87% which equals a “B”.

In looking at the points that I acquired I got 870 out of 1000 available points. What this means is that if I had done that one homework assignment that I blew off (which was 40 points) I would have gotten an “A”.

Tough lesson learned.

Oh well it is over and I learned several things that are going to help me in my job now and that is the most important thing.

It was nice to have 2 weeks off.

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Overall our presentation went well. The member of our group who was supposed to submit it on Friday changed some stuff around to cover us on an item that we had forgotten to do. In fact the missing item was the only thing that we were asked a question on by the professor and the presentation so that was good.

Other groups were not so lucky.

It was pretty sad seeing the last group up there getting asked a lot of question by the professor because he could not figure out the majority of what they did. In there defense they did have a member of their team drop out half way through they class but in the business world that does nto matter, you need to deliver no matter what. They will learn someday.

Anyway, I haven’t got my grade yet but am hoping for an A in the course. At the absolute worse I should get a B.

Now I have the next 2 weeks off and I am going to enjoy not going to school and no homework.

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It looks as though I only got one question wrong which still gave me a 92% which is an A. This now puts my grade at a solid 85% for the class and if I do well on our class project and the final I may actually be able to get that up to a A for the class.

That would be sweet.

I meet tomorrow with my class project group to get some of the final tasks finished up for our project. It looks as though I have been chosen to give the presentation which is cool, I don’t mind. I know some people have issues (actually most people do) with standing up in front of people and speaking but I have done it so much that I am over it.

We only have to more classes and this class is done. That really flew by.

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Basically you make up a project network which is basically a flow chart of which items need to be performed and in what order. With that network you are able to determine what the critical path is. The critical path is the order of items that it is going to take the longest period of time to complete.

Once you know the critical path you then calculate the variance of the items of the critical path and the standard deviation. From this you are able to determine the time it is going to take to complete the project and what percentage you can be sure that it will be done in that time.

This of course does not take into account every delay and issue that you may encounter in the project but it gives you a really good estimate.

Sound easy doesn’t it?

Don’t fool yourself. 99% of the class including me got the majority of this wrong in our homework. We spent last nights class time going over the process. The area that I screwed up in was in my formula. I had gotten a couple of items mixed up so obviously that killed everything else.

Our professor was nice enough to provide some makeup for the homework and I definitely plan on doing that. If I do it and get full credit I will be at a “B” instead of the “C” that I am at right now.

Hey I was a B & C with the occasional A student from K-12th grade. I am trying for  A’s and  B’s now but I have some things still to learn about studying so get off my back! Just kidding, it’s my first class and am still getting the hang of the whole school and real life thing.

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Everyone else that I spoke with said the same thing – they did not know what our professor was referencing when he made up the questions. They were not from the book and not from his lecture. It seems that they were a combination of the two with something else added to them.

I did get full credit for one question because of my creativity which was cool. When it was all said and done I got a C on it .

We are supposed to go over the quiz tonight in class so we will see what we are supposed to use to study for the next quiz.

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Unfortunately I still did not do very well.

Several of the questions where not taken directly from the text. I think they may have been from the lecture but I do not recall some of the things that were referenced.

I have to be honest, I was pretty discouraged after I took it. I mean I am trying to get adjusted to going to school while working and being a husband and a father but it is not easy. The times in the past that I have sat down to study it has been really hard to get into the groove. I keep telling myself that I am only 3 weeks into going back to school and that I will get the hang of it pretty soon.

I am taking double the load of classes in the second half of the semester so I hope that they are a little easier then this class.

I am not going to lie, going back to school is not easy but I keep telling myself that it is worth it.

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I was going to send an email to my Professor asking for another day or 2 to finish it but then I noticed that you are only docked 5 point a day from the due date. Cool. I was really glad that I did not send that email since in class he made a point to not give him excuses about turning in your homework. Embarrassment avoided.

What I did instead was my home work while in class. As I was uploading it to our class website he started going over it in class. I was really thankful that they way he did his example was evidently different then the way I did mine. Mine was mostly correct but different enough to where I do not think he will think that I copied him.

In all honesty I really do not like school. I am not going because I do not have anything else to do with my evenings. I work a regular job and have a family and that takes enough time as it is. But at the same time that is why I am going to school. I want my family to be well taken care of and this will help me to do that.

The struggle that I am going to face in school is not going to be the actual work that is assigned to me. It is going to be motivating myself to do the work. Isn’t that the way of life though?

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In class we discussed the various methods and structures that surround project management that had been covered in the chapters that I read. After that our Professor went into the details about the term project that we were going to have to complete.

I was assigned to a group that had 4 other individuals in it. Our task is to come up with a project plan that will cover a fund raising event for a community center’s after school music program. We are given a budget of $5000 to work with.

At first I did not know if this was a real event that we needed to plan and was a little concerned. The other people in my group obviously had been through a similar exercise before and assured me that it was all mock. What is real though is that we do have to find a community center to understand what we would have to work with. The other thing is that this is supposed to be a fund raiser so we really do not want to touch any of the budgeted $5000 if we do not have to.

Anyway, it looks like a pretty cool project and the people on my team are really reeving to go so that is a good thing. This class is pretty interesting and I find myself thinking of issues that I deal with at work while they are bringing up some of the concepts that they are talking about. There hasn’t been anything tangible that I can use yet but I am hoping that there will be in the coming weeks.

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The couple of things that I took away from the class last night is what a Project Manager is on a high level. To sum it up he is a coach that gets different people with different strengths and pulls them together as a team to meet a common goal. Project Managers typically mange projects that have a defined beginning and end as opposed to an ongoing process.

Being a PM is not always easy though. My Professor made a good analogy of the difficulties that come with being PM by asking who a sports team they got rid of when the team was not winning? Was it the star player that is a jerk and does not get a long with the other players or the coach? It is the coach of course. The rewards of getting that jerk player working with the rest of the team is very rewarding though.

Other notes on the class was that we were going to be put in 2 person teams and would have to come up with our own project plan. This is going to be extremely helpful for me as I need to be able to do that at work.

The other thing is that the office got the book wrong on the paperwork and so I bought and received the wrong book along with about half of the rest of the class. The book I bought from Amazon is back in the mail to them and I have ordered the right book from the school book store. Therefore I am officially 3 chapters behind in reading at this point. The Professor is being understanding though thank God.

All-in-all this course looks like it is going to be useful for me where I am right now in my job and that is important to me (even if I don’t get reimbursed by my company for it).

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