Troy Dulles

OGL 320 Foundations of Project Management

1/22/22

Opening Self Assessment

The first interaction with project management I experienced was my father who worked

for Pearson Education as an art editor and project manager. When he was doing this, I was about

14 years old and my idea of project management was simplistic, such as a manager that oversees

projects. As I got older my ideas about project management began to change with the more work

experience I received. Little did I know project management is much more diverse and complex

than I had previously thought. I'm going to continue to further my knowledge in project

management and organizational leadership in order to take what I've learned into the

construction industry and advance my career and passion.

In changing my major from mechanical engineering to organizational leadership and

project management, I discovered the importance of project management and human connection.

Taking classes such as Behavioral Dynamics and Intro to Organizational leadership and Project

Management helped me distinguish what leadership is and what project management inales. In

taking Foundations of Project Management, I expected to take a much deeper dive into the

meaning of project management as a whole and develop a better understanding of what project

managers do. As we embraced module one, I started to learn things about projects and

management that I hadn't known prior to taking this course such as all projects inevitably come

to an end. My previous thought was projects can be ongoing and never ending meaning you can

stay with the same project for an eternity. Another thing I learned after going through module

one was project life cycles and how they are a series of phases from the project's beginning to its
completion. There are three cycles of life for a project, they are the predictive life cycle, hybrid

life cycle, and adaptive life cycle. These help depict what form of project is underway such as

the predictive cycle having all its deliverables defined at the beginning of the project.

The tools and areas of consideration within project management that I have been aware of

before taking this class were things such as the triple constraint of time, cost, and scope. I was

aware of this when I first started building my car in the beginning of college; I had to keep a

general eye on the scope of the build otherwise the time or cost could get out of hand severely

altering the course of the build.

In taking the project management skills test, I learned that I was a much better and

knowledgeable project manager than I had previously thought. In looking at my previous jobs,

you can tell I follow a progression of leadership and management. Every job I've ever had has

been a learning experience that I am able to keep with me forever and continue to learn from

time in and time out. My current job is a laborer for an excavating company out of Cave Creek

and am learning the processes of excavating, grading, and general construction and building to

further my knowledge. My goal is to get into the field of construction management and

everything I learn in my current job is and will be used as a tool in my future progression of

leadership and management.

When we discussed characteristics of project managers in class, some stuck out to me

such as organized, efficient communicator, and accountable. The reason those stuck out to me

was because they are some of my dominant traits and then I started to connect previous

experiences with project management such as jobs and life lessons. For example, everytime I

show up to a new job site for construction, it is the initiation of a project and it finalizes once our
work is done; this is just one phase in the whole construction process but it is still project

management.

Everytime I approach a project, it is with thought, organization, and sophistication;

projects should always be well throughout before initiation. Things that help me with

approaching projects are having the ability to keep a level head and staying calm. These are

traits and or skills that I have developed over the course of a lifetime in part of living with a dad

that had zero patience which allowed me to learn on his behalf every time he allowed himself to

get frustrated, I learned and developed. My father and I are alot alike so everytime he gets

frustrated or angry about something, I know exactly how to calm him down or get him going

depending on the situation I want to get myself into.

Learning about project management gives me the unique ability to take that into the

construction field and continue to advance myself and my career. As I stated previously, I want

to be in construction Management one day and that takes a lot of management skill. Jobs in

construction are just like projects in the business world being managed by project managers, they

are just managed by either general contractors or construction managers depending on the size of

project. If the project is smaller like a house build or a structure build, you would use a general

contractor and if the project was big such as a storefront or multi million dollar mansion build,

you would use a construction manager.

In conclusion, my first interaction with project management was with my father in

Pearson Education and I'm continuing to further my knowledge in project management and

organizational leadership in order to take what I've learned into the construction industry.

Module one was a good way to introduce project management and show how many definitions
the word project has. All projects come to an end whether short or long, they all come to an end

in one way or another.