Project Evaluation

Question
Unit Assignments

Unit I Mini Project

Project Evaluation

Throughout this course, you will be implementing project planning skills and techniques to a project. You will use the same project throughout the entire course, and you have a choice in the project you use.

Option 1

You may choose a project that you are already involved in or have been involved in through your company or personal life (examples include projects such as upgrading computer software throughout a company, a construction project, or planning a wedding).

Option 2

You are the Curriculum Manager for a large textbook publishing company. As part of your job you must put together the forecast of the projects your department will focus on for the next three years (2012-2015). You have eight different textbook revisions that should be completed during 2012. The revisions themselves do not bring in high dollar amounts, but clients are fickle, and if updated textbooks are not available they will look at your competitor for books. Four of the books are your top sellers. Three of them are fairly popular, and one revision is so old that your clients have looked elsewhere over the past year for a better resource. You also need to create a new line of textbooks for Engineering that should be completed by the end of 2015.

Your boss has also tasked you with the assignment of creating multi-media learning tools for the entire line of Biology textbooks your company produces. This multi-media line could bring in huge profits for the company if it could be completed by mid-year of 2013. This multi-media area is new and not an area the company has worked on in the past. You have some technology resources that could be used and some employee resources that are capable of starting the project, but there will be additional resources you will need to complete this project.

Your current target market for your textbook products has been at the high school level, and the CEO of the company wants to enter the college textbook market. You have also been tasked with determining what educational areas (Business, Criminal Justice, English, or Psychology) are the best areas to begin entry into this market. You will need to set up a task force, direct this process, create a timeline for entry, and begin work on a plan for your area regarding this new market. Then entry into this new market should occur sometime in 2014.

For this assignment, use Microsoft Word to answer the following:

If you chose Option 1, describe your project and why you chose it to use.

For both options, explain whether project management techniques are appropriate for this project and why.

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For both options, describe the strategic planning process involved in this project.

For both options, choose five key topics that you would use as criteria for prioritizing projects, and then use a weighted scoring matrix that includes at least two financial criteria to determine how you would evaluate the components of your project.

Your assignment should be at least 300 words.

Unit II Mini Project

Project Proposal

Using the project you chose from Unit I, complete the following assignment. Use the project scenario you created from Unit I in order to organize your project.

Use an Internet search engine to search for a project charter template. Using this template as a model, use Microsoft Word to define the following for your project: the Objective, Constraints, Resources, the Budget, and the Schedule. In addition, discuss the matrix style you would prefer to use for your project and why this choice is the best. Also include the communication methods you will use to communicate to the various resources involved in this project. Use Word to create your scope statement. Your assignment should be two to three pages (not including your project cover page).

If you chose Option 2 from Unit I, you will need the following information:

In addition to the Unit I information, your boss has given you a budget of $7 million to complete the projects you have on the table. You will be working with the marketing department, the IT department, and the school-level division department throughout the next three years in order to complete these projects. Also remember that you do not have all the resources you need for the multi-media project.

Unit III Mini Project

Schedule

Now you need to schedule the project you chose in Unit I. Reread the scenarios from Units I and II. Based on the previous project information you created, the project priorities you set, and your budget, you will now need to break down your project into activities. Using an Internet search engine, locate a project scheduling template or use the Microsoft Project trial software included with your textbook. Build a WBS and project schedule using the templates or Microsoft Project. You will need to identify all dependencies and estimate your costs. Assign contingency reserves, and determine how much reserve your team would estimate for the whole project. Justify and explain your choices and estimates. You may want to review the WBS section located on pages 108-116 in Chapter 4 of your textbook. Save your assignment as a PDF file.

If you chose Option 2 in Unit I, you may need to research the publishing process to give you adequate information to make your decisions. In addition you will need to know the following information:

You will use the project scenario you worked on in Unit I. In addition to the Unit I information, your boss has given you a budget of $7 million to complete the projects you have on the table. You will be working with the marketing department, the IT department, and the school-level division department throughout the next three years in order to complete these projects. Also remember that you do not have all the resources you need for the multi-media project.

The textbook revisions and Engineering project come from your department and use writers, editors, and, instructional designers. The writers and instructional designers must rewrite the textbooks and send them to the editors. The final products are then sent to the publishing department.

The task force project will include instructional designers from your department (some of the same ones who need to work on the textbook revisions) marketing associates, the manager from the education department of your company, the IT manager, a person responsible for writing the proposal, and an expert from your company in the areas of Business, Criminal Justice, English, and Psychology.

The multi-media project will require the best resources you have, including your best instructional designer, writer, and editor; your in-house Biology expert; the IT Manager; and a Media Consultant from outside the company.

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Unit IV Mini Project

Risk Management Plan

Based on the project option you chose from Unit I and your previous decisions from Units II and III, you will need to write a Risk Management Plan for your project. Be sure to identify and assess major and minor risks inherent to the project. Decide on a response type. Develop a contingency plan for two to four identified risks. Assign your resources to the project activities. Determine the best way to use the resources you want on multiple projects, and develop a contingency play for your resources.

If you chose Option 2, you will need the following information:

You will use the project scenario you worked on in Unit I. In addition to the Unit I information, your boss has given you a budget of $7 million to complete the projects you have on the table. You will be working with the marketing department, the IT department, and the school-level division department throughout the next three years in order to complete these projects. Also remember that you do not have all the resources you need for the multi-media project.

The textbook revisions and Engineering project come from your department and use writers, editors, and, instructional designers. The writers and instructional designers must rewrite the textbooks and send them to the editors. The final products are then sent to the publishing department.

The task force project will include instructional designers from your department, (some of the same ones who need to work on the textbook revisions), marketing associates, the manager from the education department of your company, the IT manager, a person responsible for writing the proposal, and an expert from your company in the areas of Business, Criminal Justice, English, and Psychology.

The multi-media project will require the best resources you have including your best instructional designer, writer, and editor; your in-house Biology expert; the IT Manager; and a Media Consultant from outside the company.

Your assignment should be at least 300 words in length.

Unit V Mini Project

Schedule Crashing

Using a template or Microsoft Project, create a detailed schedule for the project you chose in Unit I. It can be similar to the one you created in Unit III, but you may need to tweak it a bit if the duration was not over two years. Then, prepare another detailed schedule that crashes your project duration by nine months. Save both schedules as PDF files. Using Microsoft Word, you also need to prepare a paper outlining how the scope and budget might be impacted by the crashed schedule. Your paper should be at least 300 words. Submit both PDF versions of your schedule and the Word document as one submission.

Unit VI Mini Project

High Performing Teams

Describe in your own words what you believe are the four most important characteristics of high-performing project teams for your project. Tell why you believe each is so critical, explain how they are related to each other, and give at least two specific examples from your project for each characteristic. If you outsourced any resources on your project, explain why you outsourced and how that outsourced relationship helped or hindered your project. Would you use that resource again? Why, or why not? Your assignment should be typed in Microsoft Word, be at least 300 words, and follow APA format.

Unit VII Mini Project

Project Closure Checklist

You are coming to the end of this course and the “closeout” of your project. Your assignment is to create a closeout checklist for your specific project. Use Microsoft Word to create your checklist, and make sure to include details on what steps you need to take to closeout your project and your communication method(s) in doing so. In addition include what, if anything, could have been done differently to improve your project performance. Remember that each project you will

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manage will be unique, but by creating a checklist for this project, you will have a model to use for future projects. The checklist and your written summary should be a least one page long.