From a team of 15 to a team of 4
Whoever said change is good never; never had to plan an event usually with a team 15 plus people with a single team of 4. I am an Education Manager for a local program serving children 3 -5 years of age. I am responsible for putting together our Annual Art Show. The show use to have a committee of about 15 – 20 people from various areas. Last year due to some other agency commitments it was left up to my team of 4 to plan and implement the event. The event requires 17 site to implement various art activities on site bring them to the event as well as on art piece for the silent auction. I was stressed the entire spring preparing for the April even In addition to the event my regular duties and those of my team must continue. To my advantage I have dynamite plan that I had created for previous events. All that was needed was to change the theme, update the material to match the new theme. In our course reading this week I seem to have followed the steps to handle changes in scope form (Greer,2010):
1. Stay calm. Remind yourself that the original project scope documents were created at a tem when you knew less than you know now.
2. Pinpoint the exact change.
3. Analyze the impact
4. Discuss the impact with your project team
5. Report the impact to the sponsor
6. Update the project scope statement and overall plan
7. Obtain written sponsor approval of the change and the corresponding revised plan.
If I knew them what I know now about project management, I could have saved myself so much grief. It appears I knew enough to get by. The event went well and on the surface seemed great. It was at great cost and stress to my team. Planning and preparation for other projects during that time and what was needed suffered during that summer as well. Having great plan to start is the key I am learning with project success. It was a hard time of year but you can take solace during a project in knowing this too shall pass. All organisms have a life cycle. They are born, grow, wane, and die. This is true for all living things, as well as organizations, companies, and projects (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer,2008)..
Reference
· Greer, M. (2010). The project management minimalist: Just enough PM to rock your projects! (Laureate custom ed.). Baltimore: Laureate Education, Inc.
· 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.
