Briefing for Project Management Simulation Case Study

Background
You will be allocated to a small group of students to undertake this assignment. In this group you
will plan and pseudo manage a relatively complex project. The simulation of project management
has two phases, at the end of each you will make submissions for assessment and presentations
for assessment.
At the end of phase 1 you will make submission 1 which will be a group based submission,
carried out collectively and using the shared knowledge and resources at your disposal. Once
submission 1 has been made on STUDYnet, each of you will make a presentation for an
individual mark. The criteria for the presentation are given later in this briefing. The tutor team will
read submission 1 and will provide feedback and a list of required changes to your project plan.
Phase 2 of the simulation involves you individually making changes to the plan in the light of
feedback before making a second submission (submission 2). Submission 2 is an individual
submission (not a group submission). Once submission 2 has been made on STUDYnet, each of
you will make a presentation for an individual mark.
Once the second presentation is complete, the simulation will terminate.

The Project
Once you have been placed into groups you are asked to choose one of the following 3 projects
that you will create a project plan for and subsequently pseudo manage. Briefings for each
project are available separately from the tutor team.
i. Provision of 8 new and different holiday clubs for school children in
Hertfordshire.
ii. Introduction of secure electronic voting across the UK.
iii. Development of a Project management Model, Training and Guidance for
University of Hertfordshire managed projects.

Your Brief
Your team have been retained to plan and project manage the project you have chosen above.
Your role will be to set up the project, carry out the initial project planning and produce the initial
baseline plan including all elements of cost, resources, risks, organisation and quality. You will
then be asked to make changes to that plan and react to events. For the purpose of this project
you should assume a project start date of 1st September 2008 the reason for this will be
explained in the introductory lecture.

Phase 1
As a team you are to decide on the most suitable method and approach to manage your project.
For submission 1, you must also prepare a comprehensive baseline plan using elements of
Microsoft Project where necessary. Your baseline plan must include a comprehensive risk
assessment, quality plan, a project organisation structure, project methodology, a baseline Gantt
chart, a resource schedule, and a detailed breakdown of the project costs. You should also
include anything else that is necessary for the effective management of this project. You should

also include a high-level work breakdown structure for this project. Identify in your report the
major milestones and define the projects baseline. These will be reflected in your detailed Gantt
chart for all of the project activities. A resource schedule for the project will also be required to
describe how many personnel, of what type and expertise, would be needed at each stage of the
project and show the work load throughout the project is balanced.
Your submission 1 report should also provide any necessary justification or explanation of the
approach you have chosen so that the rationale for your decisions or judgements in comparison
to others you might have made is clear. You will be able to seek clarification at weekly tutorial
sessions and you can expect the client for your project (played by the tutors) to intervene
periodically in the simulation with additional materials and information.
Submission 1.
Your first submission is to be your baseline plan, which will include all the items outlined above.
The submission will consist of two elements; a group report in Word format and your MSP file.
Both of these must be submitted via StudyNET, using the assignment submission system. Only
one submission per group is required. The front page of your report must clearly state the names
and ID / student numbers (SRN) of the members of your group, the anticipated start and end
dates of the project, the duration of the project (in weeks), any contingency allowance and the
total project cost excluding any contingency fund you intend to establish. Deadlines for the
submission is detailed in your module handbook. Reports submitted even 1 minute late will be
subject to a maximum mark of 50% (if the report warrants a mark of 50%).
Your submission 1 report CANNOT exceed 40 pages and must be word processed in Microsoft
Word. Please note that it is not necessary to reproduce all the Gantt charts etc in your report
since you can also submit your MSP file. You may however wish to illustrate your report with
extracts from your MSP file.
Presentation 1.
Each member of the group will give a presentation on aspects of the proposed project plan and
proposed project management approach / methodology. Each individual presentation should be
maximum of 10 minutes in duration. Collectively all team members must present an overview of
their proposed plan, but individual presentations will cover a sub set of that plan and approach.
For instance, one student may choose to present the project approach, organisation structure,
scope, etc, whilst another might choose to present the costing and resourcing for the project. The
subdivision of topics for individual presentation must be agreed within the group.

Response to your submission 1.

The tutors will inspect your submission and will provide some additional instructions / feedback
via StudyNET. These instructions, which will be group specific, may include changes of
personnel in your team, changes to costs and materials, new deadlines or adaptations to the
tasks you have submitted, as well as information on the percentage completion of certain tasks.
There may also be other instructions as well as some feedback on the report. Your original
submission will retained so you should keep a copy of your submission for yourselves.

Phase 2.
Working individually you will respond to the changes given in response to your first submission
and adapt your project plan, costs, risks, resource allocations, etc, in line with the information
received. It is important that you are clear on the changes made as a result of the additional

information you received, especially why the approach you have taken is the best (either on time,
cost, risk, quality or resource grounds) approach for the successful completion of the project.
Submission 2.
Your second submission, which will be an individual effort, must include an updated original
baseline plan showing progress to date, with actuals. The submission will also include updated
project costs, and any changes to the risk assessment, organisation structure, methodology or
resource loadings. A full justification for any necessary changes and how these impact on the
Quality, Cost and Delivery aspects of your project is also required. The emphasis should be on
justifying any changes and why these changes are the best ones for the project as a whole. Any
additional human resources required in excess of those specified in the original project plan will
need to be approved by the tutor team. The front page of the report of your second submission
must clearly state the names and ID / student numbers of the members of your group, the original
and revised start and end dates of the project, the original and revised duration of the project (in
weeks), the original and revised total project cost (excluding any contingency allowance) and the
original and revised contingency fund for your project. In addition to this your report must include
a 2 page personal reflection on your learning over the period of the simulated project. The
reflection should be self critical, identifying areas or activities that you as an individual would do
differently if you started the exercise again, and what lessons you might take from this exercise
and use in future employment. Equally, you should highlight any aspect or aspects of the project
that you felt were successfully completed or particularly well carried out. You should comment on
how the team worked, whether there was any conflict and if so how this was dealt with.
Your submission 2 report CANNOT exceed 30 pages. In addition to the report you should submit
the revised MSP file for your project. The deadline for submission 2 is detailed in your module
handbook. Reports submitted even 1 minute late will be penalised by the awarding of a mark of
50% (if the report warrants a mark of 50%).
Presentation 2.
Each student will give a presentation on the necessary modifications to their original project plan /
approach / methodology as a result of the feedback received from tutors. Emphasis should be
placed on the justification of any changes you have had to make and the impact that these have
on quality, cost and delivery aspects of the project, as well as affect on management issues,
project management strategy or methodology. Each individual presentation should be a
maximum of 10 minutes in duration.
Response to your submission 2.
You will not receive any additional information after the second submission, this submission will
be kept for assessment. The simulation will have terminated.

Distribution of marks
The breakdown of marks for this assignment will be;
30% for submission 1 (group) this will include a peer assessment element
15% for presentation 1 (individual)
40% for submission 2 (individual)
15% for presentation 2 (individual)