Reference no: EM132667077

BSBPMG522 Undertake Project Work Assignment - Newton College, Australia

Assessment Task 1 - Written Questions - You must correctly answer all questions.

Instructions - Provide answers to all of the questions below:

Q1. List three project management tools and explain their use in project management.

Q2. Explain the use of a GANTT chart in project management.

Q3. Explain the use of a PERT chart in project management.

Q4. Explain the use of a work breakdown structure in project management.

Q5. Explain the use of the critical path method in project management.

Q6. Outline three types of documents and sources of information that are used to define the parameters of a project.

Q7. Explain the importance of planning for risks in a project and list three processes that can be used to identify risks as part of a risk assessment process for a project.

Q8. Explain the importance of a risk management plan in identifying and managing risks for a project.

Q9. Explain risk avoidance in project management.

Q10. Explain the use of risk mitigation strategies in project management.

Q11. Explain the concept of risk acceptance in project management.

Assessment Task 2 - Project Set Up - You must participate in a meeting and develop a project scope based on the meeting and scenario information, as well as develop a project management plan.

Instructions - Carefully read the following:

Native Bush Spices Australia is based in Coffs Harbour, NSW.

The business was established in 2010 to cater for a demand for Australian native food products. The company has organic certification.

The company manufactures and retails a range of organic, Australian native foods including:

Native herbs and spices

Native herbal teas

Native fruit jams and conserves.

Currently the business is selling its products through a number of small supermarkets and health stores throughout Australia. The company also has a very basic website that includes four pages: home, about us, products and contact details.

The company's overall business objectives for the next three years are to increase sales and create brand awareness, develop a broader product range, as well as expand into overseas markets, most likely Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

The company's target customers are those that enjoy gourmet foods.

The age range of Australian consumers buying products is between 35 and 65.

Most consumers are health conscious, care about protecting the environment and have an average annual income of $80,000.

The company currently employs the following staff in its head office: CEO, Operations Manager, Marketing Coordinator, Customer Service Officer and two administration staff.

Ten staff are employed in the factory making and distributing the products.

As the Marketing Coordinator, you have been asked by the Operations Manager to coordinate a project to develop a new website. The Operations Manager is ultimately responsible for the management of the project but has assigned significant responsibility to you. The new website is seen as a critical part of the company's expansion strategy, and the Operations Manager has advised that you will need to develop a project scoping for the website to present to senior management, as well a project management plan.

The Operations Manager has also advised you that the new website is classified as a Medium Project. The project team is to consist of yourself, the Customer Service Officer who has been assigned to assist you with this project, and the Operations Manager.

The Operations Manager has advised that the website is to include a shopping cart, so customers can order products directly through the website. He would also like customers to be able to access recipes and general information about the health benefits of bush spices.

The company has long wanted to commission a new logo, and it has been decided to do this now, in conjunction with the new website. The Native Bush Spices marketing team will then use the logo across all of the company's communication. It has been allotted a budget separately from the website, but it is understood that the company that designs the website will also design the new logo too.

The company has established procedures for project management. These are documented in their documented in the Project Management Policy and Procedures.

Complete the following activities:

1. Identify project scope

Review the case study information above, as well as the Project Scope Template.

Identify all the information you need to develop the project scope document and prepare a list of questions for the additional information you need to discuss with the Operations Manager at a meeting to confirm and clarify project parameters, including your own responsibilities. Write down your questions as notes to use at the meeting.

You should also review the Project Management Policies and Procedures as well as the Project Management Plan Template.

You will need to confirm the responsibilities and reporting requirements with the Operations Manager at the meeting, too, so make notes on these to bring to the meeting.

You will be modifying the plan following a meeting with the Project Team, so save this version of the document as Draft Project Scope.

2. Develop a project management plan

Based on the project scoping document that you have developed and any feedback from the Operations Manager, develop a project management plan.

Your Project Management Plan should include, as a minimum, the following:

Background: Provide a brief explanation of the background of the project

Objectives: Benefits that the project intends to achieve

Activities and Milestones: major activities, scheduled start, scheduled finish and accountability.

Budget

Risk Management Plan: include at least one WHS risk.

Use the Project Management Plan Template to guide your work.

Your project management plan should identify at least three risks associated with the project, one of which should be related to work health and safety.

You will be required to use the risk legend to assist in the classification of risks.

3. Send an email to the Operations Manager (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and seek their feedback.

The email text should ask for details of a meeting with the Project Team to discuss the Project Management Plan.

Attach your Draft Project Scope and Draft Project Management Plan to the email.

4. Participate in a meeting with the Project Team.

Meet with the project team (the customer service officer, roleplayed by another student and the Operations Manager, roleplayed by your assessor) to discuss the scope of the project and the project management plan.

