As I am about to choose a video to reflect on it, I’d come

across and decided to start knowing the definition of what is

project management all about because I believe that by
knowing the background of the said topic will brighten my
idea on how to deal with different project in the future. Dr.
Mike Clayton define first what is a project and said “a set of
tasks that together create a defined new product, process or
service within constrained time and budget” when Dr. Clayton
defines it, I paused more minutes and ponder his own
definition when I come up with my own definition. For me a project is something that I want to do and
need to accomplish with a given period of time, it is something that everyone will see when it is done
(outcome). In addition, Dr. clayton defines project management as a set of tools processes, systems,
methods and personal skills and attitudes that allow us to meet project challenges” – this I learned that
in project management it involves the different techniques, methods, the tools, systems, processes,
procedures, my personal skills like the attitude, leadership how I influence, being resilience and of
course the curiosity because this will enable us to be a successful project manager in the future. I also
learned that there are two broad types of a project management the predictive and or planned which
basically the same on traditional methods of planning a project that has been used years ago and second
is adaptive approach which is used and apply nowadays. Thus, to bring the best way and be successful of
a certain project I obviously apply both approaches to be substantial because both are helpful and
contribute a success differently. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XT-wb6b64_E

The second video that I choose to watch and reflect on it

was the “introducing the basics steps of project
management” by mike clayton. I learned that there are eight
steps in the project management that are beneficial and
essential in leading the work of a team or individual to
achieve and meet success in a solid path for the making of
project activities. The first step is to know “what is your
project all about?” – this is my foundation to know and set
clearly what is my project all about and what is not. This
includes the assessing your goal, setting objectives, the
scope and more. The second step is “Does your project make sense” - at this point I need to know that
my project is making sense commercially. I need to determine the value and the future outcome of my
project and compare it upon doing the project and the risk involve. The third step is “Who will
determine your success or failure”? – basically this step is not just about me but also my stakeholder I
need to figure out and know the value of my stakeholder because they are the people who would also
help my success and know where I failed. The fourth step is “how will you deliver your project” – at this
point I learned that we need to set our activity or task in a logical order so that I’ll know the least and
most needed resources and materials upon delivering the project and help me to estimate and calculate
my budget efficiently. Step five is to “Engage your project team” I learned that I need to socialize with
the people who will work with me to deliver the project successfully and that is my team with different
abilities and capabilities every voice should be respected. Next step is “Shift Happens! Prepare for it” - I
believe that in life change is constant so as in project. In this step it involves if we take risk or we don’t
but in taking the risk I should know the future consequence that might happen if that affects or help the
project. Then the next step is “stay control during implementation” – in this step I learned that reporting
or communication is very important so that during the implementation everything is in control and still
in line with the plan. Lastly, “Close your project in an orderly way’- in this step I need to bare in my mind
the things I learn, the pros and cons, the things that we need to develop and the things that we need to
improve because this will help me to be better and successful in the next activity or project. Thus, I
learned that by following this step in the project management will guide and help me to improve in
planning, establishing and implementing a success project in the future.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMZfp1_wquyegVY9SoER0Nw

Since I am done watching and been enlighten of the

background of what is project management and their
basic steps, I choose to watch and reflect about “HOW
TO BECOME A GREAT PROJECT MANAGER” as far as I
know project manager is someone who lead roles in
planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing
projects but how can I know if I am a great project
manager? When I watch the video, I figure out some
skills that I need to be focus: First, is to keep on
learning and finding new stuff and the other is keep focus on the people because this will help me to
develop my socialization skill by working with them effectively. On other side, there are three things I
need to develop to become a great project manager as per instruction of Dr. Clayton this are: 1. Self-
control, which is for me the most important values that I need to develop because in real life situation I
get easily pissed off and impatient if I develop this I know I can stay calm in face of adversity, I manage
my temper, maintain optimism, enthusiasm, and confidence, I have now the determination to
succeed (grit) and motivation to keep going and lastly, I will be resilience to get up again when I fall.
2. Generosity of Spirit this includes helping, supporting, guiding, teaching, coaching and mentoring
the people around me because they are the one that who is always at my back to support and help
me in the task and activities. 3. Curiosity this value pushes me to accomplish the task that I was
wondering, planning and implemented without curiosity I have no idea why I am pushing everything
in this world, the different, the new things and challenging about a certain situation. Thus, as a
project manger we need to be observant, and continue in seeking ideas, improving the horizon for
what is going on and I don’t need to be satisfied with the word OKAY but rather always looking for
something better, something newer to do something so that I can convince other people.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiJhbzY3ASM

