Project Blissful Sprouts
people
management.
People management involves a shared responsibility towards working for goals in a project. Individuals need not have similar personalities, however they must have a common goal. The main purpose of People Management is to execute project tasks effectively by correctly assigning roles and tasks to different members. This allows maximum work optimization.
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A well functioning team should be able to coordinate well and understand one another's strengths in certain areas. This will make assignment of roles and responsibilities easier.
tools.
The Responsibility Assignment Structure is a chart consisting of segments RACI - Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed. It relates the program structure to the Work Breakdown structure and details all the stakeholders involved in a certain task.
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Responsible - The individual who is in charge of/completing the task
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Accountable - holds accountability over the person who is responsible
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Consulted - provides information and/or expertise to facilitate things like decision making.
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Informed - Person who is consistently notified of results and updated throughout the project duration.
experience.
My groups was very adept at using the Responsibility Assignment Structure. Initially, we would assign responsibilities as random since we did not know one another very well. There was no need to decide on a group leader since I was already preassigned the role. Thus, I was able to experience every role in the assignment matrix. For instance, I would be informed about changes to the budget, or be the consultant when it came to matters regarding our potential resource pool. Then, I would also partake in having responsibility in parts of the planning and execution, as well as holding accountability for overall group progress and reporting back to our partner organization, SACS. Having to experience all different roles was insightful for me as I was able to see what things were like from all perspectives.
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Responsibility was the task assigned most often to everyone. Since there were so many details and things to do for the project, it was only to be expected. Many things had to be completed even from the start when we were merely laying down the foundations for the project. Everyone was able to complete their tasks by the stipulated deadlines, hence we were able to maintain a good pace for the entire duration of the project.
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Accountability served to assign clearer managerial roles for everyone, such as being the Overall Event In-Charge on the event days. This allowed us to oversee a wider scope of target areas and clearly differentiated the areas that we were in charge of. Having accountability over members and their tasks meant that an individual will keep the members on schedule, as well as conduct quality checks to make sure performance is satisfactory. This aspect required openness among the group so that we can speak up when necessary.
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Consultation was not done very often as we kept a shared Google Drive where all relevant documentation and information was neatly organized. This meant that we would mostly refer to the drive to "Consult" for information needed. Consultation was done in a more informal setting during group calls where we might casually ask questions to one another as a form of reinforcement. If anything, our main consultants would be Mr Christopher, the Program Executive at SACS, as well as our module lecturer. They would answer any new questions we had, hence I would also consider them to be key contributors to the success of our Indoor Gardening project.
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Information was passed on to me, who would then transmit it to Mr Christopher. This was an important task as it was crucial to our successful liaising with SACS. Being able to maintain consistent communication on both ends is important as SACS was not only dealing with our project. Hence, frequent updates are needed to make sure both parties are on the same page
values, challenges.
The main value learnt would be having Dependability. It is important that we are able to be trustworthy and dependable people. Having the assurance that your teammates are able to produce quality work is something that greatly helps to build team rapport as well. Not only that, dependability alsocomes in the form of both individual, as well as the ability to depend on others when you are in need.
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A challenge of using this structure is that not every role needs to be taken up - sometimes to the extent that we may only need to fulfill the "Responsibility" segment. Hence, the structure may not be applicable in every instance of Project Management.
task management.
Task management involves being able to be in control of all tasks across the span of the project. Task tracking is carried out from the beginning and the team is able to pick out tasks that should be focused on. It also serves to help the group allocate the right tasks to the right members and maintain overall cohesion so that no two members are carrying out overlapping roles.
Task management is also done to ensure that project deliverables are executed properly, meaning that any good, service, or result is successfully implemented or given to the clients.
tools.
A tool that was used in task management is the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). It is the process of breaking down project work into manageable components for all members. The WBS for our group can be seen above.
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We started with identifying the major work components such as "Create project proposal." This was then further broken down into components such as "Figure out budget" and "Calculate total number of pots needed". The lowest-level work components in a WBS are called the work packages, which means that they can be scheduled, budgeted, assigned, monitored, and controlled. We break work down when it serves to make things easier. If breaking down the work doesn’t make it easier to estimate, assign or monitor, then it is not required to break it down even further. All tasks should have the end goal in mind.
experience.
The WBS was useful for my group as it helped us to identify specific tasks and go about prioritizing tasks that directly involved our project deliverables. By breaking the work down, we were able to better allocate responsibilities as well. After we came up with our main project structure and budget plan, our main differentiations for the WBS were for "Powerpoint slides", "Volunteers", and "Logistics". Each function was then broken down further, as can be seen in the WBS above. The breakdown allowed us to assign roles to each member and nothing was overlapping. With the help of the WBS, we were able to successfully secure and deliver our project deliverables without an issue.
values and challenges.
A value that I found important during this process was Communication. Only by communicating with my members, was I able to properly allocate tasks. We also had to ensure that everyone understood
their individual responsibilities. If there was anything that someone could not complete, we would let the rest of the group know and request for help as well. It was also important to communicate because we wanted to ensure that we all prioritized the same tasks. If someone felt that a certain work component was more important than the other, we would listen to their reasonings and come up with a conclusion or compromise as the group.
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A challenge that arose was that it was difficult to figure out how far we should be breaking work packages down. In theory, it was easy to understand that we should only break down a task if it is useful. However, it is hard to apply this to every task as our judgement was not very good initially. I would say that we definitely took some time to get there. Even in our WBS above, I can pick out certain tasks that should be broken down even more.
time management
Time management involves being able to prioritize tasks and having the ability to allocate time to each task and spread them out over a certain time frame. As time is limited, it is important to know what you intend to do and how long you plan to spend completing tasks. Progress is dependent on how a group is able to plan, schedule, prioritize, and monitor activities over time. Hence, its purpose is to make sure group members stay on track with tasks and give an overview of how the project is supposed to progress.
