Project management
Assessment 1- Project Management Methodologies
Task
In topics 1 & 2 you have been introduced to various project methodologies and processes. In 900 words, demonstrate your knowledge of these.
Ensure you address the following areas and provide at least 6-8 appropriate references in APA style format:
1. Define what a project methodology is giving few definitions from various authors and the role it serves in project management.
2. Choose 1 methodology from this list to compare and contrast with methodology outlined by Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), analysing the similarities and differences between them both.
List of project methodologies and processes
- PRINCE2
- Agile XP
- Waterfall
- Agile Scrum
3. Finally, identify how your chosen methodology and processes relate to the project life cycle (PLC):
Submit your assignment online via Turnitin in the nominated class. Turnitin details for the individual classes would be provided on Interact2.
Rationale
In this assessment you will be covering the following learning outcomes as outlined in the MSI:
- be able to identify, critically analyse, reflect on and synthesise the key elements of the IT project management framework, including project stakeholders, communication management, the project management knowledge areas, common tools and techniques, and project success factors;
Assessment 2- Team work and reflection
Task
Assessment 2 and Assessment 3 are to be completed using the Case study Scenario outlined in Interact 2.
Assessment 2: You are to complete the following tasks based on the discussions and learnings from meetings held with your assigned team. Your work should be referenced providing at least 6-8 appropriate references in APA style submitted individually, and will be marked individually according to the rubric.
Part One:
Project Name / Team / Description
Working as a team you are to
- Agree on a suitable team name, list all team members and provide their contact details in a professional looking document.
- Provide an overview of the project on which you are working.
- Complete a project description. This should be written clearly and concisely so that anyone unfamiliar with the project can fully understand the objectives.
Team Charter
After your team agreed on a team name and identified all of the contact details of your team members, address the following points and present them in a professional looking document:
- Skills and Knowledge Inventory - List the specific knowledge and / or skills that each team member can contribute to the project. This could be technical knowledge, communication or leadership skills.
- Roles and Responsibilities - Define roles and responsibilities for each team member. This can be defined for entire project or can be shared or even rotated.
- Team Communications
o Meeting Times & Location - Agree on mutually convenient times and location to convene to work on the case assignments.
o Define how the team will communicate with each other and share information. Also specify how meetings will be documented and where subsequent resources will be stored for ease of access.
- Team Rules & Expectations
o Discuss your previous experiences of working in teams, both positive and negative. What is the overall team goal?
o Team Values - Discuss as a team what values are important. Develop a statement or itemised list that summarises these values.
o Code of Ethics - Based on your team values, create a statement that summarises a code of ethics to guide your teams ethical behaviour.
o Rules and Expectations - Build a set of rules and expectation that all members of the team shall abide by. Consider team decisions, conflict, absence from meetings, and an individual's lack of contribution for example.
- Signatures - Get each member of the team to sign the team charter. This will indicate an understanding and agreement to the rules and expectations as specified in the points above.
Part Two:
Learning Cycles
Learning cycles give structure to your team meetings and accountability for when you and your team work outside of the meeting schedule
Firstly, prior to your next meeting, assign roles to the team. There should only be two central roles - the organiser and the scribe:
- Organiser - organises the meeting by writing down the team's ideas and then distributes them to the team for feedback.
- Scribe - documents the ideas and action points going forward.
Note: Roles should be rotated for each meeting and assigned so that everyone on the team has equal responsibility.
Using peer learning and reflections, document your understanding of the project at this point in time in a table format.
Note: it is likely at this early stage of the project that you will write down very few facts. You will have a few more assumptions and probably a larger list of questions to be answered. Seek answers to your questions, and show the iteration of learning cycles as you gain a deeper understanding.
Part Three:
Communication Plan
As a team, brainstorm and identify all stakeholders to the project. Then individually, develop an appropriate communication plan using the format below
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Stakeholder name
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Information to be shared
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Frequency of information exchange
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Location of information exchange
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Purpose of communication
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Mechanism for communication
Hardcopy, pdf, ppt, word, email, etc
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Who
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What
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When
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Where
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Why
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How
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Part Four:
Reflection
Write a brief reflection of no more than 300 words of your team work experience in this subject. To guide your reflection you should address the following questions:
- How did your experience compare to your understanding of the leadership qualities required to successfully lead a project?
- Based on your experience, what are necessary techniques, skills, methods and ICT project manager requires in the IT profession?
Submit your assignment online via Turnitin in the nominated class. Turnitin details for the individual classes would be provided on Interact2.
