NIT1203- Introduction to Project Management

Task:

Develop a project in Microsoft Project based on the scenario provided in the assessment statement, Justify your design constraints and present your project management methodology

Purpose of this assignment, and ULOs to be assessed

This assessment item is group assignment and group participation would be assessed as part of the assessment.

The case study simulates a project management scenario where the student takes on the role of project manager. The case information is not complete so where necessary students will have to make assumptions and argue the pros and cons for any recommendations they make. If necessary, students are expected to find relevant information in the academic literature to justify their answers. 

To assist students in their assessment solution development the following information is provided:

• Product development case description

• Specific assessment questions that must be answered

• Information regarding the submission of the assessment

• Marking guide and Rubric

Unit Learning Outcomes (ULOs) assessed:

2- Describe the key elements of a project plan, including cost and time schedules;

3- Undertake project planning and documentation, considering all project requirements, constraints and risks;

4- Explain project execution activities, monitor and control project scope changes, risks, issues and the delivery of project team work activities

TASK Part A : Microsoft Project Design Implementation

For part A of the assessment you must complete the following tasks and questions.

Read all the questions before you commence the tasks. The schedule is to be developed in an appropriately named Microsoft Project 2010 file (see below) and the questions are to be answered in a Word document. As stated above, any assumptions must also be listed at the beginning of the Word Document.

You have been asked by the operations manager, Ms. Whyte, to use Microsoft Project to develop the project schedule. Note that she has also asked you to include the milestones at the end of the task list in your schedule.

Based on the information in the case study description above, use Microsoft Project 2010 to produce a “Part A” schedule. Make sure that you:

a) Include the milestones at the end of the task list.

b) Include the resource allocation details on the schedule.

c) Have the project name (Victoria Construction Pty Ltd Schedule) as the top of the task list and have all other tasks and summary tasks indented according to the given WBS.

d) Make sure that the holidays described in the “additional information” are not included in the available working days for your project.

e) Use the Microsoft Project software to make sure that the critical path(s) are automatically displayed in red on the bars of the Gantt chart view of you schedule. At this point there may be resource over allocation issues. Do not attempt to resolve these before answering question 2. Save this version of your schedule in ProjectSchedulePartA1.mpp. You will be required to submit this file as part of your assignment submission. 

TASK Part B: Description and Justification of Project Constraints

 At this point ignore any resource over allocations. Based on your ProjectSchedulePartA1.mpp schedule (and assuming that you would have no resource constraints):

a) How long would the project take?

b) What are the start and finish dates of the project?

c) List all the tasks that are on the critical path.

d) Did the annual holidays make any difference to the end date of your project? Explain why/why not.

e) If you were asked to complete the project 3 weeks earlier by reducing the duration of some of the tasks in the project, what tasks would you target for reduction and why? In your answer, include specific suggestions about how you could reduce the duration of those tasks.

Now consider ProjectSchedulePartA2.mpp If there were any resource over-allocation issues resolve these in this new EnvironmentalMonitorsPartA2.mpp without adding any additional resources.

a) Describe how you used/would use Microsoft Project to resolve any resource overallocation issues?

b) In your Word document, list the tasks that are now displayed as “critical”.

c) Do the resource constraints have any impact on your project duration and end date? Explain

TASK Part C: Presenting Project Management Blogs

Victoria Construction Pty Ltd CEO has limited knowledge of new project management standards and techniques. You have been asked to research and select one of the most popular Blogs on Project Management and summarize top 10 new stories or posts.

select any one blog and prepare a PowerPoint presentation of 10 slides about top topics and important findings in detail, and present it during Week 11 labs. Every member of the group with present some part of the presentation.