NEED ONE COMMENT ON THE BELOW POST WORTH IT 200 WORDS.

• While completing this final simulation assignment, what portion of the simulation did your BA 421 team find the most frustrating?

My group found staying ahead of schedule while behind budget was very difficult. For this week, we did improve our budget, but it was still over. On our first run, our budget stayed within a close range of management targets up until week 11 where we had to pass the budget and Order to complete the project. I think we improved from other simulations because through those simulations our budget would be way out of range from the beginning to the end of the project. We also realized being behind schedule was more of a complication than past simulations. We most likely struggled with the schedule because of our new strategy of having a small, skilled and consistent team throughout the whole simulation. Even though we struggled with being behind schedule, our strategy helped us improve OVERALL from other weeks.

• While comparing the first two simulations to this one, what aspect was the most difficult to manage?

For this simulation most aspects are consistent throughout the whole process. Based on our team members' moods, after each week we would tweak the number of meetings as well as outsourcing. Therefore, these two aspects were the most difficult to manage as they've required the most amount of change.

• How was your BA 421 team's stress level while working on this simulation?

Our team stress level remained consistent throughout the simulation. However, I noticed in the last few weeks the stress levels slightly spiked then lowered again in the final week. This was most likely because we decided to aim for level 4 in the final weeks. We noticed we were already over budget but we were ahead of schedule. So, we decided if our budget is over, we may as well create a better-quality product.

• How was the simulation team's stress level managed?

We managed our team stress levels by listening to their moods each week. For example, if they did not know how everyone was contributing to the project, we would have more status review meetings in the following week. We also made sure to check on each employee's hours each week to make sure nobody is working too many hours and to adjust our overtime requirements. When our team members complained about not knowing what's going on we would adjust our outsourcing to their needs.

• What strategies did your BA 421 team use to deal with the different risk uncertainty that was presented in this simulation?
• What worked?
• What didn't work?
• Did your team complete the project?

We found that in this simulation keeping a team of three with high skill levels is efficient. During other simulations we realized problems would arise when we lost or gained employees. Our strategy was developed because we thought if all three members worked together throughout the whole project work would be done more efficiently with less issues. When we noticed that it didn't work, we only held a few meetings in the first week. We noticed after just running the first week that our team morale was already 76. This had to be because of the lack of meetings we had at the beginning of the project. Meetings are definitely necessary at the beginning of a project to avoid future issues. For example, one-on-one coaching meetings help solve long run issues. So, we may not notice improvement week by week but overall, there are less issues than if there are no one-on-one meetings.

• Describe how you used the following for this simulation:

Outsourcing- We used outsourcing as a key factor 2 lowering our costs per week. We knew we could not start out with high levels of outsourcing, so we began with some primary tasks. Once the project went on, we would increase outsourcing. If we notice that the team mood was negative, we will sometimes decrease our outsourcing. However, we would first try to fix their mood elsewhere before switching our outsourcing.

Team expertise and size- we decided to keep a small team of three with high skill levels. In previous weeks we made the mistake of having too many employees with lower skill levels when we could have a consistent team with high skill levels for the same price. We found this worked way better than having a big team. This goes to show that bodies don't always get the work done, but an efficient and cohesive team does.

Meetings- we definitely held more meetings during this simulation than in the past. Usually if anything was adjusted it would be our meetings. That is because it would be the first aspect we would look to change if the team's mood was negative. As long as we knew which meetings helped in what ways we were able to turn around the mood of The Team by just adding or removing a few meetings.

Prototypes- We did not focus on prototypes too much during this simulation. We found in other simulations that it took up way too much time. Therefore, we did one in the beginning weeks of the project in hopes this would result in less issues later on. I believe it probably made a slight difference but not noticeably.

Overtime- we majorly kept overtime at encouraged. During our first run we kept overtime at a loud for the first few weeks, so we didn't stress out the employees right off the bat. When we changed over time to encouraged, we noticed a large rise in tasks being completed per week. If the team stress levels and morale were remaining steady, we didn't see the need to take away overtime.

• Having completed three simulations, what advice would your BA 421 team give to a new project manager?

After the three simulations we completed I realized the best advice would be to operate with a small but high-level skilled team. I believe our main issues arose from having too many team members, which led to our budget skyrocketing at just the beginning of the project. Having a smaller team helped us stay closer to the budget. Even though tasks may take longer without extra hands, there will be less issues and more coordination with a smaller, skilled Team.