Reflective Report: Project Management Lessons Learned PPMP20008

This report details a student's reflection on their experiences and lessons learned in the PPMP20008 project management course. The report outlines the student's approach to gathering and documenting lessons, including the use of research from scholarly journals and online resources. Two key lessons are identified: the importance of systematic project planning and the need for risk mitigation and contingency plans. Each lesson is analyzed, with the student reflecting on the situations, feelings, and insights gained. Improvement strategies, based on the SMART attributes, are proposed to address each lesson, focusing on systematic documentation, risk management, and contingency planning. The report concludes with a summary of the learning and a commitment to apply these lessons in future project endeavors, emphasizing the value of effective planning and risk management for project success.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT 1
Project Management
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

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INTRODUCTION
The essence of this report is to document the learning activities that I experienced in
my writing course project PPMP20008. The objective of documenting this report is to
describe the different situations that I went through while writing this project. The good thing
about it is that I can use it as a reference documenting in case I come across a similar project.
In this report I managed to learn about several lesson learnt framework which would will in
improving on my learning. I planned to collect information through search for information in
dissimilar articles, books and journals. I worked on this project alone from the start till the
end. In the document there are several lessons that I experienced and learned from them a
number of teachings. Also, I have recorded my learning in correspondence to improvement
strategies that I will use to help improve while working on future projects.
3: LESSONS LEARNT: FRAMEWORK
3.1 How I planned to gather and document lessons learnt
When I planned to identify
and collect lessons learnt
Who I planned to involve in
the process of gathering
lessons
How I planned to document
lessons
In made a decision to plan
and gather lessons to learn
from at the beginning of the
semester during the
development of project
course PPMP20008. This
was indeed the best time to
learn and document different
I planned to work alone and
rely on the library and
online scholarly sites such as
Google Scholar and e-books
in researching for my
writing project PPMP20008.
My plan used in developing
my project was majorly
based on carrying out
research from different
scholarly journals, articles
and books and then writing
them down in my project
book and then transfer into a

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project activities. softcopy in Microsoft Word.
2.2 What actually happened?
The description below illustrates the real-time situation that took place in the process
of developing my project and how I documented it.
When I identified and
collected lessons learnt
Who I involved in the
process of gathering
How I documented lessons
I managed to identify and
gather the lesson that I
learned during the project at
the end of PPMP20008
project because I believed it
was the best time that I
could analyse all the issues
that I had encountered while
working on specific project
activities.
During the process of data
collection lessons included
one of my friends who is
also a course mate while
working on the project. The
reason for picking on a
friend is because I
understood that I might not
be in a position to recall all
the teachings that I had
gained in the course by
myself. Therefore, a friend
would help me in areas that I
could not recall to avoid
missing out significant
information about the
project.
I documented the lesson that
I learned in my course
project PPMP20008. I
picked on this approach
because it would be easier to
transfer the data into a
softcopy unlike
documenting the
information in Microsoft
Word file, which in case of a
virus or any other threat
could render my efforts to
waste. To avoid such
scenarios I decided to
document my learnings in a
book.

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3. LESSONS
3.1 Lesson 1
The situation described the things that happened in the course project. The “situation made
me fee …” provides a description regarding my view after the occurrence of the situation and
“what I learnt from reflection on the situation” describe the lesson learned from the situation.
The table below is a summary of lesson 1.
1. Situation 2. The situation made me
feel …
3. What I learnt from
reflecting on the situation
During the semester at one
of the time I had a
experience of writing project
in which I searched many of
academic paper for the
assignment. I wrote so many
references and the data
relevant to my assignment.
It takes almost 2 days.
Finally only 2 days were left
to due upcoming assignment
for which I have worked so
hard. I started analysing the
data which has been already
written down and found my
The situation made me feel
depressed and confused
because I could not locate
which information was
suitable for use in my
project and yet time was not
on my side because I was
rushing to see to it that I bit
the assignment submission
deadline.
I learned that it is not
advisable to wait until the
end of a project or any
project task to commence
your writing work.
Instead of simply saving
relevant research papers for
the task, a note should be
make where and how that
data will be utilize at related
area in report.

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self in great confusion that
which data should fit in my
assignment properly and
which will not.
3.1.1: IMPROVEMENT STRATEGY 1
The table below illustrates an improvement strategy that I would use ensure that next
time I do not find myself in the frustrating situation that I found myself in.
(a).
Improvement
strategy
(b) How to
measure of the
strategy works
(c) Why the
strategy is
achievable
(d) Relevance
of strategy to
address the
lesson
(e) When the
strategy will be
implemented
To improve and
make sure that I
could not find
myself in the
above situation
another time I
work in a
systematic
manner by
documenting all
learnings and
documenting
To measure if
the strategy will
work I will
document each
project activity
learned under a
title while the
project is
progressing
from the
beginning to the
end.
Indeed, this
strategy is
achievable
because it
allows one to
document all
activities as the
project progress
in a systematic
manner to avoid
problems when
it comes to
This strategy is
relevant in the
sense that it will
be possible to
record all
lessons learned
without missing
out any.
Similarly, this
strategy is
systematic
which means
The strategy
should start in
the initiation
phase of the
project and run
throughout the
project till the
close out time.

