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Homework answers / question archive / MGRCM2028 Project Management, 2020-21:  Individual Coursework  INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT (40% OF FINAL MARK) For this summative assessment, you will produce your own written work towards the end of term, drawing on reading and research you have done throughout the unit

MGRCM2028 Project Management, 2020-21:  Individual Coursework  INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT (40% OF FINAL MARK) For this summative assessment, you will produce your own written work towards the end of term, drawing on reading and research you have done throughout the unit

Project Management

MGRCM2028 Project Management, 2020-21:  Individual Coursework 

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT (40% OF FINAL MARK)

For this summative assessment, you will produce your own written work towards the end of term, drawing on reading and research you have done throughout the unit. This assignment enables you to demonstrate your critical application of concepts learned in the earlier parts of the course. Through analytical or reflective essays, mini case studies, literature reviews, or research, you have the opportunity to explore concepts, problems, and real situations in project work that you find engaging or suited to your  own areas of interest (ILO 3, ILO 4, and some of ILO 2).

 

Assignment brief

Write two essays (see word length guidance below) to demonstrate your critical understanding of project management and your achievement of the unit’s ILOs:

 

Essay 1: select and then discuss a theory, concept, model, or method in Project

Management. This will be the ‘topic’ of your essay. Draw on relevant literature to critically assess the topic. Frame your essay by setting out your analysis or ‘question’, for example, you might do one of the following:

 

  • What are the pros and cons of your chosen topic and its practical applications?
  • Critically review the scholarly debates surrounding the topic, comparing and contrasting arguments and findings in the literature
  • Discuss how the topic has influenced projects in practice
  • How could your topic be further clarified conceptually or theoretically?
  • How could the topic be developed and applied to advance project management as a discipline?

 

Essay 2: Select and analyse a recent project failure. This should be a project or programme that was under way within the last five years and that has received coverage in local, national, or international media. It should be a project that has been considered or expected to be a partial or complete failure, or has been prone to significant problems. It can be a project that is still under way, or one that was completed within the last five calendar years, i.e., it should have been under way at some point during the period January 2016 - May 2021. Drawing on publicly available information and scholarly sources, critically evaluate the project’s performance, exploring:

 

  • The project’s purpose and goals
  • Its actual performance and outcomes (either expected or achieved)
  • The project management approach/methods used, the type of project, its context
  • Possible reasons for its failure or under-performance
  • Your suggestions for how this project could have been more successful

 

 

Draw on and use specific conceptual frameworks, models, and theory from the literature as a basis for your analysis. If you select a large or complex project, you may have to narrow the scope of your analysis to focus on a subset of the project or its problems. Make sure your chosen initiative is, in fact, a project or programme, and that it meets the time frame criteria. If you are in any doubt, discuss it with your tutor. For very recent projects, there may be little or no scholarly writing about it. This is not a problem: you may have the opportunity to be one of the first researchers to write about the project! 

 

WORD LENGTH GUIDANCE

As   a guide,  each  essay  is expected to be 1,000 wo rds in  length. If  your w ork is greater than  the sugg ested m aximum , you shou ld interpret  this  as a sig nal that y ou h av  e not ex presse d  your  idea s concisely or with su fficient fo cus. Similarly if it  is less  than the     suggested          minimum , you should inte rpret t his as a signal that  your coverage of the subjec t is           insufficiently comprehensive, either in depth or breadth.  Both,  in terms  of  academic  judgement, are weaknesses and may be reflected in the marking.  Work  achieving  the  highest  marks  would  not  exhibit  either  of  the  above  flaws.  The  word count  excludes  figures,  tables,  references, bibliography, and appendixes. But  note that  tables or figures that  include substantial quantities of text may indicate lack  of concision  or succinctness.  Note also  that appendixes  should only be  used to include supplementary or supporting information, as they  may  not  be  read  by  the  marker.

GUIDANCE, TIPS, AND ADVICE

  • Include both essays in one document that you submit for marking. But use separate reference sections for each, i.e., the reference list for Essay 1 should follow Essay 1, and the list for Essay 2 should follow it. 
  • There is no need for an introduction or abstract for the whole submissions, but you may want to briefly cross-reference or refer between one essay and the other if they are linked in some way. Similarly, a table of contents would probably be a waste of time and space in such a relatively short assignment. But make sure you label any figures or tables that you use.
  • These essays are quite short, so you will need to be focused, succinct, and efficient! To that end, make sure you pick a topic or case that will ‘fit’ within the limit. For the theoretical piece, try to construct a ‘question’ you will try to answer, or a ‘problem’ you will explore, or a ‘puzzle’ to solve. But define this clearly, and don’t pick something that requires you to discuss too wide a literature. For example, an essay critiquing the Project Management Bodies of Knowledge will probably take more than 1,000 words!
  • To keep things brief, assume that the marker is familiar with core concepts from the course. These you don’t need to explain or define in detail before using them. For example, assume we know what the iron triangle, risk, and stakeholders are. Only discuss these in detail and depth if they are central to your chosen topic, or if they need to be defined to avoid ambiguity – for instance, risk isn’t always consistently defined in the literature, and the dimensions of the iron triangle vary. In using concepts, it should be clear that you do understand them from the way you write in context. If it’s relevant to your piece, be sure you, and the reader, know what you mean by the term when using it. 
  • Similarly for the case study piece, your focus should be on applying concepts, frameworks, etc. to the situation to explain it, not on describing those ‘tools’ in detail. Do define and explain the tools you’re using as you introduce them, but briefly – a sentence or two may be enough to establish and then apply them. For example, if you are using Shenhar et al’s success model to evaluate the performance of your case project, in introducing this framework, you should explain briefly why you have chosen this model rather than some other; and in doing so, you would briefly define

