Learning from a Project "Post-motem"

This week’s assignment requested that we look back at a project we were involved in whether it was personal or professional that we believe that was not successful or did not conclude in the coveted end result. I found convolution in coming up with a project. I consider myself a systematic person, when I plan to do something I usually go for the best even if it requires pushing buttons in progress to get it done. However, I am not perfect and sometimes everything does not occur the way you want it to. After a great deal of thought I selected the project that I was involved in last summer.

This was a project that was sponsored by our church. It was a “feeding program” a project to help feed children all over the community a nutrition meal during the summer break. One of the other church member and I was in charge of this project. It’s a charity event where children in the community are fed breakfast and lunch free of charge. I feel it was a great project that was very constructive for the community children.

In May of 2012 we began planning for the project. We began by advertising the project by means of presenting flyers around the community and sending announcements to different churches. Parents were provided registration forms to register their children.  Although, I was not solely the head of this project I took on the responsibility of making sure the project took off successful. As it is indicated in the text “successful project managers must take the initiative for planning and controlling projects, whether or not they’re asked to do this” (Portny,, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008, p. 14). I considered the stakeholders to be the pastor of the church and the stewards because they handle the finance.

This project also benefited the church in some ways as well. It provided the church $1200 which they utilized to purchase a stove, refrigerator, and freezer that was needed for the project. It also provided the church some supplies utilized in the kitchen. However, it caused the church also due to the money being spent on appliances instead of placed in the bank to help pay for the resources that were utilized during the project. Then there was the transportation problem due to the church being located in a rural area. The project was supposed to be design so that the children come and eat breakfast and leave and come back to eat lunch. The parents were supposed to be responsible for getting the children back and forth from the church but that were not the case. Due to working parents we had to provide transportation; therefore, we ran the church van to pick the children up every morning. Because the children had to stay the complete time, we had to provide activities for them to do. There were two sponsors that headed this project and volunteers were required to help promote this program. I provided the volunteers their responsibilities, which they all agreed that they would take on. We receive numerous registration forms back from parents that register their children. Upon initiation of this project volunteers agreed that they will provide help throughout this project. However, the first week of this project the volunteers were very supportive. After that the volunteers began to fade away.

There are some things that went well during the implementation of the project. There were some church members that were very supportive of the project. The project was proven to be effective for some children because they stayed from the beginning to the end of the program. They were provided a nutrition breakfast and lunch that was helpful for the parents. It provided the church with items that were needed. 

Lin (2006) informs that project management occurs in four phases: planning, scheduling, controlling, and terminating. Even though I did not pursue all these phases precisely, however my church member and I knew that basic things had to be done. We had to proceed with little time to carry out details of the project. The mistake I made was having the faith that this would be an uncomplicated task and did not bother to go over the plans in detailed with the stakeholders on how it would benefit or affect the church.

In the conclusion of the project, I reflected back on many areas that could easily been improved upon. First of all the biggest lesson I learned was that a project manager should always have a “kick off meeting” Greer (2010) with the stakeholders to discuss the criteria and expectations. We should have had a meeting with the pastor and stewards to discuss this project. As Portny et al. (2008) point out “detailed planning is critically important” (p. 8).  Although, it was a wonderful project, I do not feel that it provided a desirable outcome. First of all it caused the church money due to the fact of the light and gas utilize during the program. Then there were children that did not complete the project. I feel that if the church would have been in the city so that the children could come and leave as they please it would have been more successful. We must remember that there is always some uncertainty in a project to make sure that they travel a rough road. If the world we live in were predictable, no project would ever go wrong; however, this is a vague world, filled with chance events and uncertainly (Portny et al., 2008, p. 6).

As it is acknowledge in our text “a project is unique; therefore, project managers must be creative and flexible, and have the ability to adjust rapidly to changes” (Portny et al., 2008). My lesson learned from this project is to always be prepared to adapt to the changes quickly and be ready to do other things when things do not happen as planned. This experience taught me to always do detailed planning in order to promote success. Always talk communicate the negative and positive aspect of a project to the stakeholders.

 

References

Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects!

(Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.

Lin, H. (2006). Instructional project management: An emerging professional practice for design and training programs. Workforce Education Forum , 33 (2).

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc