Critical Issues in Project Management: A Reflective Journal

This reflective journal discusses critical issues in project management, including the role of a project manager, SWOT analysis, and recommendations for senior management. The author reflects on their experience managing two projects based on digital twins technology, one for road construction in Chengdu and the other for water cycle management in Porto. The journal includes a SWOT analysis of the projects and recommendations for senior management to improve project management. Subject: Project Management

REFLECTIVE JOURNAL

1. INTRODUCTION
The issues pertaining to any of the project means something that come up in the way of
the project acting as an obstacle and accordingly affecting the whole planning (Kwayu, Lal and
Abubakre, 2018). Therefore, issues too needed to be well managed by defining it as a risk and
accordingly framing rules and defining activities in order to control and manage such issues
arising during the course of a project. Thus, the present report is based on discussion related to
the critical issues associated with the project management only. The various roles that I have
played in accomplishing these two projects are communication with stakeholders and team
members, identifying issues and resolving the same at earliest, I have prepared many budgets for
establishing financial and non-financial control, made schedule for managing time, and I provide
my team members with assistance to identify their strengths and address weaknesses along with
motivating them through monetary and non-monetary incentives to build a good team. The
purpose of performing all these roles is to ensure high level of effectiveness and efficiency
throughout the project duration and accomplishing it on the right time. The case study reveal that
the project team at Chengdu faced with various design challenges and this time I tried my best to
provide team members with the required strengths to overcome their weaknesses posing
challenges in the project and accordingly the project gets accomplished successfully. The first
project is based on the use of digital twins model for road construction project in Chengdu. The
second project is based on the water cycle management in Portugal. I will also analyze the
project environment of these two project based on digital twins by conducting SWOT analysis of
the project to assess its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. With the help of
conclusion drawn from the SWOT analysis, a set of recommendations will be made to the senior
management.
2. MAIN BODY
2.1 Concept of organizational strategy and the role of a project manager
By accomplishing the project based on digital twins model, the concept of organizational
strategy has been understood by me as a dynamic road map that undertakes to describe how an
organization is required to evolve in order to meet their vision and goals. I have learned that
organizational strategy acts as a plan which indicates how resources should be allocated in an
effective and efficient manner among different activities of a business such as marketing,
production, infrastructure, etc (Meng and Boyd, 2017). I materialize upon how the strategy in an
organization is set at three distinct level that is, at corporate level, business level and functional
level. With the help of this learning, I have made my own strategies by ensuring its effectiveness
and efficiency to accomplish the two projects. For example, Bentley open modeling and
simulation application has been used by my team which was useful in modeling bridge structures
and developing a strategy to eliminate the effect of local traffic.
2.2 Need of understanding the organisational strategy by a project manager
The two major reason of having an understanding of the organizational strategy identified
by me as a project manager are as follows:
 As a project manager I was required to make appropriate decisions related to the
assignment of tasks to the team members, providing direction to myself and my team

members efforts and immediately responding towards the change (Gandomani and et.al.,
2020).
 I always focus on aligning individual goals with the organisational goals as there is a
necessity to understand organisational strategy well by me as a project manager, so that I
can ensure an effective project advocacy.
2.3 The role of a project manager
In this section, I will illustrate what role I have played while carrying out my duties and
responsibilities as a project manager in road construction and management of urban water cycle
project. Some of the most important roles that I have played as a project manager are as follows:
 As a project manager I regularly communicate with my team members and key
stakeholders in order to determine the current status of project and any kind of roadblocks
that are needed to be resolved immediately. Also, I used to communicate with my
project’s stakeholders on a daily basis to update myself regarding the project's progress
(Haughey, 2018).
 I regularly undertake analysis and assessment activities to identify issues and resolving it
at the earliest. As a project manager I always encourage suggestions from experts to
arrive at an effective solution to these issues to keep the project on track.
 Preparing budget and timely comparison of actual and budgeted activities is another most
important task that I used to perform as a project manager (Kaur, Mishra and
Maheshwari, 2020). I used to spend enough time on reviewing budgets to ensure the
project activities are within the allocated and available resources to keep the expenses
under control.
 I realized that time management skills are of great importance to become a successful
project manager as it allows for project accomplishment on time (Bibbes, Rollins and
Johnston, 2017). I used to prepare time sheets to guide my team in managing with the
time.
 Team building: I always thrust on keeping my team members happy and productive,
which can be possible through managing team members as a project manager. I tried to
boost morale of my team members by motivating them through monetary and non-
monetary incentives (Akanmu, Anumba and Ogunseiju, 2021).
 As a Project manager I have established high level of coordination at the stage of
designing the model for a project in order to avoid omissions, mistakes and collisions and
due to this I would be able to ensure the success of the project.
2.4 Digital Twins Project's SWOT analysis
Digital Twins project at Chengdu and Porto was a great accomplishment where I have
acted as a project manager and accordingly, I came to know about various strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats that can arise in relation to such infrastructural developmental project
(Hartmann and Van der Auweraer, 2021). Some of these strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats are as follows:

