Portfolio 4: Analysis of Ethical Dilemmas in Project Leadership

This portfolio entry, authored by a student, details three distinct experiences involving ethical dilemmas within project management contexts. The first scenario involves a conflict between adhering to deadlines through shortcuts versus maintaining project quality. The second highlights the dilemma of reporting a software bug that could impact the product's functionality and customer satisfaction. The final experience centers on the trade-off between thorough testing and meeting project deadlines for a security application. Each case underscores the importance of ethical decision-making and its impact on project outcomes, organizational reputation, and customer relations. The student reflects on these experiences, emphasizing the development of informed decision-making strategies to navigate ethical challenges and ensure positive results for both the project and the organization. The assignment includes references to relevant project management literature.

Running head: PORFOLIO
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Name of Student
Name of University
Author’s Note

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Portfolio entry 4
Dear self,
I would mention three incidents in which I had been involved and that had posed various
ethical dilemma, these experiences are mentioned below
Experience 1: I had been a part of numerous projects, among these project some of
them had faced ethical dilemmas for numerous issues, once I had been a team member of
project team, in this particular team every member was interested and performed their
activities effectively. After some days, the team leader of the team had a disagreement with
the assistant team leader. In this case the team leader had provided a particular strategy that
could be used for the purpose of carrying out the project, this strategy would have helped the
team in completing the project within the deadline, but in this case, the team had to
compromise some factors like quality of the project. The assistant team leader did not want to
take a short cut, he wanted to use a particular strategy which would have resulted in
competing the project along with precise results, and he did not want to take any shortcut for
the purpose of varying ut the project. It was very tough to decide because if we use the other
procedure it would be a long and time taking process. The ethical dilemma in this case was
that if we used the shortcut we would be able to complete the project in time but the quality
of the project had to be compromised but if used the other strategy for the purpose of
completing the project we wold be able to deliver a very good quality project but we would
have to compromise the deadline, in this case both the compromise would have different
impacts on the project as well as the organization, but both the compromise would prove to
be vulnerable for the entire project, low quality of project outcome would result in damaging
the image of the organization, it would also piss off customers.

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Example 2: I had been a member of a project team in which we had to develop a
particular software, this software was supposed to be developed for various devices like
tablets, mobile phones and computers. This software was supposed to be developed in a small
amount of time. We had started off with the project as soon as we got it. We completed the
phases, planning as well as developing within the deadline. At the time of testing, the testing
team had noticed a bug in the software, they had informed the assistant team leader regarding
this but the assistant team leader did not inform the leader because if he informed it, the
leader would ask for a detailed testing process and if the bug is proved to be present, he
would insist in carrying out the entire project from the very beginning. If he does not inform
the leader, it would be harmful for the project as well as the entire organization. In this case
the ethical dilemma is whether or not to inform the leader regarding the bug that has been
detected in the software. If he did not inform the leader regarding the loophole, no one would
come to know regarding it and the software would be incorporated into the devices, after few
days the bug would effect the device in a negative manner. This would piss off the customers
and they will charge the organization for this, this would not only result in losing loyal
customers but also result in damaging the entire image of the organization. One more ethical
dilemma is that if he informed the leader regarding the bug, the project would have to be
carried out once again from the initial stage or carry out the development stage once again, in
both the cases the process would be very lengthy and the final deadline would be missed.
This would be harmful for the entire organization as well as for the customers of the
organization. This is because customers would not get the products on the assigned deadline.
Example 3: the last experience is regarding another ethical dilemma that had been
faced by me and my team regarding the security concerns of an application, we were
supposed to develop a particular application which is supposed to provide additional security
to the devices like computers, mobiles and tablets. This application was developed for

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customers who save confidential data in their gadgets and want to secure their devices from
any kind of attacks caused by hackers or cyber criminals. As we preceded with the project we
had realised the fact that it was impossible for us to deliver the full proof application within
time. The project team had completed every phase within the deadline except the testing
phase, the project leader faced weather the testing phase would be carried out or the
application would be incorporated within the device without testing it. The ethical dilemma
that was faced by the project team leader was that if they proceeded with the phase of testing,
they would not be able to deliver the software and incorporate it in the devices within
deadline. This would make the customer lose its loyal customers because they would get the
product from the opposition organization. One ore dilemma is that if they did not carry out
the testing phase, they might face issues in case the application has a loophole, in this case as
well, they would lose loyal customers because the customers would expect a full proof
application without any bug. This would as a result damage the entire reputation of the
organization which would be harmful for its future projects.
From all the experiences that I had shared in this assignment, I have obtained
sufficient knowledge regarding the ways that could be used in a particular situation where
ethical dilemma is the barrier of decision making. I have learnt to carry out decision making
wisely in order to prevent the dilemmas and result a positive outcome for the project as well
as organization.

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Bibliography
Badewi, A. (2016). The impact of project management (PM) and benefits management (BM)
practices on project success: Towards developing a project benefits governance
framework. International Journal of Project Management, 34(4), 761-778.
Hazır, Ö. (2015). A review of analytical models, approaches and decision support tools in
project monitoring and control. International Journal of Project Management, 33(4),
808-815.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to
measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.