BM9615 Project Management Assessment Individual Report | Northumbria University, Singapore

Assignment Brief

Instructions

A virtual team consists of 4-6 students will be formed at the beginning of the semester. Once the team has been created, each team will need to work on a project that is agreed by the team members and the tutor. The team will work on the workshop exercises on the project of choice throughout the semester to prepare a set of documents needed for planning, developing, and managing the project.

Background

Your team of consultants has been contracted by Northumbria University to carry out a consultancy project that aims at

(i) improving students’ experience at Northumbria,

(ii) promoting Northumbria’s brand name, or

(iii) enhancing the operation efficiency of a local company.

The project is called Project X. Northumbria University has two requirements for Project X:

(1) The budget should be limited to £50,000

(2) The product/service should be delivered by 31^st December 2025

Your team will need to prepare project management documents to manage various project aspects, such as stakeholder, scope, cost, schedule, and risk, to demonstrate the planning of your idea. Your team will then present the work during the seminars to the tutor, who acts as the representative of the University/company.

Assessment

The final summative assessment is a 2000-word individual report (70%).  together with the team-based project management documents and group work (30%). You will review the project management knowledge and technique you have gained in this module and appraise them in the project of your choice. In your report, you will need to:

1. demonstrate your understanding of a range of contrasting theory and research about approaches to contemporary project management practice and solutions;
2. analyse how you engaged with project management techniques and methods on your own and as part of a team; and
3. evaluate the use and effectiveness in applying specialist software technology within the context of the module.

The report should follow the structure below:

1. Introduction of the project (10%) – In this section, you need to provide an overview of the project and provide justifications towards your Project c (MLO1,2)
2. Key project management knowledge areas leading to project success (30%) – In this section, you need to draw on academic and/or practitioner articles to discuss the key project management knowledge areas that you feel important in leading to the success of Project X. You need to define project success in the context of your Project, and elaborate your arguments regarding the chosen knowledge areas, and their relation to the Project success you defined. You are expected to review and summarise key arguments from the literature to show your engagement and understanding of the subject matter. (MLO1, 2 ,4)
3. Critical appraisal of project management documents (20%) – In this section, you need to critically appraise TWO project management documents you have developed. The appraisal should be specific and contextualised, where arguments should be built upon the characteristics of the Project, the project team, and/or the chosen organisation in which the Project intends to conduct. (MLO1, 2 ,4)
4. The group work should follow the structure below:
   Project management document package (30%) – In this section, you need to showcase the project management documents package developed by your team. A full list of the required documents could be found in the assessment folder. (MLO1, 2 ,4)
5. Quality of communication (10%) –

References, structure, grammar, and format

Full guidance of the assessment will be made during lectures and workshops.

Submission

A Turnitin submission portal will be set up for you to submit an electronic copy of your essay and group work via the eLP (Blackboard). The submission date will be communicated to you by the programme office and the tutors. Guidance on using Turnitin will be provided during your lectures and workshops. You are NOT required to submit a hard copy of your work.

Formative Feedback

All students should take note of the formative feedback provided during the workshops throughout the semester in order to feed this forward into their final summative assessment.

Summative Feedback

You will be provided with a mark and feedback on your assignment and group work, which will include any actions to be taken to improve performance. This will be returned to you electronically, the Programme Office will inform you of the date this will be made available to you.

Late submission of work

Where coursework is submitted without approval, after the published hand-in deadline, the following penalties will apply.

For coursework submitted up to 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline without approval, 10% of the total marks available for the assessment (i.e.100%) shall be deducted from the assessment mark.

For clarity: a late piece of work that would have scored 65%, 55% or 45% had it been handed in on time will be awarded 55%, 45% or 35% respectively as 10% of the total available marks will have been deducted.

The Penalty does not apply to Pass/Fail Modules, i.e. there will be no penalty for late submission if assessments on Pass/Fail are submitted up to 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline.

Coursework submitted more than 1 working day (24 hours) after the published hand-in deadline without approval will be regarded as not having been completed. A mark of zero will be awarded for the assessment and the module will be failed, irrespective of the overall module mark.

For clarity: if the original hand-in time on working day A is 12noon the 24 hour late submission allowance will end at 12noon on working day B.

These provisions apply to all assessments, including those assessed on a Pass/Fail basis.

Word limits and penalties

If the assignment is within +10% of the stated word limit no penalty will apply.

The word count is to be declared on the front page of your assignment and the assignment cover sheet.  The word count does not include:

Please note, in text citations [e.g. (Smith, 2011)] and direct secondary quotations [e.g. “dib-dab nonsense analysis” (Smith, 2011 p.123)] are INCLUDED in the word count.

If this word count is falsified, students are reminded that under ARTA this will be regarded as academic misconduct.

If the word limit of the full assignment exceeds the +10% limit, 10% of the mark provisionally awarded to the assignment will be deducted.  For example: if the assignment is worth 70 marks but is above the word limit by more than 10%, a penalty of 7 marks will be imposed, giving a final mark of 63.

Students must retain an electronic copy of this assignment (including ALL appendices) and it must be made available within 24hours of them requesting it be submitted.

Note:    For those assessments or partial assessments based on calculation, multiple choice etc., marks will be gained on an accumulative basis.  In these cases, marks allocated to each section will be made clear.

Academic Misconduct

The Assessment Regulations for Taught Awards (ARTA) contain the Regulations and procedures applying to cheating, plagiarism and other forms of academic misconduct.

The full policy is available at: http://www.northumbria.ac.uk/sd/central/ar/qualitysupport/asspolicies/

You are reminded that plagiarism, collusion and other forms of academic misconduct as referred to in the Academic Misconduct procedure of the assessment regulations are taken very seriously by Newcastle Business School.  Assignments in which evidence of plagiarism or other forms of academic misconduct is found may receive a mark of zero. 

Mapping to Programme Goals and Objectives

This assessment will contribute directly to the following Undergraduate programme goals and objectives.

1. Knowledgeable about the theory and practice of international business and management

Objectives: Students will be able to:

2. Skilful in the use of professional and managerial techniques and processes

Objectives: Students will be able to:

3. Aware of ethical issues impacting on business and professional practice

Objectives: Students will be able to:

4. Employable as graduates

Objectives: Students will be able to:

Module Specific Assessment Criteria