| Course | PM 300 Project Management Principles and Standards (PM/300) |
|---|---|
| Week | 2 |
| Paper type | Principles application paper |
| Length | about 1,165 words, 4 double-spaced pages plus title page and references |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | University of Phoenix |
| Program | BS in Business |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for PM 300 Week 2
Twelve Principles on One Mechanical Room: Applying the Project Management Standard to an Arena Refrigeration Replacement
[Student Name]
University of Phoenix
PM/300: Project Management Principles and Standards
Week 2 Assignment
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Northshore Community Arena, its people and its figures are composites written for a model paper.
Week 1 set the scene at Northshore Community Arena, the invented municipal rink with two sheets in Duluth, Minnesota, where the parks department is spending $4.6 million to swap a failing R-22 plant for a low-charge ammonia chiller and glycol loop between April and late August. The project manager, Dana Kowalczyk from the parks department, leads a temporary team that includes an engineering firm, a mechanical contractor and the arena's own technicians. This paper applies the twelve principles of the current project management standard to that project. It explains why the standard now leads with principles, applies them in four clusters and closes with the trade-offs among them.
Why Principles Instead of Processes
Earlier editions of the standard organized project management around processes grouped by knowledge area. The seventh edition instead sets out twelve principles that describe how practitioners should think and behave, and it treats methods and processes as choices to be made for each project (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2021). The change matters for Northshore. A city capital project with a hard summer deadline, a safety-sensitive refrigerant and users who are not employees does not fit a single template. Principles give Kowalczyk's team a common way to judge situations that no plan anticipated, such as a buried pipe that turns out to be in a different place than the 1994 drawings show.
Stewardship, Team and Leadership
The stewardship principle asks project managers to act with integrity, care and responsibility toward the organization, the public and the environment (PMI, 2021). At Northshore that means more than spending the budget honestly. Ammonia is toxic in high concentrations, and the arena sits two blocks from an elementary school. Kowalczyk added a public meeting to the plan, shared the emergency ventilation design with neighbors and asked the fire department to review the detection system before the contractor bought it.
The team principle calls for an environment in which people collaborate, and the leadership principle asks anyone on the project, not only the manager, to show leadership. Edmondson (1999), observing teams at a manufacturing company, reported that members who felt safe raising concerns and admitting mistakes were more likely to engage in learning behavior, and that this learning was associated with better performance. The arena's senior technician, Ray Lindqvist, knows where the old slabs run warm and which header valves stick. Kowalczyk invites him to every design review and has made clear that his objections will be heard. When Lindqvist questioned the location of a pressure relief line, the engineers moved it.
Stakeholders and Value
The stakeholder principle asks teams to engage stakeholders actively and continuously, and the value principle asks them to judge decisions by the benefits the result will produce (PMI, 2021). Eskerod and Huemann (2013) reviewed how major standards treat stakeholders and noted that most describe stakeholder management as a way to protect the project rather than as a relationship that considers stakeholders' own interests. Northshore tries to do the latter. The figure skating club and the youth hockey association each have a seat on a user panel that meets monthly during construction, and both clubs will skate on the new ice during commissioning to report soft spots before the season opens.
Focusing on value means the team asks, at each decision, which choice best serves reliable ice and lower costs. When the contractor proposed cheaper header pipes with a shorter warranty, the team compared the savings with the cost of a mid-season leak and kept the longer-lived pipes.
A principle earns its place in the paper only when it changes what someone on the project actually does.
Systems, Tailoring, Quality and Complexity
Four principles concern how the project fits within larger systems and how much structure it needs. Systems thinking asks the team to recognize that the project interacts with other parts of the organization. The new chiller will change the arena's electrical demand and its heat recovery will feed the resurfacer water tank, so the team brought in the city's energy manager and the building electrician early. Tailoring asks teams to fit their approach to the project's context. The city's standard capital process requires monthly reports to the parks board; for a summer shutdown with weekly risk, Kowalczyk added a weekly one-page status update for the parks director while keeping the monthly board report.
The quality principle asks teams to build quality into processes, not only inspect it at the end. Pressure tests are scheduled for each section of pipe before the slab is poured over it, since a leak found after the concrete sets would be expensive. The complexity principle asks teams to recognize sources of complexity and respond to them. Bosch-Rekveldt et al. (2011) proposed a framework for project complexity built on technical, organizational and environmental elements. All three are present here: an unfamiliar refrigerant for city staff, a team split across three organizations and a hard deadline set by the hockey calendar.
Risk, Adaptability and Change
The risk principle asks teams to optimize their responses to risks and opportunities. The largest risk is late delivery of the chiller, which has a 20-week lead time. The team ordered it before the design was fully complete, accepting a small redesign risk to protect the schedule. Adaptability and resiliency mean the team can absorb setbacks; a two-week float before ice making and a rental agreement for a temporary chiller provide that cushion. Enabling change asks teams to prepare people for the future state. Ammonia operation requires training that R-22 never did, so all six technicians will complete a refrigeration safety course and practice emergency shutdowns before handover.
Pinto and Slevin (1987) identified factors managers associated with successful implementation, including clear mission, top management support, client consultation, personnel and troubleshooting. Several of the principles echo those factors, which suggests the standard codifies lessons that research has observed for decades rather than inventing new ones.
