Assessment - group case study - simulates a project

Question

Overview

This case study simulates a project management scenario where the student takes on the role of project manager. Students are required to use Microsoft project management software as part of this assessment task.

This is a group assignment that also includes five individual student submissions (see below). You should aim for groups of four students. Four is the maximum number of students allowed in a group. Ideally, no group should have fewer than 3 students.
(Note that distance education students have the option of smaller groups or working on this as an individual assignment. To form groups with other distance education students, use the distance education forum on the unit website.)

Although this is a group assignment, all members of a group are required to attempt all parts of the assignment individually as assessment item sub-deliverables 1 - 5. Members of the group are required to submit their own individual attempt for each of the sub-deliverables in Moodle before the group meets to consolidate answers to produce the "group solution". There are separate submission areas and due dates for the individual submissions. On time submission of the 5 sub-deliverables is worth a total of 5 marks, but these submissions are also to be used to assess individual contributions and may impact on a student's final mark. Late sub-deliverable submissions will be given a mark of 0.

Groups must meet at least once a week to produce the "group solution" for the most recently submitted individual sub-deliverable. This solution should then be added to the "in progress" final group solution. All members of the group must keep a copy of the "current group assignment".

It is also important to meet early in week 10 to produce the updated schedule to be used to complete the Part C questions and status report. Each group is responsible for providing their own status data. This means that the group members must collaborate to produce the PartC.mpp file to be used to complete the Part C questions. This is explained further in Part C.

There is one final group solution to be submitted at the end of the assignment. It is worth 30 marks and is to be submitted by only one member of the group. The names and student ids of all members of the group must appear clearly on the coversheet of the final assessment submission.

Peer assessment and your individual submissions will also be used to assess group member contributions. If any member of a team is not contributing satisfactorily to the group then he/she may have marks adjusted and/or be asked to leave the group and be required to complete the assignment as an individual. If you are having any difficulties within your group you must alert your tutor/lecturer as early as possible.

The following information is provided:
1. A case study (Mobile App Development)
2. Specific assessment questions that must be answered
3. Information regarding the submission of the assessment
4. Marking criteria

Where necessary, students are expected to find relevant information in the academic literature to justify their answers. Any assumptions made must be clearly documented.

The Case Study - Mobile App Development

Synthesys Informatics is a mobile application development company specialising in delivering comprehensive solutions in mobile apps, information systems development, systems integration and software testing. The company's headquarters are located in Melbourne and the company has over 15 years' experience in custom software and mobile development for medium to large enterprises. The company has won a contract to develop a

Mobile App Messenger called BINCO for a big telecom company. The BINCO project is developing a mobile application like WhatsApp, IMO and Skype etc. with special features in sharing files, streaming data and live events.

The project will be able to begin from 2 October 2017. This will be the official start date of the project and should be noted in the Project Information section in Microsoft Project. You are appointed as a project manager to manage the development and production of the new project. Several people are involved in this project including you as the project manager, Ms. Anderson as the Director of Mobile App Development, and a project team listed in Table 3.

Your task is to generate the project schedule and allocate the resources provided to you using the information given regarding the milestones (see below table) and the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) shown in Table 1, and the resources and costs given in Table 3.

Milestones

The following milestones have to be taken into account by your team members.

Milestone Name	Description
M1. Initiation Gate: Charter approved	The project charter must be approved before any marketing or requirements analysis begins.
M2. Functional requirements approved	After the functional requirements are complete.
M3. Design Gate - ART detailed design approval	This gate is a go/no go decision point where the Architectural Reference Team has reviewed the detailed design for the prototype and approved that the detailed design is sufficient to proceed with the development of the prototype.
M4. Prototype Development Complete	This milestone occurs after the completion of all three modules of the prototype have been developed.
M5. Release 1 Development complete	This milestone occurs after the completion of the two modules of Release 1 have been developed.
M6. Go-live Gate - Go-live approved by Project Board	The project board will approve the Go-live after the errors and bugs identified in the system and user acceptance testing of release 1 have been fixed.
M7. Completion Gate - Project final report approved by Project Board	The project board will approve the Project Final Report has been written which includes lessons learnt, confirmation that procurements have closed and all other documentation has been archived in compliance with the organisations document management procedures.
M8. Post Project Review Report Approval	Approval of the Post Project Review Report can only be done after the report has been written.

