Week 4 & 5

Week 4

We studied chapter three this week, which covered Project Management.  There are a couple of things that stuck out to me in this chapter.  The first thing that stuck out to me was the idea of making sure there is cross-functional interaction in an organization’s project management when appropriate.  From the class text, “Even though a project may be under the overall purview of a single department, other departments likely should be involved.”  Each department brings a different perspective to the overall operations of the organization.  There are valuable insights to gain from all participants.

The second thing that stuck out to me, are the qualities needed in a good project manager and project team members.  A project manager must play facilitator, communicator, and decision maker.  I think this is important to remember when selecting a project manager.  One candidate for the job of project manager may be really smart, informed, competent, and dedicated to the project; but if this same candidate struggles with their communication skills or making decisions, they probably fit better as a member of the team.  They have much to offer to the project, but lack some important skills needed to manage and lead.  While some management and leadership skills can be learned and developed, some people naturally make better managers and some people are naturally better leaders.  Some people are fortunate enough to be both.  I think this is why I stepped down from middle-management before.  I am not a natural.  I have a hard time communicating with others, especially when I play the role of what I like to call “middle man.”  My thoughts are always, “Why tell me, tell them yourself.”  Another problem I run into is sometimes I get more zealous (I think that’s the correct word for it.) about a project then my peers, inevitably they all want/need me to “chillax.”  It’s not always easy for me to relax.

I’m going to definitely try to remember these points if ever I’m asked to lead or manage a project.  I will speak up and say, someone else will probably do the job better, but I’m more than happy to supply my other skills to the project such as technical competence, detail orientation, organizational and classification skills, and dedication.

A fun thing about this chapter was drawing network diagrams and calculating the earliest start, earliest finish, latest finish, and latest start times of activities in a project.

Week 5

We took our first exam this week.  It was open book and notes.  I missed one question.  I still don’t know what the correct answer is.  I’m glad it was just one I couldn’t figure out J