Reference no: EM133151010 , Length: word count:3000

Unit 6 Managing a Successful Computing Project - BTEC HND in Computing

ASSIGNMENT

Aim & Objective

This coursework is designed to demonstrate the broad understanding and knowledge of the module, assessing and evaluating the student's strength and level of analysis; divided into four learning outcomes. The coursework should be submitted as one document in a report format.

Assignment Scenario:

The Pearson-set theme for use for managing successful computing project is "Remote Working" as per the "Pearson-set Theme and Topic Release 1stSeptember 2021 to 31stAugust 2022"

Remote Working:
The option to work remotely was already being embraced by some businesses in the pre- pandemic era. These businesses were making some progress to adapt their working practices to accommodate remote working by allowing those in certain job roles to take the opportunity to work from home, albeit a day or two a week. However, on the whole there had been a reluctance to have staff working remotely and this has largely centred around productivity concerns, security implications and technology issues.

The global pandemic however necessitated and accelerated the move to remote working. The vast majority of businesses have now shifted some or all of their operations online, and almost all of their staff are working from home. The enabling force behind this necessary shift has been the different technologies and platforms that facilitate workers to achieve business goals remotely.

This sudden shift to remote working took place within weeks and months and has not been without issues. Several surveys conducted during this period cited business leaders complaining about how technology problems have impacted their business and employees while working remotely.

As an IT researcher, you are assigned a project to research on how organisations can find about, recognise and improve their employee's remote working productivity.

This research project tries to investigate what the different ways that organisations can gauge workers' productive are at home - beyond preventing technology problems.

Employees, too, increasingly want their bosses to know how they're performing remotely to ease bosses' minds that they're using their "unseen time" wisely, or because they feel frustrated about not being recognised for the work they do at home. Therefore, this research needs to consider both employer's and employee's perspective.

The outcome of your research project is expected to be a report to establish a solid understanding of the factors that affect remote working productivity, the mechanisms to measure it, and suggestions to improve it.

To conduct this research project, you need follow four stages and conduct the following tasks:

1. Develop a proper project plan for your research project. The project plan should define and explain the research aim and objectives; identify the activities that you are going to do in your research (including their sub-activities and details - i.e. work- breakdown-structure); the sequence and time estimation of the activities and the main milestones (i.e. time plan/Gantt Chart); the required resources for each activity and their costs (i.e. resource and cost pans); and your plans to manage the quality, risk and communication of your research.

2. Define a clear research method, including source(s) of data (e.g. literature, secondary data, industry experts, or consumers); type of data (qualitative and/or quantitative); data collection method (e.g. literature survey, interview, and survey); data analysis method (e.g. descriptive presentation, thematic analysis, or statistical methods); and research validity and reliability.

3. Analyse and present the collected data (quantitative and/or qualitative as well as literature review), with appropriate tools and in a proper format, and discuss the results in detail. Accordingly, you need to provide your recommendations on remote working productivity measurement and improvement, and draw valid and meaningful conclusions.

4. Provide a proper reflection on (a) the value of the research to meet your project objectives (b) your own learning in this research project, and (c) the value and contribution of the project planning/management in conducting the research and achieving its objectives.

Notes:
- The main activities of your research (e.g. literature review, data collection and data analysis) should be identified in the project plan (stage 1 above), details of the research method should be explained in the research method (stage 2 above), the outcomes of the research and its relevant analyses should be presented in stage 3 above), and a proper reflection on the research outcomes as well as the value of research and project planning (to manage the research project) should be presented in stage 4. Critical evaluation of (a) the project management process, (b) research methods, (c) the project outcomes, and (d) the adjustment made to the initial project plan to conduct the research better; is needed to enhance the quality of your assignment.

- Your finding maybe evaluated and compared with existing reports published, synthesised with data gathered in producing a comprehensive conclusion and recommendation. Quality, Authenticity, Accuracy and Reliability of information sources used in the report is paramount and hence you should take all precaution in using outside sources especially that of statistical nature and/or open source data. Wholesale use of text and diagrams from websites considered plagiarism.

- The project logbook is designed to provide evidence of the project development process and ongoing reflection. It should provide evidence of thought, direction of project and in particular, what problems encountered and steps taken to address them.
- The performance review will provide evidence of reflection and evaluation of the project management process and individual performance.

Based on the above scenario, you are required to research and produce report that contains (but not limited to) the following requirements:

Project Plan, including project title, an overview of the research problem, scope, aim(s)/objectives, and project time, resource, cost, quality, communication, and risk plans.

Every project is unique yet all project should adhere the three constraints (scope, time, and cost), and to meet these three requirements the project management should as well include work breakdown structure and Gantt chart that should include milestones providing timeframes and stages for completion.

The project requirement may include a number of different documents, some of which are so essential that project deemed to be a failure without following a robust project management plan that covers aspects of cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk and resources.

Research Methods

There are many methods that can be used to enquire and collect data, which in turns may be influenced by the underpinning methodology thus broadly studied and discussed as (qualitative, quantitative). You are to establish and evaluate the most suitable methodology/method for which data acquisition is conducted and analysed with critical evaluation of the project management process and appropriate research methodologies applied.

Findings: analysis, discussion, and recommendations

Raw data collected cannot by itself express reality and/or establish knowledge, the data is required to be analysed and evaluated. This analysis should then be used to form the basis to draw conclusions. For this research on "Remote Working", literature can be a good source of knowledge, and the outcomes of your literature review should be shared in this section (before analysing other primary and/or secondary data).
Further analysis of data (primary and/or secondary) should provide a wider view of the
"Remote Working" implications and their possible impacts.
The final part of the research is the conclusions and recommendation, this naturally flows and is established from the above discussions of secondary and primary research conducted and analysed. Evaluate the selected techniques and tools for rightness and validity to support and justify recommendations made.

Reflection

One of the unique characteristics of human beings is the ability to apprehend reality through a process of analysis and synthesis of observable phenomena. As a researcher you should critically evaluate and reflect on the success of the project, the decision-making process and its usefulness in supporting organisational performance, and hence the impact of your own performance and justification of recommendations and learnings in this project.

Note: Please devise a section in your report as appendices and attach all the documents as a separate file(s). Without appropriate evidence(s) your assignment will not be marked.

• the Project Logbook
• Performance Review
• Any other document(s)

Attachment:- Managing a Successful Computing Project.rar