Trial and Error in Project Management Page 1

Trial and Error in Project Management

OGL 321: Project Leadership

Instructor Ben Pandya

December 4, 2020

Karla Miranda
 Trial and Error in Project Management Page 2

Part I

My Leadership Development

" Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the

surest stepping stones to success", stated Dale Carnegie. (2017). Reading this quote

makes me reflect on how I have grown as a leader. As a leader, I have made mistakes

and I've planned accordingly in hopes to not create the same mistakes again. If the

plans that I have created have not been accomplished, I do not quit, I simply continue to

try again. Thomas Edison has once said, "They didn't fail, they found ten thousand ways

that didn't work"(1921).

Growing up I never thought I would be a leader. As a child, I was constantly

looking to fit in and making sure I felt accepted. I was considered a follower. As I grew

older and obtained a job, I realized that I wanted to look after my co-workers, I wanted

to instill the knowledge I had acquired and, I wanted to make an impact in my job role. I

looked up to my managers and asked questions on how to become successful in my job

position. Little did I know that would be the start of my leadership journey.

The job that taught me a lot of my leadership skills, is my current job at,

"Starbucks". When I started working at Starbucks I started as a barista, taking directions

from my manager and shift supervisors. After six months of being with Starbucks, my

manager discovered that I took the initiative of completing tasks, without being told to.

When we would get new partners, I was willing to help them although I wasn't a barista
 Trial and Error in Project Management Page 3

trainer. During that time my manager told me that if I continued to grow in my role, I

would eventually promote to a shift supervisor.

The day I interviewed with a District Manager about my potential role, I failed.

The district manager asked me questions, on how to deal with pressure in the

workplace and what to do in certain scenarios. Although I thought that at that time I was

prepared, I did need a lot more guidance to grow in my role. During this interview I did

not get promoted, nevertheless, I persisted and continued to ask questions to develop

my leadership skills. Finally, after lots of training and guidance, I got promoted to a shift

supervisor. Despite the fact I had obtained the job role I had worked so hard for; the

journey has not been easy. I continue to learn through trial and error.

Since I wanted to develop my leadership skills and expand my knowledge, I

decided to go back to school. The school was put on hold due to life events. It was

never late to start again. This time around I was going to obtain the knowledge I have

been wanting to expand in my job role. As I obtain my degree as an organizational

leadership major, I will be able to gain knowledge in my current and future job roles.

Improving Project Management and Leadership Skills

As I continue my journey in expanding my leadership skills, I have taken courses

that have helped me achieve the importance of project management and leadership in

general. I have learned a variety of skills such as project management, time

management, decision-making, and communication. All these skills are important as a

leader and project manager, these skills are what makes a successful leader.
 Trial and Error in Project Management Page 4

One of the skills that I am familiar with is project management. Taking my,"

Foundations in Project Management Class", I attained knowledge in all the factors that

contribute to the success of project management. A focus I drew attention to was time

management. I learned that time management had measures that needed to be taken

to complete a successful project within the time frame given. "Effective time

management gives you back control of your day. It's the cornerstone skill that will help

you with everything from increasing productivity to building good habits, setting proper

goals, avoiding burnout, and finding work-life balance (Mackay, 2020). What has helped

me be efficient in time management is carrying a planner and writing notes and setting

deadlines. There will be times when we are not always working on a project, therefore

setting deadlines can help achieve a successful delivery of the project by the due date

given. This achieves the organization part of time management as well as being able to

deliver a successful project.

Another essential skill that I have gained knowledge of is communication.

Communication is a well-rounded skill and important in the use of our everyday lives. In

Project Management and Leadership, communication plays a special role in our

workplace. Having strong communication skills is effective within productivity and how

we carry work relationships with our team members or stakeholders. Communicating

and delegating tasks helps build trust. Building trust through communication is

important, this helps have a good working relationship with your team and it also helps

the team members engage in the work productivity." Managers and their teams must

learn how to communicate perfectly as this will not only help teams to complete their

projects successfully but also enable organizations to achieve success and growth"
 Trial and Error in Project Management Page 5

(Dahiya & Luthra, 2018). Everyone loves it when a team is working productive, and it all

begins with communication and ends with determination.

