NiQsTeR

What is a project?

Project is something you make. It could be in any form and in any size. It is something you create within a period of time. It could be done by hands or any machines, it could be as big as constructing a 20-storey building or as small as doing school paper works. Some examples of it are like in engineering works, constructing a huge establishment; a mall, a school, a house. Those were considered as engineering projects. While at school, book reports, class room charts and decorations are examples of school projects. To summarize, it is something you do, make or create.

In reference to the PMBOK Guide, a project is said to be:

TEMPORARY

It is temporary in a sense that there is a time given for it to finish. It has a beginning and an end. It does not just refer to a short-term progress but it may go for years and decades.

UNIQUE PRODUCTS, SERVICES, OR RESULTS

Projects could be considered in any forms as what I have stated earlier. It could be in products, in any kind of services and it produces results. Uniqueness of the project is very important; your project must be in different design, form or idea. In order to prevent chaos or plagiarism, uniqueness of a certain project must be considered as one of the important factors to be considered.

PROGRESSIVE ELABORATION

Progressive elaboration means that a certain project should be developing. There would be a certain progressive in steps, and continuing by increments.

What is management?

Management is somewhat like organizing, controlling, administering a certain group, company and anything. It is commonly seen everywhere. It could be through people, things or happenings. Examples of these are managing a certain mall or establishment where you organize your people on their respective departments. Arranging your papers and books may be considered as management as well. Any act of organizing controlling is considered as management.

What is project management?

Project management is a technique used in order to fix or organize a certain project from start to finish. It can be applied to any types of projects is widely used to control the complex processes of software development projects. Based on our reference book, project management is a process of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring and controlling, and closing. And a project manager handles the said management. In reference to the PMBOK Guide, managing a project includes identifying the requirements, establishing clear and achievable objectives, balancing the competing demands quality, time, scope and cost, adapting the specifications, plans, and approach to the different concerns and expectations of the various stakeholders. A project manager often talks about the “triple constraint” or the project scope, time and cost. And the project manager monitors the progression and the achieving of objectives in certain project that he handles; project risks is said to be uncertain or unpredictable but possible to be encountered and whenever it occurs, it will only lead to a positive or negative result on the project objectives to be achieve.

My reflection on the first meeting.

On our first meeting on our project management subject, we already had our first activity which was to define project, management and project management in particular. Of course all of us have our own definition of such terms. And most of us answered almost the same, project is something to be created in period of time; management is an act of managing, directing and controlling; and project management is a technique applied to a certain project in order to finish it orderly. According to Sir Randy, project management can be related to the abbreviation PDOC, which means Planning, Directing, Organizing and Controlling. Planning, obviously it is setting your objectives, setting the time frame of the said project, citing the resources and the people who will work for it. Directing, as a manager you have the privilege to direct the progression of your project, assign your people and make everything happen. Organizing is putting everything in place. And controlling, which means you are in hold of everything that is related to your project being handled.

But during our discussion, the main topic is the term “management”. Was it really the right word to fit on the title project management? Are we all agreed of the word used? It became an issue because of its definition which was controlling. Does anybody wants to be controlled by anyone? No one, right? That is why we had a discussion on what term should be used aside from “management” then “leadership” came. Perfect. There is a huge difference between being a manager and a leader. A manager controls and commands while the leader sets an initiative, acts on his own while the people under his leadership follows not because the leader asked but because they were influenced by the acts of their leader. A leader has the capabilities of influencing his people, has the ability to spread a certain command without shouting and talking all the time; while a manager is always being hated by his/her people because of an unending commands like they were treated as slaves and not as people. A leader can let his people follow him without shouting at the top his lungs and a leader is being looked up by his people and being afraid of. While a manger is scary and said always commanding and stuff and very controlling which we really hate.

I have here I prefer being a leader than being a manager.

A manager is SMART BUT HEARTLESS towards the people under their power.

