Project Management Principles Evaluative Level

Question: Describe about the Project Management Principles for Evaluative Level . Answer: Introduction The current essay is about the reflection on my previous experience on project management where I had to deal with a critical situation. The purpose of the essay is to increase the ability to think critically to evaluate a situation, use practical knowledge and analyse the situation with underling principles of project management theory. The essay focuses on the ability to reflect on a particular situation. This could help me to review and evaluate my inner process of thinking and feeling. The major aim of the essay is to gain the understanding about three different levels such as evaluative level, sense-making level and the critical level. This particular paper focuses on my learning experience from an event where I had to work on film making project during the semester. A film-making project requires a high level of management in order to assure a positive outcome (Garel 2013). Throughout the course I have learnt about why project management and what project management stands for. I will reflect on my experience with the help of 5 RS reflective framework. In order to make a useful reflection, it is necessary to apply a systematic process for thinking throughout the experience (Ryan and Ryan 2013). To present my reflection I will use the framework as it helps me to prompt intensive as well as purpose thinking about my experience. The 5Rs framework includes reporting, responding, relating, reasoning and reconstructing (Moon 2013). Short description of the event After finishing the studies in high school, I have developed a new passion, which is filmmaking. I was inspired by the directors of the movies in Hollywood. I wanted to make films; however, I did not have adequate knowledge about making films. I knew that making a movie requires a lot of effort, knowledge and practices as well. Therefore, I decided to take a short-time course in filmmaking besides my graduation. The filmmaking project class was taught through a combination of classroom lecture, group project execution as well as the project presentation. In the lecture session, we were trough about the history of filmmaking such as how it came into existence. Most classroom time were categorised into two different halves. The first half contains the lecture and in the second half, we were taught about the project presentation. The project presentation includes the role-play, story, cast and others related to the filmmaking. Hence, I am reflecting on the scenario of my final project in filmmaking. An appropriate schedule of presentation for all student group was created at the beginning of the course. This schedule helps us to set the plan for the project presentation activities. In the presentation of the project, we had to make short-film within a group, how activities were required to be realistic. Thus, we had to put a lot of effort to set appropriate plan for the project. We were given sufficient time to discuss the project with our group members. The facilitator were very helpful and they provided us all assistance during the execution of the project. The project execution results creation of a massive number documents bye each group, which is required to manage a project. Process Documentation Presentation Beginning Project Charter Presentation Planning v Selecting the story of the film v Selecting the character for the film v Selecting the venues v Checking the availability of the equipment v Work Breakdown Structure v Cost Estimation v Checking availability of the resources Executing v Monitoring the activities at the end of every week v Role players are practicing their plays Presentation Controlling Adding scope for further activities, schedule, cost, quality, Gantt-Chart Update Presentation Closing Demonstration of the film to the institution Presentation Evaluating the event scenario using the literature Once the project has been proved and justified, a proper life-cycle model has been selected to make it easy to start the planning of the project. We have created the plans for project at the beginning of undertaking the project. The institution provided an effective mix of theoretical and real-world learning of filmmaking project process. Additionally, I thought that executing the project would improve my resume by including the exposure to a management course. However, there have been certain difficulties that I had to go through while executing the project. As the project was supposed to be done by all group members. Thus, we had to consider the different opinions. The technique of forming the group allowed us to communicate as well as work with other than our own members of the group. Reporting: We were working on a project of short film within a group. The project required huge effort and time within a limited budget. Hence, we had to select a meaningful story that gives a clear message to the society about gender disparity. However, few of the members in the group wanted to execute the project little differently using the technology. However, we were facing the financial shortage. Thus, opinions given by the members were not matching; thereby, issues of starting the project with initial planning appeared. Responding: Filmmaking was my passion; thus, I just could not let the project go, I had to take control over the situation. Moreover, it was our final project of the course. The situation was getting difficult to handle, as one single person may not do a film. Therefore, I talked to each member of the group and called for a group discussion. In the discussion, we listened to the opinion of each individual. Based on the availability of resource, equipment and time, we set the ultimate plans and scheduled the work making a timeframe. Thus, each member of the group had to deal with or perform certain responsibility. For example, the few members of the group had to