Active Planning for OGL 320 Project Plan

Active planning for my project plan for my OGL 320 class kept me engaged with
the project during most of its duration and made it less overwhelming than looking at the
entire project. When the session began, I was successful at completing the products
ahead of my timeline. As the session has progressed, I have maintained the timeline
and twice missed deadlines due to poor planning and prioritizing and risks I did not
manage properly. As the plan unfolded, I began to understand the need for a project
plan and how to identify tasks and sub tasks. I put myself in the place of a PM that had
a brand-new team I had never worked with before and pictured how I would explain to
them what needs to be done to complete the project on time. From here I was able to
break down each project into manageable pieces for my team.
I made sure the task began with a verb so the team would immediately know
there was going to be action required. Some of the tasks did not require many or any
sub tasks while some of the products required many. I included an estimated time so I
could prioritize and plan around each product. As with any project, things changed.
Some of the estimated start dates were later than anticipated and I had to move around
my schedule to accommodate any contingencies that arose. I documented all use of
time for each project I completed. Most of the time I allocated was very similar to the
original planned time and I was pleased with my estimation. There were some projects
where I underbudgeted time and I have documented this in my plan.
As this project unfolded, I understood more how the products during the duration
of the project developed my skillset to better manage the project. Every product had
key components that gave insight into the expectation for the project plan. As I
progressed through the products, I learned more about managing risk, contingencies,
client expectations, time, resources, trust, biases, and I was able to utilize these in my
final project plan. I did not expect this project to be so detail oriented and I enjoyed
documenting every aspect of the class. Through this learning I can see how one might
utilize a team calendar to keep everyone informed and on track with the timeline and
how being able to make live adjustments to the calendar would be necessary.