Personal Assessment of Project Management Capacity and Development

Angelina Spaulding
OGL 321: Project Leadership
College of Letters and Sciences
Arizona State University

Personal Assessment of Project Management Capacity and Development

Since first taking the quiz "How Good Are Your Project Management Skills?" until now,
can you identify areas of growth or knowledge regarding project leadership specifically,
or leadership in general? Do you find yourself giving more consideration to particular
areas, principles, or practices (e.g. scheduling, scope management, communication
styles, etc.)?
The quiz, How Good Are Your Project Management Skills? (Mind Tools Ltd, 2015) asks
twenty questions that analyze various aspects of an individual's project leadership abilities.
When taking the quiz for the first time it categorized personal project management skills at a
mediocre level. Scope management, schedule management, risk management and budget
management are only a few of the many areas of opportunity that the quiz identified. People
management is the only skill that had been brought into the course that has a solid foundation.
Having a leadership philosophy with a centerpiece that revolves around the idea that human
capital is one of the most important assets that any organization could have, it was not a
surprise that this had been a noted strength. It also had not really been a surprise when the
quiz stressed other project management inadequacies. With this information it helped to set up
a mindset for the course of openness and willingness to learn more about the field of project
management.
To grow an arsenal that would better arm a project manager requires, an understanding
of how projects are managed from start to finish, how the project may impact an organization's
daily operations, and how all of the components of the project are integrated... (Saladis &
Kerzner, 2011, p. 29). It can then be argued that a major aspect that helps facilitate project
management, and leadership, is the need to make ...effective decisions that are the result of an
effective [decision making] process (Powell & Buede, 2009, p. 17). It can then be contended
that the end results of decisions will most likely directly or indirectly affect stakeholders of a
project and sway the development of a project. This knowledge cultivated an understanding of

the importance of the decision-making processes, and how having a more informed knowledge
in this category would most likely improve personal project leadership proficiency.
As a project manager the results of a project can often be perceived as a reflection of
the leaders all-around capabilities. A majority of personal past negative leadership experiences
can be equated to poor decision-making. Not having a, ...a planned process for decisionmaking (Powell & Buede, 2009, p. 11-14), can have an impact on the major components that
can be used to discern a successful project: ...meeting an established budget[and] providing
deliverables when promised (p. 8). Meaning that scope management, budget management
and schedule management can all be directly influenced by the decision making of a leader.
Further reflection in regards to decision making has revealed that if, a general framework for
making decisions (pp. 14 - 17), had been created, it is likely to believe that constructive
decisions could have been formulated to better a project's conclusion.
Once while leading a Girl Scout of Central Maryland overnight retreat with fellow troop
members, unnecessary conflict developed that could have potentially been prevented if a
decision making plan existed. When working in a team situation many points of view will
imaginably be shared. The troop had been very split down in regards to the theme of the event.
This discussion became heated and it took longer than it should have to make a decision about
the theme. The lack of having a decision plan created animosity in the group, impacted the
planning and organizing schedule of the project, and affected the budget due to unnecessary
purchases made prior to a theme being agreed upon. It is important for a team to provide
insight. However when that input prevents decisions from being made, it can impact a project.
The productivity, the deliverable, the schedule and the budget all became a concern of the
project when a decision could not be made. If the group had developed a decision making plan
prior to initiating the planning of the event it is possible to believe that this unconstructive conflict
could have been prevented.

The, How Good Are Your Project Management Skills? (Mind Tools Ltd, 2015) quiz can
be seen as a self-assessment tool for students of project management. It helps to bring
awareness to areas of project management that when studying the subject of project
management to focus on throughout a course. After learning the importance of effective
decisions making and how quality decision-making is the result of a planning process, it helped
to better provide a platform to comprehend a possible cause for personal project management
shortcomings. This new knowledge has helped to transform project management focus of trying
to look at each aspects of a project as individual entities, but rather as an interconnected matrix
that is all directly or indirectly impacted by the decision making ability and processes of a project
leader.
Given your previous experience, as well as your more recent interactions with the
Harvard Simulation scenarios, how would you define your personal approach to project
leadership? What areas do you tend to emphasize or privilege while managing projects
where trade-offs are inevitable? In what areas do you find your biggest challenges?
The Harvard Business Publishing (2013) Project Management Simulation: Scope,
Resources, and Schedule challenges users to employ decision-making techniques to guide a
project to completion. Throughout the course, each of the weekly assigned simulations
presented various scenarios that all had specific measurable requirements. Whenever it can be
done, measuring a project's requirements provides a tangible means to establish the
parameters that will be used to determine the successful conclusion of a project (Heldman,
2005).
As the simulations progressed, it became clear that the people oriented project
leadership strength brought into the course would not be a main driver of success in the
simulations. For that reason, personal leadership traits that are seldom used in real world
situations had been challenged. Some of those traits include, but are not limited to: ...not being
knocked off base (1:40), ...generating] a sense of urgency (3:25), and ...use of

insights (Project Management Videos, 2012, 3:43). When completing the latter scenarios in
the course, understanding that trading off the use of relational oriented and task oriented
leadership behaviors would most likely aid in falling within the measurable requirements for
each project scenario.
When just starting to work on the Project Management Simulation (Harvard Business
Publishing, 2013) the biggest challenge came from the need to learned that even though a
challenge may exists, try not to allow it knocked off center. Learning to take a moment to make
a decision, rather than reacting to a situation (Project Management Videos, 2012). Going over
schedule, over budget and having poor team morale kept occurring. Once it had been learned
that sometimes a budget will not be met or sometimes a schedule may run over, and that it was
rather about providing a deliverable that met upper management's requirements and
maintaining a positive team morale should be the main focus of the projects.
Another aspect of leadership that needed to be learned is that, ...generating a sense of
urgency...helps to motivate a team into action (Project Management Videos, 2012, 3:25).
Through the use of encouraging over time and daily stand up meetings over status meetings a
sense of urgency could be felt from the team. When overtime is encouraged team members
seemed to understand that meeting weekly upper management task requirements needed to
occur, and as a result would work around fifty hours a week. Even if the team worked over sixty
hours a week and felt informed through the use of meetings the group would seldom be
stressed.
Nearing the latter scenarios of the project simulation insight had been developed to
combat derailments from the project scope. Budget can be controlled in the scenarios by
creating teams with accurate numbers and at appropriate skill levels. Knowing to utilize the
varied levels of outsourcing to help maintain team morale and balance a budget came based

