Posted: February 5th, 2015

Project planning

Project planning

About the Coursework

The coursework is designed to “cap” your learning and practice. Each week you will engage with learning material in the module which will be both theoretical and

practice based. For example you will learn about how risk is assessed in projects and how to develop a risk plan, you will then apply this learning and practice to the

scenario you are given in this coursework. You should therefore aim to target your learning and practice at the coursework which you will develop each week as you go

along. Do not leave it to the last minute as this is a recipe for disaster, there is a lot to this, as you would expect from this level of module.

There are two courseworks and each are worth 50% of the total mark.

Coursework 1 – focuses mainly on the pre planning stage and the development of all the issues and design elements that make a good plan, you will develop a range of

products and discussion as part of a portfolio to hand in as you will with the second coursework..

Coursework 2 – focuses mainly on the implementation of the project, i.e. when the project actually starts we need to track what is going on and develop our reporting

and cost analysis etc. to ensure our budgets and activities are in accordance with the plan we set up, we also need to take action if we are off plan and of course we

need to have a final analysis of how it all went and what we can learn from what we did.

You should read the scenario in depth, this is the scope of the project you will undertake. Remember if there is anything you do not understand, then share it in the

coursework discussion thread with other on-line colleagues and your Tutor

Coursework Assessment

The coursework will be assessed by the quality and range of the products you will submit under each of the Project Development headings below. You will develop and

collect all the products in a portfolio throughout the duration of this module and will submit these in a final form by the submission date agreed.

The final submission will consist of two stages;

•    Report 1 –  Developing  the Project Planning (Coursework 1)

•    Report 2 –   Implementing and Reviewing the Project (Coursework 2)

Please Note:  Your Lecturer will issue operational notices during the development of your project which may impact on resources, cost and time and necessitate you to

revise your plan or make a case for further allocations. There will be one Notice of Change for coursework 1 and one for coursework 2.

You should ensure that you regularly back up your development and that you maintain all the products and their amendments under defined version numbers. This will help

you if you need to go back to previous versions to work on again, this happens a lot in Project Management.

Submitting your Coursework

For each coursework you will be asked for a range of products, eg word documents, spread sheets and Microsoft Project Files. You should create a folder with these

products and then ZIP it to send as an attachment with your email. You should ensure that your email reaches your Tutor before or on the submission date. Feedback from

your Tutor will be delivered to your digital drop box in the learning environment in the form of an audio file in MP3 format. Remember there will be penalties applied

for late submission.

The Project Scenario

Development Education Ltd is a privately owned research and development company specialising in developing courses, seminars and staff development days for their

clients in the both the private sector and government local authorities as well as Health Trusts. Their prime aim is to provide quality education and delivery based on

sound research and development. They specialise mainly in public sector governance, health issues and company equal opportunities policy. They have a good reputation

for organising robust research and conferences for their clients.

They have won a major contract from a local health authority to organise and deliver a conference for selected delegates on the theme of “Health Issues in the

Workplace”.  The local health authority hopes that awareness of these issues will inform local business and other government agencies of the European Directives with

regard to implementing new policies in the workplace. It is hoped that in the long term local organisations will adhere to the new policies and that it will lessen the

strain on fragile local GP resources and cost of medication caused by health issues in the workplace.

You have been chosen as the project manager to design and develop a plan that will deliver this conference at the Adlon Conference Centre at the pre-appointed time.

You will also be asked to monitor the progress of the project as it is developed and implemented.

Research will be presented at the conference by DevEd Ltd and discussion groups will be formed to evaluate the research. A delegate pack with research papers will be

sent to each delegate four weeks before the conference date.

Feedback on the research papers by delegates who are experts in the field will be correlated prior to the conference and used to initiate group discussion after the

main presentations.

A series of guest speakers will be arranged for the day to speak to the research papers.

An advertising campaign lasting four weeks will be initiated prior sending out the delegate packs, after which time the marketing personnel will move to another

Project. Both advertising personnel will work for the four weeks on a small range of activities you have designed.

As the Project Manager for DevEd Ltd. you will hire four researchers, two marketing personnel, two secretarial staff and a Conference Organiser. You will also be

available as the project manager to manage stages and the reporting process to the Project board.

The Project will start on the first Monday in April of next year and the conference will be scheduled for the last Thursday in August of that year.  So there is about

150 days of project time for you to schedule before the conference day.

The project will close when a review of the discussion notes from the conference has been correlated, published and sent out to participants and local authority

managers this will be the end of the project, not the Conference Day, although your target is the conference day for scheduling pruposes.

You have been allocated a budget of £29500 for this project.

An interim feasibility study has been done and the senior management are assured that it can be done, in time and on budget.

Organising the Conference

The development of the Project should adhere to the following structure for activities.

These are the activities you will set up in the outline plan (proforma.xls) and then the project software, MSProject 2010

The Set Up Stage

There are number of base activities that are required at this level you should add   two more activities for each stage;

•    Setting up the Project Team

•    Set up the project Board

•    Identify goals and objectives

•    Develop an interim plan for discussion

•    Identifying research sources

•    Develop the PID Document

The Research and Development Stage

•    Developing the research

•    Writing the research papers

•    Peer reviewing the research

•    Amending Research papers for Publication

•    Producing the Delegate packs

•    Performing the Marketing activities

•    Developing communications planning

The Activation Stage

•    Developing a schedule for the day,

•    Developing hospitality arrangements

•    Plan discussion activities

•    Plan feedback Arrangements

•    Attend the conference (your Target Date)

The Review Stage

•    Correlate feedback material from the conference

•    Prepare feedback for publication

•    Review the publication

•    Send out the Publication to stakeholders.