Strengths:
1. Use of Digital technology that is, Bentley open modeling and simulation applications in
an attempt to develop digital twins for the project (Orozco-Romero, Arias-Portela and
Marmolejo-Saucedo, 2019). Due to the creation of such digital twins for the project in
advance, it becomes easier to predict the performance of a project in advance. This
technology allows for carrying out various developmental activity such as modeling the
bridge structures and developing a strategy for minimizing the impact on local traffic.
2. Another digital technology that has been used in Chengdu project was “ProjectWise”
which I have chosen to store the information related to road networks in order to simulate
traffic for availing effective management throughout the project activities (Hou and et.al.,
2021).
3. The efficiency in Chengdu project was increased by 20%, detection and resolution of 16
points become possible and also there is a reduction in construction drawing time by 120
hours (Klippel and et.al., 2021).
4. LumenRT was another technology that I have utilized for visualization was found out to
be very helpful in shortening the process of approval by 15% (Lu and et.al., 2020).
5. Implementation of multiple system provides for scenario analysis of bursting of pipes and
shutdowns of pump and valve (Vogel-Heuser and et.al., 2021).
Weaknesses:
1. There were many challenges that emerged during the stage of designing of the project.
The challenge was associated with the space constraints between the connectors and
lower & elevated portions of the roadway (Pargmann, Euhausen and Faber, 2018). The
challenge was such to ensure that the design so developed should allow for smooth flow
of traffic on the slower lanes and connectors connected to the commercial businesses
existing on both the sides of the roadway.
2. Need of coordination at the design stage of the highest level was another weakness that I
faced as it was necessary for avoiding mistakes, collisions and weaknesses in Chengdu
road reconstruction project (El Saddik, 2018). It was felt as a weakness because there was
a high resilience faced from various project's stakeholders.
3. The inability to ensure higher return on investment was also acts as a weakness to
encourage financial assistance from financial institutions and banks (Du and et.al., 2020).
4. High resistance from public was faced in sharing data necessary for the implementation
of digital twins technology. Also, there was no availability of updated data on platforms
and websites that are specifically designed for sharing related data (Erikstad, 2017).
5. In the project of Porto, there was a weakness in terms of complex and dense water
resources due to poor hydraulic infrastructure. This weakness was complicating the
integration of various existing systems that are necessarily required throughout the
company for accomplishing the project (Yaqoob and et.al., 2020).

Opportunities:
1. The availability of several studies that has been carried out experts which is meant for
evaluating the validity of implementing digital technology in infrastructural projects
(Damjanovic-Behrendt and Behrendt, 2019).
2. There was a great opportunity available to carry out such projects demanding digital
commitment through entering into partnership with the existing digital technology
companies leading in the market (Kharlamov and et.al., 2018).
3. Availability of digital technologies to create intelligent transportation and digital models.
4. In water management project, digital twins technology provided for the opportunity to
integrate multiple systems such as OpenFlows SewerGEMS, OpenFlows WaterGEMS,
ACTION Server and OpenFlows FLOOD. All these systems are of great importance in
producing digital twins of the city water network in a fully integrated manner (Chen and
et.al., 2020). Therefore, opportunity of availing benefits such as operating gains of 25%,
reduction in water supply failures by 30% and reduced time taken for repairing burst
pipes by 8% becomes possible.
Threats:
1. With digital technology comes the threat of cyber security which was a great threat faced
throughout the management of projects that are based on digital technologies.
2. Threat of project failure was faced due to the necessity of providing safe pedestrian
passage system along the parks and green space near the high traffic areas (Borowski,
2021).
3. Restriction on the access to scientific databases and reports created international experts
making the activity of validating the performance of projects difficult.
2.5 Evidences found in the case study demonstrating complexities of the projects
Most of the IT based projects failed due to cost, specification required, time overruns,
etc. that acts as a complexity during the process of project management. As a project manager, I
can recognize various complexities of the IT based complex projects, some of which are as
follows:
 The IT based project are obviously required to be completed by humans where I found it
difficult to coordinate the behavior of project in terms of digital and human aspects.
Coordination is required specifically at design stage in such a complex project where
lack of coordination can be seen while the projects are actually implemented and it has
been realized that technology like digital twins fails to recognize such lack of
coordination at initial stage.
 Both of these projects are based on IT, so there are requirements of implementing
multiple digital systems at different phases of the project. Therefore, there are chances of
increasing costs above what has been budgeted. I too came across such complexities of
managing with the budget when costs are hiking at faster pace due to the use of digital

