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Course Details Course Name Unit number Unit Name Credit Value Lecturer Hand Out Date Hand

In Date BTEC HND Diploma In Business 42 Project Management for Business 15 Peter J Francis 1st /May/13 12th /July/13

This assignment must be completed by all the candidates undertaking Edexcel HND Diploma in Business. Reasonable consideration will be given in the case of failure to submit the assignments on time due to any medical reasons. ( Provided the sufficient medical proof is made available at the time of exemption) Late submissions are not allowed and will be penalised. The word count limit for this assignment is 2500 words excluding references. (Index is not required for this assignment). Referencing should be provided in Harvard Style referencing. The assignments should be completed in Font Type: Time New Roman with Size 12 and double spacing between lines.

For Office Use Only Result Deliverer Internal Verifier Name & Signature Date Date: Peter J Francis

Course: HND Diploma in Business Unit 42: Project Management For Business

Learning outcomes

Assessment criteria for pass The learner has to: 1.1 Describe the background and principles of project management; 1.2 Appraise the viability of projects, developing success/failure criteria;

1.

Understand project management principles

1.3 Explain the principles behind project management systems and procedures; 1.4 Explain the key elements involved in terminating projects and conducting post-project appraisals 2.1 Identify the most appropriate organisational structure, roles and responsibilities of participants within a project

2.

Be able to manage a projects human resources

2.2 Control and co-ordinate a project 2.3 Assess project leadership requirements and qualities 2.4 Plan and specify human resources and requirements for a project 3.1 Prepare project plans and establish the project organisation 3.2 Apply project scheduling, estimating and cost control techniques 3.3 Analyse the methods used to measure project performance 3.4 Explain project change control procedures evaluate the completed project.

3.

Be able to apply project processes and procedures

Course: HND Diploma in Business Unit 42: Project Management For Business

Assessment Decision Form


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UNIT COURSE: HND Diploma in Business Unit 42: Project Management For Business You are required to SELECT an organisation or company/institution of your choice that have a project management wing of their business. This assignment is also linked with some elements of your skills in research project and organisations and behaviour. You have to bring out a typical project undertaken by any of these company's/institution to determine whether or not it was successful or failed and the criteria that was used to execute the project. PLEASE REMEMBER THAT ALL TASKS1-4 MUST BE COMPLETED. SCENARIO Task 1 Project manager is too technical and less business savvy. In todays world is it possible for a project manager to be highly technical savvy but lack in business knowledge of the domain or vertical in which he is assigned to run the project successfully? It is possible, if it is too technical a project in which very less business domain knowledge is required. Something like setting up of a data centre for a rubber producing company. Here the technical knowledge of the project manager in such projects will be highly important. It does not matter whether the project manager knows anything about rubber industry or not. If it is required to set up a data centre for a media company or a call centre, it is very important to understand the business needs as this would be a unique case for the project manager. TASK 1 QUESTIONS 1.1 Critically analyse the background and principles of project management of a company/organisation. 1.2 Evaluate the viability of the project/s, developing success/failure criteria. 1.3 Analyse the principles behind project management systems and procedures to achieve success. 1.4 Describe the key elements involved in terminating projects and conducting post-project appraisals SCENARIO 2 Can a project run without a project manager? There are two ways of looking at it. One the ship is so strong in technical aspects that it does not require a captain; and another the boat is in so bad shape that whether it has a rower or not does not matter. Well there is no project in real life that cannot be revived back from its doomed shape. If there is a way out for coming out of a bad situation, it need to be thought of and worked out instead of leaving all hopes and lay down all your weapons. PMO is a controlling hub or facilitation hub which is always a point of debate among project management specialists. Is PMO a group of highly powered people in the organization aimed to take control of all kind of situations in a project? Or is it a group of highly resource rich persons in order to provide all kind of support and assistance to any member of the project. PMOs role is to take a project out of crisis? Or proactively ensure not to let project getting into any kind of crisis. Both kinds exist, and work. One situation is opening of umbrella when it starts

raining; and the second one is working under an umbrella under any kind of weather conditions. Does it take more out of life of umbrella if it is overly used or does it make an umbrella jammed if not opened and used for long. And then there are those kind of third category of people who know before getting out of house that it is going to rain but dont bother to pick up the umbrella. They might be some special kind of people able to manage any kind of situation even under high level of resource crunch. TASK 2 QUESTIONS 2.1 Describe the most appropriate organisational structure, roles and responsibilities of participants within this project and how its managed; 2.2 Describe and analyse how the project is controlled and co-ordinated in a given context; 2.3 Assess the project leadership requirements and qualities to make it successful in the longrun; 2.4 Plan and specify human resources and requirements for this project. SCENARIO 3 A project team decided to run the complete project lifecycle: initiation, development and deployment, without any involvement of a project manager. Does it mean the project team is totally ignorant about the implementation factor in a project? Or does it mean that they are overconfident about managing the quality part on their own without engaging any quality specialist in the project. Or it could mean that they have already been doing it in the same manner and have been quite successful in their past. There could be a third angle to it. The project team itself comprising of dual specialists in each role. Meaning thereby, that the development team is specialist in two aspects development and quality. And the same implies to each and every member of the team; doing whatever role. Task 3 QUESTIONS 3.1 Construct and prepare a project implementation plan and establish the link between the structure and the human resources department; 3.2 Analyse and apply project scheduling, estimating and cost control techniques to this project and impacts on your project; 3.3 Evaluate the methods used to measure the project performance and how it determined the success criteria; 3.4 Analyse and explain project change control procedures and how the evaluation method affected the completed project.

ALL T ASKS 1 3 MUST BE COMPLETED IN ORDER TO ACHIEVE A PASS In order to achieve MERIT Grade M1 Identify and apply strategies to find appropriate solutions Answers must reflect that effective judgments have been made about the specific content and the information. The answers show that an effective approach to study and research has been applied within the scenario e.g. comparing features, theories and models comparison etc. Effective use of time management has been evidenced An accurate standard method has been used in defining information sources is well justified and summarized. An accurate standard for presenting information has been used in terms of diagrams, charts, tables

M2 Select/design and apply appropriate methods/techniques M3 Present and communicate appropriate information

In order to achieve Distinction Grade D1 Use critical reflection to evaluate own work and justify valid conclusions D2 Take responsibility for managing and organizing activities D3 Demonstrate convergent/lateral/ creative thinking Proper evaluation and justification shown in all the answers and relevant conclusions have been arrived at thoroughly with synthesis of ideas.

Tasks have been attempted with minimal assistance provided by the lecturer Ideas have been generated and proper evaluation and decisions taken based on facts gathered within the scenario

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