Hailey Babcock

OGL 321 – Project Management

Professor Bankim Pandya

29 April 2022

Module 7 Final Paper

Prompt 1:

To start off with part one of the final paper, I would like to start off by stating that I took

OGL 320 last semester with Professor Curtis Thompson. I went back through the modules of the

course since I didn’t want to rely on my memory, but I never took the qui, “How Good Are Your

Project Management Skills?”. I did end up taking it right before doing my paper so I could be

more aware of the questions and where exactly I stand with project management now.

My score on the quiz was a 62 and the interpretation stated that my project management

skills are “OK”. The interpretation stated, “Your project management skills are OK, and when

projects are relatively simple, your outcomes are often good. However, the more complex the

projects you manage, the less control you will have and the more likely you are to deliver below

expectations. Take time to improve your planning skills and prepare for the unexpected. The

more time you spend on your up-front planning, the better your project outcomes will be.” (Mind

Tools 2021). I do believe this to be true and I also noticed this when it came to the Harvard

simulations. The easier and less complex a task is, the better I do. It’s when the tasks become

complex, I tend to have a difficult time. I believe this could be due to me having the habit

overthinking situations and then I get jumbled up and I forget to focus on the priorities first

instead of everything all at once.

I personally feel like a lot of the questions that were asked in this quiz also has to do with

having customer service skills as well as having morals. For example, question nine states,

“When a project gets behind schedule, I work with my team to find a solution rather than assign
blame.” (Mind Tools, 2021). I personally feel that this is something that if you are a grown adult

and oversee a project, you should know better than to put the blame on others or elsewhere. It is

kind of like being a parent in a sense. When your child or children (young child(ren)) act up and

do something, you as the parent are held responsible because it is your right as the adult and

parent to teach them from right and wrong. You cannot put the blame elsewhere. This to me

indicates bad morals if you do end up not owing up to your responsibilities as a leader.

I will say that since taking this quiz, as well as this class, it has opened my eyes up even

more and I can say that I truly need a lot more work and knowledge when it comes to project

management. Before taking this class and OGL 320, I have had zero knowledge of what project

management was. However, I have had leadership roles in the past when I was in the military. I

do believe that if you are going to be in project management, you do need to have had prior

leadership experience to be able to grasp and understand the concepts, roles, and responsibilities

that are expected of you.

I would say that I have been able to improve my project management skills a bit more by

taking this class and doing the simulations. Even though I have had previous leadership roles, I

was still not able to complete the scenarios as well as I would have liked to, and that is based on

my lack of leadership knowledge as well as project management knowledge. But I did learn quite

a bit of knowledge this semester and I was able to apply some of the things I learned on the

scenarios. The areas of growth were in project integration, schedule management, people

management, project procurement, and general project management skills.

When it came to project integration, I would say that I probably started this course off

with having very minimal knowledge on this concept. I now have more knowledge of this and do
understand that this is something I need to continue to work on. I am good at making lists and

knowing what to prioritize, however when it came to the simulation, I realized that even though I

knew what my goals were, I did not take the necessary steps to do what was more important to

achieve those goals. As Mind Tools states, I need to figure out how all the elements fit together

to get the desired outcome. This is what I was able to work on in the simulation scenarios, which

helped me gain a better understanding of this concept.

For schedule management, I believe I have shown improvement within this section

because I have always been aware of schedules and how important schedules are. What I am not

good at is predicting and setting aside time for when and if things happen to disrupt the schedule.

I do not like to plan for what-if scenarios. If I don’t see it or think about it, then I do not plan for

it. This is a flaw of mine and I have been able to work on this with the scenarios. I have been

able to start putting tasks and people in place to avoid some of those challenges when it comes to

the schedule, to stay within the desired timeframe.

