Part 1 (40 marks)

Part 1 Task

Your task for this part of the assessment item is to answer the following two questions. Each question will carry equal (20 marks) and your answer for each question should be around 1000 words:

1.Identify five common project risk strategies employed to address threats that your project may face. Give an example of each.

2.Projects are often completed late. Describe the techniques you would use as a project manager to improve the accuracy and reliability of your project schedule.

In responding to the above points, be sure to:

Critique project theory based on your experience and understanding. This is important –don't just "regurgitate" the theory

Provide examples, data or other relevant information to support your discussion. Examples can be from work experience, research, study group experience, for example. They should demonstrate the theoretical points you are asserting in the questions.

Part 2 (60 marks)

Background

As a consultant you have been asked by the Global Retail Solutions Group (GRS) to develop an implementable project plan for a point of sale and stock control system for a proposed chain (DSE) of retail outlets across Australia. You have been supplied the following information, information not available maybe assumed, this will be a competitive bid targeting the dual goals of quick implementation and low cost. 

DSE is an aggressive player in the growing DIY electronics market with a plan to open a chain of retail outlets to further their growth in the market. Outlets will be located in major cities in seven states. The larger cities will have more than one store. Critical to sales is monitoring sales and stock turn to ensure adequate stock is available when demanded. Each store will be responsible for day-to-day operations, however, there is a strong central management structure at the national level. The services provided by the organization include volume buying to gain discounts, pricing, merchandising strategies, and consolidation of performance reporting for the corporate management.

The Information Systems Department at DSE's corporate office has been given the assignment to develop a transaction processing system that will apply modern RFID code scanning at the point of sale and provide automatic inventory control. The system will also relieve the store personnel of the tedious task of generating sales and performance reports as required by the head office. 

An earlier project has successfully defined the store level hardware that will be used at the points of transaction plus the communications network that will connect the stores with the state offices. This hardware consists of standard PCs plus the scanning equipment and any other specialized interface hardware needed. The communications facility consists of a polled network and will be based on dial-up lines from the head office to the individual stores. The stores have no requirement to communicate with each other.

At this point in time, consider yourself a consultant who has to bid for the software development piece of the project upon which this system is based. You will have access to several DSE employees to execute the various tasks that your project proposal will guide to a successful conclusion.

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