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.
VUCA analysis can come in handy as a project manager collaborating with MTD, with a specific approach in mind.
As a project manager who is in charge of MTD company, I will first analyze the environment. Then looking at the problem and difficulty MTD is facing, I will recommend a linear and iterative project lifecycle.
As a water delivery company, the location of the venue, where exactly in the venue the water pipes will be laid and its effect on existing infrastructure are challenges faced by MTD. Additionally, working with the event’s Project Manager might raise conflicting opinions.
I would advise a hybrid system of working whereby the project is broken into smaller pieces and developed individually with proper feedback given and gotten. This would alleviate the concerns of the event’s Project Manager as well as work with the infrastructure engineers in a fast pace to ensure that the venue is properly setup and ready within the time frame.
As the Project Manager working with MTD, I will prefer using the VUCA analysis having in mind that there is no specific method/ approach to a successful project completion so combining the linear and iteration approaches (hybrid) with project completion time, Finance, and stakeholders’ requirements will be ideal step for me.
From the lesson learnt, the implication of taking an iterative approach to setting up an event as a project manager is that MTD will have an opportunity for
1. improvement on projects as the projects moves on
2. it will give them room to adapt to changes
3. it will also improve clients engagement
4. finally it will improve team spirit
For agile approach in event set up, the following are the implications
1. Adaptive planning
2. frequent stakeholders meeting
Considering the difficulties and problems that MTD encounters in their projects, as the PM collaborating with them (MTD), I would consider combining both the linear and iterative approaches to come out to the following:
■Testing ideas;
■Accelerating delivery of project outputs;
■Improving the engagement of involved stakeholders;
■Increasing the visibility and transparency in the company; and
■ Increasing accountability.
Briefly, combining both the linear and Iterative approaches (Hybrid) would be the way forward since there is no better way to achieve project success.
As a PM with MTD… I will have to study the environment, then conduct an environmental analysis of the work locations to identify the challenges and offer solutions, and then make my recommendation with the use of VUCA.
We will determine the strategy to use either linear or iterative that will help in the delivery of the project as scheduled.
As a Project Manager in charge of MTD, I will start by analyzing the situation. Use the VUCA framework to better understand the challenges. Then adopt the iterative approach of project management because I need result immediately.
In order to understand MTD’s situation and develop suitable responses to the company’s challenges I will recommend the use of the VUCA framework.
V – Volatility to consider when change is so fast and unpredictable that it becomes impossible to make predictions.
U – Uncertainty to consider when there is no idea as to what the impact of an event will be.
C – Complexity to consider when it is a challenge of making sense of a situation that involves making interconnected parts and processes.
A – Ambiguity to consider when there is no relation between cause and effect, except in hindsight, without any reliable precedence, where prediction becomes guesswork.
Both the linear and the iterative project techniques and tools can be used jointly to create flexible and particular contexts, according to the requirements of the company and challenges in the company, this is beneficial as it tests ideas and learns about the MTD’s requirements, accelerates delivery of project outputs, improves stakeholders’ engagement, and also increases visibility, accountability and transparency.
If I am to make my input as a PM. In a project where is difficulty I will suggest iterative because of its nature. It’s suitable in an environment that is likely to change because of difficulty. It’s just that the consequences will be that there will be no product competences, and the project reports will no longer be a priority because of the fast delivery.
Agile will enhance in the delivery of the product because it will have to reprioritize in order to get the said focus