Assessment Item 2 – Group Case Study Due Dates: See Moodle for the exact date and time for the submissions listed below: Individual student sub-deliverable submissions: Sub-deliverable 1: End of week 6 Sub-deliverable 2: End of week 7 (plus peer assessment) Sub-deliverable 3: End of week 8 (plus peer assessment) Sub-deliverable 4: End of week 9 (plus peer assessment) Sub-deliverable 5: End of week 10 (plus peer assessment) Final Group submission: End of week 11 (35 marks)
Weighting/Total: 40% Important notes regarding assignment submissions:
1. Individual student sub-deliverable submissions are to be submitted by all members of the group as zip files in their own submission area on the Moodle unit website. These are your individual attempts at the work before your group meeting. Each individual submission has a different due date. Exact dates and times are given on the Moodle unit website. The table below provides a summary of what is to be submitted in the zip files for each individual submission.
Sub-deliverable Week due
Description of zip file contents
1 6 A zip file with your .mpp files saved at the end of practicals 1, 2 and 3. 2 7 A zip file containing the Part A question 1 .mpp file, i.e. PartAQ1.mpp and your completed peer assessment form(s) 3 8 A zip file containing: 1. Word document with answers for Part A 2. PartAQ2.mpp 3. PartAQ3_resources.mpp and your completed peer assessment form(s) 4 9 A zip file containing 1. A Word document with the answers to Part B 2. PartB.mpp and your completed peer assessment form(s) 5 10 A zip file containing: 1. A Word document with your answers to Part C questions 2. A copy of your group’s PartC.mpp and your completed peer assessment form(s)
2017
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Note: individual submissions are not marked in detail. Markers will check your work to ensure that you have an on-time submission and that you have prepared your answers in readiness for your group meeting. All marks for this assessment item depend on students making a satisfactory contribution to the group. If students are not contributing they may be asked to work on the assignment as an individual and/or have marks adjusted. Both peer assessment and individual submissions will be taken into account.
Markers may provide some comments and/or ask you to meet with them during your tutorial/practical class.
2. Late submissions of individual sub-deliverables will automatically be given a mark of 0. Individual sub-deliverables must be submitted on-time with peer assessment to be awarded marks. 3. You must aim to submit your assignment and individual sub-deliverable submissions at least 1 hour before the due date. This will avoid unnecessary late penalties if you have any technical issues while submitting your assignment. 4. If you do experience a problem uploading your assignment online and cannot get help from TASAC, make sure that you email your assignment files to your tutor before the due date. This will allow your tutor to view the work that was completed before the deadline. Note that you will also be required to submit the assignment online through Moodle as soon as possible. 5. Currently, any drafts in Moodle are automatically submitted by Moodle on the due date. However, you should not rely on this for your submission as this default behaviour may change. This also means that you should not leave something uploaded as a draft if you do not want to it to be submitted automatically on the due date. 6. If you upload after the due date (even with an extension) you must ensure that you press submit for marking when you upload your work. 7. All group members are responsible for checking that the correct versions of the files for the final group submission are submitted on time. The answers in the Word document must correspond to the data in the mpp files.
Additional Notes: 1. You are required to take your current versions of your Microsoft Project practicals and assignment 2 to your tutorial/practical classes from week 3 onwards. You are scheduled to commence the Microsoft Project practicals in week 3. 2. Remember that it is your responsibility to keep backups of all your work and of your current version of the final group assignment.
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Contents Overview ................................................................................................................................................. 3 The Case study ........................................................................................................................................ 4 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Initial Data ........................................................................................................................................... 4 Assessment Tasks .................................................................................................................................. 11 Assumptions ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Part A: Developing the Schedule ...................................................................................................... 11 Part B: Modifying the schedule ......................................................................................................... 14 Part C: Tracking Progress .................................................................................................................. 16 Saving the baseline and entering the status data (together as a group) ...................................... 16 Status Report ................................................................................................................................ 17 Assessment Submissions....................................................................................................................... 19 Individual submission of sub-deliverables ........................................................................................ 19 Peer Assessment ............................................................................................................................... 20 Final Group Submission .................................................................................................................... 20 Content of the Word Document in the final submission .................................................................. 21 Marking Guide/Criteria ......................................................................................................................... 22 Appendix 1: Status Report Template .................................................................................................... 23
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Overview
This case study simulates a project management scenario where the student takes on the role of project manager. Students are required to use Microsoft project management software as part of this assessment task.
