Learning Journal - End of Term - Karin Brown

1.  Given your knowledge and experience at the end of these courses, which course objectives did you master?  (Objectives can be viewed in the Syllabus button.)

I believe that I have a good understanding of all the course objectives.  I believe that mastery of the objectives will only come with experience.

     1. Evaluate the risk identification process as it relates to the project management process groups and knowledge areas. 

     2. Evaluate the project manager’s role in managing project risk. 

     3. Compare various tools and techniques to identify and assess the impact of identified risks on the overall project. 

     4. Demonstrate how to prioritize risks according to their impact and significance on the overall  project. 

     5. Evaluate quality improvement methodologies for the purpose of mitigating or eliminating project risks. 

     6. Create comprehensive project risk and quality management reports

2.  Given your knowledge and experience at the end of these courses, which course objectives still look troublesome to you?

Since I am not in a project management role, I have not had the opportunity to use these skills on a regular basis. I believe that I have a very good understanding of objectives 1-3; while skills 4 - 6 will require hands on experience.  I plan to keep the text books close at hand when I do have the opportunity to manage a project.
3.  What obstacles did you run into during the course? How did you try to overcome them?

I had a lot of outside pressures on my time during the second half of the quarter, making it difficult to focus on class due to surgery, a large family wedding with guests from out of town, and lots of work pressures including a trip to Europe for a week.  This made it difficult at times to focus on school over 3 or 4 days during the week.  Therefore, I concentrated my effort on one or two days a week for a few weeks to overcome the obstacles.
4,  How do you feel here at the end of a term as you look at your efforts and accomplishments? 

I wish I could have spent more time reading and responding to posts of the other students.  I find that I learn so much fro there.

I really enjoyed working on the mini-project.  I found the topic very interesting and timely.5.  What did you learn this semester and how will you use that in your current or future work?

As I've mentioned in some of my posts throughout the term, this course has made me more aware of what the project managers that I work with go through on a daily basis.   I feel that I have obtained more skills to be able to take on the roll of product manager lead for a new release of our product.  I have to create my Individual Development Plan for work, and will include additional project management training, with the goal of taking on this roll in our department.

Learning Journal - Mid Term - CIS 644

Middle of Term - CIS 644 Managing Project Risk

There are 6 objectives associated with CIS 644 - Managing Project Risks.  They are:

1. Evaluate the risk identification process as it relates to the project management process groups and knowledge areas.
2. Evaluate the project manager's role in managing project risk
3. Compare various tools and techniques to identify and assess the impact of identified risks on the overall project.
4. Demonstrate how to prioritize risks according the their impact and significance on the overall project.
5. Evaluate quality improvement methodologies for the purpose of mitigating or eliminating project risks.
6. Create comprehensive project risk and quality management reports.

1.  Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of this course, what have you learned so far?
I'm shocked to look back on what I wrote at the beginning of the term.  At that time, I felt like I had a pretty good handle on how to identify risks.  What I've learned is that it's not that easy to identify all the risks associated with a project.  And even more so is it is not easy to identify ways to mitigate the risk.  

2.  Looking at the course objectives, which ones do you feel you have achieved and which ones still look difficult or completely unfamiliar to you?
When I look at the 6 course objectives, I believe that I have a pretty good handle on the role of the project manager in managing the risk of the project, and that I am much better equipped to identify project risks.  I believe that I still have room improve on risk prioritization and identifying potential risk mitigation and/or risk elimination plans; including how to report risks.

3.  How has the information you learned so far changed the way you approach projects or think about projects in your everyday life?
During the first part of this course, I have been called upon by a project manager of one of the projects I'm working on to help them identify the potential risk of descoping some of my required functionality from the next release.  This has been an interesting exercise to watch as she juggles the integration of three project into one deliverable.   What I've learned is that our project managers did not do a good job identifying potential risks for this phase of the project.  If one project is delayed, it impacts the other two projects.

4.  Are there any topics that have been discussed that still seem unclear?  What are your thoughts as you get ready to start the second half of the course?
I'm looking forward to a better understanding of how to identify ways to mitigate risks, even if I (as the project manager) do not have any control over the risk.  I think risk prioritization will be very interesting as well. 

Beginning of Term - CIS 644 Managing Project Risk

There are 6 objectives associated with CIS 644 - Managing Project Risks.  They are:

1. Evaluate the risk identification process as it relates to the project management process groups and knowledge areas.
2. Evaluate the project manager's role in managing project risk
3. Compare various tools and techniques to identify and assess the impact of identified risks on the overall project.
4. Demonstrate how to prioritize risks according the their impact and significance on the overall project.
5. Evaluate quality improvement methodologies for the purpose of mitigating or eliminating project risks.
6. Create comprehensive project risk and quality management reports.

1.  Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of this course, which course objectives look familiar to you already?
The concept of risk management is something that I am very familiar with.  In my role as a product manager, I work with project managers to prioritize enhancements, and the impact of these enhancements on product sales.   I believe that although the project manager is responsible for managing the risk log, they can not resolve the risk on their own.  The mitigation of most risks that are identified as part of projects that I work on may include the project manager as one resource, but more often than not, risk mitigation resources include the project stakeholders.

2.  Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of this course, which course objectives look either difficult or completely unfamiliar to you?
None of the course objectives look difficult to learn.  However, I have no experience with tools that can help identify and assess the impact of identified risks.

3.  How does this course fit into your career plans and dreams?  Are the objectives crucial to your success, or will accomplishing the objectives simply mean good general background information for you?
These objectives are not crucial to my immediate success.  However, one of the primary objectives of my enrollment in the MPM program is make myself more marketable in the job market.  I've been a product manager at the same company for 18+ years and my MBA is 30 years old.   As of now, I don't have any specific plans to become a project manager, but time will tell.

In the meantime, I believe that living day to day is one project after the other. I want to stop being a fire fighter and have more control over my life.
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4.  What are your thoughts as you set out to accomplish these objectives?

I believe that a good product manager needs to understand how projects are managed.  I look at the project managers I work with, and would like to have a better understanding of how they do their jobs.  I work on product releases that take 18 - 24 months or longer to develop.  As we learned this week, risk management needs to be considered in all phases of the project, from project inception project closure.
In my current role, I am asked to help identify risks, but most of the time, it's later in the project cycle (e.g. 6 months to release date and there are resource issues).  I would like to learn more about managing project risk earlier in the project lifecycle, with the objective of minimizing risks later in the project.