Project Risk Management.

IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment                                     

  Last update: January, 2014

Integrated Team Project (ITP) Project Descriptions

Note:  If a blue hotlink to a particular assignment deliverable fails and doesn't take you directly to that deliverable, then either: (a) click the address bar then press the Enter key, (b) scroll down the screen to find the right section(s), or (c) use the following table of contents to find the section(s) you need.

 

Contents

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP)

Notes on the Integrated Team Project (ITP)

Overview

Team Roles and Interaction

Submission of the Project Deliverables for Grading

Peer Review Team Assessment and Grading of Team Project Deliverables

Grading Rubrics

General Theme and ITP Project Requirements

Case Scenario -- Veterinary Clinic Automation

Project Documentation Requirements

Introduction to Team Process Course Completion Plan Assignments

TPP-1 - Plan and Schedule for Team Process  (Team project)

ITP-1 - Project Charter (Team project)

ITP-2 - Project Work Breakdown Structure with Durations (Individual project)

ITP-3 - Project Schedule with Task Dependency Links (Team project)

ITP-4 - Project Resources and Costs (Team project)

ITP-5 - Project Risk Assessment (Individual project)

ITP-6 - Consolidated Project Management Plan (Team project)

ITP-7 - Project Execution, Tracking, and Changes  (Team project)

TPP-2 - Project Post-Mortem Analysis  (Team project)

 

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP)

(but no Final Exam)

This course uses a so-called "authentic assessment" instead of a final exam.  The purpose of the authentic assessment is to assess your learning by doing.  That is, you will demonstrate project management by completing a large team project over the course of the semester, including its project documentation and (in MS Project) its schedule. 

The authentic assessment consists of the Integrated Team Project (ITP), which in turn is comprised of multiple parts or deliverables spread out over the course of the semester in the approximate order they would be done in a real world project.  Critical thinking, creativity and problem solving  techniques will be used as the team goes through the project planning and execution exercises.  The authentic assessment (ITP) in total is worth 65% of the overall course grade equating to 45% as group effort and 20% as individual effort.  

 

ITP Projects:	65. Total
ITP-1 - Project Charter (Word) (Team project)	10.
ITP-2- WBS w/ Durations (Word or Excel or Microsoft Project MSP - Project is preferred) (Individual project)	10.
ITP-3 - Project Sched w/ Dependency Links (MSP) (Team project)	10.
ITP-4 - Project Costs and Resources (MSP) (Team project)	10.
ITP-5- Project Risk Assessment (Table in Word or Excel) (Individual project)	10.
ITP-6 - Consolidated Project Plan (Word & Excel & MSP) (Team project)	10
ITP-7 - Project Execution, Tracking, and Changes (MS Word and MSP)	5.

 

In addition, there are two team projects (Team Process Course Completion Plan -- TPP-1 and TPP-2) that are not part of the Authentic Assessment (though they are graded):

Team Process Plan:	9. Total
TPP-1 - Team Process Plan and Schedule (Word & Excel) (Team project)	5.
TPP-2 - Project Post-Mortem (Word) (Team project)	4.

 

Because this course uses an authentic assessment, there is no final exam. 

 

Notes on the Integrated Team Project (ITP)

 

Overview

Business and IT professionals and/or project managers are involved with the development and management of a variety of small, medium, and large-scale projects.  They are also required to prepare documentation and guidelines associated with these projects. 

There will be a semester-long team project (the Integrated Team Project) with multiple individual and group deliverables due weekly throughout the semester to coincide with the topics covered in the textbook and weekly Conferences.  This assessment will reinforce the lessons learned from the professional IT project management environment and will use the application tools employed in that environment, such as Microsoft Project and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).  Students are expected to apply critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving techniques as the team goes through the project planning and execution exercises.

The purpose of the ITP is to give each classmate the opportunity to apply many of the project-management techniques to a practical project.  This includes both the hard skills of project management (developing project schedules, using MS Project, etc.) and the soft skills of leading/managing and participating on a project team.

The course-long ITP project is the hands-on practical application part of the course. The experience that students gain by accomplishing these weekly assignments is experience that often is directly applied in the student’s professional life. 

Like any good project, our classroom ITP project is too large and too complex for one person (or even a small team) to do in one week as one assignment.  Therefore, the ITP is assigned in smaller, step-by-step pieces each week of the course.  Each piece concentrates on one (or a small number of) aspect of project management such as project initiation, project task scheduling, risk management, and so forth.  The resulting "output" of each piece is a class deliverable (and is submitted for grading as an assignment).  The process of producing each deliverable involves one or more team tasks.  The weekly assignments and deliverables are numbered ITP-1 through ITP-7.

The entire project builds to the final assignment (or assignments) in the last two weeks of the course.  They are the ITP-6 and TPP-2 project deliverables, the consolidated/integrated project plan and the project post-mortem analysis (also called an after-action report or a lessons learned document).

In preparation for the course-long ITP project, there is also a relatively short team process project (TPP-1) before the first ITP deliverable (ITP-1).  The TPP-1 and (in part) the TPP-2 projects are about our classroom and team processes and assignments, not about the ITP project.  The TPP-1 is about thinking through and planning how the classroom team (not the project team) will manage the weekly gradable assignments. This assignment should result in a good plan for coming together and working as a team on a weekly basis will allow you to succeed in the team projects of this course. 

The purpose of TPP-1 is simply to get your classroom team working together and figuring out how you will work together throughout the semester to accomplish the project deliverables (ITP-1 through ITP-7) throughout the course.  The reason for doing this is so that you don't "wing it" or muddle through it, but actually think through in advance a plan to ensure that your team will successfully meet each of the project deadlines.

The TPP deliverables (TPP-1 and TPP-2) are not part of the Authentic Assessment.  All ITP deliverables are part of the Authentic Assessment. 

Each project deliverable will be specifically assigned, with a due date, in one of the weekly lessons in the CONTENT area of our classroom.  In case of any conflicts (which are not anticipated), the details and specific requirements in this document will supersede any other directions provided.

The specific description of the work to be done, and the associated grading rubics, will be provided (below) with each assignment.

Note that the technical IT work of the project will not be done in this class, only the project management work.  For instance, if the project is to develop a Web site, then we will not be doing any Web development, but will be developing project management documents and deliverables to plan the development of a Web site. 

It is a good idea to check ahead weekly for the projects and deliverables due in the next few weeks, in order to get a feel for what lies ahead.  There is a project or deliverable due every week, and some of them are more extensive and difficult than others.  It is a good idea for the project teams to start the projects a week or two in advance so that there is plenty of time to work within your team on them.

 

Team Roles and Interaction

Because it will be difficult to form your own teams online with students scattered around the world, the instructor will assign students to teams.  Each team member is responsible to AND FOR his/her own team; the degree of the team’s success is dependent on the efforts contributed by ALL team members. This is a very real-life type of experience.

The instructor will serve in the roles of client, bill-payer, and executive sponsor for the ITP project.  When decisions need to be made by stakeholders, they must be submitted to the instructor, who will make the final decision.  The buck stops here. The teams are expected to refine requirements by asking the instructor questions to ascertain the details needed to plan the project.

In order to accomplish any IT project, the project team must include a project manager and other PM-related roles for managing the IT project.  It must also include IT-related roles such as software developer, network engineer, system analyst, installer, budget manager, and so forth.  Without both of these types of roles, no project can succeed. You may find a need to identify a “functional specialist” for your team. This is a person from the user community who can help interpret requirements and “fill-in-the-gaps” for the system your project would build.

In addition, our class projects also need to manage the student project team's accomplishment of the weekly assignments.  The team will determine these student (classroom) team management roles in TPP-1. In other words, the classroom team roles might include the researcher, the editor, the writers, the person responsible for posting the deliverable assignment, etc.

Student team members will take on each of these types of roles. 

For instance, Jenny might be the (classroom) team leader for the ITP-4 Project Costs and Resources assignment.  Her job is to organize the classroom team, set the schedules for teammate submissions and ensure the assignment is submitted on time.  Jerome might be the ITP-4 document specialist and his job would be to assemble the input of the other teammates into a cohesive and well-coordinated document that is ready for final editing by the team members.  Jana might be the ITP-4 research specialist, responsible for pulling information from other sources (and providing appropriate citations) to support the team’s writing effort.  These roles should change from week to week as different teammates assume different roles – distributing the work and the responsibility so that all teammates gain knowledge and have an opportunity to lead with every week’s efforts

Each team will determine the team members who are to serve as the weekly assignment Project Managers for the team. Teams are encouraged to rotate the responsibility among the members, with project managers taking responsibility for a single ITP deliverable.  For example, Team Member A would have the lead for the ITP Project Charter, and Team Member B would have the lead for the ITP Project Work Breakdown Structure and the ITP Consolidated Project Schedule with Durations.  Team Member C would then be responsible for coordinating team efforts to produce the ITP Project Dependencies.  This is a sound approach that should be considered by the teammates.  This approach spreads the effort and responsibilities among the teammates and is likely to result in a higher quality effort, overall. 

Teams may, however, determine that the team is best served with a single project manager for ALL of the weekly assignments.  In this case, the instructor has a higher expectation for the contributions of ALL other team members so that the project manager is not assuming a disproportional amount of the weekly work to accomplish the assignment.  In other words, if your team decides that the same person will be the project manager for all assignments, the members of the team are expected to provide the majority of the written work so that the project manager can focus on assigning, scheduling, final editing and submission of the weekly deliverable assignment.

In general, every team member should have some responsibilities every week.  These responsibilities will be included in the Course Completion Plan (TPP-1).

The ITP assignments also include the fictional work of a real project management team to manage the IT project given in the scenario.  In this role, Jenny might be the network engineer, Jana might be the software specialist, and Jerome might be the project manager.  If there are not enough students on the team, then these fictional roles may include fictional names to round-out the functional needs of the project team.  For example, your project team might need 12 people to accomplish all of the project effort, but your class team only includes 5 members.  Those other 7 project team members would be fictional functional members of the project team.  These project roles will reflect your understanding of the IT project management process. And the ITP fictional team roles would not change from week to week. 

Team work and communication should be done in LEO using the assigned LEO Groups in our classroom.  Only communications and postings that are visible to the instructor (e.g., in the LEO Groups) will be considered if a question arises regarding the timeliness or quality of team members’ contributions. 

If other methods of communication become necessary, then please use LEO Pager within our classroom.  If you find a need to move beyond the classroom to communicate with team members,  (a) you must have the instructor's specific written permission to use communication tools in advance; and (b) the instructor must be included in the notifications and invitations, cc'd on all e-mails and LEO Pages, and otherwise kept in the loop. We have students all around the world so asynchronous communication is a must, unless the instructor agrees to allow the team to proceed without the instructor’s direct involvement.  The instructor will silently monitor the LEO Groups but may chime in if necessary to keep the team on track, answer questions specifically directed to the instructor, or help avoid problems. 

We now have the ability to use the Google+ features including Google Chat and Google Hangout.  These are new features for many of us and we can use our semester together to explore their usefulness in keeping our project management teams on the right track and progressing toward the end of the semester. 

Though we hope to keep the teams as stable as possible, students dropping or adding the course will affect team membership.  Students may be re-assigned to different teams if it is necessary to re-balance the teams in cases such as these; but we will try not to do this as it is very disruptive for all members of both groups.  These, unfortunately, are all too common real-world experiences.

 

Submission of the Project Deliverables for Grading

         First, the  LEO Group is for your use in the team and not for submitting things for grading.  Team members should actually use these to work on documents together.  That is, you can post them and can each edit them and re-post.  LEO's Help guide should have details on how to use Groups.

         Before posting MS Word documents in your LEO Group, I encourage you to turn on "Track Changes" for your own team's use.  (In MS Word, use the Review tab on the Ribbon, then the Track Changes button.)   This will not only make it easier for you to determine the changes, additions, etc, that your team members have made, but will even help track who made which changes. 

         Please turn off "Track Changes" when you submit your final document for grading in the LEO Assignments or the Discussion Forum.

         Where and how to submit ITP assignments for grading:  Who should submit the group assignments?  Well, who is in charge of the project?  The project manager (PM), of course!  So that's who should submit it -- the team leader for the assignment that week.  If the team has a different team leader for each assignment, then that team leader will hold the responsibility for posting the group assignment before the due date and time.  The team leader should submit the team assignments in the appropriate place in his or her own LEO Assignments and/or in the Discussion Forums.

         Team assignments: 

o      Our class is an  OPEN AND SHARED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT  and teams and team members are STRONGLY ENCOURAGED TO LOOK at the other teams' efforts and TO IMPROVE their own projects as they see what the other teams doing.

o    Please remember that each member of the team is responsible to the other members of the team.  This means that the team should have a plan for submittal and a plan for submittal if something goes wrong with the first plan.  If Josh is the team leader for the Week 3 assignment and finds himself with a life event that keeps him from submitting on time, the team should have already identified a Plan B to ensure the assignment is, in fact, posted.  So a “poster” and a secondary “poster” are recommended roles for classroom team members. 

Please note: EVERY assignment is to include an APA-format cover sheet. This cover sheet is to include all CONTRIBUTING team members. Members who do not provide quality, substantive, and TIMELY contributions to the team’s assignment are to be omitted from the cover sheet.

o    Finally, each member's Assignments note should also tell specifically who (normally the team leader) is be submitting the team's deliverable.

o     PLEASE NOTE:  IT IS THE TEAM’S RESPONSIBILITY TO ASSURE THE ASSIGNMENT IS POSTED ON TIME.  EVERY MEMBER OF THE TEAM WILL SUFFER IF ASSIGNMENTS ARE POSTED LATE!

o    If the team submits more than one project deliverable, then I'll ignore any documents or submissions posted after the due date. 

o    At this point, please review the LATE Policy of our class Syllabus. Your team might consider having TWO people – one with a primary role of “assignment submitter” and one with a secondary role of “back-up assignment submitter.” This would ensure your team’s efforts are posted before assignment deadlines.

          Individual ITP assignments :

o    Each student should submit his or her own individual ITP assignments (e.g., ITP-2, ITP-5, etc) in that student's own Assignment Folder.

         See "File Names", below, for file name requirements and other requirements for submitting assignments.

 

 

Peer Review Team Assessment and Grading of Team Project Deliverables

The grades for each deliverable will include components based on: (a) the content and quality of the documents delivered; (b) the format of the documents (where applicable); and (c) individual contribution to the work of the team deliverable. 

In a well-functioning team where everyone contributes adequately, everyone should earn the same score.  However, the team members MAY end up with different overall grades for the project assignments, since the grade of someone who doesn't bother to contribute quality and substance in a timely manner (timely to the TEAM, not the assignment due date!) will be reduced or no credit will be given.

