Project Management Assignment: Discussion on The Difference Between Planned Project Steps And Acquired Steps
Question
Task: The written submission involves two lessons; one student initiated reflection (lesson 1) and one guided (tutor led) reflection (lesson 2).
Student Initiated Reflection (lesson 1)
Student initiated reflection involves a process where students alone choose what experiences to reflect upon concerning lessons learnt.
Guided (or tutor led) Reflection (lesson 2)
In contrast to Lesson 1, Lesson 2 will be a guided (or tutor led) reflection that involves a process where the tutor guides the student concerning the area of reflective practice. This will be undertaken in scheduled tutorials in Weeks 9 – 11. Students are expected to review the risk management information covered in Week 5 before their Week 9 classes.
Students then reflect upon experiences (relating to that area) which subsequently prompt them to identify lessons learnt. Note: Tutors will not assist students with finding examples of lessons for the assessment. Students are responsible for identifying the examples after the class discussions.
Answer
1. Introduction
The ‘reflective practice’ is a critical response process that shows a person’s action after learning a specific lesson. The 'reflective practice' influences the people to learn a specific lesson with the specific cycle of that lesson, analysing the learnt data and provide the result as a conclusion (Hendricks, 2017). It has an impact on the learners as the 'reflective practice' will help in providing 'awareness' among the people with the help of personal emotional perspective.
The purpose of the learning process with the current lesson is to acquire knowledge from the project management process. The project related to a lesson learning process can be complex and strategic over time (Meredith, Mantel Jr, & Shafer, 2017). The managemental approach from the learner will help them in controlling the situation.
The current assignment will reflect the skills and planning strategies that have been taken to complete the "housekeeping" lesson. It involves strategic initiation of the planning process, understanding the management framework, and the learning outcome from the lesson.
2 Lessons Learnt: Framework
2.1Lessons learnt framework explained
During the lesson learning process, the management operation of the current assignment had implemented the "PMBOK" framework to manage the processes. It involved initiating a proper plan, then executing the project goals, controlling the risk factors, and ending the project with a specific outcome (Kerzner, 2017). This particular framework influences in implementing proper tools, skills and knowledge to achieve the project objectives efficiently.
2.2Lessons learnt process: How I planned to gather, and document lessons learnt
STEPS |
WHEN
|
WHO |
HOW |
(i) Identify
|
I was planned to understand the lessons learnt during the fourth week. I made this decision after acquiring my lesson on scheduling plan, management techniques, and modelling process on fourth week’s lecture. |
I had planned to involve a group of experienced people to proceed with the 'housekeeping' task at the construction site to measure the outcome. It will help me in understanding the steps within the lesson properly. |
I was planning to measure my learning outcome by taking ‘online quiz’ about the lesson processes. It will help me in judging my ability in understanding the processes. |
(ii) Document |
I have planned to start my documentation process from the fifth week. It will reflect the report acquired in the fourth week. |
I was planning to implement a digital documentation system, such as ‘spreadsheet’ by the manager. It will sustain the reporting process. |
I was planned to update my learning process from each day. It will help in measuring the overall outcome properly. |
(iii) Analyse |
The analyzation process should be started from week ten when I will learn about the significance of project management and its actual role. |
The analyzation process should be consisting of my project stakeholders, such as management, HRM, and team members to identify the result. |
The implementation of graph technique can help the project in understanding its ups and downs. |
(iv) Store |
The report related to the project process should be stored in every week from the fifth week. It will lessen further confusion. |
The ‘spreadsheet’ technique of the documentation process can be done by the project stakeholders. |
The stakeholders of the project can access the records from the ‘cloud storage’ operated by a single shared network. |
(v) Retrieve |
The documented reports needed to be retrieved during the identification of any errors, or addressing any calculation difficulties. |
Only the manager and HRM of the project can assess the old documents. |
It will be done by acquiring the specific report from the ‘cloud storage’. It is also important to organize the reports according to the weeks. |
2.3 Lessons learnt process: What actually happened?
STEPS |
WHEN
|
WHO |
HOW |
(i) Identify
|
I was started identifying the lesson at the end of week four. It took me a while to get familiar with the project steps and plans. |
I ended up engaging a group of less experienced workers into the project process to understand the lesson. |
I did take the ‘online quiz’ process to judge my ability. I passed the process. |
(ii) Document |
I had to start my documentation process during the middle of week five. |
As the manager of this project, I started to document the week’s progress in the ‘spreadsheet’. |
I did not manage to update the report daily. I updated the result twice each week. |
(iii) Analyse |
I started my analyzation process from week eleven, as I had delayed the documentation process. |
I ended up involving only myself and the HRM of the project to analyse the project outcome. |
I acquired my result from the graph. |
(iv) Store |
I started to store my documented reports at the end of every week from week five. |
I had implemented two supervisors to maintain the documentation process. |
The shared network was ended up assessed by me, the project HRM, and the supervisors. |
(v) Retrieve |
I had retrieved the report twice during the process when we faced some interruptions. |
I, along with the supervisors retrieved the required files. |
The supervisors stored the reports according to categories (finance, resource, etcetera) in each week to get the report easily. |
3. Lessons
3.1 Defining lessons learnt (or learned)
The following section will describe the 'deep reflection' from the lesson that has learnt. It will be describing two different lessons, including a teacher-led lesson. Its description process will use the "SMART" framework to understand the required improvement factors. This particular framework will help the learner to achieve ‘scenario-based’ results while understanding the lesson processes (Aghera, et al., 2018). The “SMART” framework is important in understanding the intensity of the learning outcome understood by the teachers by achieving the goals (Gerritsen, Zimmerman, & Ogan, 2018).
