End of term post

Week 12 is here!  WOOHOO for us to complete the course.

Given your knowledge and experience at the end of these courses, which course objectives did you master?  

• Evaluating the risk management process in each of the phases of the project cycles.
• The project manager's role in risk management
• Prioritizing risks and impacts
• Creating reports

Given your knowledge and experience at the end of these courses, which course objectives still look troublesome to you?

• The various tools to identify and assess impacts.  I understand how to identify and assess them from an internal perspective.  However, I am not correlating the tools in our text to my particular functions.
• Quality improvement methodologies for eliminating project risks.   I understand the processes and their methodologies.  I got that understanding from the course and actual practical application in my job.  However, with the structure of my company and timelines, I don't see how we would be able to apply those methodologies to a project structure in the release time frames.

What obstacles did you run into during the course? How did you try to overcome them?

• As stated in my mid-term blog, my biggest obstacle has been learning how to do the assignments in the proper formats.  While it may have seemed obvious, for some reason, it took me quite a few assignments to get it right.  Well, I guess I didn't get it right as my final paper was spaced incorrectly.

How do you feel here at the end of a term as you look at your efforts and accomplishments? 

• I feel like I learned things that I can apply to my career and it was well worth the class in terms of risk management and for my project certificate.

What did you learn this semester and how will you use that in your current or future work?

• The importance of risk management was driven home again.  New tools such as the risk register. Academically, I will be more careful with my assignments and formatting to ensure I receive the highest grades possible.

Happy Summer Professor Gregory!

Middle Term Update

6 weeks down and 6 weeks to go!  The time has gone fast.  I have enjoyed reading my classmates comments and their work experience that they bring to the table.


Given your knowledge/skills/experience/confidence at the start of these courses, what have you learned so far?

The class has reinforced the need for risk management in projects.  It has reminded me that it is in each phase of each project - big or small.  I have found it interesting to read about risk approaches from classmates - especially military risk approaches.  The case study was interesting to work through as it really drove home how important risk management is.  
Looking at the course objectives, which ones do you feel you have achieved and which ones still look difficult or completely unfamiliar to you?

I am comfortable with objective 1 - Evaluate the risk identification process as it relates to the project management process groups and knowledge areas.

I am comfortable with object 2 (Evaluate the project manager's role in managing project risk) but I look forward to broadening this knowledge during the course.  

In my day to day life, objective 4 (Demonstrate how to prioritize risks according to their impact and significance on the overall project) is easy for me.  But, I think that learning more from an academic standpoint will be beneficial.
  
I will be looking forward to learning more about objective 3 (Compare various tools and techniques to identify and assess the impact of identified), 5 (Evaluate quality improvement methodologies for the purpose of mitigating or eliminating project risks) and 6 (Create comprehensive project risk and quality management reports).

How has the information you learned so far changed the way you approach projects or think about projects in your everyday life?

The class information has helped raise an awareness in my day to day work.  It has made me more conscious of decisions and risks.  For example, I had been made aware of some work that was going to be shoved into a release quickly and it scared me.  I was quick to speak up that it was definitely high risk and give the reasons why.


Are there any topics that have been discussed that still seem unclear? What are your thoughts as you get ready to start the second half of the course?

Because of my career, the materials reinforce or add to my knowledge arsenal.  I am not unclear on anything.  However, I am struggling with the grading and meeting expectations on writing assignments. For example, on our first assignment, we were analyzing a journal article and points were deducted because I only had one source.  But, I thought the purpose was to analyze that particular article and never even thought to add an additional source.  My go forward approach will need to be more analytical and thorough because I cannot afford to lose so many points each week.

Beginning of Course

The last 19 years or so, I have spent my career in some form of project work.  Whether that be as an analyst, a subject matter expert, a tester, or rules analyst who did the coding.  At the present time, my title is "Operational Risk Consultant" in a mortgage lending environment.  I implement business rules changes in a rules engine as directed by projects.

While we have a formal "Risk" team, each of the roles I have been in has needed some sort of involvement with Risk Management.  As an analyst or SME, it was often my responsibility to identify gaps or risks.  People on the project teams were not as close to the production as I was.  As a tester, we had to balance the number of scripts we would run against time & resource restraints resulting in the lowest amount of risk possible.  As a programmer, we have to weigh risks on the capacity of the systems, risk to external users and risk to all the other code in the engine.

My MBA has taught me that there are formal project phases and the risk management done in each cycle.  My company's project methodology has templates in them that require risks to be filled in.  Real life job experience has taught me that looking for and mitigating risks is a high priority in any project work.

In the course's syllabus, the following objectives are familiar to me in my career:

2. Evaluate the project manager’s role in managing project risk. 

4. Demonstrate how to prioritize risks according to their impact and significance on the

overall project. 

In the course's syllabus, the following objectives will require a bit more work on my part to master.  While they are familiar to me, they involve tasks/work that I have not created personally.

1.     Evaluate the risk identification process as it relates to the project management

process groups and knowledge areas. 

3. Compare various tools and techniques to identify and assess the impact of identified

risks on the overall project. 

5. Evaluate quality improvement methodologies for the purpose of mitigating or

eliminating project risks. 

6. Create comprehensive project risk and quality management reports.

Because my career has been and will continue to be so project focused, risk management is critical in any role that I play.  While I do not have aspirations to be someone with the designated title of "Risk Management Consultant", all information will be put to good use in my daily job.  As with most of MBA classes, I will walk away with more knowledge than I started with and will be surprised when I need to rely on it in an everyday situation.

As we begin working through the course objectives, I look forward to working with my classmates and learning about their personal experience.  While the texts and assignments provide theories and knowledge, my brain enjoys attaching that knowledge to practical application.  When people answer the questions on the discussion board and provide examples of how their companies work, it really grounds the learning for me.

I look forward to the end of the class and reflecting on how much I used the class materials in my daily job.