upon experience. Listing to team members needs based upon provided feedback helped to
control the types of meetings and the amount of meetings that each project required moving
forward. Trusting personal instinct helped during the decision-making processes when
conducting the simulations.
As project simulation experience had grown throughout the course it became apparent
that the personal strength of completely relying on an organization's personal equity to facilitate
project completion could not be a dominating factor. Blending the use of functional and
connective practices has been a help factor in streamlining project completion. Having an
understanding of staying grounded, setting a tone of urgency and harnessing the ability to
understand situations throughout the simulations assisted in bettering personal project
leadership. It is likely that the personal leadership mindset of stewarding to followers will
continue to be a used practice; however maintaining a composure through experience will now
be a more valued aspect of personal leadership ability.
Lastly, although the scenarios that you worked through in this class offered a very
narrow arena in which project leadership techniques can be applied, please take a
moment and make the connection between the skills that you employed and learned to
your own professional environmentwhether you are already working within it or
aspiring to soon work within a particular industry. For example, how can project
leadership skills be useful in government jobs, education, the nonprofit sector, etc.? In
other words, what are your "take a ways" that hold direct relevance to you
professionally? Be specific.
Project managers are trained to look at the larger picture and focus on things such as
vision, objectives, goals, coordination, and integration (Saladis & Kerzner, 2011, p. 27). As the
scenarios of the Project Management Simulation (2013) were conducted it became apparent
that the techniques gained can be helpful within many professional environments. Regardless
of a particular professional industry a project manager must be able to have a perception of an
organization's overall goals and by what manner those goals can be met.

Consider a community that has come together and decided that a park needs to built.
Some members in the community are construction workers, educators, parents, youth leaders
and religious leaders all rally for the purpose of creating a safe and welcome play space for
children in the area. The people of the community all have different skill sets that can be
applied to the completion of the project. However, whoever is the project leader must realize
that the talent of the community members will be most helpful during various times throughout a
project's life cycle. A construction worker will most likely helpful during the execution phase of a
project. Parents will most likely be helpfully during the planning portion of a project. Youth
leaders, educators and religious leaders can be helpful during the execution and closing phases
of a project to help build and celebrate the outcome of the project. A project leader needs to be
able to utilize the skills of a team and help encourage a team to meet objectives by harnessing
team's strengths and neutering faults to help achieve goals.
This understanding comes from recognizing that during the many simulations conducted;
it is not necessarily about the team's ability but rather about the leader's ability to be aware and
involved in a team's success. Pumping up group sizes with high skilled workers may not result
in success. Encouraging group members to go above and beyond by working overtime hours,
but then as a leader not asserting expectations during interpersonal and group meetings can
prevent mutual of understanding of desired results. If a state government needs to build a
tunnel to connect towns, it would be unwise not to reach out and learn the needs to
constituents. If a project leader is in a private organization and the leader hands the project to
the highest skilled employees without any follow up until a deliverable is presented, then it is
likely to believe that the presented deliverable does not exactly meet a project's scope.
The greatest take away that has come from the management project simulation is that
being involved, monitoring and communicative to a team will help guide a team towards
completion. Being involved in the team's success by being an available project manager

through coaching and daily stand ups helps to communicate expectations. Mounting production
levels, budgets and schedules aids in the decision making that must occur throughout the
entirety of a project. An absent project leader can arguably be considered a failure. Giving a
team, regardless of skill level, too much independence to complete objectives without
governance most likely will present a deliverable that is not within the projects intended scope.
It is not about being overbearing and holding all of the responsibility, but rather it is about being
open, willing, involve, aware and engaged that will most likely help to bring a project to a
successful close.

References
Cleden, D. (2009). Problem-solving strategies for managing uncertainty. In Managing Project
Uncertainty (pp. 37 - 56). Retrieved from
http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/Open.aspx?id=205409
Harvard Business Publishing. (2013). Project management simulation: Scope, resources, and
schedule. Harvard Business School Publishing. Retrieved from
https://forio.com/simulate/harvard/project-management/simulation/#prepare
Heldman, K. (2005). Preventing scope and schedule risks (pp. 95 - 122). In Project managers
spotlight on risk management [E-book]. Retrieved from
http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib/reader.action?docID=10131929
Kerzner, H. (2010). Behavioral Excellence. In Project management best practices: Achieving
global excellence (2nd Ed.) [E-book] (pp. 377- 398). Hoboken,, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Retrieved from http://site.ebrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/lib/asulib/reader.action?
docID=10366591
Mind Tools Ltd. (2015). How good are your project management skills? Retreived from
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_60.htm
Powell, R. Col. & Buede, D. (2009). Good decision-making: The key to project success. In A
project managers guide to making successful decisions (pp. 2-16). Retrieved from
http://app.knovel.com/hotlink/toc/id:kpPMGMSD08/project-manager-s-guide/projectmanager-s-guide
Saladis, F.P. & Kerzner, H. (2011). Bringing the PMBOK guide to life: A companion for the
practicing project manager. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Retireved from
http://www.ebrary.com