Project Management: Learning from a Project "Post-Mortem"

 Project Management: Learning from a Project "Post-Mortem"

As a school administrator, I often manage and monitor many projects concurrently. Projects are complex and nonroutine in a school because they involve many people, including students and teachers. As a school administrator, I can be considered a project manager because, generally speaking, the project manager's business is to create a product (Gaddis, 1959). In this case, the product would be an orientation for new students. 

Background Information

As the project manager of an orientation for incoming students, my roles and responsibilities were clearly defined and shared with the team of teachers involved in the planning stage. The teachers in the project implementation also had clearly defined roles and timelines to stick to to prepare for the orientation. According to Attarzadeh and Ow (2008), projects fail mainly because of the inability to plan and estimate correctly, failure to implement the tasks according to plan, or failure caused by human factors.

During our many meetings to prepare for orientation day, the following were discussed, revamped, and agreed upon:

• Identifying stakeholders.

• The purpose and results we wanted from the orientation.

• The rationale for having the orientation and its delivery methods.

• Possible risks.

• Activities before, during, and after the orientation.

• Resources needed before, during, and after the orientation.

• Post-mortem meeting date, time, and location. 

Our meetings were detailed and systematic, and priorities were strategized. As a team, we thought we had everything under control and considered all possible risks and solutions to any risk that may arise. Although I managed other projects simultaneously with the orientation project, I was confident that my team would deliver on their promises. We did not have any internal personal or professional conflicts with the members. We also supported and respected each other’s role to provide a successful outcome. I checked in with each member often and communicated all vital information necessary to keep the team well-informed. According to Pettersen (1991), the project manager is considered pivotal in projects involving multiple aspects of managing teams, such as leadership, team building, motivation, communication, influencing, decision-making, planning, and coaching. Everything was ready to be executed for a successful orientation.

What went wrong?

On the day of the orientation, things were starting well. The students were eager, and the presenters were all in their places, ready to receive each set of students who would rotate in groups to enjoy their unique presentation—all the presenters except one. One presenter was absent. After a team member was able to reach them, they informed us that they would not be able to attend as they were under the weather. This is something we did not prepare for. According to Kwan (2019), the audience does not care if a presenter does not show up, especially if they are unfamiliar with the presenter. He says the project manager shouldn't explain why the person is not there and simply replace what should have happened with another presentation to the best of his ability without making excuses (Kwan, 2019).

Accountability and intelligent flexibility are key project management factors (Walden, n.d). I took accountability for the oversight of not planning for someone’s absence. I was flexible with the decision to engage the rotation of groups collaboratively between two teachers who were scheduled to float around and help where needed. They decided to show a video based on the orientation theme and engage the students in a collaborative activity to identify the video's key details and overall message. Each group that rotated to this portion of the orientation was a success. During the post-mortem meeting, the team discussed the overlooked risk and noted suggestions that could be implemented should that happen again in future orientations.

Conclusion

Project management involves creating a plan that establishes how a project will be accomplished and provides structure  (Walden, n.d). Monitoring and controlling the project in this scenario was successful because the team knew my role and their own, and mutual respect for such was established from on set. When an issue arose, the team collaborated to support one another and the project’s objective. I succeeded in my role as I demonstrated the ability to facilitate the entire process to meet the needs and expectations of the people involved and affected by project activities (Schwalbe, 2009). 

References

Attarzadeh, I., & Ow, S. H. (2008). Project management practices: the criteria for success or failure. Communications of the IBIMA, 1(28), 234-241.

Gaddis, P. O. (1959). The project manager.

(2019). YouTube. Retrieved September 15, 2023, from https://youtu.be/bngbaqulJ4w?si=SXqSQ62hyj2yOSm-. 

Pettersen, N. (1991). What do we know about the effective project manager? International Journal of Project Management, 9(2), 99-104.

Schwalbe, K. (2009). Introduction to project management. Boston: Course Technology Cengage Learning.

Walden University, LLC. (Executive Producer). (n.d.). Project management and instructional design [Video file]. Retrieved from https://waldenu.instructure.com