Put yourself in the role of a project manager collaborating with MTD, an events company.
Considering the difficulties and problems that MTD encounters in their projects, what insights have you gained this week that could offer assistance?
If an iterative approach were employed in organizing an event as a project, what would be the consequences? Similarly, what are the implications of adopting an agile approach? If the company sought your advice, what would you recommend?
Contribute your thoughts and ideas to the discussion.
I intend to work on my communication and negotiation skills. I’ve always had difficulty in conveying ideas or messages to people, Also while negotiating, i tend to bring in sentiments. I believe at the end of this course, I’d have greatly improved.
As a Project Manager, looking at the difficulties MTD face, because to an extent they have to depend on resource and conditions in the hosting country and the size of the project, it means they operate in complex and ambiguous environments.
If Iteration is employed it will mean delivering a particular goal in each sprint and evaluating and getting feedback, that is using sprints to deliver each stage of the waterfall. For example, sprint can be used in definition of the project then getting the customer approval before moving to deployment stage. This will speed up the delivery of each stage and ensure teams are motivated to give their best.
The agile approach is well suited for MTD projects.
Odinfe david Chika
Team7
cohort16
My name Adewale Mathew
Team 1 cohort 16
ateemah1
July 5, 2024 at 12:31 pm
As a project manager in MTD, l no can see that MTD faced challenges of complex and ambiguous environment.
To eradicate this issues, l have learnt to maintain an effective communication within my team, engage customers or users for feedback, discover risk and monitor the risk early enough and take early action, collaborative effort is also important for speedy delivery of project and still achieve desired outcome.
From what I’ve learned, I can see that applying both the linear and Iterative method can help the MTD event company in planning and organizing their projects.
They can have a linear plan to help them see how the whole project would ultimately run from start to the completion. However applying the Iterative method in some aspect during the course of the project would enable them work progressively, completing different aspects within a short time. This would also give room for feedbacks and evaluation.
Adopting an Agile approach to event planning is very ideal because there are usually different things to be put in place that would together contribute to the smooth running of things in the event. For this the productivity of agile teams would be highly needed. Also finishing short tasks on time and reprioritizing would ensure that tasks as completed and project is progressive
From what I’ve learnt so far, the VUCA framework can first be used to address the issue going on within the organization. Then an agile or Iterative approach should be adopted
Consequences of Agile approach are;
It is flexible, changes can easily be made
It encourages user feedbacks, which enabmes one to understand if what you are doing is truly solving the customers problems, here one can easily work on those ferdbacks thereby improving the work and ensuring it meets up to the customers demands
A large and cumbersome project can be easily splitted into mini projects called “Sprints “
Edeh Chibueze Goodluck.
Team 3 Cohort 16.
As a PM for MTD, I have come to realise that I don’t have total control over project conditions. Despite that, I have to ensure that the conditions I can control are well managed.
When using an iterative approach to organize an event, I have to realise that the project might run into a scope creep due to it being feedback dependent and the project might not be delivered in its complete form due to various mini projects going on consecutively. I also have to bear in mind that the project might be unpredictable.
Adopting an agile approach to organising the event will imply running into situations where I can’t make sense of interconnected parts, task executors and processes. There is also the situation of acting on guesswork, volatility of price of materials for setting up the event and not knowing the impact of some decisions on the course of the event.
For such a situation, I would recommend a hybrid approach which will help in testing out ideas and the requirements that will be gathered from feedback. It will also enhance stakeholder engagements will providing them assurance. It will also increase accountability, transparency and visibility. This will reduce acting on guesswork and ensure clear task management and timely delivery.
My name Fatimah Oluwatoyin. As a project manager in MTD, l noticed that MTD faced challenges of complex and ambiguous environment.
To tackle this issues, l have learnt to maintain an effective communication within my team, engage customers or users for feedback, discover risk and monitor the risk early enough and take early action, collaborative effort is also important for speedy delivery of project and still achieve desired outcome.
The implication of iterative approach – This approach does not begin with detailed specification, project plan, schedules. It start with an idea by testing these ideas and get feedback from users or client. The feedback determines the viability of the project before carrying it out.
My advice to MTD – The combination of the two approaches would be advantageous for MTD projects in order to;
Test ideas and learn about customers or users.
Improve stakeholder engagement
Provide assurance to sponsors and stakeholders.
Increase accountability
As a project manager, I’ve gained valuable insights from this module! My insight is that I should ensure seamless coordination and flow of communication amongst stakeholders, so much that clients can see tangible progress early on, which will help in refining expectations and requirements. Here’s how I plan to implement this:
“I will ensure seamless coordination and flow of communication amongst stakeholders…”
– I will proactively communicate with team members, clients, sponsors, and vendors to avoid bottlenecks and miscommunications.
– I will establish a systematic communication process to keep all stakeholders informed and aligned.
“…so much that clients can see tangible progress early on…”
– I will provide regular updates, progress reports, and showcase deliverables to demonstrate concrete achievements and milestones from the outset.
– I will involve clients in the progress and milestones to foster trust and confidence in the project’s trajectory.
“…which will help in refining expectations and requirements.”
– I will collaborate with clients to refine their expectations and requirements as needed, ensuring that project deliverables align with their evolving needs.
– I will adjust the project plan and communication strategy accordingly to meet client needs and deliver value to all stakeholders.
By implementing these strategies, I aim to ensure a harmonious and successful project journey in MTD, meeting client needs and delivering value to all stakeholders. Aww
Poor communication and lack of collaboration affected the MTD project, I was in charge I would have employed both linear and iterative methods because we would have been able to test ideas, improve stakeholders’ engagement , provide assurance to sponsors
Poor communication can lead to significant project management problems. Project managers must provide direction at every step of the project, so each team member knows what’s expected. Effective communication to everyone involved in the project is crucial to its successful completion. Through project management training, team members can improve their communication skills.
A disinterested team member, client, CEO or vendor can destroy a project. A skilled project manager communicates openly and encourages feedback at every step to create greater engagement among participants.
Agile project management is an iterative approach to managing software development projects that focuses on continuous releases and incorporating customer feedback with every iteration.
Building products our customers can use, to makes them happy. Being able to frequent add new features based on their feedback makes them happy too. As a software customer, I’m not sure there is anything worse than investing in a product that doesn’t work, doesn’t do what we need it to do, and not being unable to see any path forward for making it better. I’m willing to buy a first iteration product if I know it is going to do nothing but get better over time. As a matter of fact, it can be fun seeing the product emerge as the development team gets more feedback. Agile helps us build this kind of partnership with our customers, one where we are working together to get problems solved.