I
believe what distinguishes a successful project from a mediocre project is
the conviction of the project members for the cause of the project. From the
start, my teammates and I shared the same deep convictions about happiness in
Singapore. Thus, we were able to work on the project effectively.
A
triumph for my team was that we had the foresight to start on the project
proposal during recess week. It was the period of time when the workload was
not overwhelming, thus, we had ample time to carry out detailed market research
and evaluation. This has enabled me to understand the importance of starting a
project as soon as it is assigned. It is crucial to set a timeline for the
project, and to pace out the different phases over the given time limit for the
project. This ensures that the team does not procrastinate and rush through the
project at the last minute. I am sure this principle applies for both the
workplace and our studies in university. In order to achieve excellence in our
undertakings, we must be conscientious of the time taken for the project.
Though
my team was consistent in the project proposal, the crunch time came during the
preparation for oral presentation. The oral presentation was slated towards the
end of the semester, when all of us were struggling due to the intense workload
from all the modules. In addition, we had to juggle our workload with our
commitment to our co-curricular activities. Thus, at this stage of the project,
my team was not very efficient in work allocation. We were comparatively slower
in our progress during the last stage of our project. Thankfully, my team
pushed through, and we managed to finalise the presentation slides a day before
the presentation. This gave us the opportunity to rehearse our presentation
once through before the actual presentation.
This
is a learning point here. In the working world, a team of professionals would
manage a project. However, the people comprising the team would have other
projects and responsibilities on hand. In this case, there are team members who
might regard the project with lesser commitment as compared to their other
projects on hand. It takes years of experience to learn how to split up time
effectively among the different projects on hand.
Throughout
the entire duration of the project, my group was committed enough to meet up
for 3 face-to-face meetings, despite our busy schedules. However, most of the
time, our group communicated through social networking platforms, such as
Whatsapp and the chat function on Google drive. A triumph of my team is that we
are very efficient and we ensure that our online discussions are productive.
Thus, though we could not meet up face-to-face on several occasions, we were
able to keep track of our project through online discussions. The use of
advanced technology has helped facilitate our project process.
However,
this is not realistic for project discussions at the workplace. In the
university, the people that makes up the team come from different faculties
with different timetables. It would be hard to accommodate to everyone’s schedule to have a meet up face-to-face. Thus, the team
would have to rely on online platforms for group discussions. On the other
hand, at the workplace, the people that make up the team would come from the
same company. Thus, it would be easier to arrange face-to-face meetings. In
addition, it is more formal in the workplace setting. Any communication that
occurs outside meetings would be through emails or memos instead of messaging
on social networks. Thus, the communication that occurs at the university is
not a realistic portrayal of that of the workplace.
A
possible improvement for my team’s project was the preparation of
answers to the possible questions that could come up during the question and
answer (QnA) session. Though my team came up with a few possible questions, we
were overwhelmed by the questions that were brought up. Our classmates
addressed limitations of our project that we have not thought of. Sometimes, we
did not have a good response to some of the questions. This serves as a good
reminder for my group and I to prepare well for future QnA sessions so that we
would be able to present our proposal with greater clarity. This would ensure
that all loopholes of our proposal would be thoroughly thought through.
All
in all, our efforts for the project paid off when Madam Fazilah commended my team for being united in the delivery of our presentation. In addition, our classmates gave positive feedback on our project, which served as an encouragement for my team. Working on the project as a team was a really meaningful and memorable experience for me. Through this project, I had my first formal oral presentation in
university. Thus, I worked really hard to prepare for the presentation. However, one of the
greatest takeaways is getting to know my teammates as friends. This gave me the
opportunity to hear about their unique experiences in NUS. Here, I want to
express my thanks to all the group members I have worked with. I would be
looking forward to more group projects in future :)
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