| Course | MT245 Project Fundamentals and Project Initiation |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 6 |
| Paper type | Seminar reflection |
| Length | About 800 words, 5 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT245 Unit 6
Who Else Holds a Key to the Court Gate: A Unit 6 Seminar Reflection on the Stakeholder I Missed
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT245: Project Fundamentals and Project Initiation
Unit 6 Seminar Reflection
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Ashby Mills, Linden Park, the school district, the people and the classmates are composite and illustrative; the sources cited are real.
Seven Names on My Sheet
My sheet for the session held what I thought was a complete list of the parties with a stake in converting Linden Park's courts 3 and 4 to pickleball. There were seven: the town council, which would appropriate the money; the parks director, who sponsors the project; public works, which would maintain the courts; the pickleball club, which had asked for them; the adult tennis association, which would lose two courts; the neighbors on Orchard Lane, who worried about noise; and the surfacing contractor. I had met or written to all of them. I expected the seminar to confirm the list and move on to how to engage each group.
Other People's Gaps
Our instructor asked each of us to describe a project where someone important was left out. A classmate who manages a restaurant described a patio expansion halted two weeks before opening, when the landlord's insurer, a party nobody had thought to call, refused to cover outdoor seating without a new railing. Another, who leads a warehouse shift, described moving storage racking over a weekend without asking the night shift, who arrived Monday to find their pick routes rebuilt and the forklift lanes too narrow. In both cases the missed party had real power over the project, and in both cases they were missed because they did not appear in the project's day-to-day conversations.
The Key Question
When I described my project, a classmate named Lauren asked who else held a key to the court gate. I said public works and the parks office. She asked whether anyone outside the town did. I did not know. I checked that evening and found the answer in the shared-use agreement between the town and the school district: the district holds keys so the high school tennis team can practice on all four Linden Park courts from March through May, and its home matches are played there.
My plan had construction starting in April. The varsity coach was not on my list, and neither was the athletic director who signs the agreement. Converting courts 3 and 4 in April would have left the team with two courts in the middle of its season, and nothing in my documents would have warned anyone.
The person with the most at stake in April was the one with no reason to read the parks department's emails.
The Phone Call
The next morning I called the high school's athletic director. She was polite but direct: the team had sixteen players, needed at least three courts for practice and could not move its home matches on short notice. She suggested two options: build in late summer and fall, after the season, or arrange for the team to use the middle school's two courts as well as courts 1 and 2 during construction. She preferred the first.
Mitchell et al. (1997) argue that a party commands attention to the degree that it can force an outcome, holds a recognized claim and needs action soon. The school district had all three: a signed agreement, an obvious claim and a season that could not wait. By any measure it belonged near the top of the list, and I had left it off because it was not part of the parks department's routine. The district never came to our meetings, never wrote to the council and never complained, so nothing in my inbox pointed to it. Its power sat in a document filed three years ago, and its urgency only appeared once the construction dates were set against its season.
What Changed
Two changes followed. First, construction moved out of the spring season, to late summer and fall, which moves the opening from May to late October. The parks director agreed, since a May opening would have meant fighting the school district in public. Second, I added two rows to the stakeholder register: the athletic director, as the party who signs the shared-use agreement, and the varsity coach, as the person whose practices the work would disrupt. Larson and Gray (2021) recommend checking a stakeholder list against every agreement, permit and contract that touches a project, and I now do that before calling any list complete. The project management standard treats identifying stakeholders as continuous work rather than a single step (Project Management Institute [PMI], 2021), which matches what happened here: the list changed because a classmate thought about keys while I had been thinking about emails.
References
Larson, E. W., & Gray, C. F. (2021). Project management: The managerial process (8th ed.). McGraw-Hill.
Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22(4), 853-886. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1997.9711022105
Project Management Institute. (2021). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (7th ed.). Project Management Institute.
