Critical Issues in Project Management: A Reflective Journal

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: