Joe Bednarski

OGL320 Spr21

Self-Reflection

Project management is defined as “the allocation, tracking and utilization of resources to

achieve a particular objective within a specified period of time.” (HBS, Intro xi). Indeed, project

management is part of almost every career. We perform project management while planning an

assignment for school. We perform project management when we take on tasks around the house. We

develop a plan and then execute to accomplish that task. Examples of projects I have been a part of

include planning our annual district conference and doing a conversion for a customer of mine.

The project manager is the main coordinator for the project. Their responsibilities include

identifying the goal, addressing any resource needs, maintain communication and staying organized.

There are four phases of a project. There are Planning, Build-up, Implementation and Close-out. Of

these four phases I feel that the planning phase is the most important. Because projects can vary in

scale and complexity staying organized is crucial for the project manager. In the planning phase the PM

must figure the logistics of the project phases. Part of this includes assembling the team made up of

diverse backgrounds and skillsets. This will allow the project team to establish trust, build a strong

communication channel and the PM will establish norms and standards for the project.

Once a project is decided a project management plan is necessary. A PMP provides a guideline

for everyone involved with the project. It can help eliminate a crisis by laying out any potential setbacks

or risks that may occur. Risk and setbacks are bound to happen even with a well-organized project.

Developing a risk management plan will help the project team overcome any anticipated obstacles.
 One key thing I can takeaway from this course is to assess risk into when forming a project plan.

One situation I ran into last year was when I was doing a truck repair shop redesign. My self and

another co-worker were reorganizing their parts department to help make it more efficient and

streamline. We had a great plan set up that would have our work completed within 5 days. How ever

ever we didn’t factor in the delays caused by the workers needing access to parts of the shop that we

were working in. This caused us to fall an entire day behind and to make matters worse or labeling

system went down for a couple hours. We learned that better communication with the client and

proposing an extra day to get the work done would be necessary.