MNG00785 Project Management - Reflective Essay

When we speak about team work and project management, the first picture in my mind comes of various individuals coming in together and working towards achieving a goal. This team is mainly led and inspired by a leader or manager who is responsible for delegating and working with the team members while team members are limited to working as per their assigned task. Working on this project has made me realize that team members have a much larger role to play than merely performing assigned duties. In this essay, I would be discussing my experience of working on the renovations of the beachside cottage. I would be analyzing the project management tools that were used and how each of these have played a vital role in bringing the cottage together. 

The cottage was to be completed over a period of 2 weeks and given the limitations in expertise, a team of three additional workers was hired. In total, the cottage was being worked on by a team of four who had a tight budget and timeline. So, we had a schedule, we had a budget and we had a goal to be achieved at the maximum quality.  

To start with, in my past experiences, I was realized that the major challenges of working with teams arrive from miscommunication. When the deadlines are strict and work pressure is high, team members are likely to lash out at one another and refuse to take ownership of certain responsibilities that may not directly fall under them. Here, I feel that the RACI was a great tool to avoid such situations. This chart has made me not only understand but also visualize that in any team, members are directly and at times, indirectly responsible for checking and being informed by certain aspects of the projects (Kumar, 2013). Each member’s role is not limited to the quantifiable activities they are to carry out. For example, the contractor was responsible for painting means that he was to paint the walls himself. On the other hand, he was “accountable” for the shutters and the wooden porch as well. Although he was not physically going to work on the shutters and the porch, he would be held accountable in case something were to go wrong. 

The RACI is a tool that gives a clear view of how team members are to take ownership of their work (. It assesses the workload on each individual that allows fair delegation. It clears the communication lines by making roles and responsibilities clear (Hall, 2012) . However, I feel that the major advantage here was that it made each member accountable for the complete project. 

The Gantt chart is the second tool I would like to discuss here. The chart was a clear and visual representative of the timelines and it allowed each activity to be listed according to the priority (White, 2011). For example, if I aim at hanging the shutters by day 9, I need to ensure that the walls are painted and dried by day 8 maximum. This means that I had to spend a minimum of 3 days on the wall meaning the work on the wall will have to start on day 4 or day 5 maximum. The Gantt chart also allowed the team members to have a clear view of what the objectives were to be achieved for the day.

As great as the Gantt chart was in aiding scheduling for the project, I found is very complex to use. While I was working on the Gantt chart, I had to refer back to the RACI chart to see what percentage of work each individual will be engaged in on each day. The allowed me to use a realistic approach towards scheduling. For example, I know that the apprentices will be busy with painting through day 5-8, I cannot schedule them for working on the porch floor at the same time. In an 8 hours working bracket, this would not be realistic.  So, I had to push around the work priorities and schedule them such that each responsible person is available for the work on the given day.

Progress was reported through a daily and weekly milestone management. At the end of each day, we were to refer to the Gantt chart and see how much of the work was achieved as per expectations.  The Gantt chart was to be changed a few times around in order to work with the new milestones. 

I was responsible for working on the budget and the Gantt chart. The budget could not exceed means that we could not know additional labor hours. My goal was to ensure that the project is concluded within the timeframe. I felt that the RACI chart was a great tool to work with the Gantt chart. It made me realize that without the presence of the RACI chart, the workers could easily be overloaded. The first Gantt cart that I made had multiple instances where the workers were getting overloaded and I had to constantly refer back to the RACI to ensure that ample amount of time is given to each task.  I felt that the progress of each day could have been better broken down. Mentioning milestones was a great idea on daily basis but for the future, I would like to explore tools that would allow detailed descriptions of each milestone along with a progress report of what went wrong. This report would allow for a great end of project analyses. 

To conclude, I feel that for every project, no matter what the size be, the RACI and Gantt charts are the most important tools that should not be missed. These tools aid in better communication and team management. Every member of the team is clear on what is expected of them and when the delivery is to be made so they can organize themselves better. I feel that technology can be integrated here for project progress and management. Asana and Basecamp are a few options I would like to explore in the future (Leis, 2017).