This is a group assignment that also includes five individual student submissions (see below). You should aim for groups of four students. Four is the maximum number of students allowed in a group. Ideally, no group should have fewer than 3 students. (Note that distance education students have the option of smaller groups or working on this as an individual assignment. To form groups with other distance education students, use the distance education forum on the unit website.)
Although this is a group assignment, all members of a group are required to attempt all parts of the assignment individually as assessment item sub-deliverables 1- 5. Members of the group are required to submit their own individual attempt for each of the sub-deliverables in Moodle before the group meets to consolidate answers to produce the "group solution". There are separate submission areas and due dates for the individual submissions. On time submission of the 5 subdeliverables is worth a total of 5 marks, but these submissions are also be used to assess individual contributions and may impact on a student’s final mark. Late sub-deliverable submissions will be given a mark of 0.
Groups must meet at least once a week to produce the “group solution” for the most recently submitted individual sub-deliverable. This solution should then be added to the “in progress” final group solution. All members of the group must keep a copy of the “current group assignment”.
It is also important to meet early in week 10 to produce the updated schedule to be used to complete the Part C questions and status report. Each group is responsible for providing their own status data. This means that the group members must collaborate to produce the PartC.mpp file to be used to complete the Part C questions. This is explained further in part C.
There is one final group solution to be submitted at the end of the assignment. It is worth 35 marks and is to be submitted by only one member of the group. The names and student ids of all members of the group must appear clearly on the coversheet of the final assessment submission.
Peer assessment and your individual submissions will also be used to assess group member contributions. If any member of a team is not contributing satisfactorily to the group then he/she may have marks adjusted and/or be asked to leave the group and be required to complete the assignment as an individual. If you are having any difficulties within your group you must alert your tutor/lecturer as early as possible.
To assist students in their assessment solution development the following information is provided:
1. A product development case description. 2. Specific assessment questions that must be answered. 3. Information regarding the submission of the assessment. 4. Marking criteria.
Where necessary, students are expected to find relevant information in the academic literature to justify their answers. Any assumptions made must be clearly documented.
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The Case study Background
Xyzzy is a corporation that was formed to merge three different financial institutions. Each of the three financial institutions involved in the merger already had systems that complied with legislative requirements and had systems that allowed investors to monitor their investments and engage in regular trading. However, each of the original institutions had their own internal processes, financial systems, programming standards, databases etc. The new corporation is quite large, and given its size, it is not surprising that there are a diverse range of investors. Some of the investors hardly ever bother checking on their investments, while others monitor them regularly and engage in regular trading.
The Chief Executive of Xyzzy recognised that the future of the new corporation depended very much on the development of a new financial system to be used throughout Xyzzy. Given the importance of the new system, a project manager (David Grey) was appointed to manage the project. David had extensive project management experience and had successfully managed a number of similar projects.
Initial Data
After one week, David finalised a draft organisation chart. This showed that there would be a need for staff from several specialist areas. He arranged a meeting with the Human Resources Manager (Michael Brown) to proceed with appointments of “section leaders” for each specialist area. Michael agreed with the chart and arranged for someone from HR to help David with the development of position descriptions for the staff required.
The positions are to be advertised internally for three weeks. Another 2 weeks are to be allowed for interview processes and 2 weeks for the staff to be released from their current positions before they can commence on the project (i.e. a total of 7 weeks to appoint “section leaders”).
The following table shows the specialist areas and number of staff in each area (including the section leaders).
