Assignment Brief
Learning Outcomes
The completion of this assignment requires you to demonstrate the ability to:
- Demonstrate knowledge of a range of Project Management techniques appropriate for different types of projects.
- Develop and evaluate effective project plans applying appropriate Project Management skills and techniques.
- Evaluate and synthesise information from different sources, theories and principles, and communicate relevant information effectively, and with accuracy. Put forward relevant and robust strategic recommendations for the management of your project.
- Demonstrate a critical appreciation of project management theory and methodologies with an in depth knowledge of project management tools and techniques to plan projects in your industry/business area.
- Select and implement an effective solution to manage a project.
- Review the management of a project to learn lessons for future projects.
- Recognise the skills required of the professional project manager.
Format of Assessment
The assessment contain two parts:
Part A: GROUP PRESENTATION
You are required to present your Project Plan as group where formative feedback will be given.
Part B: INDIVIDUAL PROJECT PORTFOLIO REPORT
An individual project portfolio document should be developed based on your group project work. The word limit for the report is 2,000 words.
Assignment Detail
This assignment is based on a real-life project planning to ensure you (work in a group of4 to 6) can apply and reflect on the project management knowledge and skills learnt. Examples of projects include:
1) Design a ‘product delivery solution' for online retailers which could improve their delivery systems .
2) Develop a ‘partnership pack' for companies that are involved in maintenance of the Reading Train Station by the Bechtel and Network rail.
3) Design a new product for a UK mobile manufacturing company.
4) Do a project planning for organising afund-raising event for a charity organisation.
5) Design a campaign to support women in the age group of 60-70 to use local council e-services
6) Develop a new educational board-game for students at the University of Bedfordshire
7) Educating/training University of Bedfordshire students on the significance of using the ‘University's learning resources'.
8) Relocate a manufacturing facility of any automobile company from abroad to the UK
9) Develop a ‘marketing initiative' for local businesses in Luton to market their products e.g. Yellow pages.
10) Holding an art exhibition within the premises of university of Bedfordshire (or local university). Sponsor requires students to manage and plan the art exhibition, creating awareness and generating revenue from the sales of paintings. The paintings are provided by the sponsor.
11) Smart city project for London Westminster City Council
12) Relocating a manufacturing facility of automobile company from the UK to France
13) Creating awareness of on-line security
14) Develop a ‘UK visitor's tariff' for a growing mobile phone provider/company like Tesco Mobile, Lyca Mobile and Lebara Mobile.
Part A
Group presentation
As a group of 4 to 6 student, you are required to choose a project from above listand develop a Plan. Consider following four areas:
1. The business case
2. Project time management
3. Risk management strategy
4. Stakeholder management strategy
Specifications
Length of presentation: 10 minutes for Presentation and 5 minutes Q&A
Presentation Criteria
1. The Business Case:
Needs to be detailed and cover points such as Reasons, Expected Benefits& Dis-Benefits, Stakeholder Identification, Key Milestones, Costs, Estimated Resources and Constraints.
2. Project Time Management This includes the following 4 components:
a) Work Breakdown Structure
b) Activity List
- Activities should be the same as those listed in the WBS
- Show estimated duration and dependency of each activity
- All activities must be realistic, true to nature and applicable
c) Network Diagram and Critical Path Analysis
- The durations of activities on forward and backward passes including earliest starts and finishes, and late starts and finishes, and total floats.
- Use of a 3x3 matrix box to show required information in the second bullet point.
d) Gantt Chart
- Evidence that Microsoft Project (or other software) used? How detailed is it?
3. Project Risk Management
- Risk Identification - How thorough?
- Risk Assessment - Probability Matrix....how realistic?
- Risk Responses - How appropriate?
- Risk Register/log Sample(s) provided
4. Stakeholder Management
- How the stakeholders could help or otherwise may hinder the projectimplementation?
- Carry out a stakeholder analysis using Power vs Interest Matrix
- Develop a stakeholder communication plan showing,
o What needs to be communicated?
o How it will be communicated (e.g. email or a meeting)
o The frequency of communication (e.g. daily, weekly)
4. Quality of Slides and Presentation
5. How well the Project Team handle the questions?
Part B
Individual Report
Individual Report Specifications
Referencing: Harvard Referencing
Length: 2000 words (+/- 10%) (Excluding executive summary, references and appendices)
Please Note:
1) This is an INDIVIDUAL REPORT. You may only use the relevant tools and techniques from Group Presentation PowerPoint, but you are not allowed to copy the work from other group member(s). Everyone needs to produce his/her own report in his/her own wording, according to the understanding of the project work.
2) Please avoid Plagiarism by providing a full referencing list and in-text citations.
Instructions:
- The report should have a title comprised of your name, student number, and title of project.
- The report should be 1.5 line-spaced, 12 point font, Times New Roman, or Arial.
- Each page should be numbered except for the cover page.
- The assignment must have your name and the Student ID number.
- You must submit a copy of your group presentation slide in the appendices
- Make sure you save your file as PDF before submitting.
This part of the assessment is based on the project that you have undertaken and presented to the project board. You need to consider the formative feedback received to produce a written report covering the following areas individually:
1. The Business Case: Needs to cover the following points: Reasons, Expected Benefits& Dis-Benefits, Stakeholder Identification, Key Milestones, Costs, Estimated Resources and Constraints.
2. Project Time Management
This includes the following 4 components:
a) Work Breakdown Structure
b) Activity List
- Activities should be the same as those listed in the WBS
- Show estimated duration and dependency of each activity
- All activities must be realistic, true to nature and applicable
c) Network Diagram and Critical Path Analysis
- The durations of activities on forward and backward passes including earliest starts and finishes, and late starts and finishes, and total floats.
- Use of a 3x3 matrix box to show required information in the second bullet point.
d) Gantt Chart
- Good use of Microsoft Project for planning your project and required details.
3. Project Risk Assessment
- Risk Identification - How thorough?
- Risk Assessment - Probability Matrix....how realistic?
- Risk Responses - How appropriate?
- Risk Register/log Sample(s) provided
4. Stakeholder Management
- How the identified stakeholders could help or hinder the project
- Carry out a stakeholder analysis using Power vs Interest Matrix
- Develop a stakeholder communication plan showing,
o What needs to be communicated?
o How it will be communicated (e.g. email or a meeting)
o The Frequency of communication (e.g. daily, weekly)
5. Review of lessons learnt from conducting the project
a. What have you learned as a result of doing this project? - You may have learned that there are some things that you did that you would not do again if you were to work on another project.
b. You may have learned new ways of approaching activities within a project that you would replicate in other projects.
c. Any lessons learned are valuable - whether they are based on good or bad experiences they are very useful for future reference.
d. Give details of any recommendations for action in relation to this project: - What would you like to happen as a result of this project - what recommendations would you make as a result of undertaking this project?
e. Give details of any recommendations based on your experience for actions for future projects. These recommendations may, for example, could be related to the whole project approach, or the way in which project teams gained understanding and work together or the recommendations can be made as a result of both positive and negative experiences within the project journey.
6. Review of lesson learnt from working in groups
a. How did you feel about working in a group?
b. What was the impact of other people on your learning?
c. What was the most successful part of the experience?
d. What would you do differently in future groups?
7. Personal reflection on Individual learning
a. What did you contribute the most?
b. What skills, abilities or knowledge did you use?
c. What skills, abilities or knowledge did you gain from the project (or the course)? For example:
d. Hard skills such as Project Management Tools and Techniques
e. Soft skills such as Group-working or Leadership Skills?