University Project Management: Reflective Journal on Key Principles

This reflective journal entry provides a detailed account of a student's learning experience in project management, focusing on the application of key principles and practices. The student reflects on their understanding of knowledge areas, process groups, and the impact of these elements on project management best practices. The journal highlights the importance of various project management approaches, techniques, and tools, particularly in risk management, and how these elements have contributed to the development of their personal leadership styles. The student identifies the distinct knowledge areas pertaining to project management, such as cost, scope, time, quality, stakeholders, risk, communications, human resources, procurement, and integration. The reflection also covers the different process groups involved in project management, providing insights into organizing projects effectively. The student also discusses the impact of leadership styles and theories on their professional development, including their strengths and weaknesses, and how they can improve their communication skills, particularly in public speaking. The journal concludes with references to successful case studies where project management and leadership styles proved effective in achieving project success.

Principle of project management
<Student ID>
<Student Name>
<University Name>

Over the course of my learning experience, I have been able to apprehend prolific impression
of knowledge areas and process groups as well as the impact of these elements on the best
practice adopted for project management. It is also essential to observe that the reflection on
particular aspects of project management such as varying project management approaches,
techniques, tools and risk management enabled adequate support for critical reflection on the
development of personal leadership styles (Bassi, 2015). The necessity of influencing the
personal capacity could be observed in the potential chances for succeeding in variable
project management scenarios. From a critical perspective, it can be inferred that the journal
facilitates a lucid description of the existing strengths, challenges and limitations as a project
manager (Gareis, 2013).
The reflective journal has been an integral aspect of my learning experience as it helped me
to jot down practical observations that could prove to be effective substrate for my future
capacity as a project manager. The identification of different leadership styles with respect to
theory reflects on the possible opportunities to enhance professional development as a project
manager or leader. I was able to learn the distinct knowledge areas that pertain to the
management of different aspects of a project such as cost, scope, time, quality, stakeholders,
risk, communications, human resources, procurement and integration (Janssen, Van Der
Voort & van Veenstra, 2015). I was able to reflect critically on my learning of the different
knowledge areas and obtain cognizable improvements in terms of implementation of best
management practices. The formidable advantage which I was able to perceive in the
anticipation of theories pertaining to knowledge areas in project management was in the
improvement of personal capabilities to ensure coordinated application of theory and
practice. An interpretation of the distinct process groups involved in project management
could also be assumed as one of the profound highlights of my learning experience (Klein,
Davis & Kridli, 2015). The process groups enabled me to realize cognizable improvements in
terms of organizing specific projects according to available resources and competences. The
categorization of project into distinct stages such as initiation, planning, execution,
monitoring and control and closing is a formidable indicator of the comprehensiveness in
project management.
The reflection on different significant aspects such as leadership styles also enabled me to
learn the distinct factors referring to coping with diverse scenarios. The prominent indications
towards the use of diverse mix of leadership styles enabled me to learn that the qualities of a
leader are vested in realizing personal goals as well as reflect on the team dynamics (Sarkawi,

et al., 2016). The apprehension of different leadership theories from a critical perspective in
context of the particular implications related to management practice could lead to specific
opportunities for reflecting on personal strengths and weaknesses. I obtained the perception
that my lack of confidence for public speaking could be improved considerably through
anticipating the effectiveness of different leadership styles such as autocratic, participative
and democratic in obstacles pertaining to management (Tomanek, Cermak & Smutny, 2015).
I was also able to infer certain similarities with successful case studies in which project
management and leadership styles proved to be effective in terms of the varying aspects
pertaining to project success such as initiative and motivation for project management.
References
Bassi, A., 2015. General Management Principles in the Project Management Context.
In Managing Intellectual Capital and Innovation for Sustainable and Inclusive Society:
Managing Intellectual Capital and Innovation; Proceedings of the MakeLearn and TIIM
Joint International Conference 2015 (pp. 581-581). ToKnowPress.
Gareis, R., 2013. Re-thinking project initiation and project management by considering
principles of sustainable development. In Sustainability Integration for Effective Project
Management (pp. 129-143). IGI Global.
Janssen, M., Van Der Voort, H. and van Veenstra, A.F., 2015. Failure of large transformation
projects from the viewpoint of complex adaptive systems: Management principles for dealing
with project dynamics. Information Systems Frontiers, 17(1), pp.15-29.
Klein, B.D., Davis, T.A. and Kridli, G., 2015. Building a Rube Goldberg Machine in an
Undergraduate Business School Course to Learn Principles of Project Management and
Leadership Skills. Journal of the Midwest Association for Information Systems| Vol, 2015(2),
p.53.
Sarkawi, A.A., Rashid, K.A., Aripin, S., Hassan, S.F., Naadia, P.N., Fauzi, A. and Senam,
M.R., 2016. Identification of Islamic leadership principles and their applicability in
construction project management.
Tomanek, M., Cermak, R. and Smutny, Z., 2015. A conceptual framework for web
development projects based on project management and agile development principles. arXiv
preprint arXiv:1502.04297.