At the meeting, you must:

Outline the project as set out in your project scoping document

Outline the organisation's mission, goals, objectives and operations and how the project relates to them Briefly explain the organisation's project management policies and procedures

Briefly explain the organisation's project management policies and procedures

Outline the project management plan, including roles and responsibilities of the project manager, as well as the project team member. Discuss the limitations of your responsibilities and how approval process work with your team.

Identify and discuss factors that could affect the timeframes to ensure that the timeframes are realistic and achievable

Seek the project team members' feedback.

During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective communication skills including:

Speaking clearly and concisely

Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding

Asking questions to identify required information

Responding to questions as required

Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

5. Review the project scoping document

Based on your discussion with the Project Team, you are now required to revise the project scoping document that you have developed in draft format..

Your project scope should include, as a minimum, the following:

Introduction: give the rationale for the project

Scope: as discussed at the meeting

Legislative and regulatory context: include at least three relevant pieces of legislation. At least one should be relevant to WHS

Business objectives: clarify relationship of project to the organisation's objectives

Risk assessment: make a list of potential risks

Stakeholders: list all stakeholders

Resources: any additional resources that will be required.

Relationship to other projects: include dependencies

Reporting: define the project's reporting requirements

Save this document as Revised Project Scope.

6. Revise your project management plan

Incorporate the feedback that you received from the meeting participants into your plan

Save this document as Revised Project Management Plan.

7. Send an email to the Operations Manager (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should state that you have had a meeting with the project team and give a brief outline of the topics discussed.

The email text should summaries changes that were made to the project management plan in response to the feedback that you received at the project team meeting.

Introduce and summarise the contents of the attachments and seek their feedback and approval to move forward with the project.

Attach your Revised Project Scope and Final Project Management Plan to the email.

8. Finalise your project scoping document

Update your Project Scope to reflect the feedback from the Operations Manager.

Save this document as Final Project Scope.

9. Finalise your project management plan

Update your Project Management Plan to reflect the feedback from the Operations Manager.

Save this document as Final Project Management Plan.

10. Send an email to the Operations Manager (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

Introduce and summarise the contents of the attachments and seek their feedback and approval to move forward with the project.

Attach your final project scope and final project management plan to the email.

11. Send an email to the Project Team members (your assessor).

When the Operations Manager has given their approval for your plan, you are required to ensure that the team is clear about overall project requirements and project roles and responsibilities.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

The email text should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment.

Attach your Final Project Management Plan to the email.

12. Set up folders and files.

Create folders for the project as specified in the Project Management Policy and Procedures.

When the project is completed, you will be assessed on whether you have set up the folders and created documents as required.

Assessment Task 3 - Project Development - You must conduct and monitor the project for the development of the website, including developing a brief for the project and preparing a project status report. You will also brief the new customer service officer on the project.

Instructions - Complete the following activities:

1. Develop website design brief

You are to develop a brief in order to obtain quotes from at least three web site designers.

Use the scenario information from Assessment Task 2 to develop the website design brief.

Your brief should include the following:

Background information

Target audience

Content: what should be included in the website.

Call to action: what the people who visit the website should do

Social Media

Functional requirements

Website design ideas

Logo

Search engine optimisation

Practical issues

Use the Website Design Brief Template to guide your work.

2. Send an email to the three selected web site designers (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and explain the work that is required.

The email text should also ask them to send you a quote for the work.

Attach your Website Design Brief to the email.

It is two months into the project for the development of the web site.

The status of the project is as follows:

The content has been developed for the web site within the required timeline of 1 month from the implementation of the project plan and at the specified cost.

The content was written by a public relations consultancy company, PR Pulse for the cost specified in the project budget.

Three quotes have been received from web site developers as follows:

Bestweb Design $3,750, timing indicated as 4 weeks - examples of other web sites developed do not seem to be suitable.

Visualweb $5,000, timing indicated as 8 weeks - examples of other web sites developed seem to be along the lines required.

Web designs Australia $6,000, timing indicated as 12 weeks - examples of other web sites developed seem to be along the lines required.

The customer service officer has left the organisation unexpectedly.

3. Develop a project status report

Review the information above and prepare a project status report to send to the Operations Manager (your assessor).

Your status report should include, as a minimum, the following:

Progress summary

Milestones: achievement of key dates for activities as specified in the Project Management Plan

Budget: planned expenditure and actual expenditure

Risk management: of project risks to date

Recommendations

Use the Project Status Report Template to guide your work.

4. Send an email to the Operations Manager (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and seek their feedback and approval to move forward with the project.

Attach your Project Status Report to the email.

5. Meet with the new customer service officer.

A new customer service officer has been employed by the company to replace the one that left.

They will be part of the project team, replacing the one who left the organisation unexpectedly.