In other words, I will first grade the team deliverable based on content, quality, and format.  This will establish the "team base score".  Then I will adjust individual team members' scores up or down from the team base score, based on their level of timely (based on team deadlines) contribution to the team and to the work on the deliverable.

Your instructor assesses individual contribution in several ways:

 

(1)    Instructor's Assessment and LEO Groups

Your instructor will make his or her own assessment of individual contribution based on: (a) how much each member posts in the team's LEO Group; (b) what I see of team interaction and contribution; and (c) any reports, complaints, kudos, or other information that any team members provide to me via LEO Private Mail regarding the contributions of other team members. 

Note:   Another caveat:  In the case of a “protest” of grading - Any "invisible" contributions will not be assessed and will not contribute toward your grade, no matter how significant or critical to the team.  Only contributions in the LEO Groups are "visible" and only these contributions will count toward (or if absent, against) your individual adjusted score.  If you make use of e-mail, Chat, telephone, Skype, face-to-face meetings, instant messaging, or other non-LEO Group means of collaboration, then please note that these are all "invisible" and will not add to your individual contribution score.  There is no penalty for their use, and your "team base score" will not be affected by their use.  However, contributions made via these and similar means will be invisible and will not contribute toward individual scores.

 

(2)    Omitting a Team Member from the Cover Page (AKA "Voting Team Members Off the Island")

The team is responsible for managing itself.   Among other things, this means that the TEAM determines whose names go on the cover page for each assignment.  

Only those team members on the cover sheet of each assignment will earn credit for the assignment. 

Important note to the team members -- Please do NOT include the names of teammates who submit nothing to the team’s efforts.   I’ve had teams who thought they were being kind and included names of students who were not official, registered members of the class.  There may be situations when the team agrees to give a teammate a break to deal with a life event, but normally, only those who contribute should be included for credit, please! If the team agrees to allow one member a bit of an easy week to deal with a family emergency, that person should willingly contribute twice as much the following week to EARN the credit for the previous week.

If one team member does not participate and/or contribute in a timely manner, the team is EMPOWERED to omit that name from the deliverable, thereby indicating their joint assessment that the omitted team member did not participate and is not deserving of earning a grade on that assignment.  In other words, omitted team members earn a zero on the assignment. 

It is VERY important that ONLY students/team members who do contribute quality work in a timely manner should receive credit for the assignment. If these assignments were individual assignments and a teammate did not submit, that teammate would not receive a grade.  It should be the SAME in these team efforts.  This is a very real-world experience, as not all members of our teams are willing to fulfill their agreements and/or responsibilities.

Here's how that works:  I will expect members of the team to notify any and all omitted teammates (with a copy to me), informing the omitted persons that they will not be included on the deliverable assignment.  The omitted persons can protest to me, with a copy to ALL teammates.  My final determination will be based on the activity in the LEO GROUP area and the omitted person’s postings.  Contribution outside of the LEO Group will not count.

Each assignment is new and fresh and is assessed "de novo".  Omitting a team member's name holds for only one assignment at a time, not for the entire semester.  So team members who contribute to the next assignment are automatically reinstated and earn a grade – unless they are also omitted from that following assignment's title page.  However, it must be re-assessed separately for each assignment.

 

 

Grading Rubrics

Specific grading rubrics for each deliverable are posted along with the ITP project deliverable assignments.  Please be sure to read the rubrics, as they are a guide to how you will be graded. 

The assignments themselves describe "satisfactory" or "required" performance.  Superior or outstanding scores require additional work and additional elements, some of which is described in the rubrics.  Performing additional work and including additional elements beyond what is described in the assignments and the rubrics is even better.

Please review the grading criteria in the class syllabus.  You will notice that C-level (satisfactory) work is described as “good.”  A-level work is considered “outstanding.”   Outstanding work is effort well above that required to meet the basic requirements.  Please be sure to refer to the assignment’s grading rubric when working on your assignments. 

 

General Theme and ITP Project Requirements

The following discussion addresses the description and requirements of the weekly integrated team project assignments. 

Imagine that your team works for a company that specializes in the design, development and installation of information technology (IT) systems.  Your company has been asked to prepare a project plan to install IT for a specific client as described below.  The client recently received an entrepreneur grant from UMUC for its first computers and Internet connectivity.  Because of your connection with UMUC, the client has selected your company to perform and manage this project. 

Your project assignment will be to prepare the project plan to design and install an IT system for the client.  This will be done incrementally throughout the course of this class.  The scope of the project will be identified in the ITP Project Charter (ITP-1 assignment).  As you begin to plan the ITP project, keep in mind that until now the client has had no IT system and has had no IT staff.  In addition, there is no networking, LAN, or Internet installed, and no productivity software or other applications.  You may assume that Internet connectivity is available in the area, however (whether via ISP or satellite or whatever).  The client manager is the major stakeholder and your point of contact for this proposal.  Your instructor will fill the role of the clinic manager and major stakeholder.  So all questions for the client should be directed to your class instructor.  Your team may consider clarifying and further defining the requirements, including the available funding, through electronic interviews with the client manager (instructor).

The project description and basic system requirements are deliberately generalized in order to allow your team the opportunity to use creative thinking and decision skills to develop the specifics of what the client needs (hardware? software? PCs? servers? networking? cabling? wireless? application systems? Web sites? what?) and the scope (how many and for whom?) and extent thereof.  This also allows you room for ingenuity. 

However, in order to keep it manageable and doable in a limited-duration class, the magnitude and scope of the project must be such that it will require a project management team of at least 6 members and will take at least 6 months to complete for a total of a minimum of 3 person-years, but no longer than 9 months.  If it is less than this, then you have scoped it too small; if it is more than double that, then you have scoped it too large.  This is regardless of how many people are assigned to your class LEO Group.

Note:  Even if your class team has fewer than 6, your project management team will include at least 6 people, real and/or fictional. 

Remember that you are  not  to do the hands-on technical IT work of the project in this class or as part of this ITP, but are to build a project plan that demonstrates the company’s ability to plan, manage, and control the project of designing and installing IT for this client.

 

Case Scenario -- Veterinary Clinic Automation

Your team has been asked to prepare a project plan to install IT in a  veterinary clinic  that is partnering with UMUC's health care curriculum.  The clinic recently received a monetary grant from UMUC for its first computers and Internet connectivity.  Because of your connection with UMUC, the clinic has selected your company to perform and manage this project.

What we know: The veterinary clinic consists of 10 vets, 7 animal technicians, and 5 reception and office personnel. The clinic is housed in a single building with a second/adjacent building for animal boarding and long-term care. Each vet has his/her own office and there are 8 examination rooms, 3 operating rooms, 3 diagnostic rooms for x-rays and tests.

The clinic uses paper records and schedules.  

Explanatory Notes and Tips

For those not intimately familiar with veterinary clinics, they are rather similar to medical clinics or doctor's offices -- something that everyone has experienced -- except that they do not have the complex government health care regulatory requirements and privacy requirements to deal with.  So you can consider a veterinary clinic to be like a simplified health care clinic for animals but without the red tape.

Reminder:  The project scenario was purposely designed to leave some things up to you -- for a reason -- so that you can make it whatever inspires you about the clinic and its automation and sounds fun to do.

Other things were omitted in order to both minimize the length of the assignment document so that you don't bite off more than you can chew, and to be realistic.  In real world project management, it is very typical for the clients to be experts in their own business areas but have little knowledge of IT or especially of projects.  Consequently they have little understanding of what kinds of information are needed to do a project, and especially of what levels of detail are needed.  They also have little knowledge of technical IT details that may be important for an IT project but aren't their field of expertise.  The clients often genuinely don't know what they want or need.  They don't know what IT can and can't do for them, so they don't know what to ask for or what's reasonable or unreasonable to request.  They also speak a different language than the “techies”.  The result is that their requests are often quite vague from the “techie’s” point of view (even on the occasions that they seem specific from their point of view)

The clinic manager is the major stakeholder and your point of contact for this proposal.  Your instructor will fill the role of the clinic manager and major stakeholder.  So all questions for the client should be directed to your class instructor.

So what happens?  The project team must ask.  The project team has to spend a lot of time eliciting requirements, assumptions, constraints, business rules, and so forth; especially requirements.  This is usually iterative, takes a lot of time, and continues (though hopefully decreasing) throughout the project.  I'll try to reduce the iterative and incremental nature a bit in order to speed things up a bit for this class.  Nevertheless, we intentionally want the project management experience to be realistic, so there are a lot of open ended things in the project scenario that the teams will simply have to ask about.

Who does the team ask?  The client, of course.  In this ITP class project, the professor serves in the of instructor and also in the roles of the client, project sponsor, and functional business stakeholders.  So when you need more information than you are given -- which will occur, especially during the project charter and WBS phases -- don't guess, please ask!

 

Project Documentation Requirements

The remainder of the requirements and instructions apply to all ITP deliverables.

 

File Names

The files submitted should be named as follows: 

•      Team name, Project Deliverable number, Project Deliverable title.  For example: "TEAM 7 Projecteers - ITP-1 - Charter.doc"

•      ALL group deliverables must have a cover page that includes contributing team members’ names.

Individual assignments are to be submitted in the Assignments Folder for each student.  The file name must include the student’s last name and the assignment (e.g., "K Schank ITP-1.doc" or "mckalip charter.doc").  I frequently download assignments for grading and it HELPS me if I know exactly whose paper I am grading.  Please include your name in the file name.

Submit team assignments in the Assignments Folder as specified under "Submission of the Project Deliverables for Grading", above. 

 

Format

ALL of the assignments for this class must be provided in the APA style format, which means and includes the following:

•   APA style cover page For All Assignments.

•      Use Microsoft Word for text documents.  If you do not have Microsoft Word, "Save As" a word document in Word .doc or .docx format.  

•      Use Microsoft Project for project documents.  Use Microsoft Excel for assignments that specify Excel.

•      The following requirements apply to all submitted documents in this class:

o    Use Page Setup to configure Word documents.

o    Use 1" margins top, bottom, left and right sides.

o    Use Times New Roman size 12; or Arial, or Verdana size 10.

o    Use appropriate headings and subheadings. 

o    The first word of each new paragraph should be indented.

o    For documents that are longer than one page, number each page in the bottom right corner.  The title page should never be numbered.

o    Default size limit:  If a page limit or number of words are not specified in the instructions for a ITP deliverable then the document should not exceed 5-6 pages.  If a page limit or number of words is specified in the instructions for an ITP deliverable, then that size specification has precedence and supersedes this default size.

 

Title Page (Cover Page)

All deliverables for this class must have a cover page including assignments created in Excel or Microsoft Project.  Use an un-numbered title page as the first page of the document.  Add optional graphics if you wish, as long as it is professional looking.  In the center of the page, in this order, double spaced, put:

•              The name or number of the team

•              The name or acronym of the project itself

•              IFSM 438: Project Management

•              Title and number of the project deliverable assignment

•      A list of the contributing team members and their current individual (classroom) roles on this particular deliverable assignment, with the Project Manger listed first.  Note:  If in the judgment of the team, a particular member did not contribute to a particular deliverable or contributed minimally, then the non-contributing team members should not be listed on the title page.

•      For example:

 

Team 7, "The Projecteers"

Automation of Acme Organization Project

IFSM 438:  Project Management

ITP-1 Project Deliverable– Project Charter

 

Chris Pimbock                           Project Manager

Jamie Lopez                  Documentation Specialist

Terry Johnson                                    Research

Ronnie Smythe-Jones           Editor and Submitter

 

•      You may add optional clip art or graphics if desired.  Clip art is not required and will not earn any additional points.

Nothing else needs to be added to the title/cover page.  Remember, the title page is not a separate document.  It is the first (unnumbered) page of your document and does not count in the number of page requirements.

 

Front Matter

Include a MS Word-generated table of contents; the kind that has hyperlinks to click on to get to the corresponding sections of the document.

For ALL assignments, include a 1-page Executive Summary that summarizes the purpose, approach, and conclusion of the document. The Executive Summary should be consistent through the semester with the same basic information plus additions and/or changes as determined by the assignment(s). ALL questions should be answered in a way that provides the reader with enough background and information to understand the answers. This class simulates a real-life environment. As such, documents should have a professional appearance.

 

Graded Writing Quality

Unless otherwise noted, the written deliverables (as opposed to the MS Project deliverables) will be graded in part on format and writing quality.  The majority will be based on project management content and project management quality.  (Specific points and proportions are specified in the rubric for each assignment, below.)  This means that the quality of writing is worth as much as one quarter to one third of the grade for the assignment.  Please notice that there is a STRONG incentive for ALL team members to carefully proofread team documents before submitting.  This incentive will continue through the semester.   

 Writing quality includes considerations such as, but not limited to:

•              Grammar, Verb Tenses, Pronoun Use, Spelling, Punctuation, and Writing Competency.

•              Spelling.  Remember to spell-check, and then to proofread. Better yet, have a friend or colleague read it before submitting it. Read it out loud to yourself.  It’s amazing how many mistakes we find when we read out loud.  This is because we are forced to slow down and LOOK at the words.

•               In a professional paper one does not use contractions ("doesn't", "don't", etc.) and one does not use the personal "you" or "your". 

•              Use the impersonal as I have in the previous sentence.  It is more business-like than saying, "Also in a professional paper you don't use contractions."

•              In a professional or academic paper in the US, companies and organizations should be referred to as “it” not “they.”  (It may be different in Britain, but we are an American university.) 

•              Use references -- in APA format – (in text citations and Reference pages) even if you have all the information in your head.  References add credibility to your work, provide sources for the reader to find more information and lend academic credence. References show the professor that members of the team did above and beyond what was required in order to produce a high quality deliverable. Remember, too, that inclusion of a source in the Reference Page means the source was USED IN THE TEXT and has an appropriate in-text citation.

•              Write at the "almost graduated" level-at this point in an academic career, written works should reflect the level of education achieved.  Barebones or barely adequate type answers will earn barely adequate type grades.

 

References

Use the APA format for references and citations.  Use a Reference Page as a bibliography or list of works cited when using references, as the last page of the document. Remember that the Reference page ONLY includes sources that you used in the text.  APA format does NOT use a “bibliography” or a "works cited"; only a Reference Page.  If you are unsure of format, please review the APA tutorial in the Content area of our LEO classroom, or go through the UMUC library website for other help and assistance.

Important note:  Use of outlines, examples, and templates that you may find (including those in the textbook) is acceptable for the structure and outline of some of the following assignments, as noted.  However, the substance of all assignments must be your own original work and must include proper quotation, citation, attribution, and bibliography of sources and works used.  

Introduction to Team Process Course Completion Plan Assignments

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Course Content.

To ensure all students can complete the course in the allotted period of time, each group must submit a team process plan and schedule (TPP-1) (see below) that shows how the team intends to complete all course requirements. This plan must include all assigned work, including individual assignments, to demonstrate that each team member has a defined assignment that contributes to the team efforts.

