FIT5057 Project Management Semester 1, 2024 Assignment One
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FIT5057 Project Management
Semester 1, 2024
Assignment One (Individual Project)
Due Date: Week 5, 23:55 Friday 29 March 2024
Value: 25% of overall unit assessment
Mode of Submission: Online via Moodle
OVERVIEW
● This is an individual task, including a written submission and in-class demonstrations.
● You will prepare a business case/proposal for a new project.
● Your proposed project should meet the client’s business objectives and requirements.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Through this assignment you will:
● Learn and demonstrate your analytical and project management skills;
● Develop your skills in communicating project characteristics and business justification;
● Develop your skills and knowledge from the PMBOK guides.
SPECIFICATION AND DELIVERABLES
Deliverables and Criteria |
Weight |
Word count |
|
A complete business case (Project proposal) |
Business Justification - Introduction/Background and Business/ Portfolio Objectives - Current Situation and Problem/Opportunity Statement that indicates the contribution of the project to the value delivery system
- Analysis of options - Ethical considerations and implications - Project and deliverable description |
30% |
Up to 1,200 words (Excluding the exhibits and references) |
Budget Estimate and Financial Analysis - Preliminary estimate of the costs involved - Explore the financial prospects of the project through NPV/ROI analysis - Demonstration of the analysis during the applied classes |
20% |
||
Schedule Estimate |
10% |
||
Development Approach: Explain and justify the development approach |
10% |
||
Uncertainty and Risk analysis |
10% |
||
Measurement and Quality Metrics |
10% |
||
-- C(C)larity o(omplet)e(n)x(e)pressions(ss and co);(r)rectness of statements; |
5% |
||
Appropriate use of references following the APA style (6th edition) |
5% |
GETTING HELP
If you have any questions or concerns, you can:
● Consult with your TAs during applied classes and workshops;
● Attend consultation sessions (see Moodle for details);
● Ask a question in Ed.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
● Your assignment must take the form of a single PDF document.
● You should name your document file as <
DEMONSTRATION INSTRUCTIONS
● Each student should demonstrate their Budget estimation and financial analysis to their tutors during their allocated applied classes that occur between weeks 1 to 4.
● The demonstration is accepted only if you receive satisfactory assessment from your tutors. If the demonstration is not accepted, you will have the opportunity to revise your work and demonstrate again until either
○ Your tutor confirms that the work meets minimum requirements; or
○ until the end of week 4 applied class.
● You will receive verbal feedback on your demonstration.
● You cannot request extensions for the demonstration tasks.
PLAGIARISM DECLARATION
When uploading your assignment on Moodle, you are required to accept the Student Statement (which includes a declaration that you have not plagiarised during the preparation of your assignment solution). You are required to ACCEPT the Student Statement; otherwise, you will not be able to submit your assignment electronically and your assignment will NOT be assessed.
GENERATIVE AI
No restrictions on use of generative AI for this assessment. Any use of generative AI must be appropriately acknowledged (see Learn HQ).
LATE SUBMISSION
1. Submission must be made by the due date. Unless an extension or special consideration has been granted, or otherwise specified in the learning management system, students who submit an assessment task after the due date will receive a late-submission penalty of 10 percent of the available marks in that task. A further penalty of 10 percent of the available marks will be applied for each additional day (24-hour period), or part thereof, the assessment task is overdue.
2. If you cannot complete an assessment (due to exceptional circumstances beyond your control), you may be eligible for a short extension or special consideration. A short extension is two calendar days and is available once for each eligible assessment. The first short extension for a unit will be granted without a reason given. All subsequent extensions require a reason when the application is submitted. Special consideration is a longer extension (for more than two days). Eligible students must supply a reason and supporting documentation.
3. For more details of the Special Consideration procedure and rules, and how to apply, visit:
https://www.monash.edu/students/admin/exams/changes/special-consideration
Context and background:
YOUR ROLE
You work in a project management consultancy partnership that undertakes contracts from clients and works with them to plan and manage internal service development projects that include IT design and development. The projects that you plan and manage are implemented by a combination of the client’s staff and external contractors that you source through the IT Contractor Rates Guide by HAYS (See the file uploaded to Moodle).
THE CLIENT
Monash University is a major Australian higher education provider with an annual revenue of close to $2 billion AUD. Over $1.8 billion of this revenue stems from income relating to teaching and learning. Within Monash University, the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) is one of the largest IT faculties, with over 5,000 full- time equivalent students. FIT generates a substantial financial surplus each year. FIT has received approval from the University to spend up to $1M of this surplus on a portfolio of projects to help it meet some of its key performance indicators (KPIs) for education. These KPIs include: (i) KPI-EDU-01 Improve ranking for overall experience in the QILT Student Experience Survey to above the Go8 average; (ii) KPI-EDU-02 To increase average unit SETU score to 4.5; and (iii) KPI-EUD-03 To increase the percentage of units with SETU score 4 or higher to 85%.