On the most of the managers, I would agree saying that they are really smart and wise but they often use their brains over their hearts which causes insensitivity and cruelty among their people. I often see crying laborers outside their offices while they are busy counting their moneys. I can sometimes hear them such rude words towards their people under their management which I sincerely feel pity to.

A leader is MINDFUL AND SENSITIVE towards their people.

This is what I love about being a leader. Leaders love their people and treat them like their family not their slaves. Leaders are smart the same as the managers but they think together with their heart and they consider the feelings and the situations of their people before acting a certain decision. They can determine if one of their people is having a hard time and think of something that could help out. They of their people as precious as gems because without them, there will be no work be done. Each person counts.

A manager uses more WORDS than ACTIONS.

A manager commands a lot and controls a lot. They point from there to there and even scream to their people. They tend to command a lot and forget that they have some tasks to do as their manager as well. That is something that I really hate; people that tends to command a lot and works nothing at all.

A leader GUIDES his people and WORKS on his own as well.

As what I have state above, a leader influences rather than commands. They guide their people, teach them what to do and leave them, not like abandoning them but he has to do his tasks as well. If people could see their leader working, they wholeheartedly work their buts out to keep the spirit of team work lives. Instead of controlling them, a leader should guide them on doing the right thing. If a certain person fails, instead of shouting at him, help him out. That is what a leader must be.

A manager CONTROLS his people.

Who wants to be controlled? Nobody. That is why I really hate managers because I do not want to be being said on what I should do. I take guidelines and instructions not out of this world commands.

A leader LEADS his people.

Instead of controlling them, leaders lead; lead their people to the right path of the project’s journey to the finish line. Leaders are approachable and smile a lot to his people. You can never see them frowning and they are always on the chill mode; laughs with his people during break time and sometimes eats with his people during lunch.

I have also stated some places and situations where managing and leading happens:

AT SCHOOL

At school, groupings and electing of officers are always done and they also have these cleaners of the day thing that requires having a leader. In groupings like in some subject activities, we tend to have a leader and a secretary. The leader divides the topics and distributes it to his members including himself. Managing happens when he gives all of their topics to the members leaving nothing for him and tends to just let his members do all the work while he is busy playing DOTA. On electing officers, the president is considered to be the leader of the pack. He guides his people under his presidency on what things to do in order to keep a peace and orderly class. Managing occurs when he tends to use his powers to get what he wants; when he lets his people suffer from a chaotic class while he s busy doing his own stuff, this tends to happen a lot especially in high school, and the assigning of the cleaners-of-the-day, this one is quite memorable for me because I always end up being the leader of the Monday cleaners way back grade school. In my case, I do not I am a manager but I do not consider my self as a leader as well. I do my own chores and I let them do theirs; I do not command or assign chores, since I do not want to be controlled, I do not control people as well. I just list down the names of the members who cleaned and were done. Leadership skills are mostly done in schools.

AT WORK

At a certain company, there will be a CEO, at a certain construction project, there will be a project engineer; at a certain dealership, there will be a lead dealer. There are different terms used to address a leader or a manager. At company or a corporation, there will be a person who will be in charge of the company; it is the president or the CEO. He holds the biggest percentage of stocks being invested in the company. He is assigned by the stockholders to be their leader because of his ability to lead the group. Management occurs when he tends to control everything without the permission of the board members and tends to use his power to do underground transactions. On the other side, projects like constructing a building has its own leaders too; the project engineer. Engineers design and organize the progress of the said construction. My father is a project engineer. I am aware of his work and responsibility as an engineer. He has already done multimillion worth of projects and handled different kinds of people. I can say that my father is a great leader because the people under him respects him a lot and I have seen it ever since that he has great relationships with his people. He talks to them like they are just in the same state, jokes with them and sometimes eat with them. I have gone to my father’s work before and I can see that my father works a lot in order to make a certain construction works. Engineering is not that easy; aside from administering the building you might you should as well organize your people in order to synchronize everything. Another example is my mother’s work. She is a sales agent at Forest Lake. In order to sell, you should be a member of a certain group or dealership. My mother possesses the second highest rank on the dealership. The leader is called the lead dealer and my mother and some others are called cooperating dealer and so on and so forth. Tito Michael is the lead dealer. I am also as well part of their dealership under my mom’s. I can say that Tito Michael is a great leader because he was able to reach the top of the sales without hurting or stepping on any others foot. He treats his people like brothers and sisters and influences them on working hard not because he will gain from it but because it is for the agent’s good as well. He does not command people to sell but he asks them to try their best while he does his as well. Tito Michael amazes me, despite all of the chaos on the marketing world; he was still able to put up a dealership that is fun and lively.