The TPP assignments will include a team process project plan in MS Word and a team process project schedule prepared in MS Excel (TPP-1), and, at the end of the semester, a post-project assessment of the team process (postmortem) (TPP-2).

The TPP-1 and (in part) the TPP-2 projects are about your classroom team process not about products or deliverables.  The TPP-1 provides the opportunity for the team to think through and plan the team processes and weekly assignments that will allow you to succeed in the team projects of this course. 

The purpose of TPP-1 is simply to get your team working together and figuring out how you will work together throughout the semester to accomplish the project deliverables (ITP-1 through ITP-7) throughout the course.  The reason for doing this is so that you don't "wing it" or muddle through it, but actually think through in advance a plan to ensure that your team will successfully meet each of the project deadlines.  

We find that, especially in these short 8-week classes, teams sometimes tend to not realize what they're getting into.  They have collaboration problems such as team members not doing their team-assigned tasks or not doing them on time so that others can use their input for their own tasks, or perhaps leaving everything to the last minute then being unable to complete it or unable to integrate the contributions of all team members.  Or other team process problems.  

We want to prevent that.  So TPP-1 asks you to develop a team process plan for how you're going to work together to accomplish the project goals.  This is not asking you to plan the project itself.  That comes later.  Rather, what this requires is that your team think through and plan what your classroom team process will be and how you will work together to do project work.  The TPP deliverables (TPP-1 and TPP-2) are not part of the Authentic Assessment.  All ITP deliverables are part of the Authentic Assessment. 

Additionally, please post your completed assignment in the weekly Discussion Forum as a response to the TPP-1 topic so that other teams can review it.  Your posting must include your team name in the subject line, and a cover sheet/title page with all contributing teammates listed.  Teammates who do not contribute in a substantial and timely manner should be notified (with a copy to me) that the team member will not be included for credit. 

The teams for the Integrated Team Project (ITP) will be assigned by the first day of class.  Within the first week of class, each team is to:

· Meet together virtually, using the assigned LEO Group for your team.

· Get acquainted.

· Figure out what you have in common.   Determine what skills and experience you each have that would be useful for the team.

· SELECT A TEAM NAME and have one team member send it to me no later than FRIDAY at 10 PM.

· Proceed with the TPP-1 Team Process Plan project and Team Process Schedule, below.

 

TPP-1 - Plan and Schedule for Team Process  (Team project)

Addresses Course Outcome #1a and 1e

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Course Content and review "Introduction to Team Process Course Completion Plan (TPP)".

 

Assignment for the TPP-1 Project Deliverable

Determine and discuss the initial team roles of each team member.  Your team should consider rotating the Project Manager’s role among the teammates, but if your team agrees to a dingle project manager for all assignments, this is acceptable.  Rotating gives each team member an opportunity to take the lead for at least one ITP deliverable.  This spreads the responsibilities and the learning among the members of the team. 

•      Some team roles might include

· Project Manager for the semester OR individual Project Managers for each deliverable (e.g, Project Manager for the Charter; Project Manager for WBS; Project Manager for Schedule and Durations, etc.).  In other words, the Project Manager role can be rotated to give each team member experience in managing a project.  Your team is responsible for managing itself, so this is your decision to make as a team.

· A variant of this is to decide to have a permanent team PM in order to have continuity through the entire semester, but to have rotate deliverable manager or project leader responsibilities each week so that each team member gets to experience project leadership.  This, too, can work well (but is not required).  

· Documentation manager to manage the team's documents, including consolidating and finalizing the deliverable.

· Editor to perform a final quality review and assure that the consolidated document reads as if one person prepared it.

· Configuration manager to keep the master version of Microsoft Project with other teammates input.

· Deputy project manager to fill in for the PM when the PM is unavailable and as the secondary person for posting the assignment.

· Other roles your team determines are needed.  

· Teams will, within the first two weeks, have a team WBS.  Rather than specific team roles, teams may decide to manage specific tasks by individual team members.  For example, Task 1 – gathering requirements, might “belong” to John P.  During the semester, John P. will be responsible for preparing the durations, schedule, resources, etc. for the Gathering Requirements task.  Task 2 – design the system, might “belong” to Mary R.  Mary R, too, will be responsible for preparing the durations, schedule, resources, etc. for the Design the System task. 

•      Whatever approach you take, the Team Process Plan is to discuss how work will be allocated to ensure that each member has an opportunity to make a significant contribution to each assignment.

•      The Team Process Plan is to be submitted as a Word doc.  All team members’ names should be on the cover page if all team members contributed.

•      The Team Process Plan should include a description of team's agreed upon governance structure and decision making process.  Among other things, this should include whether -- and how -- the team PM role will be rotated or assigned and for how long, and how team decisions will be made (e.g, by vote, by fiat, by consensus, etc).   

•      Build a schedule in Excel that demonstrates an understanding of the level of effort involved for each teammate.  Review each class deliverable and the due dates.  Determine what group efforts your team will take to submit the assignments and build a schedule in Excel.  Your schedule, for example, might include what effort is being assigned and when it will be assigned to teammates; if there will be weekly “discussions” to clarify who, what, and when the team members are to submit their efforts for first review by teammates’  when final contributes are due for consolidation;  when the final documents will be distributed for the team’s final review before submittal; and who will be responsible for posting each assignment.  This schedule will also be submitted in in Week 1.

•      Your team process schedule should show at least two things: 

o    An 8-week macro schedule of the course, showing what assignments will be worked on in which weeks.  Include  all  assignments and project deliverables; both team and individual; ITP and TPP.  It would be useful to include projects, deliverables, homework, reading, and Discussion Forums.  Include the due dates, the points each assignment is worth, and a rough estimate of the amount of time you think each assignment will take to accomplish.  This should help you plan your time during the semester and see what is coming up when, how big an assignment it is, and how much effort it may take.

o    A 7-day micro schedule of what is to be done on an ITP team deliverable either each week separately, or in a typical week if you anticipate each week being similar.  Include such weekly items as: reading the textbook assignment, determining project roles and assignments for the week, preparing drafts of assigned documents and files, (virtual) team meetings and discussions, reviewing draft documents and files, revising documents and files, consolidating the work of team members, preparing final documents and files, submitting work for grading, and so forth.  Each such task or item should either a timespan, a scheduled date (e.g., for meetings), or a due date (day of the week).  Each task item should also include the personnel role assigned to accomplish it (e.g., all team members, the PM, the documentation manager, the team logistician, etc.).  People's names are not necessary at this point, however.  It might be useful to a rough estimate of the amount of time you think each task will take to accomplish.  This should help you plan your time during the week so that you are able to get your team work done on time.  (For some ideas, tips, and examples, see http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/TPP-1-7-Day-Micro-Schedule-Example.htm.)

Approximate breakdown by areas include:

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~5%)

o    Team Process Course Completion Plan (~45%)

o    Team Process Course Completion Schedule (including both macro schedule and micro schedule; see above) (~50%)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the TPP-1 Team Process Plan Deliverable

To earn 90-100% of the points available on this assignment -

All team activities must be completed.  Team member roles must be realistic and complete and demonstrate an understanding of the types of functions that are performed on an IT project team.  The  team process plan must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion and weekly Module about  project management; project organization, processes, and plans; and project teams; and must include information and references from professional sources such as PMI and at least two other real projects or academically credible sources. The files have 0-2 punctuation, grammatical, and/ or spelling errors.

Additionally, the schedule(s) must be realistic; include all deliverables, ITPs, and projects, both group and individual no later than their assigned due dates; and include all necessary work leading up to successful completion of each deliverable.  Both 8-week macro schedule and 7-day micro schedule are included.  The schedule must be consistent with the team process plan.  All project tasks must have team roles assigned; that is, the schedule should not only show what needs to be done to achieve each deliverable, and when it should be done, but who (what role) is assigned to do it.  The team process schedule must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion and weekly Module about  project management; project organization, processes, and schedules; and project team.

Please note that academically credible sources are from objective, factual publications. Wikipedia, newspapers, and other similar sources are not academically credible.  Objectivity and factuality are the critical measures. This requirement will apply to all assignments  through the semester.  This requirement will apply to all assignments through the semester.  

To earn 80-89% of the points available on this assignment -

All project team efforts must be completed.  Team member roles must be realistic and demonstrate an understanding of the types of functions that are performed in projects.  The team process plan must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion or the weekly Module about PM; project organization, processes, and plans; and project teams.  At least 2 academically credible references are included. The files have 3 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors.

Additionally: Schedule(s) must be realistic; include all deliverables, ITPs, and projects, both group and individual no later than their assigned due dates; and include the necessary work leading up to successful completion of each deliverable.  Both 8-week macro schedule and 7-day micro schedule are included.  The schedule must be consistent with the team process plan.  Most project tasks have team roles assigned; that is, the schedule should not only show what needs to be done to achieve each deliverable, and when it should be done, but who (what role) is assigned to do it.  The team process schedule must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion and weekly Module about  project management; project organization, processes, and schedules; and project team.

To earn 70-79% of the points available on this assignment -

All project team efforts must be completed.  Team member roles must be realistic and demonstrate an understanding of the types of functions that are performed in projects.  The team process plan must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion or the weekly Module about PM; project organization, processes, and plans; and project teams.  The textbook is the only reference used. The files have no more than 5 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors.

Additionally, schedule(s) must be realistic; include all deliverables, ITPs, and projects, both group and individual no later than their assigned due dates; and include necessary work leading up to successful completion of each deliverable.  Both 8-week macro schedule and 7-day micro schedule are included.  The schedule must be consistent with the team process plan.  Several project tasks have team roles assigned; that is, the schedule should not only show what needs to be done to achieve each deliverable, and when it should be done, but who (what role) is assigned to do it.  The team process schedule must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion and weekly Module about  project management; project organization, processes, and schedules; and project team.

To earn 60-69% of the points available on this assignment -

All project team efforts must be completed.  Team member roles must be realistic and address the types of functions that are performed in projects.  The team process plan must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project and reflect and understanding of the textbook discussion about PM; project organization, processes, and plans; and project teams.  The textbook is the only reference used.  The files have more than 7 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors. 

Additionally, schedule must be reasonably realistic; include all deliverables, ITPs, and projects, both group and individual no later than their assigned due dates; and include most work leading up to successful completion of each deliverable.  The schedule must be compatible with the team process plan of TPP-1.  The team process schedule must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion and weekly Module about  project management; project organization, processes, and schedules; and project team.  The project team spreadsheet has more than 7 punctuation, grammatical, and/ or spelling errors.

Less than 60% -

Team efforts that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  Team efforts that are not original work will earn a zero.  Team efforts that do not have proper APA references and citations to any included or quoted work will earn at most 50%. 

Please notice that there is a STRONG incentive for ALL team members to carefully proofread team documents before submitting.  This incentive will continue through the semester.   

Submit your assignment in the Assignments Folder as specified under "Submission of the Project Deliverables for Grading", above.  On the morning after the due date (Monday), please post your assignment and other requirements as a response to the Discussion topic, USING YOUR TEAM NAME AND "TPP-1" IN THE FILE NAME AND THE SUBJECT LINE.   

 

ITP-1 - Project Charter (Team project)

                                                                                 (PMBOK 2, 3.3, 9)

Addresses Course Outcomes #4a and 1b

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Content.

The instructor will assign students to work together as project teams.  You all should have access to your corresponding team LEO Group in LEO. If you do not see yourself and your team in the LEO Group area, please contact me. 

 

Assignment for the ITP-1 Project Deliverable 

First, read the attached overview of the Integrated Team Project (ITP), of which this is the first ITP deliverable.

Then in your project teams:

•      Determine the initial project management roles of each team member as a member of the IT project team for designing and installing the IT system.   

•      Some team roles might include

o    Project Manager

o    Functional or technical managers, such as telecommunications, application software designer, data base developer, Web page designer, etc.

o    Budget/Finance

o    Project Management Support such as procurement or human resources

•      Discuss the approximate project scope you anticipate for the project, what the IT needs of the client organization might be, what to include and what to omit, etc.  Scope provides the boundaries of the project. 

•    Please use the textbook, as a minimum, to define and determine the scope for this project. For example, including applications that address pharmaceutical dosages might be within the scope of the IT system for the veterinary clinic.  Providing subscriptions for office remodeling e-magazines may not be within the scope. 

•    Please be sure you are clear on the basic requirements for this project so you can determine the scope.  What will you provide if the proposal is accepted? plan is accepted?  You may email the stakeholder (your instructor) to further define requirements, if you find that you do not have enough information, so please consider doing that.

•      Note:  Recall that the magnitude and scope of the project must be such that it will require the work of at least 6 people who will constitute the project management team (even though your own team might be smaller, you MUST include roles for at least 6 people.  These additional "virtual" people will be responsible for accomplishing the work or tasks to complete the project) and will take at least 6 months to complete (for a total of a minimum of 3 person-years).  If it is less than this, then you have scoped it too small; if it is more than double that, then you have scoped it too large.  This is regardless of how many people are assigned to your classroom LEO Group.

•      Some necessary details have not yet been provided.  As in many real-world projects, the requirements are the weakest part of the project.  The lack of detail is deliberate to encourage the team to work together to share knowledge and experience; and then to work with the principal to obtain and fill in what might be missing.  To complete the project plan successfully, you WILL need to solidify the project requirements!

Then submit the following:

•      Identify the project name and/or acronym.  It should be short but descriptive of the project itself.

•      Identify the student who will serve in the role of initial Project Manager or team leader for this team or this assignment.

•      Identify the other student members of the team and the initial team roles of each team member.

•      After researching project charters in our textbook and its companion Web site, on the www.pmi.org  website or other professional PM site (e.g., valid, academic-type research), prepare a Project Charter for your project.  This document becomes the basic AGREEMENT to describe the project and what it entails with enough detail that the approximate scope and magnitude is clear and understandable by both the team and the client/customer or executive sponsor.  Your charter must include signature blocks of the appropriate parties that are agreeing to the charter.

•      Make sure to include the following:

o    project success criteria

o    Project Management strategy and the technical approach

· Project objectives (business objectives, organizational objectives, client objectives, etc.)

o    Briefly summarize/outline schedule (due date) and budget

o    Inclusion of project risks is a good (though optional) addition

•      A partial example charter has been provided in our weekly lesson area. It does not contain everything required in this assignment, but is a good example of what a charter is, in general.  

The document should provide a rough estimate of the project, scope, and rough order of magnitude of the cost and time required to accomplish the project.  The charter should have enough detail for the client / stakeholder to make a decision about proceeding with the project planning.  The document should provide the definition of the END of the project.  In other words, at what point would the project be considered OVER, and how would we recognize project success when we see it.

