Project Management Techniques

Assignment Brief

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to submit a Project Management Techniques assignment. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.

Learning Outcomes:

After completing the module you should be able to:

1. Critically reflect on the nature and process of project management techniques.

2. Critically analyse and evaluate different organisational and project structures.

3. Critically evaluate and apply appropriate techniques for planning and scheduling in different situations including strategies for the control of target setting, slippage, benchmarking.

4. Critically evaluate project management skills and techniques that enable the effective management of projects.

Your assignment should include a title page containing your personal details, the module name, the submission deadline and a word count; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list in Bournemouth University (BU) Harvard format. You should address all the elements of the assignment task listed below. Additional marks are awarded for the good use of theory and the supply of additional information from academic research and journalistic sources.

Maximum word count: 3000 words

Please note that exceeding the word count will result in a reduction in grade proportionate to the number of words used in excess of the permitted limit.

Assignment Task

You have been appointed by senior management as project manager for a key project within your organization. Your project board has asked for a project plan that will be used as a baseline against which to monitor project progress and cost stage by stage. The board has also asked that you fully justify your approach at each stage based on current best practice as indicated in the academic literature.

In order to address the assignment requirements, you may choose a project from your organisation or, where you do not have a current project, either use a project you have worked on previously or create your own project. It is important that the project you choose is suitable for dealing with the set tasks: neither too simple nor too large and complex.

For your chosen project you must provide:

1) A project overview giving a brief background to the project, the project objectives, the project scope and exclusions, the project deliverables and project constraints. Identify the project structure adopted and explain how this relates to the overall organisation structure. You need to critically reflect on the importance of each of these concepts in project planning.

(25%)

2) A Work Breakdown Structure broken down by sub-activity to the level of work packages. You will need to critically evaluate the importance of the WBS in planning and how it fits within the planning process.

(30%)

3) For one work package chosen from 2) provide an estimate of resources using appropriate techniques. Identify the costs associated with these resources. You will need to explain why modelling the project in this way is important and critically compare and contrast the alternative estimating techniques that are available, justifying your own choice of technique.

(15%)

4) For the same work package chosen from 3) provide a budget detailing the costs associated with delivering this work package. The costs should be broken down over a suitable timescale to show cash flow throughout the lifetime of the work package.

(10%)

5) Explain why managing risk is important within a project and critically evaluate appropriate techniques for managing that risk. For one work package chosen from 2) provide a risk register using risk identification techniques, risk assessment techniques and risk filtering techniques. You will need to justify the techniques you have chosen to use.

(20%)

Consider the word limits and assessment requirements before choosing the complexity level of the project.

Projects can be concealed to protect the confidentiality of your organisation – you will not be penalised where confidential details are withheld, however, areas of restricted information should be highlighted where appropriate.

Formative Feedback

You have the opportunity to submit a one-page summary of your intended approach to receive formative feedback.

The feedback is designed to help you develop areas of your work and it helps you develop your skills as an independent learner.

Your work must be submitted by email) on or before 4th April, 2016. This is to allow time for you to reflect on the feedback and draft your final submission.

Formative feedback will not be given to work submitted after the above date.

Guidelines:

You MUST underpin your analysis and evaluation of the key issues with appropriate and wide ranging academic research and ensure this is referenced using the BU Harvard system. You must use the BU Harvard Referencing method in your assignment.

Additional notes:

Students are required to indicate the exact word count on the title page of the assessment.

The word count excludes the title page, executive summary, reference list and appendices. Where assessment questions have been reprinted from the assessment brief these will also be excluded from the word count. ALL other printed words ARE included in the word count. Printed words include those contained within charts and tables. See ‘Word Count Policy’ on the homepage of this module for more information.