Project Management Believe That, All

Project Management believe that, all things considered, Rachel spent her day with remarkable effectiveness. In working with a great diversity of interconnecting individuals and departments, it cannot be expected that everything will run perfectly smoothly. Yet, with all the difficulties and interpersonal conflicts, Rachel still found ways in which to handle whatever difficulties came her way. Indeed, she remained calm particularly in the conflict situation with clients expecting more from the contract than was initially promised. She handled the situation with poise, immediately investigating the issue with the appropriate persons involved. Although she was unable to truly catch up on work as intended on the day she came in early, she nonetheless performed all the duties of the project manager: she liaised with customers in defusing the problems regarding what was initially promised and what is delivered; she provided her team with direction and coordination, integrating with the team by listening to grievances and providing solutions. Despite the many challenges of her job, she also liaised with her boss within a reasonable time frame in order to help her place the project within perspective and to plan for the following day. Most interesting is the fact that she takes time off in the middle of her very tightly scheduled duties to listen to a relaxing piece of music. When this is finished, Rachel continues with her duties until the end of her work day. At no point does it appear that Rachel is unable to handle the considerable burden of her duties. Indeed, she appears to be focused and organized throughout. These are her main strengths in several of the challenging situations that face her.

Rachel shows great strength in maintaining focus throughout the various challenges of her day. Clearly, both her own stress and the emotions of others are in danger of upsetting the focus that she needs to perform her duties effectively. From the start, her day appears not to go as she had planned, with many interruptions and interpersonal interactions taking up unplanned time that Rachel had wanted to spend on catching up. A further potential stress factor is the negative emotions of others. Her project team for example displayed some negative and angry emotions targeted towards a problem that could not be constituted as her fault. However, as project manager, Rachel willingly accepted it as her responsibility to investigate the matter and report to her team. Importantly, she also handled this in an unemotional and business like way, without letting the negativity surrounding many of the issues to contribute to her stress levels. Another strength is Rachel's ability to maintain a diversity of relations and liaisons throughout her work day, including co-managing other projects in an effective way.

Potential weaknesses can be seen as both those in the project, its organization, and interactions among the various departments and stakeholders in the project. The greatest weakness appears to be difficulties arising from breakdowns in communication. There appears to be no monitoring of what has been promised to clients at the beginning of the project. This created the problem of miscommunication and unfavorable feelings among clients and project providers. There is therefore a need to monitor communication better and to ensure that all communicators are aware of the exact deliverables and time frames within the project. If this had been in place from the beginning of the project, the potentially expensive derailment might not have occurred.

Opportunities can arise directly from both strengths and weaknesses. Rachel obviously used the weaknesses in communication as an opportunity to show her skill in handling conflict situations. She provided the different parties with a platform from which to state their viewpoints and found ways in which to provide solutions for the problems arising.

By providing these solutions in a calm and business like manner, she not only diffused the current situation, but also created potential opportunities for both her company and herself in the future. In terms of her company, she is likely to create a favorable impression of the business in dealing with conflicts in a targeted and effective manner. The company is therefore likely to gain the reputation of effective business strategies, despite the problems arising from communication weaknesses. By turning these weaknesses into opportunity, Rachel provided a platform for more future business both from existing client and from new ones via the spread of the company's good reputation.

For herself, Rachel has created the opportunity of possible future management positions. Being a project manager is a temporary position, but handling her responsibilities well provides not only the company, but also Rachel herself with a favorable reputation among her superiors. Indeed, she kept her boss up-to-date on all the elements of the project, and handled her duties according to business protocol.