Project and Technology Management - Assignment Example

Chapter I think about the meaning of a project, as an endeavor that attains a particular objective through a range of interdependent activities andeffective and efficient resource utilization (Gido and Clements 4), and I realize how I take some of my daily life projects for granted. I used to be so carefree in how I managed these everyday projects, but now, I understand that, as I grow older, present and future projects demand more thinking before and while making plans. For instance, I interned at a Construction Engineering Company, where I worked as a manager assistant for two months. During this time, I learned that planning relies on both relationships and research on and analysis of client and market needs. I thought about my own planning skills and decided that I need to work on my ability to manage limited resources, while being able to meet deadlines. Another important topic in Chapter 1 is balancing project constraints, where I want to focus on scope, quality, and schedule. Determining the scope of the project may seem easy at first, but I find it overwhelming, if I also have to consider different stakeholders. For instance, in one of our projects, we have a fixed budget for renovating a whole Japanese restaurant. Definitely, we have to work within the budget, but then some of the community members complained of the noise coming from the restaurant. This restaurant is near a residential community and is open until 2 a.m., Mondays to Sundays. Several community members talked to the project manager if it is possible to design the new restaurant in a way that can contain its noise. The project manager said he would see what he could do, but adding this concern could strain the budget. Though the customer wanted the new restaurant to be as “green” or sustainable as possible, he did not mention soundproof materials. The project manager asked me to do research on affordable ways of soundproofing the sources of noise in the restaurant. I found some ways to reduce the noise without going beyond the budget. Apparently, the scope of a project is not limited to client requirements, but also wider community concerns. Besides scope, I think project quality is a gray area. What is quality and who defines it? The easiest answer of who defines it would be the customer, but the project managers I know would insist that many customers do not know what they want in the first place and that they need to be shown the difference between what they need and what they want. I learned that quality is a balance between client expectations and project managers’ perceptions of quality needs and criteria. I also believe that, though there are basic criteria for construction quality, quality is also flexible and customizable. Quality should be what the client needs, not only now, but in the future, and not only with respect to their requirements, but also with consideration for future needs that they may not have considered because they do not think far enough. Apart from quality, I am concerned of scheduling issues. Definitely, a project manager desires a reasonable schedule to avoid paying for penalties, but how much leeway can he give to ensure that he considers external problems that can cause delays? What if he already added a week, in case he experiences supply problems for the construction materials, but a labor strike in one of the production plants of an important material suddenly resulted to a month of delay? I hope that, when I become a project manager of an electronics company, I know how to expertly make schedules. I know that I cannot control everything. I must also have good relationships with suppliers, so that they would be honest and transparent with their resource/labor issues that may cause project delays on my end. I must also prepare for Plan B and Plan C, in terms of sources of materials and workers, so that I can avoid unexpected problems that can lead to project delays and losses. Thinking about these concerns turns project management into a truly challenging project in itself that demands critical, analytical, and reflective thinking. Chapter 2 Chapter 2 describes the process of identifying and selecting projects. I think that needs identification should be a multistakeholder needs identification process. In our past projects, I learned that project managers must not only think of project needs as client needs, or otherwise, the project will experience problems during the performing phase of the project life cycle. For example, one of the projects in the past of the company involved building a condominium, but they did not anticipate that it created a problem with one of the community’s iconic monuments. Many residents complained that the condominium ruined the background of the monument because it stood behind it. Because of mounting complaints, the local government decided to put a stop on the project. The owner was furious because he already spent hundreds and thousands of dollars. In hindsight, I believe that, as a project manager, I should not act as if my client lives in a vacuum. I should help him see what the project means to the community and how it can affect the latter too, so that I can design projects that would have maximum community buy-in. Apart from needs identification, I find project selection quite challenging because it requires experience and research. I believe work experience gives wisdom in doing one’s job, while wisdom provides insight on projects that the company can feasibly do. The project manager that I worked for has incredible wisdom. When selecting projects, he seems to have insight on the best projects to implement. I asked him what makes him sure that he is choosing the best, when sometimes, the best is not always evident quantitatively. He tells me that having ten or more years of work experience gives insight on issues that are not always apparent upfront. I know he is right because he does not have only experience, but he actively learns from his work. I think that, since I do not have much work experience yet, my advantage is that I enjoy doing research and reading the latest news regarding the projects I will be working on. Besides project selection, I believe that the criteria that become the basis for evaluating opportunities must be regularly reviewed for its ability to meet ethical principles of beneficence (i.e. promoting the wellbeing of others), non-maleficence (i.e. avoiding harm), autonomy (i.e. respecting people’s control over their lives), and justice (i.e. fairness in process, interactions, and allocation of risks and benefits). As a future project manager, I must have a strong sense of ethics where I apply these principles as a leader and in all my projects. I believe that how I attain project deliverables are as important as these outcomes. The ends do not always justify the means, if the means are immoral or unethical. For instance, I will not assume that I know sufficiently about the project constraints if I have not talked with the key stakeholders. Every project impacts different stakeholder groups and I find it as my responsibility to talk to them and engage them in creating sustainable projects that will not harm any individual or group of people. If harm cannot be avoided, then I must think about just compensation or change in design or approaches. Critical and creative thinking are essential skills that I must hone when selecting projects. Chapter 3 Chapter 3 explains the processes of developing proposals. I agree that one of the most important, if not the most important, part of creating winning proposals is building strong relationships with clients and partners. Gido and Clements stress that relationships provide a solid foundation for successful funding and contract opportunities (66). I agree with them because a project manager will tackle more problems if he has not built good relationships that are essential to finding funds and contracts. I want to be the kind of project manager who make things happen because I have relationships that work for me. This means that my relationships help me attain what I need to do because I also help them achieve their goals. I can do this if I have built strong interpersonal and intergroup relationships. I know I have to work on my intergroup relationship skills, nevertheless, such as communicating with suppliers and local community leaders and members, so that I can better understand their perspectives and goals. At the same time, building relationships with the core team enhances the chances of project success (Kloppenborg 123). I am an extrovert and I do not think I will have problems in being friends with the core team. However, I sometimes wonder if being friendly reduces my leadership ability. For instance, some people who are friends with their leaders might think that they do not have to take their jobs so seriously. They may assume that it is okay to not meet deadlines, for instance. I believe that I must also learn how to balance my friendliness with being seen as an authority figure, so that some people would not undermine my leadership. Furthermore, Chapter 3 makes an important point that a proposal is not a technical document, but a selling point (Gido and Clements 73). I realized that marketing is everywhere. I mean that attracting and maintaining talented employees and loyal clients requires marketing skills. I need to develop how I sell myself to my subordinates and how I sell my company to future clients and other stakeholders. I find it ironic that, in order to be a great seller, I must not only be aware of my strengths and weaknesses, but also more aware of what stakeholders want to be sold to them. In other words, proposals are not made to promote individual and company interests, but the larger stakeholder interests. I am selling what I can do, but what I do should be important to my stakeholders. Furthermore, a winning proposal offers unique factors that differentiate the company from other contractors. In reality, what is unique is not always absolutely unique, but sometimes only done differently because of a twist in underlying principles and assumptions about the project quality criteria. If I cannot always introduce innovation in design, I can make changes in how these designs are discussed and agreed upon. Hence, developing successful project proposals entails strong soft leadership and management skills. Works Cited Gido, Jack, and James Clements. Successful Project Management. 6th ed. Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print. Kloppenborg, Timothy. Contemporary Project Management. 3rd ed. Connecticut: Cengage Learning, 2015. Print. Read More