The project team is responsible for determining whatever information the team needs from the stakeholders and soliciting it from the stakeholder and customer.  The stakeholders will rarely volunteer information, since this is not their field and they do not know what you need.  This includes time/schedule, funding, and the system requirements.

To determine the requirements and proposed scope of your project, you may need to interview the stakeholders (represented by the instructor).  You may ask questions, use questionnaires, conduct interviews, etc.  Since this is a global virtual project team, the stakeholders will not be available face-to-face.  You may use e-mail, invite the stakeholders (instructor) to LEO Group Conferences, or (subject to mutual arrangement of acceptable times) to LEO Group, Chat sessions, etc.  You may, in the spirit of twenty-first century global projects, consider teleconferences using various tools such as WebEx or Go-To-Meeting.  The team would hold responsibility for setting up these virtual meetings.

Team member roles should be realistic and demonstrate an understanding of the types of functions that are performed on an IT project team.  The Project Charter should demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project.  Perhaps most importantly, the scope should be clear and appropriate and the scope should accomplish the given problem statement.  As a hint: the project team should agree on what the problem statement is and it should be included in the text portion of each assignment to help keep the team, stakeholders and customer focused on what problem the project is intended to solve. 

The project description and high-level requirements should be clear, reasons for project should be stated, IT needs of client should be included, high-level business objectives or strategic vision of the client should be summarized, assumptions and constraints should be summarized, and major stakeholders (both internal and external) should be identified. 

The project charter should be relatively brief:  Just 2-5 pages (not including front and back matter such as the title page, references page, etc.).  The format of the project charter should be consistent with formats provided or used by other academic credible sources (with appropriate credit).  

Does it seem as though perhaps there is not enough information to complete the project and the charter?  If so, please ask the client/customer (your instructor). 

Important Note

NOTE:  If any team members drop the course or simply quit participating, then please try to contact them, but please notify me as soon as possible.  I will deal with it.  I don't expect it to come to this, but I don't want to have one team with only one or two people left and another team with a surplus of members.  I will re-allocate members to balance teams if necessary in order to prevent this. 

Grading for the ITP-1 Project Deliverable

To begin: Classmates, please go back and review all of the information about our ITP assignments, which is posted in the CONTENT AREA.  This information will provide you with the guidelines for our team assignments for the next several weeks.  Please be sure that you are familiar with ALL of the requirements.  

As you know, projects are completely dependent on the ability of the project team to work together.  Each of you has a skill or knowledge that will help your teammates.  I'm counting on you to bring those abilities to your team during these efforts.  

Please remember my emphasis on this class as a SHARED learning environment.  One member of your team (the team PM or designee) should post your first ITP assignment in the Discussion Topic that assigns the project.  I'm EXPECTING you all to look at what the other teams have posted and MY comments to those teams.  You are free to use this to improve your own team efforts on subsequent assignments and deliverables as we go along.  So, for example, if Team 4 does a particularly good job with the Work Breakdown Structure, your team may decide to make revisions, as we move on, based on what you have learned from Team 4's work. 

However, if you use any text verbatim in a Word document, then give credit where credit's due by properly citing it in accordance with APA standards.  If you use something in MS Project or in Excel, then that's not as easily done.  In that case, make note of the use of the reference (and how it was used in your Excel or Project document) in the text note portion of the assignment when you post it so that we'll know how your research and resources helped you.

 

Approximate breakdown by areas include:

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~10%)

o    Project Charter (~30%)

o    Charter Scope (~60%)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the ITP-1 Project Deliverable

To earn 90-100% of the points available on this deliverable -

All team activities must be completed.  Team member roles must be realistic and demonstrate an understanding of the types of functions that are performed on an IT project team.  The  Project Charter must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion and weekly Module about  project charters, and include information and references from a professional source such as PMI and at least two other real projects or academically credible sources.  The scope should be clear and appropriate, accomplish the given problem statement, be doable in approx. 6+ months by  6+ project team members. Rough estimates of cost and schedule are provided with some comparison to other projects or substantiations of the estimates (how did you arrive at these estimates?)..  The project description and high-level requirements should be clear, reasons for project should be stated, IT needs of client should be included, high-level business objectives should be summarized, assumptions and constraints should be summarized, and major stakeholders (both internal and external) should be identified.  Benefits of the project are discussed and some basic trade-off analysis among cost, schedule and scope is provided.  The files have 0-2 punctuation, grammatical, and/ or spelling errors. The class textbook and at least two other academically credible sources (with appropriate citations) are used to develop the charter.

Please note that academically credible sources are from  objective, factual publications . Wikipedia, newspapers, and other similar sources are  not  academically credible.  Objectivity and factuality are the critical measures. This requirement will apply to allassignments  through the semester. 

To earn 80-89% of the points available on this deliverable -

All project team efforts must be completed.  Team member roles must be realistic and demonstrate an understanding of the types of functions that are performed in projects.  The Project Charter must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion or the weekly Module about project charters.  The scope should be clear and appropriate, accomplish the given problem statement, be doable in approx. 6+ months by  6+ project management team members. A rough estimate of schedule and cost is provided with a brief discussion of how the estimates were derived. The project description and high-level requirements should be clear, reasons for project should be stated, IT needs of client should be included, high-level business objectives of the school should be summarized, assumptions and constraints should be summarized, and major stakeholders (both internal and external) should be identified.  At least 2The textbook and 1 academically credible referencessource are includedused to develop the charter. The project team efforts and the project charter have 3 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors.  

To earn 70-79% of the points available on tis deliverable -

All project team efforts must be completed.  Team member roles must be realistic and demonstrate an understanding of the types of functions that are performed in projects.  The Project Charter must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project, reflect an understanding of the textbook discussion or the weekly Module about project charters.  The scope should defined and appropriate, accomplish the given problem statement, and be doable in a reasonable time by a reasonable amount of staff.  Rough estimate of time and cost is provided with a brief discussion of how the estimates were derived. Reasons for project should be stated, IT needs of client should be included, assumptions and constraints should be mentioned, and major stakeholders should be identified.  The textbook may be the only reference used. The project team efforts and the project charter have no more than 5 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors.

To earn 60-69% of the points available on this deliverable -

All project team efforts must be completed.  Team member roles must be realistic and address the types of functions that are performed in projects.  The Project Charter must demonstrate an understanding of the ITP project and reflect and understanding of the textbook discussion about project charters.  The textbook is the only reference used.  The project team efforts and the project charter have more than 7 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors. 

Less than 60% -

Team efforts that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  Team efforts that are not original work will earn a zero.  Team efforts that do not have proper APA references and citations to any included or quoted work will earn at most 50%. 

Please notice that there is a STRONG incentive for ALL team members to carefully proofread team documents before submitting.  This incentive will continue through the semester.   

 

ITP-2 - Project Work Breakdown Structure with Durations (Individual project)

                                                                                               (PMBOK 5)

Addresses Course Outcomes #4b and 6a

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Content.

The objective of this assignment is for each member of the team to individually determine the tasks that will be required to build the IT project for the client organization and to put these tasks into a format that will facilitate your team's efforts (next week) to build a single WBS for the next ITP assignment.    

Classmates, please go back and review all of the information about our ITP assignments, which is posted in the CONTENT AREA.  Please be sure that you are familiar with ALL of the requirements.  

Please post your ITP WBS assignment in your Assignment Folder; please include your last name and "ITP-2" as part of the file name (example: Jones - ITP-2 - WBS).

 

There are  three  parts to this assignment:

 

1.  Assignment for the ITP-2 Project Deliverable - Part 1 - WBS

Review your project charter and the overview of the ITP posted in the Syllabus and in the previous project assignment.

Then, individually, develop and submit a project work breakdown structure (WBS) as described in the textbook and LEO Conferences (and other valid sources, such as www.pmi.org ) and submit in either MS Excel, or MS Project .mpp format.  If it is more convenient for you, then you may also start it in MS Word (e.g., as an outline) or some other software packages and copy or port it to Excel or MS Project.  Excel is acceptable, but MS Project is preferred.  Note that subsequent ITP deliverables will be in MS Project, so if you use Excel, then by the next assignment, you will need to port it into Project, anyway. 

To use MS Project, you may now load the Microsoft Project demo onto your computer.  Appendix A of our textbook includes an extensive tutorial for using the software.  The software is somewhat similar to Excel, but it would still be a good idea to be familiar with MS Project features.  You will find that there are MANY ways to add information to your MS Project project.  If you find yourself struggling with the software, please consider: 

· Going through the tutorial in the textbook

· Using MS Project's Help feature

· Checking out the list of online tutorials at http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MS-Project-Online-Tutorials.htm

· Possibly looking for other on-line help, including the Microsoft.com web site

· Considering using the library or a bookstore for supplemental texts

· Asking me for help

The WBS should list all tasks necessary to complete the project, in the approximate estimated order in which you think they will probably be done.  At this stage, this deliverable should not yet include predecessor-successor linkages, time or duration, dates, or resource (cost, staff, etc.) data.  ONLY include the durations.  This is because Microsoft Project performs a complex algorithm with each project element that is added.  To SEE the impact of each project element, we need to add them one at a time.  So ONLY add durations in this assignment.

These project tasks should include all work necessary to complete the scope of the project, specifically including the technical IT work of the project, but also including the project management work as well.  Suggested tasks include tasks such as those listed inhttp://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MSP-Fields-to-Include-in-ITP-Deliverables.htm#Tasks, among others.

Don't spend too much time getting "down into the weeds".  A good size for this class would be at least 10 major tasks and between 30-60 total tasks including subordinate subtasks and sub-subtasks.  Similarly, don't break it down more than 3 or 4 levels deep (not counting the project header / project name task itself).

Remember, please, that all tasks should begin with a verb and an object and should be enough of a description that both team members and stakeholders will know exactly what will be accomplished when that task is done.  The task itself should be concise enough to be able to determine how much time it takes to accomplish the task and what resources (people, places and things) will be needed to accomplish the task. Task names should not be duplicated.

You MAY work with your teammates to determine the major tasks.  BUT, each team member should provide the sub-tasks and sub-sub tasks him/herself based on his/her  own  knowledge of the project, the project scope and what you know about IT systems.   

If you use MS Project, then suggested fields to include should include those listed in http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MSP-Fields-to-Include-in-ITP-Deliverables.htm#ITP2i, among others.

 

Example

For example, if your project were to paint a bathroom, the major tasks might be:

1.      Prepare bathroom

2.      Buy paint

3.      Apply paint

4.      Clean up

Please note that these are each SINGLE verb statements.  Please do not merge tasks, such as “research and buy the paint.”  Each task should be ONE verb!

This is the beginning of your WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE.  So your first draft WBS should look like this (example only shows first two major tasks – your WBS should look like this for ALL major tasks):

 1)     Prepare bathroom

a)      Scrub walls

i)       Fill holes

ii)     Sand holes

b)     Tape edges

c)      Cover floor

2)     Buy paint

a)      Measure bathroom

b)     Select color

i)       Select texture

ii)     Purchase paint

iii)   Purchase painting supplies

Notice how each major tasks moves into lower and lower tasks.  This is called “decomposition” as something big becomes broken into smaller and smaller pieces.

Your WBS deliverable for grading would be even more specific and concise.  

 

Please include your name and the WBS assignment in the file name when you post in your Assignment Folder.

 

2.  Assignment for the ITP-2 Project Deliverable - Part 2 - Durations

 

· Add project task durations to the lowest level task (work package) to build to the project schedule.  (MS Project will eventually roll-up the durations to the higher level tasks, and calculate them automatically for summary group roll-up tasks.  Therefore,  do not  enter hard-coded durations or dates in the lower-level tasks or in the higher-level group summary tasks.)  Durations should include hours, days, and weeks of time posted in the Gantt view.  If you are using Excel, provide the durations in the lowest level tasks ONLY, as you will do in Project.  For example:

2)     Buy paint

a)      Measure bathroom

b)     Select color

i)       Select texture – 3 days

ii)     Purchase paint – 2 hours

iii)   Purchase painting supplies - 2 hours

· In MS Project do   not  enter hard-coded dates.  Just enter durations and let MS Project calculate the dates.

· In MS Project, do not use "manually scheduled" tasks.  Rather, use "automatically scheduled" tasks.  When manually scheduled, the dates are essentially hard-coded and not allowed to automatically adjust when the task durations and critical paths change

· In MS project, the higher level tasks are "roll up" tasks and should have no work themselves.  Don't enter a duration for these tasks.  Their timespan will be automatically calculated by MS Project as the sum of the timespans of their component sub-tasks (sort of).

· Try to avoid overly small (micromanaged) or overlay large durations (which bite off more than you can chew).  Rather, try to keep them reasonable, perhaps a week or two, each.

· See also "Dangerous" MS Project Features to Avoid  http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/'Dangerous'-MS-Project-Features-to-Avoid.htm.

 

3.  Assignment for the ITP-2 Project Deliverable - Part 3 - Questions

Read and think through the options and alternatives suggested by these questions before you build your WBS.  Then finally, when your WBS is completed, answer the following questions and  submit them as a Word doc in addition to your WBS file  (above

1. Does your WBS include everything in your team's charter and all deliverables?  (promised deliverables to the client organization customer.)  Does it include PM tasks necessary to manage the project, as well?

2. Did you develop your WBS top-down or bottom up?  Why?  To answer this question, please define the terms first. This is an opportunity to include additional research to answer the question completely.

3. Did you use a product-oriented WBS, or a process-oriented (e.g., SDLC phases) WBS, or something else?  What are the definitions and how did those definitions affect your decision?  Why?

4.    It is often a good idea to prepare the WBS in an OUTLINE in Word instead of Excel, or Excel instead of Project.  This helps team members visualize the order of the tasks and how the tasks might decompose into lower levels.  Did you do this (use Word or Excel first) or did you only use Excel or Project? If you only used Project, did you find yourself rearranging the order of the tasks as you were inputting them or as you were finishing the WBS?

5. Did you initially approach it graphically (e.g., like an organization chart) or tabularly (like a list or table), or something else?  Why?

6. Did you work with your teammates to determine the major tasks or did you do it all on your own?  How well did it work?

As you prepare for the next assignment, please discuss with your teammates how you will manage the WBS.  One possibility is to divide up the major tasks among teammates.  Each teammate would have responsibility for that “area” and all areas will be consolidated into a single Microsoft Project document.  However, all the team members' submissions taken together should cover the entire project WBS.  You may use any other approach that works well for your team.  Any approach other than each team member doing the entire project WBS must be explained in each submission.

These individual WBSes will be posted in the responsible team member’s own Microsoft Project to create individual .mpp files for submittal to the Assignment Folder.  Afterward, your team should have all WBSes posted in the LEO Group for consolidation.   

 

Does it seem as though perhaps there is not enough information to complete the project and the WBS?  If so, please ask the client/customer (your instructor).