Note that the following resource abbreviations are used: Project Manager (PM)

Business Analyst (BA) App Developer (AD) Test Engineer (TE) Project Officer (PO) Marketing Officer (MO)

Table 1- Work Breakdown Structure

Task name	Duration	Predecessor
The BINCO Project
1. System Concept & Planning
1.1 Concept paper	1 person day of PM
1.2 Project kick off meeting	1 person day of PM, BA, PO and AD	1.1
1.3 Stakeholder identification	1 person day of PM and BA	1.1
1.4 Risk identification	1 person day of PM, BA and AD	1.1, 1.3
M1. Initiation Gate: Charter approved
2. Requirements analysis
2.1 Marketing campaign Stage 1	6 person days of MO	M1
2.2 Focus group - ideation	4 person days of PM	M1
2.3 Options analysis	10 person days of PM	2.2
2.4 Business requirements	15 person days of BA	M1
2.5 Story board design	10 person days of BA	2.2
2.6 Functional requirements	10 person days of BA and AD	2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
M2. Functional requirements approved
3. Prototype Design
3.1 Prototype basic design	30 person days of AD (assume all 3 staff are working Together over the 30 days)	M2
3.2 Technical Feasibility Assessment	5 person days of AD	M2
3.3 Architectural Reference Team presentation	5 person days of PM	3.1, 3.2
3.4 Prototype detailed design	15 person days of AD	3.3
M3. Design Gate - ART detailed design approval
4. Prototype development
4.1 Module 1	10 person days AD	M3
4.2 Module 2	10 person days AD	M3
4.3 Module 3	10 person days AD	M3
M4. Prototype Development Complete
5. Prototype Test
5.1 Test case development	5 person days of TE	M4
5.2 Prototype system testing	5 person days of TE	5.1
5.3 Prototype User Acceptance Testing	10 person days of TE	5.1
5.4 Prototype system & user interface bug fix	8 person days of AD	5.2, 5.3
5.5 Prototype Lessons Learnt	1 person day of BA, MO, PM, PO, AD and TE	5.4

6. Release 1 Design
6.1 Marketing campaign Stage 2	6 person days of MO	5.2, 5.3
6.2 Detailed design	10 person days of TE and AD ( 2 AD to be assigned to this task)	5.5
7. Release 1 Development
7.1 Module 4	10 person days of AD	6.2
7.2 Module 5	10 person days of AD	6.2
M5. Release 1 Development complete
8. Release 1 Test
8.1 Release 1 Systems Testing	10 person days of TE (assume all 2 staff are working together over the 10 days)	7.2
8.2 Release 1 User Acceptance Testing	6 person days of TE (assume all 2 staff are working together over the 6 days)	7.2
8.3 Release 1 bug fix	5 person days of AD	8.1, 8.2
M6. Go-live Gate - Go-live approved by Project Board
9. Launch
9.1 Marketing Campaign Stage 3	12 person days of MO	M6
9.2 Deployment and Go-Live	1 person day of AD	Note: Deployment and Go-Live can occur on the last day of the Marketing campaign Stage 3
10. Closure
10.1 Lessons Learnt	1 person day of BA, MO, PM, PO, AD, TE	9.2
10.2 Close procurement	5 person days of PM	9.2
10.3 Release project team	1 person day of PM	10.1
10.4 Finalise and archive project documentation	7 person days of PM and PO	10.1
M7. Completion Gate - Project final report approved by Project Board
11. Maintenance
11.1 Maintenance period	8 person days of AD (fixed duration)	9.2
12. Post Project Review
12.1 Post Project Review Report	2 person days of PO	11.1, M7
M8. Post Project Review Report Approval

1. One "person-day" is a "unit of work" representing the work done by one person in one day. It means that the task will normally take one person one day to complete. You can assume that a week refers to a normal working week of 5 days (Mon-Fri) with people working 8 hours per day. This is the default in Microsoft Project. Unless otherwise stated you can also assume a linear relationship, i.e. 3 person-weeks will take one person 3 weeks or 3 people one

Week. Note that this is not necessarily the case in practice. Refer to the discussion of the "mythical man-month" in your text book (Brooks' law, chapter 9). In addition, some tasks will be a fixed duration (e.g. delivery times).
2. For the purposes of this assignment (to reduce variability in solutions and complications for the markers) build your Part A1 schedule by assuming that you allocate one resource (i.e. one person with the required skills) to each task. In that case, if the task required 3 person-weeks of an AD you would assign one AD to the task and give it duration of 3 weeks.

