ME3101 / ME3102

Mechanical Systems Design

Classroom Exercise
Project Planning and Management
1
Project Planning and Management
Lesson plan for lecture and classroom exercise

Week Date Teams to attend
Week 3 29 Aug 2014 Mass lecture (all teams to attend)
Week 4 5 Sep 2014 In-house 13 to 16, industry 25 to 32
Week 5 12 Sep 2014 In-house 17 & 18, industry 33 to 42
Week 6 19 Sep 2014 In-house 1 to 4, industry 1 to 8
Week 7 3 Oct 2014 In-house 5 to 8, industry 9 to 16
Week 8 10 Oct 2014 In-house 9 to 12, industry 17 to 24
2
Project Planning and Management
We shall follow the guidelines in Chapter 9 to develop a project plan.

You can use a fictitious project or the project that you are working on (make
assumptions about things that are still not finalised).

Parts of the worksheet that are still applicable in week 12 can be included into
your CA4 report and presentation.

Deliverable: each team is to submit a project plan to IVLE > ME3101 >
Workbin > Proj Planning Worksheet Submission, within seven days from now.

Download the Proj Planning Template.docx from: IVLE > ME3101 > Workbin
> Assignments.
3
Project Planning and Management
Fill in Part 1 to Part 3, as they are self-explanatory. If you have decided to work
on a fictitious project, think of a project is of comparable complexity as your
actual project.

Define & Organise:
Develop the Statement of Objectives (3 Cs). 2 teams will be selected to read out
their statement.

Decide and complete the flexibility matrix.

Think of at least two major deliverables and enter it into the worksheet. 2
teams will be selected to read out their major deliverables.

4
Project Planning and Management
Write a partial project description, one paragraph only. Choosing the most
appropriate content from the suggested list in Slide 11 of Chapter 9. You can do
it after this class.

Plan:
Start Gantt Project or Ace Project. Key in the human resources. Breakdown
your 2 major deliverables to a few level 2 tasks. Key it into the project
management software.

Consider logical dependencies and estimate total task durations for the lowest
level tasks. Hence set the properties including human resources to execute
them. Switch to the resources chart and check that no one is overloaded or too
lightly loaded.
5
Project Planning and Management
Paste the completed Gantt chart and resource chart into Part 5. 2 teams will be
asked to show.

Combine the ownership table and WBS dictionary on Slide 17 & 18 of Chapter
9 and prepare a similar table for your project. Paste into Part 6. 2 teams will be
asked to show.

Risk management: teams are to develop it using information from slides 26 to
30 and complete Part 7 and 8.

Deadline for submission: by next Friday 5 pm.

IVLE > ME3101 > Workbin > Proj Planning Worksheet Submission
6
In conclusion
Practiced defining and planning for a
project.

This is a partial plan due to lack of time.

Expand the plan fully while you are
preparing your ME3101 report.

Execute the plan for ME3102 to build
your prototype.

During execution, apply the guidelines
from the Track and Manage section of
Chapter 9.
7
8
Feedback (both complaints and compliments) welcome!