Running Head: REFLECTING 1

Reflecting: My Project Management Skills and Insights

Jesus M. Cortes

December 04, 2019

Arizona State University

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My Project Management Skills and Insights

In the first portion, I will reflect on my experiences completing courses OGL 320:

Foundations Project Management and OGL 321: Project Leadership, in order to assess

how good my project management skills are. For part two of my reflection, I will

specifically address my experience with the Harvard project management simulation to

offer my advice for three areas within the scenarios to those who will soon begin to dive

into the simulation themselves.

Evaluating my Project Management Skills

Since first taking the quiz “How Good Are Your Project Management Skills?” in

OGL 320: Foundations Project Management, I have tremendously enhanced my

knowledge in project management as well as my leadership competencies. Project

management plays a big role in organizational leadership. These two courses have

taken me through an educational journey, which I began by learning project

management fundamentals like scope, scheduling and budget, and took me to learning

about managing complex projects with high risk and uncertainty. Through this journey, I

have noticed some areas where I excelled my expectations of what I could accomplish.

One specific area where I have seen the most growth and I would consider a strength in

my project management ability, would be communication with the team. “Whether it’s

between upper management, middle or with 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, 2019). This excerpt from a blog by Rosanne Lim,
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identifies the top ten causes for project failures which includes communication as one of

the factors. I can vouch for the importance of communication in projects, as I found

myself receiving the worsts scores in the Harvard simulations as a result of my inability

to efficiently communicate. Top down communication was hard enough as the

simulation did not allow custom communication with my team, but by me ignoring when

my team reached out to tell me something, bottom up communication was also non

effective. After reading a suggestion made by a fellow student, I took their advice and

started to check the team processes section in the simulation in order to know what my

team was thinking week after week. Through trial and error, I soon understood that

listening to my team’s feedback, and requests was crucial for my project’s success.

Taking the team’s input into account I was able to apply a better weekly tailored strategy

and thus improving my communication to gain better scores.

Another area I have significantly improved on, and one where I particularly give

more consideration to is project scheduling. According to Bringing the PMBOK Guide to

Life: A Companion for the Practicing Project Manager, by Frank P. Saladis, Harold

Kerzner, and Harold R. Kerzner, a project schedule is defined as: “The arrangement of

project activities in predecessor/successor relationships to create a network diagram

that shows the logical flow of work and the estimated duration of project activities to

indicate the total duration of the project. The project’s critical tasks are also defined. The

project schedule is the result of a coordinated effort by the project manager and the

team” (Bringing the PMBOK Guide to Life, 2009). As this course went on, each scenario

on the Harvard project management simulation got harder and harder. Even though the

project in the simulation always involve developing a printer, module after module, a
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new scenario context was presented, typically yielding a higher level of difficulty. An

example of this was the difference between scenario A in module two, to scenario B in

module three. Scenario A was in my opinion the easiest, its purpose was to introduce

the different project management simulation parameters we would be working with to

the project manager. These parameters included the functionality level of the printer,

scheduling target, team size and level, amount of outsourcing, number and type of

weekly meetings, amount of overtime hours allowed, number of prototypes and desired

week advancement rate. Scenario B presented a more complex context however, as it

presented a mid-project staffing crisis. Due to some heavy recruiting from a competitor,

several of my crew members left the team and left me short staff for at least a couple of

weeks. This contingency presented a big roadblock as productivity was severely

impacted thus delaying the completion date as well as putting a tremendous amount of

stress on remaining team members. The first run I had with scenario B took me by

surprise and this crisis heavily affect my score. The second run and after were different

however, as I was able to plan for this and try to salvage the original schedule

completion date. I tried strategies like over hiring highly skilled crew members so that

when half my original team left, I was left with the perfect amount to keep productivity up

and thus staying on schedule.

