Emphasis Competencies
#3 Develop a deeper understanding of the role of project management and the Project Cycle and the importance to project management to the ICT implementation process.
Self-Assessment |
Artifacts |
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Where did you
create this artifact? The artifact “Miller Park Stadium Project, Review & Analysis”
was created during course INMGT 565. The instructor assigned this artifact as a Graduate student
requirement and challenged students to provide excellent insightful extending
concepts learned in class to the real world. What I Learned,
How did you learn this? I learned in our assignments, presentations and readings that the
Quadruple Constraint Cost, Quality, Time and Client Acceptance are determinants
of Project Success. With many ICT software & hardware projects failing at
a 65% rate; over half of all IT projects become runaways; up to 75% of all
software projects are cancelled; average cost overrun being 45%; schedule
overrun being 63%; with only 67% of originally contracted features being
implemented; 47% of IT projects are delivered but not used, 29% paid for but
not delivered and 19% abandoned. These industry statistics indicate a need
for ICT professionals to better understand the constraints that can
contribute to project failures and how to management and avoid them. One method I learned to analyze project success would be to consider
the “Four Dimensions of Project Success” as you look for quadruple
constraints that may derail your project. The four dimensions of project success
are: ·
Project Efficiency: Meeting budget and schedule expectations ·
Impact on Customers: Meeting technical specifications, addressing customer’s needs, and creating a project that
satisfies the client’s needs. ·
Business Success: Determining whether the project achieved significant commercial success. ·
Future potential: Determining whether the project opened new markets new product lines or helped to develop new
technology. As we analyze projects in terms of the quadruple constraints (cost,
schedule, quality, customer), it is also important as well to analyze
leadership performance. The process is
to look at the pluses and minuses for each of the quadruple constraints that
have an impact on the four dimensions of project success. I also learned that Project managers function as mini-CEOs and
manage both “hard” technical details and “soft” people issues. Project managers must acquire project resources, motivate and build
teams, have a vision and fight fires and communication needs can consume 80%
of leader’s time. Why this is
important: I believe that understanding
the quadruple constraint is important to improving the success rate of ICT
projects. If ICT project managers can help to manage project cost and
schedule while delivering quality products and services throughout all the
project phases’ customer acceptance and project success will be achieved. As a leader it is important to understand
your leadership weakness and strengths as well as the interpersonal skills of
your team. Leaders must not only be able to manage task, budgets and
schedules but they also must be able to manage people and relationships. How can you apply?
In my role as a project manager I will look to implement best
practices in project performance monitoring and control process. My goal will be to ensure client stakeholders
are informed on project risk that could be a detriment to the project budget,
schedule, or quality of the project final deliverables. I will also look to obtain detailed
specific documented requirements from all the client stakeholders to assure that
all project work accomplished is relevant to delivering a finish project that
will meet the needs of the client.
Throughout the project risk will be reassessed and communicated;
efficient change management processes will be implemented, and scope
management processes will be utilized to maintain effective project control. As a leader I will look to build good team relationships with my
team and provide them with the tools and information they need to be an
effective high performing team. I will also work on building interpersonal
relationships that will motivate and inspire the team to challenge status quo
and focus on achieving project long-term goals. What challenges
& obstacles did you overcome? Stages of Team Development were the biggest challenge I had to
overcome. One of the early stages of
team development is the Storming stage.
I learned that Storming refers to the natural reactions members have
to the initial ground rules. Members begin to test the limits and constraints
placed on their behavior. Storming is a conflict-laden stage in which the
preliminary leadership patterns, reporting relationships, and norms of work
and interpersonal behavior are challenged and, perhaps, reestablished. (Pinto
Ch.6, Revision 8/30/11) Some methods to resolve conflict are: ·
Mediate –
diffusion/confrontation ·
Arbitrate –
judgment ·
Control – cool down
period ·
Accept –
unmanageable ·
Eliminate –
transfer During this stage I was able to use mediate, arbitrate, control and accept
to attempt to resolve conflict on my team.
We found that depending on the nature of the conflict and the
interpersonal relationships and personalities of team members some methods
worked better than others. As a team leader or member you may be required to
use multiple methods to resolve conflicts and when all else fails
eliminate/transfer may be the only way to find a final resolution. |
·
Case
Study Review Paper: This review is an
analysis of the project phases presented in the George Washington University Miller
Park Stadium Project case study |
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