(Project end – your end date)

Report 1 – Developing the Project Planning

(1500 words approx. excluding diagrams, software products, tables etc.)

Part A – Initiating the Project

This part encompasses the preparation for the plan and will contain the following list of products.

•    A discussion of the long and short term Goals and Objectives of the Project

•    A discussion on why the feasibility study is so important to the success of a project

•    A list of Milestones by stage for the project and what they are.

•    A statement of deliverables for the project.

•    An Outline Project Communication Plan

•    An Outline Risk Assessment Plan (Ishikawa diagram) with brief narratives of possible threats to the Project

•    An Outline Project Plan (see Outline Plan template, the Excel file, (proforma.Xls).

•    A discussion on the major factors affecting selection of the team for this project and how the role of the Project manager is crucial to the success of the

project. You should also identify common problems associated with managing a project team and how to resolve them.

.

Part B – Developing the Project

This part encompasses the project plans developed with the software and will contain the following list of products.

Project Planning

•    A Full Risk Assessment Plan based on your outline plan above  – ( a word document)

Submit a Microsoft project file with the following products

•    Gantt Chart of linked activities and allocation of human and material resources to the activities

o    Milestones should be identified
o    Reporting stages should be identified
o    There should be at least four occasions where  parallel activities exist

o    The Resource Sheet will contain the following for each human resources
•    Total Hours worked
•    Total Cost
o    The Resource Sheet will contain all material resources
o    Standard Calendar for the Project (see project parameters)
o    2 Tailored Resource Calendars        (see project parameters)
o    There should be no over allocations to human resources.
o    Ensure you are not over budget.

•    We will check the reports function in the software you send to identify the calendars and cost reports

This file will be called Project Plan

Submit a second Microsoft project file with the following products

•    Revision Versions will contain only

o    Revised Gantt Chart with new timings and allocations as requested by Notice 1 change notification.
o    Ensure you are not over budget
o    There should be no over allocations to human resources.

This file will be called Revised Project Plan

Please submit these components with all the products above in a submission folder called “Developing the Project”

General Project parameters

The following is a list of constraints on the project (for both courseworks)

•    The daily working time for the standard calendar is from 0900 – 1200 and 13.30 – 16.30. The first Monday in May is a Bank Holiday.

•    All Researchers only work from Monday to Thursday inclusive

•    Researcher 3 has two weeks holiday booked for the last two weeks in May and can only work up to 3.30pm each day. (Tailored Calendar)

•    The Project manager is not available on Mondays as that is when all PM’s meet with senior management to plan and report on the weeks activities, the PM has

booked holidays for first two weeks in June (Tailored Calendar)

•    Administrative Assistant 2  is off for one week at the end of June

•    There is an overtime ban during June

•    The Graphic Artist is only available to the Project for 4 days.

•    There will be an external audit of all projects in the second week of July, all project managers must ensure that no deficit on project budgets are shown in

that week as this could effect client funding for the future.

Project Resource Rates

You will need this for the cost calculations and the resource sheet in MS project.

Resource    Rate per Hour    Overtime Rate    Material Cost
Researcher    £35.00    £55.00
Project Manager    £45.00    £65.00
Marketer     £30.00    £45.00
Conference Organiser    £25.00    £35.00
Admin Assistant    £14.00    £19.00
Graphic Artist    £40.00    £75.00
Laptop 1            £1500
Laptop 2            £900
4 PC’s            £1000
Conference Venue            £2500
Conference Catering            £900
Delegate Pack Publication            £2000
Marketing Media            £2500
Feed Back Publication            £1500
Guest Speakers            £2000
Office Stationary etc            £1000

General Guidance Notes

There is no right or wrong answer to the coursework only a solution which works well within bounds of reason so the way you design the plans will be up to you.

You may authorise overtime to the project if the project is likely to slip during the implementation stage, this may to necessary depending upon notices issued during

this stage (coursework 2)

You can play around with the allocations of staff to get the best mix, this sometimes helps in budgeting. A good manager with an eye on budgets will deploy cheaper

resources more often, but watch out for over allocation, ie if they are over their hours, you will be penalised, you will see worksheets in the content VLE on how to

resolve over allocation using the technique of levelling.

When assigning material resources, you assign them once only to the project which will be logged as a cost against the project. For example do not assign Laptop 1 more

than once as this would have a repeated cost to the project and would blow your budget. Once the material resource is assigned it is available to the project until

completion so many people could use it.

If you cannot achieve the project within budget or with existing resources you must notify this to your lecturer and make a justified case for allocation of more funds

or resources which may or may not be granted depending on the strength of the case. Marks may be added or may be deducted, again depending on the strength of the case.

This is risky but you may want to try it. You should log this request and the response in the your files and submit these with this coursework

The usual penalties will apply for late submission.

This Coursework is worth 50% of the marks for the Module and will be marked out of 100 marks.

Stud. ID            BA year 3  – Project Planning and Management
Coursework 1 Marking Scheme – 50%
Part A    Initiation    Available    Achieved
Goals and Objectives    5
Feasibility statement    5
Outline Comms Plan    5
Outline Risk Plan    5
Outline Plan – Excel Template    10
Managing Teams Evaluation    20

Part B    Planning
Full Risk Analysis    10
Gantt Chart & Resources    20
Imbedded Calendars    5
In Budget    5
Revision 1 Gantt Chart and Resources    10
Total Marks    100    0

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