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them under a
specific tittle to
make my
working easier
when its come
to compiling the
whole project
work.
analysis. that once the
project is
complete there
no issues but to
compile the
documented
issues into a
report. This
process makes
one’s work
easier to
manage the
project.
3.2 Lesson 2
1. Situation 2. The situation made me
fee…
3. What I learnt from
reflecting on the situation
I realised that there was no a
risk mitigation and
contingency plan while
working on the project. This
condition affects all the
members including myself,
which greatly interfere with
the quality and productivity
This situation makes me feel
disorganised because it is
our mistake for not
including significant project
requirements. On
considering these plans
before the start of the
project, it would be easier to
The success of a project
should involve all
requirements since leaving
out certain activities could
impact negatively to the
project. In this case, risk
management allows the
team to identify analyse and

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of the deliverables
(Chapman, 2016). This
situation places the project
at high risk of facing
problems.
identify any risk likely to
affect the project.
mitigate risks that can affect
the project (Pradeepa &
Resmi, 2016). The
contingency plan provide a
project with a backup plan.
This plan work to secure the
project data by reducing
project disruption by
keeping each member safe
(Kerzner H. & Kerzner, H.
R., 2017).
3.2.1 Improvement Strategy 2
(a)
Improvement
strategy
Explain what
the specific
strategy is that
you will
implement to
address the
lesson
identified above
(b)
Measurement
How to measure
if the strategy
works
(c)
Achievable
Why the
strategy is
achievable
(d)
Relevant
Explain the
relevance of
strategy to
address the
lesson
(e)
Timing
When the strategy
will be
implemented

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In order to
overcome the
mentioned
above situation,
I will develop
an effective risk
management
plan and
contingency
plan to be
followed by the
team (Patterson
& Neailey,
2002). The risk
management
plan will help
the team to
identify any risk
likely to affect
the project. The
contingency
plan will
provide
members with a
The outcome of
the risk
management
plan will be
able to identify
risks likely to
affect the
project. To
measure the
effectiveness of
the contingency
plan strategy
will be done by
checking on the
accident cases
reported
(Harrison, &
Lock, 2017).
This strategy is
attainable
because
formulating a
risk
management
plan and the
contingency
plan is not
hard.
The relevance
of these plans
is that it helps
in the
identification
of risks like to
affect the
project (Lai,
2014). The
lesson I
learned is that
a project
should have a
backup plan
through the
contingency
plan where in
case the first
strategy fail the
plan a backup
can be used.
The
recommended
improvement
strategy will be
implemented at
the planning level
because it is the
appropriate time
of the project
(Vijayaraghavan&
Aruna, 2014).

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safe working
setting.
Conclusion
In this project, I was able to record all my learning that I collected when working on
the project. I will utilize the recorded learning lessons in my forthcoming projects to ensure
that I manage all project activities including risk management plan, and contingency plan
(Duran, Artene, Gogan, & Duran, 2015). Also, I have learned that effective planning has to
be systematic and run from the start till the end. Successful projects are driven by well-
planned programs Westland (2007), which are clearly outlined from the first day of the
project kick off. To avert the cases that I faced during my project development I have learned
that good planning is key for the success of the project.

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References
Duran, D. C., Artene, A., Gogan, L. M., & Duran, V. (2015). The objectives of sustainable
development-ways to achieve welfare. Procedia Economics and Finance, 26, 812-817.
Kerzner, H., & Kerzner, H. R. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Lai, S. T. (2014). A WBS-Based Plan Changeability Measurement Model for Reducing
Software Project Change Risk. Lecture Notes on Software Engineering, 2(1), 94.
Patterson, F. D., & Neailey, K. (2002). A risk register database system to aid the management
of project risk. International Journal of Project Management, 20(5), 365-374.
Pradeepa Veerakumari, K., & Resmi, R. (2016). Designing optimum plan parameters for
continuous sampling plan of type (CSP-2) through GERT analysis. Journal of Statistics
and Management Systems, 19(2), 303-311.
Vijayaraghavan, R., & Aruna, P. (2014). Selection of combined continuous lot-by-lot
sampling plans with single sampling plan by attributes as the reference plan. Journal of
Testing and Evaluation, 42(4), 942-948.
Westland, J. (2007). The Project Management Life Cycle: A Complete Step-by-step
Methodology for Initiating Planning Executing and Closing the Project. Kogan Page
Publishers.
Harrison, F., & Lock, D. (2017). Advanced project management: a structured approach.
London: Routledge.
Chapman, R. J. (2016). The rules of project risk management: Implementation guidelines for
major projects. London: Routledge.

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