Critical path analysis allows one to give precedence to certain tasks in a project, depending on how important a task is in regards to its significance to the project. An example of this would be that securing a sponsor would be considered more urgent as it affects the end date of the project. Meanwhile, something like doing up a PowerPoint design may be less important in comparison as it does not affect the end date. A critical path analysis will help us to evaluate each task and subsequently allocate what can or cannot be delayed, hence forming critical and non-critical paths.
tools.
Being able to allocate a suitable amount of time for a particular task is important. Hence, we use P.E.R.T/ Three Point Estimate to give ourselves a more accurate idea of how much time a certain task should take. For example, we can estimate that gathering logistics for our project will take two weeks as a best estimate or optimistic duration. In the worst case scenario/ pessimistic duration, we may only have 3 days. Our most likely estimation for this task duration was one week. Hence, using the formula, our final estimation for the task was 7.5 days, which we rounded up to 8 days.
experience.
My group adhered to a more general timeline without sub-details after we finalized our project overview. This is because we would mainly discuss the timeline and estimate task durations during group calls. This worked for us as our project was of a small scale and we did not have much to do as compared to other groups. Furthermore, our group was able to manage our time in a less rigid setting. However, I do think that it would still have been better to write all task dates down instead of simply discussing like we had done. If the project had been of a bigger scale, it would have served us better to note everything down and perhaps do up a Gantt Chart as well.
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For our initial timeline, we used Excel Spreadsheet in a shared OneDrive so that everyone could access it.
values and challenges.
A value I learnt while practicing time management is responsibility. Once a due date has been set, we should be responsible enough to adhere to it, if not it may set progress back and hold the whole group back. This
project is never a solo one, hence one should be responsible to both themselves and their group. When one is able to have a sense of responsibility over their tasks, it motivates them to put in maximum effort.
One challenge faced would be the lack of coherency regarding the timeline at times. As stated above, my group chose not to be extremely uptight with the scheduling. However, this also meant that there was no organized way for us to view each stage of the project. If I were to do this project again, I would definitely assign someone to keep track of a proper timeline or Gantt Chart in order to maintain a little more organization and clarity.
risk management
Risk Management is the ability to anticipate any situations that may affect a project negatively. It involves Identifying, Evaluating, and Controlling any sort of possible risks that may occur. The purpose of Risk Management is to mitigate any negative effects that may arise from sudden issues. Risk management is not only about preventing risks from occurring, it is also important to know how to deal with said risks if they happen to manifest into real issues.
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Risks have different likelihoods and levels of severities that alter their significance towards the project deliverables, budget, timeline, and overall success. Hence, identifying as many risks as possible will help in better risk management.
tools.
The Risks Assessment Management System (RAMS) is a tool that plots out the likelihood of a risk and its severity based on a numerical scale. It includes levels of risks across a full spectrum, thus it is able to cover all risks for categorization. Thus, we can use this tool to appropriately deal with risks.
RAMS involves Risk Identification, Risk Evaluation, and Risk Control.
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Risk Identification involves 4 main types of risks: Personal Safety, Time Delay, Cost Overrun, and Poor Outcomes. Personal safety covers issues such as injuries, ill-health, and
death. Time Delay includes factors such as Underestimation of project scope, manpower unavailability, and faults in communication. Cost Overrun deals with an increase in prices for project materials. Lastly, Poor Outcomes risks Materials/ facilities/ equipment failing to meet standards, bad weather conditions, cultural/ language barriers, and failure to execute project deliverables.
PDF of our Project Proposal that includes Risk Management/ Contingency Plan
Risk Evaluation is evaluating the likelihood of risks happening, as well as their severity/ significance to the project. These factors are scored numerically according to the chart system - the likelihood and severity scores are then multiplied to produce an overall risk score. The higher the score, the more we should pay attention to it.
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Risk Control is coming up with appropriate solutions to tackle each risk. Based on the RAMS, we can refer back to the risk map and figure out what the best mitigation tactic is for each individual risk. Risk control can be done in 4 ways: Transfer, Terminate, Tolerate, and Treat. Transferring would involve shifting the risk and control to a third party outside the project group. Terminating would be to completely avoid the risk or find another way of implementing it. Tolerating a risk is to accept the risk while taking minimum or no mitigating action against it. Finally, treating the risk is to reduce the likelihood of it by putting in extra controls.
experience.
My group was able to come up with possible risks that could occur during the event execution and find ways to mitigate them, all using the RAMS tool. As most of our risks identified ended up scoring in the mid-range, we had to pay equal attention to all. However, it was also a fortunate thing that nothing had a high overall risk score, hence we were less likely to face an unsolvable crisis during the project. Finding appropriate ways to deal with each identified risk was also made possible thanks to the Risk Control chart.
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For instance, we decided to deal with the issue regarding insufficient time by holding rehearsal calls for the event days themselves. We would carry out the event as if it were the real thing and then make changes to the project timetable accordingly. This also helped us feel less anxious about the program day as we had practiced and were comfortable with the flow of activities.
values and challenges.
A value that I learnt from Risk Management is proactiveness. Having proactiveness means that one actively using their critical thinking skills to come up with possible risks and solutions or alternatives to deal with them. Proactiveness allows for one to contribute greatly to risk management as the amount of possible risks in a project will always be increasing, hence we should think of as many possibilities and methods of control as we can.
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One challenge that was faced would be that it was hard to consistently formulate optimal solutions for every single risk. We ended up only formulating solid and proper solutions for the risks that had an overall risk score higher than '4'. Though none of the risks actually became an issue in the end, it would have been more assuring to have solutions to all possible risks during the project.