Section Number of Section Staff (including the section leaders)
$/hour
Operations (OP) 2 $80 Analysts (AN) 3 $95 Database (DB) 2 $90 Software Engineers (SE) 3 $90 Telecommunications (TC) 1 $85 Security(SEC) 1 $90 Conversion Team (CT) 3 $60 Table 1: Specialist Areas (Sections)
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Note: • Although there will be “section leaders”, assume that all staff members in a section have the same salary and can be assigned to any of the tasks requiring expertise from their area. • In the table above abbreviations are given for each section resource. For example, a software engineer is abbreviated to SE. • Assume that (apart from holidays) the staff work a 40 hour week from Monday to Friday (i.e. a 5 day week with 8 hour days). This means that in table 2 below one week equates to 5 days (Mon-Fri). Assume that David will meet with the section leaders on their first day to explain the importance of the new system and to provide them with the preliminary details of the project. They will be required to provide any modifications within 1 week of that initial meeting. Assume that at the end of the week David has the information provided in the following table: Task Name Description Predecessor(s) Resource and Duration Estimates To be completed before the milestone Xyzzy Financial System 1 Recruitment 1.1 Recruitment of section leaders This is to be the start of David’s schedule. It assumes that the charter has been signed, David has developed the organisation chart and the position descriptions for Section leaders have been developed. start of project schedule (Milestone 1 – M1) (start date: 5th June 2017) 7 weeks. Note that no resources are allocated to this task although HR staff and the PM will be involved in this task. 1.2 Appointment of other section staff 1.1 2 weeks. Note that no resources are allocated to this task although HR staff, section leaders and the PM will be involved in this task. 2 Development of Common Standards 2.1 Database Standards This will involve consultation with other members of the team and IT staff from the three initial corporations. 1.2 2 personweeks of DB
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2.2 Programming Standards
This will involve consultation with other members of the team and IT staff from the three initial corporations.
1.2 2 personweeks of SE
3 Telecommunications 3.1 Analysis of existing contracts and requirements 1.1 2 personweeks of TC 3.2 Negotiation of new contracts 3.1 4 personweeks of TC 3.3 Delivery time 3.2 2 weeks (fixed duration) 3.4 Installation and testing 3.3 1 personweek of TC 4 Security 4.1 Review of existing security 1.1 3 personweeks of SEC 4.2 Develop security requirements document 4.1 4 personweeks of SEC 4.3 Security development 4.2 4 personweeks of SEC 5 New hardware 5.1 Preparation of quotation 6.1 4 personweeks of OP 5.2 Period quotation open 5.1 4 weeks – fixed duration 5.3 Acceptance of quotation 5.2 2 personweeks of OP 5.4 Lead time for delivery 5.3 4 weeks – fixed duration 5.5 Installation 5.4 1 personweek of OP, 1 person week of SE, 1 person-week of SEC (ideally the 3 staff working together on installation matters for 1 week) 6 Software 6.1 Detailed Requirements Analysis 1.2 12 personweeks of AN M2
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6.2 Database extraction program for corporation 1
6.2.1 Design of DB extraction program for corporation 1
2.1,2.2,6.1,6.11.1 3 personweeks of SE
6.2.2 Coding of DB extraction program for corporation 1
6.2.1 6 personweeks of SE
6.2.3 Testing of DB extraction program for corporation 1
6.2.2 2 personweeks of SE
M3
6.3 Database extraction program for corporation 2
6.3.1 Design of DB extraction program for corporation 2
2.1,2.2,6.1,6.11.1 3 personweeks of SE
6.3.2 Coding of DB extraction program for corporation 2
6.3.1 6 personweeks of SE
6.3.3 Testing of DB extraction program for corporation 2
6.3.2 2 personweeks of SE
M3
6.4 Database extraction program for corporation 3
6.4.1 Design of DB extraction program for corporation 3
2.1,2.2,6.1,6.11.1 3 personweeks of SE
6.4.2 Coding of DB extraction program for corporation 3
6.4.1 6 personweeks of SE
6.4.3 Testing of DB extraction program for corporation 3
6.4.2 2 personweeks of SE
M3
6.5 Database Upload program for new DB
6.5.1 Design Upload program for new DB
2.1,2.2,6.1, 6.11.1 2 personweeks of SE
6.5.2 Code Database Upload program for new DB
6.5.1 4 personweeks of SE
6.5.3 Test Database Upload program for new DB
6.5.2 2 personweeks of SE
M3
6.6 Daily update share and unit prices
6.6.1 Design Daily update share and unit prices
2.1,2.2,6.1 1 personweek of SE
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6.6.2 Code Daily update share and unit prices
6.6.1 2 person2eeks of SE
6.6.3 Test Daily update share and unit prices
