Balancing Project Objectives & Decision Making 1

Erika Peterson
OGL 321
Module
October 21, 2018

Project management is a very complex process revolving around a planned

process from which decisions are made by project managers. As described in our

readings, decisions and objectives go hand in hand and within project management it is

best to begin with the objectives as they lead the project manager to make decisions

based on the objectives of the project (Powell, R., Buede, D. pg. 5). After reading both

A Project Manager’s Guide to Making Successful Decisions and the two blogs articles,

It’s Not All about Charm: Traits of the Everyday Leader and Top 10 Main Causes of

Project Failure, a key takeaway was the importance of decision making in projects by a

project manager and understanding the complexity of such task.

As a project manager, their responsibility is to oversee that the objectives of the

project are met within the scheduled time frame and within budget. Throughout the

course of the project, the project manager must make decisions that may be easy and

others that may be difficult when not planned and that can have a significant impact on

overall quality and result of the project. The project manager is the eyes, ears, and

mind of the stakeholders and is provided with the trust necessary to make those tough

decisions. It is also important that throughout the cycle of the project, the project

manager evaluates how the project is going and determine if changes or adjustments

need to be made. A project manager is often overseeing multiple projects at any given
Balancing Project Objectives & Decision Making 2

time, this is why it is imperative that he or she is actively part of and aware of the

stages, resources/project teams and objectives that must be met and is organized in

order to make the best decisions for the project. It is the responsibility and job of the

project manager to make decisions within a planned process in order to help ensure

completion of a project.

During the Scenario A simulation, as the project manager my responsibility was

to evaluate the project during its project cycle making adjustments and decisions as

necessary. Some of the decisions made during the Scenario A simulation were more

difficult than others, especially maintaining the project’s team moral as they continued

with the production of the wireless printer, staying within budget and the time frame

given. Every decision that I made had an impact on the overall result of the project.

Having taken the simulation four times, I made different adjustments each time and still

found it difficult to earn a score in which I was happy with. Finding a balance and

determining what the best decision was, was challenging resulting in a completed

project but was over budget and over the project completion date. The simulation was a

good example and experience of scenarios in which real project managers must act and

made decisions with the possibility of getting unpleasant results and consequences.

Powell and Buede state that “a decision pathway or sequence that is random is more

likely to lead to failure than to success. Achieving success requires that a rational and

explicit or structured decision process be developed and used; I completely agree with

this statement and find it true that when a structured and planned process is used, the

amount of mistakes are minimized because there are opportunities built into the process

to correct errors (Powell, R., Buede, D.).

Balancing Project Objectives & Decision Making 3

In my experience, looking back at the projects in which I have participated in, I

can understand the importance of decision making and project objectives and how each

go hand in hand. Before a project manager can begin making decisions the project

must be planned out, the project manager must be well-informed and prepared to make

well-informed decisions, take responsibility, communicate effectively with the project

team members and stakeholders, challenge others to think and contribute to the tasks,

and be aware and recognize risks and problems within the project. Having been a

project manager during a small food drive project and part of several teams during other

projects I can honestly say that the more skilled, prepared, forthcoming and organized

the project manager was the easier it was to make decisions about the project and

issues that were identified. An example of a decision that I had to make as a project

manager during a food drive challenge that was put on by the organization that I work

for was having to eliminate surrounding jurisdictions from the team. This decision

affected the goal of total food items collected causing the remaining jurisdictions to work

harder to receive additional food donation items.

Looking back at the project once completed, I was able to determine that the

project was not as well organized as I would have wanted it to be and I had to make

decision in order to keep the project moving forward to achieve the objectives of the

project, making a tough decision. This experience taught me the importance of

planning a project in detail and understanding how decisions made affect each task and

result.
Balancing Project Objectives & Decision Making 4

References

Lim, Rosanne. (2018, October 8) Top 10 Main Causes of Project Failure. Retrieved

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

Powell, Robert Col. Buede, Dennis. (2009). Project Manager’s Guide to Making

Successful Decisions. Management Concepts, Inc. Retrieved from 

https://app.knovel.com/hotlink/toc/id:kpPMGMSD08/project-manager-s-

guide/project-manager-s-guide

Workzone. (2017, December 6) It’s Not All about Charm: Traits of the Everyday Leader

[Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.upwork.com/blog/2017/12/not-charm-

traits-everyday-leader/