Edexcel Level 7

Extended Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership

ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY :

Unit Name:
Unit Number:
Credits:
Assignment Submission Date:

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION FOR

STRATEGIC MANAGERS
17
20
03 MAY 2013

Assessor:
Mode of submission:

Nishi Mishra-Patricio
LIVECAMPUS

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this unit learners are expected to develop their project management and
research skills by developing a project where they plan and implement a new product, services
or process underpinning the following learning outcomes:
1. Be able to develop a project specification
2. Be able to plan for the launch of a project to implement a new product, service or
process
3. Be able to implement a project
4. Be able to evaluate the outcomes of a project
5. Be able to present the outcomes of a project
And reflect these learning outcomes in a 4000 words assignment which must answer the
questions given after this section in the assignment.

Scenario:
Candidates need to be conscious that this is a reasonably a small-scale project and hence will
require advice concerning the scale and scope of the field to develop the project. For instance,
Identifying the issues of security lapse in retail industry will be outside the reach of this
assignment. Nonetheless, identifying the issues of security lapse at ABC clothing retail shop
and recommend solutions will be a manageable project.
For this assignment candidates are required to select an organisation of their choice. They
need to analyse its product line portfolio and detect the gap in the market which their
organisation can fill in. Subsequently, they should design a project for developing a new
product, service or process for their chosen organisation, specified on the following tasks:
Tasks
Task 1:
a. Identify the need and importance of developing a new product for your chosen
organisation and the factors that contribute to the process of project selection. (AC 1.1)
b. Develop an outline of the project specifications for the implementation of new
product, service or process in your chosen organisation. (AC: 1.2)
c. Produce a specification for an agreed project plan on your chosen organisation to
implement a new product, service or process. (AC: 1.3)
Task 2:
a. Produce a project plan on your chosen organisation and briefly explain each stage in
the plan. (AC: 2.1)
b. Create specification of the New Product Development project undertaken by your
chosen organisation underpinning the following points
i. Summarise the resources required in implementing the NPD project.
(AC: 2.2)
ii. Forecast cost of all resources required for executing the NPD project.
(AC: 2.3)
iii. Discuss in brief the projected time scale for the management and
implementation of the NPD project. (AC: 2.4)
c. Develop a plan for an appropriate strategy for the implementation of the NPD
project(AC: 2.5, 3.1)
Task 3:

a. Identify and discuss in brief various project monitoring methods and adopt one of
those methods which is suitable for this project of new product development. (AC:
3.2,3.3)
Task 4:
a. Analyse and critically evaluate the outcomes of this project of new product
development in terms of the original project specification and assess the outcomes of
the project? (AC: 4.1, 4.2)
b. In reference to the outcomes in task 4a, formulate justified recommendations for
improvements to the NPD project (AC: 4.3)

Task 5:
a. You are required to present this assignment in a report format. You may follow the
following format: (AC: 5.1)
Title Page
Contents page.
Acknowledgement (optional)
Executive Summary
Main Body (Tasks)
Conclusion.
References (including weblioreferencing)
Bibliography (including webliography)
Appendices
b. Present the outcomes of the project via power point presentation and attach it at the
end of this assignment before bibliography/references (AC: 5.2)

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria:

1 Be able to develop a
1.1
Analyse the factors that contribute to the process of project
selection
project specification
1.2
Develop outline project specifications for the implementation of a
new product or service or process
1.3
Produce a specification for an agreed project to implement a new
product, service or process
2 Be able to plan for the 2.1
Produce a project plan for an agreed project
launch of a project to
2.2
Match appropriate resources to a project
implement a new
2.3
Cost all resources required for implementing a project
product, service or
2.4
Agree timescales for the management and implementation of a
process
Project
2.5
Plan an appropriate strategy for the implementation of a project
3 Be able to implement 3.1
Implement a project in accordance with an agreed specification
a project
3.2
Develop appropriate measures to monitor and evaluate progress
and outcomes
3.3 Monitor the implementation of a project
4 Be able to evaluate
4.1
Analyse the outcomes of a project in terms of the original project
the outcomes of a
specification
project
4.2
Evaluate the outcomes of a project
4.3
Make justified recommendations for improvements to the project
5 Be able to Be able to
5.1
present the outcomes of 5.2
a project

