project management

ENGG951 Engineering Project Management - Assessment 1 (CONTEXT & PART A) Context Assessment 1 requires that you play the role of the project manager of a team assigned to develop a new product. You will be preparing for 2 separate meetings with the project sponsors. Part A of this assessment is focused on preparing material for the first meeting. It will require that you establish an initial project plan (based on a set of conditions provided to you in Client Brief A) and provide a recommendation to sponsors. Part B of this assessment is focussed on preparing material for the second meeting and will require that you adjust your initial recommendation based on feedback from the sponsors (provided to you in the form of Client Brief B).

You will use Microsoft Project 2016 to assist with planning the project, assigning resources and resolving any issues which arise. You will use the software to answer the questions asked and generate charts and reports. In addition, you will be required to summarise the outcomes of your work in the form of a project memo containing your recommendations to the project sponsors. Each individual memo will require that you refer to the charts and reports you have generated when answering the questions to support your recommendations. This is a reflection of what would occur in a real project.

In a real project, you would send your memo for Part A to those participating in the first meeting, so that they can come to the meeting prepared with the latest information (part of your communications management). The project sponsors would then provide you with feedback at or post that meeting. Based on this feedback you might have to adjust your initial proposal. This is in fact what you will do in this assessment (the feedback will be contained in the Client Brief B). You will then prepare a second memo based on this adjusted outcome and targeted at those invited to the second meeting, so that once again they can come to the second meeting prepared.

In addition to this, Part B of this assessment will also require that you apply your newly gained skills in using MS Project 2016 to create a schedule for the delivery of the team project for your Assessment 5.

Assessment 1 Part A - Individual Assignment – WEIGHT 10% The required technical report must contain:

• A self-generated Cover sheet – include Subject Code, Assessment number, Your Name (as it appears in SOLS) and Student number.

• An Index • Answers to the questions asked – 2 pages Max • MS Project generated charts or reports – 1x A4 landscape page per relevant chart or report • The Memo – 2 pages Max

Formatting Requirements You are required to comply with each of the following formatting requirements

• When creating your MS Project 2016 file ensure that the new file name you have chosen follows the following format: ENGG951_student family name_ student number. Ensure that this ID is displayed in all MS Project generated charts and reports.

• The Project Memo must use the Memo Template which is provided on Moodle for this assessment. • All MS Project generated charts and reports must be .pdf print-outs. Screen shots of the software screen are not

acceptable. • Each individual Chart or Report must be scaled to fit on one A4 page in Landscape layout. Any redundant template

information that exists in the chart should be removed. Submission Requirements

• You are required to submit your report via TURNITIN as a readable format eg no screen shot files. • You are required to submit the MS Project 2016 file that you used to solve the problem presented for part A and which

contains the final resource constrained solution that you discuss in your report for Part A. This must be submitted via the Moodle portal provided.

• DUE DATE: all required items must be submitted by 12:00hrs (midday) on Friday of Week 7. Marking Criteria Please see question weighting provided in each question and grade guideline commentary provided after the questions.

ASSESSMENT 1: Client Brief A – Setting Up and Planning Project MERCURY Please use MS Project 2016 to resolve the problem presented below.

BACKGROUND

The Apollo company specializes in developing high speed vehicle grade scooters. A recent market analysis has identified that as consumers demand for greener products increases, there is a growing demand for the next generation of high-powered electric scooters. You are the project manager of a project team assigned to develop a new Apollo Mercury electric high-speed scooter. The Project Priority Matrix for the Mercury Project is shown in Table 1

TIME SCOPE COST CONSTRAIN X ENHANCE X ACCEPT X

Table 1. Project Mercury Priority Matrix Table 2 contains all the activity information you require to create a project schedule. Assume the following:

• The project start date is the first working day in January 2022. • The project is located in Queensland, Australia, given that Apollo’s base of Australian operations is Brisbane CBD. • The project team works eight hours daily, Monday through to Friday • All public holidays are observed. • All tasks are set as “Fixed Duration”

Task # Task Name Duration

days Predecessors

1 Market analysis 20

2 Product design 40 1 3 Manufacturing study 15 1 4 Product design selection 20 2, 3 5 Detailed marketing plan 15 4 6 Manufacturing process 25 4 7 Detailed product design 35 4 8 Build Prototype 40 7 9 Lab Test prototype 7 8

10 Field Test Prototype 18 9 11 Finalized product design 25 6, 10 12 Final Manufacturing Process 15 11 13 Order components 10 12 14 Order production equipment 19 11 15 Install production equipment 35 13FS+20 days, 14FS+30 days 16 Celebrate 1 5, 15

Table 2. Project Activities and durations. Note: FS refers to Finish to Start lag.

