Running Head: Making Things Happen

Making Things Happen

Adefemi Ajayi
Eastern Kentucky University.

Making Things Happen

A project is a unique piece of work with predefined start and end dates, objective, scope and budget (Salminen
and Lanning, 1999).Project Manager is not necessarily a job title (p. 2); for example, when I worked in a high school,
depending on the type of project, different individuals are assigned to manage the project based on their expertise. My job
designation as an Advance Mathematics Coordinator for High School students and also as the Information Technology
Centre (ICT Centre) manager were both Project management functions which involved planning, writing teaching notes
according to the syllabus (writing specification), making decisions and implementation management which were all
project management needed skills. As a Project manager, the failure to appropriately figure out the right paradox to adopt
at different stages can significantly affect a project negatively. For example, I could not meet my target at the end of the
semester because I did not delegate appropriately. This shortcoming was as a result of my love for teaching. I was invested
in my job and did not utilize available delegation opportunities. Project managers must delegate important or fun tasks
and share rewards with the entire team (p. 11).
As a project manager there will be situations where you have to be autocratic to get the work done, for instance,
the high school Principal do get furious and charge all instructors anytime students perform below expectation on
standardized assessments. . A project manager has to be confident and willful enough to take control and force certain
actions onto a team, but it should not be to the extreme and he should create the environment where work can be
collaborated on effectively (p. 11). The principal sets a standard that must be met by all instructors to improve students
performance and ensures compliance with the set standards. Though, this system may work well, it requires collaboration
with the Instructors to succeed. During this period, the principal meets with Instructors frequently and they share ideas on
what to do to improve the performance of the students.
During my employment as a technical support assistant at a computer/mobile gadgets repair company, controlled
ambiguity was permitted if it will lead to better and cheaper solutions than the traditional solution available at the
company. Nevertheless, one must be careful in implementation to ensure that the standard is not compromised. This has
always given birth to new ideas. In project management, you give room for controlled ambiguity, yet pursue perfection (p.
11). Also, a good project manager must know when to communicate orally and when to put it in written. Again, using the
high school as an example, the principal communicate orders to staffs via written circulars; ideas and suggestions are
shared during meetings, this is to get the opinions of the staffs on issues. Orders are orders, they cannot be debated.
Knowing the right time to hurry your team and the time to just be patient with them and allow the work to flow during a

Making Things Happen

project is another good trait of a project manager. For instance, when an Instructor is behind on covering the syllabus, then
he/she should be proactive in ensuring completion. Likewise, when students are finding it hard to understand a particular
topic, the instructor should recognize the need to slow down to carry everyone along. Similarly, a good project manager
must acknowledge complexity and yet strive for simplicity. It is just like trying to simplify a complex topic for students by
given more examples and dividing it into more subtopics.
As a project manager, the courage to face fear is another trait. A project manager is the captain of his team, he
keeps his team focused on the goal and outcome, the Project Manager should be someone who stands in the gap to
encourage his team. He should be skeptical but not cynical, if things does not look right, he should be able to probe the
situation, ask questions and face the problem together with them, developing the teams belief.
Furthermore, a schedule is required as part of a project management document. The three main objectives of a
schedule is first to make a commitment towards achieving a goal, then to allow the contributions of individuals to be seen
and thirdly to enable that the project progress can be easily tracked and work divided into manageable sizes (pp. 24-26).
According to Berkun (2008)the rule of thirds is an ultimate edict in achieving any type of good project schedules that will
satisfy the above purposes. The rule works by breaking the available time into parts, one for design, the other for
implementation and the third for testing. An example of a simple project schedule for a high school instructor preparation
of course syllabus. As an Instructor, I was involved in preparation of course syllabus and I realized that it is not as simple
as it looks. A course calendar and syllabus requires all necessary project management skills that any complex project may
require. From designing, to implementation and testing. The design phase is always one of the most important because
that is where the estimates are made and a schedule is simply a probability and a good design encompasses good
estimates. For example, to make good syllabus design with reasonable estimates is not just the work of an Instructor, the
whole team that will be part of the semester must be involved. As an Instructor, you must consider academic holidays,
midterm breaks and other collegial activities while preparing your syllabus. This might require collaboration with other
faculty and administrative staff. Hence, if other staffs are not carried along, then you might make a schedule with wrong
estimation. You might end up fixing an exam on an excursion day. This means that a great design with good estimates
most have the inputs of everybody. Likewise, the divide and conquer method is a good way of limiting risk in schedule (p.
29)

