MSc ITMOC Oct..

‘09
Managing & Learning in Project Environments

ITO.007: Managing & Learning in Project Environments

Group Project

Group Task:

Background:

You are a member of a medium sized E-Business Consultancy that provides professional
advice and consultancy services as well as design, delivery and support services for
organisations wishing to embrace the opportunities offered by business to business and
business to customer e-commerce.

An opportunity has arisen for you to win a contract to develop an E-Business solution for
AutoBook Publishing. Whilst some work has already been conducted for this contract the
dramatic departure of the previous project manager means that you will have to start
again from basics. Appendix A provides brief notes about the project.

You have been advised by G. Hartley (a senior partner in your company) that this is a
‘must’ win contract for your organisation.

However, he is also conscious of the vulnerable position that the departure of the
previous project manager has left the company in. Therefore, all future projects
(including the AutoBook Publishing project) must be executed in accordance with a
defined project management methodology.

Hint: When you are engaged in this exercise you may find it beneficial for one person
or a small group of people to ‘role play’ the various actors / stakeholders in this
project. You are not going to be assessed on the ‘accuracy’ of your assumptions,
statements regarding the requirements, timescales etc. rather you are being
assessed on your ability to deploy a project management toolkit.

Requirement:

Hartley has passed the project file to yourselves and advised you that your ‘Project
Definition & Plan’ to deliver this project must be developed prior to the sales team
drawing up the actual contract to execute the work..

Your planning work is essential as it will provide the basis on which the company will
adjudicate the risk of the project and therefore take a decision as to whether they should
submit a bid and at what premium (i.e. profit margin).

Therefore it is down to your team to present the project plan detailing how the project
will be set up and managed from today until the completion of the project. In this
exercise take today to be the 1st October 2009.

ITMOC – e-books
Ian Cammack
MSc ITMOC Oct.. ‘09
Managing & Learning in Project Environments

Hint: In the ‘real world’ this assignment would take 1-2 people in the region of 2 days
to complete thoroughly]

Hartley has advised you that the normal ‘house model’ for the ‘Project Definition & Plan’
document will be used to adjudicate your response; this template covers the following
key questions:

Viability aspect:
QA1: Quality • Do we know who the client is and who are the other stakeholders
involved in this project?
• What precisely are we committing to deliver to the client (i.e. the
deliverables)?
• What are the measures of success for these deliverables?
• Do we know which processes / work have to be executed to
complete this project?
• Are there any areas where we will not meet the requirements and
expectations need to be managed?
QA2: Time • In what sequence will the activities be executed?
• How long will each work package take?
• What is the shortest time in which the project can be completed?
• What work can be done simultaneously?
• Which activities are critical (that I, if delayed will affect the end
date)?
What are the appropriate milestones?
• Can specified milestones be met?
QA3: Resource What resources will be needed?
When will the resources be required?
QA4: Cost • How much will the project cost?
• How much is fixed / fluid?
• Are the costs within any given cost constraints?
• When will we spend the money?
QA5: Risk • What are the areas of risk / uncertainty in this project?
• What actions will you take (or plan to take) to mitigated these
risks?
QA6: Control • How will you manage this contract to that you will deliver a
successful project on time, in budget and to the specified quality
standards?

Hint: These questions are the focus of the assessment. As well as evaluating whether
you have addresses these fully, partially, or not at all I will also be looking to see
how do the answers inter-relate with each other. For example, if you propose a
strategy of breaking the project down according to X then does the way that you
control the project sit comfortably alongside this strategy?

ITMOC – e-books
Ian Cammack
MSc ITMOC Oct.. ‘09
Managing & Learning in Project Environments

Constraints:

As with any project there are a number of constraints that you will have to adhere to:

• No contact may be made with any organisation or individual that provides the
services required to fulfil this contract. If you do make contact to any external
party / individual then you will receive a mark of 0% in this assessment.