 

Approximate breakdown by areas include:

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~5%)

o    WBS accomplishes the project (~20%)

o    WBS, technical (~30%)

o    Schedule (durations) (~35%)

o    Questions (~10%)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the ITP-2 Project Deliverable

Spelling, punctuation and formatting are worth a significant portion of the grade/points earned.   In other words, if a WBS is graded as a 8.4 but has several writing/editing errors, the grade for the assignment could be as low as 6.0. 

To earn 90-100% of the points available for this assignment -

All requirements of the assignment are met.  The WBS includes more than at least 10 major tasks and at least 60  lower level tasks in 4 sub-levels (major task, sub-task, sub-sub task, sub-sub-sub task).  The tasks are ALL single verb statements, and subtasks (lower level tasks) are indented to the appropriate level. The WBS is logical, complete, and flows well from beginning to end.  The WBS includes a title line.  A final task (with no sub-tasks) defines the end of the project.  The textbook and at least 2 references are used from academically credible sources are used to help build the WBS.  A Reference Page is included.  All questions in Part 3 are answered in a writing style appropriate for a senior level course; background is included and decisions and reasoning for decisions are included.  The WBS has durations for lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages).  Group summary roll-up tasks have no hard-coded durations assigned (though if MS Project is used, it may automatically calculate their durations).  Durations include minutes, hours, days, and weeks in whole numbers (no decimals!).  There should be a single start task and a single end task, both with zero duration. MS Project is used (vice MS Word or Excel), the Notes feature is used to provide supplemental information, and at least two other features of Microsoft Project have been used  and discussed in the text document.  "Dangerous" MS Project features are not used..  A Reference Page is included.  All questions in Part 3 are answered.    

Additionally, the WBS is logical and flows well from beginning to end.  WBS has durations for lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages).  Group summary roll-up tasks have no hard-coded durations assigned (though if MS Project is used, it may automatically calculate their durations).  Durations include minutes, hours, days, and weeks in whole numbers (no decimals!).  There should be a project header root task with the name of the project and zero duration. (Note: this is not the same as the start task).  There should be a single start task and a single end task, both with zero duration. (Note: this is not the same as the project header root task).  All questions are answered.  MS Project is used (vice MS Excel), notes address extra features, and at least two other features of Microsoft Project have been used.  "Dangerous" MS Project features are not used.

To earn 80-89% of the points available for this assignment -

All requirements are met.  The WBS includes 8-10 major tasks and 40-60 total tasks.  The tasks are verb statements, with 4 or fewer tasks that do not begin with a verb or 4 or fewer that are double verbs.  Subtasks are indented to the appropriate level. The WBS is logical and flows well from beginning to end.  The WBS includes a title line.  A final task (with no sub-tasks) defines the end of the project. At least 1 reference is used from an academically credible source and the textbook is used.  A Reference Page is included.  The textbook is used and discussed in the text document. If references are used, a Reference Page is included.  The WBS has durations for lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages).  Group summary roll-up tasks have no hard-coded durations assigned (though if MS Project is used, it may automatically calculate their durations).  Durations include hours, days, and weeks in whole numbers (no decimals!).  There should be a single start task and a single end task, both with zero duration. All Part 3 questions are answered.

Additionally, the WBS is logical and flows well from beginning to end.  WBS has durations for lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages).  Group summary roll-up tasks have no hard-coded durations assigned (though if MS Project is used, it may automatically calculate their durations).  Durations include minutes, hours, days, and weeks in whole numbers (no decimals!).  There should be a project header root task with the name of the project and zero duration. (Note: this is not the same as the start task).  There should be a single start task and a single end task, both with zero duration. (Note: this is not the same as the project header root task).  All questions are answered.  MS Project is used (vice MS Excel).  "Dangerous" MS Project features are not used.

To earn 70-79% of the points available for this assignment -

All requirements are met.  The WBS includes 7-9  major tasks and 30-40 total tasks.  The tasks are verb statements, with 7 or fewer tasks that do not begin with a verb or 5 or fewer that are double verbs.  Subtasks are indented to the appropriate level with 5 or fewer that are not at the appropriate level. The WBS is logical and flows well from beginning to end.  A final task (with no sub-tasks) defines the end of the project. If references are used, a Reference Page is included.  

Additionally, the WBS is logical and flows well from beginning to end.  WBS has durations for lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages).  Group summary roll-up tasks have no hard-coded durations assigned (though if MS Project is used, it may automatically calculate their durations).  Durations include minutes, hours, days, and weeks in whole numbers (no decimals!).  There should be a project header root task with the name of the project and zero duration. (Note: this is not the same as the start task).  There should be a single start task and a single end task, both with zero duration. (Note: this is not the same as the project header root task).  All questions are answered. 

To earn 60-69% of the points available for this assignment -

The WBS includes fewer than 7 major tasks and fewer than 14 lower level tasks.  More than more than 7 tasks do not begin with a verb or are double verbs.  More than 5 subtasks are not indented to the appropriate level.  The WBS is not sequential or does not follow a logical order.  The WBS does not include a final task.

Additionally, the WBS is logical and flows well from beginning to end.  WBS has durations for lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages).  Group summary roll-up tasks have no hard-coded durations assigned (though if MS Project is used, it may automatically calculate their durations).  Durations include minutes, hours, days, and weeks in whole numbers (no decimals!).  There should be a project header root task with the name of the project and zero duration. (Note: this is not the same as the start task).  There should be a single start task and a single end task, both with zero duration. (Note: this is not the same as the project header root task).  All questions are answered. 

Less than 60% -

WBSs that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  WBSs that are not original work will earn a zero. 

 

ITP-3 - Project Schedule with Task Dependency Links (Team project)

                                                                                               (PMBOK 6)

Addresses Course Outcomes #4e, 5, and 6b

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Content.

 

Assignment for the ITP-3 Project Deliverable

Review your previous deliverables and the overview of the ITP posted in the Syllabus and in the previous project assignment.

· If you have not yet done so, then please load the Microsoft Project demo onto your computer.  Appendix A of our textbook includes an extensive tutorial for using the software.  The software is somewhat similar to Excel, but it would still be a good idea to be familiar with MS Project features.  You will find that there are MANY ways to add information to your MS Project project.  If you find yourself struggling with the software, please consider: 

· Going through the tutorial in the textbook

· Possibly looking for on-line help

· Considering using the library or a bookstore for supplemental texts

· Asking me for help

· The team will determine the appropriate method for consolidating the individual WBSes into a single WBS.  For instance, after review of all team members' WBSs, the best WBS could be adopted, portions of different team members' WBSs could be used, the best features of different team members' WBSs could be used, it could all be scrapped and collaboratively re-built from scratch, or any number of other methods could be used. 

· The team’s WBS should be fleshed out (meaning enough decomposition to be able to see a major task and all the work associated with it).  As a team, make any corrections and updates necessary to the consolidated/integrated team WBS before adding the dependency links. The schedule should include time and duration for all lowest level leaf-node tasks (work packages).  MS Project will roll-up the durations and calculate them automatically for summary group roll-up tasks.  Durations should include hours, days, and weeks of time posted in the Gantt view. 

· Then, the team members will add predecessor-successor linkages for all tasks within the consolidated team WBS.  This is the ORDER in which tasks must be performed. Every task except the FIRST task should have a dependency “relationship” (either a predecessor or a successor) to another task. 

· The default in Microsoft Project is a “finish-to-start” relationship (task A must be completed before task B can start)

· Not all tasks have to be 100% completed before another task can start (task A only needs to be 25% completed when task B could start; or task A and task B could start at the same time).

· For example, to use our previous example, we could be selecting paint colors at the same time we are preparing the bathroom.  We could be taping the edges and then filling holes at the same time we are buying paint. But we CAN’T paint the walls without purchasing the paint – so purchasing the paint is a predecessor to painting the walls.

· Again, each member of the team should go through the WBS as a whole to flesh out areas that may not be addressed with tasks.  For example, if one member is assigned the major task of purchasing paint and supplies, but another member notices that tarps and furniture covers are not included, that member would work with the team to add the associated tasks, durations and predecessors.

· As a team, look at the NETWORK View in Microsoft Project.  All tasks should have some linkage to other tasks.   There should be no tasks “standing alone.”   There should be no tasks without predecessors or successors except for the project start task and the project end task, respectively.  There should be multiple paths and the paths should flow generally from left to right toward the final task, which  should be the last task to the right with no subsequent tasks .  The final task should be the defined end of the project.

         As with previous ITP deliverables,  Do   not  enter hard-coded dates.  Just enter durations at the lowest level tasks and let MS Project calculate the dates. If your "I" column has a little calendar - you have not done this correctly.

· Do not use "manually scheduled" tasks.  Rather, use "automatically scheduled" tasks.  When manually scheduled, the dates are essentially hard-coded and not allowed to automatically adjust when the task durations and critical paths change.

· The higher level tasks are group summary "roll up" tasks and should have no work themselves.  Don't enter a duration for these tasks.  Their timespan will be automatically calculated by MS Project as the sum of the timespans of their component sub-tasks (sort of).

· See also "Dangerous" MS Project Features to Avoid  at http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/'Dangerous'-MS-Project-Features-to-Avoid.htm.

         Suggested fields to include should include those listed in http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MSP-Fields-to-Include-in-ITP-Deliverables.htm#ITP3, among others.

·

         When done, save a baselined project schedule as described in the textbook, or the various MSP tutorials, or http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MS-Project-Skills-Baselining.htm.  In the text area of the Conference, include a cover sheet that includes contributors and text that describes your team efforts and decisions made.  The title page information should include the team name and table of team roles. Then attach the .mpp.

 

Approximate breakdown by areas include:

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~4%)

o    Schedule WBS (~10%)

o    Schedule linkages (~60%)

o    Network view (~26%)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the ITP-3 Project Deliverable

To earn 90-100% of the points available for this assignment -

The project has a title line.  The start of the project is a lowest-level leaf node task (work package) with no sub-tasks and no predecessors.  The end of the project is a lowest-level leaf node task (work package) with no sub-tasks and no successor.  The TEAM WBS should have predecessors for all lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages) (except the project start task), and should have successors for all lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages) (except the project end task).  Several tasks are types of predecessors different from the finish-to-start default. Working times/durations have been assigned to ALL of the tasks, Notes is used to address extra information that will be used by the team during the project, and at least two other features of Microsoft Project have been used. and discussed in the text document. There are no hard-coded or manually-scheduled dates.  Summary roll-up tasks should have no predecessors or successors and no hard-coded durations; all summary task durations should be calculated by MS Project.  More than 5 milestones/decision points are included and at least 3 recurring tasks are included.  No unusual date constraints or linkage types are used.

The NETWORK VIEW should show tasks in multiple paths (meaning tasks are not limited to being done sequentially), and all of the paths should flow from left to right with all paths ending at or leading to the final task, which is on the far right of the Network View.   Most of the paths are blue (non-critical); one or more paths from start to finish are red (critical paths).  No tasks stand alone in the Network View.  

The textbook and at least 2 additional (credible) sources are used to help develop the project, references are from academically credible ; a Reference Page and discussion of how the sources and/orwere used to add to the textbook andWBS are included as a Reference Page with the cover page.   "Dangerous" MS Project features are not used.

To earn 80-89% of the points available for this assignment -

The project has a title line.  The start of the project is a lowest-level leaf node task (work package) with no sub-tasks and no predecessors.  The end of the project is a lowest-level leaf node task (work package) with no sub-tasks and no successor.  The TEAM WBS should have predecessors for at most 3 lowest-level leaf nodeALL tasks (work packages) (except the project start task), and should have successors for at most 3 lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages) (except the project end task).  at ALL levels.  Working times/durations have been assigned to ALL tasks, Notes is used to address extra information that will be used by the team during the project, and at least one other feature of Microsoft Project has been used and discussed in the tasks.  text document. There are no more than 3 hard-coded or manually-scheduled dates.  Few summary roll-up tasks should have predecessors or successors and no hard-coded durations; all summary task durations should be calculated by MS Project.  More than 2two milestones/decision points are included and at least 2 recurring tasks are included. No more than 3 unusual date constraints or linkage types are used.

The NETWORK VIEW should show tasks in multiple paths (meaning tasks are not limited to being done sequentially), and all of the paths should flow from left to right with all paths ending at or leading to the final task, which is on the far right of the Network View.   Most of the paths are blue (non-critical); one or more paths from start to finish are red (critical paths).  No more than 3 tasks stand alone or lack predecessors or successors in the Network View.  If additional sources areAt least the textbook and 1 credible source is  used to help develop the project, references are from academically credible sources and/or the textbook and are and is included as text explaining how the textbook was used with a Reference Page withand the cover page.  "Dangerous" MS Project features are not used.

To earn 70-79% of the points available for this assignment -

The start of the project is a lowest-level leaf node task (work package) with no sub-tasks and no predecessors.  The end of the project is a lowest-level leaf node task (work package) with no sub-tasks and no successor.  The TEAM WBS should have predecessors for at most 7 lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages) (except the project start task), and should have successors for all tasks (work packages) (except the project start task), and should have successors for at most 7 lowest-level leaf node tasks (work packages) (except the project end task)., 7 or fewer tasks have no relationships.  Working times have been assigned to the tasks.  There are no more than 7 hard-coded or manually-scheduled dates.  Few summary roll-up tasks should have predecessors or successors and no hard-coded durations; all summary task durations should be calculated by MS Project.  At least 1 milestonesmilestone/decision point is included and at least 1 recurring task is included.  No more than 7 unusual date constraints or linkage types are used.

The NETWORK VIEW should show tasks in multiple paths (meaning tasks are not limited to being done sequentially), and all of thebut a single or almost single horizontal path flowing from left to right is acceptable.  The paths should flow from left to right with all paths ending at or leading to the final task, which is on the far right of the Network View.   Most of the paths are blue (non-critical); at least one path is red (critical paths).  No tasks stand alone in the Network View.  No more than 7 tasks stand alone or lack predecessors or successors in the Network View.  The textbook is used and cited.   

To earn 60-69% of the points available for this assignment -

The group WBS should have predecessors for ALL tasks (except the first major task) at ALL levels. Predecessors are assigned to ALL tasks (except the first major task) at all levels.  In the Network View, the paths flow toward the final task which is at the far right of the Network View.  Most paths are blue.  No  major tasks stand alone and no more than 10 lower level tasks stand alone.  

Less than 60% -

Team efforts that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  Team efforts that are not original work will earn a zero.  Team efforts that do not have proper APA references and citations to any included or quoted work will earn at most 50%. 

Please notice that there is a STRONG incentive for ALL team members to carefully proofread team documents before submitting.  This incentive will continue through the semester.   

