ASSIGNMENT BRIEF
This module assignment has two components: (1) Presentation and (2) Report :
1) Presentation,
• Presentation Assignment Background :
You are applying for a new job as a project manager in an industry of your choice. As a part of the recruitment process, your prospective employer asked each candidate interested in this opportunity to prepare a 10mins (+/- 1mins) presentation about a previous project that they were involved in, either as a project manager, or a project team member. Please prepare your
presentation as a potential candidate competing for this opportunity.
• Presentation Assignment Aim :
Your aim is to demonstrate your understanding of the fundamental concepts of project management, as used in a previous project that you were involved in. It is essential to showcase your experience and skills applied/developed throughout the selected project, following the
marking criteria specified in Table 2. Please familiarise yourself also with mark ranges and
characteristics in Table 3, as this may help you achieve your desired marks.
The Points the must be covered in the presentation :
1. Time management & Cost management
2. Time variance & cost variance (positive or negative)
3. Risk management
4. Quality management
5. Stakeholder analysis
6. communication plan
7. listen learned (assignment 2 also)
8. Organization (External environment)
9. Phases
10. scope management
11. References (from the handbook)
13. Use virtual tools
14. Procurement IF YOU HAVE
Presentation marking criteria
1. Content: knowledge of the subject area, critical awareness of all phases
of a project, evaluation of relationship between project management
processes and methodologies, demonstration of understanding of how
the subject knowledge should be applied in practice.
2. Presentation: legibility of slides and use of visual aids.
3. Presentation: script and oral delivery.
4. Structure: Clarity of argument put forward.
5. Quality and acknowledgement of sources (e.g. figures, charts, etc., if not
student’s own); all sources should be referenced using the Harvard style
2) Report.
This Assignment Brief is focused on the second assignment, the report only– 4000 words (+/-10%)
• Report Assignment Background
You are employed in a sector of your choice as a project manager and your team has just completed the delivery of a pilot project for one of your clients. A successful completion of this
pilot project can lead to securing a much larger contract for your company with the same client. As the project manager of this pilot project you now need to produce an end-of-project
report, which will, firstly, evaluate the performance of the pilot project in relation to the original plan, and, secondly, lead to generation of long-term strategic recommendations for similar larger projects, based on lessons learnt from this pilot project.
• Report Assignment Aim
The aim of this assignment is to prepare an end-of-project report that assesses and evaluates the delivery of the pilot project and offers recommendations about delivering similar future projects on a larger scale.
Within your assignment you will demonstrate an understanding of project planning and implementation by developing a project plan and utilising it for monitoring and controlling the project.
• Assignment Questions:
o Prepare an end-of-project report that reflects on the overall endeavour in planning, managing, and delivering the project along with a critical assessment and evaluation of the factors that facilitated the delivery of the pilot project.
o Critically examine project performance and offer recommendations about delivering similar future projects on a larger scale.
o Evaluate strategic recommendations regarding project or programme management for the future. The report structure is outlined on the next page. The marking criteria are summarised in Table 2 and marking ranges and characteristics in Table 3. Please familiarise yourself with
both; the marking ranges and characteristics, as this may help you achieve your desired marks.
The report should answer the following questions as a minimum:
▪ What is/was the project aiming to achieve?
▪ Why is/was it important to achieve it?
▪ How will be/was the project undertaken?
The report itself should demonstrate analytical and evaluation skills in discussion of the topic and a clear understanding of strategic project management issues. In order to avoid failing, please do not overuse bullet points, or do not submit just a literature review, as you are required to evaluate a specific project case for the purpose of this report. Number all pages.
Structure of the report
All reports should contain:
Title page:
▪ The full title of the work
▪ The word count (excluding acknowledgements, diagrams, references, bibliography and
appendices)
Executive summary:
A brief summary of the aim, methodology, contents, and conclusions of
the report. This section is not included in the word count, but should be no longer than 400 words.
Glossary:
A list of abbreviations, key phrases and technical terms used in the report and their definitions (Optional).
List of contents:
A breakdown of the project into its constituent parts and locating them by page number. It is good practice to also include a list of figures, tables and, if applicable, appendices.
Introduction:
Presenting and justifying the pilot project (business case) and introducing the approach taken to delivering the project objectives and their alignment with the broader organisational strategy.
Body of the report:
This part should be arranged in a way appropriate to the topic, presenting
a review of relevant literature, results and discussions and a synthesis of relevant findings, critical analysis of facts and/or ideas, using chapter headings, with paragraphs and spacing for ease of reading and cross-reference.
Conclusions and recommendations:
An assessment of the findings along with any recommendations; this section should, explicitly or implicitly, establish the validity of the work in relation to its field.
References:
Harvard ljmu format citation system must be used for in-text citations and
the “References” section at the end of the report.
Appendices:
Optional; this section should be used only for information, which is supplementary to the assignment; it should not be used for any information, which is key to the assignment.
Report Marketing Criteria :
1. To identify the underpinning principles and concepts of project management.
2. To analyse and evaluate the project management concepts and principles in context of the pilot project plan by critically evaluating the project’s performance.
3. To demonstrate how the pilot project will inform the strategic
recommendations regarding project or programme management for the future.
4. To use relevant visual aids to support the analysis and evaluation of the
management of the pilot project and its overall integration.