BCU – MSC

A FRIENDLY GUIDE
TO COMPLETE THE ASSIGNMENT

By
Niroshan Madampitige
Assignment Part I: Team Presentation

Learning Outcome 1: Critically analyses project management

methodologies and tools for implementing a successful project.

Learning Outcome 2: Evaluate approaches to human resource

management for a successful project noting cultural, social and economic
influences.

Title: Part A – Team presentation

Type: Part A - In-person
Style: Part A – Presentation format

First Read the assignment brief carefully. It’s essential that you pick a specific project to
answer the questions. Once, you understand the briefing, please follow below
instructions:

Cover Slide
• Include Title and the team members name with Student ID

Introduction Slide
• State the Objectives of the assignment and more importantly include the contents
lined up for your presentation

Project Background (Slide 01)

• For the selected project, discuss “Geographical background”
o Strategy of the project and explain why this project must be done
o Country and location of the project
o Do a SWOT Analysis
o PESTLE (Political, Environmental, Social, Technological, Legal and Ethical)
issues

Project Details- Business Categories (Slide 02, 03)

• Why the Developments are essential?
• Benefits of the Developments to the public?

Historical background, current typical scale and cost. (Slide 04, 05)
• Talk about the historical projects of this nature
• Discuss the cost, try and develop a project budget forecast using a structured
model you learn (e.g. EVM, NPV)
• How could we scale the project?

Structure of project management, prime and sub-contracting (Slide 06)

• Discuss different project management structures such as Functional, and Matrix
etc
• Explain what would be suitable for this project? and why?
Methods of project planning (Slide 07)
• Discuss the different methods available and justify what would be the appropriate
methods for the selected project

Methods of Project Controlling (Slide 08)

• Discuss the different methods available and justify what would be the appropriate
methods for the selected project

Financial, legal or international implications commented on (Slide 09)

• Briefly discuss this

Elements of success or lack of it identified (Slide 11)

• Discuss the areas of improvement for the selected project
• Provide a clear list of success factors to be focused

References, Sources of data - 1 slide

Reflection on work - process followed carrying out the work and the learning from the
group work - 1 slide
Part II: Individual Report
In this assignment, you are asked to apply project management techniques to the
Proposed Project to address both the Planning Phase and the Implementation Phase of
the project. At the end of this, you gain the required knowledge in planning and
executing a project what you have learnt during the module.

Following given are the outcomes of this assignment.

Learning Outcome 1. Critically analyses project management methodologies

and tools for implementing a successful project.

Learning Outcome 3. Assess the role of quality and risk management in the
delivery of successful projects.

Learning Outcome 4. Evaluate the usefulness of current tools and software,

such as Prince II as a methodology.

Title: Part B – Individual Project Plan

Type: Part B - Coursework
Style: Part B - Individual Report

How to Proceed?
There are four questions that you must answer. Please follow the guidelines below:

Project Management Must Know Concepts: Before you start answering four questions,
include a brief explanation on below points

• Define the term “Project” and “Project Management”

• Explain different types of projects
• Explain Different Project management methodologies available
• What is the methodology you picked and why?

Question 01

• At the end of your assignment, you are given a project scenario and a WBS on “an
Emergency Power Plant at a Tidal Barrier”. This WBS provided to you is not
refined to ensure activity sequence and priorities are appropriate.
• First describe what you understand by Critical Path and how you could build up
the Critical Path. Provide a brief explanation on Slack time, float time etc
• Study the WBS given closely and develop a Network Diagram using the activity-
on-arrow or precedence method. Try to use a software to ensure, you may
obtain higher marks
• Refine the WBS to arrange all the activities in the right sequence calculate and
calculate the following
• Use the network diagram to calculate each activity Early Start Day number and
hence determine the earliest likely overall completion time. Taking this day
number as a target for completion, calculate the Latest Times for each activity or
node. Finally calculate the floats and show the critical path.
• The final Network Diagram would look like below
Question 02

• Discuss the limitations of Gantt Charts

• Clearly identify and explain the what steps might be taken to improve the timing
schedule if the project were required to be completed in two months.
• From your network information, using an Excel spreadsheet or any other software
such as MS Project, produce a produce a Gantt chart based on Early Start times.
This should be at one day accuracy which means, it should Cleary identify the
number of days needed to complete the project activities

Question 03

• Using the given cost estimate information calculate total cost by Group and
Overall, without and then with Contingency.

• Construct a budget (BCWS) spreadsheet with activities down the left hand side
and a month by month calendar as the X-Axis. Apply a suitable method of
allocating the cost of each activity evenly over each month of its duration. Allocate
costs to months.
• The sheet should show sub-total costs for each activity group and overall per
month.

• Construct a graph against time for the periodic spend and the same information
on a cumulative basis.

Question 04

• Explain how the Earned Value System (EV) works and why it is more appropriate
for projects than a simple Actual v Budget system as often applied in on-going
business operations. Don’t limit it to a basic explanation, use your project as an
example to discuss the following
o There 3 main components that’s needs to investigate when working with
Earn Value Management Plan 1. Budget 2. Work 3. Schedule
o Discuss how you could evaluate the earned value for the activity groups in
your project WBS
o Calculate below and discuss the difference between EV System vs
Actual/Budget System

o You must illustrate how the indices can reveal the true cost and time
variances at intermediate stages in the project and help to predict the
final position at project completion. For this, calculate the cost variance
 and Schedule Variance at the end of 2nd month. Produce a table similar to
below:

A
s
d
a

o Using above calculate the following indices

Further Support:

• You can contact me at madampitige@gmail.com or on Whatsapp -

+94776230327
• Good luck and I am sure you are going to do the best work possible😊