Reference no: EM132314071

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this subject, students should:
• be able to differentiate between a range of project life cycle models, and their appropriate application;
• be able to identify and reflect on the key elements of the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) framework, including project stakeholders, communication management, the project management knowledge areas, common tools and techniques, and project success factors;
• be able to explain and appreciate the role of ICT project management within a professional workplace, from the viewpoint of the member/leader of the project team;
• be able to critically evaluate how a practising ICT project manager applies ICT project management techniques, skills, methods and software tools in the IT profession;
• be able to demonstrate an understanding of leadership qualities required to successfully lead a project;
• be able to apply and analyse established ICT project management principles, skills and techniques to a case study.

Assessment item 1

Project Management Methodologies

Task

In topics 1 & 2 you have been introduced to various project methodologies and processes. In 700 words, demonstrate your knowledge of these.
Ensure you address the following areas:

1. Define what a methodology is and the role it serves in project management.

2. Familiarise yourselves with the various methodologies in the list below. Choose two methodologies from this list to compare and contrast, analysing the similarities and differences between them.

3. Finally, identify how your chosen methodologies / processes relate to the project life cycle (PLC):

List of project methodologies and processes

• Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
• PRINCE2
• SDLC
• Waterfall
• Agile
Rationale
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:
• be able to differentiate between a range of project life cycle models, and their appropriate application.
• be able to identify and reflect on the key elements of the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) framework, including project stakeholders, communication management, the project management knowledge areas, common tools and techniques, and project success factors.

Assessment item 2
Team work and reflection

Task
Assessment 2 and Assessment 3 are to be completed using the Virtucon & Globex Scenario outlined in Interact 2, (with additional resources found at virtucon.uimagine.edu.au and globex.uimagine.edu.au). The specific scenario to be used will be given on the subject site and discussed in class.

Assessment 2: You are to complete the following tasks based on the discussions and learnings from meetings held with your assigned team. Your work should be submitted individually and will be marked individually according to the rubric.

Part One:
Project Name / Team Names / Project Description

Working as a team you are to

• Agree on a suitable team name, list all team members and provide their contact details in a professional looking document.
• Complete a project description. This should be written clearly and concisely so that anyone unfamiliar with the project can fully understand the objectives.

Team Charter

After your team agreed on a team name and identified all of the contact details of your team members, address the following points and present them in a professional looking document:
• Skills and Knowledge Inventory - List the specific knowledge and/or skills that each team member can contribute to the project. This could be technical knowledge, communication or leadership skills.
• Roles and Responsibilities - Define roles and responsibilities for each team member. This can be defined for the entire project or can be shared or even rotated.
• Team Communications
• Meeting Times & Location - Agree on mutually convenient times and location to convene to work on the case assignments.
• Define how the team will communicate with each other and share information. Also, specify how meetings will be documented and where subsequent resources will be stored for ease of access.
• Team Rules & Expectations
• Discuss your previous experiences of working in teams, both positive and negative. What is the overall team goal?

• Team Values - Discuss as a team what values are important. Develop a statement or itemised list that summarises these values.
• Code of Ethics - Based on your team values, create a statement that summarises a code of ethics to guide your teams ethical behaviour.
• Rules and Expectations - Build a set of rules and expectation that all members of the team shall abide by. Consider team decisions, conflict, absence from meetings, and an individual's lack of contribution for example.
• Signatures - Get each member of the team to sign the team charter. This will indicate an understanding and agreement to the rules and expectations as specified in the points above.

Part Two: Learning Cycles

Learning cycles give structure to your team meetings and accountability for when you and your team work outside of the meeting schedule

Firstly, prior to your next meeting, assign roles to the team. There should only be two central roles - the organiser and the scribe:
• Organiser - organises the meeting by writing down the team's ideas and then distributes them to the team for feedback.
• Scribe - documents the ideas and action points going forward.

Note: Roles should be rotated for each meeting and assigned so that everyone on the team has equal responsibility.

Using peer learning and reflections, document your understanding of the project at this point in time in a Learning Cycle table format (example in lecture slides and textbook)

Note: it is likely at this early stage of the project that you will write down very few facts. You will have a few more assumptions and probably a larger list of questions to be answered. Seek answers to your questions, and show the iteration of learning cycles as you gain a deeper understanding.