Table 2 - Dates staff will not be available to work on the project

Public Holidays	Dates
Melbourne Cup Day	7 Nov, 2017
Christmas - New year eve	25 Dec, 2017 - 1 Jan, 2018 inclusive
Australia Day	26 Jan, 2018
Labour Day	12 Mar, 2018
Good Friday	30 Mar, 2018

Table 3 - Available Resources

Resource	$/hour	Number Available
App Developer	$85.00	3
Business Analyst	$65.00	1
Test Engineer	$60.00	2
Project Officer	$45.00	1
Project Manager	$100.00	1
Marketing Officer	$75.00	1

The App Developers work a 40 hour week from Monday to Friday (i.e. a 5 day week with 8 hour days). There are no differences among the abilities of the three App Developers).

Part-A Developing the Schedule

Assumptions

You are free to make any assumptions necessary to complete the assignment. However each assumption must be justified and stated clearly in your assessment word document. Marks will be deducted for any unreasonable assumption or for stating an assumption and then ignoring it in your assignment.

Part A: Developing the Schedule

For part A of the assessment you must complete the following tasks and questions. Read all the questions before you commence the tasks. The schedule is to be developed in an appropriately named Microsoft Project 2013 file (see the name specified below) and the questions are to be answered in a Word document. Any assumptions must also be listed at the beginning of the Word document (after the coversheet).

Q1. Use Microsoft Project 2013 to develop the project schedule according to the instructions below.
For this assignment, unless the specification states otherwise, you must initially allocate only one of each required resource to a task. To clarify, some examples are given below. For example, based on the information in Table 3, you should initially allocate:
- One AD to work on "5.4 Prototype system & user interface bug fix" for 8 days.

All tasks must be automatically scheduled tasks for this assignment. Remember to make this the default setting
before you begin adding tasks to your schedule.
Ms. Anderson has asked that the following be included in the schedule:

i. Project information (start date, Author etc.) and Holidays listed in Table 2

ii. A project title of "The BINCO Project". This is also to appear as the overall project summary at the top of your "WBS" in the mpp file. It must appear as task 0 with WBS number 0. All tasks should be "indented" according to the WBS structure described in the case study (see Table 1).
[See the Microsoft Project practicals for details about how to add the project title and how to make it the overall project summary]

iii. A WBS column before the "Task Name" column and a WBS Predecessors column after the "Task Name" column as shown below:

iv. The milestones are to appear at the end of the task list in your schedule. See the Milestone table for details. (Note that this is not always a requirement in a project schedule. Milestones can be embedded in the schedule or listed at the start. In this assignment you are required to add them at the end.).

v. Ms. Anderson has also asked you to use a "customised WBS code" for the milestones. For example, if you double click on the first milestone, you can change the WBS code to M1 as illustrated in the screenshot below.

vi. Resource allocation details.

vii. The critical path(s) automatically displayed in red on the bars of the Gantt chart view of your schedule

At this point there may be resource over allocation issues. Do not attempt to resolve these before answering question 2. Save this version of your schedule in PartAQ1.mpp. You will be required to submit this file as part of your assignment submission.

Q2. At this point ignore any resource over allocations. Copy your PartAQ1.mpp schedule to PartAQ2.mpp.

i. Ms. Anderson asks you to allocate all two TE to task "5.3 Prototype User Acceptance Testing". Assume that with the additional resources the task still requires "10 person-days" (i.e. that there will be a reduction in duration as the work can be divided equally between the two resources).

a. What is the new duration of task 5.3 and has this change impacted on the overall duration of the project? Explain.
b. Does adding resources to a task always reduce the duration in this way? (Hint: your explanation should include some discussion of the "mythical man month".)
ii. Save PartAQ2.mpp. You will be required to submit this file as part of your assignment submission.

