An article called My Dog is Smarter Than Your Project Manager by Brad Egeland caught my eye when I was skimming new project management articles to read. I immediately thought, how rude! Aside from the outlandish comment about his Labrador being smarter than some project managers (I am certain that could not be true) I get author’s point and he had some good words of wisdom for project managers as well. Brad listed three best practices for project mangers to follow:

1. Stay on top of the project schedule – Conduct weekly meetings to get the status update on your team and revise the project schedule daily.
2. Manage the scope well – The scope serves as a basis for keeping everything else on track well like the project timeline, budget, and keeping the project as profitable as possible.
3. Communicate – That means listening well, too…don’t forget that. Conduct meetings, follow-up afterwards with notes, keep project team informed at all times, and do the same for senior management.

Brad also brought up some things that I could relate to. Those moments where your project manager does not seem to be listening or grasping what the group is saying. Additionally, when they suggest things that are completely out of left field like they don’t get what’s going on at all. I can certainly relate to that at work right now. Our project manager in my department does keep up on the schedule, even when I’m not sure if we should be because of how our last meeting ended. It’s probably best he stays on schedule though or else we wouldn’t accomplish anything. He has been lacking at managing the scope because he has not been able to redirect our meetings back to the scope whenever they get off track. For example, we are converting our paper employee files to electronic, so we’re implementing a new software called m-files to replace our outdated/inefficient paper file system. Several times our compensation and benefits manager, who we all respect greatly on this project, has come into the meetings that should just be about the employee file and he has taken it so far out of scope into a whole philosophical debate about our shared drive in the office that I don’t think our project manager knows how to rein him in.

Communication is something that our project manager could improve on too. We receive too many emails from him all around 5-5:30 PM, very last minute, the night before a big meeting at 9 am the next day. So I’ll end up reading it on my phone upset that he didn’t email me that a few hours earlier! We are using SharePoint as a way of editing files, and he could clean up the entire thing a large amount so that we weren’t spending half our time trying to find the current version of whatever document were working on either.

Regardless of all my minor complaints about my project manager’s work style, I do not think that a dog is smarter than him! I am impressed with his skills, how far he’s gotten us, and his enthusiasm about the project. His positivity is the only thing that keeps me engaged in this project.

Have you been in a project where you thought so little about your project manager that you think they could be replaced by a dog? Or have you known anyone who was so upset with their project manager that they would think the same as Brad?

Kenneth White

MGT 598

Dr. Cook

http://www.liquidplanner.com/blog/tips-for-managing-rogue-projects/

While my experience with actual project management is limited, my knowledge of what it takes to be a project manager has increased significantly. With the lessons and material discussed in class, it has enabled myself to more clearly define what project management is and how to engage in the many obstacles that come with it. Speaking of obstacles, I’ve found an interesting article discussing tips or managing a rogue project.

There are a lot of different issues that could go wrong with a project. To make things worse, a project within a project can always pop up. You’re still driving to accomplish a goal within a constraint. While these rogue projects come up you’re dealing with shorter times constraints. Usually these mini projects may range from one day to a month, but it depends on the business.

Typically a specific project may have numerous ramifications. They may affect multiple groups, whether customers directly, or the shareholders. Rogue projects on the other hand, or a project within a project, usually focus on a single goal. Because the goal of this particular “rogue project” is smaller in can be easier to get the project off the ground. The limitations of time require you as the project manager to act more quickly and thus get the project going instantly. Rogue projects can also be less resource intensive. While there can be exceptions to this, Rogue projects tend to rely on more on specialized talent and resources versus the whole larger project. There is lesser supply of financing, as well as labor or materials. This is because the rogue project usually only addresses a temporally specific function, rather than the “big picture” initiative.

Collaboration is key to successfully tackle these projects. In addition, prioritizing risk assessments follows. The limited timeframe of a rogue project truncates a large chunk of procedures associated with traditional PM. Risk assessment can be a very long process, while its still crucial to anticipate the weaknesses and possible vulnerabilities in the planning phase.  A good project manager should be able to determine which risk directly may have an impact on the rogue project. Being able to asses the risks that directly relate to the projects values are the ones you should spend time on.

Ultimately, no matter how big or small your project may be, as a project manager, you still need to have a plan. Now I’m not talking about the creation of a committee. A short timeframe doesn’t negate the importance of planning. according to PMI, approximately 44% of projects experience scope creep. The importance of a work breakdown is crucial. A work breakdown structure can be helpful in order to divide the project into smaller portions so that it will have more accurate cost and time estimates.

On a bright September afternoon, six strangers glanced about the classroom, made eye contact with five proximal classmates, and serendipitously assembled into a high functioning team. 