6.6.2 1 personweek of SE
M3
6.7 Investor portfolio reports
6.7.1 Design Investor portfolio reports
2.1,2.2,6.1 1 personweek of SE
6.7.2 Code Investor portfolio reports
6.7.1 2 person2eeks of SE
6.7.3 Test Investor portfolio reports
6.7.2 1 personweek of SE
M3
6.8 Unit prices history report
6.8.1 Design Unit prices history report
2.1,2.2,6.1 3 persondays of SE
6.8.2 Code Unit prices history report
6.8.1 1 personweek of SE
6.8.3 Test Unit prices history report
6.8.2 3 persondays of SE
M3
6.9 Margin loan simulation program
6.9.1 Design Margin loan simulation program
2.1,2.2,6.1 2 personweeks of SE
6.9.2 Code Margin loan simulation program
6.9.1 3 person weeks of SE
6.9.3 Test Margin loan simulation program
6.9.2 1 personweek of SE
M3
6.10 Investor personal Details Maintenance
6.10.1 Design Investor personal Details Maintenance
2.1,2.2,6.1 1 personweek of SE
6.10.2 Code Investor personal Details Maintenance
6.10.1 2 personweeks of SE
6.10.3 Test Investor personal Details Maintenance
6.10.2 1 personweek f SE
M3
6.11 Database 6.11.1 Design New Database 2.1,2.2,6.1 4 personweeks of DB 6.11.2 Develop New Database 6.11.1 4 personweeks of DB 6.11.3 Test New Database 6.11.2 2 personweeks of DB M3 6.12 Integration and Testing 3.4, 4.3, 5.5, all software testing tasks completed (i.e. 6.2.3, 6.3.3, 2 personweeks of SE, 2 personweeks of SEC, 2 M4
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6.4.3 …. 6.11.3 or M3)
personweeks of DB (assume all three staff are working together over the 2 weeks)
7 Conversion Note that this must not to be carried out simultaneously at each corporation. There is to be a 2 month delay between conversions.
7.1 first conversion (of first corporation) 6.12 2 days fixed duration with all members of the “conversion team” working on this together (i.e. 6 person-days) 7.2 second conversion (of second corporation) 8 weeks after 7.1 is complete 2 days fixed duration with all members of the “conversion team” working on this together 7.3 third conversion (of third corporation) 8 weeks after second conversion (7.2) is complete 2 days fixed duration with all members of the “conversion team” working on this together 8 Training 8.1 corporation one 7.1 4 weeks fixed duration. Two CT staff to be assigned to this task
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together (8 personweeks). 8.2 corporation 2 7.2,8.1 4 weeks fixed duration. Two CT staff to be assigned to this task. 8.3 corporation 3 7.3,8.2 4 weeks fixed duration. Two CT staff to be assigned to this task.
M5
Table 2: Work Breakdown structure, Predecessor and Resource Requirements
The milestones for the project are:
1. M1: The start of the project 2. M2: Detailed Analysis complete 3. M3: All software programs complete (including individual testing) 4. M4: Integration and testing complete 5. M5: All the deliverables, conversion and training complete
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Assessment Tasks Assumptions You are free to make any assumptions necessary to complete the assignment. However each assumption must be justified and stated clearly in your assessment word document. Marks will be deducted for any unreasonable assumption or for stating an assumption and then ignoring it in your assignment.
Part A: Developing the Schedule For part A of the assessment you must complete the following tasks and questions. Read all the questions before you commence the tasks. The schedule is to be developed in an appropriately named Microsoft Project 2013 file (see the name specified below) and the questions are to be answered in a Word document. Any assumptions must also be listed at the beginning of the Word document (after the coversheet).
1. Use Microsoft Project to develop the project schedule according to the instructions below.
For this assignment, unless the specification states otherwise, you must initially allocate only one of each required resource to a task. To clarify, some examples are given below. For example, based on the information in table 2, you should initially allocate:
• One Analyst to work on task “6.1 Detailed Requirements Analysis” for 12 weeks. • One Operations staff member, one Security specialist and one Software Engineer to work together on task “5.5 Installation of the new hardware” for 1 week. • All three of the conversion team to work together on each of the conversion tasks (7.1-7.3). With this “team”, each conversion task should have a duration of 2 days. • Two members of the conversion team to work together on each of the training tasks (8.1-8.3). With this “team”, each training task should have a duration of 4 weeks. All tasks must be automatically scheduled tasks for this assignment. Remember to make this the default setting before you begin adding tasks to your schedule.
David is required to report directly to Ms. Thurlings in the PM Office. Ms. Thurlings has asked that the following be included in the schedule:
i. The following holiday/non-working times: A general holiday period between 25/12/17 to 2/01/18 Public holiday on 26/1/18. ii. A project title of “Xyzzy Finance System”. This is also to appear as the overall project summary at the top of your “WBS” in the mpp file. It must appear as task 0 with WBS number 0. All tasks should be “indented” according to the WBS structure described in the case study (see table 2). See the Microsoft Project practicals for details about how to add the project title and how tomake it the overall project summary. iii. A WBS column before the “Task Name” column and a WBS Predecessors column after the “Task Name” column as shown below:
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(task number – no column title)
Task Mode
WBS Task Name
WBS Predecessors
Duration Start Finish Predecessors Resource Names
iv. The milestones are to appear at the end of the task list in your schedule. See the notes after table 2 for more details about the project milestones. (Note that this is not always a requirement in a project schedule. Milestones can be embedded in the schedule or listed at the start. In this assignment you are required to add them at the end.). v. Ms. Thurlings has also asked you to use a “customised WBS code” for the milestones. For example, if you double click on the first milestone, you can change the WBS code to M1 as illustrated in the screenshot below.
vi. Resource allocation details. vii. The critical path(s) automatically displayed in red on the bars of the Gantt chart view of your schedule At this point there may be resource over allocation issues. Do not attempt to resolve these before answering question 2. Save this version of your schedule in PartAQ1.mpp. You will be required to submit this file as part of your assignment submission.
2. At this point ignore any resource over allocations. Copy your PartAQ1.mpp schedule to PartAQ2.mpp: i. Ms. Thurlings asks you to allocate all three analysts to task “6.1 Detailed Requirements Analysis”. Assume that with the additional resources the task still
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requires “12 person-weeks” (i.e. that there will be a reduction in duration as the work can be divided equally among the three resources).
a) What is the new duration of task 6.1 and has this change impacted on the overall duration of the project? Explain. b) Does adding resources to a task always reduce the duration in this way? Explain your answer. (Hint: your explanation should include some discussion of the “mythical man month”.)
ii. Save PartAQ2.mpp. You will be required to submit this file as part of your assignment submission.
3. Copy your PartAQ2.mpp schedule to PartAQ3_resources.mpp. If your schedule has any resource over-allocation issues resolve these in the PartAQ3_resources.mpp file without adding any additional resources. For this assignment, do not “split tasks” and do not allow levelling to “adjust individual assignments on a task”.
Save this “modified” version of the PartAQ3_resources.mpp file. You will be required to submit the PartAQ3_resources.mpp file as part of your assignment submission. i. Describe how you used (or how you would have used Microsoft Project) to resolve any resource over-allocation issues. ii. Does the fact that you cannot add any additional resources to resolve resource overallocation for this project have any impact on your overall project duration and end date? Explain why/why not.
Continue working with this version of the schedule (PartAQ3_resources.mpp) when you are answering the remainder of the questions in Part A.
4. Write a memo to Ms. Thurlings providing the following information: i. the expected completion date of the project, assuming it commences with task 1.1 on 5th June 2017; ii. the total duration of the project; iii. an explanation of the main factors that cause the project to require that length of time and any recommendations that you might make to reduce the duration if time was a priority for the project; iv. the estimated direct labour costs for each of the resource types working on the project. Present the costs in a table similar to the following:
Resource Name Cost Operations Software Engineers Analysts Security Specialists Database Specialists Conversion Team Total direct labour costs:
Assume that you will send the project schedule as an attachment to the memo. The information in the memo must correspond to the PartAQ3_reoources.mpp file.
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Information about writing memos can be found on the unit website in the same area as this specification.
5. Are there any tasks/activities or deliverables that you believe may have been overlooked and should be included in your WBS? You should be able to identify at least one possibility.
Part B: Modifying the schedule You are required to make the following changes to the estimates for Tasks 6.11.1-6.11.3 (New database tasks) and 4.3 (security development):
Task New Resource and Duration Estimates 6.11.1 8 person-weeks of DB 6.11.2 8 person-weeks of DB 6.11.3 4 person-weeks of DB 4.3 6 person-weeks of SEC
In addition, Ms. Thurlings has asked you to: • assign both Database specialists to work together on tasks 6.11.1-6.11.3; • reduce the time between conversion tasks from 8 weeks to 6 weeks.
