1
T2, 2017
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: (2 marks x 5 = 10 marks)
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 (30 marks)
Weighting/Total: 40% (A group of maximum 4 members)
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 with
solutions.
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) (See Assessment Item 2 link for
details)
4 9 A zip file containing:
1. A Word document with the answers to Part B
2. PartB.mpp
3. Practical 4
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)2
Notes:
• 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
• 2 marks per each sub-deliverable
• Attend tutorial and be able to show work if requested (tutors to monitor and track who/when they
check progress)
• Submissions must be on time – late submissions even by a minute will yield 0 marks
• Check your submission. Do not expect Moodle to submit automatically the ‘draft’ ones.
• Submit a reasonable effort in every submission
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 subdeliverables 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.3
Table of Contents
1.0 Overview .....................................................................................................................................................................4
2.0 The Case Study – Mobile App Development ..............................................................................................................4
2.1 Milestones...............................................................................................................................................................5
2.2 Table 1- Work Breakdown Structure ......................................................................................................................6
2.3 Table 2.....................................................................................................................................................................8
2.4 Table 3.....................................................................................................................................................................8
3.0 Part-A Developing the Schedule .................................................................................................................................8
4.0 Part B: Modifying the Schedule ................................................................................................................................11
5.0 Part C: Tracking Progress ..........................................................................................................................................12
5.1 Status Report ........................................................................................................................................................13
6.0 Peer Assessment.......................................................................................................................................................14
7.0 Final Group Submission ............................................................................................................................................14
7.1 Marking Guide/Criteria .........................................................................................................................................16
Appendix-A – Status Report Template............................................................................................................................174
1.0 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 sub-deliverables is worth a total of 5 marks, but these submissions are also to 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 30 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.
The following information is provided:
1. A case study (Mobile App Development)
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.
2.0 The Case Study – Mobile App Development
Synthesys Informatics is a mobile application development company specialising in delivering comprehensive
solutions in mobile apps, information systems development, systems integration and software testing. The
company’s headquarters are located in Melbourne and the company has over 15 years’ experience in custom
software and mobile development for medium to large enterprises. The company has won a contract to develop a5
Mobile App Messenger called BINCO for a big telecom company. The BINCO project is developing a mobile
application like WhatsApp, IMO and Skype etc. with special features in sharing files, streaming data and live events.
The project will be able to begin from 2 October 2017. This will be the official start date of the project and should be
noted in the Project Information section in Microsoft Project. You are appointed as a project manager to manage the
development and production of the new project. Several people are involved in this project including you as the
project manager, Ms. Anderson as the Director of Mobile App Development, and a project team listed in Table 3.
Your task is to generate the project schedule and allocate the resources provided to you using the information given
regarding the milestones (see below table) and the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) shown in Table 1, and the
resources and costs given in Table 3.
2.1 Milestones
The following milestones have to be taken into account by your team members.
Milestone Name Description
M1. Initiation Gate: Charter
approved
The project charter must be approved before any marketing or requirements
analysis begins.
M2. Functional
requirements approved
After the functional requirements are complete.
M3. Design Gate - ART
detailed design approval
This gate is a go/no go decision point where the Architectural Reference Team
has reviewed the detailed design for the prototype and approved that the
detailed design is sufficient to proceed with the development of the
prototype.
M4. Prototype
Development Complete
This milestone occurs after the completion of all three modules of the
prototype have been developed.
M5. Release 1 Development
complete
This milestone occurs after the completion of the two modules of Release 1
have been developed.
M6. Go-live Gate – Go-live
approved by Project Board
The project board will approve the Go-live after the errors and bugs identified
in the system and user acceptance testing of release 1 have been fixed.
M7. Completion Gate -
Project final report
approved by Project Board
The project board will approve the Project Final Report has been written
which includes lessons learnt, confirmation that procurements have closed
and all other documentation has been archived in compliance with the
organisations document management procedures.
M8. Post Project Review
Report Approval
Approval of the Post Project Review Report can only be done after the report
has been written.