Another skill that I have gained knowledge of was in my, "Project Leadership",

class. In my project leadership class, I gained experience with decision-making skills. In

this course, I had different scenarios every week. During these scenarios, I had to run

simulations. In those simulations, I had to make decisions every week that would

impact, my budget, team morale, and overall product delivery.

At the beginning of this course, I knew how to deal with the delivery of a project,

as I do everyday job roles. Although making decisions that would put your company at

risk of failure through the simulation was different. What helped me obtain experience

was creating a plan that was effective for the team. There were some weeks were

contingencies occurred that were unexpected. Although it was hard to acquire a perfect

score, I learned through trial and error the importance of team morale, and the delivery

of the product by the deadline using decision-making techniques. During the time I ran

the simulations I had to do a cost-benefit analysis. During this cost-benefit analysis, I

had to evaluate what would work best during the scenario. I had to make sure that my

team's morale was high and there was mild frustration involved. I had to decide how

many team members I would have and how their skills would impact the project. I also

had to decide on how soon I would deliver the product and how to schedule meetings

throughout the project. During the 7 weeks that I ran the simulation, I was able to

maintain well-rounded high team morale, unfortunately, the cost was difficult to manage.

The outcome of these scenarios was to strengthen my project management skills for my

current and future job roles.

Project Management Approach

There will be many projects that I will have to work with as a leader and project

manager. There will be lots of projects that I will know to deliver them successfully.

There will be other projects that will be difficult. The way to start planning these projects

is to develop an approach that will be significant in completing the project. Planning and

thinking of all the risks that can occur is one way to use the management approach.

"Developing a project's approach recognizes that all projects are not the same—

requirements will likely change, schedules are compressed and often come with

imposed deadlines, budgets are limited, and stakeholders will have varying degrees of

involvement" (Burgan & Burgan, 2014). By planning and creating different back-up

plans avoids problems. If contingencies do occur there will be many ways to fix them.

When I graduate from Arizona State University I plan to obtain a career as a

human resources manager. Although I am currently a junior, up to the present time I am

still on my journey in gaining knowledge as I continue to take courses that will mold me

in becoming a successful leader.

Project Management skills can be useful as a human resource manager. The

main job of a human resource manager is to create an environment where employees

are hired, supported, and motivated. As an empirical system, the human resources

system must have inputs, objectives, a set of processes, and an output. Also, a

feedback process is built-in to keep output consistent with objectives" (Murdick, 1976).

Using project management skills to become an effective human resources manager, I

will be able to use skills and knowledge to obtain the goals I want to achieve in my

company.

Currently, in my job at Starbucks, I am obtaining a project management approach

every day as a shift supervisor. In my current role, my job is to oversee my co-workers,

make sure that I delegate tasks, and to make sure my shift is running smoothly. When

things are not going the way I want them to, I see other ways to change the work

environment, which leads to less stressful job production. There are times that my co-

workers don't feel comfortable in their job position, that is where I come and show them

tips and tricks on how to correct their job ethics. I am constantly motivating and making

sure the team always feels supported by me. It is a rewarding job knowing that there are

people that look up to me to feel secure in their job roles. I feel like a mother duck

protecting and caring for her baby ducks.

In summary, I am grateful for obtaining knowledge about the importance of

project management and leadership. I have accomplished the understanding that

Project Management and leadership come in different forms, and many skills and

methods help guide and accomplished goals. The importance of being a leader is that

we are constantly growing and evolving using trial and error. My Instructors and

classes overall have helped me accomplish these factors. One taught me time

management and the other helped me gain experience in decision-making. I am excited

to continue learning important skills that make a successful organizational leader. I will

take everything I have learned to become a successful human resources manager.

Part II
 Trial and Error in Project Management Page 8

The Harvard Simulation Scenarios allow you to obtain knowledge by testing your

project management skills. You will obtain knowledge by experimenting with different

methods and skills that will work best for your team to be successful in the delivery of

your product. Your accomplishment in leading will lead your team to success.

Furthermore, I will give you some helpful suggestions to navigate through these

scenarios.

