ITM90A - Project Management & Teamwork Reflection: SAAAAS Team

This document presents a student's reflection on project management and teamwork within the context of the ITM90A course, specifically focusing on the SAAAAS Consultants project. The reflection covers various aspects of project management, including time management, quality management, human resource management, and communication management. The student discusses their personal performance and the group's dynamics, highlighting areas of strength and areas needing improvement. The project life cycle plan (PLC) is examined as the action plan embraced by the group, detailing the roles and responsibilities of each team member. The reflection concludes with an overall assessment of the project's success and the lessons learned regarding effective communication, teamwork, and the importance of project management principles. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Running head: INFORMATION SYSTEMS 1
Information Systems
Name
Information Systems

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Reflection on project management
Introduction
Accordingly, at the beginning of this course, everything seemed new since the course
was a unique experience for me as well as my friends from the learning point of view as well
as regarding performance. Therefore, since the class was new to all of us, we had to form
groups. As a result, our group consisted of six members that are Akbar, Alper, Aabid,
Sakaanan, Shivam and me (Ajmal). Indeed, this group was formed during the lecture
whereby the group based on an individual choice that is each member was allowed to choose
the group to join. The group formation process was led by the instructor where there were
several groups hence each student made their choice on which group to join. Therefore, after
forming the group, the first thing that we did was allocate ourselves different roles and
responsibility. We also came up with rules to ensure that we realise the objective of our
project. Thus, I learned that the primary most aspect in project management is the planning
phase in building a project team (Kerzner, & Kerzner, 2017). Indeed, it is significant to
develop your team as first as possible. Certainly, the early appointment of the group allows to
yield most out of the ownership towards the project and also maximally allow for the team’s
contribution to the project development.
Basically, during the course, I learned various significant elements concerning project
management such as project time management, project quality management, project human
resource management, and project communication management. To begin with project time
management, I learned that time management is a crucial and very resourceful component for
any project to succeed. Accordingly, time management is essential the capability to plan and
organise the time utilised on each project activity (Larson, & Gray, 2015). In this light, the
outcome of good time management is increased productivity and effectiveness. Therefore, I

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learned that time is a paramount element of project management which entails skills like goal
setting, planning and prioritising for a better performance.
Secondly, I learned that project quality management is an extensive process which
runs throughout the development course including all the disciplines involved in the project
study as well as execution stages. Indeed, quality management in a project cuts across the
whole project management functionality and execution processes which entails quality
control, quality assurance as well as quality costing (Turner, 2014). Certainly, I learned that
sufficient quality could only be realised by addressing all these aspects. For instance, quality
assurance makes sure that the quality of the product comply or even exceeds the client’s
specifications while quality control is an approach used to ensure that the project’s quality
requirements are met. Therefore, effective quality management in the project calls for
adherence to all quality prerequisites as well as controls being included in the project.
Thirdly, I learned that in project management human resource plays a significant role.
Accordingly, human resource helps to ensure that there is an efficient flow of work.
Therefore, as a project manager, one is supposed to involve human resource in all the
project’s stages that are planning, project tracking and management. Consequently, in the
case of project planning the phase involves searching for the right team members and
predicting resources to be used. Human resource management is essential in project
management because team members play a significant part in tracking and management
(Project Management Institute, 2018). Therefore, after assembling a project team and
scheduling of tasks human resource help to track and manage the progress of the project by
ensuring that nothing falls through cracks. Additionally, resources such as task management,
time tracking, reporting tools, and cost tracking also aid in managing different features of a
human resource project.

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Lastly but not least, I learned that communication management is another significant
aspect for the success of project management. Project management involves different teams;
therefore, this calls for the existence of effective communication among the teams. Thus,
communication management is vital in relaying information, receiving information,
discussing problems, and communicating changes in the project in case they arise. For
instance, when it comes to conveying information the project manager has to ensure that the
team members, as well as the stakeholders, are informed of all their expectations towards the
project success. Thus, communication management help in the relay of information through
consistent communication with the project team and stakeholders regarding the project
progress (Marchewka, 2014). Indeed, regular communication help to avoid delays and
misunderstandings which could lead to project failure or delay.
In general, having learned various aspect concerning project management. Indeed,
during the course, I can confidently say that the areas that I performed well include
communication management, quality management, and human resource management.
However, I realised that there also certain areas that I need to improve such as time
management. I realised that regarding time management I was not effective therefore to
improve in this part I plan to ensure that before initiating any project in future I will have to
exhaust the project requirements. Also, I would make attempts to begin timing myself in each
activity that I undertake as a way to practice time management.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I can affirm that project management is a vital course since it allows
one to learn a wide scope of activities such as time management, effective communication,
and project quality management and human resource management. As a result, based on my

