Managing Project Teams: Analysis and Discussion of Project Management Leadership and Team Activity

Course Learning Outcomes

Managing Project Teams includes analysis and discussion of the diverse sectors of project management leadership and team activity, as well as a wide range of organizations and topics related to project teams. Project teams are comprised of multiple job sectors and divisions. The roles of project team members are explored from project creation to completion, while managing team conflict, motivation, individual and group behavior, and strategic completion of work assignments

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. Examine the nuances of individual and organizational behavior.

2. Analyze the behavioral characteristics of individual project team members.

3. Evaluate individual behavior as a component of team behavior.

4. Explore the dynamics of project teams.

5. Describe the process of leadership when leading project teams.

6. Discuss conflict management and negotiation strategies.

7. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of various organizational structures.

8. Assess strategies to manage organizational change.

Unit I Article Review

Using the Waldorf Online Library, locate and review an article that describes how an organization’s structure can shapethe roles of a project manager and project team throughout the duration of a project. The article you select must be at least five pages long, and no more than five years old.

Write a summary of the article. Include the purpose for the article, how research was conducted (if any), the results, and other pertinent information. How does the article relate to what you are learning in this course? In other words, describe

how the structure of the organization discussed in the article helped to shape the project manager and project team member roles throughout the duration of the project.

Discuss the meaning or implications of the article’s contents, as well as any flaws you find in the article. What could have made the article better? Was any information left out?

How could the author expand on the results? Does the article’s information relate to your professional or personal life? How?

Your review must be at least two pages long, not counting cover page and reference page. Use proper APA formatting for all sources, including the textbook. You must use the Waldorf Online Library’s databases as your source for reliable articles

Unit IV Scholarly Activity

Think of a project you have been involved with at your place of employment or a place where you one day envision yourself working, and imagine that you were appointed the project manager for this project.

Unit Assignments

Describe the activities that you and your project team will perform in the initiating, planning, executing, controlling and monitoring, and closing processes. In addition, describe how the PMP affects each member of the project team. Remember all APA formatting requirements still apply. Document your sources, and remember even your textbook can be a source.

Unit V Scholarly Activity

Previously in the course, you were asked to think of a project you have been involved with at your place of employment. Think of that same project, imagine that you have been appointed the project manager, and complete the following:

1.Create a schedule of the project tasks to be performed, and describe how the behavior of individual team members can determine the tasks they receive. 

2.In addition, describe the key processes you would follow when managing the project schedule, including how much oversight each project team member may require, again based on their behavior. ORG 5800, Managing Project Teams 

3.Indicate how using the precedence diagram method can help you manage team tasks and avoid conflict within your team. 

4.Also, describe the role of the critical path method regarding task assignments and the negotiation of resource allocation within the project team. 

Unit VI Scholarly Activity 

Previously in the course, you were asked to think of a project you have been involved with at your place of employment. Think of that same project, imagine that you have been appointed the project manager, and complete the following:

1.Identify some of the positive and negative risks associated with this project, and then rank these risks based on their level of priorities. 

2.Discuss how each of these risks can affect the project team. 

3.Using the key processes of project risk management, propose risk-response plans to the identified risks, and identify how each team member can play a role in these plans.

Unit VII Project

Scenario: You are the project manager responsible for a new building construction in northern Virginia. The building is worth $500,000 and will have five bedrooms, a kitchen, landscaping, and a two-car garage to be completed in two years. This was agreed upon in a firm fixed contract. During the execution (construction) of the building, you realize that the cost of materials have gone up by 10%, and your schedule is behind by 90 days due to delays from county inspections and permit processes. You also notice that if you continue with the current cost rate and schedule rate that the total cost to complete this house would be $600,000 and delivered three months late.

Submit a three-page report explaining the reasons for these variances from your original project management plan and the proposed steps on how you are going to control the cost and schedule to achieve the contract threshold of $500,000 to be delivered in two years. Your plan must include the following: 

1.Address identifications of impacted activities with their cost and schedule attributes, remembering to account for contingencies.

2.Address explanations of the roles your project management team will play during the execution of your project management plan and how they will help you to control the issues that are arising during the project.

3.At the end of your essay, add a separate section entitled, “Reflections on My Learning.” In this stand-alone section, summarize what you have learned in doing the research, reading the textbook, and reading the written lessons in regard to project management and how it impacted your decisions in this essay.

Unit VIII Reflection Paper

Think of a project that you have previously been a part of at a past or current place of employment, and imagine that you were appointed the project manager

1.Describe the process you and your project team would follow for closing the project.  ORG 5800, Managing Project Teams 4

2.Develop a “Lesson Learned” document for your organization and for your project stakeholders. This document must include what went well, what went wrong, and suggestions for improvement in future projects.

3.Discuss how you would adjourn your team in a manner that would encourage them to want to work with you in future projects.