• You may look at appropriate web sites; but may NOT contact these people /
organisations.

• No contractual obligations shall be signed by the group.

• Email (i.e. asking Hartley questions about the specific project & or content of the
tender) contact will be through one person in each group & each group will have a
distinguishing name. Failure to comply with this will be penalised.

• Contact with G. Hartley will be via email address i.cammack@lancaster.ac.uk

with the name of the group in the message title. Emails will be answered within
48hrs of receipt during normal office hours. A limit of 5 messages and 2 x 30 minute
meetings per group is permitted. If you do not manage this process then Hartley will
take a dim view of your ability to manage future multi-million dollar contracts.

• Note this is not the sales pitch – you are NOT writing the tender. You are
preparing the PROJECT DEFINITION & PLAN; the internal document that is
created to help us assess whether we want to bid for the piece of work and to
determine the contract price. Therefore this document will focus on the management
of the project.

• This document will be between 30-45 pages long. It is a working document –

therefore does not require detailed descriptive narrative (e.g. what a work breakdown
structure is) although justification of your approach / rationale etc. may be
appropriate. Note these pages are not full of text – so it is not as lengthy as you may
be assuming (for example the work breakdown structure may be 3–4 pages long; but
comprised of only 300 words).

Assessment:

The group assignment is worth 40% of the module mark

Hand in Date:

The group report shall be submitted as per course handbook.

ITMOC – e-books
Ian Cammack
MSc ITMOC Oct.. ‘09
Managing & Learning in Project Environments

Individual Assignment:

The individual task is in the form of one 2,000 word assignment.

Note this is a project too and you should not use more resources (words) than allocated. If
you use significantly more resources than are available then you will be penalised.

Title: Reflections & Analysis on a Project Experience.

In essence what I want you to consider it the importance of two or three aspects of the
tools and techniques which we have covered on the course.

The selection criteria that I would encourage you to use is ‘which of these tools could
offer me the most benefit if I implemented them in my practice?’

For each part, critically discuss:

• what your main learning points are,

• why, the learning is important (e.g. in relation to your previous experience / future
aspiration),
• what the literature says about alternative ways of approaching this in the future,
and
• how might you apply some of the ideas (learning) to future work in organisations.

ITMOC – e-books
Ian Cammack
MSc ITMOC Oct.. ‘09
Managing & Learning in Project Environments

GRADE DESCRIPTORS FOR THE INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT

85-100% An outstanding piece of work, which is publishable or virtually

publishable in its own right where appropriate. The work should,
provide: critical analysis of the whole range of relevant literature;
critical discussion of the nature and sources of evidence; critical
reflection on the choice of research methodology; sound analysis;
presentation of conclusions where appropriate. The work at this level
should exhibit a high degree of originality and pertinence. Full
scholarly apparatus (including referencing) should be appropriate and
effective, and the piece should be well presented and well written.
70-84% An excellent piece of work, which contains a high degree of insight,
some originality and pertinence. The level of critical analysis and
reflection as applied to the literature, evidence and analysis should be
high where appropriate. Appropriate and effective scholarly apparatus
should be used and the piece should be well presented and well
written. The standard may show that the candidate has clear potential
for doctoral work.
60-69% A good or very good piece of work, which is well planned, well
structured and pertinent. There should be critical review of relevant
literature, and critical analysis of evidence where appropriate. The
work should go beyond taught material by showing evidence of wide
reading and/or personal insight. There should (particularly in
dissertations) be some attempt at original contribution, though this
may be more limited than in the case of distinction level answers, or it
may contain minor flaws. Scholarly apparatus should be used
effectively and the work should be well presented and well written.
50-59% An adequate and substantially correct but unimaginative response to
the question, drawing heavily on taught material. There should be
some evidence of either wide reading, critical insight, or originality,
but this will be limited or somewhat flawed. Scholarly apparatus may
be used imperfectly and the quality of presentation may be wanting.
40-49% A partial and incomplete treatment of the topic, which may
furthermore have a number of flaws in the argument. A mark in this
range may also be awarded where there is an absence of any critical
analysis. There should be at least an attempt to handle the scholarly
apparatus. Overall, the work would not be worthy of a pass at masters
level.
30-39% The work contains some material of relevance to some part of the
question, but is seriously flawed or thin in content. There is
insufficient understanding of the basics to allow any form of critical
analysis.
0-29% Little work of any relevance to the question; a ‘missed’ question;
analysis which is wrong and demonstrates fundamental lack of
understanding. Little written.

