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Ogl 321 Finalreflection
Ogl 321 Finalreflection
Jesus M. Cortes
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
offer my advice for three areas within the scenarios to those who will soon begin to dive
Since first taking the quiz “How Good Are Your Project Management Skills?” in
management plays a big role in organizational leadership. These two courses have
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
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
Another area I have significantly improved on, and one where I particularly give
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
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 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
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
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
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
with a keen focus for changing variables within a project, in order to attack arising
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
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
manager, I strive to deliver the product on time before anything else because that can
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
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
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
Scope
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
Resources
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
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
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
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.
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:
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/
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
Retrieved from:
https://www.projectinsight.net/project-management-basics/basic-resource-
management
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.
https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib-
ebooks/reader.action?docID=706495