Note that the following resource abbreviations are used:
Project Manager (PM)
Business Analyst (BA)
App Developer (AD)
Test Engineer (TE)
Project Officer (PO)
Marketing Officer (MO)6
2.2 Table 1- Work Breakdown Structure
Task name Duration Predecessor
The BINCO Project
1. System Concept & Planning
1.1 Concept paper 1 person day of PM
1.2 Project kick off meeting 1 person day of PM, BA,
PO and AD
1.1
1.3 Stakeholder identification 1 person day of PM and
BA
1.1
1.4 Risk identification 1 person day of PM, BA
and AD
1.1, 1.3
M1. Initiation Gate: Charter approved
2. Requirements analysis
2.1 Marketing campaign Stage 1 6 person days of MO M1
2.2 Focus group - ideation 4 person days of PM M1
2.3 Options analysis 10 person days of PM 2.2
2.4 Business requirements 15 person days of BA M1
2.5 Story board design 10 person days of BA 2.2
2.6 Functional requirements 10 person days of BA
and AD
2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5
M2. Functional requirements approved
3. Prototype Design
3.1 Prototype basic design
30 person days of AD
(assume all
3 staff are working
Together over the 30
days)
M2
3.2 Technical Feasibility Assessment 5 person days of AD M2
3.3 Architectural Reference Team presentation 5 person days of PM 3.1, 3.2
3.4 Prototype detailed design 15 person days of AD 3.3
M3. Design Gate - ART detailed design approval
4. Prototype development
4.1 Module 1 10 person days AD M3
4.2 Module 2 10 person days AD M3
4.3 Module 3 10 person days AD M3
M4. Prototype Development Complete
5. Prototype Test
5.1 Test case development 5 person days of TE M4
5.2 Prototype system testing 5 person days of TE 5.1
5.3 Prototype User Acceptance Testing 10 person days of TE 5.1
5.4 Prototype system & user interface bug fix 8 person days of AD 5.2, 5.3
5.5 Prototype Lessons Learnt 1 person day of BA, MO,
PM, PO, AD and TE
5.47
6. Release 1 Design
6.1 Marketing campaign Stage 2 6 person days of MO 5.2, 5.3
6.2 Detailed design 10 person days of TE and
AD ( 2 AD to be assigned
to this task)
5.5
7. Release 1 Development
7.1 Module 4 10 person days of AD 6.2
7.2 Module 5 10 person days of AD 6.2
M5. Release 1 Development complete
8. Release 1 Test
8.1 Release 1 Systems Testing
10 person days of TE
(assume all 2 staff are
working together over
the 10 days)
7.2
8.2 Release 1 User Acceptance Testing
6 person days of TE
(assume all 2 staff
are working together
over the 6 days)
7.2
8.3 Release 1 bug fix 5 person days of AD 8.1, 8.2
M6. Go-live Gate – Go-live approved by Project
Board
9. Launch
9.1 Marketing Campaign Stage 3 12 person days of MO M6
9.2 Deployment and Go-Live
1 person day of AD Note: Deployment and
Go-Live can occur on
the last day of the
Marketing campaign
Stage 3
10. Closure
10.1 Lessons Learnt 1 person day of BA, MO,
PM, PO, AD, TE
9.2
10.2 Close procurement 5 person days of PM 9.2
10.3 Release project team 1 person day of PM 10.1
10.4 Finalise and archive project documentation 7 person days of PM and
PO
10.1
M7. Completion Gate - Project final report approved
by Project Board
11. Maintenance
11.1 Maintenance period 8 person days of AD
(fixed duration)
9.2
12. Post Project Review
12.1 Post Project Review Report 2 person days of PO 11.1, M7
M8. Post Project Review Report Approval
Notes:
1. One “person-day” is a “unit of work” representing the work done by one person in one day. It means that the task
will normally take one person one day to complete. You can assume that a week refers to a normal working week of
5 days (Mon-Fri) with people working 8 hours per day. This is the default in Microsoft Project. Unless otherwise
stated you can also assume a linear relationship, i.e. 3 person-weeks will take one person 3 weeks or 3 people one8
Week. Note that this is not necessarily the case in practice. Refer to the discussion of the “mythical man-month” in
your text book (Brooks’ law, chapter 9). In addition, some tasks will be a fixed duration (e.g. delivery times).
2. For the purposes of this assignment (to reduce variability in solutions and complications for the markers) build your
Part A1 schedule by assuming that you allocate one resource (i.e. one person with the required skills) to each task. In
that case, if the task required 3 person-weeks of an AD you would assign one AD to the task and give it duration of 3
weeks.
2.3 Table 2 - Dates staff will not be available to work on the project
Public Holidays Dates
Melbourne Cup Day 7 Nov, 2017
Christmas – New year eve 25 Dec, 2017 – 1 Jan, 2018
inclusive
Australia Day 26 Jan, 2018
Labour Day 12 Mar, 2018
Good Friday 30 Mar, 2018
2.4 Table 3 – Available Resources
Resource $/hour Number Available
App Developer $85.00 3
Business Analyst $65.00 1
Test Engineer $60.00 2
Project Officer $45.00 1
Project Manager $100.00 1
Marketing Officer $75.00 1
The App Developers work a 40 hour week from Monday to Friday (i.e. a 5 day week with 8 hour days).
There are no differences among the abilities of the three App Developers).
3.0 Part-A Developing the Schedule
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.
3.1 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).
Q1. Use Microsoft Project 2013 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 3,
you should initially allocate:
• One AD to work on “5.4 Prototype system & user interface bug fix” for 8 days.9
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.