THE CONTRACT
FIT’s senior management has decided to spend $300K of the budget on unit material enhancement, and the other $700K on improving students’ interactions with the Faculty through a portfolio of up to four projects to be implemented by the Faculty Student and Academic Services team. Your project management consultancy partnership has been contracted to manage and implement these changes.
Assignment 1 (Portfolio and report) relates to Phase 1 of the consultancy contract which involves developing comprehensive business cases (project proposals) that align with the portfolio objectives and business strategies. Your client would review the project proposals and shortlist the 4 most relevant proposals. The successful proposals would join forces and form teams to work towards achieving portfolio objectives in Assignments 2 and 3 (Phases 2 & 3 of the contract).
The technology aspects of the project are to be implemented by extending functions in Moodle, the University’s Learning management system. eSolutions, the University's IT management unit, has confirmed that it can provide unlimited support to your design and development teams with integration with other University systems (e.g. Callista, the student management system). However, all the remaining costs for the projects (and any profit that your partnership intends to make) must come out of the $700K budget.
Note that the $700K budget is for the entire portfolio of up to 4 projects and not for just the one project you are proposing and therefore, it is important to budget carefully where all expected costs and expenses are justified and there are considerations for other potential projects in the portfolio. The portfolio of projects must be completed within 12 months of the contract start date. Your client did not specify the expected schedule for each individual project proposal; however, they expect the schedule, budget and scope of work (requirements, deliverables, delivery approach and cadence) to be balanced and feasible.
ASSIGNMENT TASK
Your task is to develop a comprehensive business case (project proposal) to present to your client for decision making. Your business case should address the following criteria:
Business Justification
- Start with some background information of the business and portfolio to set the scene.
- Demonstrate the alignment of the project with business strategies and portfolio objectives: Why is your proposed project a good fit for the business and the portfolio?
- Current Situation and Problem/Opportunity Statement: Discuss how and why the current situation, as mentioned in the case, presents an opportunity/problem for the portfolio. Demonstrate the contribution of the project to the value delivery system of the client’s organisation;
- Provide an overview of three options to address the Problem/Opportunity identified and compare the options followed by a clear conclusion and recommendation for the client. When identifying and analysing the option, consider the role of human-computer interactions and whether your proposed options are more human-focused or technology-focused.
o The comparison should include a comparison of the financial implications of the options. Use of suitable comparison tools such as weighted scoring models is encouraged.
- A reflection on any ethical implications of the project or products.
- Project and deliverable description including characteristics of the product and outcome.
Budget Estimate and Financial Analysis
- A preliminary estimate of the costs involved, including a breakdown of the estimated labour cost, hardware/software licensing, etc, with clear references and explanation on the costing and estimation approach.
- An NPV/ROI calculation - to be included in the Exhibits section - that includes the initial project investment, on-going maintenance cost and projected benefit/profit. The calculation should be supported by sufficient justification and references for the on-going maintenance and project benefit estimates.
- Demonstration of the task: Each student is required to demonstrate their Budget estimation and financial analysis to their tutors during their allocated applied classes that occur between weeks 1 to 4. Your demonstration should be supported by written presentation or slides of your analysis, justification and references.
o Your demonstration is accepted only if you receive satisfactory assessment from your tutors. If the demonstration is not accepted, you will have the opportunity to revise your work and demonstrate again until your tutor confirms that the work meets minimum requirements or until the end of week 4 applied class.
o You can not request extensions for the demonstration tasks.
- Submission of the task: After demonstration to your tutors and attaining their confirmation of meeting minimum requirements, you are also required to include a summary of the Cost-Benefit Analysis in the main report (based on the NPV/ROI attached in the exhibits). The analysis could include a brief overview of the financial and non-financial value (e.g. costs, benefits, revenue etc) of the project for the organisation in your business case. This is to prepare a cohesive business case and demonstrate consistency across the various sections of the business case.
- Important note: Without the demonstrations in applied classes the maximum grade your submitted work could achieve is a Pass or equivalent to 50% of the task’s available score.
Schedule Estimate
Estimate time required for the project and a project go-live date. Include at least three high level milestones with justifications in this section. Demonstrate that the schedule, budget and scope of the work (including deliverables and requirements, project delivery approach and cadence) are balanced and feasible.