Q3. Copy your PartAQ2.mpp schedule to PartAQ3_resources.mpp. If your schedule has any resource over-allocation issues resolve these in the PartAQ3_resources.mpp file without adding any additional resources. For this assignment, do not "split tasks" and do not allow levelling to "adjust individual assignments on a task".

Save this "modified" version of the PartAQ3_resources.mpp file. You will be required to submit PartAQ3_resources.mpp file as part of your assignment submission.

i. Describe how you resolve any resource over-allocation issues.

ii. Does the fact that your project is resource-constrained have any impact on your overall project duration and end date? Explain the changes you notice and give reasons.

Q4. Write a memo to Ms. Anderson providing the following information:

i. The expected completion date of the project, assuming it commences with task 1.1 on 2nd October 2017 and the total duration of the project;
ii. An explanation of the main factors that cause the project to require that length of time and any recommendations that you might make to reduce the duration if time was a priority for the project;
iii. The estimated direct labour costs for each of the resource types working on the project. Present the costs in a table similar to the following:

Resource Name	Cost
App Developer
Business Analyst
Test Engineer
Project Officer
Project Manager
Marketing Officer
Total Direct Labour Costs:

Assume that you will send the project schedule as an attachment to the memo. The information in the memo must correspond to the PartAQ3_resources.mpp file.
Information about writing memo can be found on the unit website in the same area as this specification.

Q5. Are there any tasks/activities or deliverables that you believe may have been overlooked and should be included in the WBS? You should be able to identify at least one possibility.

4.0 Part B: Modifying the Schedule

Copy your PartAQ3_resources.mpp file into a file called PartB.mpp file.

The following changes to the estimates for Tasks 7.1, 7.2 and 9.1 are proposed.

In addition to the changes in the above table, Ms. Anderson has asked you to allocate all AD to work together on 7.1 and 7.2

Based on the information given above complete the following tasks. Read all the tasks before you commence.

1. In your PartB.mpp make the changes in the order given in the tables below and as you make each change note the impact relative to the "current status" (i.e. the status after the previous change) it has on the:

- Overall project duration
- End date
- Direct labour costs for the project

When answering this question, do NOT attempt to resolve any resource over-allocation issues until you have completed all the changes required (i.e. all the changes to 7.1, 7.2 and 9.1). Some of the issues may be resolved as you work through the changes.
You need the information about the impact of each change to answer questions 2 and 3 below.
If as a result of all the changes there are any resource over-allocation issues resolve these and note any resultant change to the project duration.

Highlight all the changes on your schedule. Save your schedule with the highlighted changes in your PartB.mpp
file. This PartB.mpp file is also to be included as part of your final assignment submission.

1. Describe the impact of each of these changes on the project duration in a table similar to the following:

Change	Impact on Project duration (Longer / Shorter / No Impact	By how much	Explanation
Change in person-days required for 7.1 & 7.2
Allocation of All 3 AD to 7.1 & 7.2
Change in person-days required for 9.1
Allocation of BA to 9.1

If the combination of changes have had an additional impact that would not have occurred if a change was made in isolation you should also discuss this in your answer to this question. Similarly, if there were resource over-allocation issues that had to be resolved and resulted in a change to the duration, this should also be discussed. However, when answering this question, do NOT attempt to resolve any resource over-allocation issues until you have completed all the changes required (i.e. all the changes to 7.1, 7.2 and 9.1 including the additional 3 AD and allocation of BA). Some of the issues may be resolved as you work through the changes.

2. Describe the impact of each of these changes on the direct labour costs for the project in a table similar to the following:

Change	Impact on Direct Labour Costs (More / Less / No Impact	By how much	Explanation
Change in person-days required for 7.1 & 7.2
Allocation of All 3 AD to 7.1 & 7.2
Change in person-days required for 9.1
Allocation of BA to 9.1

5.0 Part C: Tracking Progress

In this part of the assignment you are to imagine that your project is underway and that it is time to produce one of your regular status reports.