As a project manager I need bare inside my mind that in life

I don’t always get what I always wanted, I will come across
life struggles and challenges maybe to help me improve and
learn to become a better individual but it depends on how I
react and apply it. When I watch the video about “handling
contradiction” by Dr. Clayton I learned that as project
manager, I need to make decision even if the situation is
uncertain but remain to see the clarity and possibilities to
make my decision obvious. I learned that all I need to do is to seek out and expose the contradictions
and complexities of a situation and if I increase my tolerance for uncertainties this will lead me to a
better decision as a project manager. I need to remain in a simple decision and not to complicate it
because it leads me to a better resolution. Thus, to be a good Project Manager, you cannot try to boil
down every choice into simple terms too soon. If you do, you'll miss the details that can often point to
the best resolutions. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKUNvfdm22w

To become an exceptional Project Manager, I need to realized and

apply on how to learn from failure. In this video with Dr. clayton, he
shared the topic about “How to learn from failures” as I was watching
it, I compare it on how I handle failure in my life because hearing the
word failures is such a heartbreaking and a disappointment for me, I
have been so down every time I failed in a certain things but I when I
reflected to what Dr. clayton I realized that it was just a mindset and
there is no such thing as failure but there is only feedback and when I
accepted it heartedly, I was comforted with it. I learned that in every
time I failed it was just a new learning about something that doesn’t work that why I need to treat
failure now as a gift of knowledge because the more I learned from it I am also learning about my
success. On the other side of being a project manager I don’t want to be a failure but rather to be a
successful why? Because failure is expensive, I loses my time, money, effort and sometimes I don’t
have now the access and benefits to my promised project in short failure is not really a good thing
because as a project manager it is my enemy to my future success, I don’t want that there are many
of my implemented project fall. Thus, the most important thing about failure is what I do about it if I
want to become an excellent project manager, I need to extend my efforts and have wisdom in every
situation that might happen, thinking about what happened, how it happened, and what alternatives
there were, review my assumptions, the process, and the outcomes. And then consider alternatives
for me to become the best project manager. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmMgjrqhHrw

