Project Management Frame Work

Project Management Framework

 

Assignment Criterion

2500–3000 words, exclusive of the executive summary, tables, figures, appendices, etc.

Project plan

MGT8022 ASSIGNMENT 2 MARK SHEET

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK

CHOSEN PROJECT:

 

Poor   

Adequate  

Good  

Excellent 

Mark

PRESENTATION

 

 

 

 

/10

Overall presentation of report

 

 

 

 

 

Language skills, grammar, spelling

 

 

 

 

 

Usage of figures in assignment

 

 

 

 

 

Usage of tables in assignment

 

 

 

 

 

Page numbering

 

 

 

 

 

Section numbering

 

 

 

 

 

Usage of Appendices at end of assignment

 

 

 

 

 

RESEARCH & ACADEMIC THEORY

 

 

 

 

/20

Overall depth of research evident in assignment

 

 

 

 

 

Quality of research material used

 

 

 

 

 

Use of theory to justify analysis, discussion and argument

 

 

 

 

 

Correct usage of citations using Harvard style

 

 

 

 

 

Correct usage of list of references using Harvard style

 

 

 

 

 

ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS  

 

 

 

 

 

Executive summary (to cover entire report)

 

 

 

 

 

Table of contents (to cover entire report)

 

 

 

 

 

PART A – Project Plan

 

 

 

 

/20

Indication of authorship of Project Plan

 

 

 

 

 

Indication of the purpose of the project plan

 

 

 

 

 

Indication of the intended audience of the project plan

 

 

 

 

 

Overview and statement of project objectives

 

 

 

 

 

Summary of the organizational approach to be taken for management of the project

 

 

 

 

 

Adequacy of project plan for the chosen project

 

 

 

 

 

Coverage of the necessary aspects of the project to adequately define how the project is to be managed

 

 

 

 

 

Appendices for Part A

 

 

 

 

 

PART B – Theoretical justification of Project Plan

 

 

 

 

/50

Introduction

 

 

 

 

 

Project background

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion on the nature and purpose of the project plan

 

 

 

 

 

Justification of the structure of the project plan

 

 

 

 

 

Justification of the contents of the Project Plan

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

 

 

 

 

Recommendations (if any)

 

 

 

 

 

Appendices for Part B

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL MARK

 

 

 

 

/100

 

1. Software requirement to complete assignment

Software requirements for this assignment will include word processing and project scheduling software such as Microsoft Project, Primavera, Sidetrack, etc. Students may purchase academic versions of software from most retailers.

2. Assignment objective

The purpose of this assignment is to pull together most of the material which has been covered in the course and to allow you to demonstrate that you understand the theory and can apply it to a practical project.

The project can be of any size and type and should have between 25 to 50 activities or tasks. If you are working on a large project, use one of its sub-projects for your example. If you include a larger number of activities, it will increase your workload significantly and it is not recommended.

Your submission should have TWO PARTS – Part A and Part B.

·         Part A is a practical ‘Project Plan’ suitable for your chosen project and should be presented as a working document – it should focus on what is to be done, who is to do it and when they are to do it; Part A should not include any discussion as to why something should be done

·         Part B is an academic report containing a description of the project and a theoretical justification of the structure and content of your project plan in Part A, fully supported by references. Read the study materials to be clear on the purpose and content of a project plan.

 

It is strongly recommended that you use project management software to schedule the project. You may also use it to develop the project budget, but a spreadsheet can be equally useful. It is essential that you become familiar with the software at the earliest opportunity as it can be time-consuming to learn how to use it effectively. The course leader is not available to provide guidance on the use of the software.

Assignment requirements

Refer to the Assignment guidelines for assistance in completing this assignment. Remember to integrate academic theory into your assignment to support your arguments and proposals.

Provide the following:

·         Ensure that your document includes a normal cover sheet that would be expected of a professional document (this is in addition to the electronic cover sheet discussed above). This assignment is an academic paper so should be presented as one.

Executive Summary (200 – 250 words, but this does not form part of the assignment word count)

·         The executive summary comes before the table of contents.

·         Read the guidelines and provide a formal Executive Summary with details of why the overall report was prepared, how it is structured, and what the important findings and conclusions are.

·         SUGGESTION: this should be written last after you have finished the report.

Table of contents

·         This should be a full comprehensive listing with respective page numbers of executive summary, introduction, main sections, references, individual appendices, and full listing of all figures and tables.