3.2 Lesson 1
3.2.1 What I learnt from reflecting on the situation
1. Situation (What happened - Experience)
2. The situation made me feel…, and the impact.
3. What I learnt from reflecting on the situation
The following section will describe the 'deep reflection' from the lesson that has learnt. It will be describing two different lessons, including a teacher-led lesson. Its description process will use the "SMART" framework to understand the required improvement factors. This particular framework will help the learner to achieve ‘scenario-based’ results while understanding the lesson processes (Aghera, et al., 2018). The “SMART” framework is important in understanding the intensity of the learning outcome understood by the teachers by achieving the goals (Gerritsen, Zimmerman, & Ogan, 2018). |
3.2.2 Improvement Strategy for Lesson 1
1. Situation (What happened - Experience)
|
2. The situation made me feel…, and the impact.
|
3. What I learnt from reflecting on the situation
|
During week four and five, it was difficult for me to understand the management process properly. Since I had not any experience in conducting ‘housekeeping’ service in a construction site, the delay in understanding the process made me clueless at the starting of the project. |
That exact situation made me feel frustrated and confused at the same time. It was important for me to understand the initial management process to start the project work effectively. The frustration arrived when we did not find any experienced team to implement into the working process. However, my team members helped me a lot to understand some basic aspect to start the process soon. |
The whole scenario made me realized to not plan everything. The planning process needs to be aligned with the project process. It is important to construct goals after initiating project plans. |
3.3 Lesson 2: Risk management as a PPMP20008 student
3.3.1 What I learnt from reflecting on the situation
1. Situation – (Identify if the situation was a positive or a negative experience)
|
2. The situation made me feel…
|
3. What I learnt from reflecting on the situation
|
During the starting of the project process, I and my team faced difficulties due to managing our team from the lack of management experience. |
The situation made me and my team angry. It was our fault to not making proper planning in interacting with the workers effectively. It made the project process interrupted and delayed in completing certain parts. |
The lesson that I have learnt from the situation was the importance of effective communication. The communication process can solve any problem and make the process processes sustainable. It is also an essential part of the 'risk management' process to understand the work process by communicating with team members regularly. |
3.3.2 Improvement Strategy for Lesson 2
(a) Improvement strategy
|
(b) Measurement
|
(c) Achievable
|
(d) Relevant
|
(e) Timing
|
The improvement strategy of this specific problematic situation can be the implementation of one of the ‘risk management’ tools – meetings among the stakeholders. The acquired lesson from this specific problem positive and useful in practical usage. |
Studies have identified that the active participation of the project leader/manager reduces the risk barrier (Dandage, Mantha, Rane, & Bhoola, 2018). The effective interaction process can lead the management to understand the state of the project and make appropriate planning. |
This specific strategy is achievable because the effective interaction process in the project process adds extra value and enhance the trust factor among the team (Wu, Zhao, & Zuo, 2017). I would conduct regular/weekly meeting with the team members to discuss the project situation and performance factors. |
It is relevant to the project lesson. The acquired external group is unknown to the management team. It will be beneficial to make frequent conversation with them to understand their requirements and opinion. |
The implementation of this strategy can be done during week four to five, the group get assigned. |
4.1 Conclusion
The assessment has discussed the difference between planned project steps and acquired steps. It is a common factor to face uncertainty during a project process. However, it is important to understand the 'risk management' factors for accurate implementation. It is also important to conduct 'deep reflection' about a project process. It will help in understanding the main purpose of the project processes.
4.2 REFERENCES
Aghera, A., Emery, M., Bounds, R., Bush, C., Stansfield, R., Gillett, B., & Santen, S. (2018). A randomized trial of SMART goal enhanced debriefing after simulation to promote educational actions. Western Journal of Emergency Medicine, 19(1), 112.
Dandage, R., Mantha, S., Rane, S., & Bhoola, V. (2018). Analysis of interactions among barriers in project risk management. Journal of Industrial Engineering International, 14(1), 153-169.
Gerritsen, D., Zimmerman, J., & Ogan, A. (2018). Towards a framework for smart classrooms that teach instructors to teach. In D. Gerritsen, J. Zimmerman, & A. Ogan. International Society of the Learning Sciences, Inc.[ISLS].
Hendricks, C. (2017). Improving schools through action research: A reflective practice approach. ERIC.
Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
Mazaya, M. (2019). Logical framework for smart discussion in learning process. Journal of Physics: Conference Series.1157, p. 042002. IOP Publishing.
Meredith, J., Mantel Jr, S., & Shafer, S. (2017). Project management: a managerial approach. John Wiley & Sons.
Ogbeiwi, O. (2017). Why written objectives need to be really SMART. British Journal of Healthcare Management, 23(7), 324-336.
Wu, G., Zhao, X., & Zuo, J. (2017). Relationship between project’s added value and the trust–conflict interaction among project teams. Journal of management in Engineering, 33(4), 04017011.