 

ITP-4 - Project Resources and Costs (Team project)

                                                                                               (PMBOK 7)

Addresses Course Outcome #6c

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Content.

Some instructors may choose to assign the costs analysis as a separate homework assignment, while others may choose to include costs in the ITP-4 resources assignment in MS Project, as described below.

 

Assignment for the ITP-4 Project Deliverable

By now, your project team should have a well-fleshed out WBS in MS Project with a schedule and durations and dependencies.  This is what is described in the textbook and LEO Conferences.  So start by reviewing your previous deliverables and the overview of the Integrated Team Project (ITP) posted in the Syllabus and in the previous project assignment.

         In Microsoft Project, each team will add resources to each task at each level of the WBS. Remember that resources are persons, places and things necessary to complete each task.   EVERY task will have a resource, even if it is only one project team member who, at something less than 100%, monitors and tracks the higher level tasks.  Remember that WORK is done at the lower level tasks, so your labor and non-labor resources will be more heavily utilized at those levels.

· PLEASE use the RESOURCE SHEET to list the resources and then use the pull-down menu in the Gantt View to add the resources. Resources must be categorized as labor or as the proper non-labor category on the Resources Sheet in Microsoft Project.  For non-labor resources, make sure that they are properly categorized as expendable material resources and supplies, or as non-expendable equipment and other costs.  Then add a descriptive label showing a useful resource type or sub-category.  CONTRACTORS ARE NON-LABORbecause we typically pay one price for the whole job.  If you have a reason to list contractors as labor, please contact me so we can discuss it.

· Microsoft Project defaults labor to an 8 hour a day, 5 day a week work schedule.  You may (and should) change this schedule, if you find a need.  If you, for example, assign Dr. McKalip to review a one-day duration decision point, remember that Microsoft Project will allocate 8 hours of Dr. McKalip’s time to that decision point.  If the decision point is a meeting, the duration should reflect 2 hours, not 1 day.  Some labor might not work full-time on tasks.  In those cases, you might want to assign that labor resource to something less than 100% (8 hours a day/5 days a week).  This is particularly important when you are assigning resources to the Major Task level.  There is, typically, very little actual “work” at this level – more monitoring, controlling, reviewing -- so the person (and it MUST be a project team member) who is assigned to the Major Task is likely assigned at something less than 8 hours per day of effort. 

· When you finish assigning resources, go to the RESOURCE GRAPH to see if any resource is over-allocated (working more than 8 hours a day on assigned tasks shows as a RED bar).  Try to resolve the over-allocations. 

· See also http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MS-Project-Resource-Information.htm, Appendix A in the textbook, the various online MSP tutorials, and (when it becomes available) http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MS-Project-Resources-and-Costs-Skills-Tutorials.htm.

         Your instructor may elect to allow your team to divide up the tasks among the team members.  (Note that even if your instructor permits it, this is a team decision, not an individual decision.) 

         Make sure that  all the tasks are covered, that none are left out , and that if all team members' submissions are put together that the entire project and all its tasks will be covered.  Also, make sure that everyone gets tasks with all required types of resources and costs, and that everyone gets both lowest level leaf-node tasks and roll-up summary tasks. 

         Make sure you assign costs (units and extensions) to all resources and then to all tasks.  

         In MS Project, make sure to insert the columns as needed, into the appropriate views (e.g., Resource Sheet, Gantt chart, etc.), to show the data required here (e.g., total costs, unit costs, rates, cost type, etc).  Remember that your version of MS Project may use different names or labels for those data items / columns than the textbook or tutorials. 

 

         (For some ideas, tips, and examples, see http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/ITP-4-Resources-and-Costs-Examples-and-Tips.htm.)

         Suggested fields to include should include those listed in http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MSP-Fields-to-Include-in-ITP-Deliverables.htm#ITP4, among others.

         Questions:  Additionally, include an accompanying Word document or text discussing the following questions:

1.    How did the team determine the appropriate resources?

2.    Were other sources used to help the team determine what non-labor resources might be required? 

3.    Did the team revisit the project charter to ensure resources were consistent with the SCOPE of the project?  This is particularly important in the case of non-project team resources.  For example, if a computer lab is to be built, do the resources include construction types of resources and, possibly, furniture for the computers?

4.    Was some work was contracted out?  Why or why not?

5.    What contractors or vendors might be involved in the project and what products or services would they provide?

·

         Submit the MS Project .mpp file to your Assignment Folder. 

 

Approximate breakdown by areas include:

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~2%)

o    Tasks (~15%)

o    Resources (~15%)

o    Non-labor costs (~35%)

o    Labor / human resources costs (~17%)

o    Vendor / contractor costs (~4%)

o    Roll up (~5%)

o    Other (~3%)

o    Questions and rationale (~4%)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the ITP-4 Project Deliverable

To earn 90-100% of the points available for this assignment –

The TEAM WBS should have corrections made to durations and  predecessors  as a result of sharing and looking at fellow classmates' MS Project team efforts and in response to comments from the instructor.  Durations, predecessors and resources are assigned for all tasks.  Resources include all people, facilities, supplies, materials, facilities, and contractors, etc. required to accomplish EACH task at EVERY level.  Anything that will be needed to accomplish the task is included as a resource for that task.  The RESOURCE SHEET View shows labor and non-labor.  Non-labor resources are properly categorized as expendable material resources and supplies, or as non-expendable equipment and other costs.  The RESOURCES GRAPH shows no red bars for over-allocations.   The accompanying Word document or text answers all questions, explaining how the team determined the appropriate resources, whether or not some work was contracted out and why, what vendors might be involved in the project and what products or services they would provide, and at least two academically credible resources plus the textbook are used in the text and included in a Reference page.

Additionally, all costs are included for expendable materials and supplies, non-expendable equipment, facilities, and contractors or vendors.  All people assigned to do the work of the tasks are identified, along with their labor rates, hours, and costs per person.  Include EVERYTHING it takes to do every task at every level.  Make sure that there is a clear bottom line total of all project costs.  Include costs for each lowest level leaf node task.  Add them up for higher level roll-up summary tasks or phases.  Do not assess costs against such summary tasks individually except by adding up the costs of the lower level tasks subordinate to the summary task.  Include subtotals by cost type (labor, supplies, equipment, etc); and/or by person if a person is assigned to work on than one task. 

To earn 80-89% of the points available for this assignment –

The TEAM WBS should have corrections made to durations and  predecessors  as a result of sharing and looking at fellow classmates' MS Project team efforts and in response to comments from the instructor.  Durations, predecessors and resources are assigned for all tasks.  Resources include the majority of people, facilities, supplies, materials, facilities, and contractors, etc. required to accomplish EACH task at EVERY level.  Things that will be needed to accomplish the task are included as resources for that task.  The RESOURCE SHEET View shows labor and non-labor.  The RESOURCES GRAPH shows no more than 3 red bars for over-allocations.  The accompanying Word document or text answers most questions, with some discussion related to how the team determined the appropriate resources, whether or not some work was contracted out and why, what vendors might be involved in the project and what products or services they would provide, and at some reference sources are used in the text and included in a Reference page.

Additionally, the majority of costs are included for expendable materials and supplies, non-expendable equipment, facilities, and contractors or vendors.  Most people assigned to do the work of the tasks are identified, along with their labor rates, hours, and costs per person. Include EVERYTHING it takes to do every task at every level.  Make sure that there is a clear bottom line total of all project costs.  Include costs for each lowest level leaf node task.  Add them up for higher level roll-up summary tasks or phases.  Do not assess costs against such summary tasks individually except by adding up the costs of the lower level tasks subordinate to the summary task.   

To earn 70-79% of the points available for this assignment –

The TEAM WBS should have most corrections made to durations and  predecessors  as a result of sharing and looking at fellow classmates' MS Project team efforts and in response to comments from the instructor.  Durations, predecessors and resources are assigned for all tasks.  Resources include people, facilities, supplies, materials, facilities, and contractors, etc. required to accomplish most tasks.  Things that will be needed to accomplish the task are included as resources for that task.  The RESOURCE SHEET View shows labor and non-labor.  The RESOURCES GRAPH shows no more than 5 red bars for over-allocations. Some of the questions are addressed.  

Additionally, the majority of costs are included for several categories such as expendable materials and supplies, non-expendable equipment, facilities, and contractors or vendors.  Most people assigned to do the work of the tasks are identified, along with their labor rates, hours, and costs per person.  Include most of what it takes to do every task at every level.  Make sure that there is a clear bottom line total of all project costs.  Include costs for each lowest level leaf node task.  Add them up for higher level roll-up summary tasks or phases.  Do not assess costs against such summary tasks individually except by adding up the costs of the lower level tasks subordinate to the summary task.  

To earn 60-69% of the points available for this assignment –

Durations, predecessors and resources are assigned for most tasks.  Resources include people, facilities, supplies, materials, facilities, and contractors, etc.  The RESOURCE SHEET View shows labor and non-labor.  The RESOURCES GRAPH shows no more than 7 red bars for over-allocations.  

Additionally, the majority of costs are included for categories such as expendable materials and supplies, non-expendable equipment, facilities, and contractors or vendors.  Most people assigned to do the work of the tasks are identified, along with their labor rates, hours, andcosts per person.  Make sure that there is a clear bottom line total of all project costs.  Include costs for each lowest level leaf node task.  Add them up for higher level roll-up summary tasks or phases.  Do not assess costs against such summary tasks individually except by adding up the costs of the lower level tasks subordinate to the summary task.  

Less than 60% -

Team efforts that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  Team efforts that are not original work will earn a zero.  Team efforts that do not have proper APA references and citations to any included or quoted work will earn at most 50%. 

Please notice that there is a STRONG incentive for ALL team members to carefully proofread team documents before submitting.  This incentive will continue through the semester.   

 

ITP-5 - Project Risk Assessment (Individual project)

                                                                                             (PMBOK 11)

Addresses Course Outcomes #4c and 6e

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Content.

 

Assignment for the ITP-5 Project Deliverable

Review your previous deliverables and the overview of the ITP posted in the Syllabus and in the previous project assignments.

Then using your team's ITP WBS, develop and submit a project risk register in MS Excel:

•      A project risk register, from the textbook or its companion Web site, from the classroom material, from www.pmi.org, or from other valid research, that meets the following requirements.  For a partial example of a risk register, see http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/Example-Risk-Register.pdf.

•      In MS Excel, the risk register should be populated with the risks for at least 3 tasks of different types and categories at EACH level of the decomposition in the WBS (no fewer than 12 tasks must have risks identified -- 3 major tasks, 3 sub-tasks, 3 lowest level leaf node tasks or sub-sub tasks, and also at least 3 risks at the overall project level (Level 0)).  (Note that this is minimum required, along with the other things below, to earn a satisfactory score.  To earn a better score, you would want to include more risks at each level, and some of the additional things mentioned below.) 

         Risks may include, for example, technical IT risks, external risks that impact the project but which are outside the PM's control, project management risks, risks of project changes, and so forth. 

•      Please note that a task could have more than one risk!  The risk register must include MITIGATION strategies to eliminate or minimize the risk (risk handling procedures, mitigations) and contingency plans (what you will do if the risk happens).  If the format you are using does not include these columns, please add them, then be clear on the difference between mitigation and contingency.  Address what aspect of the project will be affected by each mitigation action - cost, schedule, or scope.  Provide a recommendation for whether or not the mitigation action should be implemented, remembering that EACH mitigation will impact the project's scope, cost or schedule. 

•      The risk register should also include:

o    Title or description of item or TASK at risk.  (This is the WBS task in which the risk occurs, not the risk itself.)

o    Also include the WBS ID and a designation of which WBS level the task is at.  Each risk in the Risk Register should show the WBS level of the task that it refers to.  I urge you to let the computer do this for you, since doing it by hand seems error prone for some reason.  Either import the field from MS Project or use an Excel formula to calculate the level for you. 

o    Description of the RISK (What is the risk? What is at risk of happening?) (This identifies the nature of the risk itself, not the task.)

o    Risk category or type (e.g., technical risks, quality risks, financial risks, external risks, organization risks, project risks, quality risks, other risks, etc)

o    Consequences, impact, or cost at risk (adjectival or numeric)

o    Likelihood or probability (adjectival or numeric)

o    Initial risk score (or "risk product", consequence times likelihood)

o    Risk handling category (avoidance, mitigation, transfer, acceptance, etc.)

o    Brief narrative risk handling / control / action plan, including

  the mitigation action that, if taken, would minimize the impact of the risk.

  cost and time to mitigate. 

  contingency plan - what the team will do if the risk actually happens

o    See the textbook for definitions and details

o    Designation of risk "owner" or risk manager (best designated by title or role rather than by individual's name)

o    For additional points, you may include such things as:

  Additional risks

  Risks for additional tasks

  Results of handling each risk after controls are implemented:

  Consequences or cost at risk

  Likelihood or probability

  Final risk score or product (consequence times likelihood)

  Quantitative numerical consequences, probabilities, and risk scores (rather than subjective, qualitative, or adjectival assessments)

  Additional narrative discussion of each risk, handling method, etc.

  Total of all the risk scores (risk products) for the entire project after risk controls are implemented, in dollars.

o    Suggested fields to include should include those listed in http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MSP-Fields-to-Include-in-ITP-Deliverables.htm#ITP5i, among others.

o    See the textbook for details

•      Also include some risks associated with the general ability to complete the project successfully.  (You might consider these risks at Level 0, the root level, of the WBS, affecting the entire project.)

•      Finally, if you quantitatively calculated the risk product in those terms, then what is the total of all the initial risk scores (risk products) for the entire project, in dollars.

 

Questions:   In an accompanying Word doc or text submission, answer the following questions: 

1.    Which risks would be the most threatening to the success of the project and why?

2.    Which top THREE mitigations and risk handling plans should be implemented, and why?  Remember that mitigation actions will affect cost, schedule and/or scope – so what can you AFFORD to do based on the likelihood and impact of the risk?

3.    What are the TOTAL impacts on cost, schedule and scope for the project if the recommended risk controls and mitigation actions are taken?  Will the risk handling improve things or make them worse?  That is, will the project cost more and/or be less successful because of risk handling, or will it cost less and/or be more successful because of risk handling?  How so?  Explain.

4.    How did you determine those costs and impacts?  Please describe. 

5.    (ungraded)  Just out of curiosity, how did you determine the Task Level of each of the risks?  By exporting from MSP?  By Excel formula?  Or some other method, including by hand (and if so, then what method)? 

Submit the document(s) in your Assignment Folder.