In most projects, management is faced with unexpected challenges and

inevitable situations where there is a need to choose between achieving a certain

objective over another or choosing to achieve an objective before another. These

situations can be difficult as there are many paths that management can decided to

pursue that will yield different results; it often comes down to the project manager’s
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desired personal approach. With the experience I have had in the past and the

experienced I have gained over the course through the Harvard simulation, my personal

approach to project management revolves around thoughtful tailored project planning,

with a keen focus for changing variables within a project, in order to attack arising

contingencies as soon as possible. According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary (1951), a

slippery slope can be defined as “A course of action that seems to lead inevitably from

one action or result to another with unintended consequences”. This is something that

a project manager such as me can be very afraid of. A project manager needs to

keep the project under control and in route for success. Whenever a problem arises

and it is not address, it can lead to problems that can later impact the overall project

on a bigger scale. For this reason, my approach is to follow the set plan as precise as

possible to minimize unwanted situations; if these do come up tackling them as early

as possible is the next protocol. One of my biggest challenges and one that I think

every project manager can agree is a big one would be facing tradeoffs. During the

course, I had multiple instances where budget was running low but there were too

many tasks left for completion. These instances are examples of hard tradeoffs where

I needed to decide what mattered most at the time; completing the tasks on time by

going overbudget or staying within the budget but pushing back production. Another

example of a hard trade off can be deciding whether to hire seven lowered skilled

individuals or hiring four highly skilled members. Whatever the tradeoff would be, my

area of focus or of most importance was always completion date. As a project

manager, I strive to deliver the product on time before anything else because that can

show a lot to stake holders. In my opinion, stakeholders can be more appreciative if a

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project was delivered on time with expenses being a little higher that budgeted over a

late project.

A major take away from my experiences with this course and the simulation

that I can grasp on to for my professional career is the importance of ethics. In project

management, ethics play a huge role and if there is evidence of ethical dilemmas it

can lead to legal issues and even lawsuits. The Project Management Institute has

identified the values that support their Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct as

responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty (Project Management Institute, n.d.).

These are not only great values to live by but are ones that can ensure the legality of

my future professional endeavors remains intact. Legal issues are a strong motivator for

ethics to be followed during a project, however following ethical code to do what is right

is as important. In the simulation, there was not a lot of room to face an ethical dilemma,

but from previous experience I can say that these situations can be very touchy. If a

project manager decides to break ethics and cut corners in order to complete a project

on time or under budget, it can have serious repercussions. These are not always seen

right away. Take a project manager who decides to use the wrong material for

floorboards in order to cut costs for example. Although everything might appear good at

first, over time those floorboards will not last and can be a hazard to the owners and a

liability to the management firm. These lessons I have learned have enhanced the

importance of ethics in my opinion and I will take this new appreciation for ethical

conduct and apply it in my future professional endeavors.

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Three Areas of Advice for the Harvard Project Management Simulation

Coming into this course with very little project management experience and then

being introduced to the Harvard Project Management Simulation was a bit scary for me.

I wish I could have gotten the opportunity to speak to someone who had taken this

course before and was familiar with the simulation scenarios, in order to ask them for

advice that would help in my journey. Now, as I have gone through simulation, I am still

no project management expert, however I do believe I had good enough outcomes from

these scenarios to justify that my knowledge worthy of sharing to someone just starting

off. If given the chance, I would offer my advice on the following three areas of project

management; scope, resources and schedule.

Scope

Scope, as defined by Kim Heldman: “documents the project goals, deliverables,

and requirements of the project” (Project Manager’s Spotlight on Risk Management,

2005, pg. 1). Scope documents all the work that will be put into the project and can be

used to make decisions later in the project (Project Manger’s Spotlight on Risk

Management, 2005, pg. 1). During my experience with the simulation, scope was one of

the easier tasks to manage. I only say scope was easy as it was a simulation and one

way or another the product was delivered. One piece of advice I would give to a new

incoming project manager would be to keep the level of the deliverable at the

management standard level. If completed, this will earn 175/1000 every time. Like

mentioned, meeting the scope goal if easy yet exceeding the goal is another story.

Depending on which scenario you are attempting in the simulation, management may
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want a different level of printer for the final product. When management asks for a level

three printer and you deliver, you will receive the previously stated amount of points. If

you decide to go above and beyond however, and instead deliver a level four printer

then you can earn up to an additional 100 points. This can make a big difference in the

final score yet pulling this off can of course be a difficult challenge. In order to deliver a

higher-level product, more workers or more skilled workers will be needed which will

cost more. This brings me to my next area of focus, resources.

