QAHE Business Management Faculty has designed a new degree course in Sustainable Business, focusing on ethical and environmental business issues. This is now in its second year so at the start of the next academic year the 30 students on the course will be going into their final year. The Business Faculty has secured funding to support a two-week field trip to see some interesting sustainable projects in Uganda, intending that this takes place in March of Semester 2. The Programme Convener has asked for your help in organising this trip and you are doing so as a project management task in place of your dissertation. Each student will be funded a max of £2,000 to enable them to go, thus meaning there is a total of £60,000 available for the whole trip.
Assignment 1 – 750 WORDS
A. Sample Project Initiation Document (PID) including budgetary information, timescales, objectives, approach, key staff and stakeholder analysis (approx. 750 words plus diagrams, etc.);
B. Work breakdown Structure containing at least 20 items in the WBS. The WBS should be presented in the form of a diagram that includes dependencies, milestones and a hierarchy of tasks. You are free to deliver this as a Gantt chart (use MS Project to develop this) but it is not required. All diagrams should be embedded into your report as images. In addition include with this table a referenced paragraph explaining how a WBS can be used to help manage the
tasks on a project and give a further paragraph briefly explaining the importance of critical path analysis;
Assignment 2 – 500 WORDS
A. A risk register containing at least 10 fully documented risks, including owner, mitigation and contingency actions, pre-and post- action weighting and scores.
B. In approximately 500 words describing the way in which a risk register forms a crucial part of an overall risk management plan, using examples to show what happens when risk is not properly managed on projects.
Assignment 3 – 1500 WORDS
A. A short report written directly to the project sponsor (approx. 1,500 words) containing both of the following:
i. An explanation of the need for effective, structured communication between the project manager and members of their team. Using theory and suitable case examples, tell your sponsor how best you believe the communication process should be structured on your project, so as to ensure the most efficient and effective possible team working.
ii. An analysis and critique of methodologies that might be used to run the project case study, principally comparing Agile, Waterfall and PRINCE2 methodologies. Explain their strengths and weaknesses and give your recommendation to the sponsor as to which methodology you believe would be best to use. There is no right or wrong answer for this and hence marks will be given on the basis of how well you have explained and justified your decision. As with the other assignment elements, reference examples and reference to theory is very important.