All members were engaged and participated in all of our planned meetings.  Our brainstorming sessions were fun and productive, yielding a series of ideas that we prioritized unselfishly and weaved into a plan.  We selected and vetted a reputable charity with a just and noble cause.  Through the creativity of our team, we soon had a logo exempt from DePaul brand restrictions, an attractive T-shirt design, a cleverly assembled cookie mix for sale, and a series of fun events that were sure to attract many participants and donors.  We were excited by our progress – there was no way we could fail in our mission.  We launched our team Facebook page and Making Strides ACS team site, sent out an appeal through email and waited for our buzz to go viral….

Family, work, and school responsibilities have placed me into an extended social media coma.  I’ve rarely checked my Facebook profile, and almost never posted anything for the past four years.  Now, due to this class assignment and our social media communication strategy, I began obsessively checking my site for updates and applying as many “likes” to our posts as possible to promote them to my network.  Did anyone out there in Facebook land “like” my posts or the ones on my team site?  Was our message getting through?  Should we consider paying money for Facebook to “boost” our post?  Do we need to invest more money in advertising to raise more money?

Perhaps it’s not the quantity of communications, but rather their quality that matters most.  A recent blog post from the site npEngage compiled some good, if not obvious, tips that will likely seem familiar to many readers.  Periodically updating team members and our social network about our progress towards our financial goals, describing how funding enables the programs of the American Cancer Society, and personally thanking our individual donors are critical communications that we can’t forget to send out.  Are there any communications that your group has sent out that have been particularly effective in generating responses to your campaign?

During our team’s October 4, 2015 yoga event, I found the instructor’s connection of our project to the yoga session moving.  Mariel Victoria introduced the class to a difficult (for me) pose, “the wheel,” that was selected in the spirit of opening the heart to charity and kindness.  After 75 minutes of physically demanding yoga, Mariel encouraged the class to bring forward any other projects or concerns to share with the group.  Prior to the start of the session, I was prepared to speak to the class with enthusiasm about our events and items for sale.  Afterwards, I knew that my delivery would not have been nearly as effective as Mariel’s for that audience.  Many of the attendees stopped by our area and took information, bought cookie mix, or just donated.  For me, this reemphasized the importance of quality in the communication, and I intend to up my game for the remainder of the “Blue Demons for a Cure” campaign.  How will you adjust your message to optimize your project’s appeal?

Have you ever looked at a potential problem and thought “There is no chance on earth that i can solve this. There is too much to do and not enough time.”  In my three years with my company Darley, there have been a few moments where i felt overwhelmed about the amount of work i needed to do.  However over time I realized that big challenges in my job are a ‘set of daily tasks’ that need to be done.

In my job at Darley, I have worked as Business Development Manager to develop two new divisions of the company; Darley Water Purification Systems and Darley Custom Pump Solutions.  Both divisions started within the past five years and we are attempting to do one of the hardest things in business : Sell New Products to New Customers.

Due to the undefined role of Business Development for these emerging divisions, I began to learn as much as possible about the different market segments.  In particular, the WATER MARKET.  Currently there is no market more attractive in the world than technologies surrounding water treatment, storage, distribution, monitoring, etc.. With all the potential for growth in in the industry, I still found myself thinking: Where do i start?  Who can i sell products to?  Where are the customers?  The questions don’t stop.

In my three years, trying to direct the company towards the water market has not been an easy task.  Darley is a committed fire company with a many tendencies of an old school company.  Darley likes to innovate, but at the speed of Darley.

As i sat at my desk in the early days, many times i would get stuck because i didn’t know what to do.  This wasn’t because there was a shortage of work, but because there were so many things that needed to happen in order for Darley to grow in these water sectors.  Where do I start when trying to do something to solve the world’s water crisis?

This is when the light bulbs started going off.

If I do a better job of personally managing my time in the office, that is one step closer to help more people in the world get access to clean water.  If I can better plan out my tasks out in the morning, I can complete tangible action items that need to get done.  With my tasks better defined on a daily basis, I can better utilize the internal resources I have at Darley to get more things done.  If i get more tasks done a daily basis on a personal and group level, we are moving one day closer to helping more people with access to clean water.

I now look at my job as a daily adventure.  Of course I need to plan for future trade shows and what are we doing in 3-6-9 months.  However all we can do is best manage our time on a daily basis to be as productive as possible.  I want to change the world.  I want to help people get access to clean water.  I know this will not happen overnight, but my actions needs to improve and get more efficient every day.   Now before I go to bed I always ask myself “Did I do anything today that moved me closer to my goal of helping people around the world?”  If i answer “no”, I think about what went wrong, acknowledge the inefficiencies, and move on to the next day.  

Water, water everywhere…but not a drop to drink.

If you have time, watch VICE.  VICE is the best documentary series in television right now.  Season three has a special about the water crisis in India. For me to truly get behind a solution, I need to experience the problem first hand.  I spend one week in India and watched this documentary.  Here is a sneak peak: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcLFXixHyW0