Reference no: EM133578691

Network Project Management

Purpose:

Learning Outcome 1: Critically reflect on current project management ethics, research, and theory and practice.

Learning Outcome 2: lead and manage projects effectively through planning, leadership, monitoring, teamwork, and global awareness.

Learning Outcome 3: evaluate various ICT services management systems.

Purpose of the Assessment

The purpose of this assignment is to:

Develop a well-researched project planning document based on the overall parameters of a networking or related project.
Establish an appropriate project management plan, and quality environment required to complete the chosen project.
Analyse project issues, conduct post-project review and make recommendations for improvements for future projects.

Group and SPARKPLUS
This assignment is a group assignment, and the groups will be created randomly. Students will work in maximum groups of five and only the group leader will submit the files required at Moodle assignment submission link. Note that at least 20% penalty marks will be implemented if more than one student submitting similar file and cause very high similarities.

SPARKPLUS is Self & Peer Assessment and Feedback for group assignments. It is an individual and compulsory task for each student. The SPARKPLUS RPF will determine the final assignment mark. This factor is generated by the SPARKPLUS website as soon as the group members do the SPARKPLUS review task. Please read Student's SPARKPLUS Guideline in the assignment folder for how to use it. Note if you do not submit the SPARKPLUS review, there will be some penalty marks for it.

Assignment Description
Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) is an initiative using information and communication technologies (ICT) for economic, social and political development, particularly in poor and marginalised areas, thus contributing to minimising the "digital divide" (the technological disadvantages that are faced by certain areas/groups of people due to geographical or economic reasons). Therefore, there are lots of successful ICT4D projects in the past few years.

In this assessment task, students first need to do research regarding ICT4D and then identify a successful ICT4D project. Research on a project in your selected area and find suitable topics that fit the group's research interest. Choose a clear and succinct project since this will lead to the main assignment.

Based on this previous research, students will then develop a similar project for the main assignment. You need to prepare a proposal including its final report of the project. The proposal template is available on Moodle. The project duration should be at least 6 months or more. Before starting, seek approval for the proposed project from your laboratory tutor. Note that each group should not have a similar project topic to other groups, your tutor will check this matter.

The following points must be considered in writing the project report.
Students are expected to show evidence of self-directed reading and research using credible resources including, but not limited to their prescribed text. The assignment will be marked on the depth of analysis, research, references, and integration of all aspects of project management.

Assessment will be based on how realistic the project is and its presentation. The timeline, budget, and quality of the work must be realistic, justifiable, and sufficiently attractive to win a tender for a real project.
Microsoft Project as a project management software must be used for this assignment.

Project Report Requirements

Below are the selected topics that must include in the report:
Providing background of the ICT4D project and analyse this successful project.
Write a Project Scope based on your chosen topic. Project Scope should include Project Tittle, Project Objective, Deliverables, Milestone, and Limitation.

Provide Stakeholder Analysis and Communication Management.
Create Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), Schedule, Cost, and Resources estimations using Microsoft Project based on your chosen topic. You need to make assumptions about the resources and provide a rough estimation of cost. Write a proper report regarding WBS, Schedule, Cost, and Resource Estimation. In addition, analyse how this project can create income continually.
If you were asked to complete the project 2 weeks earlier by reducing the duration of some of the tasks in the project, discuss and analyse which activities you would target for it.
Provide Risk Management and Ethical Issues Analysis.

Provide Customer Feedback and the Lessons Learnt.
Note that your report must be presented using the headings and subheadings above or as stated on the marking criteria guideline. Besides this, students need to have regular project meetings and include the meeting minutes of each project meeting as an appendix at the end of the project report.

You need to submit three files in the Assignment 2 Submission Link:
Proposal file named YourGroupName Proposal.docx
Final report file named YourGroupName FinalReport.docx
Microsoft Project file named YourGroupName MSProject.mpp