Now for when it comes to people management, I would like to say that this has always

been my strong suit. I like to ensure that the team I am working with are well taken care of and

there is minimal stress. I am a firm believer that if your people are taken care, then they will

want to ensure they provide the best of their abilities and efforts to the tasks and projects. When

it came to doing the Harvard simulations, I noticed that I really was not very good at this aspect

as I thought I was. That’s okay though, because it is always good to find ways and room for

improvement even if you think you are good in a certain area. In the simulations, I would try to

utilize outsourcing, and this would stress out my team due to lack of communication. I had to

find a happy medium to utilize outsourcing and having just the right number of meetings to
ensure my team was not being stressed out too much. For when their stress is high their

production levels are low. I realized that I still need to and should be better at communicating

this type of information to the team to allow the tasks at hand to flow well versus creating that

friction or double work for the team.

When it comes project procurement, I cannot say that I have grown in the sense of

changing my ways. However, I have learned the importance of budgeting and why one should

probably over budget. In the scenarios I found it to be almost impossible to stay within budget

and I even gave up at one point on thinking that I would be able to accomplish this goal. If I was

to stay within budget, then my team would have been too stressed and/or I would have to have

the project submitted after the expected deadline. So, this was something that I sacrificed. I

would say from personal experience and moving forward, it is important to plan over budget then

to give the exact expected budget to ensure there is room if needed.

In general project management skills, I would say I learned a lot from this class. This

class went into a lot more depth in the concepts than OGL 320, and the Harvard simulation really

helped me understand the concepts by using hands on learning, which is how I learn.

When it comes to giving more consideration and focus in certain areas, I would say that I

have learned the importance of this as well. I have started focusing more on the expected tasks at

hand but using the bottom-top method to achieve the desired outcomes versus the top-down

method that I have been using. I have a bad habit of not focusing on one certain main task or the

tasks that should be first. Instead, I combine everything and try to focus on everything all at once

which then creates more chaos. Therefore, I have made this my priority to focus more on when it

comes to leading and project management.

Looking back on my experience with utilizing the Harvard Simulation scenarios, I would

describe my personal approach to project management as chaotic and unorganized. This is the

sad realization I have come to regarding my project management approach. Granted this is not

the approach that I would like to have, because it is not a very successful approach. I wish I

could say that I was very well prepared and organized when it came to my personal project

management approach.

This just means that I need to work on my approach in different ways. When I say that

my approach is chaotic and unorganized, I mean just that. By combing the tasks all into one, and

not being able to focus on the tasks that should have higher priority I am creating chaos. Tasks

are not being focused on in a properly manner, it creates conflict for my team, and it also allows

for me to not be able to plan ahead, making me unorganized. I tend to stress about everything

that needs to be accomplished and I want to be able to complete everything all at once. This is a

bad practice because I need to fully understand the importance of each task at hand and

understand how each affect and coincides with one another.

The areas that I tend to emphasize more on when it comes to managing projects where

trade-offs are inevitable would be the morale of the team, schedule, and completing the project

by the deadline. As stated above, staying within the budget was inevitable for me. However, this

was the trade-off that I always seemed to run into with these scenarios. I believe completing the

project or task at hand by the expected deadline and ensuring the morale of my team is good is

something that is more important than staying within the budget. In real life, I plan on ensuring

that the project is always over budgeted to make up for more time needed, or if something goes
wrong with the project to try and stay within budget. But my team’s morale with always be a

priority and something I am always going to emphasize one. The schedule will be worked on,

and I will learn how to plan and ensure I have allotted extra time in areas that seem to have more

issues to cause delays. To have clients that can be continuous clients, I need to ensure the

projects are completed by the agreed upon and expected deadline. This is done by ensuring I can

have a better planned schedule.

When it comes to my biggest challenges, I would say that planning for future risks and

staying within budget are my biggest challenges, especially when it comes to the Harvard

simulations. These scenarios provided good insight to realistic situations that really allowed me

to see what I should be working on as a project manager and/or leader. As stated before, the

budget is not my biggest concern, but I would love to have it not be such a huge challenge for

me. Planning for risks is something that is important though and I must really work on my

planning skills to avoid and plan for future risks.

