Project Applied Technology

FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT 1 [100 Marks]

INSTRUCTIONS: The purpose of the assessment is to gauge competence in MS Project and its application across the project management syllabus. You will be presented with a project for which you are required to develop a mini project plan. DO NOT present a project plan for a project of your choice. You MUST cite and reference any theory applied. Marks will be awarded for correct representation per section in the plan as well as for appropriately labelled and referenced extracts (graphs, tables, charts) from MS Project. Extracts are to be placed immediately before or after the discussion in the relevant section of the project plan and reference MUST be made to the extract in the discussion to get that question's full marks. The mini project management plan must be no more than TEN (10) pages.

Project Name: Plan a Rock Concert

Background Upon completion of a Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management course at MANCOSA you came into contact with a newly formed rock band which is the talk of town. They requested you to help them organise and undertake a rock concert for June 20, 2023 (their performance must start at nine pm until six in the morning) knowing you just acquired your project management skills which the group is in dire need of. Marketing should take two weeks (10 working days). Planning and execution of the project should not be more than 12 days.

Answer ALL the questions in this section. Question 1 (25 Marks) Define the project key objective and scope. Identify project tasks using the WBS. MS Project WBS and task sheet to be presented and discussed in an essay format.

FYI:

Indicate overall project costs (1 mark) Benefits of the project in bullet points (5 marks) Give the client a list of meetings indicating who, whom and where they will be held (6 Marks) Estimated times and desired deliverables (2 Marks) Cost table (4 Marks) Project schedule (4 Marks) Project summary (3 Marks

Question 2 (25 Marks) Develop a realistic schedule on MS Project. Discuss the project dependencies and list the tasks on the critical path. Discuss the critical path tasks, and methods used to shorten the critical path. List and discuss the milestones captured on MS Project. Be very specific about each milestone, including the project finish milestone. Project schedule and Milestone schedule to be presented and discussed in an essay format.

FYI:

State key project objectives (5 marks) Discuss and present task sheet with WBS from MS Project (20 marks)

Question 3 (25 Marks) Allocate resources and compile a budget on MS Project. List all resources that will be needed, including your staff. Discuss assumed resources, including client information needed. Especially note external resources and requirements. Present the resources per task on the task sheet created in Question 1. Allocate costs per activity with sub-totals at milestone levels and with total estimated cost for the project. Briefly discuss the cost estimates, where the costs mainly go, and efforts made to save costs.

FYI:

Project schedule (10 marks) Discussion of critical path tasks (4 marks) Discussion of methods used to shorten critical path e.g. fast tracking (4 marks) Project milestone schedule (4 marks) Discussion of milestone tasks (3 marks)

Question 4 (25 Marks) Present a project summary discussing the following: -The overall project cost - The project benefits as bullet points - Present the client with a list of meetings, with details like who, when and where and -Estimated times and desired deliverable in an essay format.

FYI:

List of resources with cost estimates (6 marks) Resource graph (4 marks) Discussion of assumed resources (3 marks) Note external resources (1 mark) Shown cost sub-totals (2 mark) Discussion of where costs go (4 marks) Discussion of efforts made to save costs (5 marks)