 

Approximate breakdown by areas include:

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~5%)

o    Risk register (~84%)

o    Questions (~10%)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the ITP-5 Project Deliverable

To earn 90-100% of the points available for this assignment –

The risk register meets the basic requirements. Identify at least 10 risks at each level of the WBS, including risks that affect the general ability to complete the project successfully, major tasks of different types and categories, sub-tasks of different types and categories, risks of several different risk types and categories, including external risks,  financial risks,  organization risks,  PM risks,  quality risks,  technical risks,  and other risk categories.  In addition, include such things as:

                     Multiple risks for single tasks

                     Quantitative numerical consequences, probabilities, and risk scores (rather than subjective, qualitative, or adjectival assessments)

                     Show risk assessment (probability, impact, and score) numerically (e.g., percentages, dollars, etc) rather than qualitatively.

                     Additional narrative discussion of each risk, handling method, etc.

                     Designation of risk "owner" or risk manager and why that person or functional position is the “owner”

                     Total of all the risk scores (risk products) for the entire project after risk controls are implemented, in dollars.

                     Also include some risks associated with the general ability to complete the project successfully.  (You might consider these risks at Level 0, the root level, of the WBS, affecting the entire project.)

                     Answer all the initial risk scores (risk products) for the entire project, in dollars.

Include the following risk info for ea. risk: Title or description of item or TASK at risk; Description of the RISK; Risk category or type; Initial assessment of Consequences, impact, or cost at risk; initial likelihood or probability; Initial risk score (consequence x likelihood); Risk handling CATEGORY; Risk handling / control / mitigation / action PLAN; Designation of risk "owner"; Risk results with/after controls / handling plans implemented (Consequences or cost with controls; Likelihood or probability with controls; Final risk score (consequence x likelihood)).  Answer all questions, and include reference sources are used in the text and included in a Reference page.  Show risk assessment (probability, impact, and score) numerically (e.g., percentages, dollars, etc) rather than qualitatively.

To earn 80-89% of the points available for this assignment –

Identify at least 6 risks at each level, including risks such as: the general ability to complete the project successfully; major tasks of different types and categories; sub-tasks of different types and categories; lowest level leaf node tasks or sub-sub tasks of different types and categories.  Include risks of several different risk types and categories, including risks such as: external risks,  financial risks,  organization risks,  PM risks,  quality risks,  technical risks,  and other risk categories.  Include several different risk handling categories (avoidance, mitigation, transfer, acceptance).

Include most of the following risk info for ea. risk: Title or description of item or TASK at risk; Description of the RISK; Risk category or type; Initial assessment of Consequences, impact, or cost at risk; initial likelihood or probability; Initial risk score (consequence x likelihood); Risk handling CATEGORY; Risk handling / control / mitigation / action PLAN; Designation of risk "owner.  Answer all questions.

To earn 70-79% of the points available for this assignment –

Identify at least 3 risks at each level, including risks such as: the general ability to complete the project successfully; major tasks of different types and categories; sub-tasks of different types and categories; lowest level leaf node tasks or sub-sub tasks of different types and categories.  Include risks of several different risk types and categories, including risks such as: external risks,  financial risks,  organization risks,  PM risks,  quality risks,  technical risks,  and other risk categories.  Include different risk handling categories (avoidance, mitigation, transfer, acceptance).

Include most of the following risk info for ea. risk: Title or description of item or TASK at risk; Description of the RISK; Risk category or type; Initial assessment of Consequences, impact, or cost at risk; initial likelihood or probability; Initial risk score (consequence x likelihood); Risk handling CATEGORY; Risk handling / control / mitigation / action PLAN; Designation of risk "owner.  Answer the majority of the questions.

To earn 60-69% of the points available for this assignment –

Identify at least 6 risks, including risks such as: the general ability to complete the project successfully; major tasks of different types and categories; sub-tasks of different types and categories; lowest level leaf node tasks or sub-sub tasks of different types and categories. Include risks such as: external risks,  financial risks,  organization risks,  PM risks,  quality risks,  technical risks,  and other risk categories.  Includes only one of the risk handling categories (avoidance, mitigation, transfer, acceptance).

Include much of the following risk info for ea. risk: Title or description of item or TASK at risk; Description of the RISK; Risk category or type; Initial assessment of Consequences, impact, or cost at risk; initial likelihood or probability; Initial risk score (consequence x likelihood); Risk handling CATEGORY; Designation of risk "owner.  Answer the majority of the questions.

Less than 60% -

Risk Registers that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  WBSs that are not original work will earn a zero. 

 

ITP-6 - Consolidated Project Management Plan (Team project)

                                                                              (PMBOK 2, 3.5-3.7, 9)

Addresses Course Outcomes #4d, 1a, and 6f

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Content.

 

Assignment for the ITP-6 Project Deliverable

Review your previous deliverables and the overview of the ITP posted in the Syllabus and in the previous project assignment.

Prepare a consolidated Project Management Plan / Proposal (PMP) that consolidates and summarizes each of the ITP deliverables.  Your deliverables must include:

· An updated MS Project .mpp with schedule, durations, dependencies, resources, and costs. 

o    The Consolidated Project Plan includes (as attachments) a full .mpp file with the WBS and all inputs that have resulted from the weekly ITP assignments.  The .mpp file should be updated based on lessons learned, instructor's comments, improvements resulting from sharing and looking at the work of other teams. The final deliverable assignment should only include a the project plan) and the .mpp file.  All other project information must be included within the Word document.  You may used any number of features to do this including Appendices or embedded documents, among several other possibilities.

o    Suggested fields to include should include those listed in http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MSP-Fields-to-Include-in-ITP-Deliverables.htm#ITP6, among others.

· An updated Excel spreadsheet Risk Register for all major tasks and at least 2 sub-tasks and 2 sub-sub tasks. 

· An updated and expanded version of your project charter that summarizes the project, given what you know now.  (For instance, as but one example, any changes in project schedule, costs, and scope since the original draft of the charter should now be reflected in the updated charter.)  Page limit: 2-7 pages (not counting front matter and back matter.) 

         The instructor may elect either of these options:  You may be required to provide one or both of the following:

o    A complete, consolidated project plan document (from the textbook, from www.pmi.org, or from other valid research) including all relevant project information and all information from previous ITP deliverable documents. 

  This plan may be in the form of an Executive Summary or a White Paper and should be limited to 5-9 pages (not including the cover page, reference page or appendices/attachments).  The Plan and documents should reflect improvements through the semester from the instructor's comments, sharing the projects of the other teams, additional text readings and additional research, and other lessons learned. 

OR (at the instructor's option):

o    A Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (approx. 10-25 slides) that provides a 20- to 30-minute executive-level summary of your project proposal for the major stakeholder(s) (client and/or executive sponsor).

  In a face-to-face or hybrid class, the presentations should be prepared to be presented by the teams in class on the due date, at the instructor's option.  Whether face-to-face or online, they should be prepared and formatted as though they will be presented face-to-face in a Conference room with a projector.  In either case, all files should be submitted in the team PM's Assignments Folder for grading.

  This presentation will be a decision presentation, not merely an information presentation.  The PowerPoint slides should NOT be overly full of text.

  Length should be appropriate to purpose and audience (approx. 10-25 slides).

  The should not be too full of text or bullets, and should use large enough text for readability

  Note:  Please do not use timed automatic slide transitions for this presentation.

  Tip:  Remember the presentation and PowerPoint guidelines and tips in the unit on project communications and in the Webliography.    

  You may organize and format your presentation in any way that seems most effective and appropriate to the purpose.

· The consolidated project plan document and/or project plan presentation should include:

· Enough detail should be provided to allow the stakeholder(s) to make a go/no-go decision on whether or not the proposal is acceptable to begin work on the IT project. 

· Regardless of organization, requirements for the consolidate project plan document and presentation include at least the following:

o    The Consolidated Project Plan consolidates, discusses and summarizes each of the ITP deliverables.  The consolidated plan, with the exception of the mpp file, must summarize each of the ITP documents (schedule, major resources, major risks, cost, etc.) in the text of the document.  The final consolidated plan should discuss what the project is, what is required to meet the needs of the school, how information was gathered and presented, and information that will help the company and the client or executive sponsor).

o    Determine whether or not this project team should begin the work to design and install the IT system. Enough detail should be provided to allow the stakeholder(s) to make a go/no-go decision on whether or not the plan is acceptable to begin work on the IT project.  

o    The consolidated plan should include references used (with appropriate citations) to gather the information. 

· A title page or slide and an agenda / table of contents page or slide.

· A brief executive summary of the project proposal and plan.

· Business requirements for the project and system, and reason for undertaking the project (problem statement) should be included.

· Clear and complete scope statement should be included.

· Objectives, constraints, and assumptions should be included.

· Participants (project team AND stakeholders) along with their roles should be listed.

· Project background should be provided.

· Technical and PM approach should be described.

· Benefits and value to the client (note: this does not mean costs or budget) should be detailed.

· Rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimate of costs and required project budget should be included.

· ROM estimate of total time required to complete the project and project completion date should be included.

· A summary-level Gantt chart with a few major bars might be a useful, though optional, addition.  However, do not include a copy of a full MS Project Gantt chart that is so detailed that it is unreadable.

· A conclusion slide should be included, briefly summarizing the presentation and requesting approval to proceed with the project.

· Slides should be readable, not too busy, not overly small type.

· Graphics may be used but should be meaningful, useful, and not distracting or gratuitous.

· A title page or cover sheet that includes the contributors.  This should not be a stand-alone file but should simply be the first page of another Word document (e.g., the Charter) that you are submitting.

· Make sure that all your documents are consistent and don't contradict each other.  (For instance, the schedule and costs as presented in the .ppt, the .mpp, and the charter should agree; the narrative in the charter and the .ppt should agree with each other; and so forth.)

· Also make sure that any problems with previous ITP deliverables have been corrected before incorporating them in your ITP-6 work, and make sure that any comments from the instructor regarding previous ITP deliverables have been corrected and updated.

· Please post the final ITP documents in the Discussion Forum as well as in the team PM's Assignments Folder.

 

Approximate breakdown by areas include:

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~4%)

o    Updated and Complete MS Project .mpp & Schedule (~19%)

o    Project Resources and Costs (~15%)

o    Risk register (~20%)

o    ITP-6 Proposal Plan Presentation PPT (~40%)

o    Updated project charter (~3%)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the ITP-6 Project Deliverable

To earn 90-100% of the points available for this assignment –

Meet all requirements, including an updated MS Project WBS with schedule, durations, dependencies, and resources; project resources and costs at the major task and sub-task levels plus a project total in either your .mpp and/or Excel; a Risk Register for all major tasks and at least 4 sub-tasks and 4 sub-sub tasks in either Excel or Word; a Microsoft Word document or (at your instructor's option) PowerPoint presentation of (10-15 slides) that provides an Executive Summary of your project proposal with sufficient detail to allow the stakeholder to make a go/no-go decision on whether or not the proposal is acceptable to begin work on the IT project, and that includes all the information specified above; and an updated and expanded project charter.  Approximate breakdown by areas is as specified above.  Include reference sources are used in the text and included in a Reference page. 

The mpp is complete (all tasks include durations, predecessors/successors, resources) and the Network View flows from left to right with multiple paths culminating with the final task at the far right. Most of the Network View is not critical path. Resources are not overallocatedand the final task clearly identifies the end of the project and is consistent with the project charter discussion.  The textbook and at least 5 academically credible reference sources are used in the text and included in a Reference page. Documents are thorough, easy to understand, and provide consistency throughout.  All documents reflect improvements over the original submissions.  

To earn 80-89% of the points available for this assignment –

Meet all requirements, including an updated MS Project WBS with schedule, durations, dependencies, and resources; project resources and costs at the major task and sub-task levels plus a project total in either your .mpp or Excel; a Risk Register for all major tasks and at least 2 sub-tasks and 2 sub-sub tasks in either Excel or Word; a Microsoft Word document or (at your instructor's option) PowerPoint presentation of (8-12 slides) that provides an Executive Summary of your project proposal with sufficient detail to allow the stakeholder to make a go/no-go decision on whether or not the proposal is acceptable to begin work on the IT project; and an updated project charter.  

The mpp is complete (all tasks include durations, predecessors/successors, resources) and the Network View flows from left to right with multiple paths culminating with the final task at the far right. Most of the Network View is not critical path. Resources are not overallocatedand the final task clearly identifies the end of the project and is consistent with the project charter discussion.  The textbook and at least 5 academically credible reference sources are used in the text and included in a Reference page. Documents are thorough, easy to understand, and provide consistency throughout.  All documents reflect improvements over the original submissions.  

To earn 70-79% of the points available for this assignment –

Meet all requirements, including an updated MS Project WBS with schedule, durations, dependencies, and resources; project resources and costs at the major task and sub-task levels plus a project total in either your .mpp or Excel; a Risk Register for all major tasks in either Excel or Word; a Microsoft Word document or (at your instructor's option) PowerPoint presentation of (6-8 slides) that provides an Executive Summary of your project proposal with sufficient detail to allow the stakeholder to make a go/no-go decision on whether or not the proposal is acceptable to begin work on the IT project. 

To earn 60-69% of the points available for this assignment –

Address an updated MS Project WBS with schedule, durations, dependencies, and resources; project resources and costs; project risks; a Microsoft Word document or (at your instructor's option) PowerPoint presentation that provides an Executive Summary of your project proposal intended for the stakeholder to make a go/no-go decision on whether or not the proposal is acceptable to begin work on the IT project. 

Less than 60% -

 

Team efforts that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  Team efforts that are not original work will earn a zero.  Team efforts that do not have proper APA references and citations to any included or quoted work will earn at most 50%. 

Please notice that there is a STRONG incentive for ALL team members to carefully proofread team documents before submitting.  This incentive will continue through the semester.   

 

ITP-7 - Project Execution, Tracking, and Changes  (Team project)

                                                                                  (PMBOK 3.5-3.6, 4)

Addresses Course Outcomes #1d, 1d, and 6g

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Content.

Note: Instructors may choose to use one or more additional projects or homework assignments instead of this project execution phase deliverable.

Review your previous deliverables and the overview of the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) posted in the Syllabus and in the previous project assignments.  Concentrate especially on the ITP consolidated project plan.

Then, in your project team,  before you do anything else, do these things :

1.     Make all needed corrections  or updates to the schedule and resources.  It is important to start from a correct baseline. 

2.    Then, speaking of baselines, before you do anything else,  save a baselined project schedule  as described in the textbook if you have not already done so, as described in the textbook, or the various MSP tutorials, or http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MS-Project-Skills-Baselining.htm.  Or update the baseline if you had already saved one.

3.    Before you do this assignment, please review the homework exercises and posted answers on both Baselining (Exercise E) and Tracking (Exercise F).  The answers and skills tutorials will be posted when the grading of the homework exercises is complete. 

If you have not previously prepared a Change Management Plan (e.g., as part of the overall project plan), then develop and submit one now, and submit in MS Word format.