This means that your group needs to meet together early in week 10 to save the baseline and enter the status data for your project. Your group must enter the data together and make sure that everyone has a copy of the updated PartC.mpp file. This is to ensure that everyone in the group is working with the same information when they develop their individual status report.

The individual sub-deliverable due at the end of week 10 includes the group's version of the PartC.mpp file plus your individual answers to the Part C questions.

In week 11, you must meet to complete the group version of the Part C answers and include this in your final group submission. All previous "group" answers should already have been completed before week 11.

Saving the baseline and entering the status data (together as a group)
Note that the fourth Microsoft Project practical is an example of what is required for Part C. Make sure that you have worked through practical 4 before attempting Part C of this assignment.

1. Copy PartB.mpp to PartC.mpp. Save the baseline for this version of your project in PartC.mpp.

2. Assume that it is now 26th January 2018 and that you have data about when tasks actually started, their duration (which must be consistent with the start date and the status date, i.e. they cannot have a start date and a duration that takes them beyond the 26/01/2018). Assume that you have also collected data about the estimated remaining duration for all the tasks that have commenced (but not yet finished). If a task has been 100% completed assume that you know the actual start date and actual finish date.

Assume that status reports are produced every two weeks and that all the earlier status reports have been completed according to this fortnightly schedule. Given that 26/01/2018 is the end of week 16, you should record the status report number as "8" when you complete the status report for this section of the assignment.

In your PartC.mpp file (in which you have saved a baseline)

a. Set the status date to 26th January 2018 and include a solid, purple status date gridline in your project to ensure that the status date is clearly visible in your Gantt Charts. View the Tracking Gantt chart.

b. Enter some status data.

Follow the instructions in Microsoft Project practical 3 to enter the status data (i.e. for tasks not running according to schedule use the "mark on track" drop down list to select "update tasks" option to enter start dates, actual durations and remaining durations).

Assume that tasks 1.1 and 1.2 are 100% complete and that they started and finished at the times scheduled in the baseline.

For the purposes of this assignment you are to invent your own data about the status of the other project tasks. This means that you have to enter status data about the other tasks that you would expect to have started by the status date. (Use the status date gridline you created in part (a) to identify tasks that require status information.)

For tasks that should have been started by the status date you are to enter reasonable data about their start date, actual duration (up to the status date) and estimated duration remaining (or completion date).

Do not have all tasks starting and finishing exactly according to your original estimates and make sure that your changes do not violate any predecessor constraints (i.e. do not start a task before the predecessors have been completed). Aim to enter data so that you can see a cost and/or schedule variance that you can then interpret and explain in your status report.

You are free to enter data to make tasks finish early or late or enter data about the remaining duration that means a task is expected to take either more or less time than originally estimated. It is also acceptable to have some tasks that are tracking according to their original duration estimates, but not all tasks.

Save your changes in PartC.mpp and use this file to answer the status report questions below.

5.1 Status Report

Based on your group PartC.mpp file each member of the group must complete and submit their individual attempts at the following tasks before meeting to produce the final group solution.

c. Based on the current status of your project, you are to produce a status report using the template provided in Appendix-A of this document. (It is a similar format to "exhibit 13.1" in the textbook). Make sure that you complete all sections of the status report.

Detailed explanations for why tasks are not tracking according to their original estimates are not required for this assignment as the data you entered is "fictitious".

However, in this section you must indicate which tasks are responsible for your project status being better or worse than planned.

For the "major changes or issues" and the "risk watch" sections enter "no change".

Peer Assessment

The aims of this peer assessment are twofold:

1. To provide information to the markers to help with their assessment of student work

2. To give students feedback to help to improve their skills when working as part of a team.

With regard to point 1, although there are regular peer assessments scheduled as part of this assessment item (weeks 7 -10), it is also important that you alert your tutor as early as possible if you are experiencing problems within your group (for example, if a team member is not attending meetings or is coming to meetings unprepared). If there are problems, it is your responsibility to contact your tutor and discuss any issues as early as possible.

In terms of point 2, it is important that the feedback be used in a positive way. It should only include "constructive criticism", i.e. it should:

- Provide positive feedback so that the team member understands what they are doing that works well.

- Provide constructive criticism, i.e. advice about how a team member could improve their team work.

- Be polite and positive.