Development Approach: Explain and justify the development approach
The development approach and project life cycle selected should be aligned with stakeholder and client values, types and the number of deliverables and the feasibility within the constraints of the project (expected schedule, budget and outcome/deliverable requirements).
Uncertainty and Risk analysis
- Summarise the top two potential risks that this project might face and any potential response strategy to navigate through the uncertainty.
- Discuss the likelihood of the identified risks impacting on the implementation and the success of this project, and tentative actions to reduce the likelihood or impacts of the risks.
Measurement and Quality Metrics
Provide a description of the product/s attributes and how to measure them. Include at least three attributes. Include two Key performance indicators (KPIs) that are used to evaluate the success of a project in delivering the product/s with the identified attributes.
Use of references
Students are expected to search for relevant extra readings and draw on suitable literature from academic publications as well as practitioner outlets. All sources of information must be fully and appropriately acknowledged using in-text citation and reference list. Use at least 5 references, 3 of which must be from peer reviewed academic journals or conference publications. The minimum 5 references excludes the IT Contractor Rates Guide by HAYS provided. The IT Contractor Rates Guide by HAYS should also be cited where appropriate.
The reference section should use the American Psychological Association (APA) style of referencing. (APA 6th style: https://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/apa )
IF you are unable to come up with a project idea, you could choose one of the suggested projects. The assessment of your assignment will not be affected if you choose one of the suggested projects. |
THE SUGGESTED PROJECTS
Project 1: Special Consideration
Relevant procedure: https://publicpolicydms.monash.edu/Monash/documents/1935761
The current special consideration process is problematic as students can apply for a short extension up to 2 business days only before an assessment due date. The current process has implications for both the teaching team and the student. For the students, the process is not transparent causing concerns and confusion whether the application is being processed in time. The process is concerning for the teaching team, as the outcome of an application is only communicated to the Chief Examiner (CE) through a dashboard and not to the wider teaching team. Furthermore, with the increasing volume of applications, especially around the assessment period, this adds considerable stress for both the students and the teaching team since the due dates have to be updated manually in Moodle. Another significant complication that affects both students and teaching staff is whether an approved short extension for a student only affects the individual student or their assigned group. The expected outcome of the project is a digital solution to streamline the process and improve the communication between relevant stakeholders.
Project 2: Continuous Student Feedback on Teaching & Learning
Relevant procedure: https://publicpolicydms.monash.edu/Monash/documents/1935781
Each semester, the Office of the Pro Vice-Chancellor (Learning and Teaching) (OPVCLT) seeks feedback from students in a survey called the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU). The current system of obtaining unit feedback data is less than optimal for several reasons. Firstly, the timing of the survey, and the time taken to analyse the results, means that survey results are only communicated to the teaching staff many weeks after the end of the delivery of a unit. Also, SETU is a one-time survey, for which they receive no feedback, e.g., how a unit design or delivery has changed in response to their survey responses. FIT has decided that they want to introduce a process by which students can provide continuous feedback on a unit in a way that allows the teaching team to respond immediately (if possible). The expected outcome of this project is a digital solution by which students can provide continuous feedback on a unit to which the teaching team can respond.
Project 3: Early intervention
Relevant policy: https://publicpolicydms.monash.edu/Monash/documents/1935786
Research evidence shows that early intervention strategies are effective in improving student learning outcomes where a student is struggling with their studies. FIT has found it very challenging to monitor students’ progress and performance, and difficult to identify students that are at risk of falling behind and provide them timely support (e.g., direct support from a tutor or peer tutor). Where appropriate actions can be identified, these need to be communicated across the teaching teams of multiple units (that the student is engaged in). In practice many such students could be easily identified based on factors such as their record of attendance in teaching and learning sessions and their marks for, or non-submission of, assignments. The expected outcome of this project is a digital solution by which students at risk of falling behind can be identified, and a plan for action for such students can be developed, tracked and communicated to the relevant stakeholders.
Project 4: Applications for Credit
Relevant procedure: https://publicpolicydms.monash.edu/Monash/documents/1935759
Monash students can apply for credit for prior learning at various stages of their studying. For example, if you have previously studied a topic (at Monash or another university) as a result of which you have already satisfied the learning outcomes of the foundation unit FIT9132, then you can apply for credit for FIT9132 without actually taking the unit. While this makes a lot of sense in theory, the current process by which a student applies for credit and process by which a member of academic staff assesses the application is far from satisfactory. For one thing, there is no easy way for a student to understand what the detailed content of a unit is without first registering for that unit. Even where a student has access to the content, it is not obvious how a student can communicate in their application what the content of their previous studies involved. The expected outcome of this project is a digital solution for prior credit applications that ensures consistent, accurate and timely assessment.
2024-03-07