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group’s performance I can confidently gauge its performance on a scale of 7 that is it very
well applied its project management skills and knowledge.
Reflection on group work
Introduction
The practical part of the course was significant important since it provided us with the
opportunity to implement all the skills as well as the knowledge that we gained during the
lectures in addition to individual studies. Subsequently, we have learned that project
management success call for creativity, and collaboration. Indeed, we have learned that
project management is a sequential development process which involves different but
interconnected practices such as planning, initiation, execution, and implementation.
However, these elements can only be realised through effective time management, quality
management, human resource management, and effective communication management.
As a result, the action plan that we embraced in our group was the project life cycle
plan (PLC). We decided to take the project lifecycle plan since it addresses all the phases
involved in project management that are planning, initiation, execution/implementation, and
closure. The reason that made us pick on PLC as our action plan is that a project lifecycle
comprises various distinct project stages such as initiation, implementation, planning, design,
handover, and closure. Therefore, the PLC gives a well-structured method for the delivery of
the project (Mir, & Pinnington, 2014). Consequently, this enabled each member of the group
to work on the project in determining the manner in which the project progresses. Also, PLC
clearly illustrates all the activities as well as outputs for every project phase. At the same
time, project lifecycle aid in defining different roles found in the project organisation since it
offers a framework for the project.

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Indeed, this framework allows for the visibility as well as an understanding by all
members within the project (Lock, 2017). Similarly, project lifecycle allowed us to easily
assign ourselves roles and responsibilities based on the phase of the project. For instance with
the help of the PLC action plan that we undertook we were able to assign ourselves different
roles and responsibilities in the following way. In the context of this project the project roles
were allocated as follows Akbar worked on the company profile; Aabid worked on the
existing process and process assessment; Alper worked on the description and assessment of
supportive information technologies; Shivam worked on key performance indicators;
Sakaanan worked on change management while I (Ajmal) worked on new process design and
GAP analysis.
Certainly, the action plan undertaken was exceedingly outstanding in the sense that it
allowed us to allow the project manager to connect the project progress to every phase. For
example, the initiation phase entails everything up to the business case generation. The
planning phase encompasses coming up with the project management plan, and other
subsidiary plans like quality plan, and risk management plan (Heagney, 2016). In view of
that, I learned that the planning phase is the stage that all the activities that are to be
conducted are structured based on the project’s objectives. During project execution, all of us
were involved in monitoring the progress of different tasks under the leadership of Sakaanan
and me (Ajmal) who were tasked with process design and change management.
Basically, in my view, the project was well undertaken, and for that reason, I rate the
project performance on a scale of 7 "Very well applied." Subsequently, during this session, I
learned various useful things concerning my project management course as well as life
experiences such as the importance of time management in project management and a real-
life setting. Also, I learned that the success of project management calls for effective
communication, and teamwork.

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Conclusion
In summary, project management is a significant course as it equips one with skills
and knowledge such as proper time management, effective communication and how to work
as a team.

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References
Heagney, J. (2016). Fundamentals of project management. Amacom.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2015). A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge: PMBOK (®) Guide. Project Management Institute.
Lock, D. (2017). The essentials of project management. Routledge.
Marchewka, J. T. (2014). Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Mir, F. A., & Pinnington, A. H. (2014). Exploring the value of project management: linking
project management performance and project success. International journal of project
management, 32(2), 202-217.
Project Management Institute. (2018). A Guide to the Project Management Body of
Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)-(SIMPLIFIED CHINESE). Project Management
Institute.
Turner, J. R. (2014). Handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). New York, NY:
McGraw-hill.