Prompt 3:

I believe project management can be useful in all jobs. As a stay-at-home mom and plans

on going back to the workforce, I believe the skills I have learned in this class can be

implemented. Being a stay-at-home mom has its own challenges like any profession does. I have

to constantly ensure my kids, a six-year-old and a one-and-a-half-year-old are well taken care of,

the house is always in shape, and whatever errands need to be done get done. My applying my

newfound project management skills, I should be able to have a better system as to how and

when things are getting done. Afterall, my kids and husband are part of my team and I need to

ensure they are being guided in the right direction.

Having a six-year-old is challenging. My son is in kindergarten, and he goes for the full day. I

need to ensure he is at school on time, has his homework, folder, backpack, snow gear (it is still

snowing here in North Dakota), he is picked up on time, his homework get completed, he gets

some attention, fed dinner, ready for bed, etc. The list can literally go on. At the same time, I

must take care of my daughter who is almost two years old. She is also a busy body and likes to

be difficult. Then I have my husband who is gone all the time and must travel for work so I must

ensure my priorities are planned. As this class has provided me the resources about time

management and planning for daily risks and unplanned things to happen. I have been

implementing my more in-depth planning and scheduling skills to prioritize my daily tasks. This

has helped because I am not feeling as overwhelmed as I was in the beginning. I am also learning

to be more prepared for the unexpected, which one would think that as a mother I would already

be more prepared, but as I have learned I can always be more prepared.

Raising kids is also like its own project. Ensuring they meet their milestones and learn the

life skills they need to be successful and no so dependent. Essentially, my scope creep of being a

mom is ensuring my kids are prepared for adulthood. This means I need to be utilizing project

integration in my daily life to ensure I reach this task. Every little thing is considered a milestone

and one step closer to having them reach that goal. This also goes with utilizing people

management skills. I must on the daily be managing if you will two miniature humans that will

grow into adults. How I manage them now and supply them with the needed skills will determine

how they grow up into adults.

because it is my own money perhaps? Either way this is a great skill to always have and utilize in

everyday no matter what your profession is. As sad as it is, this world revolves around money

and is you do not utilize it safely and prioritize spending then that can lead you down a hole you

really don’t want to be going down.

Part Two:

As someone who just went through the Harvard Project Management Simulation

scenarios, I would like to provide three areas of advice for someone that is about to go through

the Harvard simulation for the very first time. There is a lot of wisdom and lessons learned from

this experience that can be rewarding if you are willing to learn and take in all the provided

information. Listed below are the tips I’d like to provide.

 When it comes to managing the three most visible levers of project management

(scope, resources, and schedule) you must ensure that you prioritize them.

o Choose the order of the highest priority to the lower priority

o What needs to be done to complete the highest priority

o What needs to be done to complete the second priority

o What needs to be done to complete the last priority

 Please remember that every scenario is going to be different, and your

priorities will change

o Do not try and focus on them all at once when setting the settings. Work from

the bottom-up not the top-down

your way down.

 Change one thing at a time to try and achieve your goal

 When it comes to critical trends or patterns, there really is none. Do not be

complacent! I feel like I cannot stress this enough. You may have had a great first run

in the simulation and think you know what to do or expect. That will not be the case.

There will be many different challenges that arise.

o Prepare for the unexpected challenges.

o Plan accordingly! Whether that means implementing a lot of meetings,

outsourcing, prototypes, or all the above.

o Pay attention to how your team is reacting to your settings.

 My own personal model of the casual relationships that exist within my projects are

really determined by how I set my priorities. Communication is key! Your team likes

to be knowledgeable and aware of what’s going on.

o If you utilize outsourcing, ensure you have stand up meetings and meetings to

discuss the status of the project

o Always assume your team knows nothing and provide one-on-one training a

few times until your team communicates to you that they are knowledgeable.

 If you get new team members or higher more – ensure you have that

one-on-one training provided

o Listen to the alerts and read what your team is telling you

 Make decisions based on their communication with you.

to go through your Harvard simulation experience.

Works Cited:

Mind Tools. (2021, June 22). How Good Are Your Project Management Skills? - from

MindTools.com. https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_60.htm