PART A – THE PROJECT PLAN (20 marks)

Part A is a project plan (or project management plan) for your chosen project and should represent a document that could be handed to a client/manager to illustrate how you intend to manage the project through to completion. A project plan is often used to gain sponsor/client commitment, and should contain sufficient information to allow such a decision to be made with confidence. It should be comprehensive and supported by appendices such as time schedules, spreadsheets, graphs, tables etc to fully illustrate the Project Plan with any necessary supporting explanation. If you are not the author of the project plan, this must be clearly indicated.

Part A should include, but not be limited to, the following:

·         An overview, brief description and a statement of objectives of the project,

·         A summary of the management approach to be taken,

·         Details covering the aspects of the project to be managed.

·         Together with any supporting information or documents to support the above.

·         Appendices should be attached to the report after Part A of the assignment, and they should be numbered sequentially e.g. Appendix A.1, Appendix A.2, etc.

PART B – THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PROJECT PLAN (50 marks)

1. Introduction (100 words)

·         Briefly state why the report has been prepared, what project is being analyzed, and how the report is structured.

 

(Note – this may be similar to the introduction in assignment 1 if you have used the same project, but this is a new report, and you need to provide the information your reader needs to understand the report. You can use the same information in both assignments).

2. Project background (200 words)

·         Your project description should describe the project and its context – what organisation is the project owner, what this organisation does, why the project is being done, where it is located, etc. The description should contain enough detail for the reader to understand the reason behind each of the components of the plan – why it is included and its content and format.

3. Structure and contents of the Project Plan (2000-2500 words approximately)

·         Discuss the nature and purpose of a project plan.

·         Discuss how the Project Plan in Part A has been structured, and why the respective components have been included. What is the source of this structure?

·         Discuss each of the sections of Part A and provide some theoretical framework for what is included e.g. why has a Cost Management Plan been included, how was it prepared, who prepared it, etc. This explanation will be drawn from the study modules, text book, selected readings, and other sources. This discussion may cover most, if not all, knowledge areas covered under the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (POMBO) (PHI 2004) in one form or another. It does not have to be under those headings but should clearly indicate that it covers all recognised aspects of a project plan as suggested by the theory.

4. Conclusion (200 words)

·         Summaries this discussion of the Project Plan in relation to your project. What aspects are important and are of significance?

List of references

·         Provide a complete list of references providing full details of all citations used in the body of the assignment. For a postgraduate assignment, there should be a minimum of 15 references, many of which will be cited more than once. There are exercises provided on the CD to give you practice in using the Harvard referencing system.

Bibliography (this is optional)

·         A bibliography is a list of the references that are NOT cited in the assignment. This is not required, although one may be provided if you wish to create a record of documents that were examined during the research.

Appendices

·         Attach any appendices that relate to Part B, numbered as Appendix B.1, Appendix B.2, etc.

 

 

 

Assignment guidelines General

·         The word count is indicative. Past experience indicates that it is difficult to discuss the issues in less than the nominated word count.

·         A high standard of presentation is expected at postgraduate level. There is no excuse for poor spelling, bad grammar, nor lack of formatting. Use one and a half line spacing with 12-point font, and pages must be numbered.

·         Do not use ‘I, we, you, our’ etc. Reports and assignments should not be written in the ‘first person’.

Executive summary

·         An Executive summary MUST be provided (before the Contents page). It provides a reader with a summary of why the report (assignment) was prepared, what it covers, and a summation of the conclusions, and/or recommendations.

·         It should be about 10% of the assignment length, single line spacing, and is excluded from formal word counts.

·         It is not an introduction, but should function as a totally self-contained removable document for readers who will read no more of the report.

·         It should contain all pertinent information including conclusions and recommendations in a concise summary, but should not contain any theory.

Table of contents and numbering

·         A comprehensive table of contents is required, with section numbers, section headings, and page numbers. It will include the List of references, a List of appendices, a List of figures, and a List of tables, all with page numbers indicated. All sections and pages should be fully numbered.

Introduction

·         An Introduction should be provided at the beginning to summaries the structure of the following sections of the report/assignment.

·         The introduction does not contain theory, nor does it contain any conclusions nor recommendations.

·         Do not assume that the reader has read the Executive Summary, as it is a totally separate document.

Body of assignment

·         This is an academic assignment, so it is essential that your statements be justified by relevant academic theory. For example, don’t just use terms like ‘stakeholder’ – explain why you selected those terms, and the academic theory to justify their use.

