Project Management Principles and Methodologies

Intellectual/transferrable

You will be able to develop understanding of the core activity areas project managers concern themselves with and how they relate to personal and organisational issues.  

You will be able to apply the principles of project management to the planned development and delivery of business initiatives, e.g. new products, services or events

•A short report written directly to the project sponsor (approx. 1,500 words) containing both of the following:

•An explanation of the need for effective, structured communication between the project manager and members of their team.  Using theory and suitable case examples, tell your sponsor how best you believe the communication process should be structured on your project, so as to ensure the most efficient and effective possible team working.

•An analysis and critique of methodologies that might be used to run the project case study, principally comparing Agile, Waterfall and PRINCE2 methodologies. Explain their strengths and weaknesses and give your recommendation to the sponsor as to which methodology you believe would be best to use.  There is no right or wrong answer for this and hence marks will be given on the basis of how well you have explained and justified your decision. As with the other assignment elements, reference examples and reference to theory is very important.

•Submit copies of your previous two assignments (from weeks 5 and 10) as appendices to this third piece of work so that the marker will be able to see continuity between these earlier assignments and this final one.  Simply paste them in at the end and submit as one large document.  If you did not submit assignment 1 and/or 2 but do wish to submit assignment 3 then simply note at the end that you do not have anything to submit for 1 and 2 (you will be given a capped resit opportunity for each non-submitted assignment).

Copying of other student work is not accepted and both the original author and copying students will be held equally accountable under university disciplinary procedures.

How will we support you with your assessment?

•You will receive formative feedback. See details above.  Although the final deliverables are individual pieces of work, staff will encourage and support you in working informally in small groups to help everyone gain a better understanding of the cases available.

•There will be an assessment briefing in Weeks 1 and/or 2 as necessary and further briefings for formative assessments where necessary.

•Frequently asked questions (and their answers) will be posted on the module’s Moodle site

•There will be an opportunity to review and reflect upon work from previous cohorts. This will be delivered in lecture and seminar time.

•Significant seminar time will be given over to the discussion of the various aspects of project management that you will cover in your assignments and seminar time in the final two weeks will used to help support you in developing your final assignment answers.

How will your work be assessed?

Your work will be assessed by a subject expert who will use the marking grid provided in this assessment brief.  This marking brief will be applied to all three assignments.  When you access your marked work it is important that you reflect on the feedback so that you can use it to improve future assignments.