perform the duty of selecting the venues for shooting and another two people took the responsibility of arranging the equipment. I and another two members took the role of directors, where we had to direct the project appropriately. Some of members of the group report the available budgets for the project. Likewise, the rest o f the individuals take other responsibilities. Relating: While working on the project, each member seriously had to perform on the project and this was time-consuming. In order to make the project realistic and provide a clear and concise message to viewers, we have taken assistance from our class notes, which we were provided during the course. In such context, we have followed the current mechanism of making movies. Making a short film requires core ideas and techniques; moreover, the budgets of the project was limited. One of the basic criteria followed was to finish the story within 5 minutes. We have studied that most of the filmmakers in the present time tend to make the short films that are in the form of music videos. By making a video, they convey the message of the movies. However, in our project, we were told to focus on the dramas rather than creating a music video. I understand that a film could create not only temporary phenomenon experience; it also change the climate culture. In this context, Rentschler (2013) sta ted that a film might introduce a new theme, style or the convention that could transform the way in which the critics, authors and the viewers understand the message of the movies and relate them with the real-world situation. As the cinema is widely related to the different life style and beliefs that define the human society, the semiotics as well as the articulation remain inseparable (Bakker et al. 2013). Reasoning- The issues of selecting the story, content, title and resources were making our project delayed. We took a lot of time to select the appropriate story since it includes the drama. Thus, implementing a dramatic story in the film within in a minute was very tough. In addition, the deadline of the project was knocking down; thereby, the situation becomes more difficult. Hence, I applied my decision-making skills to resolve the issues. We omitted three characters from the role as those characters seemed irrelevant as per the requirement of story. Reconstructing- Eventually, we sorted out the issues regarding the selection of the story and finished the work as per the schedules. The completion of the project gave enormous satisfaction as I got many opportunities to learn new things. Now, if I go back to the beginning of the project I see nothing was under control. Things get resolved while implementing the plans. However, we could have done the project more effectively if we were given little more time. In my further project, I would utilize the experiences that I gained from this particular project such as reconstructing the plan after setting the initial plan. This means based on the requirement I could change the story and characters. Analysing the event to identify approach of modifying the future outcome Filmmaking is considered as one of the most popular culture activities that could affect a serial of social, economic and cultural phenomenon (Kerzner, 2013). The outcome of many research imply going to cinema to watch movies is not considered as an isolated independent phenomenon (Callan and Thomas 2013). In our case, we had to convey a message to the society regarding the gender disparity. We were very satisfied working on the project; however, there have been certain areas in filmmaking such as editing, selecting the music based on the role play and presenting the film in more realistic way, which appeared to be difficult. I would mention that due to the lack of experience, skills and real-world knowledge, we could not implement the plans as per the project management theory. In addition, we faced the difficulties in implementing the resources. We were already on a shortage of budgets and in such case, the technique of cost cutting needed to be applied. As the individual in our gr oup was not much experienced about the implementation of the techniques we failed to implement those. However, the overall work was effective if not the best. The viewers of the film have provided positive feedback but a lot more to be improved. The viewers also state that the film lacks the use of available technology; the quality of editing was average. In my next project, I would consider these things and take the help of available technology. Conclusion On the completion of the essay, it can be added that group project provided opportunity for us to practice, and develop the skills. I have gained a huge amount knowledge in filmmaking. In addition, the group members in the team felt they are benefitted by the conducting the filmmaking project. I have also realised that since the team management is such a significant part of dealing with a project, the ability to work as well as interact appropriately with others is one of significant attributes of successful project managers. Reference list: Bakker, R.M., BoroÃ…Å ¸, S., Kenis, P. and Oerlemans, L.A., 2013. It's only temporary: time frame and the dynamics of creative project teams. British Journal of Management, 24(3), pp.383-397. Callan, S.J. and Thomas, J.M., 2013. Environmental economics and management: Theory, policy, and applications. Cengage Learning. Garel, G., 2013. A history of project management models: From pre-models to the standard models. International Journal of Project Management, 31(5), pp.663-669. Kerzner, H.R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. John Wiley Sons. Martinsuo, M., 2013. Project portfolio management in practice and in context. International Journal of Project Management, 31(6), pp.794-803. Moon, J.A., 2013. Reflection in learning and professional development: Theory and practice. Routledge. Rentschler, E., 2013. German Film Literature. Routledge.