1.Did
the project meet scope, time, and cost goals?
We did meet the scope and time
goals, but we went a little overboard with our budget as we
had spent an additional $ 100,000.00, with the approval of
the project sponsor.
2.What
was the success criteria listed in the project scope
statement?
“Our goal is to complete this
project within 6 months with the given budget of
$300,000.00. The primary sponsor of this project, Mary, has
stressed on the importance of succeeding in this project.
This is in light with the company’s objective of minimizing
costs and maximizing profits. To achieve a financial
break-through, a thorough review must be done to the
previous codes to determine the root of the problem. At the
same time, we must develop another method of utilizing the
computing power efficiently while new codes are being
developed and tested.”
3.Reflect
on whether or not you met the project success criteria.
Our sponsor, Mary, believed in
this project as much as we did so she was not reluctant when
she had to fork out an additional $ 100,000.00 in making
this project a reality. We have received good feedback from
the top management because although this project went a bit
over budget, it was still deemed as an excellent investment.
4.In
terms of managing the project, what were the main lessons
your team learned?
The main lessons we learned
include the following :
Having a good sponsor was
vital in ensuring the project met success. Although we
ran into a couple of difficult situations, Mary was
there to aid us in solving the problems.
Teamwork
and cooperation from the team members was extremely
important. Also, one should accept the fact that
although for a project you can sometimes hand pick
members to form a dream team, it is not necessary that
your “dream team” would be able to perform as you would
have expected them to. So one should always be prepared
to accept changes and also be able to work with new
faces within a short time span. Other than that,
developing the team contract helped us be on track of
the project.
A
good project manager is essential in seeing to the
success of a project. I had to accept the fact that I
was not as capable as I thought I would be in managing
this project. So when Kevin took over as the project
manager, I had the option to leave the team and save my
pride, but I chose otherwise. I chose not to be
disheartened and instead I seized this golden
opportunity to learn as much as I could from someone as
capable as Kevin.
Project
management software was very helpful throughout the
project.
5.Describe
one example of what went right on this project.
Although this project went a bit
over budget, we managed to meet our time and scope goals.
Indeed these criteria are often difficult to achieve and I
am glad we managed to be on track.
6.Describe
one example of what went wrong on this project.
Due to lack of experience, the
members that were handpicked by me did not turn out to be
the right choices. This somewhat disrupted the execution of
the project and instead of cutting short on time, we ended
up wasting time.
7.What
will you do differently on the next project based on your
experience working on this project?
I would be lying if I said that
I did not gain an eye-opening experience working on this
project. I have learnt that it takes more than just being a
project manager to make any project a reality. After having
worked with Kevin, I have learnt the various ways in which
you should be able to handle any situations, especially
tricky ones. Also there is an art of communicating with your
team members, so that they too believe wholeheartedly in a
project and are willing to give their all in making the
project a success.
With this invaluable experience
in hand, I will definitely see to it that the next project
is more successful than the current one, in terms of meeting
all three scopes, which are time, cost and scope goals.
