Module 1 discussion
Projects and Personalities
First, some background.
There are at least two all-encompassing theories of history. According
to the “Great Man” theory (Carlisle, Nietzche et al.), human history is created
by people like Napoleon. According to
the sociological theory (Spencer, Marx et al.), history is merely the inevitable
unfolding of events put into motion by social forces.
Let’s discuss those ideas in terms of projects. Where do Big Projects come from? Take the iPhone as an example. Would it have never existed without ruthless
brilliance of Steven Jobs? Or was it an
invention that was “waiting to happen,” and Jobs happened to be in the right
spot at the right time to make it happen?
Scan the Web, and your memory, for a well-defined sequence
of events that can be described as a “project.”
It should be something that happened in the past 20 years or so, and
which had an appreciable effect upon your own life. Did it arise from the inspiration of some
“great (person),” or would it have happened anyway? Describe and explain.
Module 2 discussion
Planning vs. Doing
When your Course Developer was a boy, his mother had a
canned response to his various ridiculous requests (e.g., a pony, when we were
living in an apartment). She would smile
brightly and say, “Well, we’ll think about it.”
It took him years to discover that this actually meant, “We’ll think
about it for ten seconds whenever you mention it, but it is NOT going to
happen.”
This is a small instance of a larger truth. Although a good plan is essential to a good
project, planning can be an attractive alternative to actually doing
something. In Washington, as in
industry, it’s common to “study a problem to death.”
Can you describe an instance from your own experience? Did
planning take the place of doing something, did good planning result in doing
something successfully, or did inadequate planning result in a disaster? Explain.
Module 3 discussion
Do it, or write about it
The word “report” has six letters, yet for many managers, it
falls into the category of “four letter words” – epithets uttered in anger,
derision, or disgust. A common sentiment
concerning reports is, “Do you want me to actually DO my job, or spend my time WRITING about it? Just go away!”
In many instances, such as the corporate annual report to
stockholders or the military efficiency report,
writing the report is a required exercise. Everyone knows how the game is played; what’s
to be taken seriously, and what’s mere boilerplate. But project reports are a bit different. In most cases, they’re optional – which makes
them an even greater nuisance, when they’re seen to be performing no useful
function. Please see Wideman’s article,
“Is it time to scrap project status reports?” listed on the Background Info
page (Wideman, 2014).
Please reflect upon your own experience as a producer of
reports. It would be a project report,
an efficiency report, or something as mundane as writing report cards for a
class of schoolchildren. Does Wideman’s
(2014) critique resonate with your experience?
Why or why not?
Module 4 discussion
An important “take away” of the project closure process are
the lessons learned. What should have
been done differently? What should be
done differently, in the future?
Reflect on a major project you’ve been involved in. It could be something personal, like building
a house, or job-related, such as creating a new product, preparing for an acquisition,
a divestiture, or (in the case of a military organization) a major
inspection. Was there an after-action
process to capture the lessons learned?
Were those lessons useful? Did
they actually have an effect on future projects and operations? Describe and
explain.
Module 4 Reflective Discussion
What’s hot? What’s not?
Please review the course as a whole. This is for your benefit, and also for
ours; reviewing the topics covered in
this course will help you fix them in your mind, and integrate them with what
you already know. Reviewing the topics
with a critical eye, and sharing your observations and suggestions, will help
Trident improve the course, and provide a better learning experience for those
coming after you.
Address the following points in a short posting. Review and comment on the postings of your
fellow students.
The extent to which you met your learning expectations.
The perceived usefulness of the topics covered, and of the
course as a whole.
The relative difficulty of the various topics. Which were the most challenging? The least?
Please explain.
How the topics could have been presented differently. How could we make this course better? Please explain, in detail.