Where the Principles Pull Against Each Other
Principles do not always point the same way. Quality argues for pressure-testing every pipe section twice; the schedule leaves little room. Stakeholder engagement argues for more user input; each meeting takes time from a small team. Tailoring argues for lighter reporting; stewardship argues for transparency to the public. Kowalczyk's rule is to give safety and the season opening priority, then value, then speed. Pressure tests stay, extra user meetings are replaced by a shared photo log and the weekly status update is posted publicly on the parks department's project page.
Conclusion
The twelve principles give Northshore's team a shared way to make decisions on a project that no template fits. Applied in clusters, they shaped specific actions: a public safety meeting, a technician's voice in design reviews, a user panel, longer-lived pipes, early equipment orders and training before handover. The principles sometimes conflict, and naming the order of priority in advance helps the team resolve those conflicts quickly when the summer schedule leaves no time for debate.
References
Bosch-Rekveldt, M., Jongkind, Y., Mooi, H., Bakker, H., & Verbraeck, A. (2011). Grasping project complexity in large engineering projects: The TOE (technical, organizational and environmental) framework. International Journal of Project Management, 29(6), 728-739. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.07.008
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Eskerod, P., & Huemann, M. (2013). Sustainable development and project stakeholder management: What standards say. International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 6(1), 36-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371311291017
Pinto, J. K., & Slevin, D. P. (1987). Critical factors in successful project implementation. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, EM-34(1), 22-27. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.1987.6498856
Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.
What the PM 300 Week 2 instructions ask
For the second assignment, PM 300 students are usually asked to explain the principles in the project management standard and show how they guide behavior on a project. Some prompts list all twelve; others ask students to select several and apply each to a scenario, a workplace project or a case supplied in the classroom. Typical requirements are a short description of the project, an explanation of each chosen principle in your own words, an example of the principle in action and a comment on why principles were introduced in place of rigid processes. Plan on roughly 1,050 to 1,400 words with scholarly support in APA format. Check whether your instructor wants every principle covered or a smaller set treated in depth before you outline.
How this PM 300 Week 2 example is built
The model paper keeps the Week 1 arena so the reader already knows the project. After a short case reminder, it explains why the standard moved from processes to principles: principles describe how people should behave, while processes prescribe steps that may not suit a given project. The twelve principles are then grouped into four clusters, and each cluster gets one concrete decision from the arena, such as inviting the figure skating club to the commissioning test or scheduling ammonia training before handover. Research on project success factors, team learning and complexity backs the clusters. The paper ends with a section on tension among the principles, since tailoring, quality and schedule can point in different directions on a tight summer shutdown.
PM 300 Week 2 grading rubric: where the points go
Expect the marks to favor application over recitation. An excellent paper states each principle accurately, then shows a specific action, person and moment in the project where the principle shaped a choice. Instructors also reward evidence that the student understands why principles matter: they give a team a shared way of judging situations the plan did not foresee. Papers that support claims with scholarly sources, not only the standard, show stronger research. Organization matters more than usual in this assignment because twelve items can turn into a list; grouping them and using headings helps the grader follow the logic. A short discussion of conflict between principles, a clear introduction and conclusion and clean APA style finish an excellent submission.
PM 300 Week 2 help: mistakes to avoid
Twelve principles in about 1,200 words leaves room for roughly 90 words each, so many drafts end up as a glossary. Grouping related principles saves space and lets you go deeper on the ones that matter most to your case. Another frequent mistake is misnaming them by using an older edition's knowledge areas or process groups; check the wording against the edition your course assigns. Students also give generic examples such as communicating with stakeholders that could fit any project. Name the stakeholder and the decision instead. Leaving out the reason principles replaced processes costs points too, since the prompt often asks for it. If you are unsure whether your examples are specific enough, a tutor can read your outline and point out the vague ones.
Related PM 300 sample papers
Other PM 300 week samples
- PM 300 Week 1: Projects and Value Delivery
- PM 300 Week 3: Governance and Project Environments
- PM 300 Week 4: Decision Making and Problem Solving
- PM 300 Week 5: Project and Product Management
More BS in Business sample papers
- MKT 446 Week 2: Keyword Strategy
- MKT 449 Week 2: Analyzing Market Penetration
- MKT 498 Week 2: Advertising Message Strategy
- PM 310 Week 2: Building and Leading the Team
PM 300 Week 2 questions, answered
What does PM 300 Week 2 usually cover?
It usually covers the twelve principles in the current project management standard and how each one guides the behavior of a project team, applied to a scenario or to a project the student knows.
Where can I find a free PM 300 Week 2 sample paper?
The Week 2 paper above applies all twelve principles to an arena refrigeration replacement in Duluth and is free to read in full, margin notes included.
What are the twelve project management principles?
They cover stewardship, team environment, stakeholder engagement, value, systems thinking, leadership, tailoring, quality, complexity, risk responses, adaptability and resiliency, and enabling change.
Why did the project management standard switch from processes to principles?
Projects vary widely, so fixed processes often do not fit. Principles describe how teams should think and act, which lets them choose methods suited to each project while keeping the same values.
Do I have to cover all twelve principles in my paper?
That depends on the prompt. Some instructors want all twelve; others ask for three to six applied in depth. When in doubt, cover all briefly and develop the most relevant ones.
Write yours, or have the desk draft it
This paper is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official University of Phoenix document. Read it for the moves, then write your own to the instructions in your classroom. If you want one built to your exact prompt and rubric, the first custom sample is free and arrives in 24 to 48 hours.
Request this one custom, free · All PM 300 week samples · All courses