Based on the information given above complete the following tasks. Read all the tasks before you commence.
1. Copy your PartAQ3_resources.mpp file into a file called PartB.mpp file..
In your PartB.mpp make the changes in the order given in the tables below and as you make each change note the impact it has on the:
• overall project duration • end date • direct labour costs for the project relative to the “current status” (i.e. the status after the previous change). When answering this this question, do NOT attempt to resolve any resource over-allocation issues until you have completed all the changes required (i.e. all the changes to 6.11.1- 6.11.3, 4.3 and the change in time between the conversion tasks). Some of the issues may be resolved as you work through the changes. You need the information about the impact of each change to answer questions 2 and 3 below. If as a result of all the changes there are any resource over-allocation issues resolve these and note any resultant change to the project duration.
Highlight all the changes on your schedule. Save your schedule with the highlighted changes in your PartB.mpp file. This PartB.mpp file is also to be included as part of your final assignment submission.
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2. Describe the impact of each of these changes on the project duration in a table similar to the following:
Change Impact on project duration (longer, shorter or no impact)
By how much Explanation
Change in person-weeks required for tasks 6.11.1-6.11.3
Allocation of both DB specialists to tasks 6.11.1-6.11.3
Change in person-weeks required for task 4.3 Reduction in time between conversion tasks
If the combination of changes have had an additional impact that would not have occurred if a change was made in isolation you should also discuss this in your answer to this question. Similarly, if there were resource over-allocation issues that had to be resolved and resulted in a change to the duration, this should also be discussed. However, when answering this this question, do NOT attempt to resolve any resource over-allocation issues until you have completed all the changes required (i.e. all the changes to 6.11.1- 6.11.3, 4.3 and the change in time between the conversion tasks). Some of the issues may be resolved as you work through the changes. 3. Describe the impact of each of these changes on the direct labour costs for the project in a table similar to the following:
Change Impact on direct labour costs (more, less or no impact)
By how much Explanation
Change in person-weeks required for tasks 6.11.1-6.11.3
Allocation of both DB specialists to tasks 6.11.1-6.11.3
Change in person-weeks required for task 4.3 Reduction in time between conversion tasks
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Part C: Tracking Progress In this part of the assignment you are to imagine that your project is underway and that it is time to produce one of your regular status reports.
This means that your group needs to meet together early in week 10 to save the baseline and enter the status data for your project. Your group must enter the data together and make sure that everyone has a copy of the updated PartC mpp file. This is to ensure that everyone in the group is working with the same information when they develop their individual status report.
The individual sub-deliverable due at the end of week 10 includes the group’s version of the PartC.mpp file plus your individual answers to the Part C questions.
In week 11, you must meet to complete the group version of the Part C answers and include this in your final group submission. All previous “group” answers should already have been completed before week 11.
Saving the baseline and entering the status data (together as a group) Note that the fourth Microsoft Project practical is an example of what is required for Part C. Make sure that you have worked through practical 4 before attempting Part C of this assignment.
1. Copy PartB.mpp to PartC.mpp. Save the baseline for this version of your project in PartC.mpp. 2. Assume that it is now 8th September 2017 and that you have data about when tasks actually started, their duration (which must be consistent with the start date and the status date, i.e. they cannot have a start date and a duration that takes them beyond the 8/9/17). Assume that you have also collected data about the estimated remaining duration for all the tasks that have commenced (but not yet finished). If a task has been 100% completed assume that you know the actual start date and actual finish date. Assume that status reports are produced every two weeks and that all the earlier status reports have been completed according to this fortnightly schedule. Given that 8/9/17 is the end of week 14, you should record the status report number as “7” when you complete the status report for this section of the assignment. In your PartC.mpp file (in which you have saved a baseline) a) Set the status date to the 8th September 2017 and include a solid, purple status date gridline in your project to ensure that the status date is clearly visible in your Gantt Charts. View the Tracking Gantt chart. b) Enter some status data.
• Follow the instructions in Microsoft Project practical 3 to enter the status data (i.e. for tasks not running according to schedule use the “mark on track” drop down list to select “update tasks” option to enter start dates, actual durations and remaining durations). • Assume that tasks 1.1 and 1.2 are 100% complete and that they started and finished at the times scheduled in the baseline.
