According to Harrison & Lock (2017) project management is the process of guiding the project from its beginning through its performance to an end through application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques in order to meet the stake holders’ needs and expectations from a project. Various leadership skills need to be displayed by the project managers for the success of projects managed by them. They should be in a position to exercise good leadership style when managing the entire project team so as to obtain their maximum cooperation throughout the whole process. Kerzner & Kerzner (2017) states that Project management skills is a must for project managers for the success of any project. Project management team aim to complete the project with the available resources hence a project manager and the project team are essential to accomplish the project (Larson & Gray, 2015). A successful project is: which has been finished on time, finished within its cost budget and performed to standards which satisfies the end user (MacWhinney, 2014).To get a better understanding of what a project is I am going to discuss a few characteristics of a project which are as follows:
A project must have fixed set of objectives to be achieved after completion
It is a single entity
A project is one entity normally entrusted to one responsibility centre with many participants
A project is usually undertaken by a team of individuals who are members belonging to different disciplines.
A project undertaken is usually different and has never been done by the team Life span
A project has a beginning and an end. It is usually scheduled for a given period of time.
A project has a life cycle which is usually reflected in its stages
Every project has risks and uncertainties associated with it and project managers should always carry out a risk assessment test so as to find out ways of mitigating possible project risks that might occur.
The project must result to something different either to an individual, the business or the industry at large.
According to Marchewka (2014) in the process of report creation, the expert will discuss his working experience with the project management team to accomplish a project he was allocated in a given organisation, he acknowledges that he was able to accomplish the project through the project team that he formed using Bruce Tuck man’s (1965) group development stages. According to Nicholas & Steyn (2017), Tuckman said that Teams undergo 5 stages of development which are: forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning/ mourning. An outline of the steps is evident in appendix 1. In the whole process of team formation the author shall introduce a variety of theories and models.
The office relocation project was done by the project team within a duration of less than three months due to the pressure exerted on the team from the beginning by the project manager. Various aspects of the model of group development have been incorporated outlining clearly the features of each step in the whole group formation process (Natvig & Stark, 2016). According to the author, the project management team consumed a lot of time in deliberations in the storming stage and norming stage.
According to Seck & Helton (2014), during this stage, the team met for the first time. The team was formed by 10 members who approached the author after the project advert was posted in the website. They showed interest to cooperate from the start to the end of the project. Members introduced themselves, they shared information about their backgrounds, they shared their past project experiences and they also formed a first impression amongst themselves. They were able to learn about the project they were to work on. They also discussed the project objectives and thought of the individual roles in the whole project process. Due to the struggle to meet been the first time, the team leader created a WhatsApp platform where the team members would share their progress in their various designated areas. There were moments when the author preferred to meet the project team face to face because over the WhatsApp individuals ignored the messages and never interacted adequately. In team formation process, one can emerge to guide the team in the absentia of the team leader and for in relation to this aspect, the team had two leaders at formation stage with the author been one of them.
In his past project experience, the author has experienced the following at this stage: the team members usually compete with each other for status and idea acceptance, the team members usually have different opinions on what should be done and how should be done which results to conflicts within the team. The author has always taken control in case of conflicts among the team members and in most cases voting was used to decide on various aspects of the project (Turner, 2014). For instance, a certain individual was in subordinating the author when he tried to take charge of the office relocation project. This created a bit of a power struggle and the author having good leadership skills took his time to discuss with other team members the reason for that behaviour after which a solution was found and the team proceeded well with the task. The member wanted to take control because he had not understood the schemes of work set by the author and wanted to introduce his ideas but he was able to co-operate after the author explained everything to him.
During the project, the author had a feeling that one of the team members was constantly wearing the black hat as he was always pointed out faults by the author despite of how the author did his best, he never seemed to appreciate his efforts. In the appendix 2 in the appendices section the author has used the black hat to outline it clearly. At this juncture, it was important for the author to view the situation in various perspectives to obtain the best solution (Scherrer, Olco?, Butterfield & Kebede, 2016).