·         A major failing of students is to simply ‘describe’ the processes that have happened. At postgraduate level, you are expected to be able to apply recognised theory to situations, and form opinions. You will often find conflicting opinions from so-called ‘experts’. You should be developing analytical and communication skills.

·         Students coming from other universities, and especially overseas students, find this need for ‘analysis’ the most difficult transition to make to Australian university study. You are expected to use your judgement to analyse problems, make value judgments as to whether it is good or bad (or both), use existing academic theory from a range of sources to justify your position, and to argue whether something is valid or not. In the study of management, there are no right nor wrong answers, only lots of opinions, many of which change over a period of time. Show that you can act as managers, and communicate your opinions.

·         Major sections should start on a new page. You will be surprised just how much more readable it makes your assignment / report.

Referencing

·         Referencing is NOT just inserting a list of publications at the end of the report and is not acceptable.

·         Referencing is NOT just inserting a citation at the end of each paragraph and is not acceptable.

·         At postgraduate level, you are expected to cite at least 10 to 15 different sources of reference material, and to make multiple references to such material.

·         References MUST be cited using the Harvard system. Read your Communication skills handbook for information on how to cite reference materials.

·         Please refer to the US Library web site for referencing guidelines in the Harvard style. Click on ‘Referencing Guides’ under the ‘Information About… ’ heading. This provides details on the referencing of print and electronic publications. There are exercises provided to give you practice in using the Harvard referencing system.

·         References must be listed alphabetically by author in a single List of References at the end of each assignment. Do not put multiple lists of references at the end of each section or part.

Figures and tables

·         There are many instances where diagrams and tables would assist in the communication of information, and the reduction of word length. For example, if a stakeholder analysis were required, it would be much more clearly understood if presented in a table.

·         Figures and tables must be numbered in some logical way, so they can be listed on the Contents page, and referred to in the text. A recommendation is that you call it Figure/Table X.1, X.2 etc. where ‘X’ represents the section number. Consecutive numbering through the whole document (rather than by section) can mean lots of renumbering if there are changes.

·         Tables should not run over onto following pages. Start them on a new page to avoid this. If they are multi-page tables, then think about making them into an appendix. Use a smaller font (10 point) and single line spacing to reduce the size of tables.

Appendices

·         Larger amounts of relevant material (such as sample documents or supporting material) should be put at the end of the assignment in an Appendix after the List of References. Smaller charts or summaries could be located in the text, but anything over a page becomes a distraction.

·         Appendices should be numbered sequentially (Appendix 1, Appendix 2, etc). Unnecessary and irrelevant information should not be attached. Size of assignments has no bearing on marks achieved.

Comment

·         Some students choose part of a project or organisation that is extremely simple in its structure, and has few issues to discuss. Those of you who choose a more complex organisation are given credit for the ‘degree of difficulty’.

·         Make sure you answer all parts of the questions.

Assignment preparation

Assignments 1 and 2 require you to carry out analysis of aspects of the management of a selected project and submit reports of a professional standard.

Refer to the assignment guidelines provided as the requirements are quite specific and failure to conform to the guidelines may result in loss of marks.

A sample assignments provided to illustrate the general nature and standard of a postgraduate assignment. It relates to a different topic and has a different structure. Read the comments to understand the expectations. It is NOT a template to be followed.

There is no examination for this course, so a higher standard of assignment work is expected in this course than for courses with examination requirements.

Selection of suitable project

You should immediately identify a project or projects suitable for carrying out Assignments 1 and 2. You may have to read ahead to understand the requirements of those assignments. The project/s should be from your workplace, personal experience, or from some source where you can obtain appropriate and sufficient information. Although it is recommended that you use the same project for both assignments, it is acceptable to use different projects for the respective assignments. Your project should be complex enough so that you are able to examine the issues related to the issues covered by these assignments. Read the assignment requirements immediately so that you understand what you will need.

For the purposes of these assignments, a ‘project’ is any significant Endeavour undertaken by an organisation. It may be internal or external, but should be of sufficient size or complexity to warrant detailed analysis. For example, it could be:

·         An organizational restructure or company merger

·         Development of a capital asset (building, structure, etc.)

·         Development of intellectual property (software, website)

·         Development of some capability (Defence projects, information system)

·         Organisation of a conference or large event, or

·         Marketing/development of a new product range

Module 7  Stakeholder and communication management

Module 8 Project procurement management

Module 9 Project time management

Module 10 Project cost management

Module 11 Project quality and risk management

Module 12 Project termination and integration management

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