Scope, Schedule, and Project

 In these scenarios, the scope can be different every week depending on what

management gives you. It is up to you to make the right decision if you want to

adjust the printer you wish to configure.

 In the scenarios, you're allowed to modify the printer in each round of

simulations. You have 4 printers to choose from.

 If you wish to select a different printer than what upper management has

originally given you, just remember the impact it can make for your team.

 There will be different changes in every scenario, make sure you are aware of

the scope since it changes constantly.

 Outsourcing is useful. There will be different scenarios where obtaining and

outsource helps the budget of the project. I didn't use the outsourcing as much as

I should of. It does help to cut back on the budget.

 The schedule given by upper management can change during your scenarios.

Make sure you pay close attention to the changes, so you can prepare the team

with what is being expected from the project.

 As a project manager, your role is to make sure there are different resources you

may use to your advantage. Use it to your ability to help with the product delivery.

Critical Trends or Patterns

 In every simulation I ran, I started with 5 team members. I realized that during

some simulations half the team would leave and I was left with less than

expected. Therefore, I would use the medium or high skill level of team members

to complete the project as well as changing the number of team members.

 The plan that worked best for me, was to make sure my team's morale was high.

The budget was very high, my overall goal was to deliver the project by the

scheduled deadline and that my team wasn't stressed.

 The scenarios change weekly, remind yourself to create a plan. Write notes that

way next time you run a simulation you are aware of what mistake you made on

the last scenario and you won't create the same mistakes again.

 Listen to what your team members like to say. Some week's my team members

were excited with the frequent project updates I was providing. However, there

were some weeks where they would state they didn't need any more help from

me. Make sure you pay attention to their needs. The team makes the success of

the project happen.

My Causal Relationship

 Execute a plan at the beginning of each project. This helps analyze the risk of

any contingencies that can occur.

 When creating a plan don't focus on only the success. Focus on the idea of what

could go wrong and what can you do to fix it.

 If you don't know, don't assume. Ask clear questions. This helps navigate what,

ifs, or, and. You make a clear concise plan.

 Set realistic goals for your team. If you don't give your team realistic goals they

will be stressed, and they will be prone to making mistakes. This impacts the

overall team morale.

 Coaching one-on-one and creating meetings helps scope out issues early in the

project.

 Support and motivate your team. Show your team that they're doing a great job

as they are completing the product.

 Prototypes can be useful to find out things that you may not know of

 Overtime may be encouraged, where challenging scenarios are presented.

 If you don't have enough time to submit your product, you may always ask for an

extension. It helps with team morale.

 Delegate tasks to team members.

 Always check in with your team.

 Your team is what contributes to the success of your project delivery. You lead

they deliver.
 Trial and Error in Project Management Page 11

Resources

Burgan, S. C., & Burgan, D. S. (2014, October 26). One size does not fit all: Choosing

the right project approach. Retrieved December 02, 2020, from

http://www.pmi.org/learning/library/choosing-right-project-approach-9346

Dahiya, K., & Luthra, A. (2018). Leaders' Effective Communication Competencies: An

Intercede in Amplifying the Effect of Leadership Styles on Employee Turnover Intentions

in Indian Small and Medium Scale IT/ITES Organizations. International Journal of

Management Studies, V(3(7)), 125. doi:10.18843/ijms/v5i3(7)/15

Edison, T. (2016, December 08). Thomas Edison explains why many men never

amount to anything. Retrieved December 02, 2020, from

https://www.knowol.com/knowledge/many-men-never-amount-anything/

MacKay, B. (2020, May 08). Time management tips & strategies: 25 powerful ways to

be more efficient. Retrieved December 01, 2020, from https://blog.rescuetime.com/time-

management/

Murdick, R. G. (1976). Managing human resources in project management. Project

Management Quarterly, 7(2), 21–25.

Marshhausen, J. (2017, January 31). Discouragement and failures are two of the surest

stepping stones to success. Retrieved December 02, 2020, from

https://lifeinfocus.me/2017/02/03/discouragement-and-failures-are-two-of-the-surest-

stepping-stones-to-success/
Trial and Error in Project Management Page 12