the team in order to track progress and maintain control.   

Reference     

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

"Post Mortem" Review

I don’t have prior project management experience at the workplace.  However, recent incidences occurred at my former job where the department was eliminated due to the Director’s lack of confidence to scope and define the project.  I was hired to work as a Senior Job Developer.  My responsibilities entailed creating two workshops i.e.; Job Club and Work Readiness meetings.  Complete intake assessments of client referrals, document client progress and assure that client became job ready in order to facilitate job placement and job retention. Another main responsibility was to communicate effectively with funding source counselors who provided client referrals. In this project, there was a huge dilemma.  The Director was rarely available to communicate with team members as to training  or to  provide guidance related to project changes (scope creep), she always expected team members to edit or modify client documentation at the last minute without providing a viable explanation,  meetings were rarely planned and/or scheduled and when those took place they were not effective because she never sort constructive feedback  from team members,  she normally appeared to be stressed out and would advise the team that if she was stressed out that she would be sharing the stress.  As a result, she began to micromanage the department where the team members began to avoid her and team members sort to leave the agency.  During this chaotic work experience, I continued to focus on my responsibilities even though, I had not signed an agreement committing to complete my responsibilities in the project. At the former workplace, there was no Statement of Work, Work Breakdown or Linear Responsibility Charts.  However, the stakeholders continued to send to my attention client referrals because they knew that I was the team member who was completing the state-funded documentation and assessing the needs of the clients.  Last week, the funding source advised the agency CEO in writings that they intended to immediately stop referring client referrals based on the fact that they had discovered that specific documentation had not been completed by the Director (Project Manager) and they construed that information as committing fraud.  In two days, the CEO decided that it would be cost effective to eliminate the department than to re-structure it with competent staff.  That is how the team members were pink slipped and the department lost its funding.  On the following business day, the District Manager of the state funding source contacted me to offer a training position under the ATTAIN initiative and asked if I was interested in working as a Computer Lab Instructor.  I definitely agreed to be part of this training initiative funded by the State department of Education, via email an interview was scheduled for this upcoming week.   As Instructor VanErp posted this week, “there's sunshine around the next bend”!! .  I am glad that this incident occurred now while in the process of taking this course because the content of this course has provided me and my peers with positive insight on how to avoid the pitfalls that will support project failure or that can prevent the concept known as Scope Creep infiltrating into future projects.        

1. Are you proud of our finished deliverables (project work products)? If yes, what's so good

about them? If no, what's wrong with them?

At my former work place, we were not able to complete deliverables and due to this failure, the department lost funding and the department was eliminated leaving the team members without unemployed.  I am not proud because the deliverables were not completed effectively due to lack of Project Management follow up. This failure was caused by management failing to supervise the Project Manager who tended:
·         To be absent during the work week
·         When PM appeared at the work place, she demanded completed tasks to be edited or modified without giving a reasonable explanation for the abrupt changes
·         Team member meetings were rarely held and those were ineffective
·         Team member morale disappeared
·         Team members opted to leave the organization
·         PM failed to review, verbally confirm, or obtain written confirmation of team member responsibilities or confirmed team member intention to participate in the project
·         PM failed to scope the project

2. What was the single most frustrating part of our project?

The most frustrating part of the project did not know what to expect from the Project Manager.

3. How would you do things differently next time to avoid this frustration?

In the future, I would assure that the project was scoped in a professional manner by assuring that:
·         Understand who are the clients and what are their project needs
·         Understand client budget and time limit of the project
·         Assure that all objectives assigned to the project are  clearly defined
·         Communicate clearly by holding regular meetings with client, team members, and stakeholders
·         Assure that team members understand their role and responsibilities within the project  
·         Assure that all team members understand the time limits ad cost of the proposed project
·         Obtain team member agreement in writing of what their responsibilities will be in the life of the project
·         Assure that a Statement of Work is signed by all team members, client and stakeholders
·         Assure that a structured Work Breakdown and  Linear Responsibility Chart is prepared during  the planning process
·         Assure that all stakeholders communicate effectively verbally and in writing
·         Assure that we are all aware of “Scope Creep” and understand how to prevent unplanned incidents to occur
·         Review and test sections of the project as those are   completed to confirm their effectiveness
·         Communicate those results to client and  team members
·         Reward team members who stay on task as they complete their portion of the project
·         Communicate to client and all team members when the project is ready to close

4. What was the most gratifying or professionally satisfying part of the project?
The most gratifying part of the project was effectively communicating with clients and providing exceptional customer service.
5. Which of our methods or processes worked particularly well?
The method that worked well was communicating effectively with the clients.
6. Which of our methods or processes were difficult or frustrating to use?
Trying to convince the (Project Manager) that her presence and feedback was imperative in order to support the success of the project.

7. If you could wave a magic wand and change anything about the project, what would you
change?
If I would have been part of the Management team, I would have replaced the Director (Project Manager) and would have required him or her to hold regular team meetings and to effectively communicate and eventually train the team members how to complete their assigned tasks (if they did not know how or would have access adequate training sessions) in order to support the progress and completion of the project.   If I could wave a magic wand, I would assure that the Director (Project Manager) understands that by knowing the needs of the project, by understanding what strategies can be used, by understanding how to plan the objectives of the project and by not shying away from understanding the limitations of a project will assist a project manager to outline the intent, the objectives, the constraints and assumptions that will support the successful completion of any given project.

8. Did our stakeholders, senior managers, customers, and sponsor(s) participate effectively? If

not, how could we improve their participation?

The customers or stakeholders did participate effectively as they worked directly with the team members while understanding that the team was not being supported by the Director (Project Manager).

References

Greer, M. (2010). The Project Management Minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/59896/CRS-CW-5089754/EDUC_6145_readings/PM-Minimalist-Ver-3-Laureate.pdf

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Project Management in Education and Training

                                               Foundations of Project Management

Process of Project Management Knutson and Bitz (1991) state that project management includes four phases: planning, scheduling, controlling, and terminating. These phases are distinctive from one another but are interrelated and interdependent. A variety of activities occur in each phase, and various factors need to be taken into consideration. Phase I Planning. The foundation of all projects is the plan (Robertson, 1967; Knutson & Bitz, 1991). The planning phase defines objectives and selects the best actions to attain the objectives. Core processes of this phase include, but are not limited to, scope planning, scope definition, activity sequencing, risk management planning, resource planning, cost estimating, cost budgeting, and project plan development (Knutson & Bitz, 1991; PMBOK®Guide, 2000).

Reference

Hong, Lin(2006). Instructional Project Management: An Emerging Professional Practice for Design and Training Programs.  Retrieved from http://sylvan.live.ecollege.com/ec/courses/59896/CRS-CW-5089754/EDUC_6145_readings/Lin_W1_6145.pdf

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp3P2h9ryw8&playnext=1&list=PLD5A332373F225071