Project Management

August 1, 2012

Blog: Analyzing Scope Creep



The situation I am about to discuss does not entirely pertain to a project, but it does illustrate a scope creep within the environment.

As the school year begins for the teachers, we have a lot to plan for especially since we are rolling out Common Core Standards (CCS) and new components to the evaluation. Our team started with four members, and we decided that we wanted to be ready for the new school year. We divided the lessons and other school related committee responsibility as well as met a little throughout the summer. As we return, we discover that we are losing a team member to another grade and the district is implementing a new, more detailed and time consuming lesson format that addresses similar and different element to the previous format. At that moment, we all felt we wasted time preparing for the upcoming year.

There were two issues with scope creep in this situation; the movement of a co-worker and the replacement of lesson format. These changes occur often, but it makes the environment a little stressful and makes the teachers a little unprepared when little time for planning has occurred due to the changes. This brings many issues for the team, especially the grade chair. There wasn’t much we could do, but convert to the learning environment. The co-worker moved to another classroom and the lesson plans will hopefully serve its purpose as we are introduced to it. This scope creep was out of the hands of educators and more of a district/administration decision.

As I try to explain exactly what scope creep means, I stumbled across a site that exampled scope creep four different ways. Each way showed little pieces that connected the way the team members felt. The examples were compiled by Inov8Solutions (2010) to explain scope creep.

Project Manager Examples
Scope creep (also called focus creep, requirement creep, feature creep, function creep) in project management refers to uncontrolled changes in a project's scope. This phenomenon can occur when the scope of a project is not properly defined, documented, or controlled.	Scope creep is a term which refers to the incremental expansion of the scope of a project, which may include and introduce more requirements that may not have been a part of the initial planning of the project, while nevertheless failing to adjust schedule and budget.	A phenomenon whereby the original scope of the project slowly widens, resulting in a much larger project than originally intended.	The unconscious shift in the project scope resulting from uncontrolled changes to requirements. For example, adding features and functionality to project scope without addressing the effects on time, costs, and resources or without customer approval

Looking back on the experience (although it’s been a few days), I believe the team handle the changes as best as we could. We have no say in what was implemented. Complaining and griping will not prepare us for our students, so everyone pitched in to fill the gap.

Reference

Inov8solution. (2010). [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.inov8solutions.com/inov8-blogs/pm-blog/107-what-is-scope-creep

July 13, 2012

                                              Blog: Communicating Effectively

I have often wondered if using different methods to communicate would serve an effective mode of reaching others. I have used emails, text messages, face-to-face, telephone, chat, and Skype to communicate with peers and other company leaders. It has been difficult to determine if one mode of communication is the best. I quickly learned that any median could be effective because it is all in how you’re going to present the message.

Communication has played many roles in our daily lives. Effective communication extends the concept to require that transmitted content is received and understood by someone in the way it was intended” (Brown, 2011). The word in Barbara Brown’s quote that stands out to me is understood. There have been situations that I have perceived others message as being offensive or threatening because of the way the message was presented. Perception in any form can make a total difference in one’s acceptance to a message. For instance, I was responding to an online discussion and another student posted to my response. I felt that she was jumping down my throat by the way the message was written and how I read it. I begin to get upset and furious with the other student. I thought it was only me until my aunt revealed her horror story. She was new to online school and wanted to show her support for another student’s message. So she wrote it in all caps. The student responded angrily and upset. My aunt did not realize that something as all caps could have a strong meaning. That was the first time I realized that communicating in any mode requires the speaker to have a certain tone within the message. Emotions always have an impact on the message, and if it is received negatively, it can ignite a fire. In my own opinion. Face-to-face communication is the best way to communicate. It allows you to feed off the other person’s response.

Each modality had its own perception on how the respondent felt towards the speaker. Listed below are some of the perceptions I had towards the message in each modality.

Email

As I read the email, I felt that the speaker seemed impatient. I felt the speaker was rushing Mark to give her his day. The email seems rush and impatient.

Voicemail

As I listened to the voicemail, the speaker's tone gave me a sense of anger. She seemed as if she was a little irritated about the lack of communication she was receiving from Mark. Although she noted that Mark was busy, she also made note that his portion of the report would cause her not to reach her deadline. This made me interrupt the voicemail with a sense of urgency as if I was wasting her time by not responding when she wanted.

Face-to-face (F2F)

As I listened to the face-to-face communication modality, the speaker's body language and tone seem sincere with how busy schedule. The speaker seemed calmer with her message. She smiled and gave eye contact. Her gesture made me feel that she genuinely cares. The message given, face-to-face, made it easier for me to read the speaker's body language.

Communication can make or break any project a group of people are working on. If it is not handled properly, all different perceptions will come to light. In group projects, many members have different opinions and thoughts about the direction the project should go. Effective communication is very important, especially when emotions being to show its presence. According to Dr. Stolovitch’s (n.d.) Communicating with Stakeholders, communicating clear, concise and focused helps keep everyone on target. “Active listening becomes particularly important when the communication includes emotional content” (Brown, 2001).

Reference

Brown, B. (2011, August 11). What is effective communication?. Retrieved from http://www.livestrong.com/article/69309-effective-communication/

Stolovich, H. (Presenter, n.d.). Communicating with stakeholders [video]. Laureate Education, Inc.

 July 6, 2012

Blog Assignment: Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

As I explore more about project management, I begin to examine past jobs and activities that require a minor or major project/task to occur. There was a company I worked at for three years. I was there when the company first opened and started out enjoying my job. Later as time moved on, the culture of the organization took a shift, which ultimately changed the way many members looked at the overall environment, vision, and belief of the company. A key change was in personnel. “New people bring their own ideas and styles, and these often conflict with the existing culture” (Beach, 2006, p. 39).

At this company, projects are always created. The projects that were in arms reach for my level position did not require duties of a project manager, however, there was a plan developed to be implemented throughout the organization. The lead manager and design team would come to lower level stakeholders to help with the layout of their design. But with any project, there is always a problem. Most problems can be adjusted, but there were times when suggestions by lower stakeholders were ignored. This negatively impacts the overall team member’s thoughts about the project and ultimately creates a lot of resistance within the company. Eventually, the lower stakeholder’s suggestions were used, but only after upper management stepped in. Let’s just say, new personnel did not stick around long.

As I look back at the overall project, the process used that contributed to the success of the project was simply collaboration. Although all parties had opposing views, majority of the members were persistent in achieving the goal by the set time frame. We actually brainstormed what the overall goal was and how the finish product should look like. The only downside that should have been handled better was valuing everyone’s perspective about the project. This could have saved time and frustration throughout the task.

Reference

Beach, L. (2006). Leadership and the art of change: A practical guide to organizational transformation. (pp. 1-175). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, Inc.

                                                                    



Hello All,

My name is April Hughes. I would like to welcome you to my blog. The purpose of this blog is to communicate with other classmates as well as display valuable information that has been learned through the course of attaining my master's degree. At first I knew nothing about blogging to now trying to incorporate it within everyday aspect of teaching. It will take time to get blogging into a habit, but once the school year begins I am sure everything will work out. I look forward to learning with all of you. Let's begin as we move one step closer to fulfilling our hopes and dreams.