Project Planning

This document provides insights into project planning, including the importance of closure, capturing lessons learned, and using them for future projects. It discusses a case study on house renovation project management, highlighting the objectives, achievements, problems encountered, strengths and weaknesses of the team, allocation of tasks, and quality of communication. The document emphasizes the significance of project management in successful project implementation.

Running head: PROJECT PLANNING
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PROJECT PLANNING
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Table of Contents
Part 1..........................................................................................................................................2
Part 2..........................................................................................................................................3
1. Summary of the project undertaken................................................................................3
2. Achievement of the project objectives............................................................................3
3. Problems encountered in the project...............................................................................3
4. Strengths and weaknesses of the team............................................................................4
5. Allocation of tasks and quality of communication.........................................................4
6. Lessons learnt..................................................................................................................5
7. Conclusion.......................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Part 1
a. Some of the reasons for which closure of a project is important include confirmation
of various objectives that are being met, sense of closure, improving future
engagements, capturing of the knowledge, tying up the loose ends, rewarding the time
and many more (Kerzner & Kerzner, 2017). Closure of a project confirms the fact that
objectives of the project are met to the satisfaction of the clients. It further provides
the client and the project team with a particular sense of accomplishment as along
with closure. It provides the client with a sense that that the team and the organization
both are serious regarding helping them in meeting their objectives as well and the
organization would stay accountable for what has been promised (Sligo, Gauld &
Roberts, 2017). This step must never be missed. At the end of every project it is
important to realise if the objective are being met. An important part of the process of
project closure is obtaining project or user acceptance testing from their client for
confirming that their tea, had met the objectives of the project along with meeting the
agreed upon requirements.
b. Project must capture lessons learnt because it is good for the team, existing as well as
future projects and the organization. Lessons learnt are documented data which
reflects both positive as well as negative experiences of the project (Kerzner, 2019).
They tend to represent the commitment of the organization to the excellence of
project management as well as the manager’s opportunity of learning from actual
experiences of many more. Learning occurs in every project. Lessons learnt is the
actual learning that is gained from the entire process of carrying out the project
(Harrison & Lock, 2017). People tend to learn from their own project experiences as
well from others’ experiences. Project managers along wit team members and
leadership also has the right to participate in the lessons that has been learnt.
c. Some ways by which project team members, project managers and the organization
can use lessons learnt for the purpose of future use. Usually project managers tend to
learn from their past experiences (Creemers, De Reyck & Leus, 2015). In case lessons
are genuinely learnt from various previous projects then individuals would never
repeat the same mistakes. Projects within an organization would be more consistent
and would have been delivered in time along with maintaining the budget and
maintain the satisfaction of the customers (Agyei, 2015). Environments of project can

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be challenging along with multi-functional teams which are geographically ad well as
culturally diverse.
Part 2
1. Summary of the project undertaken
The project that had been undertaken include a project management of house renovation.
This project considers the trend of sustainability which has been spreading from one
individual to another individual (Li & Lu, 2016). This occurs when people start caring more
regarding their lives along with the entire environment where they live. The main theme of
the project is sustainable home renovations. This project tends to steal attention of the
majority of the users. The main highlights of the project involve the usability of sustainability
practices in the process of renovating house like energy saving equipment’s, increasing the
durability of the house, methodologies of sustainability construction, rainwater harvesting,
eco-friendly equipment’s and waste management (Vaagen, Kaut & Wallace, 2017). The core
objectives of this particular project included completing the project within a given time
period along with mentioned timeline, making sustainable development, establishing homes,
decreases the amount of resources that are supposed to be consumed by the project.
2. Achievement of the project objectives
The project objectives had been achieved by undertaking numerous activates, the
objectives of the project was to carry out a simple as well as durable renovation of a house
covering all the steps that are necessary of a house renovation (Porter, 2016). Our objective
was also to carry out the project such that it does not exceed the budget that had been
decided. We had achieved our objectives by communicating our goals and aims to every
member of our project. This had helped every member in relating the project objectives to
some of their individual objectives (Son & Kim, 2015). An example of this is that one of our
team member did not have any experience in the projects for house renovation. He had got a
chance before but due to lack of team members and supervisors, he had rejected the project,
but this time he had accepted in order to gain knowledge regarding the project of renovation
of house.
3. Problems encountered in the project
Our team had encountered numerous issues, these problems include disagreement, the
issue of disagreement was faced the planning phase of the renovation project. In this
particular phase, the planning of the house renovation was carried out and we had designed a
specific renovation some of the project members did not agree with the proposed plan, they

