Project Management Assignments - Case Study Options

Learning outcomes assessed within this piece of work as agreed at the programme level meeting

Knowledge:

You will be able to develop understanding of the core activity areas project managers concern themselves with and how they relate to personal and organisational issues.

Intellectual/transferrable:

You will be able to apply the principles of project management to the planned development and delivery of business initiatives, e.g. new products, services or events

Tasks to be completed are on page 2 and the four case scenario options are on page 3

A. Sample Project Initiation Document (PID) including budgetary information, timescales, objectives, approach, key staff and stakeholder analysis (approx. 750 words plus diagrams, etc.);

B. Work breakdown Structure containing at least 20 items in the WBS. The WBS should be presented in the form of a diagram that includes dependencies, milestones and a hierarchy of tasks. You are free to deliver this as a Gantt chart (use MS Project to develop this) but it is not required. All diagrams should be embedded into your report as images. In addition include with this table a referenced paragraph explaining how a WBS can be used to help manage the tasks on a project and give a further paragraph briefly explaining the importance of critical path analysis;

A. A risk register containing at least 10 fully documented risks, including owner, mitigation and contingency actions, pre-and post- action weighting and scores. 

B. In approximately 500 words describing the way in which a risk register forms a crucial part of an overall risk management plan, using examples to show what happens when risk is not properly managed on projects.

A. A short report written directly to the project sponsor (approx. 1,500 words) containing both of the following:
i. An explanation of the need for effective, structured communication between the project manager and members of their team.  Using theory and suitable case examples, tell your sponsor how best you believe the communication process should be structured on your project, so as to ensure the most efficient and effective possible team working.
ii. An analysis and critique of methodologies that might be used to run the project case study, principally comparing Agile, Waterfall and PRINCE2 methodologies. Explain their strengths and weaknesses and give your recommendation to the sponsor as to which methodology you believe would be best to use.  There is no right or wrong answer for this and hence marks will be given on the basis of how well you have explained and justified your decision. As with the other assignment elements, reference examples and reference to theory is very important.

Assignment 1

B. Submit copies of your previous two assignments (from weeks 5 and 10) as appendices to this third piece of work so that the marker will be able to see continuity between these earlier assignments and this final one.  Simply paste them in at the end and submit as one large document.  If you did not submit assignment 1 and/or 2 but do wish to submit assignment 3 then simply note at the end that you do not have anything to submit for 1 and 2 (you will be given a capped resit opportunity for each non-submitted assignment).

Important: So that there is no confusion or doubt, for ALL elements in all assignments, reference must be made to established project management theory. As this is a fictitious project case you are free to make assumptions where necessary and these should be clearly stated in your submission.  Furthermore, you are required to use multiple real project examples (both good and bad) as additional reference sources. These will help you demonstrate what good practice project management looks like and what happens when it is not applied.

It is also recommended that you include an appendix that contains all relevant assumptions that demonstrate how you arrived at your estimates - see separate student assignment guide.

Academic Year 2019/20 only

The Project Management Assignments require students to develop a number of pieces of documentation relating to a particular case study. For the last two years we have just given one case study scenario which has been mandatory and required to be delivered as one large piece of work at the end of the semester. This year, in response to student feedback regarding case study choice and reduction in risk of having to submit a whole module’s work at once (to avoid ‘eggs in one basket’), and also to reflect the wide variety of ways in which project management techniques can be applied, we are allowing students to choose between four different fictitious scenarios. Choose one of the four and then answer all of the assignment questions, to be submitted at three separate points in the semester - weeks 5, 10 and 12, worth 30%, 30% and 40% of the module total mark respectively. You must use the same case scenario for all questions as it is expected that you will link your three pieces of work.

Case Scenario 1

QAHE wishes to improve the spaces available for business students and has asked you to project manage the refurbishment and redevelopment of the London/Birmingham/Manchester (please choose one based on your location) Campus. The preference is for tiered seating that can be retracted, together with acoustic panels on the walls to make it a better teaching space. You have been asked to project manage this process with support from the Facilities Management department at QAHE and have been given a provisional budget of £100k.  Bear in mind that the work must not cause disruption to teaching timetables.

Assignment 2

Case Scenario 2

QAHE has recognised that students do not always know what is going on at QAHE Campuses outside of timetabled class sessions and in addition can find it difficult to contact representatives from clubs and societies. Hence, in order to help increase student engagement with extra-curricular activities, QAHE’s Student Forum Representative has asked you to project manage the development of a new QAHE Recreation mobile phone app which will provide day by day details of QAHE clubs and societies’ events, links to contact details and the freedom for students to publicise their own events.  Grant funding from O2 (one of their directors is a former QAHE student) has given you a budget of £200k and the university, although supportive, wants it ready to be used by students at the start of the next academic year.

Case Scenario 3

QAHE Business Management Faculty has designed a new degree course in Sustainable Business, focusing on ethical and environmental business issues.  This is now in its second year so at the start of the next academic year the 30 students on the course will be going into their final year. The Business Faculty has secured funding to support a two week field trip to see some interesting sustainable projects in Uganda, intending that this takes place in March of Semester 2. The Programme Convener has asked for your help in organising this trip and you are doing so as a project management task in place of your dissertation. Each student will be funded a max of £2,000 to enable them to go, thus meaning there is a total of £60,000 available for the whole trip.

Case scenario 4

You are the Project Manager for an indoor sporting event, organising a sort of ‘Olympics’ between London/Birmingham/Manchester (please choose one based on your location) Higher Education Institutions (HEI), known as the HEI Games.  The senior management at QAHE have asked for this as they wish it to be a flagship event that helps market the QAHE’s facilities. Assume you have the full academic year to organise this, with the events taking place in July or August.  You have a budget of £20k per university taking part and you should assume around 10 HEIs will be involved although if more join in then that will allow for more budget.  

Important: You do not need to have any technical knowledge of construction, IT, app development etc. in order to do well with any of the above as it is the use of the project management processes that will be marked and not detailed technical understand of a particular industry.