technology at three phases of Porto's water cycle management project. Hiking costs leads
to losing efficiency of project performance and it becomes very crucial for me as a
project manager to take steps for bringing down the costs.
 Overrunning of time is another complexity that has been faced during Chengdu project
of road reconstruction because the time usually gets extended of completing project as
firstly, the predictions are made about the performance of the project by creating its
virtual model which leads to demonstration of various shortcomings of the project that
can be arise during the project duration. Therefore, all the steps are taken for avoiding
and minimizing the risk of occurring such issues. However, when projects are actually
implemented that there are many issues that may arise that additionally require time for
resolving the same.
 The design stage is considered to be the most crucial stage in every infrastructural
project where small mistakes may lead to the failure of the project. Chengdu and Porto,
both these projects are infrastructural projects and accordingly, I faced may challenges in
coordinating at this stage to ensure the successful design of the project in one go.
 In water cycle management project of Porto, there was a complexity emerged due to
complex and dense water resources and hydraulic infrastructure which makes the
integration of various systems across the company much complicated.
2.6 Recommendations to senior management
 I must suggest senior management to ensure coordination along the whole process of
project management to avoid mistakes, collisions and omissions by the team members
(Hearn and Rix, 2019).
 I realized that senior management can avoid major project risks and failures through
adopting digital twins technology, accordingly they should encourage partnership with
digitally leading companies (Stark, Fresemann and Lindow, 2019).
 Decisions that are going to affect stakeholders of the project must be made in
coordination and engagement of them in order to ensure their acceptance and favor
throughout the project management.
 Also, before implementing any kind of new technology, senior management should
provide for appropriate training to the team members to ensure greater advantage and
avoidance of obstacles and resilience.
 Senior management should ensure that the project manager and team members must be
clear about the goals of the project, and they should accordingly emphasize on taking
timely sessions for the same (Kan and Anumba, 2019). In case of infrastructural projects,
the design stage required greater engagement of project manager and senior management
to establish coordination, so they must be trained accordingly to carry out their tasks
efficiently and effectively.
 It is to be recommended that senior management should plan for each and every phase of
such infrastructural projects along with giving considerations to risks that may arise
during the course of the project because failing to do this may lead to incurring both
actual costs and opportunity costs. Actual costs are related higher expenditure incurred

towards paying penalties for not keeping up with the regulatory and legislative
requirements. Opportunity costs too may arise due to losing future revenue as an impact
of damaged business reputation caused by the present project as a result of ignoring
regulatory and legislative requirements.
3. CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that digital twins technology can be
regarded as the biggest development for the infrastructural industry to accomplish related
projects with great efficiency and effectiveness. By acting as a project manager and utilizing this
technology during the road reconstruction project and water cycle management in Chengdu and
Porto respectively, I realized that project risks and failures can be avoided to a great extent by
predicting the performance of the project at its initial stage. To replicate the success of the two
project in future, it would be easier to get similar or higher success in future with the
implementation of digital twins technology on water cycle management project over road
reconstruction project. The reason behind giving priority of implementing digital twins
technology on water cycle management is that it is not that much affected from shifting utilities,
design issues and resettlement of persons affected from the project. If these issues arise in case of
road reconstruction project, then there are higher probability of the project getting failed.
Therefore, despite getting both the projects successful, it seems to be easier to replicate the
success of water cycle management project through the application of digital twins as the virtual
representation of the project behavior in this case was found out to be highly effective and result
oriented one than that of digital twins of road reconstruction project.

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