Developing a Project Business Case and Project Management Plan

Component A: A Project Business Case

This component is a group report with 25% of the overall weight for the module assessment.

Students are required to work in groups to develop a Project Business Case with clearly defined benefits of the expected project outputs. As projects are expected to solve some problems and/or deliver some benefits, the Project Business Case should focus on justifying the rationale of the project----why the project is needed and what benefits the project can deliver. Some of the key considerations in the group report can be:

1, Project Definition. This section shall define the project in terms of problem statement, and/or expected benefits, with clear objectives and contribution to some strategic achievements.

2, High Level Scope definition, with critical success factors and some measurable targets. It should also include realistic resource estimates.

3, A risk assessment of the project and project context, identifying the controls required to minimise or eliminate these risks, including an outline of any potential economic and environmental problems that may be relevant.

The project doesn’t have to be in a traditional project-based industry such as IT and construction, as project management has been employed as an effective tool to tackle problems arising from different situations. The group shall work together to decide which Project Business Case they develop. Some examples are listed below

• Conduct an investigation of a scandal/accident
• Complete a cross border merge/acquisition,
• Organising a big event (Commonwealth Game) or a small event (exhibition/trade show),
• Setting up a new business venture,
• A new product innovation,
• A marketing/political campaign,
• Rebranding of a company or its product portfolio
• A TV commercial or a Movie,
• A special ceremony (for a royal family member wedding or Olympic games opening?)
• New seas cruise with a unique theme (Finding Elsa?)

Any issues you consider as important can be included in the group report in order to justify the rationale of the project initiative. The Project Business Case MUST include the use of appropriate project tools such as, Risk Assessment Matrices, GANTT, and Stakeholders Analysis etc.

The module leader may provide a project for the group to work on in case that the group members have difficulties to reach an agreement.

The report is worth 75% of the overall mark and is an individual report. You should not work with other students in the preparation of the report although you can use the data and information gathered by the team for the group report of Component A. This individual report shall serve as a Project Management Plan with the following considerations:  

1. An introduction section which should include the background to and rationale for the project, reflecting an understanding of the project constraints and complexity.

2. Definition of the project including the project objectives and a statement of the project scope with project deliverables.

3. A Project Management Plan which reflects the requirements, project objectives, project scope and project deliverables. The report should include a work breakdown structure (WBS) and a ‘project schedule’ (Gantt chart) with descriptions of deliverables at each stage.  For each deliverable: targets, controls, dependencies, resource requirements, responsibilities and authorities should be identified where appropriate.

4. Some resource estimates for the development of the project including financial planning. This should discuss the critical success factors and the financial budget.

5. A description of the project governance which may include:

Project management team structure;

Roles and responsibilities;

Communication plan.

6. A risk assessment of the project, with the controls identified to minimise or eliminate these risks, including an outline of any potential constraints and/or problems that you consider may be relevant.

7. The report should include a conclusion and recommendations section that pulls all the disparate elements together.

In short, this Project Management Plan may include project background and scope statement, project constraints and complexity, key success factor, monitoring and control method, project governance and key roles, stakeholder analysis, risk analysis, WBS and a working schedule. However, the listed elements and structure are not prescriptive for developing your unique project management plan, and some other elements and considerations should be included where the project requires some special considerations at planning stage.

These along with all literature, facts and data should be cited and referenced using the UWE Harvard Referencing System.

This individual report carries 75% of the overall weight. The length of the report should be 2,500 words (+/-10%). If the report is outside these boundaries you may lose marks.  Diagrams, tables, references, bibliographies and appendices do not form part of the word count.

Correct academic referencing must be demonstrated according to the Harvard Referencing System (details on the BBS learning skills web page or through the library).

A marking scheme is given as a separate document on Blackboard; this should be used as a guide.

Please note the university modular assessment regulations apply. Your specific attention is drawn to submission and plagiarism rules; no plagiarism will be tolerated.