University of Westminster: Project Management Reflective Report

This report is a reflective analysis of a project management assignment undertaken by a student at the University of Westminster, focusing on a fundraising project for Plastic Oceans UK. The student, acting as the risk manager, details the project's objectives, which included raising funds and awaren...Read More

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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Student’s Name
Course Name
Professor’s Name
University Name
City, State
Date

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Reflective Statement
Reflective writing is an analytical essay where the writer describes the event with a
personal reflection on the meaning of thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. It is also a reflection of
individual contributions and teamwork and the general productivity of the whole team as a
whole. It comprises of theoretical and practical project management approaches in the delivery
of the project. Denton (2011) argued that there is no standard definition for a reflective statement
(Denton, 2011: 838). Reflective statements are used to understand the depth of lessons learned
by individuals (Slomp, 2012; Sommers, 2011). It serves as a lesson learned from the project,
contributions, perceptions, feelings, and consequences of action learned from the project.
A reflection on my experiences and competencies as part of the PLASTIC OFF group for
the Oceans Plastic UK would help in the further development of my skills and personal abilities
to ready me for future projects. This paper also reflects my role, analyses, and criticizes the
performances of my team members starting from myself and my role as a risk manager in the
project. The Gibb’s reflective model will be applied, which provides the description, feelings,
evaluation, analysis conclusion, and action plan. These give a better insight and understanding to
analyses the strategies used in the fundraising project critically.
Description
PLASTIC OFF was a charity fundraising project for PLASTIC OCEAN UK under the
University of Westminster. It involved event organizing in raising funds and creating awareness
for the cause. The group consisted of seven members. The fundraising scheme was held online.
My responsibility as a risk manager was to identify any risks involved during the project,
registering them, and suggesting potential solutions to the risks to the group manager and

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members for approval. This involved also budgeting for the whole project and making sure the
risks involved wouldn’t affect the project negatively.
Feelings
The project, in its initial stage, was quite a challenge, contradicting my thoughts that it
would be a walk in the park. This is because some new members joined us, and I had to take time
familiarizing with them since we are all from far and wide with diverse cultures. The role I was
allocated wasn’t so clear to me at first, but thanks to my team after the first meeting, I was able
to know what exactly was my role. This really encouraged me since I put on a positive attitude.
That plus my ability and hard work enabled me to contribute positively as per my level best
capacity to the project. Together with the team, all was a bed of roses and successful.
Evaluation
Crawford’s competence mode is what I used in my endeavors since it helped me to
evaluate myself and my team, and also deliver the project to success. The more we worked
together, the more we developed together as a group. The initial stage of the project was kind of
hard but after following the five steps of development as Tuchman (1965) puts it and
understanding the scope of the project, through means of consensus we were allocated different
roles. What was looked for was the level of input of each member and their competence. After
that, things started flowing smoothly somehow. There were some issues involved, though. Some
members barely made it to meetings, but at least they tried communicating via Whatsapp, Skype,
and an online website called GoFundMe. One member of the team had truancy tendencies, but
all the other members worked harder. After brainstorming, it was decided that as long as the
member wasn’t affecting the project negatively, we would work with him.

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In the progress and process of the project, we experienced less and fewer challenges since
the members became familiar and closer than when we stated. The project manager
communicated well and in time, both online and through meetings. That together with the right
budget and good acquaintance to the roles each member had been allocated, resulted in a
successful project delivered in time, with the right budget, quality, and risk. I tried my level best
to play my role as the risk manager despite the challenges at the start of the project and also used
the help of my team members.
The team had positive results since we were able to fundraise 506.5 euros from the events
we organized at university, online via GoFundMe and at one of the members of the team’s
house. Hence we achieved our objectives which included raising funds for Plastic off the
PLASTIC OCEAN UK and creating awareness about the same.
Analysis
Members of the team were very committed. This was so evident through the commitment
of members and their communication to the project, even though we all had other activities to
attend, for instance, assignments. The little problems we had involved the truant member who
had us do an extra job since he wasn’t playing his role. When told this, he became arrogant and
rude that we thought of eliminating him from the group (Larson and Gray, 2018). It took the
effort of the project manager to convince us that there were other ways to deal with the situation
(Pinto & Kharbanda, 1995: 45). Accommodating the conflict was one of them, so we tried that.
We made jokes to brush off the negative attitude of the member and that perhaps touched his soft
spot. It had good results since the member tried to work on his weaknesses. He requested the