Stress is always there wherever we are because it is a

feeling of emotional or physical tension that can come
from any event or thought that makes us feel frustrated,
angry, or nervous. As I was watching the video, I
learned that whenever we feel stress because this just
means that our body reaction to a challenge or demand
bursts if this happen our first priority is to take a break
with at least 1 week, get plenty of rest, a time with
family and friends, good food, relaxation and exercise
too. In addition, I learned that I need to redesign my
time away from my work environment and prioritize stuff mention above until my body recharge to its
normal condition. In this way, I can assess why I am stress may it because I was overwhelming because I
cannot cope with the work I have or overload because I have too much work to be able to manage. Thus,
whatever maybe I am overwhelm or overload I need to find solution if I am stress because this leads to
unproductive individual and as a project manager. Solutions also maybe, talking to the heads, distribute
workloads, support or looking for other resources if I do this or we do this thing like communicating and
finding solution there will be a no stress but a improve, efficient individual.
The next video that I have watch is all about what is stakeholder management. Stakeholder is
anybody who has any interest in your project and Stakeholder Management is the process of
managing the stakeholder engagement. I have learned in the video that stakeholder is about the
process of entering into a respectful constructive dialogue with our stakeholders. Also, I realized the
essence of project managers, with that said, project managers are the one who engage with the
stakeholders. It is their duty to listen, to learn, to consult, to inform and to try to influence in a
respectful way to get the best of the relationship with the stakeholders. I have fully grasp that in
order to manage the process of stakeholder engagement you have to follow some steps. The first
one is to identify who is your stakeholders. It is a mistake to ignore the project team and everyone
involved in the project as they are special stakeholder whose more closely involved than anyone
else in the project and focus to the internal stakeholder. Next is to analyze them. To be in a better
relationship with the stakeholder and to understand them well, you have to analyze their fears,
needs, preference and their stake in the project. The third step is to put a plan on how you are going
to engage with them. In this step, the goal is on how to influence your stakeholders. After planning,
the next step is to put it in an action. The last step is to review. It is needed to assess the learnings
and the influence over the stakeholder. Thus, stakeholder analysis is one of the most important
elements in project management. Project management is 80% communication and it is because of
the way we have with the stakeholders. As I finish watching the video, I have put it into my mind that
managing your stakeholder is a very disrespectful act and that why we have to engage with them
and understand them well than to manage the stakeholder, after all stakeholders are humans too.

After watching Mike Clayton What is Milestone Planning, I have gained knowledge about milestone and
its relation to project management. Milestone is use as a metaphor by the project managers, it is a block
of stone that can be found by the side of the road. We find milestone at the places along the journey
and these places represents the achievements we obtain and decision that is done in the journey. To
put it simple, Milestone Planning is talks about identifying the key points and determining how they
relate to one another to create a sequence of events on a project. Some project managers plan forward,
they start planning from the present to the future. Other project managers plan backwards, they plan
their end milestones and work their plan way to what they are now. Some project managers plan
randomly and jot down the key points and connect it. The process of milestone planning is very
straightforward. The first step is to create a milestone. The next step is to create the links between
milestones. It will be easy to make network diagram of milestone and check how one milestone leads on
to others. The third step is to assign dates to the milestone. The next step is to attach a number of tasks
to each milestone representing the things you need to do and accomplish. The last step is to allocate the
tasks. Thus, milestone planning allows you to visualize your project and gives you more detailed and
organize information on how to achieve your milestone efficiently and on schedule.
The next video presents what is value engineering. Value Engineering deals with modifying a design or a
process to increase the value. The value is the ratio between the benefits or the functionality and the
cost. The goal of value engineering is to reduce or eliminate cost while at the same time maintaining or
ideally improving the functionality or the quality. The value engineering looks alternatives to existing
solutions. It is important to remember that value engineering takes part in the design or planning stage
of the project. There are things to be consider in value engineering, these are the materials,
transportation, plants and equipment, process, sourcing and lastly the delivered standards. Value
engineering involves identifying the main elements of a project. It also deals with analyzing the function
of these elements and developing alternative solution in delivering the function. Value engineering
includes assessing the alternative solution and allocating cost to these alternative solutions. Also,
developing in more details those alternatives that guarantees the highest chance of success and the best
return in increasing the value of the benefit to cost ratio. Therefore, value engineering takes place in
cost cutting. In other words, it finds a way to deliver the project in a lower cost remembering the
possibility that it will also reduce the quality and the fact of the higher chance of risk return. When value
engineering adjusts the cost and benefits to achieve the higher value of the project and they put it in
mind that there are also compromises and these compromises have been carefully analyzed before the
decision is made and that way, value engineering can contribute a lot in the development of the project.

