Project Management: Business Case, Project Charter, WBS, and Cost-Benefit Analysis

Learning Objectives

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

1.Critically analyse literature related to contemporary issues in project management;  

2.Critically appraise the role of project manager in implementing successful IT projects and the social, ethical and legal responsibilities of a successful project manager;

3.Create appropriate project management documentations such as business case, project charter, and Gantt chart and in doing so to demonstrate project management skills;  

4.Critically appraise project management approaches and methodologies.

Task-1: Prepare a business case for your selected project. Pay particular attention to the following areas in your project business case:

a)Justification for the case for the project undertaken. (10 Marks)

b)An evaluation of cost/benefits and risks of alternative options while providing a rationale for the selected options.

c)A summary of the benefits (both tangible and non-tangible where applicable) that will arise from the completed project and any unavoidable drawbacks.

Task-2: Prepare a project charter and based on this, design a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure). You also need to produce a network diagram which would identify the critical path on it.

Task-3: Review the role of a project manager in the context of their ethical, social and legal responsibilities during a project. Critically evaluate how the project manager should perform and give your judgment on the quality of the project manager’s work as well as their limitations.

Task-4: Write a summary of the cost benefit analysis and quality assurance of the project management (size estimations; effort estimates; estimate improvement techniques; function points; algorithmic cost models). How do these change the life cycle of the project?

Note: An executive summary, introduction and conclusion are necessary in your report.

Although much of your report will contain existing body of knowledge, you must write your assignment in your own words to demonstrate your understanding of the subject. You are required to follow the Harvard referencing system when citing others' work. An accompanying list of references must also be provided as part of your report. Extensively referenced work reflects the level of research you conducted in the process of producing the document. It is also an acknowledgement of other people’s work. Correct referencing demonstrates your academic and professional skill. It also reflects your academic honesty and thus to some degree protects you from cases of plagiarism.

Please refer to Moodle for the latest version of the Roehampton Harvard referencing System or ask the library.

Marking Criteria:

Task

Guidance/Criteria

1 Prepare a business case for your selected project. (a) The business case must provide a justification for the case case (executive summary). (b) The business case must provide a rationale for your choice of project including costs, benefits and risk of alternate options while providing a rationale for the selected option. (c) You are required to provide a summary of the potential benefits the project will bring, and any potential drawbacks.

2 Prepare a project charter for the project. The project charter should clearly state the scope, objectives and people participating in the project. Prepare a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure) for the project from the project charter developed in task 1 of this assignment. A critical path analysis shows the longest length of time to complete a project.  You are required to develop a critical path for the work breakdown structures developed in this task earlier.

3  A project manager is responsible for completing the project while observing all ethical, social and legal aspects during the completion of the project. You are required to evaluate the role of the project manager in this context. Critically discuss the main tasks the project manager performed during the project, and give your judgment about the quality of the project manager’s work.

4 Cost benefit analysis and other quality assurance activities are part of the project evaluation process. In this task, you are required to write a critical summary of the cost-benefit analysis and other quality assurance activities. How do these reflect the life cycle of a project?

Your report is well laid out and formatted according to the given requirements. Your report is free from grammatical and spelling errors. The Harvard referencing style has been used to cite the work where necessary and a list of references is also provided.