ITMOC – e-books
Ian Cammack
MSc ITMOC Oct.. ‘09
Managing & Learning in Project Environments

Hand in Date:

The individual assignment shall be submitted as per course handbook..

Congress has proven itself to be pro neo liberal, pseudo secular, pro centralist,
pseudo effective, pro opportunist masked under widely familiar

There’s a thing in my pocket, but it’s not one thing, it’s many./It’s the same as other
things but exactly like nothing else./It has an eye and an ear that shares what billions of
humans see./ It can rally the masses, it can silence the crowd./It can speak a thousand
words but it has no voice./It can find you the places so you can get lost./And it can let
others feel what you’ve just been touched by/repeat first line.

ITMOC – e-books
Ian Cammack
MSc ITMOC Oct.. ‘09
Managing & Learning in Project Environments

APPENDIX A

AutoBook Publishing

Client: AutoBook Publishing; UK

Background: AutoBook Publishing Ltd specialises in a variety of

automotive books, ranging from practical do it yourself
manuals to leather bound collectors editions.

After eleven years of trading, the company’s co-founder,

Rod Zamoyski, wants to create an eCommerce website that
would allow its customers to place orders and access
detailed catalogue information.

Requirements: Initial briefing with the client has identified the following
range of requirements; these need to be developed through
a further analysis of the stakeholders involved in this
project.

• Total re-design of website structure

• New look interface
• eCommerce website must compliment existing sales
channels
• Deploy a cost effective web based customer and order
management system that would enable staff to
quickly process orders and handle customer enquiries
• Create new products on the website
• Handle multiple currencies
• Provide online self service account creation and
management for customers
• Content rich product previews of publications
• Product promotion facility
• Secure web based environment
• Staff need to be able to manage product, customer,
and order data on a variety of operating systems
• Website must not look like a typical eCommerce
website

ITMOC – e-books
Ian Cammack
MSc ITMOC Oct.. ‘09
Managing & Learning in Project Environments

Initial Assessment of Success Criteria:

 Double Return On Investment within two years
 Over 500 registered customers from all over the
world
 Over 25,000 visits per annum

Project Teams Observations / Thoughts:

• First venture for the company into eCommerce

• Each customer is allocated an individual account

before they can buy items from the site. This then
enables them to save and track their orders. It also
allows AutoBook to administer these orders through
the web, providing them with detailed customer,
transaction and stock information.

• A key consideration in designing the site was that

customers could make transactions without worrying
about fraud. As such, all transactions carried out
through the site have StrongArm Secure Certification,
a feature which is offered as standard by WebCash
Interactive.

• The site needs an easy to use browser interface

allowing users to access an array of catalogue specific
information, which is available in the form of acrobat
files and thumbnail pictures.

• This is e-commerce facility is complimented by the

company’s newsletter which customers can sign up to
on-site, this provides information about forthcoming
publications and special offers.

• Special attention must also be taken to ensure that the

‘look and feel’ of the site is not only evocative of
AutoBook’s brand image but also appeals to wide
customer base.
Project History:

10/12/08 Initial contact made by client

14/12/08 Site visit by G. Stocks (Appointed PM for WebEase)

[G. Stocks left WebEase suddenly on the 21/12/08 – no further

details in file]

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Ian Cammack