 

its parameters and how you will apply its concepts to the case. But the focus here is on application, not on theory: so keep the ‘foundational’ bit as brief as possible. As long as the marker can see from your writing why you have chosen a particular framework, and that you know how to use it, and understand any implications of doing so, you will have done your job well!

  • You’ll also need to be efficient with your case description: only elaborate the details that are really relevant to your analysis: you don’t have time/space for lots of detailed background and content or history: focus on what’s relevant to the problems in the project. Save your detail for a cause-effect analysis to diagnose problems.
  • In explaining the case, you should be thinking in terms of answering questions like: ‘what happened here, and why?’ ‘what explains these outcomes?’ ‘how did this happen?’ ‘who was responsible?’ ‘what could have been different, if only…?’ Use reason and evidence (not your feelings or opinion or wild speculation) to explain why things turned out the way they did. If you disagree with what’s already been written about the case, that’s fine: just be sure you have a plausible argument to back up your position!  
  • What kinds of references do you need and how many? As many as necessary to do the job! In the first, more theoretical, piece, you will be drawing more on the scholarly literature, although you may like to use some illustrative cases. or practical examples.

In the second piece, you will need to cite facts and figures, history, etc.: so here (authentic and believable) media reports or public bodies may be sources, even organisations’ own web sites. Where you apply theory to this ‘data’, you should cite relevant scholarly or practice literature as the sources for the theories or concepts you use.

  • Do the two pieces need to be linked together? No, but it may help you if they are. For example, you could explore a concept or model in the first piece, then apply it in the second. This would enable you to go into more detail on the concept than if you only applied it to the case.
  • Can you use cases we’ve covered in the unit, including Bath Spa and your group coursework? Yes, but you should be saying something new or different here, not just repeating or reinventing conclusions we’ve already come to in seminars or your group assignment. Part of the reason for asking you to pick a recent project is that there will be little (if anything) written by academics about it, so you have the opportunity to apply your own analysis, and/or synthesise/integrate different perspectives/findings. For example, the mainstream media or trade press may criticise a specific project for its failings: but do you agree with their explanations, or can you add a more informed analysis based on what you know of project management now?
  • Do you need to use tables or figures? No, but they can help to illustrate or enliven your writing. Using figures (especially your own, not just derivative) can help to explain concepts. A table can be a succinct way of setting out facts or comparing information. But be sure to briefly explain any exhibits you use – they do not ‘stand on their own’. And cite any sources, especially if you are basing your exhibits closely on someone else’s. 
  • What qualifies as ‘five years’? If the project finished (or collapsed) or started or was otherwise under way during the time period 1st January 2016 through May 2021, then it is a candidate for your study. But be careful not to count the postcompletion phase of operation or in-service use – that is no longer a project.

 

MARKING CRITERIA

Consistent with how work is assessed in the School (see your MSc handbook), assignments will be marked based on “the knowledge and understanding displayed, the level of critical discussion, the quality of argument used in developing conclusions, the use of sources, the way that the assignment is structured and for style and presentation.” See the PGT marking guidelines for more detail, including grade mark boundaries. 

 

Of the 100% for this assignment, 50% is for each essay:

  1. Theoretical piece
    1. Was the selected theory, model, concept, etc. relevant and justified in the context of project management and this unit?
    2. To what extent was clear knowledge and understanding of the chosen topic demonstrated?
    3. Was a robust and sufficiently detailed critical analysis or argument developed?
    4. Did the work draw on, link, and/or integrate relevant other concepts, models, or frameworks to support the analysis/argument to show a contextual, holistic, or integrated understanding of the chosen topic?
    5. Is a clear standpoint, conclusion, or evaluation reached (which could include raising further questions for exploration, or propositions for later study)?
  2. Case study piece:
    1. Was sufficiently detailed and relevant information/data discovered, explored, and used appropriately?
    2. Was an appropriate framework(s) of analysis selected, justified, explained, and applied?
    3. Was a clear understanding of the case developed and presented, based on the analysis?
    4. To what extent did the discussion or analysis produce a critical assessment of  the case?
    5. To what extent did the analysis explain the situation, integrating concepts to produce plausible findings, diagnostics, conclusions, or proposals?
  3. For each piece, the quality of the essay in terms of overall structure, approach and presentation 
    1. To what extent was the essay structure appropriate to support the analysis and arguments?
    2. How clearly written and coherent was it?
    3. Was it suitably free of error or omission?
    4. Did it make effective use of illustrative tables, figures, and other displays to support the analysis?
    5. Were suitable sources cited and used appropriately and correctly? 

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