Assessment Description
Summative Assessment
Rationale
Planning plays a significant role in coordinating project resources and the supply chain; therefore, it is critical for project success. However, some practitioners and scholars often question the overplayed importance of planning, monitoring and control, claiming that “Plans are nothing, changing plans is everything”. Planning can be tedious and requires exhaustive efforts. The developed plans are rarely complete, accurate, reliable, and realistic, requiring continuous revisions. Others exhort the value of proper monitoring and control by arguing that projects are little more than a long series of adversities that must be overcome. The question is commonplace in many working environments, indicating that the answer depends upon a project’s contextual circumstances.
Scenario
You are studying a postgraduate course while working part-time for a consultancy company specialising in managing large and complex projects. In the current year’s performance review, the company has witnessed a high failure rate due to projects being completed late and often at a significantly higher cost than initially anticipated. Some clients have threatened to terminate contracts and blacklist your company.
The management team believes their plans are often quite robust, but the issue could be how they monitor and control the projects. Your Manager would like to benefit from your newly found knowledge.
Tasks
You will write a professional report to your manager that critically analyses two planning techniques and recommends how these techniques can be used to monitor and control the project to solve the problems of cost and time overruns.
Your report will address the following tasks:
- Critically discuss the interrelationship between a robust plan and its effectiveness in monitoring and controlling a project;
- Evaluate and recommend three techniques that can be adapted to mitigate the risk of the project overrunning the planned time and budget.
Please Note:
This report is academic and professional, therefore, it must be structured appropriately. Reasoning and effective communication carry more weight than descriptive writing. An insightful report will specify the project context and synthesize the techniques for monitoring and controlling the project and the chosen planning techniques. A concise report improves readership and tends to attract better marks.
Submissions
- Submissions must be typed A4, 12pt double-spaced, with an appropriate front page that includes the report’s title; Module code and name; Your Student ID number (no names); Trimester; date of submission (mm/YYYY) and word count.
- Work must be fully referenced following the new ARU Harvard system.
Marking scheme, criteria or rubric
|
The quality of the critical discussion includes a critical understanding of the concepts, depth of analysis, synthesis and insight. |
40% |
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Informed personal approach to planning and monitoring that demonstrates the practical application of knowledge to develop appropriate, recognised and innovative solutions. |
40% |
|
Conclusions drawn |
10% |
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Quality of the paper, including communication, presentation referencing and sources of information. |
10% |