Assessing Project Management Competencies Through Blog Post Review

This essay presents a review of two blog posts focusing on project management competencies. The first review highlights the importance of effective communication, cost control, and risk management, emphasizing their significance in achieving project goals and objectives. It also analyzes project selection methods, specifically cost-benefit ratio and opportunity costs, in the context of the Oakland Crossing Rail Project (NSW). The second review discusses essential project competencies such as business knowledge, time management, flexibility, teamwork, communication skills, punctuality, experience, and advanced preparation. It further explores the Pizza Hut project in India as a case study for successful project execution, attributing its success to quality, brand name, good services, and innovative menu options. The essay underscores the importance of these competencies and strategies in ensuring project success, while also noting the need for context-specific application.

Running head: BLOG POST REVIEW
BLOG POST REVIEW
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

BLOG POST REVIEW
Blog post review 1:
The competencies that are discussed in this post are three very important and significant project
competencies. Without effective communication it is not possible for the managers to manage
project team and communicate project goal and objective to the team members (Loufrani-Fedida &
Saglietto, 2016). Next the project has discussed about importance of cost control in the project and
also makes it clear that when cost control is effective in the project, it ensures quality result even
though there is cost issue which is indeed correct. The post has also discussed about importance of
proper risk management plan and how it helps in managing various project constraints associated
with any project. Hence according to the post, managers should have core competencies of risk
management for implementing risk management strategies. This argument is indeed justified
because risk management is very important for any project as it helps to execute project while
minimize the effect of project risks on the project (Chen et al., 2019).
Apart from this concept of project competencies, the post has analysed the concept of project
selection method which is required for effective project execution (Wu, Toussaint & Messer, 2017).
This analysis is done with respect to the Oakland Crossing Rail Project (NSW). The project
selection methods that the post has considered are Cost-benefit ratio and Opportunity Costs. The
best of the post in this context is that it has not only discussed about the importance and benefits of
these two approaches, but also discussed about the constraints of applying these two approaches in
complex project like the Oakland Crossing Rail Project (NSW) discussed here.
Blog post review 2:
In the post some interesting and important concepts of project management is discussed. In order to
execute any project, it is important to review required project competencies as without proper
competencies, projects managers and leaders find it difficult to execute project progress and ensure
project success which is one of the most important aspects of any kind of project (Gruden & Stare,
2018). Some of the competencies that the post has mentioned are:

BLOG POST REVIEW
• Having knowledge of business
• Time management
• Flexibility
• Team Work
• Good Business communication skills
• Punctual
• Experienced
• Advanced preparation for any business threat or problems
Although these competencies are important, no details are provided about development and
application of these skills in an actual project setup which is really very important (Dillon & Taylor,
2015). Although theoretical discussion has provided for easy reference to these competencies.
However analysis of these competencies with respect to an actual project context would have been
much better as projects managers often find it difficult to apply this competencies properly in the
project.
The post has made a very interesting discussion on project selection method. The project that is
considered here is Pizza Hut project in India. According to the post things that have helped Pizza
Hut to execute their project successfully even though there were tough competition in the market
from leading brands like Dominos, are:
• Quality
• Brand Name
• Good services
• New styles of pizza in its menu
All of these aspects are important for any organization to ensure success in
projects like launching new products in the market (Mohagheghi, Mousavi &
Vahdani, 2015). However strategies to apply them in the project depends on
the project context and the exact project requirements.

BLOG POST REVIEW
References:
Chen, T., Fu, M., Liu, R., Xu, X., Zhou, S., & Liu, B. (2019). How do project management
competencies change within the project management career model in large Chinese
construction companies?. International Journal of Project Management, 37(3), 485-500.
Dillon, S., & Taylor, H. (2015). Employing grounded theory to uncover behavioral competencies of
information technology project managers. Project Management Journal, 46(4), 90-104.
Gruden, N., & Stare, A. (2018). The Influence of Behavioral Competencies on Project
Performance. Project Management Journal, 49(3), 98-109.
Loufrani-Fedida, S., & Saglietto, L. (2016). Mechanisms for managing competencies in project-
based organizations: an integrative multilevel analysis. Long Range Planning, 49(1), 72-89.
Mohagheghi, V., Mousavi, S. M., & Vahdani, B. (2015). A new optimization model for project
portfolio selection under interval-valued fuzzy environment. Arabian Journal for Science
and Engineering, 40(11), 3351-3361.
Wu, S., Toussaint, J., & Messer, K. D. (2017). Maximizing benefits in project selection: a hybrid
approach. Applied Economics, 49(40), 4071-4082.