Table 3 shows the personnel who have been assigned full time to the Project Mercury.

Resource Name

Full time personnel

allocated to project

Standard Rate

Marketing specialist 4 $95,000.00/yr

Design engineer 4 $127,000.00/yr

Development engineer 4 $110,000.00/yr

Industrial engineer 4 $105,000.00/yr

Purchasing agent 2 $85,000.00/yr

Test Users 3 $93.00/hr

Table 3. Project Mercury Personnel Resources. Table 4 identifies the resource assignments.

Task Name Resource Names

Market analysis Marketing specialist[400%]

Product design Marketing specialist, Design engineer[400%], Development engineer[200%], Industrial engineer, Purchasing agent

Manufacturing study Industrial engineer[400%], Development engineer[200%]

Product design selection Marketing specialist[200%], Design engineer[300%], Development engineer[200%], Industrial engineer[200%], Purchasing agent[25%] Detailed marketing plan Marketing specialist[400%]

Manufacturing process Design engineer, Development engineer[200%], Industrial engineer[300%]

Detailed product design Marketing specialist[200%], Design engineer[400%], Development engineer[200%], Industrial engineer[200%], Purchasing agent[25%] Build Prototype Design engineer[200%], Development engineer[200%], Industrial engineer[400%]

Lab Test prototype Design engineer[200%], Development engineer[200%], Test Users

Field Test Prototype Marketing specialist, Design engineer[200%], Development engineer, Industrial engineer, Test Users[300%]

Finalized product design Marketing specialist[200%], Design engineer[300%], Development engineer[300%], Industrial engineer[200%], Purchasing agent[25%]

Final Manufacturing Process Industrial engineer[300%], Design engineer, Purchasing agent[25%]

Order components Purchasing agent

Order production equipment Purchasing agent

Install production equipment Design engineer, Development engineer[300%], Industrial engineer[400%]

Celebrate Design engineer[400%], Development engineer[400%], Industrial engineer[300%], Marketing specialist[300%], Purchasing agent[200%] Table 4. Project Mercury Personnel Resource Assignments.

PART A: Initial Project Planning - Scheduling, Resource Allocation & Levelling In this assignment you will be simulating preparing for your first meeting with the project sponsors. To do this answer the questions that follow and submit your answers as a separate section in your written report.

Begin by entering the tasks, durations and resource details and construct a schedule for this project. Ensure that auto levelling is turned off at the start of this exercise.

1 Without attempting to level resources at this point and taking into account the restrictions identified in the background section, and based only on the activities required (ie the network diagram) identify the project start, estimated project completion date, the project duration and the overall project cost? (4 marks)

2 Investigate if any of the resources are over-allocated, identify who they are, when they are over-allocated (be specific provide dates) and explain why they are overallocated (be specific provide tasks and hours that cause the overallocation)? (10 marks)

3 To report this overallocation to the project sponsors you must choose a way to demonstrate the overallocation effectively. Generate a report or chart to demonstrate which resource is overallocated, by how much it is overallocated and when the overallocation occurs. (5 marks – for the most suitable choice)

4 Assume that the project is time constrained and try to resolve the problem by levelling within slack. (6 marks)

a. What happens to the completion date, duration, and resource overallocation?

b. Explain why the outcomes achieved in part “a” above occur?

5 Assume that the project is resource constrained and no additional personnel are available. In addition, assume that no manual task splitting is allowed. How long will the project take given the resources assigned (ie identify the duration and completion date) ?. (HINT: undo any prior levelling performed before answering this question). (2 marks)

6 Produce and print a Gantt chart which effectively consolidates all the key information associated with your resource constrained solution and which shows the critical path for this project. Include it as an attachment to your report. (3 marks – for those that follow all format requirements)

7 Create a memo for the project sponsors summarising the outcomes of your findings and offering them your recommendations as the project manager. Make sure that you compare the time constrained and the resource constrained schedules and discuss what this tells you about the impact that resources can have on a schedule. Ensure that you refer to each of the charts that you generate previously in the memo to support your recommendation and that you follow the memo structure requirements provided in the memo template. (5 marks)

GRADING GUIDELINE Note: The weight for each question is identified above. If students fail to follow the formatting requirements, then 1 mark will be deducted for each failure in compliance, regardless of the accuracy of the response. If charts fail to comply with any technical requirements (eg all the information required in a valid Gantt chart is present) then 1 mark will be deducted for each failure in compliance.