ECE4099- Professional Practice

Task:

Your company is considering investing in one of two alternative projects. Details of each are attached. A team of three has been established to manage the entire project, reporting directly to the CEO.

• You are to evaluate both projects and recommend the alternative you consider to be the best to your Chief Executive Officer, fully justifying your choice.

• You are to detail the management of the project from start to finish. All aspects of Project Evaluation and Management are to be addressed. This should include financial, time  management and environmental evaluations. Financial evaluation should include calculations in capital budgeting (NPV, BCR, IRR and Payback period). Time management section should show team knowledge of scheduling and time planing (Network diagrams, Gantt Charts). Environmental considerations should include wide range of consideration, for example social factors, technical factors, economic factors, political factors, demographic factor,  custom and tax factors.

Your team is expected to use a range of evaluation techniques and project management tools, as covered in lectures, tutorials, lecture notes and other relevant references. Research must be shown to justify the choice made by the team. Teams should have at least 10 references from a wide range of journals, newspaper articles, ouncil websites etc (no Wikipedia or Lecture Notes). Accepted referencing style would be the IEEE or APA style.

As it is impossible to introduce every eventuality to the data presented, it may be necessary to make assumptions about certain aspects of the project. This is acceptable, although details and justification of assumptions must be clearly stated. 

Project B:

This alternative installs the cable above ground. It is estimated the cable would have a useful life of 12 years if installed this way.

Summary of activities involved:

• Design building to house additional equipment, including preparation of submission for planning permits and Government approval of Environmental Effects Statement (EES) - 6 weeks

• Local planning permit approval - 5 weeks

• Government approval of EES – 3 weeks

• Switch over operation from coaxial to optical fibre link - 1 week

• Final commissioning test of all installed equipment - 1 week

• Order optical fibre cable and take delivery - 6 weeks

• Order poles and take delivery – 5 weeks

• Install poles and cable - 4 weeks

• Construct building to house extra equipment - 4 weeks

• Order and take delivery of additional equipment required (from Malaysia) - 8 weeks

• Order and take delivery of building materials - 4 weeks

• Connect up all equipment, optical fibers and install on site - 3 weeks

Additional notes:

• Time for EES approval can vary up to 4 weeks of delay

• Local residents may be against above ground cabling, as may environmental groups

• Delays may be experienced in delivery of building materials due to industrial action

• The additional equipment is required to power the project.

• There are risks of customs and duty tax problems on the equipment from Malaysia