End the end of the video of Mike Clayton, I have learned what lean project management is. According to
him, lean is an attitude or a way of thinking and systematic approach to eliminating waste. Lean project
management connects that attitudes to make our project run more efficiently and to provide better
services to the clients of the project. Lean management aims to eliminate holdups in the process of
making the project and speeds up the process the project and remove waste as it goes. Along the video I
have attain that there are three types of waste according to the Japanese Toyota Production system and
these are Muda, Mura and Muri. Muda is a wasted effort because whatever you do or resources you
deploy it doesn’t increase the value or benefit to your stakeholders. Mura is about inconsistency; it’s
doing things in different ways at different times. Muri is about over commitment and unreasonable
demands, it over stress and all unpleasant results to the humans and machine when overworked that
can cause to break down. As the lean management’s principle is apply, the project can be better than it’s
usual as that it reduces completion times, reducing waste and reducing the need for resources,
improves efficiency and quality of the final product and lastly it adds value to the services and goods we
produce. Thus, as this video has ended, I realized that lean project management is very useful to both
project and humans. Lean management helps us to be resourceful and to lessen the waste production. It
helps us to maximize our resources, time and efficiency. With these it makes us our project be on time
and more reliable and reliable than ever.

This paper talks about what situational leadership is. Leadership is extremely important to project
managers. Situational leadership is a style of leadership which matches the situation that is define by the
person and context that represents the task itself. Context is also defined by the organization, its
culture, values, norms, procedure and policies. It also talks about the personality, character and the
approach to leadership. The person pertains about the skills and expectation, motivation and will of
tasking. There are two simple models of the situational headship that focuses on two things, first is, they
focus on the persons ability with respect to the task. They are the highly skilled, lot of experience and
trusted to their ability to deliver the task. Situational leadership also focuses on the confidence level in
delivering the task or the way a person feels about the task and motivated on finishing the task. In
general, situational leadership can be highly confident, very skilled and motivated or have less
experience and unmotivated. The idea of a situational leadership is that it’s a choice to find a leader that
constitutes balanced behavior or personality which is suitable to the said task. Finding the right style of
leadership which is appropriate to the situation will most likely results to a good project.

the next video that I have watched tackles about business case. Business case is a document that
weights one against the other which is also called a cost-benefit analysis. Cost that represents the
reasons not to do the project and risks that may happened. Benefits that pertain to the reason to do the
task, the increase revenue and all the benefits that might be achieved in the task. In evaluating a
business case, for some organization, it weights the financial costs and benefits which sets the
standards. Cost and benefits are the easiest to be calculated. It is said that a business case will not
succeed when the financial benefits didn’t outweigh the financial cost. Investment appraisal is the
financial assessment of the cost and benefits which each organization conducts their own standards and
methodology. There are two types of business case. The first one is the piece of advocacy; it makes the
case for the project and sets out the cost and benefits to establish that the said project is a good
investment. And the other one is more impartial use; it sets out impartially the costs and benefits that
signify the number of options for the project. It is a better decision- making tool because it gives
decision- makers a number of options to select, allowing them to be confident. Therefore, in making a
business case it is better to find out first the purpose and its objective which will be portrayed to the
organization. A wrong kind of business case will not help the organization or the client well which, in the
end, may lead to future problems and misunderstandings and greater loss.

At the end of the video entitled what is a project definition, I have understood that project definition
tells what the project is and what is not. There are three fundamental components of project definition;
goal, objectives and scope. Goal answers the question of what we want. Objectives answer the question
how we do we want it. Scope which answers the question how much of it do we want. Any good project
definition includes the scope and beyond its scope and we gather it by also known as project definition
document and outline definition initiation document. To fill up a good effective project definition, there
are other elements that helps to find a way into a good project definition. First is the key deliverables,
this talks about what it to be expected in the production to fulfill the desirable goal. Next is the
dependencies, it links between the project and other things that is going on in the organization. Other
element is the constraints which deals with choices we can’t choose in the project. Also, it includes
uncertainties, are the things that we don’t know, and assumptions, are how we fill the gaps in our
knowledge temporarily. The other elements also talk about the risks that might face and the key
holders. Thus, project definition tells what your project is all about and vice versa. It also sets the
framework within which the project can be a good business case. In connection of uncertainties and
assumptions are risks that is why we need to clarify the uncertainties and verify our assumptions. It
makes sense to go forward and plan in detail.