Produce a report of all project procedures used

Present the outcomes of the project to an audience using an
Agreed format and appropriate media

Marking and Grading:

Referred is where one or more Assessment Criteria have not been met.
Pass Where your assignment generally meets the assessment criteria set out in the
assignment
Merit

Understand and realise the importance of Project management and apply the project
management skills on developing new product, service or process in a given
organisation.
Learners should demonstrate the importance of project and the key stages of a project
and integrate the stages of NPD into the stages of project
Learners understanding of feedback and monitoring system and be able to effectively
apply that on a NPD project

Distinction

Understand and realise the Strategic importance of Project management and

Strategically apply the project management skills on developing new product, service
or process in a given organisation to develop corporate core-competencies
Learner demonstrate the Strategic importance of key stages of a project and effectively
integrate the stages of NPD into the stages of project and develop a Project life cycle
for a new product, service or process in the given organisation or in a given scenario.
Learners Understanding of Strategic Importance of feedback and monitoring system
and be able to effectively apply that on a NPD project

Submission Guidelines:
Your submission should be in a report format of not more than 4000 to 4500 words
Excellent Formatting:

Preferred writing styles Arial, Verdana, and Times New Roman

Line spacing 1.5, Font Size 12
Consistency in Heading Scheme, bullets and numbering
Consistency in top, bottom and left, right margins
Alphabetical Harvard referencing and bibliography

Report Structure
Cover
Title Page
Contents page.
Acknowledgement (optional)
Abstract/Executive Summary
Main Body (Tasks)
Conclusion.
References (including weblioreferencing)
Bibliography (including webliography)
Appendices
*For Late Submission policy, please refer to your student course handbook available on Live
Campus.

Plagiarism Rules and Regulations

No plagiarism is accepted in assignments and students are advised to do the
referencing correctly according to the Harvard Referencing System.

Students are advised to submit assignments with a similarity in below 10%. Any student
submitting an assignment with a percentage of more than 20% will fail and get an
official academic warning.

Reduce your plagiarism by not sharing assignments and doing in text citations of
sources used, using the Harvard referencing method

Three formal academic warnings will result in your admission being cancelled with the
college - which will mean that you will be reported to the home office, you will not be
refunded and you will have to go back to your home country.
What is Turnitin?
Turnitin is the software that EThames uses to calculate the similarity of your assignment to any
other document submitted in the same system all over the world.
What happens when you submit an assignment on Turnitin?
You submit your assignment on Turnitin by submitting it on Live campus on the assignment
submission link. Your assignment is then compared with all of the assignments for all the
different units submitted on Live campus as well as assignments submitted by other students
in other colleges and books and documents all over the world. The report generated is not the
final report. The final report will only be generated after the final deadline which would mean
that once the submission link closes and once every student submitted assignments at
EThames for the specific unit, only then the final report will be generated. This means that if
you have shared your assignment with anybody and they have submitted part of it or the full
assignment the initial report your friend got wouldve indicated the similarity, but your report
wouldve remained unchanged. This is because the report is refreshed every time that you
upload your assignment and then finally after the deadline. After the deadline their plagiarism
will be high as well as your own.
What can you do to avoid getting a high Turnitin score?
a. Do not copy pieces of work from any book or website. It needs to be rewritten in your
own words and proper in text citation should be done according to the Harvard
referencing method
b. Do not share your assignment with any friend, not even to assist them

Plagiarism
a. Plagiarism is passing off the work of others as your own. This constitutes academic
theft and is a serious matter which is penalised in assignment marking.
b. Plagiarism is the submission of an item of assessment containing elements of work
produced by another person(s) in such a way that it could be assumed to be the
students own work. Examples of plagiarism are:
i. the verbatim copying of another persons work without
acknowledgement
ii. the close paraphrasing of another persons work by simply changing a
few words or altering the order of presentation without
acknowledgement
iii. The unacknowledged quotation of phrases from another persons work
and/or the presentation of another persons idea(s) as ones own.
c. Copying or close paraphrasing with occasional acknowledgement of the source may
also be deemed to be plagiarism if the absence of quotation marks implies that the
phraseology is the students own.
d. Plagiarised work may belong to another student or be from a published source such as
a book, report, journal or material available on the internet.