What the MT245 Unit 6 assignment asks for
The sixth unit's seminar asks students to share projects where an important party was overlooked, and the reflection asks what your own list missed and what you did about it. Start with the stakeholders you identified before the session, then record the classmates' examples that made you look again and the specific question that exposed your gap. The prompt usually expects a stakeholder concept, such as the salience model, applied to the party you missed, and a description of what changed in your plan afterward. The voice is your own, yet the course text and one more source still need APA 7 citations. Most reflections here fill under two pages, and the written alternative covers the same ground for students who missed the session.
How this MT245 Unit 6 example is built
The reflection opens with the seven parties the writer brought and the confidence behind the list. Two classmates' stories follow, the patio halted by an insurer and the warehouse racking moved without the night shift, both cases where the missed party had power but no place in daily conversations. Lauren's question about gate keys leads to the shared-use agreement and the spring season, marked by a margin note and the highlighted line about who reads the department's emails. The phone call with the athletic director produces two options. Mitchell and colleagues' three attributes are applied to the district under a second note. The closing section moves construction to fall, adds two register rows and cites Larson and Gray and the PMBOK Guide on continuous identification.
Reading the MT245 Unit 6 grading rubric
Seminar reflections in MT 245 are marked on an honest account of the starting list, the evidence that exposed its gap, application of a stakeholder concept and the change that followed. Credit rises when the reflection names the exact question or document that revealed the missing party. Applying salience attributes to that party, with reasons for each, shows understanding. Graders reward a concrete change in the project, such as moved dates or new register rows, over a general resolution. Classmates' examples should be summarized briefly and accurately. First person is expected, and the course text and other sources still need correct APA references. Staying near two pages keeps the reflection focused on the turn that matters.
Common MT245 Unit 6 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Students often write a reflection that lists stakeholders without admitting which one they missed. Another common gap is describing the seminar discussion without saying how it changed the plan. Some reflections apply the salience model to every party except the one that was overlooked. Others close with a promise to communicate better instead of a specific action. Check that the missed party's power comes from a real document or rule. Tell us your project and the party your list left out, and a writer can draft a reflection that follows the question to the change it caused.
Get an MT245 Unit 6 example written to your instructions
Seminars rarely follow the same thread twice. Describe what came up in yours, including any question that caught the room off guard, or supply the written-option prompt, then add the rubric and whatever register or list of parties is already drafted. A first reflection costs nothing, arrives inside 24-48h, and ends on a change the writer actually made. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More MT245 papers and BS in Business Administration samples
- MT245 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- MT245 Unit 2: Project Classification Exercise
- MT245 Unit 3: Business Case
- MT245 Unit 4: Project Charter
- MT245 Unit 5: Scope Statement
- MT245 Unit 7: Stakeholder Register
- MT245 Unit 8: Feasibility Assessment
- MT245 Unit 9: Assumption and Constraint Log
- MT245 Unit 10: Initiation Package
- MT243 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- MT242 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- MT241 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
- MT240 Unit 6: Seminar Reflection
MT245 Unit 6 questions, answered
Can the reflection defend the view I arrived with?
Yes, if it engages the strongest challenge raised and explains why the view survived. That version is harder to write well, because it can sound defensive. The example's writer did change her mind, but a reflection that holds its position after testing it against a real objection can earn similar credit.
How should classmates' examples be described?
Briefly, by role or industry, and only as far as the reflection needs. The example mentions a restaurant manager and a warehouse lead in one sentence each, with no names or employers. Details a classmate shared about their workplace stay out, and the focus remains on how their case changed the writer's thinking.
Does the missed stakeholder have to come from my own project?
It lands harder when it does. A reflection that agrees stakeholders are often overlooked, using only classmates' stories, shows understanding; one that finds a gap in the writer's own list shows application. The example's value comes from the coordinator discovering the high school coach in her own plan the same evening.
Where can I find a free MT245 Unit 6 sample paper?
You can read the full MT245 Unit 6 seminar reflection here. It follows a recreation coordinator whose stakeholder list missed a high school tennis team until a classmate asked who else held a key to the court gate.
What changed after the seminar in the MT245 Unit 6 sample?
Construction moved from spring to late summer and fall so the high school team keeps all four courts for its season, and the athletic director and varsity coach were added as rows in the stakeholder register.