BUS 528 Project management.-Chapter 3&4

Characteristics of a project manager
Based on few researches done by various researchers, here are the top five
characteristics that make a great project manager.

1. Interpersonal skills The ability to manage people is vital. Project managers will
ultimately be responsible for coordinating the efforts of the technical staff assigned to the
project. It's crucial that they have the interpersonal and leadership skills to direct team
members and keep them motivated and on track. They also need to be able to smoothly
navigate through the tricky politics within and between the participating organizations.

2. Organizational skills This key characteristic of great project managers is absolutely
critical to keep projects on schedule and budget. The ability to assign resources,
prioritize tasks, and keep tabs on the budget will ensure quality and impact the project's
success.

3. Communication skills The project manager is the main communication link between
the state level heads and his or her team members. His or her ability to clearly
communicate with members of both groups is essential. He or she must be able to
clearly communicate project objectives, challenges or problems, scope changes, and
regular project status reports.
In offshore outsourcing, communication skills become even more critical.
Project managers must not only communicate with team members that may be on the
other side of the world, they must do so in a way that makes the global nature of the
project invisible to the client. It's an added challenge to try to effectively communicate
between on-site and offshore staff. But an experienced offshore outsourcing project
manager can do this with ease. In addition to global distance between personnel, he or
she also needs to be aware of and address cultural differences.

4. Problem-solving skills In every project, it's unexpected problems or challenges that
drive everyone crazy. The project manager must be able to effectively handle these
situations and mitigate risk so they don't get out of control.

A Leader I Admire

A Leader I Admire

Definition of a good leader
1. Someone who inspires self-moitvation in others
2. Someone who has followers
3. Someone who has influence

IMHO, I would say "Steve" Jobs (born February 24, 1955) is an American business magnate and inventor. He is well-known for being the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple.

He is the one who has most influence in the Tech world. Whatever he said, whatever he did alwasy can attract poeple's attention.
He has lots of followers called fans. not only that, he is leading the whole technology industry. people follow his idea, creativity, many great breakthrough, products were born.

He is really a true leader I admire, I was really inspired by his successful legend.

Project Management- Chapter 1&2 ideas

Project Management- Chapter 1&2 ideas

Project management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.

1. Define the problem - The first step is fairly simple and straightforward. You have
to define the problem for which the root cause has to be identified.
2. Brainstorm - People have difficulty understanding how to structure the thought
process around a large problem domain. Sometimes it is useful to focus on
logically related items of the problem domain and to represent them in the
Fishbone diagram, which will convey the problem solving methodology. There are
quite a few tools available that can help us in this regard, including:
• Affinity Chart -Organizes facts, opinions, ideas, and issues into a natural
grouping. This grouping is in turn used as an aid in diagnosing complex
problems.
• Brainstorming-Gathers ideas from people who are potential contributors.
This process is discussed further in the following sections.
• Check sheet- Acts as a simple data recording device that helps to
delineate important items and characteristics to direct attention to them and
verify that they are evaluated.
• Flow charts- Organizes information about a process in a graphical manner
and makes it clear who is impacted at every stage.
No single methodology is applicable to all problem domains. Based on
experience and study, you can identify, thoroughly analyze, and maintain the
methodology and the related problem domains. In the example given later in this
article, we use brainstorming as the problem solving methodology.
3. Categorize- When you apply the Fishbone technique to business problems, the
possible causes are usually classified into six categories:
• Method
• Man
• Management
• Measurement
• Material
• Machine
Though the above are a few important problem categories, during the brainstorming
session, the team is encouraged to come up with all possible categories. The above
categories give the team direction to help find the possible causes.
4. Identify causes - While brainstorming, the team should strive toward identifying
major causes (categories) first, which can be further discussed, and then
secondary causes for each major cause can be identified and discussed. This
helps the team to concentrate on one major cause at a time and to refine further for
possible secondary causes.