Assignment 1 Part 2: Reflections on MP 49002 Project Management Course

This assignment presents a student's reflections on a project management course (MP 49002), focusing on the key knowledge areas as defined by the PMBoK and AS ISO21500, 2016. The student discusses their learning experiences and insights gained from each of the ten knowledge areas, including project integration, stakeholder, scope, resource, time, cost, risk, quality, procurement, and communication management. The reflection highlights the initial challenges and the eventual understanding of project management principles, emphasizing the importance of pre-planning, stakeholder identification, scope definition, resource mobilization, time management, cost estimation, risk assessment, quality benchmarks, procurement planning, and effective communication. The student also reflects on what they would do differently and provides conclusions regarding the practical application of project management concepts in their professional career.

49002 Managing Projects Spring 2017
Assignment 1 – part 2
To be completed after assignment 2
Student name:
Student number:
Date submitted:
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Table of Contents
1 Introduction...................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Outline...............................................................................................................................3
1.2 Version Control.................................................................................................................3
2 What have you learnt....................................................................................................................4
2.1 If you had to do this course again, what would you do differently?.................................4
2.2 Reflections on Project Integration Management..............................................................4
2.3 Reflections on Project Stakeholder Management.............................................................4
2.4 Reflections on Project Scope Management.......................................................................4
2.5 Reflections on Project Resource Management.................................................................5
2.6 Reflections on Project Time Management........................................................................5
2.7 Reflections on Project Cost Management.........................................................................5
2.8 Reflections on Project Risk Management.........................................................................5
2.9 Reflections on Project Quality Management....................................................................6
2.10 Reflections on Project Procurement Management........................................................6
2.11 Reflections on Project Communication Management...................................................6
3 Conclusions...................................................................................................................................7
4 References.....................................................................................................................................8
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1 Introduction
1.1 Outline
In this report, I shall briefly cover all the knowledge areas of the project management as per the
PMBoK, which I have learned during the course and those are also covered in the AS ISO21500,
2016 (Guidance on project management). All the 10 knowledge areas which I shall elaborate in
subsequent topics are related to the integration of the project, scope, time and cost management of
the project, quality, Human Resource, Communication, risk, stakeholder, and Procurement
management.
1.2 Version Control
Version Release date Comments
0.0 28/09/2017 Helen created the template
1.0 14/10/2017 Self-learning reflections regarding the topic added
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2 What have you learnt
2.1 If you had to do this course again, what would you do
differently?
The course was a bit tough at the starting phase, and I was even struggling a bit. But once the flow
of topic started, I started grabbing the basics of the project management and could realize that it’s a
very interesting topic and the course became easier to me.
I would suggest for the future students to surely go through the course and experience the factors
which are useful for developing the knowledge base for conducting better project management than
others and always stand ahead of the crowd.
2.2 Reflections on Project Integration Management
Various sections of the ‘Project Integration Management’ knowledge group are the mixture of the
whole project management activities. Initially, while working in a group we all were a bit confused
that, when we had to develop all the project management documents at each and every stage of 9
different knowledge areas, then why we are doing this knowledge area before starting the balance 9
similar knowledge areas.
Even though my group was good, all were participative but struggled a lot during the initial period.
But after keep working in the group and conducting the brainstorming, we could develop the sense
of always doing a pre-planning or preparatory work before jumping to the main task, which is the
Integration management is all about, and then enjoyed the course a lot.
The course is designed perfectly, and there is no need to change the pattern of the assignment.
2.3 Reflections on Project Stakeholder Management
All the stakeholders as listed by me were all correct and all were getting impacted or were capable
to impact my course (The Denver Foundation, 2017). The list prepared by our group was so
exhaustive that we need not add any during the course, but yes, there were few with whom we
didn’t interact for the course.
The learning from the knowledge area is like; we need to always perform the correct and almost
accurate stakeholder identification for properly managing them during the course of the project.