Part Three:
Communication Plan

As a team, brainstorm and identify all stakeholders to the project. Then individually, develop an appropriate communication plan.

Part Four:
Reflection

Write a brief reflection of no more than 500 words of your team work experience in this subject. To guide your reflection you should address the following questions:

• How did your experience compare to your understanding of the leadership qualities required to successfully lead a project?
• Based on your experience, what are necessary techniques, skills, methods and ICT project manager requires in the IT profession?

Rationale
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:
• be able to explain and appreciate the role of ICT project management within a professional workplace, from the viewpoint of the member/leader of the project team.
• be able to demonstrate an understanding of leadership qualities required to successfully lead a project.
• be able to apply and analyse established ICT project management principles, skills and techniques to a case study.

Assessment item 3

Task

You are to prepare and submit Assessment 3 as an individual, based on the Virtucon/Globex scenario, and your peer to peer learning from Assessment 2. The same scenario is used for Assessment 2 and 3 - you are now developing more detailed planning.

You are required to develop a charter for the Project including:

Include the Project description you developed as part of Assessment 2. Your MS Project file (or Project Libre) must also be submitted.

Part One:
MOV - Measurable Organisational Value(This is the goal of the project and is utilised to define the value that your team project will bring to your client)

• Identify the desired area of impact - Rank the following areas in terms of importance: Strategy / Customer / Financial / Operational / Social
• With reference to your project, identify one or two of the following types of value:
• Better - is improving quality important to your client?
• Faster - does your client want to increase efficiency?
• Cheaper - is cutting costs important?
• Do more - does your client want to continue its growth?
• Develop an appropriate metric - this sets the target and expectation of all the stakeholders. It is important to determine a quantitative target that needs to be expressed as a metric in terms of an increase or decrease of money.

• Determine the timeframe for achieving the MOV - ask yourselves, when do we want to achieve this target metric?

• SUMMARISE THE MOV IN A CLEAR CONCISE STATEMENT OR TABLE

(Note: the MOV should inform everyone what the project will achieve, not how it will be achieved. It should also focus on the organisation, not on the technology that will be used to build or support the information system).

Part Two:

Define Scope and produce a Scope Management Plan

Define the scope of the project and detail how the scope will be managed. Provide a list of Resources
Identify and detail the resources for the project using MS Project where appropriate, including:

• People (and their roles), plus any extra personnel that is required for the project.
• Technology - any hardware, network and software needs to support the team and your client.
• Facilities - where will most of the teamwork be situated?
• Other - for example, travel, training etc.

Part Three:
Using MS Project, develop a schedule using a high level Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). It should include:
• Milestones for each phase and deliverable
? This will tell everyone associated with the project that the phase or deliverable was completed satisfactorily.
• Activities / Tasks
? Define a set of activities/tasks that must be completed to produce each deliverable.
• Resource Assignments
? Assign people and resources to each individual activities.
• Estimates for Each Activity / Task
? Develop a time estimate for each task or activity to be completed.
• Project Budget
? Develop a budget using the time and resources estimated for each task or activity

A summary of the WBS should be clearly provided in the report. Your MS Project (or Project Libre) file must also be submitted for marking separately.

Part Four:
Project Risk Analysis and Plan
• Document any assumptions you have made about the project
• Using the Risk Identification Framework as a basis, identify five risks to the project - one for each of the five phases of the methodology.
• Analyse these risks, assign a risk to an appropriate member, and describe a strategy for the management of each specific risk.

Part Five:
Quality Management Plan. It should include:
• A short statement that reflects your team's philosophy or objective for ensuring that you deliver a quality system to your client.
• Develop and describe the following that your project team could implement to ensure quality;
• A set of verification activities
• A set of validation activities

Part Six:
Closure and Evaluation
• Develop a closure checklist that the project team will use to ensure that the project has been closed properly.
• Develop a project evaluation - outline and discuss how your project's MOV will be evaluated.

Rationale
This assessment task will assess the following learning outcome/s:
• be able to identify and reflect on the key elements of the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) framework, including project stakeholders, communication management, the project management knowledge areas, common tools and techniques, and project success factors.
• be able to critically evaluate how a practising ICT project manager applies ICT project management techniques, skills, methods and software tools in the IT profession.
• be able to apply and analyse established ICT project management principles, skills and techniques to a case study.

Attachment:- ICT Project Management.rar