Reference no: EM133681830

Project Constraint Management

Assessment: Report- Project Management Plan (Scope, Schedule, and Cost)

Topic - Australia student visa process

Assessment Detail

This assessment is designed to assess students' technical skills in planning and communicating a project plan effectively. Students are required to form a group (max. 3 students), select a project case (either from the provided links to the real-life projects or a project case of their group's choice). The selected project (either ongoing or already completed) is to be assumed by your group to be in final stage of Initiation, with either a signed off Project charter or in the stage of getting the approval of the Project charter. Students' are required to create the scope management plan, schedule management plan and cost management plan for their project. This report should include an introduction to the project case, a stakeholders' register, and a brief project charter.

The Scope management needs to include project justification, in-scope and out-of-scope, constraints, Limits, assumptions, technical requirements and statement of work (SOW). WBS structure (minimum of three levels), WBS dictionary, work packages, scope verification and validation methods, scope change control, and designing the change control boards (CCB) and roles and responsibilities.

Working with their group, students will write a schedule management plan that includes processes, tools and techniques to be used and documents to be developed as per your client's requirements, define activities (activity list, proper activity logic, activities identification), milestones list, activities sequence, relationships, project network and critical path(s) using MOST likely estimates of activity duration, roles and responsibilities in scheduling, and monitoring and controlling schedule (EVA relevant to project schedule). Provide a description of the methods and tools. The PERT section to be included and should demonstrate how the process from most likely, optimistic, and pessimistic duration to project probabilities have been implemented. You need to indicate most likely, optimistic, and pessimistic durations for each activity and calculate the activity expected times for all activities. Refer Marking rubric for detailed requirements including calculation of Project expected time (TE) using activity expected times and CPM along with calculation of activity standard deviations.

Using your project planning and scheduling skills and utilising the provided excel templates, you are required to develop a schedule plan and develop schedule baseline using the activity expected time (tE).

Students are also require to develop and write project cost management plan that includes: plan cost management (identify processes, tools and techniques to be used and project documents to be developed as per your client's requirements), define cost elements (labour, material, variable cost), identify types of cost (direct, indirect, fixed, variable), determine the estimating method (s): (top- down, bottom-up), use estimating techniques (analogous, parametric, three-point method) to estimatebudget (creation) and establish time-phased budget, provide a discussion on monitoring and controlling cost (EVA relevant to project cost including forecasting and variances), and establish a cost baseline.

For successful completion of this assessment, students will meet with their group regularly (at least once a week). Students will also be assigned to group Wiki page which will be their platform to collaborate with their group. The prescribed textbook and PMBOK are the main reference along with the recommended reading material. Groups expected to discuss their work with lecturer and to seek support.

Following resources may assist student in selecting a real-life project but the students could select any other real life case study project suiting their preference.

*Assessment 2: Presentation of project plan and status to a sponsor for a project case

This assessment is designed to assess technical skills in communicating project status effectively to different stakeholders. Students are expected to work individually on a small new case project under $1million and to come up with some creative and innovative ideas. Students are expected to provide a unique project scenario.

Students are required to prepare supporting documents, power point presentation slides that includes adequate information about the project case and present their report (verbal presentation) regarding the project status.

While the main marked assessment requires power point slides and verbal presentation, students should demonstrate a clear understanding, and high-level project management skills. Students need to submit supporting documents and presentation file prior to the submission date in Assessment 3 Canvas submission space. Details of the supporting documents are as follows:
Project Scope Statement
WBS structure (minimum of three levels)
Work packages
WBS dictionary (minimum 3 detailed)
Graphical and outline format of WBS
Control (cost) accounts
Scope Validation and control
Scope change control
Project network
Gantt Chart
Critical path(s)
Estimated Activity Costs
PERT analysis
The probability of finishing the project 10% earlier than the original CPM duration
Time- phased budget
Development of an Earned Value Cost/Schedule System
Earned Value Analysis (EVA)
Forecasting (ETC, EAC)
CV, SV, CPI, SPI, BAC

The date of presentation shall be conveyed to the students in Week 10, and it is mandatory that the students are available during their designated presentation time slots.

Note: Need Assessment 2 Only