Required Changes

Finally (the important part), make the following changes in your current project schedule (not the baselined schedule) and update your mpp.  Use the Tracking Gantt Chart feature to compare the original, baselined schedule with the current, changed schedule.  The changes to the project are as follows; make the appropriate changes to your current schedule:

1. The project is half way finished (by calendar time).  Set the status date ("update" date) to reflect this.  Update the actuals to reflect this.  Assume that all tasks are on schedule and on budget except as noted here:

2. The equipment (hardware, servers, networking gear, etc) delivery from the vendor was late and took (or will take) twice as long as expected.  In most cases (depending on how you implemented the equipment delivery task), this means that its duration is doubled.  Its cost is unchanged.  If your project scenario does not include equipment purchase or delivery, then please contact the instructor immediately and we'll work out an alternative.

3. The software (of all kinds) will cost twice as much as expected.  It seems that in the time since the project was planned, the vendor(s) came out with a new release that cost significantly more than the previous version, and are no longer selling or supporting the previous version.  It will be delivered on schedule, however.

4. Construction for computer rooms, labs, and building modifications have been impacted by a disastrous storm which has had the ripple effect of sucking up much of the construction materials and labor in the country and increasing their cost markedly.  Your costs for all construction-related tasks and materials have doubled, and all your construction tasks will have a one month delay in their start date.  Their duration will be unaffected, however. 

Note:   If your project scenario does not include construction-related tasks, then apply this change to installation tasks (i.e., all installation tasks delayed 1 month and installation costs doubled).  If your project scenario includes neither construction nor installation tasks, then please contact the instructor immediately and we'll work out an alternative. 

5. Ripple effects:  Besides the obvious, what else might need to be changed as a result of these events? Address these changes in a short Word document. 

6. Make the appropriate changes to the project schedule and budget.

7. Important:   If the above changes do not make sense within the scenario or nature of your project, then contact the professor immediately for further instructions.

8.    Document your changes for submission below.  For instance, if there was no software (item 3, above), then what did you change instead to simulate a similar change?  What were the ripple effects (item 5, above) that the changes triggered?  And so forth.

9. If the changes take you over budget or past the target completion date then in the narrative questions (see below), discuss what you would do to remediate this.  However, do not make any changes to the .mpp to effect these remediations.  (This is quite enough work already without adding that in also.)

 

Assignment for the ITP-7 Project Deliverable

1. A Change Management Plan (CMP), in MS Word format.  See textbook, PMI.org, the LEO classroom, and other professional PM Web sites for details; use an Internet search if necessary.  Unlike the risk register, the CMP is not a list of changes and their status and handling. Rather, the change management plan is what it sounds like: a plan for how the project intends to manage any changes that may occur.  The CMP should include at least the following: 

· Methodology, strategy, and tools for handling changes

· Roles and responsibilities for change management

· Organization for change management (CCB, etc)

· Change process (flowchart and/or description)

· Budget for change handling process.  This is not the cost of implementing the changes listed in the "Required Changes" section above, but rather is the cost of the CCB and running the change process.  The costs of implementing the individual, specified changes, is a separate item that can be tracked via Earned Value calculations and other methods, below.

· (Normally the change process budget would be part of the project budget from the beginning, but we neither mentioned nor required that in this class.  So for this class only, your change management budget will be over and above the project budget (i.e., in addition to the project budget) instead of coming out of your project budget as part of the project budget.)

· Important note:  Use of outlines, examples, and templates that you may find (including those in the textbook) is acceptable for the structure and outline of this document.  However, the substance must be your own original work and must include proper quotation, citation, attribution, and bibliography of sources and works used.

2. Updated project schedule .mpp reflecting the specified changes listed in the "Required Changes" section above, including a tracking Gantt chart comparing the new schedule to the baselined schedule, in MS Project .mpp format.

         Suggested fields to include should include those listed in http://polaris.umuc.edu/~kschank/MSP-Fields-to-Include-in-ITP-Deliverables.htm#ITP7, among others.

3. A brief narrative description of how you effected or applied the changes listed in the "Required Changes" section above.  For instance, if there was no software (item 3, above), then what did you change instead to simulate a similar change?  What were the ripple effects (item 5, above) that the changes triggered?  And so forth.

4. A Word document describing what project documentation needs to be changed (and what the needed changes are) in order to implement the specified changes listed in the "Required Changes" section above. You need not update the documents, just describe, in general terms, what would need to be updated.

· (Note:  Ordinarily in a real-world project, we would also update and submit the consolidated project management plan (PMP) document (ITP-6) reflecting all changes and updates.  However, for this class, we will omit this step.)

5. Optional for additional points.  Overall earned value analysis.  (That is, "overall" indicates do it once for the project as a whole, not for each individual task.  Though doing it for each task would be acceptable if MSP does it for you, only the overall whole-project earned value calculations are indicated for this assignment.  Do not do individual task calculations of EV by hand.)  You may use MS Project to do so, if you can, or you can do it yourself with a pocket calculator or (probably better yet) do it yourself in Excel; you can use the formulas on the Gold Card or the formulas in my weekly Commentary, or the formulas in the textbook.  Any way, you do it, you will get most of the data from your MSP .mpp, then plug it into the formulas.

The goal is to come up with EAC and Estimated Cost to Complete (ECTC), but you'll need to calculate the rest in order to get there, therefore please calculate and submit the following figures.  They need not be in a MS Word attachment, but may be answered directly in your Assignments Folder posting, as you wish. 

As in a math class,  show your work, i.e., show your formulas, input data, and calculations  as well as your results. 

Include at least the following EV figures (you may include more if you wish): 

· Original Budget at Completion (BAC) (baselined)

· New Estimate at Completion (EAC) (changed)

· New Estimated Cost to Complete (ECTC) (changed)

· Original Planned Value (PV, BCWS) (baselined)

· Actual Cost so far (AC, ACWP) (changed)

· Earned Value so far (EV, BCWP)

· Schedule Variance (SV)

· Cost Variance (CV)

· Schedule Performance Index (SPI)

· Cost Performance Index (CPI)

6. Finally, answer the following questions in the previously discussed Word document and submit them along with your other files in your Assignments Folder.  Alternatively, may be answered directly in your Assignments Folder posting instead of the  Worddocument, as you wish.

a. What was the effect of the changes on your project cost?  How much did it increase?  Are you still on budget or are you over budget now?

b. What was the effect on your project schedule?  How much did it increase?  Are you still on schedule or are you late now?

c. What would you recommend doing to handle these changes and risks, assuming that the client cannot get any more money (it's a fixed grant) and that it still has to be installed by the original deadline (before?  Do not make changes in your project schedule .mpp or budget or documents to reflect this recommendation.  Simply state what things you would recommend doing to handle the situation.

 

Item 1 (the Change Management Plan) should be a separate MS Word document of its own.  Item 2 (the updated .mpp file), of course, is a separate file of its own.  Items 3-6 (description of how you implemented the changes, description of needed updates to other documentation, earned value analysis, and answers to the questions) can be submitted in a single, consolidated MS Word document.  So your submission for grading should include three files.

 

Note on distributing the "Creds" (see "Creds" and "360 Degree Assessment", above) for this particular assignment: 

         There are two team projects this week.  You each may choose to distribute your Creds separately for each assignment, in which case you have 23 Creds to distribute to your teammates for each assignment.  Or you each may choose to distribute your Creds just once for the week, in which case you should copy the Creds and separately post them for each of the two assignments. 

         Either way, please post the Creds for each assignment separately in that assignment's corresponding item in your Assignments Folder.

 

Approximate breakdown by areas include:          

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~5%)

o    Changed .MPP Schedule (~33%)

o    Change Management Plan (~40%)

o    Documentation Update (~7%)

o    Questions (~15%)

o    EV Calculations (Optional.  Bonus up to ~7% additional, but not more than 100% total for ITP-7)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the ITP-7 Project Deliverable

To earn 90-100% of the points available for this assignment –

Meet all requirements, including an updated MS Project schedule; project baselined prior to changes; tracking Gantt comparing original baselined plan with updated changed plan; all specified required changes implemented correctly; consideration of ripple effects; comments and updates from previous MPPs and ITPs incorporated; all Earned Value figures calculated correctly; all questions answered;  Change Management Plan including change handling methodology, roles and responsibilities, organization, process (flowchart and/or description), and budget; and explanation of needed documentation changes.  Approximate breakdown by areas is as specified above.  Include reference sources are used in the text and included in a Reference page. 

To earn 80-89% of the points available for this assignment –

Meet all requirements, including an updated MS Project schedule; project baselined prior to changes; tracking Gantt comparing original baselined plan with updated changed plan; at least 4 specified required changes implemented; at least 8 Earned Value figures calculated correctly; at least 3 questions answered;  Change Management Plan including change handling methodology, roles and responsibilities, organization, and process; and identification of documents needing changes.  Include reference sources are used in the text and included in a Reference page. 

To earn 70-79% of the points available for this assignment –

Meet the majority of requirements, including an updated MS Project schedule; project baselined prior to changes; tracking Gantt comparing original baselined plan with updated changed plan; at least 3 specified required changes implemented; at least 7 Earned Value figures calculated correctly; at least 2 questions answered;  Change Management Plan including change handling methodology, organization, and process; and identification of documents needing changes.  Include reference sources are used in the text and included in a Reference page. 

To earn 60-69% of the points available for this assignment –

Include an updated MS Project schedule; tracking Gantt comparing original baselined plan with updated changed plan; at least 3 specified required changes implemented; at least 5 Earned Value figures calculated correctly; at least 1 questions answered; Change Management Plan including change handling methodology, organization, and process.

Less than 60% -

Team efforts that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  Team efforts that are not original work will earn a zero.  Team efforts that do not have proper APA references and citations to any included or quoted work will earn at most 50%. 

Please notice that there is a STRONG incentive for ALL team members to carefully proofread team documents before submitting.  This incentive will continue through the semester.   

Submit your assignment in the Assignments Folder as specified under "Submission of the Project Deliverables for Grading", above.  On the morning after the due date (Monday), please post your assignment and other requirements as a response to the Discussion topic, USING YOUR TEAM NAME AND "ITP-7" IN THE FILE NAME AND THE SUBJECT LINE.   

 

 

TPP-2 - Project Post-Mortem Analysis  (Team project)

                                                                                        (PMBOK 2, 3.7)

Addresses Course Outcome #1e

IMPORTANT: FIRST, read the general introduction and instructions for the course-long Integrated Team Project (ITP) in Content.

Also review:

         all of your previous ITP deliverables.

         the other teams' projects' consolidated project plans (ITP-6) posted in the Discussion Forums. 

         your course log or journal for this course (if any)

 

"He who does not remember the past is doomed to repeat it."

      -- George Santayana on project post-mortems?

 

Assignment for the TPP-2 Project Deliverable

Prepare a post-project (postmortem) assessment.  In your project team, jointly conduct a project "post mortem" review, considering:

         The TPP-1 plan for weekly assignments and how well (or not) it was followed. 

· Successes, what went well, and what turned out well

· Why things turned out well and why other things turned out poorly

· Shortcomings, what could be done better, and how

· Other lessons learned about project management from your ITPs and from the course as a whole

· After looking at other teams’ weekly assignments and postings, identify the best of the teams' projects; that is, identify the team whose project you assess to be the best.  Determine why it is the best.

Note:  Project post-mortems are not for finger-pointing and casting blame, but for learning.  Discussions are not to be personal, but rather, objective and constructive. Do not attempt to determine which project was worst.  Do not point fingers or cast blame.  Do not rank or grade the projects or the members.  

· Then in your project team, develop and submit:

o    A project document summarizing lessons learned on the project and in this course, as described in the textbook and LEO Conferences in MS Word format.   

o    In the document, identify the best of the teams' projects; that is, identify the team whose project you assess to be the best.  Explain why it was the best.

The document should summarize your own project and what it was about, identify its successes and shortcomings, identify what you would do differently if you did it over, and make recommendations for future project managers based on lessons learned from this project especially if learned "the hard way".  In addition, the document should similarly summarize major project management lessons you have learned from and in this course.

 

When doing this, consider the following:

         Whether or not your team followed its original plan from TPP-1, and whether or not this helped or hindered your team's progress through the assignments. 

         Your team's team process course completion plan and schedule from Week 1

         All of your team's consolidated project documentation deliverables from Weeks 2-8

         The "trajectory" of your project, that is, how it ran, how it actually went, over the course of the semester

         How your team interacted, collaborated, and worked together

         Successes and problems

         Additional material on project post-mortem analyses, lessons learned, and after action reports from the textbook, LEO Modules, instructor's lecture commentary, and whatever you can find on the Web.

 

Approximate breakdown by areas include:

o    General: Structure, Format, Mechanics, Style (~10%)

o    Post-mortem analysis (~90%)

 

Rubrics and Grading for the TPP-2 Project Deliverable

To earn 90-100% of the points available for this assignment –

All team activities must be completed.  Successes, shortcomings, and the reasons for both are identified, as are how specific things could be done better.  The degree to which the project went as planned (i.e., the degree to which it conformed to the initial team process plan and schedule in TPP-1) are identified, along with the reasons for the success or deviation.  Additional things learned from the project, the team process, and the course are identified.  The best of the various teams' projects is identified, along with the team ID of that project and the reasons that effort is best.  The lessons learned document is consonant with PMI and other real projects or academically credible sources, which are properly cited.  The project team efforts and documentation have 0-2 punctuation, grammatical, and/ or spelling errors.

To earn 80-89% of the points available for this assignment –

All team activities must be completed.  Successes, shortcomings, and the reasons for both are identified, as are how specific things could be done better.  Additional things learned from the project, the team process, and the course are identified.  The best of the various teams' projects is identified, along with the team ID of that project and some likely reasons that effort is best.  The lessons learned document is consonant with PMI and other real projects or academically credible sources, which are properly cited.  The project team efforts and the project charter have 3 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors.

To earn 70-79% of the points available for this assignment –

All team activities must be completed.  Successes, shortcomings, and reasons are identified, as are how things could be done better.  Some additional things learned from the project, the team process, and the course are identified.  The best of the various teams' projects is identified, along with the team ID of that project.  The textbook is the only reference used. The project team efforts and the project charter have no more than 5 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors.

To earn 60-69% of the points available for this assignment –

All team activities must be completed.  Successes, shortcomings, and reasons are identified, as are some things could be done better.  The best of the various teams' projects is identified, along with the team ID of that project.   The textbook is the only reference used.  The project team efforts and the project charter have more than 7 punctuation, grammatical, and/or spelling errors. 

Less than 60% -

Team efforts that do not meet the requirements will earn a zero.  Team efforts that are not original work will earn a zero.  Team efforts that do not have proper APA references and citations to any included or quoted work will earn at most 50%. 

Please notice that there is a STRONG incentive for ALL team members to carefully proofread team documents before submitting.  This incentive will continue through the semester.   

 

Last updated 27.Nov.2013