AT HOME

At our home, management rules; we are all lazy people. If we can see people doing household chores, we tend to just watch and let them do it alone. When I am doing the chores, my mother and my sibling hides inside the room and just come out when the table is already done. That is what fires me up, I depend on me alone, even though I go home late because of school, they still wait for me to cook and wash the dishes. But I myself have faults as well, when I feel lazy, I tend to command everything, I do all the talking and they do the work. It is a thing called revenge. But I already had a realization, in order to keep a peaceful and chaos-free home; everyone in the house should be a leader. We will not wait for others to do the chores but instead have the initiative to do it on our own and there will be no more problems in the future.

From PROJECT MANAGEMENT to PROJECT LEADERSHIP.

If we are going to refer to its meaning as management and leadership, I would suggest to really having the term leadership than management. Leadership sounds way better than management. You see, if we are going to look at the meaning of it as in the book and as a course, although management is said to be what we are going to learn, the principles that are being taught is still about leadership. We all know that leadership is still the best when talking about holding up a project or any kinds of organization. If we are going to learn about how to be a good leader, I know we will be the best managers this world could have. I have nothing against the term “manager” but it is the people, who possess such title; who seemingly do not know what its meaning and what is its role to the community. Being a manager as well as a leader is a great responsibility yet an honor, if you are going to have the title as the manager, it simply means that the people around puts up huge amount of trust on you; and you should make it your best in order to make up to their expectations and be the great leader that they will look up to. I have gone to a lot of leadership seminars and I have learned that being a leader does not necessarily mean that you are the head of a certain group; you can be a leader even though you are just a follower. You can lead yourself and your fellow follower by showing them good deeds and what should a follower do in order to succeed; if you will be able to influence them, then by that you can consider yourself as a good leader and maybe some time, you will be able to hold a pack with such great followers and held by a great leadership.

Do I consider myself as a great leader?

I am still on the process of learning on how to be a good leader. In order to become one, discipline is a factor, if you are well-disciplined, then everyone who sees you will follow you. If you know how to carry yourself and lead your people with confidence, then you possess such great leadership skills. And that is a good key.

Being a leader is such a great opportunity in order to speak out what do you want to improve your community. It is a chance where people listens to every word you speak. And through this, you will be able create something for the betterment of the society.

HAVING A GREAT LEADER AS A MANAGER.

A manager should possess great leadership skills in order to create a progressive working relationship. If the manager is a leader enough to take charge on a certain project, then no doubt, that certain project will be a hit for sure. If your manager tends to have the initiative to reach out on people who is under him, then a brighter future awaits you.

Companies now a days are looking for managers who possess such great leadership skills, who could lead people but yet still called a manager and not as a leader. I love the thought having great leadership skills, it simply means a great trust will be given to you, trust from the people around and trust from the people above you. You see, it will be easy for us to climb up to the ladder of success if we are good leaders. Since we are independent, we tend to think of things which will be not just for our own good but for good of others as well. If you are a good leader, people will love you, support you and will serve for you in the future.

I myself want to possess such great leadership skills, I mean who else doesn’t? Even other people tend to pay money in order to have seminars and be aware of the tips on how to become of a good leader. I have been to a lot of it and I was able to get some tips in order to become one. I hope people not just here in my school, not just in my city, not just in my country but the whole world will be able to have great leaders in the future.

