Southern Cross University: MNG00785 Project Management Report

This report details a cottage renovation project, providing a practical application of project management principles. The report begins with an introduction outlining the significance of project management, emphasizing planning, execution, and team organization. It explores various project management theories and tools, including Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), RACI charts, Activity on Node (AoN) diagrams, Gantt charts, budget estimation, and risk management. The author, acting as project manager, describes the application of these tools in the cottage renovation. The report highlights the effectiveness of WBS in breaking down tasks, the RACI chart for role distribution, and the AoN diagram for sequencing activities. It also covers risk and change management, stakeholder communication, and the author's role and experiences, including challenges and lessons learned. The project's budget, timelines, and progress reporting are also discussed, along with the author's reflections on the project's impact on their management skills and future project applications. The report concludes with a summary of the experiences and knowledge gained, emphasizing the importance of these skills for future large-scale projects.

Running Head: DISCUSSION ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROJECT
DISCUSSION ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1DISCUSSION ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT REPORT
Introduction
This essay aims to discuss the experiences and knowledge gained by doing the cottage
renovation project. Project management helps in the planning and executing the project and
organize the roles of the members of the team to attain accelerated results. This essay uses
different types of theories for the implementation of the project. The effective methods that
were used are WBS, RACI Chart, AoN, Gantt chart, budget estimation and many more. This
project helped me gain a lot of knowledge regarding project management and different tools
used to effectively implement the project.
Project management theory
Project management theory helped me to understand the underlying principles of
managing a project. Project management theory was helpful while estimating and minimizing
the costs and quality control of the project. Firstly, the Work breakdown structure (WBS) was
used to breakdown the events to distribute them efficiently. As per the idea of project
management theory the decomposition of work helped in the efficient implementation of the
project. The different processes of initiation, planning, execution of the outline, control on the
budget and resources and the closing of the project were used in this project. Planning of the
process were done by the team jointly and the execution and the control were divided among
the team members. From contacting the contractor and working according to the timeline of
the project are explained in the theory of execution. The theory of controlling was used to
control the overall changes in the project.
How the theory was used
All the methods and tools used to analyse the situations were very effective however,
WBS, RACI, resource overload and risk management were the most effective ones. WBS or
Work breakdown structure helped in the breakdown of the whole project into smaller

2DISCUSSION ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT REPORT
convenient tasks or components. This provided a roadmap to better execution of the project.
The main categories were broken down into sub categories which made the project easily
manageable. Moreover, this was a small project so the number of levels were less compared
to a large project. The different units made by this process were shutters, floors and purchase
supplies, windows, walls and porch. WBS helped me as the project manager, to organize the
requirements effectively. RACI chart helped in the distribution of tasks and roles of the
stakeholders and each member of the team with respect to four factors which are responsible,
accountable, consulted and informed. The roles of each member were distributed using this
chart. This RACI chart ensured the proper distribution of roles and responsibilities of each
members associated with the project. Every activity and the progress of the project were
informed to the stakeholders as they are important members. The cottage renovation project
had only four workers with few tasks and this made the creation of RACI chart relatively
easy. Though the project had fewer tasks, RACI chart ensured that every task was completed
on time and the human resources available were used efficiently. All the interior works were
assigned to the contractor and the manager made sure that the work flow is even and properly
done. AoN (Activity on node) diagram is also a useful method that show the proper structure
of activities and the sequence they should be implemented. This diagram consists of boxes
and arrows that provides clear understanding of the structure of the project. This simplified
diagram is very helpful to understand the process even if a person has no knowledge of
project management. Risk management is very important for the successful completion of
the project. If a detected risk becomes true then that may hamper the project or might result in
failure of the project. Risks were detected and managed properly in this project as the budget
was very low for this project with limited time. The major risk detected was the injury of the
workers which would increase the overall budget and the time span. Budget estimation is one
very important factors for any project. It helps in the estimation of costs for each task. The

3DISCUSSION ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT REPORT
change management theory was useful to manage the changes in the course of the project
completion. The main changes were the repair of the windows and interiors as they were
highly damaged but it did not have any impact on the deadline as these changes were
managed properly.
My roles in this project
I was assigned the role of manager for this project and the interaction with the
workers and the contractor helped me build my self-confidence and personality. Progress
reporting was done by me for this project which ensured the completion of certain tasks
according to the timeline of the project. The cottage industry was a small project but had a
small timeline which indicates that the proper monitoring of the progress were important.
Every team member were informed about the progress and the task was assigned to me which
made me more responsible for the completion of the project. As the manager of the project it
was my job to make the budget estimation. A bottom-up approach of estimation method is
used and the budget was controlled properly as there were no extra funds. My job was to
ensure that there is no wastage of funds in any level for the project. My primary role in this
whole project was of the manager with many responsibilities from structuring the project into
sub units to the estimation of cost and to controlling the budget. I was present at the cottage
location during the completion of the project. Though this is a small project but required a lot
of effort by every individual associated with the project as the man power and the fund
resources were limited. As the manager, I assured there were no conflicts amongst the
workforce.
My experiences
This was a small project so everything was almost manageable but, I will take care of
everything that I have learned from this project to implement in large projects. Managing the

4DISCUSSION ABOUT PROJECT MANAGEMENT REPORT
resources is a huge task as the risks are greater in case of a large scale project. The creation of
WBS, RACI Chart will also become complex if the project is large. It is important to have
some backup funds in case of any emergency. Progress reporting taught me to convince the
workforce to complete the task within the scheduled timeline. Interacting with the contractors
helped me build my communication skills better. My managing skills also got tested and got
enhanced through this project.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it was a great experience for me and I gained a lot of knowledge in this
process. These skills will help me in future while doing some large scale project. On that, the
theory part helped me to understand the idea of project management in details and helped me
gain project management skills. This was a small project but with great importance and
responsibilities.

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