Assignment due dates and the suggested study timetable provided here apply to all students in all locations.
Assignment information
Please note that all assignments are to be submitted online via the assignment submission facility of the MySCU site for this unit. For information about how to submit assignments online please see the information in the ' Assessment Help' portal of your MySCU site. If after reading this information you are still uncertain about the submission process please contact the Student Support Team for clarification.
You must use the electronic Assignment Cover Sheet provided in the Assignments section of MySCU. Download this cover sheet, fill in your details and then make this sheet the first page of your assignment – do not send it as a separate document.
Your assignments must be submitted as Word documents with .doc or .docx extension, text documents with .rtf extension or as .pdf documents. If you wish to submit in any other file format please discuss this with your lecturer well before the assignment submission date.
As part of a University initiative to support the development of academic integrity, assessments may be checked for plagiarism, including through an electronic system, either internally or by a plagiarism checking service, and be held for future checking and matching purposes. In addition, sham referencing is considered academic misconduct, so all references must be relevant and discoverable. Students undertaking this unit should use the Harvard style that includes page numbers for in-text references – (Author Surname Year, page number) – see http://libguides.scu.edu.au/c.php?g=356711&p=2405627 .
Note that students are expected to use the following credible sources for all assessments:
1. the prescribed reading – Kloppenborg (2015);
2. readings under MyReadings on the learning site;
3. PMI documents including the PMBok and the PMI Code of Ethics.
Assignment rationale
The purpose of the assignment is to meet the following objectives of this unit:
- demonstrate a critical understanding of the principles of project management
- identify, interpret and apply the principles of project management to effectively manage a project
- critically analyse, interpret and apply the project management knowledge areas to the various phases of a project as appropriate
- identify, assess and evaluate all the phases associated with a project life cycle and demonstrate an understanding of the activities and interrelationships critical to the successful completion of a project.
Penalty for late assignments
There is a penalty reduction of 10% of available marks for every day Assignment 1 or any component of Assignment 2 is uploaded to the MySCU site after the required due date. As such, no marks will be awarded where the upload is after 10 days from the due date however to be eligible for a passing grade, the assignment is still required to be uploaded to the MySCU site.
The Project
The key criteria to consider in choosing the project is not ‘what the project is’ but rather, is there sufficient scope to allow the project team to demonstrate the application of the wide range of tools and techniques introduced throughout each topic area. Project concepts with too narrow a Scope are difficult to expand upon in demonstrating a full range of tools and techniques. However, projects that are initially perceived as being too large or broad in Scope can typically be broken down to produce more than adequate scope for the purposes of this assignment.
It is imperative that students complete the Activity at the end of Topic 1.
MyProject and OurProject
For Assignment 1, students will individually complete a Charter for MyProject.
In Week 3 your local tutor will assign two (2) students to a group for the second Assignment. Each group then repeats the Activities at the end of Topic 3 for the two MyProjects and will select one that will become OurProject. For Assignment 2, the group of two students will collaboratively complete the OurProject Report. Note that students must not use a project that is different from the projects used for Assignment 1.
Assignment 1: MyProject Charter
Due: Sunday 11:00PM, 27/3
Length: 1,500 words excluding appendix
Weighting: 15%
MyProject Charter
The Project Charter should explain the background of the organisation where this project will be carried out, the objectives of the project and the importance of this project to the organisation. The Charter includes a Business Case, Milestone Schedule, as well as any major problems or anticipated Risks with this project if they are known at this stage. The textbook provides detailed examples of what needs to be included in the Project Charter. These examples will assist in the development of the Project Charter for MyProject.
The project should be of commercial consequence which demands a Return-On-Investment (ROI) analysis, and could be from one of the following categories depending on the type of business a student is involved in:
- an organisational project that a student is involved in as the organisation’s main line of business – to manage projects for your organisation or on behalf of others
- an activity that a student is convinced would benefit from being handled as a project
- an activity in which a student was involved in the past that was not carried out as a project, but one which you believe would have been managed better as a project. If you use this option you should describe how you would execute this activity now using the knowledge gained through this unit.
The project should NOT be:
- a wedding event
- a project developing an App
- the implementation of a change
- management initiative
- a Not-For-Profit event
- the establishment of a restaurant
- a farewell event
Note 1: Students undertaking this unit for a second time must use a completely different project than they used in their previous attempt.
Note 2: Students are directed to the Activity to be completed at the end of Topic 1
Note 3: The project must be undertaken in Australia and use Australian currency
The maximum word length for this part is 1,500 words excluding words used in any charts, templates, forms or diagrams that you have used to apply the knowledge areas.
Format for Assignment 1
The format of the formal assignment will be:
- SCU Cover Sheet
- Title page
- Letter to Sponsor
- Table of contents
- Introduction (use an Appendix for background if necessary – see below)
- Project Charter using appropriate headings (see Marking Criteria below)
- Reference list (Harvard referencing style is required)
- Appendix will only include a background of the organisation for your unit assessor. All forms, charts, tables and diagrams should be included under the relevant sections of the assignment. The Appendix is NOT graded.
NOTE: As this is a piece of academic work, students are required to describe the purpose of each section of the Charter in paraphrased text, appropriately referenced to the prescribed textbook, the PMBoK, and/or readings on the learning site. Failure to do so will result in a reduction of marks for each marking criteria where this is not performed.
Plagiarism
As part of a University initiative to support the development of academic integrity, assessments may be checked for plagiarism, including through an electronic system, either internally or by a plagiarism checking service, and be held for future checking and matching purposes. In addition, sham referencing is considered academic misconduct, so all references must be relevant and discoverable. Students undertaking this unit should use the Harvard style that includes page numbers for in-text references – (Author Surname Year, page number) – see http://libguides.scu.edu.au/c.php?g=356711&p=2405627 .