Having great project handled by great leaders gives us the opportunity to excel and grow in the industry world.

There were a lot of things I learned from Technopreneurship 1. There were a lot of activities we went to in order to get to know ourselves better and to know the level of our capabilities. Our facilitator, Sir Randy Gamboa was able to create an environment where we, his students became more motivated and desperate to get what we want in the future, and to become a successful technopreneur. It was kind of hard on the first time but we were able to get over it and do the best that we can. It was all interesting and fun.

When we were told that Sir Gamboa was our instructor, I was kind a nervous and thrilled because of some feedbacks we heard from our senior before. It is our first time having Sir Gamboa as our instructor. So all we did was shut our mouths and observe on the first meeting.

On the first quarter of our course, our facilitator introduced to us a model called SEED, where we are going to tackle about self mastery, environment mastery, enterprise mastery and development mastery. For the self-mastery we had activities that we helped us a lot in knowing who we really are. We were asked by Mr. Gamboa why we are going to school, and most of us answered, to finish and get a good job. Some of us wanted to go abroad after graduation, (that is if were to graduate). He asked us about our goals and mission for ourselves and in our community, of course, my answer was to lend a good job after graduation. But Mr. Gamboa had it way around, he told us to change our mind set and aim higher because he believed that we can much better than what we are thinking. Instead of being employed why not being the employer? For me, it was easy to say things but I know it will take a lot of effort to be able to make my own company. Especially that I don not have any interest of making one. I am not a business minded person. I do not know how to sell myself in order to gain profit out of my creative ideas. At that moment, I still do not know what my skills are and what can I do for a living. I am still figuring things out. I am still in a coward stage where I am afraid of taking risks and exploring things. I wanted to be stacked in my comfort zone forever, but I know it was the time, the time to get out of my shell and grow in the new world that I am having. That activity made a big issue among us students, because it talked about what we are going to be in the future and it is no joke at all. Thinking about how you are going to control and run your life not as a student anymore but a career person, living independently.

After that week, Mr. Gamboa showed us a film titled “The Pirates of the Silicon Valley” where we were asked to do a reflection and opinions about it. It was really a great movie showing us great passion on pursuing your dreams and aspirations. Steve Jobs became our inspiration on that one look. You see, he did not finish college, but he became successful. His personal life was not perfect, but he was successful. There were a lot of things that contributed to Steve Jobs’ success and failure in his career life, and we were asked to determine what those are. In his success some factors I wrote were: having great determination, having a fountain of ideas, having lots charm, having an employer mindset, and being obsessive-compulsive. And the factors contributed to his failures were: his temper, his pride, lost of control, and forgetting his roots. I have learned that each of us has our own ways on reaching our goals. We may be encountering different obstacles but it is a part of learning in order for us to become motivated, wise and brave. As I was watching the movie, lots of realizations came out, finishing college is not a necessity to be successful, although it is an advantage, guts and “distkarte” are the most important things to be possessed in order to succeed. We were also asked on how we see ourselves as a technopreneur, honestly, during that time, I did not think or foresee myself as a technopreneur or a business person. I am indeed a techie person but I do not make money out of it. But talking about making myself as a technopreneur, I know I can be a good one because having the factors of being a successful technopreneur are easy to get. Discipline, determination and courage. The next question was, if we are going to take Steve Jobs’ path, and of course my answer was no. Steve Jobs is Steve Jobs. Monique is Monique. Mr. Jobs has his own way of thinking; his own ways of living and way much smarter than me. We are different and I want to experience everything on my own and not because Steve Jobs did. I have my own definition of success and he has his own.