Ms. Anderson has asked that the following be included in the schedule:
i. Project information (start date, Author etc.) and Holidays listed in Table 2
ii. A project title of “The BINCO Project”. 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 1).
[See the Microsoft Project practicals for details about how to add the project title and how to make 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:
Task WBS Task WBS Duration Start Finish Predecessors Resource
Mode Name Predecessors Names
iv. The milestones are to appear at the end of the task list in your schedule. See the Milestone table
for details. (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. Anderson 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
schedule10
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.
Q2. At this point ignore any resource over allocations. Copy your PartAQ1.mpp schedule to PartAQ2.mpp.
i. Ms. Anderson asks you to allocate all two TE to task “5.3 Prototype User Acceptance Testing”. Assume that
with the additional resources the task still requires “10 person-days” (i.e. that there will be a reduction in
duration as the work can be divided equally between the two resources).
a. What is the new duration of task 5.3 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? (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.
Q3. 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
PartAQ3_resources.mpp file as part of your assignment submission.
i. Describe how you resolve any resource over-allocation issues.
ii. Does the fact that your project is resource-constrained have any impact on your overall project duration and
end date? Explain the changes you notice and give reasons.
Continue working with this version of the schedule (PartAQ3_resources.mpp) when you are answering the
remaining questions in Part A.
Q4. Write a memo to Ms. Anderson providing the following information:
i. The expected completion date of the project, assuming it commences with task 1.1 on 2nd October
2017 and the total duration of the project;
ii. 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;
iii. 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
App Developer
Business Analyst
Test Engineer
Project Officer
Project Manager
Marketing Officer
Total Direct Labour Costs:11
Assume that you will send the project schedule as an attachment to the memo. The information in the memo
must correspond to the PartAQ3_resources.mpp file.
Information about writing memo can be found on the unit website in the same area as this specification.
Q5. Are there any tasks/activities or deliverables that you believe may have been overlooked and should be included
in the WBS? You should be able to identify at least one possibility.
4.0 Part B: Modifying the Schedule
Copy your PartAQ3_resources.mpp file into a file called PartB.mpp file.
The following changes to the estimates for Tasks 7.1, 7.2 and 9.1 are proposed.
Task New Resource & Duration estimates
7.1 Module 4 15 person days of AD
7.2 Module 5 15 person days of AD
9.1 Marketing Campaign Stage 3 15 person days of MO, BA
In addition to the changes in the above table, Ms. Anderson has asked you to allocate all AD to work together on
7.1 and 7.2
Based on the information given above complete the following tasks. Read all the tasks before you commence.
1. In your PartB.mpp make the changes in the order given in the tables below and as you make each change
note the impact relative to the “current status” (i.e. the status after the previous change) it has on the:
• Overall project duration
• End date
• Direct labour costs for the project
When answering 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 7.1, 7.2 and 9.1). 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.
1. 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 / No Impact
By how much Explanation
Change in person-days
required for 7.1 & 7.2
Allocation of All 3 AD
to 7.1 & 7.2
Change in person-days
required for 9.1
Allocation of BA to 9.112
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 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 7.1, 7.2 and 9.1 including the
additional 3 AD and allocation of BA). Some of the issues may be resolved as you work through the changes.
2. 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 / No Impact
By how much Explanation
Change in person-days
required for 7.1 & 7.2
Allocation of All 3 AD
to 7.1 & 7.2
Change in person-days
required for 9.1
Allocation of BA to 9.1
5.0 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 26th January 2018 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 26/01/2018). 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 26/01/2018 is the end of week 16, you should
record the status report number as “8” when you complete the status report for this section of the assignment.13
In your PartC.mpp file (in which you have saved a baseline)
a. Set the status date to 26th January 2018 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.
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 the status report questions below.
5.1 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. Based on the current status of your project, you are to produce a status report using the
template provided in Appendix-A 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”.
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”.14
6.0 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.
7.0 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. Otherwise, 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 set of .mpp files:
a. PartAQ1.mpp
b. PartAQ2.mpp
c. PartAQ3_resources.mpp
d. PartB.mpp
e. PartC.mpp
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.15
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:16
7.1 Marking Guide/Criteria
Assignment Criteria Marks Marks
Question available awarded
Individual Subdeliverables
Marked separately on Moodle
10
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 2
Q3 Dealing with resource issues 2
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 16
Part B
Q1 The adequacy of the amended Project Plan 2
Q2
Description of impacts of each of the changes
on duration 2
Q3
Description of impacts of each of the changes
on cost 2
Sub Total Part B 6
Part C
Q1 Save baseline 0.5
Q2 Status date set + gridline + 0.5
Enter sensible status data (up to the gridline
only) 1
Completed status report 6
Sub Total Part C 8
TOTAL 4017
Appendix-A – Status Report Template
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 1 (start),
M2
M3
M4
M5
M6
M7
M8
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:
The earned value to date:
Schedule Variance: 18
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:
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