EF931 Project Management

Group Case Study

Date of issue: 22nd September 2017 (Week 1)

Submission of the Full Report

Deadline: 17th Nov 2017 before 12 noon (Week 9)

Contribution to overall module mark: 50%

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Your team (4-5 members) has been employed by ABC University in Glasgow to plan a
Christmas Party. The event will take place on 18th Dec. Your team is responsible for
organising all aspects of the event including (not limited to) booking the entertainment,
advertising and ticketing.

Important Guidelines:
You need to specify the start date and the end date of the project.
Be sure that the ticket price you offer covers your costs.
Any costs (e.g. venue, beverages, food, music, promotion, etc) need to be justified.
You must make a minimum of 2,000 profit.
You may decide the venue where the party will be held.
Assume that the venue is available from 6:00am on 18th Dec to 6:00am on 19th Dec. You
do not need to contact the venue directly.
You may research any information from various sources (e.g. Internet, academic journals,
textbooks, library, etc). Proper referencing is needed.
You need to prepare for any updates/changes (made by lecturer) to this case study.
You need to report how the team responds to such an update/change (if applicable).
Other assumptions can be made with any reasonable explanation and justification.

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Using the case study, complete the following tasks (each carries different marks):

Task 1 (20%)
Prepare a Project Charter and Project Scope Statement (see Figure 1). They together define
all major aspects of the project and form the basis for its planning and management and also
the assessment of overall success. Also it is beneficial to make the SMART project objectives
(see Figure 2).

Figure 1: Project Charter and Project Scope Statement

Figure 2: SMART Objectives

Task 2 (25%)
Produce a work breakdown structure (WBS). Aim at listing a minimum of 30 activities
(that can be sequenced) and illustrate the breakdown with a tree diagram (e.g. Figure 3). The
breakdown should have a clear logical basis, although technical details may vary. Create your
own category names as required and remember that there can never be only one right way for
a project of this nature, as long as you justify your choice. Explain what basis you use to
create the categories and work packages (activities beneath each category). You must make
sure that the activities are broken down in sufficient detail. For example, you would NOT

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have an activity called Invitations, this should be broken down into Design Invitations,
Create Invitations, Print Invitations and Distribute Invitations.

Activities that can

be sequenced

Figure 3: Sample WBS of a Wedding Party (not all activities are included)

Task 3 (20%)
Develop a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (see Figure 4) fully linked to your work
breakdown structure (each activity should be linked to a person) clearly showing the
assignment of each activity.

Figure 4: Sample Responsibility Assignment Matrix

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Task 4 (20%)
Produce a work schedule (see Figure 5) using MS Project (see self-training material on
MyPlace) that uses the activities created in Task 2. Create your own time estimates, resource
(e.g. people, materials) requirements and costs as required and remember that there can never
be only one right way for a project of this nature, as long as you justify your choice. Save this
project as EF931_GroupXX. (XX means your group number, e.g. 01, 12 or 23)

Figure 5: Sample Work Schedule using MS Project

Task 5 (15%)
Identify 15 major risks for the project, linking each risk to the overall project objectives in
Task 1. Prioritise them using a Probability and Impact Matrix (see Figure 6) and develop
comprehensive mitigation steps for each of the top five risks. You must then reflect on why
identifying risk is important in the project management process. You should refer to academic
literature on risk management.

Figure 6: Probability and Impact Matrix

The report should contain no more than 4,000 words in length (excluding the cover page,
executive summary, the reference list and appendix if any). Figures and Tables (if any) should
be of clear quality and they should be numbered consecutively with Roman Numerals. The
titles for both figures and tables should be provided. References must be in Harvard Style
and carefully checked for completeness, accuracy and consistency. More details about
referencing can be found on MyPlace. Standard peer assessment policy is applied.

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For Journals in the reference list: surname, initials, (year), article title, journal title, volume
number (Issue number), pages.

Example: Nagaya, N. and Kangawa, K. (2006), Therapeutic potential of Ghrelin in the

treatment of heart failure. Drugs, 66(4), 439-448.

For Books in the reference list: surname, initials, (year), book title, edition, place of
publication, publisher.

Example: Simons, N. E., Menzies, B. and Matthews, M. (2001), A Short Course in Soil and
Rock Slope Engineering. London, Thomas Telford Publishing.

Note 1: You are advised to use a minimum of 10 references (e.g. internet links, journal
articles, textbooks, magazines, etc) for your report. Each team must submit the report and
the MS Project file via MyPlace (paper submission is NOT needed). Similarity check via
Turnitin will be required on your report and no more than 10% of similarity rate is
expected. Any violation to the above requirements would be penalised.

Note 2: The report should be submitted in accordance with University regulations with cover
page containing group number, details (full name, registration number and programme)
of all team members, date of submission, and word counts. All submissons should be
made no later than the given deadline. Penalty of 5% per day (including weekend days) will
be issued to any late submission.

Extensions may be granted in two circumstances ONLY:

(i) if for medical reasons you are unable to submit a piece of work by the deadline
any such requests for an extension must be supported by a doctors note; or
(ii) in the case of extenuating personal circumstances again something must be
submitted in writing to support any request for an extension.

Relevant Online Information:

http://eventjuice.co.uk/planning-the-christmas-party-parties-18-steps-to-organising-the-
perfect-celebration/
https://www.wildapricot.com/articles/how-to-plan-an-event
http://www.wikihow.com/Plan-a-Party