Reflective Journal: Project Management, Challenges, and Future Trends

This reflective journal explores the multifaceted role of a project manager, delving into the expectations, challenges, and future trends within the field. The author reflects on their personal journey as a project manager, emphasizing the importance of collaboration, communication, and adaptability. The journal outlines the critical need for effective team building, strategic planning, and the ability to navigate conflicts. It also considers the impact of technological advancements, such as AI and cloud-based solutions, on the future of project management, highlighting the need for project managers to evolve their skills and embrace new approaches. The author discusses their experiences in overcoming challenges, such as team disagreements, and outlines the strategies employed to foster a productive work environment. The journal concludes with a reaffirmation of the project manager's essential role, emphasizing the importance of leadership, collaboration, and continuous learning in a dynamic global market.

Reflective Journal on Project Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Expectations as a Project Manager............................................................................................3
Challenges and Strategies in Project Management....................................................................4
Future of Project Management...................................................................................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
This project report is mainly focused on the self-reflective views as a project manager and its
functionality in an organisation. In this competitive global world, business organisations and
companies require a well-organised project management plan for controlling the quality, cost
and speed control of a specific project (Kerzner & Kerzner 2017). This has resulted in the
hiring of capable project managers who are able to manage and control multiple projects in
an organisation simultaneously. A clear idea on how to organise and perform a project
effectively should be the first goal of a project manager. Understanding the details about the
subject is necessary for building a strategic plan and work according to the designed plan is
one of the major duties of a project manager in an organisation. The concepts of project
management help to understand the analysis of risks, system efficiency, and design of the
system required to carry out the project methods and procedures successfully (Martinelli &
Milosevic 2016). The various duties and expectations as a project manager as well as the
challenges faced in the process are discussed in this reflective project report.
Expectations as a Project Manager
As a newly appointed project manager, I am required to understand the necessity of
collaboration, creativity, and practical implementation, which is very important for
innovation. Without a systematic approach for designing the project and working without a
management plan would certainly lead to disaster and my failure as a project manager. The
first step for working on a project is to build an effective team who can work in a disciplined
way towards a unified goal (Aga, Noorderhaven & Vallejo 2016). Communication is required
among the team members and as well as with me for the project to be successful. With the
help of proper communication and good relationship between the team members and their
managers, management strategies can be easily implemented in the project, which is a very
important aspect of the project management plan (Harrison & Lock 2017). In fact, the team
should be built as soon as possible after the project starts and brainstorming sessions should
be held in presence of the project manager to calculate the resources and time required for
completion of the project. The company's major expectations from a project manager include
arrangement and overseeing the activities inside the project, keep the project up to date with
respect to schedule time, control the costs and quality of items, as well as increase the
productivity of the team members working under the project manager (Turner 2014).
Sometimes, when project managers are not able to select their own team members and
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generally hired by the executive authorities of the company, it is the duty of the project
manager quickly build a relationship with the new members and create a healthy and friendly
environment within the workplace to increase the efficiency and productivity of the team.
Moreover, using the same team for multiple projects has an added advantage as the team
members are already accustomed to each other and can act as a single unit, which is a key
factor for increased productivity of the project. In addition, team members are freer and more
open to their previously known project manager and can openly discuss problems and
struggle faced by them within the workplace. Other than effective communication within the
team, the product manager is also expected to control and manage the product development
process to check for errors, working delays, and keeping the project schedule in line with the
estimated completion period (Hoda & Murugesan 2016). Even brand-new strategies should
be implemented by the project manager on the team if in case any project strategy has failed
or not worked according to the requirements. On a personal reflective note, as a project
manager, I expect full loyalty and attention of my team members towards me and the project
they are working on and any query or suggestions should be discussed with me as soon as
possible for working out better and effective plan to mitigate any challenges faced.
Challenges and Strategies in Project Management
The plans and methods charted out for a specific project do not always go according to the
plan and certain challenges are faced by the team members as well as the project manager
during the course of the ongoing project (Binder 2016). As a project manager, I also faced
similar situations, as things were not going in the same direction as I expected and
rectification methods and alternative strategic plans were required for overcoming those
challenges. At the beginning of the project, I thought after I have selected my team
everything is supposed to work out in a disciplined fashion as I always maintained a healthy
and communicative relationship with my team members and checked on how they interacted
with each other for maintaining a work efficient environment in the workplace. However,
things always don't turn out according to the plan and a few of my team members started
having some disagreement among themselves regarding the working procedure of the project
plan which led to egoistic miscommunication among them. This created a ripple effect on the
entire team and affected the overall productivity in the progress of the project. As the project
has already started, selecting new team members was no longer possible and I had to come up
with a better strategic plan for coping with the situation and accelerate the project progress,
which was already delayed due to this problem. This is precisely the reason for which I
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arranged for a series of conferences and meetings on a weekly basis. Here, we collectively
tried to resolve the agreement issues by presenting the thoughts from all the members and
remove the egoistic nature from the workplace. As a solution method for future disagreement
problems, a huge risk was taken by me in which I appointed specific team members as the
team leaders by breaking down the team into factions who would work on specific portions
of the project only. This was a huge risk considering that the team members had no prior
experience as team leaders and could have led to disasters if they had failed to do their job
properly. In the end, however, the team leaders got a boost in their morale as being the team
leaders and got the job done well within the scheduled time and with proper quality and cost.
