Cassidy White

OGL 321 – Spring 2020

Module 4 Paper

In this week’s scenario, I knew we would have some type of

challenge put before us simply based on the previous week, but

especially after the focused readings assignment. Kicking off with a

chapter on problem-solving reading about strategies I tried to make

good notes while reading through these two chapters. Starting out

with the “Confrontation Modes” (Cleden, D. (2016). Managing Project

Uncertainty. p.37 Retrieved from [Link]

[Link]) I was challenged to try to understand what

potential factor(s) were going to be involved in Scenario C. From my

point of view there were a few; complexity - in trying to determine how

a much shorter deadline was going to affect the tasks and if the

project would be able to be completed, affordability – was I going to be

able to meet the clients budget with a much shorter timeline and what

was going to be too much if I had to go over, and structure – for me

this was more about running through the scenario more than I really

needed to based on the grading criteria, but I wanted to see what

changes and mistakes I made and could I do a better job?

 So, for this scenario, we had to attempt to overcome an

extremely short deadline of 5 weeks. A couple of lines from one of my

blog readings this week that I felt really resonated with the chapter

readings and the scenario. It spoke to how PMs must facilitate the

many different tools at their disposal, “They coordinate and prioritize

thousands of pieces of data to ensure projects deliver value. This

means that they must adapt to the multitude of changes in any project.

They cannot try to control change; rather, they must manage it

allowing it to flow logically within the time and cost constraints”

([Link]

project-managers-and-trampled-team-members). So, I saw no other

“modes of confronting uncertainty” (Clenden, p.37-38) other than to

“adapt”. None of the others seem to be much of an option in my

opinion. I couldn’t suppress something as big as a schedule change,

nor detour around it not knowing that it was coming. However, I could

state that I made some attempts to detour the deadline by loading the

team to start with several highly skilled team members. I also tried to

reorient the project in my last run to a multifunction printer in an effort

to get more tasks done in the first 4 weeks. Although I did what I

believe most of us would have done and adjusted my teams. I

increased the size and elevated the skill level to try to meet the

shortened deadline and to provide the client with what they requested.

The one huge issue overall with this approach in every one of my four

attempts was that the budget just wasn’t going to be realistic to

maintain. Now while some clients may not be willing to accommodate

adjusting the budget in these simulations, it’s my experience that

when a client or customer makes such a big request after a project

agreement has been met then there’s a conversation or negotiation to

adjust the terms in attempt to satisfy both parties. Many times, I’ve

had a customer agree to a timeline after clearly stating and providing

the process and procedures and what they would be required to do to

meet their requested timeline. In many cases when they have failed to

hold up their end of the tasks then we have discussed either moving

the date or approving additional funds to expedite our process and

shipments. This can easily be related to online shopping. If you do your

tasks on time and place the order to arrive on time, then most times

shipping is either free or at a low cost. If you forget and place a last-

minute order and still need it by a certain time, you’ll have to pay for

the appropriate rush shipping and handling charges.

 Cleden refers to “The Hallmarks of effective decision-making”

(p.66-67) and one of the biggest things I’m going to take away from

this week with the readings and the scenario is communication. I

realized in runs 2 and 3 me that I failed to communicate the timeline

change to my team and to adjust it within the simulator. This failure

caused a lot of stress on my team because a few weeks went by and

we lost valuable time they could have been doing other tasks. In my

fourth and final run, I made sure that I adjusted the timeline and it was

sure to test the team and cause stress, but not nearly as much as my

previous runs as it was the one time that I was able to deliver on time

and with a higher level than requested. I went back and reread the

section on decision-making before starting this paper and find it even

more interesting now after the scenario. Especially for me as I did two

additional attempts that weren’t required, but I was attempting to

make what I felt were “evidence-based decision-making” based on

what I had experienced in the first two attempts and especially in my

fourth and final run. I firmly believe that common sense and

experience are two of the greatest advantages when it comes to

anyone’s decision-making skills. We are human and will make

mistakes and have successes and I just hope that anyone learns from
these. I find myself even trying to teach my two daughters this as well

so they are better prepared and learn to understand that decisions

have rewards and consequences and that making the best one at the

time can make a big difference. As we are all now at home for several

weeks and my eight-year-old has taken a real joy to read to my wife

and I were recalling the old Choose Your Own Adventure books and I

came across a blog that actually makes reference to them and the

PMBOK and that there could be two versions of the book. The one that

we are familiar with that provides the framework and basis for project

management that “could be done using a decision tree approach

similar to that used for Disciplined Agile but imagine how much fun it

would have been if it was written like a Choose Your Own Adventure®

book? Such a guide could help teams understand the options available

to them while simultaneously exploring potential downstream

implications of their decisions”

([Link]

For me, this would not only be nostalgic, but after taking a few PM

courses I’d be fascinated to read something like this and feel that it

would be a great companion to the project management simulations

that we are doing every week.