Reference no: EM133002900

Assessment Task 3: Team Leadership: Develop a Project Plan

Addresses some elements of required skills and knowledge as shown in the Assessment Matrix

Description:

This assessment task builds on Assessment Tasks 1&2. In an organisational context, once a project proposal is approved, it is followed by a project plan that outlines project stakeholders, deliverables, key tasks, budgets, constraints, required resources and most importantly the project time line.

According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, is a formal, approved document used to guide both project execution and project control. The primary uses of the project plan are to document planning assumptions and decisions, facilitate communication among stakeholders, and document approved scope, cost, and schedule baselines.

In this assessment task, you will continue to use the organisational context and information crated in Assessment Task 2: Develop a Project Proposal and develop a project plan based on the suggested structure below. The scheduling part of the plan should be completed on Microsoft Project. If Microsoft Project is not available, Microsoft Excel can be used to develop a Gantt chart.

The team will maintain the given role plays and for the project purpose delegate specific roles and responsibilities to all the members. Members responsibilities and task allocations will again be reviewed and amended for the purpose of this task. Notes of discussion must be maintained in the team folder.

Team Diversity and Training Needs:

A. Based on the Diversity Policy developed in the previous task develop a team statement that covers;

• Profiles of the team members and cultural diversity
• Team protocols and characteristics of model behaviour by team members
• Benefits of diversity in organisations and teams
• Opinions of each member on how they value diversity (include separate statements)

As a culturally diverse team, you team interactions will be observed by your trainer/assessor to assess how the team members respect and foster diversity; including overcoming language and communication barriers and collaborative nature of work.

B. Further, each team member will undertake a "Workplace Cultural Diversity" assessment, through an online tool. The tool provides as overall assessment of workplace diversity best practice. Discuss the results and store in the team folder. The results will be in indicator of diversity training required.

C. Follow this with a Training Needs Analysis - individually undertaken online at: www.eowa.gov.au. Results from this analysis will be used by team members playing the team leadership role to prepare brief training plans (dot points - maximum half page each) at every stage, and as relevant to the task.

As a culturally diverse team, you team interactions will be observed by your trainer/assessor to assess how the team members respect and foster diversity; including overcoming language and communication barriers and collaborative nature of work (i.e. how the team has implemented the Diversity Policy developed in Assessment Task 1).

Team Leadership:

With a view to have an opportunity and demonstrate team leadership by each member of the team, the teams will be required to divide the task into same numbers as the team members (e.g. 4 members, 4 tasks) and sequenced as project tasks. Each of the team member will, accordingly, perform a leadership role for rest of the team at each stage.

In the team leadership role, the members in task leadership role will individually;

• Develop and communicate project objectives (project phase) to the team members
• Develop and allocate tasks and responsibilities
• Set key performance indicators for each task (for each member separately)
• Set a self-study plan (e.g. online activities) for diversity training
• Provide guidance, direction and motivation to the team and manage project tasks, including any mentoring or coaching required
• Ensure that all the tasks are completed in the designated timeframe
• Take note of team member performances and evaluation against the KPIs
• Take note of any issues/barriers and actions taken to deal with them
• At the end of the task/phase/stage, collect feedback from other team members and record in the team portfolio
• Suggest rewards for good performance and innovative approaches among the team members - emulating a real-life situation - in form of recommendations to the management

Accordingly, the project documentation will need to be maintained as per the completed stages. All team interactions, correspondences, and feedback will be kept in the team folder.

Project Tasks:
Essentially, a project plan will include;

Project Details
Executive Summary
Purpose and Objectives
Project Scope
Key Stakeholders and responsibilities
Project Team Strategy
Deliverables
Task Breakdown Structure
Project Budget
Perceived risks and constraints
Resources and Allocations
Project Timeline/Schedule
Project sign-offs and approvals
Project Evaluation Tools

Your team may use the above elements as key headings for your project plan. The project schedule must be completed using the Gantt chart. The project plan must also include team management strategies including team communication, quality objectives, performance objectives and team development.

The plan must be word processed and structured with appropriate headings and sub-headings as needed. It must be prepared as a formal business document that can be seen as an official document for submission to the management. Originality of the work must be maintained throughout and all efforts must be made to avoid a simple cut and paste from external resources, which may result in plagiarism without appropriate referencing.