This is what makes me proud about taking the right decision during the crisis. I feel more
confident about handling future crises and implement rectification methods and strategies for
becoming a successful project manager.
Future of Project Management
In this rapidly changing world and with the implementation of more and more automated
technologies within the workforce, experts are predicting the future. Thus, a project
manager is no longer required by the company for guiding the workforce in the proper
direction and only a system administrator and machine operator would be successfully able to
take care of multiple machines. We perceive that AIs are better at following orders, doing
their jobs more diligently, and efficiently (Serra & Kunc 2015). However, some experts also
argue that companies cannot switch to automated technologies completely as creative areas of
work will still be required in the company structure. Automated machines and AIs are not
very good at jobs, which are creative, and requires continuous adaptations as per the
situation. For maintaining a creative workforce, a project manager will still be required for
creating management plans and strategies for that creative line of work and controlling the
methods and working functionality of the creative employees hired for the job (Marchewka
2014). However, on a personal level, I believe that companies and organisations will always
require project manager but they will have to upgrade and adapt in terms of their working
areas and methods for coping with the ever-changing technological world and managing
certain situations in context to the specific situation and technological advancement required
at that time. Utilising cloud-based solutions for project management is an absolute necessity
for the future as it provides robust infrastructural tools and high-intensity computation powers
within the project management system (Crawford 2014). Moreover, there will be no longer
not designated project managers for a specific or main role within the company and project
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managers must adapt to the roles required for the specific projects ongoing in the companies
(Leimbach & Goodall 2017). On a personal level, I focus mainly on leadership qualities for
handling crises and need to be much more agile for developing a collaborative ecosystem
along with the team members for successfully carrying out a project according to the plan.
With this different approach in the future, I am confident about my capabilities to handle job
requirement and temperament of my team members under pressure.
Conclusion
This project report on the reflective viewpoint as a project manager is conclusive and
encapsulates all the necessary factors and aspects that should be carried out by a project
manager. This project report covers all the necessary expectations required from a project
manager as well as the challenges faced during an ongoing project and the right way to
mitigate or solve them even when under stress and pressure. A project manager should
always have a leadership mentality instead of being a boss. A collaborative working
environment should be maintained by the project manager with proper communication skills
with his employees and team members for successfully carry out a project plan (Nicholas &
Steyn 2017). This project assignment also identifies the future problems of a project manager
and the way to adapt to the changes to remain competitive in the global market. A unique and
different approach towards the working functionality of a project manager is what companies
will be in burning need in the near future.
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References
Aga, D.A., Noorderhaven, N. and Vallejo, B., 2016. Transformational leadership and project
success: The mediating role of team-building. International Journal of Project Management,
34(5), pp.806-818.
Binder, J., 2016. Global project management: communication, collaboration and management
across borders. Routledge.
Crawford, J.K., 2014. Project management maturity model. Auerbach Publications.
Harrison, F. and Lock, D., 2017. Advanced project management: a structured approach.
Routledge.
Hoda, R. and Murugesan, L.K., 2016. Multi-level agile project management challenges: A
self-organizing team perspective. Journal of Systems and Software, 117, pp.245-257.
Kerzner, H. and Kerzner, H.R., 2017. Project management: a systems approach to planning,
scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Leimbach, T. and Goodall, J.B., 2017. The relation between project management education
and newer streams in project management research. In Future of Project Management (pp.
65-74). Roskilde University.
Marchewka, J.T., 2014. Information technology project management. John Wiley & Sons.
Martinelli, R.J. and Milosevic, D.Z., 2016. Project management toolbox: tools and techniques
for the practicing project manager. John Wiley & Sons.
Nicholas, J.M. and Steyn, H., 2017. Project management for engineering, business, and
technology. Routledge.
Serra, C.E.M. and Kunc, M., 2015. Benefits realisation management and its influence on
project success and on the execution of business strategies. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(1), pp.53-66.
Turner, J.R., 2014. Handbook of project-based management (Vol. 92). New York, NY:
McGraw-hill.
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