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• For the purposes of this assignment you are to invent your own data about the status of the other project tasks. This means that you have to enter status data about the other tasks that you would expect to have started by the status date. (Use the status date gridline you created in part (a) to identify tasks that require status information.) For tasks that should have been started by the status date you are to enter reasonable data about their start date, actual duration (up to the status date) and estimated duration remaining (or completion date). Do not have all tasks starting and finishing exactly according to your original estimates and make sure that your changes do not violate any predecessor constraints (i.e. do not start a task before the predecessors have been completed). Aim to enter data so that you can see a cost and/or schedule variance that you can then interpret and explain in your status report. You are free to enter data to make tasks finish early or late or enter data about the remaining duration that means a task is expected to take either more or less time than originally estimated. It is also acceptable to have some tasks that are tracking according to their original duration estimates, but not all tasks. Save your changes in PartC.mpp and use this file to answer parts c, d and e below.
Status Report Based on your group PartC.mpp file each member of the group must complete and submit their individual attempts at the following tasks before meeting to produce the final group solution.
c) Add additional columns to show the CPI and SPI in the earned value table of your PartC.mpp file. Include a screenshot of the top of the earned value table of your PartC.mpp file in the Part C section of your Word document. For example, if asked to do this for the Microsoft Project practical 4 schedule, you would produce a screenshot similar to the following:
d) Based on the current status of your project, you are to produce a status report using the template provided in Appendix 1 of this document. (It is a similar format to “exhibit 13.1” in the textbook). Make sure that you complete all sections of the status report. Detailed explanations for why tasks are not tracking according to their original estimates are not required for this assignment as the data you entered is “fictitious”.
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However, in this section you must indicate which tasks are responsible for your project status being better or worse than planned. For the “major changes or issues” and the “risk watch” sections enter “no change”.
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Assessment Submissions
This assignment requires 5 individual submissions of the sub-deliverables online by all members of the group and one final group submission of the complete assignment by one member of the group only plus peer group assessments.
The individual sub-deliverables are to be submitted in weeks 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.
The final group submission is due in week 11.
The exact due dates and times are given on the Moodle unit website. The details of what is to be submitted for each sub-deliverable and for the final group submission are given below.
Individual submission of sub-deliverables These are to be submitted by all members of the group as zip files in their own submission area on the Moodle unit website. Each individual submission has a different due date. Exact dates and times are given on the Moodle unit website. The table below provides a summary of what is to be submitted in the zip files.
Sub-deliverable Week due
Description of zip file contents
1 6 A zip file with your .mpp files saved at the end of practicals 1, 2 and 3. 2 7 A zip file containing the Part A question 1 .mpp file, i.e. PartAQ1.mpp and your completed peer assessment form(s) 3 8 A zip file containing: 4. Word document with answers for Part A 5. PartAQ2.mpp 6. PartAQ3_resources.mpp and your completed peer assessment form(s) 4 9 A zip file containing 1. A Word document with the answers to Part B 2. PartB.mpp and your completed peer assessment form(s) 5 10 A zip file containing: 3. A Word document with your answers to Part C questions 4. A copy of your group’s PartC.mpp and your completed peer assessment form(s)
Note that individual submissions are not marked in detail. Markers will check your work to ensure that you have an on-time submission and that you have prepared your answers in readiness for your group meeting. Markers may provide some comments and/or ask you to meet with them during your tutorial/practical class.
Late submissions of individual sub-deliverables will automatically be given a mark of 0.
Make sure that you take your current version of the assignment to your tutorial class in case your tutor wishes to provide you with feedback in the class. You (and your group) can also ask for advice about the assignment during the class.
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Peer Assessment
The aims of this peer assessment are twofold: 1. to provide information to the markers to help with their assessment of student work 2. to give students feedback to help to improve their skills when working as part of a team.
With regard to point 1, although there are regular peer assessments scheduled as part of this assessment item (weeks 7 -10), it is also important that you alert your tutor as early as possible if you are experiencing problems within your group (for example, if a team member is not attending meetings or is coming to meetings unprepared). If there are problems, it is your responsibility to contact your tutor and discuss any issues as early as possible.