Resources

“The resources of an organization consist of people, materials, equipment,

knowledge and time” (Project Insight, n.d.). Although all of the previous are resources in

a project and even on this project, for the resource grade portion in the simulation it only

focuses on the budget. The budget however is spent on the amount of team members

you hire, the skill of the team members and how much outsourcing you do. These will

be the focus when keeping within the budget. One strategy that I implemented while

going through all the scenarios was to only hire as much people as needed. During the

beginning of each scenario, I would hire lower skilled team members as they were

cheaper to hire. I would suggest doing this and keeping a close eye on their

performance. For the most part, during the beginning these team members will do just

fine. After a while however, the tasks will start to be a little complex for some lower

skilled team members and this is when you will want to start implementing more one on

one session to guide your team. You will see that these one on one sessions will help

your team members but at some point, you will need to hire higher level skilled

members. In my opinion, it is better to do this mid-way through the project in order to

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save money in the beginning when all you really need is lower skilled members.

Outsourcing can also save some money in the budget. The more you outsource the

more you will save. This can backfire though as at times this seemed to affect the

morale or stress level of the team. For the resource grade, if you meet the budget goal

you will receive at least 250 points with a possible additional 100 points if you exceed

the goal. This section yields the highest amount of points, so it is something important to

keep in mind while completing the simulation.

Schedule

Lastly, the schedule of the project, just like the scope, can earn you 175 point for

meeting the goal with an additional 100 points if you exceed it. Schedule can also be

the trickiest part to the simulation as every other section can have the highest impact

this portion. If you spend more money than the budgeted goal you can manage to finish

the project before schedule however you will have to decide if this tradeoff is worth it.

Another tradeoff you will can potentially make is deciding to stick to the level of printer

management ask for or you can decide to deliver a lower level or higher-level printer. If

you decide to lower the standard, you can finish before schedule and even save money

at the same time. If you decide to produce a higher-level printer you can exceed the

scope goal but will most likely spend more money and go over the scheduled date of

completion. The strategy that I used and would advice a new project manager who will

be facing the simulation to follow would be to stick to the both the budget and level of

printer as much as possible. Some scenarios are easier to do this of course. Take

scenario D for example, in this scenario the simulation gives a completion frame of 12

weeks, which is a very demanding one and difficult to achieve. In this instance you will
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face more difficult trade offs between meeting schedule, saving money and delivering

the right product. I personally decide to spend a little more that budgeted in order to be

able to complete the schedule on time.

Bonus Advice!

One last thing to keep in mind when completing the simulation is team

processes, which is the fourth area to score points on. This area focuses on the

average morale and stress through out each scenario. Team stress and morale all

affected by the time allotted in the schedule, the skill of the members themselves, how

many meetings you have, amount of outsourcing, number of prototypes and the level of

the deliverable. I would suggest listening to your team not only to score high on this

area, but this will also positively impact the other area if done right.

In conclusion, leadership plays a huge role in project management as a project

manager needs to be analytical when making decisions which will affect the overall

project. In my experiences with the Harvard simulation project management can have

many approaches. It is up to the project manage to decide what approach he/she will

take with each individual project. I personally like to implement a tailored approach

depending on the context of each project and mostly try to react fast to arising

contingencies.
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References:

Heldman, K. (2005). Project Manager’s Spotlight on Risk Management. Harbor Light

Press

Lim, R. (June 4, 2019). Top 10 Main Causes of Project Failure. Retrieved from:

https://project-management.com/top-10-main-causes-of-project-failure/

Merriam-Webster. (1951). Slippery Slope. Retrieved from:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slippery%20slope

Mind Tools. (n.d.). How Good Are Your Project Management Skills? Retrieved from:

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_60.htm

Project Insight. (n.d.). Project Resource Allocation and Resource Management

Retrieved from:

https://www.projectinsight.net/project-management-basics/basic-resource-

management

Project Management Institute. (n.d.). Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct.

Retrieved from:

https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/ethics/pmi-code-of-

ethics.pdf?v=5b0f0983-6467-4d7d-9aae-577fbac4d4b3&sc_lang_temp=en

Saladis, F. P., Kerzner, H., and Kerzner, H.R. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. (2009).

Bringing the PMBOK Guide to Life: A Companion for the Practicing Project Manager.

ProQuest eBook Central. Retrieved from:

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https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-

ebooks/reader.action?docID=706495