Making Things Happen

In schools, each course syllabus is divided into individual outlines with topics and subtopics. All the stages with
their design, implementation and testing time. This simplifies the semester and limits the amount of overall risks. For
instance, where there are overlaps in topics between courses, the introductory course might be taught first to build a
foundation for the students and enhance understanding of the more advanced course. Division of the topics make it easier
to see the overlap. The basic idea is simply, involve everybody in the design process and create detailed schedules for
limited periods of time (p. 29) to ensure productivity.
In addition, requirements and designs are handled different depending on the size of an organization, the structure
and authority relationships. For example, in a high school setting, a proper designation of authority makes unnecessary
conflicts avoidable. Each head of department has the authority to write the syllabus requirements and it is approved by the
school head, but the design authority is the exclusive right of the Instructors with the approval from the department head.
Basically, authority is distributed across team leaders except in a Solo-superman case, where only one person is involved
and the superman owns all the authority (p. 45)
Making a good project plan depend on the deliverables, the marketing requirements document, vision documents,
specifications and work breakdown structures. To plan a project properly, it requires that the right questions are asked and
the project should be viewed from the perspective of all the three main actors, that is, the business perspective, the
technology perspective and the customer perspective. For example, you want to build a website for a school. From the
business perspective, the questions that will be asked will evolve around the cost and economic benefit of the website
project. From the technology perspective, questions will be about design, workability, reliability, efficiency, processes,
expertise, quality, project time and all other design and implementation questions. The most important perspective is that
of the customer, but ironically it get the least priority in many organizations. The satisfaction of the customers is
proportional to the progress of any organization. Hence, questions like, what do students do on websites? What challenges
do they face trying to do these things? What do they need or wish to do but are not able to do? What ideas can improve the
students and other customers experiences? What concepts should the website use to communicate with the students?
Since, planning creates large volumes of information, it is simplified to plan actions with well-defined requirements and
using problem statements and scenarios are simple ways of defining and conveying requirements. Problem statements
describe end user issues direct from the customers viewpoint with one or two sentences. Problem statement for a school
website can include: It is difficult to search for other students and faculties directly from the homepage, the login page is

Making Things Happen

difficult to locate from the homepage, etc. Problem statement represents the current situation, hence it is converted to
scenarios which describe the look of things when the project is completed. Scenarios can include statements like: students
and faculties will be easy to locate from the homepage search screen, the login page will be at the center of the homepage,
etc. Good questions forces good thinking and brings about the right plan (pp.47-66).
The most important of all the planning materials needed for a successful project is the vision document. Due to
the unreliability of our memories to store complex data, writing things down lessen our minds burden and it gives the
mind the freedom to focus on the task at hand, this provides assurance that information and ideas are written and safe for
reference. The format of a vision statement depends on the nature of project and team structure, a voluminous document
does not translate to a good vision. In short, a good vision possess five qualities: simplifying effect on the project,
intention (goal-driven), consolidated, inspirational and memorable. Writing a good vision requires that things be viewed
broadly, on the long term, and without sounding too specific. For example, a good high school vision statement can
include to be in the world top high schools, to produce the best crop of high school graduates nationwide, to give
qualitative education to all. These examples are good visions because it stated what the school want to become on the
long run and it does not limit the goal. These goals are measurable. Vision like to be successful is too generic, because
every organization want to be successful, vison like to move to a bigger location is too specific because that will become
obsolete once it is fulfilled. A good vision drives the team goals, which drives individual goals (pp 77-88).
Also, complex projects have enough time between requirements and specifications, this time should be used for
quality requirements and design explorations. This will help in limiting errors and avoiding mistakes. The greatest ideas
are generated in atmosphere where there is room for discussions and brainstorming. For instance, in my Network Security
class, we spend the first 45 minutes watching a short video and discussing network security concepts from the video
perspective with contributions from everybody, then the next 45 minutes is spent listening to the instructors lecture and
the last 1 hour 30minutes is spent in the lab. I have realized that I learnt and gained more in the first 45 minutes watching
that video and discussing it than in the remaining 2hours 15minutes combined. The ideas in the video stuck faster and last
longer in my memory than listening to the Professor or working in the lab. Many of the ideas that I have before but never
considered meaningful are manifested watching the videos.
Furthermore, creating necessary checkpoints help to track and manage the project design phases, for example, in a
website building project, common checkpoints like vision and proof of concepts that show the proof of the prototypes

Making Things Happen

principles improved the understanding of the problem. Next, organize and group generated ideas to enable the team to
make proper plan, then narrow the choices to three or five alternatives to simplify decision making and do more
investigation, questioning, research until it is possible to narrow the alternatives to just two, do additional investigation to
settle for a final direction choice. Finally, document the single chosen design and use remaining time to research,
recognize and make decisions on lower level design issues. These should be the basic standards for project design phase
checkpoints. Also, there is need to create an open issues list to identify problems which must be solved during execution
of the next task, before the next milestone or before the project can be completed. Open-issues list track questions that
need to be resolved before specifications can be completed. For the website design project, open-issues can start with
simple questions like do we put the login window at the middle of the homepage or on the far right top corner, but it
should be more detailed as you write the specifications.
A good specification ensures that right product is built, provide a schedule milestone that concludes the planning
phase of the project and enable deep review and feedback from all necessary team members over the course of the project.
For example, a standard website specification should including requirements specification, this explains all obligations
that must be fulfilled to have the website of our plan. Then it must include the feature specification, outlining the basic
characteristics of the website from the customer perspective, it is just like a user manual detailing how the website should
work from a nontechnical viewpoint. Then the technical specification, details the engineering approach needed to make
the specified features and work items which describes the programming work needed to be done to achieve the feature
specification of the website. Specification is basically the explanation of the process in the simplest form and not
designing of the plan. A good specification should simplify the plan in layman language to be understandable by even
nontechnical people. To make specification as simple as possible, it is better to have one author, though with contributions
from all the team, this will prevent conflict of ideas and use of words. Though, on a large team, a technical person may
need to handle the technical specifications, the PM handles the feature specs, but no matter who writes what, there must
be link between all the documents that someone reading them will believe the author actually discussed or that it was even
written by the same person. A specification should be precise on which problem is being addressed and one of its main
function is to help the project manager in understanding the project (pp.136-153).
In decision making, sizing up available options carefully before spending too much time on it and using
information properly are good skills of achieving great result. Ensure that all problems are caught as early as possible

Making Things Happen

(Weisfeld and Ciocozzi, 1999). Emotions affect decision making, it can be the fear of failure or personal desire and
preference for a particular thing. To avoid emotional influence, externalize decision-making, not just think it, write it
down or talk it, this will broaden your understanding. In sizing up options properly before making a decision, the
problems and issues should be well clarified. The vision documents, specifications and requirements lists are very
important tools in making the right decisions. Refer to these documents to simplify your decision making. For instance, an
instructor trying to make a decision whether to include Windows Operating system basics in the syllabus or a Linux
operating system basics may find it helpful to consult the requirements lists provided by the head of department, For
instance, if the requirement list stated that students must understand the thorough use of Microsoft packages at the end of
the course, this helps the instructor to make his decision to satisfy this requirement.
Also, in making decisions, the most flexible method for comparison is using the pros and cons list, here you ask
the tough and honest questions and have dissenting opinion to keep it real, make sure do nothing option is always
included, make sure you know the reason behind your answers, include relevant perspectives and consider hybrid choices.
It should also be noted that information are only to clarify the situation, it does not make the decision. Knowing the
materials you need for a project does not tell you how to fix them together to bring the best result. Data are also easily
interpreted, likewise, because you have a specific number does not mean it is accurate. That is precision is not accuracy
(p. 168).
Finally, some right decisions require courage to take, therefore not everybody who knows the right choice, makes
the right choice. Like it said earlier, emotions and fear of making unpopular decisions make some people avoid the right
decisions. Project management is our day to day job, to succeed a good project manager must understand the appropriate
paradoxes at necessary times, especially handling fear with courage to take the right decision.

Making Things Happen

8
References

Salminen A. & Lanning H. (1999). Organizational change as a project. Project management 5(1) pp. 50-54 Retrieved
from www.cupa.ir/Editor/assets/magazine/International Project Management Journal, 1999.pdf#page=81
Scott Berkum (2008). Making things happen: Mastering project management. Cambridge: O Reilly media.
Weisfeld M. & Ciccozzi J. (1999). Software Project management. Project management 5(1) pp.34-36. Retrieved from
www.cupa.ir/Editor/assets/magazine/International Project Management Journal, 1999.pdf#page=81