In terms of point 2, it is important that the feedback be used in a positive way. It should only include “constructive criticism”, i.e. it should: • Provide positive feedback so that the team member understands what they are doing that works well. • Provide constructive criticism, i.e. advice about how a team member could improve their team work. • Be polite and positive.
The Peer Assessment Forms are available on the unit website in the same area as this assignment specification.
Final Group Submission
The final group solution with the mpp files and assignment answers must be submitted in the electronic submission system on Moodle by one member of the group. It is important that only one member of the group submits the work or Turnitin will produce a very high similarity score for your work.
The final group submission is due at the end of week 11 (exact date and time shown in Moodle).
Unlike the individual sub-deliverable submissions, this submission area will not accept zip files. The final group submission is to consist of six individual files as follows:
1. A Word document with the coversheet/title page (shown below) and the group answers to all the questions in Part A, Part B and Part C. 2. The following group .mpp files: a. PartAQ1.mpp b. PartAQ2.mpp c. PartAQ3_resources.mpp d. PartB.mpp e. PartC.mpp
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Content of the Word Document in the final submission
To avoid problems with Turnitin, do not copy the questions from this assignment specification into your Word document.
However, do make it as easy as possible for your marker to identify the question you are answering by labelling each question clearly. For example:
Part A
Question 1 Your answer
Question 2 Your answer
The Word document must have a coversheet/title page at the start of the document that clearly shows all members of the group. A template for the coversheet/title page follows.
PPMP20007 Assessment Item 2 Coversheet Group Members: Student Name: Student Id: Student Name: Student Id: Student Name: Student Id: Student Name: Student Id:
Remember that it is your responsibility to keep backups of your work and of your current version of the final group assignment.
Although there is to be only one submission of the final group assignment by one member of a group, it is the responsibility of all members of the group to make sure that the correct files are submitted by the due date.
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Marking Guide/Criteria
Assignment Question
Criteria Marks available
Marks awarded
Individual Subdeliverables
Marked separately on Moodle
Part A Assumptions Listed, justified and stated clearly at the start of the Word document (if any ) Q1 The adequacy of the Project Schedule 7
Q2 a) Impact on duration; b) Discussion of relationship 3 Q3 Dealing with resource issues 3 Q4 Appropriateness of the written memo with all the information included and data corresponding to the schedule. 4 Q5 Any additional tasks overlooked 1 Sub Total Part A 18 Part B Q1 The adequacy of the amended Project Plan 2 Q2 Description of impacts of each of the changes on duration 4 Q3 Description of impacts of each of the changes on cost 2 Sub Total Part B 8 Part C Q1 Save baseline 1 Q2 a) Status date set + gridline + b) Enter sensible status data (up to the gridline only) c) Screenshot of earned value table + CPI & SPI 0.5 1 0.5
d) Completed status report 6 Sub Total Part C 9 TOTAL 35
Notes: 1. In addition to the marks for the final group submission outlined in the marking guide above, this assessment item 2 also includes 5 individual sub-deliverables and peer assessment. The marks for the 5 individual sub-deliverables are recorded separately in Moodle. 2. All marks for this assessment item depend on students making a satisfactory contribution to the group. If students are not contributing they may be asked to work on the assignment as an individual and/or have marks adjusted. Both peer assessment and individual submissions will be taken into account. 3. Sub-deliverables must be submitted on time (and with peer assessments) to be awarded marks.
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Appendix 1: Status Report Template This is the status report template that is to be used for Part C. The information to be entered in the status report is shown in italics.
Project Name: Status Report
Project Manager: (for this assessment item, enter the names of all members of the group> Status as of: End of Week: Earned Value Figures PV EV AC SV SPI CV CPI BAC EAC VAC
Project Description Milestone Status Milestone Description Week scheduled (baseline) Date scheduled (baseline) Week & date Reached M1 Project Start – 1 5/6/17 1 (start), 5/6/17 M2 M3 M4 M5 Status summary (schedule and budget) Schedule
Planned finish date (from Gantt chart): Current estimated finish date (from tracking Gantt chart): The planned cost to date: The actual cost to date: Schedule Variance:
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Summary:
1. < Based on the finish dates in the tracking Gantt chart, explain whether the project is currently ahead or behind and by how much.> 2.
Budget
The actual cost to date: The earned value to date:
Cost Variance: CPI:
Summary: 1. 2. Explanations Major changes or issues since last report Risk watch: