PPMP20008 Project Management: Reflection on Course and Learning

This assignment is a reflective journal exploring various aspects of project management, focusing on the initiating and planning phases. The student reflects on key considerations beyond cost, time, and scope, such as planning, risk management, and diversity awareness. The journal covers the best and worst aspects of being a project manager, including the importance of team motivation and risk identification. The student also analyzes stakeholder grouping, lessons learned from the course, and the effectiveness of the course presentation. The assignment includes a review of course content, discussions on communication methods, tailoring projects to specific contexts, and application of reflective frameworks like Graham Gibbs and David Kolb, along with a bibliography of referenced materials. The student evaluates the course, identifies areas for improvement, and reflects on the course's impact on their understanding of project management principles and practices.

Project Management
Initiating and
Planning
Tutorial 11
Index
Review 3

Reflect and Have Your Say 5
Review
Apart from cost, time and scope - what do you think would be the most important things
to consider when managing projects?
Besides cost, scope and time there are many more factors that are considered to be
important while managing projects, some of the factors include planning and risk
management. These areas are considered to be among the most important factors
that must be considered.
What do you think would be the best thing about working as a project manager?
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The best thing to work as a project manager is the ability to manage an entire team
and encourage as well as motivate project members in carrying out a particular project
and bring about success with the use of various strategies and techniques. Members
would look up to me as an example because of the skills that would have as a project
manager. Besides motivating the members I would also help them in undertaking
various activities if they face difficulty.
What do you think would be the worst thing about working as a project manager?
The worst thing about being a project manager would be if a certain project does not
succeed due to unidentified risks. In this case I would fail as a project manager
because I would not be able to identify all the risks, this might be because I did not
recruit a good risk manager or I did not monitor the performance of the employees in
an effective manner. This would be worse not only because I would be disheartened
but the project members would also loose trust and hope from me, in further projects
they would not prefer me as a project manager.
Why is being aware of diversity important as a project manager?
Being aware of diversity is very important as a project manager because in my team I
might have people belonging to different cultures and sometimes different nations, in
this case I would have to ensure that every member is provided with equal value and
attention. Any of my activities must not harm any of the member’s sentiment or
emotions.
Have you gained a greater awareness of a different culture during this unit? What have
you discovered?
I have gained a greater level of awareness of the concept of culture on this particular
unit, I have discovered the fact that not everyone is same and do not have similar
personalities. Every member would not take a particular matter in a similar manner. A
certain statement might prove to be encouraging to an employee whereas the same
statement might be discouraging for another member.
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One concept explored in this unit was grouping of stakeholders. To maximize efficiency
in relation to stakeholder management, project managers will group stakeholders.
However, such grouping comes with inherent risks especially when the stakeholders are
in fact not homogeneous. What are examples of stakeholders that projects have grouped
in a problematic way?
The example of stakeholders that projects had grouped in a problematic way include a
group of stakeholders who considered meeting the project objectives as their priority,
they had positioned the basic objectives of the project as the top priority, and another
example of stakeholders were the ones who considered meeting thee personal goals
through demands as the first priority. These stakeholders could not be grouped
together because there might occur disagreements among them and hence effect the
entire project.
Reflect and Have your Say
You have worked really hard in this subject, take a moment to congratulate yourself in getting this far.
There is a lot of work to do in this subject. When you consider it is reflective of the initiation and planning
phases of a traditional waterfall project, it gives you an indication of the time it takes to plan a project well.
Your frustration with the workload is indicative of the frustration that can be felt in a project environment.
Your relief and sense of achievement that you will get once you finish and pass the subject will also be
indicative of what you feel at the end of a successful project.
1. What are the lessons that you have learnt in this course? What went well and what could
you have improved on?
This course had provided the basic idea regarding the major constituents of carrying out
a project namely initiation, planning, executing, closing, monitoring and controlling. Besides
this some more aspects that are to be considered include scope, time and cost. This is
because besides carrying out a particular project, its quality, time provided to complete the
project and cost incurred in the project are important aspects as well.
2. Think about how the course was presented. What did your coordinator, lecturer, tutor do
well? What could be improved? Is there anything you can suggest that could have been
done differently? Anything you would like to see in the course?
The course was presented in an effective manner. Lecturers and coordinators helped us in
the course by helping us if we could not understand any topic. Individual students could
have been provided with proper attention in order to address the issues faced by them.
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3. Given the quote above, what frameworks could you use to reflect on your experience in
the course?
The frameworks that could be used for reflecting on my experience in this particular course
include Graham Gibbs and David Kolb
4. Search the internet for ‘Lessons learnt’ and reflective learning’ what are the similarities
and differences? What can you use from each search to help you reflect and learn from
your experience in this subject?
Similarities between both the aspects is the fact that they are carried out after a certain
project is over and they include the results found after a project is carried out.
Lessons learnt refers to the findings that are derived from a certain project and reflection
tends to describe the entire project as well as findings.
Other activities:
Work on final assessments.
Early presentations.
Bibliography
Algeo, C. (2012). Embedding project knowledge through reflective practice. Paper presented
at PMI® Research and Education Conference, Limerick, Munster, Ireland. Newtown
Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Axelos. (2017). Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2, (6th ed.). London: The
Stationery Office.
Project Management Institute (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK® Guide), (5th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
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Project Management Institute (2017). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK® Guide), (6th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of
knowledge (PMBOK® guide) (5th ed.). Newtown Square, Pennsylvania : Project
Management Institute, Inc.
Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of
knowledge (PMBOK® guide) (Sixth ed.) Newtown Square, Pennsylvania
Soloman, B. and Felder, R. (n.d.) Learning style index, College of Engineering, NC State
University. Retrieved from
http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSpage.html
The Queensland Building and Construction Commission (2018, p.5)
https://www.qbcc.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/New_Home_Construction_Contract
_Schedule_July_2018.pdf
The Stationary Office (TSO). (2017). Managing successful projects with PRINCE2 (2017
edition.. ed.). London, UK
Wilcox, D. (nd) Preparing for your project board. Be a better sheepdog. Retrieved from
http://bettersheepdog.blogspot.com/2015/06/PB-preparation.html (13/02/19)
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