Reflective practice in a team new to agile

In examining the new use of agile in projects run by a major cement manufacturer, Ahmad Alshehri discovered how learning through reflection led to some positive outcomes.

Playing at project management

Gamification is not about making something into a game to extract lessons or improve skills, although games can be effective at that. It’s using game psychology to improve performance. Editor Adeline Teoh on how gamification may be used on projects.

Evolution of the virtual project team

The project environment of global virtual teams can create barriers to communication, but the shared context of the team can act as a catalyst for transforming knowledge. Charlotte Tanner discusses reflective practice for virtual communities.

Learning Through Reflective Practice—Ahmad Alshehri

Learning Through Reflective Practice While Deploying a Load Management System In a Famous Cement Industry
This paper explains the topics of ‘reflective practice and ‘learning through reflection’ in a practical project environment at one of Australia’s major Cement manufacturing companies (referred as ‘X-Cement Ltd’ in this paper). The project was to develop and deploy a comprehensive new load management system including the equipment and software logic automation in X-Cement Ltd using Agile Methodology and Approach of Project Management.

Implementing Agile methodology within X-Cement Ltd involved:
—Analysis of the project management approach already implemented at the X-Cement Ltd.
—Responsibilities assignment to Staff and vendors teams to develop a project management system based on Agile Methodology which met the specific future needs of X-Cement Ltd.
—Training of staff on Agile and operation of the load management system within the Power House department of The X-Cement Ltd.
—The implementation of new logic metrics and measures to validate the success of, the new methodology.

The project explains reflective practice in the form of brainstorming sessions and fortnightly meetings referred here as “Project review meetings” arranged by the project team to discuss the status of the project success so far or time elapsed by a project iteration, what could be improved, and how to achieve more success in the future/ next project objective. These meetings purely represent Social learning as well as Experiential learning.

The project report explains the benefits achieved by X-Cement Ltd through reflection practice as:
—Increased collaboration and trust among staff and vendor project teams
—Increased work performance due to effective reflection
—No loop holes left unattended during the project
—Increased effective and detailed briefing on the project

Author: Ahmad Alshehri
Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)

Project Performance Improvement—Charlotte Tanner

Project Performance Improvement
The emergence of Open Source Software and the broader Communities of Practice are leading the way in terms of creating new dynamics and paths to knowledge creation. Whilst these communities of practice increasingly include global virtual teams, the teams themselves have not yet reflected the highly connected, non-hierarchical structures of Communities of Practice in their own methods and approaches to managing projects. Through the process of reflective practice, global virtual teams have within their power the ability to seek out new ways of thinking and collaborating not just within their own virtual teams, but also within the broader Open Source Software Community.

The project environment of global virtual teams can create barriers to communication, but the shared context of the team itself, can act as a catalyst for transforming knowledge from tacit to explicit by increasing the points of connection within the team. By the sharing of knowledge, teams are able to build trust within the team, which leads to improved performance of the team. Whilst the emergence of new methodologies such as Agile within Project Management seeks to deal with the rapidly evolving development of new software, whereby the end ‘product’ is not always clearly defined when a project commences, does provide a workable approach to Project Management, problems can still arise within the way the team interrelates with one another. The next stage of the process should be a reflection on the way in which teams interact and how new knowledge is created.

Author: Charlotte Tanner
Review status: Postgraduate assignment (University of Technology Sydney)

Australian project managers earn top salary in Asia-Pacific

Results from a survey conducted by ESI International reveal that Australian project managers are the paid the highest salaries in the Asia-Pacific region.

5 ways to pick an ERP project partner

Project managers are the key drivers of how an organisation implements an enterprise resource planning (ERP) project. Choosing the right methodology is just as important as the right software, writes Oliver Clissold.

7 trends in project management for 2014

Project managers and industry experts are continuously reimagining project management and pushing the envelope to fuel its evolution. So what should we look out for this year? Krishna Kumar offers some predictions.