Major Assignment Strategic Project Management Report 2
Due Date Due start of Week 11 Tues 19th May (Submitted on iLearn before the lecture at 6 PM)
Weight 22 % 26% of overall unit assessment
Group This is a group work with FOUR-FIVE students in a team. Please outline ALL your team members’ names clearly at the front page of the submission with the respective Group Number (as assigned)
1. Task Description
You are required to work with the case study in order to produce a Project Management Report. The Report should address ALL the questions by the respective sections.
2. Software
You are required to use appropriate computer software packages to produce output for many of the above techniques. This approach should assist you with the inevitable changes that you (or another analyst, in a real life system) will need to make, and also gives a better quality and hence more readable result. Project Libre is an excellent tool to use for free at home.
3. Length
There is no set length for this assignment. Each question has the respective mark assigned to, which entails the expectation of the lengths for each point. You should also refer to the rubric available on the website for marking criteria and each section should be of sufficient length to adequately describe that section.
4. Marking criteria
Marking criteria is available via a rubric on ilearn.
5. Submission Format
Please leave adequate time to review your assignment for originality, through the Turnitin process. Your final major report assignment submission should be in the form of ONE Microsoft
COMP 8790 – Strategic Project Management
Assignment 2
Word document, including the Turnitin statement. You should include your diagrams in this Word document, as clear graphics.
Note: any graphics that cannot be clearly seen will NOT be marked. Your Word document should be named as: Group_# _MajorReport.doc (or docx). For example, if I am in Group 100 (as assigned
in the Assignment 2 Announcement), my submission would be named Group_100_MajorReport.doc or Group_100_ MajorReport.docx.
6. More information
If you need more information about completing this assignment, then you should contact your local lecturer in the lecture time.
7. Original work
Your assignment must be your original work. Assignments form a major part of course work. Exchange of ideas with other people can be considered educationally valuable; however, excessive collaboration will be regarded as plagiarism, which is a University offence. For example, the copying of significant parts of a document, even if subsequently modified, is plagiarism. Such academic dishonesty will be penalised in accordance with the University’s rules and regulations.
You must not copy material from books, magazines, internet sources or other students’ assignments. Of course, you may include direct quotes from any source, but these must be small (e.g. one sentence or one paragraph) and must be properly referenced, using the Harvard Referencing Style. The value and relevance of including materials from another source must be fully explained. If plagiarism is found in your assignment, you may receive zero marks for this assignment.
The assessment process may require some students to attend an interview in order to explain aspects of their assignment.
8. Problems to avoid
Start early to allow sufficient time for thorough analysis, report writing and production of many
analysis diagrams.
Do not copy materials from any source, unless referenced. Explain the value and significance of
any external materials.
Do not use an organisation from other units in this degree program.
9. Retain duplicate copy
You are strongly advised to retain a copy of original work, and progressive versions of your work during the session. In the event of any uncertainty regarding the submission of assessment items, you may be requested to reproduce a final copy and/or any previous versions of your work.
10. Penalty for late submission
A penalty of 10% per calendar day will be applied to all late assignments. An extension of time will only be considered (not necessarily approved) when a written request is submitted with appropriate supporting documentation and in accordance with University guidelines.
11. Marks and Feedback
Marks and feedback comments will be returned via a hardcopy of the Rubric on ilearn.
***** Start of the Assignment 2 Questions *****
Please attempt ALL the questions in this assignment – Total of 100 Marks
Part I contributes to a total of 45 Marks
You have been hired as a project manager cum consultant with the Sydney Metro as your client. Recently, first phase of the Sydney Metro North
West1 rail lines have been launched. You are tasked to look after the following project portfolios
i. Maintenance work on the flooding metro tunnels due to the recent rains
ii. Identification of the new Metro and Transport NSW train stations in Sydney and infrastructures which includes design, timeline estimation and resources. iii. Building the second phase of the Sydney Metro City and Southwest2. This includes the upcoming new twin-tunnel rail crossing under Sydney Harbour bridge.
iv. Restoration of the Transport NSW train stations which are in dire needs; these include identifying, assessing and scheduling the repairs are part of the weekend track work activities.
In the recent meeting, stakeholders in the Sydney Metro and Transport NSW have raised their concerns for completion of the key milestones of these multiple projects, with potential clashes timelines. Therefore, the upper management have proposed to overhaul the existing strategy of managing these project portfolios. You and your team have proposed to use big data to leverage the strategies of managing these projects to ensure business delivers on time and within cost.
I. List FOUR stages of the big data adoption in line with the projects’ portfolio within the Sydney Metro and Transport NSW
(4 Marks)
II. In the stages outlined in I. provide a detailed breakdown of examples of tasks and capture them in Gantt Chart with milestones (6 Marks)
III. Based on the Gantt Chart, develop a Project Network Diagram (PND)
(6 Marks)
IV. Detail the Resource Needs for the Project Network Diagram
(8 Marks)
V. Name TWO potential project sponsors which you will be actively engaging within the adoption of the big data for the projects
(2 Marks)
Note: For VI. and VII. you may make assumptions on the reasonable resources and timelines working in this plan. State all your assumption(s) in text.
VI. Based on the above tasks’ activities outlined in II, develop the Resource-loading chart with resources and timelines. You could opt in to include the Activity Float as part of the table
(8 Marks)
VII. Finally, show the Resource Leveling of the network table (4 Marks)
VIII. When one of the project portfolios, Identification of the new Metro and Transport NSW train stations in Sydney and infrastructures which includes design, timeline estimation and resources, had completed, as a project manager, you are to detail the steps involved in the typical natural termination of this project with elaboration in your report. Name SEVEN steps involved in this project termination with supported elaboration.
(7 Marks)
Part II contributes to a total of 25 Marks
Read the following research paper “The Concept of Project Management Platform using BI and Big Data Technology”
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maciej_Pondel/publication/302973872_The_Concept_of_Project_Management_Platform_using_BI_and_Big_Data_Technology/links/5ad04e32aca2723a3346a5e4/The-Concept-of-Project-Management-Platform-using-BI-and-Big-Data-Technology.pdf
to address these following questions:-
I. Provide a write up paragraph with summary of the above case study
(10 Marks)
II. Based on the research paper, name all characteristics of software which could support project management portfolio with big data. Provide elaboration when you could (10 Marks)
III. What are the TWO factors which determine the assessment of the project portfolio? Provide elaboration on these factors. (5 Marks)
Part III contributes to a total of 30 Marks
Note: Part III is related to the case study of Part I.
In Part I, you served as a Project manager for the Sydney Metro and Transport NSW project portfolio. As a project manager,
I. Name FOUR steps in a typical general project control cycle and elaborate with respect to control these project portfolio (8 Marks)
II. Name FOUR factors that could prevent project closeout with elaboration and examples of these project portfolios
(8 Marks)
III. Elaborate concerns when shutting down a project portfolio with examples of these project portfolios (8 Marks)
IV. In one of your project portfolios, you have come across conflicts in your team. Name THREE methods to resolve the conflicts in the project and provide elaboration with supported examples and assumptions (6 Marks)
*************** End of the Assignment 2 Questions ***************
Glossary
KPI – key performance indicators
PND – Project Network Diagram
References
1.Millions of litres of water flood Sydney’s Metro tunnels https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/millions-of-litres-of-water-floods-sydney-s-metro-tunnels-20200211-p53zr8.html
2. Sydney Metro https://www.nsw.gov.au/improving-nsw/infrastructure-projects/sydney-metro/