IT-494 Project Management

Personal Reflection

The IT Project Management Class

My first day in this class was really an eye opener. I must admit that I came into this with no expectations as to how it would have turned out. However, by the end of my first class with Professor Villegas, I knew immediately that I had to make certain adjustments if I were to be successful in the class, though I had to do the balancing act of work and school. I can recall vividly one sentence that was uttered by my professor when she was outlining her expectations of the class and that was, everything you do in life has some aspect of project management. So, in essence, me working was no excuse to me meeting the expectations of the course work including assignment deadlines.

Overall Learning Objective in Project Management Class

The course gave me a broader understanding of what a project is all about and it is a temporary venture undertaken with the aim of creating a unique product, service, or result. I was made aware of a project main attribute and that includes,

• A project should have their unique purpose, meaning and a well-defined objective

• A project is temporary, meaning there is a definite beginning and an end

• A project drives change and enables value creation

• Projects are often defined broadly when they begin and as time goes by, the specific details of the projects become clearer

• A project is developed using progressive elaboration, requires resources, have primary customers, sponsors and involves uncertainty

It was also established that projects differ from what that takes place in our daily lives because of scale, scope, and length of time. So, for example a project may take years utilizing the manpower of a multitude of individuals whereas our day-to-day tasks are most times completed within a day or two with minimal human intervention. We also had to be mindful that projects can be constrained in numerous ways and that could be because of scope, time, cost and goals. These constraints are referred to by a term called triple constraints.

The course also brought to the fore factors that may affect a project namely, quality resources and risk. Quality plays a major role in the development of a project. Resources are also very integral in the timely completion of a project. On completion, there is normally a risk assessment to make sure that the project is in an acceptable or non-acceptable state.