PROJECT PLANNING AND CONTROL USING THE BUSINESS ASSIGNMENT

This module is called Projects in Practice; its purpose is to practice delivering projects just like  in a real-life situation. The coursework reflects this. You are required to deliver a project that  has tangible outcome(s) and is delivered by yourselves. The students must be part of the  project team. You are asked to not only plan a real business project but also carry it out. One of the best  ways to achieve these aims is to plan, manage and deliver a project for a charity. This will probably involve finding a suitable charity organization and agreeing on a project idea with  them. Alternatively, especially given the restrictions imposed by the Pandemic, you may opt  to undertake a project that can be done in-house, as it were. A project that is more on-line.  For example you might like to create a useful video or a website or start a new business /  service. Whatever you, and the team you are part of, decide to do, you should design, plan  and specify a project (by week 7) and then implement the project, managing issues and  changes and reporting on the outcomes (by week 12).  

The project should involve the delivery of business products (measurable outcomes) – for  example you might organize a fundraising event or awareness raising initiative on a specified  date around week 10 or 11. Or your team might produce an instructional video, for example  on some aspect of Project Management, or design and build a new website for some stated  purpose, or put together an on-line (Zoom, Teams or WebEx) conference in which you invite  speakers, or arrange something in association with the APM. When you have a particular  idea in mind you should mention it to your lecturer or tutor to see if it is appropriate. 

The project assignment is divided into two parts: 

Part A asks you to plan a project and follow the guidelines set out in the Business Project  Management (BPM) methodology to create a BPM Specification (similar to a PMP or PID) for  a real project. You should attempt this in groups of 4, 5 or 6. 

Part B invites you (individually) to consider and demonstrate how to manage a project and  how to use MS Project or equivalent software to monitor and control a project. At the end of the project you should report on the actual stages, progress, success, problems, outcomes  and lessons of the project.

   Part A 

In the first part of the coursework you should work in small groups to plan and use the BPM approach (discussed in lectures) to organize a project that may involve many different  stakeholders and a certain amount of complexity. In the early stages each member of the  team may take on specific roles (e.g. Business Analyst, Planner, Researcher, Publicist, Project  Manager) or you may share all the work, to explore and follow the method properly and  produce the BPM Specification documentation (BPMS).  

The Start of the Project. 

Each group decides upon a suitable project and prepares a definition of, and plan to carry out,  the project. Each group must select a different project. The various plans, specifications and  arrangements should be collected and documented in a BPM Specification (BPMS) (similar to a PMP or Project Initiation Document) and this report should contain all the necessary contents  and level of detail explained in lectures and notes for the module. BPMS content headings  are: Terms of Reference, Business Case, Feasibility and Risk Analysis, Plans. A complete  list of the items to be included in this document is provided in the table below. You should  create an overview Work Breakdown Structure and include this with this BPMS, 

   Deliverable - by week 7 (at the latest):  

• a completed BPMS (a project specification and overview plan) 

Part A- Documentation for the First Section 

The following outline framework gives an idea of the main headings, contents and structure  that you are expected to follow when writing the BPM Specification report and completing  the first part of the assignment. You will most likely gather, analyze and record this  information progressively over the first weeks and build the document(s) as you work on the  project. It is expected, for example, that you will do most of the Terms of Reference in week  3, the Business Case in week 4, the Feasibility study and Risk analysis in week 5, and the  planning aspects in week 6. For project configuration management purposes two columns have been added that may help you to organize and then track updates and changes.

    Part B 

Project Management and the use of MSProject1or Equivalent 

Part B invites you (individually) to explore and report on managing the project and  demonstrate how you used technology to help you. Managing involves a lot more than  planning. A live project can easily break down into chaos without good management. As a project manager, you will be responsible for managing a large amount of information about  the progress of a project. You will be responsible for making a range of complex decisions to  make sure a project is completed successfully. You are also responsible for communicating  effectively about the progress of the project. Software packages such as MS Project1 can be  very helpful. You should therefore be competent in using project management software. 