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communication manager to update him on the progress of the project so far and what he would
play his role (Joslin and Müller, 2015: 1377).
Lack of commitment could have affected my performance negatively at the initial stages
and initiation of the project. Because I was so much involved in other assignments and activities,
I was less committed to the project. My total competency was poor too since I didn’t know what
my role was and how to perform it. The situation was made worse when I saw the conflict within
the team that made everyone not happy, but when I observed my team’s efforts, especially the
difficult one, I improved my game. Eventually, I found that his ambiguous attitude was as a
result of personal issues, but finally he was passionate about the project.
Conclusion
The team performed well enough despite the challenges, conflict and our individual
weaknesses resulting in a successful project, figuring out that it’s easier to prevent a situation
than cure it, in the sense that we should have tried to solve the issue involving the initially truant
and inactive member as early as before we started the project itself (Costantino, Di Gravio and
Nonino, 2015: 1744). Positively I also learned never to let emotion take the better part of me
when handling a situation. Like the project risk manager, I should have thought of the right way
of dealing with conflict since I let emotion take the better part of me. I also learned that despite
being busy, it’s good to do any project seriously since I learn a lot and improve relationships
socially, though it’s not easy. As long as you are committed, you are very efficient in project
delivery. Also, I realized that it is essential for every team member to take their responsibilities
so dangerous if they have a clear objective in a project for most positive results. Self-sacrifice is
very important when it comes to this as I have come to learn.

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Action plan
Hard work and commitment is what I believe in and is essential in any activity. This
involves the input of more skills and my abilities in my next endeavors, including projects. Other
than that, I have also come to understand that there are many positive ways to deal with conflicts
and risks that arise with it in any project. Handling the problem first should be the priority for
positive results. What I also have come to learn is that we as human are imperfect; hence, we
need to understand each other to avoid any conflicts. I will continue to improve and polish my
skills so that I will be best. How to accommodate individuals’ shortcomings is a great skill to
have since it helps me in every aspect of my life and I have already had a beneficial conversation
with that my team member (Badewi and Shehab, 2016: 412). His point of view was
unobstructed. In terms of training, I have plans for undergoing specific practices and skill
acquisitions to aid me more in project delivery.

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Reference List
Badewi, A. and Shehab, E., 2016. The impact of organizational project benefits management
governance on ERP project success: Neo-institutional theory perspective. International
Journal of Project Management, 34(3), pp.412-428.
Costantino, F., Di Gravio, G. and Nonino, F., 2015. Project selection in project portfolio
management: An artificial neural network model based on critical success
factors. International Journal of Project Management, 33(8), pp.1744-1754.
Denton, D. (2011). Reflection and learning: Characteristics, obstacles, and implications.
Educational Philosophy and Theory, 43, 838–852.
Joslin, R. and Müller, R., 2015. Relationships between a project management methodology and
project success in different project governance contexts. International Journal of Project
Management, 33(6), pp.1377-1392.
Pinto, J. & Kharbanda, P. (1995). Project management and conflict resolution. Project
Management Journal, 26(4), 45–54.
Larson, W. and Gray, F. (2018). Project Management. The Managerial Process, 7th ed. McGraw-
Hill Education. New York.
Slomp, H. (2012). Challenges in assessing the development of writing ability: Theories,
constructs and methods. Assessing Writing, 17, 81–91. Retrieved From:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asw.2012.02.001.
Tuckman, W. (1965). Developmental Sequence in Small Groups. Psychological Bulletin 1965,
Vol. 63, No. 6, 384-399. Retrieved From:
http://web.mit.edu/curhan/www/docs/Articles/15341_Readings/Group_Dynamics/Tuckm

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