Gondek 1

Module 5 Paper

Ashley Gondek

OGL 321: Project Leadership

July 31, 2020

 Gondek 2

I have always considered myself a punctual person. The scenario for this week seemed

simple yet challenged my leadership decision skills and approach to delivering the product by the

deadline. Deliver the project within twelve weeks and maintain a forty-thousand-dollar budget.

This week’s parameters maintained the same and remained uninfluenced by unexpected changes.

However, I struggled in finding a balance between the scope, budget, schedule, and morale of the

team. Each scenario has challenged my decision making, proactive versus reactive approaches,

leadership and care to the team members, and sacrifices made between project requirements and

constraints. A crucial part of the planning process is to create a risk management plan, and this

week’s risk was delivering on strict limitations set for each parameter. While it is important to

meet the stakeholder’s and management’s requests, there are important skills and practices to

utilize when facing project obstacles. A project manager needs guided training and development,

knowledge of organizational goals and objectives, to utilize transparency and

overcommunication with all persons involved and maintain an inclusive environment that

increases inclusiveness and productivity among team members working on the project.

Scenario D of the Harvard Project Simulation created a situation where the risk ended up

being task productivity. Within the budget, I needed to find a way to deliver the product by the

deadline while keeping the team members satisfied. The difference this week was I could not

raise the scope to a higher quality option and meet beyond the needs. I roused the question if this

situation was possible. In my most successful attempt, I had a happy team, delivered the product

on time, but was a bit over budget by five thousand dollars. I fell into multiple attempts to satisfy

all the parameters, and hopefully exceed the expectations. However, I was unable to control a lot

of the realistic aspect of this situation, people. The team members believed the expectations were
 Gondek 3

unrealistic, and management had set the tight restrictions for each parameter. Each scenario has

taught me lessons valuable to leadership and management approaches.

Training and continuous education for project managers is crucial to efficiency, value,

and performance as leaders on projects. However, investing on training and development is

critical for businesses to consider for the overall health of the organization. Project management

is an important component to organizational performance and success, however the focus on

training and developing these talents are undervalued and the success rates of projects have

declined as a result (Langley. 4). Because of this, project manager career paths are uncertain,

those who have the potential will search for other opportunities. Successful businesses projects

meet their goals on time and within budget, and this is a reflection on organizations who are

thriving in the market. There is a lot to learn when meeting the parameters efficiently in

simulation D.

Being a project leader means to lead people. The relationships between the project

manager, their team, and the stakeholders depends on dynamic approach between each other. In

an attempt from the simulation, I risked the team morale by pushing for the deadline and refusing

to invest in another team member because this resulted in being over budget. This decision

created a high stress environment and productivity dropped lower than expected. By

implementing coaching, stand outs, and reviews, I hoped this would have assisted in raising

morale. I was right and wrong about this approach. In my best attempt, I chose to keep the

meetings and invest in another team member, and I delivered on time with five thousand over the

budget. My team’s morale was high throughout this attempt and was reflected in ninety percent

of the parameter. To find a way to meet beyond the budget and schedule parameters, I attempted

to lower the scope to deliver the product early, under budget, and with a high team morale due to
 Gondek 4

decreasing the workload. This approach resulted in either stressing the team out or creating bored

team members. This impacted the productivity by decreasing output.

As I reflect on this simulation, the reading from “Project Manger’s Spotlight on Risk

Management” offered insights to help my understanding for reality. A risk to the scope can

happen when the estimates are wrong, it is not defined or documented, and there is a lack of

support from stakeholders while the risk to the schedule is when time estimates are wrong, lack

of resources to complete the job, and lack of skills of team members (Heldman,95). I wonder if

this could have impacted the simulation. The parameters were set and unchanged, however, the

feedback from the team claimed it was unrealistic to meet these parameters. With inflexible

expectations, the risks to the scope, schedule, and budget are at stake. My decision to lower the

scope was one of my many decisions I made in response to the constraints, and so did adding an

extra team member at the start of the project. The results did not reflect my intentions in the end.

When making decisions and analyzing the risks of each parameter, knowledge of the

organization’s goals and objectives must be understood. Risks to a project include scope,

scheduling, resource, and technology (Viswanathan). In simulation D, I chose to risk budget and

team morale while maintaining a focus on delivering by the deadline. External vendors and

wrong estimations can impact scheduling (Viswanathan). However, team morale proved to

impact the scheduling as well in many attempts of simulation D. In this situation, I needed to

understand the important component of the project to obtain success. My answer became simple,

to keep the team happy and meet the stakeholder’s constraints the best way I could. I considered

morale and schedule were the important parameters to focus on for this simulation. Critical

success factors are specifications and products that must be completed for the project to be
 Gondek 5

successful (Heldman, 101). During planning, specific details to deliverables and requirements

must be documented and thoroughly communicated so all parties understand what the goals are.

The one element that can connect people and reduce risks is communication. Across the

blogs I have read, the courses I have taken, lessons I have learned in relationships, and my

approach as a leader to my team, I have learned communication is the key to clarity and success.

A common flaw in project planning and decision-making is lack of communication and

undocumented assumptions. Stakeholders and project managers risk future problems and missed

expectations when undocumented assumptions are not portrayed in plans. Kim Heldman

suggests a proactive response to risk management is to overcommunicate by breaking down each

requirement and expectation to their lowest points and freely share information with everyone

involved on the project (Heldman, 107). Openness and transparency create an opportunity for

two-way communication and others will freely share information rather than hiding it as a

competitive edge. Withholding information leads to miscommunications and misinformed

decisions that result in unsuccessful projects. However, there is such thing as too much

communication. Communication to the stakeholders of projects goals and how the project will

benefit them will assist in gaining their support and involvement. In a blog written by, Jeremy,

McAbee, a common challenge to productivity is communication overhead (McAbee). This

means the abundance of communications, meetings, and coaching could overpower the amount

of productivity. When implementing meetings during the simulation, I plan to keep this new

lesson in mind.

Extending on communication, team communication is just as vital as communication

with stakeholders and management. Effective two-way communication creates trust and

opportunities for team involvement in project objectives and goals. When feedback is heard and
 Gondek 6

acknowledged, expectations are aligned and engagement increases (McAbee). An environment

that includes team member input, innovations, and open communication leads to increased

productivity, passion, and ownership of project goals and objectives.

Each simulation has created challenges to learn and grow from. The tougher the

simulation, the more attempts and approaches I take to understand how each decision impacts the

success of the project. Each week I am learning how demanding the career for project

management is. Making decisions will impact one or more parameters. Risks to scope and

schedule can be minimized when there are accurate estimations, well thought out and

communication requirements, enough resources are provided, and accurate knowledge guides the

planning process. Project managing training and development in organizations are crucial for

success. Knowledge of organizational goals, transparency, and effective communication, and

involving team members will allow for risks to be managed by making clear and informative

decisions to benefit the outcome of the project.

 Gondek 7

References

Heldman, K. (2010). Project Manager's Spotlight on Risk Management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Langley, M. A. (2013). PMI's Pulse of the Profession the High Cost of Low Performance.

Project Management Institute, INC.

McAbee, Jeremy. How to Solve Productivity Challenges in Enterprise Companies. Wrike, 26 Jun

2020. https://www.wrike.com/blog/productivity-challenges-enterprise-companies/

Viswanathan, Balaji. Understanding the 4 Types of Risks Involved in Project Management.

Project-Management.com. https://project-management.com/understanding-the-4-types-

of-risks-involved-in-project-management/