At the end of the project you should submit a set of Gantt charts, graphs, tables and plans that  illustrate and analyze knock-on-effects and new arrangements which should be accompanied  by a brief narrative explanation of the progress and outcomes of the project and a critique of  the software you employed. The deadline for the submission of this final report is week 12. All 

documents should be combined and submitted as one word doc file on Aula/Turnitin. 

Managing the Project 

Having created, established and submitted the BPMS and the project plan, work starts  delivering the project's products. Once the project is underway you will need to adjust, amend  and re-plan the activities, the resources, the schedule and the risk register to keep everything  on track and to cope with unexpected (or anticipated but unwelcome) developments. You must  update your MS Project plan continually to reflect the current status, fine-tune the critical path,  try to reduce increases in budget or time, monitor quality, evaluate possible implications and  predict and control problems.  

Needless to say, not everything will go according to plan (communication problems, delays in  agreements, suppliers late, people off sick, equipment breaking down, costs going up, and the  like). Remember, there is an argument that the very best project managers do not get the  reward or recognition they deserve. Project managers are doing a good job if everything goes  pretty much to plan and also when things go wrong but they successfully negotiate major  challenges. 

A large part of project management is how you manage the effects of project problems or  exceptions. You should consider the impact and repercussions of what could go wrong with  your plan, make arrangements to deal with them and put these into action when necessary.  You should explore and decide how to bring the project back on track in terms of cost and  timescale, agree this with your team and keep careful records of these changes. You should  compare possible options (e.g. working weekends or overtime, employing extra resources)  

1 Or equivalent software such as ProjectLibre

and decide which option is preferable and why. It is possible that there will be disagreements  and that everyone in the group may not agree on a course of action, in which case a  compromise may be sought. You should note these discussions, agreements and solutions.  You will be able to reflect on them at the end. While you do this you should think about what  you have learned about project management methodologies, which approaches and  techniques do you find most useful and why? 

Part B requires the production of: 

1) A set of Gantt charts (demonstrating monitoring and controlling progress) 2) A presentation (summarizing the objectives and outcomes of the project) 3) A final report (critically reviewing the project) 

4) A technology report (evaluating the technology). 

You need to combine all your documents and submit them as one file. 

This second part of the coursework continues where the first part ended. You have already  created and established the project Terms of Reference and baseline plan in your BPMS. You  should spend the rest of the semester implementing the project. In other words now you put  the plans into action and deliver the project product(s). 

You have considered and established the aims and context of this project in the BPMS: you  have explained who the project owners are, the stakeholders, their expectations and so on.  You will also have considered the project management methodology. The next step is to  follow the plans and track developments and changes in these project plans – the tasks,  resources, costs, critical path, risks, etc.  

1) The Project's Gantt Chart Plans 

You have already entered the main tasks for the project and set the project baseline in Part  A. This plan confirmed your expected schedule, set milestones and estimated the costs and  completion date for the project. From the moment the actual work on the project starts, you  must monitor, record and control your and your group’s progress and the changes that are  made to the baseline.  

So in Part A you (each group) submitted the preliminary version of the Gantt chart (using  software), containing your baseline plan. This established your baseline schedule for the  project board and confirmed important milestones, your planned budget and target date.  

In Part B you (individually) update and review this original Gantt chart and (as you manage  and work on the project and produce the project’s deliverables) keep your own individual  version up to date as the project progresses. Things seldom go exactly according to plan so  changes will need to be made. Problems and issues arise that need to be allowed for.  Therefore it is likely that you will create a number of updated versions of this Gantt chart (a  copy of the final Gantt chart must be included in your final report). The Gantt charts provide  useful material for reflection and lessons learned. These Gantt charts should be easy to read  and printed on one or only a few pages. While you must identify the tasks you should try to  minimize the space that the dependency table uses so that you can display the differences  between planned and actual progress. Use A3 sized sheets if you like. These Gantt charts  must be incorporated into the two reports you produce (the plan and the report) and not  submitted as separate files. 