The author believed that at this stage: individuals were beginning to work more effectively as a team, individuals were not egocentric but rather focused on ways to work together on the processes and procedures for the project, the team members respected each other’s opinions and valued their differences., the team members followed the team rules and regulations, shared information freely and resolved team conflict (Walker, 2015).The was happy because the team members actively sought each other for assistance and never competed against each other and they only focused on the office relocation project’s goals and objectives. When the Author was creating the presentation, he displayed the characteristics of the completer finisher of which can be seen in appendix 3. It is evident that he did not delegate duties since he wanted to monitor the team members himself for precise results. His military background might have played a key role in his leadership skills applied in this office relocation project. It is advisable for the author to delegate duties at times because it is usually hectic to manage a large number of people and that’s why he had difficult time.
Execution stage
It is now evident that the project team has reached the execution phase. He believes that the teams are now functioning at a very high level (Woodcock, 2017). The author has identified that team mainly focuses to achieve the set objectives. At this step the members of the team had an opportunity to familiarise with each other, trust each other and depend on each other. This has really impressed the author because he is now sure that the office relocation project is going to succeed due to enthusiasm expressed by the entire project team. The author has acknowledged that the team is self-driven and can solve issues and conflicts together. The author is not involved in decision making and problem solving as it was in the norming stage because the team members are now ambitious. The author is delighted because the team members are working effectively as a group and he does not to oversee their work.
The office relocation project took a very short time and as a result the author did not create any deep bonds with the project team. Most of them were university employees hence he had no stress since he would see them often.
The author was impressed with the quality of work done by the team. He wishes to work with the team in future projects because of the humble time the team gave him.
The author has to learn to delegate duties in future for efficiency. He needs to appreciate certain aspects from the military which enabled him to manage the entire project process and appreciate diversity due to the team with different backgrounds.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this report has studied the most important skills that a project manager require for the success of a project. The project is usually successful when the project team is united.
Stages of group development
This is where the team is meeting for the very first time and the members get to interact and know each other well.
Members might disagree over how to complete a task. Conflicts may arise so it’s good to recognise them and resolve early on.
Norming phase
Members begin to acknowledge each other’s efforts. Group begin to adhere to the project norms and at this stage all the team members predetermined to accomplish the set objectives.
Performing phase
There is confidence among the members, they are well motivated and supervision among the team members is minimal.
Mourning phase
The project team is terminated at the end of the project. Members are usually sad because the strong relationships that usually exist
References
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach. Routledge.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2015). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute
MacWhinney, B. (2014). The CHILDES project: Tools for analysing talk, Volume II: The database. Psychology Press.
Marchewka, J. T. (2014). Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Nicholas, J. M., & Steyn, H. (2017). Project management for engineering, business and technology. Routledge.
Natvig, D., & Stark, N. L. (2016). A Project Team Analysis Using Tuckman’s Model of Small-Group Development. Journal of Nursing Education, 55(12), 675-681.
Seck, M. M., & Helton, L. (2014). Faculty development of a joint MSW program utilizing Tuckman’s model of stages of group development. Social Work with Groups, 37(2), 158-168.
Scherrer, J. L., Olco?, K., Butterfield, A. K., & Kebede, W. (2016). Bringing experiential educational groups to the United States: an analysis of group development in an international travel and study program. Social Work Education, 35(6), 693-705.
Turner, J. R. (2014). Handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Walker, A. (2015). Project management in construction. John Wiley & Sons.
Woodcock, M. (2017). The stages of team development. In Team Development Manual (pp. 29-36). Routledge.
Essay Writing Service Features
Our Experience
No matter how complex your assignment is, we can find the right professional for your specific task. Contact Essay is an essay writing company that hires only the smartest minds to help you with your projects. Our expertise allows us to provide students with high-quality academic writing, editing & proofreading services.
Free Features
Free revision policy
$10Free bibliography & reference
$8Free title page
$8Free formatting
$8How Our Essay Writing Service Works
First, you will need to complete an order form. It's not difficult but, in case there is anything you find not to be clear, you may always call us so that we can guide you through it. On the order form, you will need to include some basic information concerning your order: subject, topic, number of pages, etc. We also encourage our clients to upload any relevant information or sources that will help.
Complete the order form
Once we have all the information and instructions that we need, we select the most suitable writer for your assignment. While everything seems to be clear, the writer, who has complete knowledge of the subject, may need clarification from you. It is at that point that you would receive a call or email from us.
Writer’s assignment
As soon as the writer has finished, it will be delivered both to the website and to your email address so that you will not miss it. If your deadline is close at hand, we will place a call to you to make sure that you receive the paper on time.
Completing the order and download