2.4 Reflections on Project Scope Management
The ‘Project Scope Management’ knowledge area is the first important task or planning we need to
perform after the pre-planning of the overall project. During the process, we need to first develop
the planning process or document for the balance subgroups. Once the procedure is finalized, we
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need to identify the requirement of the project or the deliverables we need to deliver by collecting
and documenting the expectations of different stakeholders identified. Then need to define the
scope of work and decompose them in the form of WBS and pass the information to ‘Time
Management Process’ knowledge area. During the actual execution of the project, again need to
verify the identified scope and in case of any deviation, also some changes are required to be made
as per scope control process.
2.5 Reflections on Project Resource Management
According to the high-level scope of the work developed in the Initiation stage, the key resources
are identified and the mobilization plan is developed to recruit them according to the requirement.
Once the key resources are recruited, then it is their responsibility to develop the manpower and
other facilities requirement among the discipline and conduct the recruitment with the help of
candidate data bank available with HR department.
Once the team is acquired, now the Project manager or the team leader needs to manage their
expectations and get the job done within the planned duration, cost and quality standards.
2.6 Reflections on Project Time Management
During developing the knowledge on the ‘Project Time Management’, I realized the importance of
this information in our real life too. We need to always do our time planning by developing the
overall task into small fragments (i.e. activities) and then assign the most manageable time duration,
and see the overall duration required to finish the task along with enough buffer time. Once the plan
is finalized, then we need to manage them according to the planned duration and in case of any
deviation need to record them as learning for the future project. Because of the buffer time, I could
finish the assignment 2.
2.7 Reflections on Project Cost Management
In this knowledge area, we could understand the methods of cost estimation and the techniques by
which we can develop the cash flow curve, which we need to always, follow and arrange funds
accordingly to avoid any cash crunch during the course of the project. The learning is; we need to
always develop as accurate and as much detailed estimate as possible along with some extra reserve
to counter any unforeseen situation. This time we could not complete the project within the
estimated budget; there has been the cost overrun.
2.8 Reflections on Project Risk Management
The major learning from the knowledge area is to always identify the threats and opportunities
before actually starting the activities to have a good assessment of the probable risks and always
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have the extra reserves in hand to counter such situations and add the risk reserves in the cost
estimates to develop the overall budget for the project. Many of the documented risks were
mitigated according to the planned actions along with very few unknowns too.
2.9 Reflections on Project Quality Management
Quality management is all about setting some benchmarks to provide a good product to the
customer and then track our progress against the set criteria to measure the compliance levels. But
this time I could not meet the criteria fully, even after going to the lecturers and following the
classes. I think we need to improve the productivity and need to work smart & not hard. I need to
develop a proper work plan to improve my attendance.
2.10 Reflections on Project Procurement Management
As per the plan of the procurement items, I had to purchase all items along with few additional too
because of the lack of vision and experience. But the planning to buy or manage few items like
books, laptops etc. were good and could save money (work within the estimated budget) from the
decision and could manage the study using library resources only.
2.11 Reflections on Project Communication Management
We did all the communications as per plan and communication procedure. But few objections from
other group were managed according to the conflict management process. But the objections were
not from high strength groups of stakeholders, so did not impact our course. This way we could
manage them without even doing any extra work to satisfy them, which I learned from the course to
analyze the stakeholders properly (TutorialsPoint, 2017).
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3 Conclusions
Thank you all to read my learning from the course and I really learned a lot regarding project
management concepts and procedure to apply them in my practical professional career as per
(Zandhuis & Stellingwerf, 2016).
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4 References
The Denver Foundation, 2017. Identifying internal and external Stakeholders. [Online] Available
at: http://www.nonprofitinclusiveness.org/identifying-internal-and-external-stakeholders [Accessed
14 October 2017].
TutorialsPoint, 2017. Communications Management. [Online] Available at:
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_concepts/communications_management.htm
[Accessed 14 October 2017].
Zandhuis, A. & Stellingwerf, R., 2016. ISO 21500 Guidance on Project Management. Van Haren.
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