Rationale
This assessment meets the following learning outcomes:
- be able to identify, critically analyse, reflect on and synthesise the key elements of the IT project management framework, including project stakeholders, communication management, the project management knowledge areas, common tools and techniques, and project success factors;
- be able to critically analyse the role of IT project management within a professional workplace, from the viewpoint of the member/leader of the project team;
- be able to research and critically evaluate how a practising IT project manager applies IT project management techniques, project management skills, methods and software tools in the IT industry;
- be able to understand and apply appropriate communication practices within a project management context;
- be able to research and apply established IT project management principles, skills and techniques to a case study.
Assessment 3
Task
You are to prepare and submit Assessment 3 as an individual, based on the Case study scenario, and your peer to peer learning from Assessment 2 at least 8-10 appropriate references in APA style.
You are required to develop a charter for the Project including:
Include the Project description and overview you developed as part of Assessment 2.
Part One:
MOV - Measurable Organisational Value
(This is the goal of the project and is utilised to define the value that your team project will bring to your client)
- Identify the desired area of impact - Rank the following areas in terms of importance: Strategy / Customer / Financial / Operational / Social
- With reference to your project, identify one or two of the following types of value:
o Better - is improving quality important to your client?
o Faster - does your client want to increase efficiency?
o Cheaper - is cutting costs important?
o Do more - does your client want to continue its growth?
- Develop an appropriate metric - this sets the target and expectation of all the stakeholders. It is important to determine a quantitative target that needs to be expressed as a metric in terms of an increase or decrease of money.
- Determine the timeframe for achieving the MOV - ask yourselves, when do we want to achieve this target metric?
- SUMMARISE THE MOV IN A CLEAR CONCISE STATEMENT OR TABLE
(Note: the MOV should inform everyone what the project will achieve, not how it will be achieved. It should also focus on the organisation, not on the technology that will be used to build or support the information system).
Part Two:
Define Scope and produce a Scope Management Plan
Define the scope of the project and detail how the scope will be managed.
Provide a list of Resources
Identify and detail the resources for the project using MS Project where appropriate, including:
- People (and their roles), plus any extra personnel that is required for the project.
- Technology - any hardware, network and software needs to support the team and your client.
- Facilities - where will most of the teamwork be situated?
- Other - for example, travel, training etc.
Part Three:
Using MS Project, develop a schedule using a high level Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). It should include:
Milestones for each phase and deliverable
- This will tell everyone associated with the project that the phase or deliverable was completed satisfactorily.
Activities / Tasks
- Define a set of activities / tasks that must be completed to produce each deliverable.
Resource Assignments
- Assign people and resources to each individual activity.
Estimates for Each Activity / Task
- Develop a time estimate for each task or activity to be completed.
Budget
- Create a time-phased budget using bottom-up estimating. Be sure to include direct costs listed in Part two and add 20% for fringe. State all assumptions and constraints you have used when creating your budget. State how confident you are in your estimates and what would make you more confident.
Part Four:
Project Risk Analysis and Plan
- Document any assumptions you have made about the project
- Using the Risk Identification Framework as a basis, identify five risks to the project - one for each of the five phases of the methodology.
- Analyse these risks, assign a risk to an appropriate member, and describe a strategy for the management of each specific risk.
Part Five:
Quality Management Plan. It should include:
- A short statement that reflects your team's philosophy or objective for ensuring that you deliver a quality system to your client.
- Develop and describe the following that your project team could implement to ensure quality;
o A set of verification activities
o A set of validation activities
Part Six: 550 words
Closure and Evaluation Researching for the closure checklist and project evaluation
a. To prepare for this task, you will be required to provide an annotated bibliography.
Write an Annotated Bibliography for three (3) relevant texts or readings around project evaluation. The Annotated Bibliography is a critical examination of the most relevant, recent and scholarly research on the topic area that is not just a summary of the articles you have read.
You will submit this as an appendix to your project evaluation documentation.
Ensure that the AB submitted by you is your own work and has not been submitted elsewhere and comply with the University's requirements for academic integrity.
b. Develop a closure checklist that the project team will use to ensure that the project has been closed properly.
c. Develop a project evaluation -outline and discuss how your project's MOV will be evaluated.
Submit your assignment online via Turnitin in the nominated class. Turnitin details for the individual classes would be provided on Interact2.
Rationale
This assessment addresses the following learning outcomes:
- be able to understand and apply appropriate communication practices within a project management context;
- be able to research and apply established IT project management principles, skills and techniques to a case study;
- be able to research and critically evaluate how a practising IT project manager applies IT project management techniques, project management skills, methods and software tools in the IT industry;
- be able to research and apply established IT project management principles, skills and techniques to a case study.