So, you should each (individually) keep your own copy of the original Gantt chart for the project  you are embarking on, before you start work delivering it. As a reminder: your baseline project  Gantt chart should have about 20 to 30 tasks or activities. The project should require certain key resources that may be used throughout the project. There should be costs associated with  different aspects of this project and with the use of these resources. If your baseline Gantt  chart does not already have sufficient details about tasks, schedule, resources and costs 

please add them. You should have used software such as MSProject to do this. The first Gantt  chart is your pre-start estimate, your initial plan. 

Once work starts on the project, and at least once per week, you should update this Gantt  chart with the latest amendments and developments and track how you are getting on  compared to your expectations and your original baseline plan. Log and store these plans so  that you can refer to them later and discuss/present them in the final report. It is important  that you demonstrate that you know how to manipulate MSProject, or equivalent, to perform 

what-if analysis, appreciate the implications and consequences of changes and take account  of project developments /updates. 

Deliverable: The Gantt charts you include in your reports will show  

• The baseline plan - an estimate of what will happen - including: tasks, durations,  dependencies, critical path, resources, costs. 
• The actual, delivered, project progress which shows the revised plan and the  changes that were made – a Gantt chart of what actually happened including  changes to, for example: tasks, durations, resourcing, costs. 

2) Presentation  

Imagine you are presenting a presentation to the project board. When preparing the presentation,  think about its purpose – what do the project board want to hear? (Remember, the project  board may be monitoring the progress of a number of different projects.) The project board  will be eager to hear about the project and what progress you have made. What were the  objectives and what is the current status of the project? Is it on track in terms of time and  cost? 

When preparing the presentation, you should consider the clarity of the explanations given.  This will probably include amended Gantt and other generated charts. You may mention the  plans and deliverables and certain parameters. You should explain what has caused the  project to deviate from the plan and what you did to correct it. You should also consider the  clarity of the presentation; choose the outputs and reports from your software carefully to make  it as clear as possible.  

Deliverable: 

• A presentation (such as PowerPoint slides) which provides a discussion and explanation of the above. You need to include these with your final report. 

3) Final Report 

Your project should be completed by week 12. Individually, you should summarize in a concise  way, your view of the status and success of your project. Was it completed successfully, did  you achieve the objectives within time, budget and other constraints? Did you produce the  products to the expected level of quality? Or would you consider it to have challenged outputs,  outcomes and benefits? You should have had measures in place so that you can judge the  outcomes of your project. This might include key performance indicators (KPIs) and feedback  from some of the key stakeholders.  

You should use this brief report as a chance to review and reflect on the outcome of your  project. What are the lessons learned? What are your general reflections on the methodology  and process? When reflecting on the methodology, you should consider the nature of this  particular project - a relatively small project. How would things be different for a larger, more  complex project? What about the overall group process; how effectively do you think your  team worked together on the project?

Deliverable 

• a brief business report (max. 1000 words) describing the project outcomes, the  usefulness (or otherwise) of the techniques and methods you used, your reflections  and any lessons learned 

4) Technology Report 

You need to reflect on the usefulness (or otherwise) of the software you used. Do you think it  helped or hindered you? How would you get on without any software? Entering, and updating  all the project data accurately takes a lot of time and effort. Is it worth the effort? Does the  software help you to manage the project effectively? Are there any features which particularly  impressed you? Any which you feel could be improved? If you had an opportunity to add new  features, what would they be? There are hundreds of different packages and applications you  could have used, would you be tempted to try different software next time? 

Deliverable 

• A brief discussion and critical evaluation of the software and technology you used. 

Assessment Guidelines: 

Please make sure you are aware of UWS’s assessment rules and regulations. For example,  you will be penalized for late submissions. The penalties for plagiarism can be very serious. 

As with all coursework – the sooner you make a start, the sooner you will discover the  challenges. Do ask for help if you are not sure about something. This exercise involves the  use of different software including: MSP / ProjectLibre, Word, PowerPoint, Aula, Turnitin etc.,  don’t leave things till the last minute.