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wanted to approach their plan in the renovation whereas most of the members agreed with the
initially approached design, his led to disagreement among members and hence some of the
members decided to leave the project because we were not able to proceed further in the
project (Kullman, Campillo & Dahlquist, 2015). After a lot of disagreements, a new design
had been presented which included the features of the initial design as well as another one.
This design was better than the first one and we proceeded with it. One more issue that was
faced by the team is communication, after the disagreement none of the team members tried
to communicate with each other for the purpose of solving the issue (Serrador & Pinto,
2015). I and one of my teammate had to convince them to solve the issue and come to a
decision so that we are able to proceed with the project.
4. Strengths and weaknesses of the team
Our team had numerous strengths as well as weaknesses within them. The strengths that
we had among the team are creativity, every member showed their creativity when it came to
implementing the project. They provided their unique ideas while carrying out a task. They
provided suggestions on how every task can be done in an effective manner along with
consuming less time (Creemers, De Reyck & Leus, 2015). One more strength include
spontaneity, every member showed spontaneity in carrying out every task, they did not back
out when we had to perform some extra tasks that were not initially planned. Every member
was eager to perform their own tasks along with helping others in doing their tasks as well.
Besides this our team also had some weaknesses, these weaknesses include friendly nature,
the friendly nature had undoubtedly provided us numerous benefits but it had also turned out
to be a weakness for our team , this is because a group of 3 people had become very good
friends in the span of performing the project. This had resulted in the group to chat more than
required, they started their conversation regarding discussing about the project but they
continued their conversation even after that.
5. Allocation of tasks and quality of communication
Allocation of tasks and the quality of communication had been two vital factors of our
project. After we were provided the project, the first thing that we had to do was allocation of
tasks, we had provided with various team members who were specialized in various fields.
We allocated the tasks to team members on the basis of their expertise. Suppose a person who
was expert in designing was provided with the task of designing the project, one who was
expert in making good schedules was provided with the task to produce the schedule for the
project (Harrison & Lock, 2017). This had allowed us to carry out all the tasks in an effective

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manner along with saving time due to various errors caused by inexperience. Quality of
communication has also been the major factor for the success of the project. We ensured that
clear communication was maintained between the team members. We tried to avoid any sort
of miscommunication between the members. In order to maintain a smooth communication
between the members, we had communicated the objectives, aims and individual
responsibilities for the project. This had avoided any sort of miscommunication between the
members. Whenever any sort of disagreement had occurred we cleared it out with proper and
clear communication.
6. Lessons learnt
Lessons that we have learn from this project is that in order to work in a team, we cannot
act selfish and just perform our activities and sit back, along with performing individual
activities, we also need to cooperate with others in order to complete the project in the
specified time. In order to work in a team we would have to be prepared to accept the fact
that not all the team members’ would be patient, understanding, cooperative and some more.
Working in a team has numerous advantages such as we get help in decision making,
cooperation is a boosting factor within a project (Sligo, Gauld & Roberts, 2017). Besides the
strengths there are various weaknesses that are also to be considered while working in a
specific project. Some weakness include disagreements, disagreements are a part of team
work, in order to work in a team, it is very important to manage and overcome all the
obstacles that would come in between.
7. Conclusion
From the project that has been carried out, it can be stated that project management is
very important in the process of carrying out a specific project. Some major aspects that are
to be considered in the process of project implementation include allocation of tasks,
communication, cooperation among members and some more. Every aspect have their own
impact on the project. Proper tasks allocation helps the project in carrying out the tasks in an
effective manner. In this case, the team members must be allocated with tasks in which they
are good or in which they have expertise. This helps the project in undertaking the entire
project in an effective manner. This has also helped in carrying out less number of errors,
hence increased time in carrying out other activities. The next important factor incudes proper
communication. This has helped us in avoiding any sort of collision. In case of small
disagreements, we had worked together in solving it with the help of clear and good
communication channel. A good communication channel had definitely provided us with

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numerous advantages but it had also proved to be a weakness of the project. This is because
there had been a small group that had formed within the team and they took advantage of a
clear communication between the members because they started the conversation to discuss
regarding the project but they continued it for discussing their personal matters.

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References
Agyei, W. (2015). Project planning and scheduling using PERT and CPM techniques with
linear programming: case study. International journal of scientific & technology
research, 4(8), 222-227.
Creemers, S., De Reyck, B., & Leus, R. (2015). Project planning with alternative
technologies in uncertain environments. European Journal of Operational
Research, 242(2), 465-476.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Kerzner, H. (2019). Using the project management maturity model: strategic planning for
project management. Wiley.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Kullman, M., Campillo, J., Dahlquist, E., Fertner, C., Giffinger, R., Große, J., ... &
Haselberger, J. (2016). Note: The PLEEC project—Planning for energy efficient
cities. Journal of Settlements and Spatial Planning, 5, 89-92.
Li, D., & Lu, M. (2016). Automated generation of work breakdown structure and project
network model for earthworks project planning: a flow network-based optimization
approach. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 143(1), 04016086.
Porter, L. (2016). Unlearning the colonial cultures of planning. Routledge.
Serrador, P., & Pinto, J. K. (2015). Does Agile work?—A quantitative analysis of agile
project success. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), 1040-1051.
Sligo, J., Gauld, R., Roberts, V., & Villa, L. (2017). A literature review for large-scale health
information system project planning, implementation and evaluation. International
journal of medical informatics, 97, 86-97.
Son, H., & Kim, C. (2015). Early prediction of the performance of green building projects
using pre-project planning variables: data mining approaches. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 109, 144-151.

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Vaagen, H., Kaut, M., & Wallace, S. W. (2017). The impact of design uncertainty in
engineer-to-order project planning. European Journal of Operational
Research, 261(3), 1098-1109.