This assessment item is an individual assignment and requires you to consider project event-driven and time-driven controls. You are required to examine and analyse a case study in a real-life context and produce the project control reports. The templates for the project control reports will be provided on the Moodle website, which conform to the project progress and control requirements outlined in project management standards. You will be graded based on your analysis, reflection, and quality of the project control reports.

Purpose

• The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help you develop skills in compiling project control reports.
• The secondary purpose of this assignment is to allow you to consider the role of project control reports within a project life cycle.
• The assignment will also allow you to enhance your analysis and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of structured assignment writing.

Structure

• Your submission should be made using the supplied case study, and project control report templates. 

Please note that the re-attempt of this assessment task will not be allowed.

Your assignment will be assessed on the extent and quality to which it meets each of the following criteria:

• A comprehensive analysis and compilation of project control reports (90%)
• Clarity of expression, grammar, spelling, references, etc. (10%)

Overview

This assessment item is a group assignment.

• You are required to form a group consisting of 3-5 students (ideally 4 students in a group) within your own tutorial class.
• Distance education students can also form groups with other distance education students or complete this assignment individually.
• Groups must be finalised by the end of Week 5 with the consent and approval of your tutor.

Project management in various domains is considered to be a relatively mature discipline. There is an extensive body of knowledge that promotes project management and supports its main objective of delivering successful projects. This knowledge base is supplemented by well-established standards that have been evolving over the years such as PMBOK and PRINCE2 to equip project managers with the knowledge, tools, and skills to perform their role. Having said that, project delivery in various domains is still unsatisfactory. Many recent studies and audits have revealed that project management fails to deliver successful project outcomes with alarming frequency. Recent data from PMI (Standish, Wrike, et al) shows that approximately 75% of projects fail to meet at least one of their stated baseline objectives. TeamStage 2023 blog states that 70% of all projects fail to deliver what was promised to customers. 42% of companies don’t understand the need or importance of project management. 55% of project managers cite budget overruns as a reason for project failure. This should be alarming to project management professionals and practitioners whose main duties are to ensure the successful delivery of projects. Since project management is supposed to improve project delivery, it is essential to fully appreciate the reasons behind project failure. Understanding the reasons for project failure will help protect the project management profession in working towards achieving more consistent project delivery.

This assessment item requires you to consider:

• Project execution compared to the project management plan.
• Project success factors and how they may have changed over the course of the project.
• Reasons for cost and schedule overruns, scope, quality, and other issues.
• Application of project control systems, such as the change control system, etc.
• Stakeholders' influence on project performance.

You must demonstrate your understanding of the above in the context of a real-life case study and submit a critical analysis report. You are encouraged to use assignment output and ideas that you may have developed from the practical assessment within this unit as supporting evidence for your analysis.

Tasks

• (Worth 30 marks)  This assignment requires you to examine a significant real-life case study and produce a detailed report that forwards a critical analysis of project control approaches used to ensure the successful completion of the project and stakeholders’ influence. The report should include a demonstration of the range of control systems and evaluation of their application and whether or not a poor application of the control systems and lack of stakeholders' management has contributed partially or fully to the project failure. The report should also include recommendations to improve performance on future projects based on the lessons learned from the case study.
• (Worth 10 marks) In addition, you are required to give an oral presentation about your written report. Oral presentations will be held during tutorial classes for face-to-face students (via Zoom for distance learning students).

Purpose
The purpose of this assessment item is to help you develop and demonstrate your skills in the use of project management concepts, principles, theories, and arguments about the project management execution and closing phases. You are particularly required to demonstrate your understanding of the real application of control systems. You must then be able to analyze and argue what type of control systems will enable better or worse project outcomes in the future.

Written Report

The report should be 4000 words ± 5% (excluding references and appendices). The report should include the following key sections:

• An executive summary or abstract of the report;
• An introduction to the real-life (partially or fully failed) project and major issues it encountered;
• An explanation of the range of control systems used to monitor and control the project cost, schedule, scope, risks, and quality;
• An analysis of the reasons that explain the cost and/or time overruns or other discrepancies encountered during the project;
• An analysis of the relationship between the problems and reasons you identified and the stakeholders’ needs and influence;
• An analysis of the project management actions that could have been taken to better manage and control the project and stakeholders in order to increase the chances for successful project delivery;
• A conclusion that identifies the key lessons that project management can learn from the experience of the project and provides recommendations to improve performance on future projects;
• Self-reflection by each group member for their contribution to the group assignment while researching, collecting, and analysing the data, and compiling the report. 

Oral presentation

Presentations will be held during the tutorial classes in Weeks 11 and 12.

• The presentation should follow a similar structure as per your written report;
• The duration of each group's presentation will be around 15 minutes plus 5 minutes for Q&A;
• Each group member must present an equal part of the presentation to demonstrate their understanding;
• Presentations will be graded based on the individual performance of a group member;
• If a group member is absent from the presentation, he/she will be awarded zero (0) marks for the presentation.

This assessment also involves researching the given case study to enhance your understanding of project management concepts and utilization of academic literature. Whilst you should use the recommended books and standards, you may also refer to relevant peer-reviewed journal articles. You will be expected to present information and evidence from and cite the reading material from the unit. You are also encouraged to cite other material that is peer-reviewed.

Please note that the re-attempt of this assessment task will not be allowed.

Written Report (Scaled to 30 marks)

The report will be generally assessed on the quality of the work presented, the extent and coverage of the key aspects, and the understanding of the issues involved. More specifically, your report will be assessed on the extent and quality to which it meets each of the following criteria:

• An executive summary or abstract of the report (5%)
• An introduction to the given real-life project and major issues it encountered (10%)
• An explanation of the range of control systems used to monitor and control the project cost, schedule, scope, risk, and quality (15%)
• An analysis of the reasons that explain the cost and/or time overruns or other discrepancies encountered during the project execution (15%)
• An analysis of the relationship between the problems and reasons you identified and the stakeholders’ needs and influences (15%)
• An analysis of the project management actions that could have been taken to better control the project and stakeholders in order to increase the chances for successful project delivery (15%)
• A conclusion that identifies the key lessons that project management can learn from the experience of the project and provides recommendations to improve performance on future projects (10%)
• Self-reflection by each group member for their contribution to the group assignment while researching, collecting, and analysing the data, and compiling the critical analysis report (5%)
• Clarity of expression, grammar, spelling, report format and presentation, in-text citations, references, and referencing style (10%)

Oral Presentation (Scaled to 10 marks)

• Preparation and consistency of presentation slides (20%) - Group marks
• Evidence of understanding and relevance of the presentation content (40%) - Individual marks
• Response to questions during Q&A (20%) - Individual marks
• Presentation manners: tone, eye contact, fluency, etc. (10%) - Individual marks
• Presentation timing including Q&A (10%) - Group marks

This assessment involves an online quiz that is worth 20% of the unit marks. The quiz will evaluate your knowledge and understanding of topics and material covered during the term.

• Only one attempt is allowed.
• The quiz is an in-class and closed-book exam.
• The quiz will be conducted during your tutorial class in Week 12.
• On-campus students must attend their tutorial class in Week 12 to attempt and complete the quiz. Distance learning students will be given a specific timeframe to complete the quiz during a Teams/Zoom session.
• The quiz will be administered by the respective tutors during their tutorial classes in Week 12. Distance learning students will complete the quiz under the supervision of the unit coordinator.
• The quiz open and close dates shown on Moodle are to cater for all the tutorial classes across all campuses and distance learning students as well.
• The quiz will cover the content from Weeks 1 to 10 (lectures, tutorials, MCQs, and recommended readings).
• The quiz will consist of 30 questions (a combination of multiple-choice and true/false questions).
• When you attempt the quiz, 3 questions will be randomly selected from a pool of questions based on each weekly topic and displayed to you. It is very unlikely that two students will receive the same questions.
• Your attempt will have a time limit of 30 minutes. Once you start the quiz, the timer will begin to count down and cannot be paused. You must finish your attempt before it expires (open attempts will automatically be submitted).
• The students, who are absent from their scheduled tutorial class in Week 12, will receive zero (0/20) marks unless an extension has been granted.
• Any attempt to complete the quiz outside of your scheduled tutorial class will result in zero (0/20) marks.
• The students will be able to review their attempt and view their marks once the quiz has been closed.
• The re-attempt of this assessment task will not be allowed.

• Each question carries equal marks, and there are no penalties for incorrect answers.
• The online quiz will be marked by the Moodle computer program upon submission.