You are required to provide support for the new Project Team member by discussing all aspects of the project with them. The Operations Manager will also be attending the meeting.

Keep in mind the new customer service officer will need your support at this stage, so make sure that you understand in what areas they may need assistance, and work with them to find how this can be provided.

During the meeting, you must be very clear about the expected quality of the project outcomes. Keep in mind that this is a new employee, and they are not familiar with the quality expectations that have been outlined during earlier discussions that you have participated in.

It is important that you are also very clear about the importance of meeting the documented timelines. These should be the same as those in the Activities & Milestones section of your Project Management Plan. Confirm that the new customer service officer confirms that these timelines can be met.

During the meeting, you are required to demonstrate effective communication skills including:

Speaking clearly and concisely

Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding

Asking questions to identify required information

Responding to questions as required

Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

6. Set up folders and files.

Create folders for the project as specified in the Project Management Policy and Procedures.

When the project is completed, you will be assessed on whether you have set up the folders and created documents as required.

Assessment Task 4 - Project Evaluation - You must finalise and review the project.

Instructions - Carefully read the following:

The project is now complete, with the outcomes as follows:

The web site is now live. There has been very positive feedback amongst all staff about the look and content of the web site. The web site designers were very professional and easy to deal with.

It is four months since the project commenced. Delays occurred because of the following:

The web site developer could not complete the web site within the required timelines as originally stated in their quote.

There were additional delays due to the customer service officer's departure and changes to the web site during the development as a result of the project manager's input.

The design of the logo took longer - see below.

The estimated cost for the logo was doubled because the first designer employed was unable to develop a logo to the company's liking and so a new logo designer was contracted. This therefore doubled the costs as the first designer, as well as the second designer needed to be paid.

Training will be required in web site maintenance to ensure information is regularly updated e.g. the newsletter. Training should ideally be provided to the administration staff.

Complete the following activities:

1. Meet with team to finalise project

Review the information above and then meet with your team (your assessor and another student) to get their input on the project. This will on a date and time advised by your assessor.

At the meeting, outline the project outcomes as above.

Ensure that all of the staff involved in the project are working in new roles or have been reassigned to their previous roles

Before concluding the meeting, ensure that all project team members have the opportunity to give feedback.

The customer service officer will provide you with some feedback, which you will need to acknowledge and note for your project evaluation report.

Gain verbal confirmation from all team members that they can transition to their other tasks following project completion and offer your support as necessary.

During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective communication skills including:

Speaking clearly and concisely

Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding

Asking questions to identify required information

Responding to questions as required

Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

2. Develop a final project evaluation report and finalise record keeping

Ensure that you incorporate the feedback from the team meeting into your report, as well as your own reflections based on the project status report you developed and the scenario information above.

Your project evaluation report should include the following:

The reason for closing the project

Any highlights from the project and any innovations that were made.

A summary of recommendations relating to the project

Project performance against objectives

Project performance against outcomes

Project performance against outputs

Project performance against budget

Lessons learnt

Use the Project Evaluation Report Template to guide your work.

3. Take a screen shot of your folder and files.

This activity requires you to demonstrate that you can file all of your records in a logical structure.

Ensure that you have an overall folder for your work, as well as sub folders if necessary.

All of the documents you have submitted for this unit's assessment tasks should be correctly named and filed.

You will be assessed on whether you have set up the folders and created documents as per the project management policy and procedure requirements.

The screen shot should show all the folders and documents.

4. Send an email to Operations Manager (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and sign off for the project now that it is concluded.

Attach your Project Evaluation Report and screen shot to the email.

Assessment Task 5 - Project Reflection - You must answer a series of questions about lessons learned during projects.

Instructions - Carefully review each of the articles listed below and answer the questions.

Article - HAS YOUR PROJECT JUMPED THE SHARK? By Brad Egeland

1. How often should project financials be reviewed and re-forecasted if required?

2. What level of overrun might be acceptable and what is not?

Article - DOCUMENTING LESSONS LEARNED: WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED? By Kenneth Darter

3. What type of lessons learned should be documented?

4. Briefly explain the best time to capture lessons learned from project and why?

5. Who should provide input into lessons learned?

6. Should project lesson information be stored? Explain why or why not?

Article - CAPTURING THOSE LESSONS LEARNED By Gina Abudi

7. Give three reasons why lessons learned may not be documented.

8. List three areas that it would be useful to include as part of lessons learned.

Article - UNDERTAKING A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT AUDIT By Michael Stanleigh

9. Explain the purpose of a project audit and when it could be conducted.

10. Briefly explain three areas of in-depth research could be undertaken as part of the project audit.

11. Create a new Word document and record the above questions and your answers to them in it.

12. Send an email to your assessor.

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment.

Attach your Project Reflection Questions to the email.

Attachment:- Undertake Project Work Assignment File.rar