Project Planning and Management: A Reflective Analysis

Desklib provides solved assignments and past papers to help students succeed.

Assessment Three
Reflective Essay

Introduction
The essay is written to self-evaluate the knowledge and the flaws faced during the making of
the report. Assignment task second is the project Report which is made with the goal to
enhance the Project development and planning capability in the student.
In the following section of the essay, first of all, the background and the real situation is
described in which the project management principle will be applied. Second, it talks about
the experience which it has during the making of the project planning. Then the essay gives a
brief description of the positive and negative experience and the problems faced during the
making. Next, it gives does the project align or not align with the project management
principles or not and lastly, it self-evaluates and further gives a future recommendation that
will be taken into consideration for the future project. Every detail of self - evaluation of the
capability of project planning is based on the Assignment Task 2 given. Lastly, it concludes
the overall essay in a laconic way of consideration for improvement.
Description of the scenario
Assignment Second is the Project Report which is given to increase the project management
skills in the student. The Report is divided into two sections. Section one gives a detailed
theory about the work break down structure, RACI Chart, Gantt chart, Arrow on Node,
resource overloading, Budget, Timelines, Earned Value Management, Risk Management,
Change Management, Identification of the stakeholder and communication.
This topic is further described by taking a real-world scenario in which it is required to make
renovate the cottage near beachside. The project duration given was 2 weeks in which
workers and owner work 5 days per week. The overall budget of the project is decided not to
exceed more than $20,000. Owner, contractors and Apprentice 1 and Apprentice 2 are the
various stakeholders in the project which will work eight hours per day. The project starts
from first June, Monday. The important task which can be performed by the stakeholders are
Owner will do every work except painting, Contractor is an expert in carpentry, Apprentice 1
works best in painting and Apprentice perform all jobs except painting. In this scenario, all
the above-mentioned topic is done in practice.
Linking the experience with theory
The above-assigned task helped me to increase project management capability and enhanced
my skills in developing the planning strategy for the project beachside cottage. Though the

experience is much more on the positive side as it has helped me in one or another way to
increase my knowledge regarding the skills. But there is a section where I faced so many
problems and need to enhance the skills in that area. For example, one of the sections
includes making of Gantt Chart using the MS. Project. My Ms Project skills are not in the
fingertips and I had to waste my so much time learning and implementing the MS. Project.
Gantt Chart is easy it is a representation of the schedule of the project but making on the Ms
Project is the real problem. Another problem which I faced is regarding the stakeholder
identification and communication between them. The scenario given has limited stakeholders
which are owner, contractor, Apprentice 1 and 2. The problem I faced here is I could not
describe in the proper way what are the necessary thing stakeholder need to perform in the
project. Another problem faced was in the section of Change Management, I could not a
thing of any changes to make on the beachside cottage so ended up making unnecessary
changes which didn't impact the project.
Modelling of experience according to the principle of Project Management
The project gives has the aim to increase the project planning and management. The given
projects follow so many principles of Project Management.
One of the Principles of Project Management is mentioning the responsibility of the team
identifying the stakeholders and their work. The principle helps to assign the different task
and describe the role and responsibility of each stakeholder. This is the section where I faced
a problem.
Another principle of project management gives a strong strategy to cover up the changes
made during the project. A project management strategy states that a scope of the project only
gives the result but without change management plan the scope of the project is not defined
properly and project suffer from flaws
Another principle of Project management states that communication is key in making the
project successful. Project success is totally depending on the communication between the
stakeholders and various members of the project. The problem I faced is during planning
project I didn’t define any communication method in the project.

Measures to apply in future projects.
Though this project has increased my knowledge and capability of planning the project there
is always some chance of improvement in everything. I will keep and learn more about the
project management skills and applying strategy.
There is a need to have grip and hold of Ms Project so that various task like Gantt Chart,
Aon, resource Overloading problems can be solved. Next, I must improve my writing skills
of writing report and present the project in a much more formal manner. Writing reflective
writing is one of the best ways to self-evaluate things and improves skills. Further projects
will have more accurate reflective writing and project report.
Overall the project has enhanced my knowledge and skills which will help in my future
projects and in the real- world problems.
Conclusion
Reviewing my experience regarding project management and planning, I can find many areas
where I failed to consider the strategy and principles of project management. The task helped
me to thoroughly know about the principles and gave full knowledge regarding project
planning. The assignment second give chance to apply the principle in the real world which
helped me to discover the flaws in making a report and enhanced my practical knowledge
about undertaking the project. I have learned and applied many principles in a different area
and learned the new software MS. Project too. I am sure this task will improve my future
projects and will enhance my experience.

References
A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) 2017, Sixth edition.,
Project Management Institute, Newtown Square, PA.
Coleman, Dawn & Willis, Diane S. 2015, ‘Reflective writing: The student nurse’s
perspective on reflective writing and poetry writing’, Nurse Education Today, vol. 35, no. 7,
pp. 906–911.
Williams, Kate, Woolliams, Mary & Spiro, Jane 2012, Reflective Writing , Palgrave
Macmillan, New York.