Project Management Concepts (mini PMP)

Description:
Prepare and submit a project management plan for a hypothetical project. The PMP is to be done by groups of 3-4.
Task Aim
The aim of this assignment is to:
 Examine understanding of the importance of preparing to manage a project
 Prepare a comprehensive document that would facilitate management of a project
 Examine understanding of the PMBoK knowledge areas
 Participate in group work simulating an industry project team
Task Description
You will be allocated to a group of 3-4 students from within your tutorial. You are not permitted to
form their own groups (please don’t ask, the answer will be no). Forming groups with people you
do not know is intentional; it is designed to simulate the experience of working as a team member
on a project, producing group synergy that will assist in the development of a sense of common
purpose, identify and use individual talents and expertise, encourage problem-solving and address
interpersonal issues and conflict management, and allow members to identify with the team and
encourage personal growth through experience. It also means you meet new people.
Once you have been allocated to a group, you are encouraged to elect a project manager who will
coordinate the individual member’s work into the final report. Although election of a project
manager is optional, your group is required to have a spokesperson.
As a group, then select your project. Each of you presented a project in the earlier charter
assignment. Your final project should be selected from one of those charters completed. The charter must have received at least a 50% pass mark, you might be tempted to just pick the charter
that got the highest mark – don’t do this. Instead, look at the project ideas and pick one that
everyone is interested in. A charter that received lower marks will also have some feedback that
can easily be used to improve the basic idea in the next assignment.
Your group should finalise your project name (which will also be your group name) and use it to
identify your work. This assignment is about taking that earlier charter, and now producing a more
detailed project management plan (PMP).
Your PMP should include the following sections, along with a suggested page limit per section:
1. Scope Statement and WBS (max 20 activities) – 3 pages
2. Time Management – 1 page + 1 page Gantt chart
3. Cost Management – 2 pages
4. Procurement – 1 page
5. Human Resources – 2 pages
6. Stakeholders & Communications – 1 page + 1 page register
7. Risk (max 5 risks) – 1 page
8. Quality – 1 page
Real PMPs often include many other sections, and are often much longer. So this assignment is
more like a mini PMP where we have streamlined the content and given you a strict page limit.
Additionally, your small weekly assignments cover some areas of a PMP, so we have decided not
to include these in the major assignment, just to avoid double-up and to lighten your assignment
workload where possible.
A cover page, which includes things like your (made-up) company name, project name, document
name, date and perhaps a nice project image or logo, should be included. A table of contents
should also be included. The cover page and table of contents are not included in the 14 page
limit. As an example, your whole assignment could be a total of 17 pages, with the suggested
structure included at the end of this document. A short introduction should be included, preferably
on the table of contents page. An executive summary should not be included. A conclusion is also
not required.
Peer Review
As part of this assignment you need to complete a peer review for your fellow group members.
There is a proforma for this on Blackboard. It should be completed by all group members
confidentiality, ie you shouldn’t discuss your peer review with anyone.
You need to download the word document, fill it out and then upload it to the link in Blackboard.
This should be done at the same time as the final assessment being submitted, ie by 5pm Friday
26 May. Your honest peer review feedback will enable us to give marks which are reflective of the
effort and input put in by each individual. The point of group work is not to let students ‘coast’ along
on the work of others, so please take the peer review seriously and provide honest and fair
feedback.
Formatting Notes
A PMP is a professional industry document – as such it is not expected to be pages of text in long
paragraphs. Instead, many items are best presented in table format, or a combination of short
paragraphs and dot point lists. The short page limit is intended to force you to be succinct and not
to ‘waffle on’. You can fit a lot of good content on a single page if you are clear and short with your
words, and if you choose the right way to present the info.
We do not encourage you to look online for templates, we find that this often confuses students
and unfortunately leads to lower marks. However, if you decide to look online for templates, you
are warned not to take any template as 100% correct, each template should be reviewed for its content to check if it includes all requirements and also that it doesn’t add unnecessary sections.
Only the 8 sections listed earlier should be included. There are no extra marks given for extra
sections, and pages beyond the 14 page limit will NOT be marked.
Particular attention should be paid to the use of:
 Appropriate graphics and tables
 Appropriate use of dot points
 Clear, concise and simple language
 Consistency throughout each section
 Headers and footers
 Table of contents which includes page numbers
Appendices should not be used in this assignment, they will not be marked.