Mgt5780 final exam

Project management Final exam: Case study Project management is an accidental profession From the case study, project management has been described as an accidental profession. The reasons behind this reasoning from the author are that different from other professions, project management is something that general managers stumble upon in the course of their work. The profession, therefore, lacks enough authority to accompany the responsibilities. A project manager in any company will always be under another manager and does not even have the authority over his or her subordinates (Meredith & Mantel, 2012). Decisions regarding the project are brought down by the senior management. In addition, there is no formal training program for project managers. In most cases, they learn from experiences and failures in management of projects. As such, there is little known about project management. This makes the profession lack people who have the dream to be part of it. The managers, therefore, accidentally become part of the project and later a project manager with only the ad hoc training. Since project management is necessary, measures should be made to reflect this importance in how companies handle project management as a profession (Meredith & Mantel, 2012).
2. My place in Figure 2.
Figure 2 represents the types of managers and how they are affected by politics. I would place myself in the category of politically sensible project manager. Politics is important in life as they are in the project. It is through the politics that projects that favor the community are established funded and supported. To further the goals of the project, politic consciousness is a necessity. This does not however mean dependent on politics or taking advantage of politics (Meredith & Mantel, 2012). Project management can be ruined by poor politics and in some cases, political figures may seem to support projects that favor their course without regard to the project objectives. Overdependence on politics, therefore, makes the politicians use a project as a vehicle to realize personal goals after which they abandon the project.
3. The need to understand the reason for the project.
Of the 12 guidelines proposed in the case study, those that can be said to be related to the need to understand the reasons for a project are; understanding the context of a project, understanding the needs of all the project stakeholders, understanding the meaning of success in the context of the project and remembering what you are trying to achieve. This is a crucial category of guidelines as they help the project manager to establish a course to follow and objectives to meet in the course (Meredith & Mantel, 2012). In addition, always remembering the objectives assist in keeping the project on course.
4. The importance of “ what if?”
From Lesson 9 in the case study, the question “ what if?” is important as it helps to make the management not comfortable with the present and the norm and always seek to make improvements. Projects should be based on this question and objectives structured to attain a new level.
5. Planning from lesson 12.
Both inadequate planning and excessive planning are detrimental to project management. Adequate time should be allowed to the project management team to set the objectives and an action plan. However, excessive planning consumes time set for action and elicit questions from the top management (Meredith & Mantel, 2012). A line between excess and inadequate planning may be drawn by considering the project deliverables identified and how comfortable the project management team is with the plan as well as the perception of the top management. When both groups display satiety and comfort, the planning is adequate.
References
Meredith, J. R., & Mantel, S. J. (2012). Project management: A managerial approach. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.