After the movie, we were also able to read Steve Jobs’ commencement address and learned so much from it. Steve Jobs became our inspiration and a mentor in achieving our goals. He possesses great characteristics a technopreneur should have; like having great determination and perseverance. Having great confidence and optimism to reach what you really wanted. It’s not just about good grades but it is the value of what has stored in your life. I have also learned to think about myself, on what I like and I do not and also my interests in life, because it is going to be very useful in the future. I felt a little disappointment because I was not able to know what I really want in my life and what my goals are. I keep on doing things which are totally nonsense and useless. I tend to like everything and throw it all afterwards. I do not know where I was going and risking everything. When I read the commencement letter, I felt sad but now really determined. We only had one life and we should make the most out of it; by doing what we love so that we will die happy. Just like Steve Jobs which was diagnosed by a killer disease but fortunately survived. And he was able to do what he wants and he was happy.

We were also tasked to take some tests such as personal traits test, IQ test, EQ test and AQ test. On the personal traits test, it was done on our lab room; everyone got a satisfactory result, not really a technopreneur but almost there. At that moment we were still under the adjusting period where we are about to change our old views in life. In my IQ test, the result was as expected, not that high but at least it is above average. On my EQ test, I forgot the results but if I am going to judge myself, I am not an emo but I am sensitive enough to feel if I am still doing good or I am hurting somebody and being a technopreneur, being too attached and personal to every people you meet is an issue. Everything should be pure business. And on my AQ test, well, I do not really dwell on my failures although I think about it a lot, but I do not let it get in my way; I can easily move on after a certain fall, but I am not insensitive and dumb; I just use my mind over my heart a lot.

Determining our purpose in life was one of the goals, mine was: to work out on my dreams and make them come true without stepping on others. Learn from mistakes and continue living life in God's will. It is very simple but it means a lot me. Putting God as the center of my life is a big factor in succeeding without him all our efforts will be wasted.

We also had an activity where we were asked to write our mission to ourselves, to our friends, to our family and to our community; then our facilitator took it all away, with an empty hand, we were asked again about what is our mission. It was a quite hard activity because I was too attached with what I wanted to achieve before. I then realize that there a lot of things to be discovered and lots of things that are interesting.

Another activity was we were asked to write down what we love, what we are best at and what were our irritants. I have observed that most of the things that I loved and where I am best at are not related to the career I have chosen to go now. It was kind of complicated. Out of those, we were asked to make a business plan, group and individual. In our group proposal, we had a hard time making one with my group mates because we have our own ideas and it just don’t get along with the others. I and Claire are so much into pop music, Abigail and Ralph are into arts and Benjamin is into gaming. It took us weeks to figure out what business should we propose. Until the day of presentation, we still have not made up our minds, so we decided to just mix it up together and ended up rejected. Because of the lack of understanding and lack of communication, we had to think about a new proposal again, thanks to Benj and his weird ideas, we were able to submit one and sir approved it so easily, our business was an online dirby. I was shocked at first when Sir approved it because I was honestly doubtful on our proposal because it is a kind of gambling, it is a cockfight and I know for a fact that it is kind of complicated to begin with. But still luckily, we were able to pass through it. In my personal proposal, I have decided to create an online artist agency or management. It is a website where amateur artists come and they will let us promote them by having clients who needs performers. I had a great vision on that proposal because it is what I really want, and what I am fond of doing, performing. If my online business will succeed, my next target is to make an actual artist company, where I will be training artist and make them known not just here in the Philippines but worldwide as well. Quite big huh?

There were a lot of things I got from all of those activities and by the help of Sir Randy. I am surely sure that I will be able to use all of those in my future career life and to become a successful technopreneur. To number my learning, having an open mind and be considerate for the ideas of others, because there could be times that I will be working with other people. Like what happened in our part activity, you see not every one of us think the same and have the same hobbies and likes. Also one thing is to keep the fire of determination burning, never let one failure ruin your entire dreams; I will use all of those in order to be courageous and wise in the future even today. Now that I am not getting any younger, I will practice on how to think mature and but to be too serious. Have fun and explore. Have a sharp mind and keep an open visuals for new creations and inventions. Because of these, I was able to determine what I have been wanting ever since. And I am glad I took this subject.