Work-integrated Learning (WIL) Project Management Plan

Table of Contents (Jump to)

Executive Summary

Introduction

Background of the project

Intended audiences of the project

Contents of the major sections of the PMP

Conclusions

Recommendations

Executive Summary

This assignment covered the project management plan of the national WIL portal project. University of Victoria in Australia is the sponsor of the national WIL portal project. The motivation of creating this portal is to make link among community, industry professionals with the higher education and vocational education sector. The students will be benefitted more by getting learning occasion from this. It is to mention that Victoria University is the leading university of thirty four Australian universities which made a consortium. The report starts with an introduction which describes the grounds of the report. The background section justify the situation and framework of the project. It also describes the addressees of the PMP. The checklist of the structure of the PMP is also discussed. Lastly, an analysis of the contents of the PMP by examining each of the key sections. The document includes the configuration that is suggested in the PMBOK moreover it also covered the module four of the class lecture materials. The total numbers of stakeholders are given on this project which creates a positive impact on project management team in communication plan. The risk management plan and risk register was also prepared in the report. There is a discrepancy in Appendix E, which contains work breakdown. The appendix E would be more appropriate if it explained as a milestone chart or project schedule. Appendix E comprises of responsibility, due date, start date and descriptions. These are the characteristics of project schedule. A Gantt chart presenting the plan of project task has not been given. To confirm good scope of management, a correct work breakdown structure should be incorporated. It is also recommended that a standard Gantt chart should be included to demonstrate the planned program of the project. It is also recommended to add full budget which shows cash flowed costs of the project and this benefits project manager to observe and maintain the costs of project in control. In risk register the key assumptions should be included.

Introduction

The preparation of this assignment is made in line with the project management plan of the National WIL portal project. The student will be benefitted more by this National WIL portal project as it will create a web portal to link community, industry and professionals with the higher education and vocational education sector. The structured report contains a background which covers the project context, the structure of the PMP and the intended audience of the PMP. At the end it ends with a conclusion and some recommendations.

Background of the project

The National WIL portal project funded by Victoria University successfully applied to the variety and structural adjustment fund of the department of education, employment and workplace relations (DEEWR). The goal of the National WIL project was to make a WEB portal. This web would link among community, professionals and industry which would raise learning opportunities for the students. The major payback of this project was to offer simple communication occasion and assist the increase the growth of work-integrated learning community of practice. The portal would be assisted by the Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN).

Intended Audience of the project

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is widely measured influential in training newgraduates with the mandatory employability competencies to function efficiently in theworkatmosphere (Jackson 2014). In a short, WIL is the expansion of professional skill, the capability of students to perform in the workplace (McNamara 2011). Module four of the MGT8022 course materials describes that the PMP has various reasons and is intended to several audiences. Higher authorities in governance need the PMP for decision making purpose. In order to execute the project by the project team members. Financial sensitive data are not added in the PMP. External funding source may provide some financial support. Project consultant will get a brief description of the project from the PMP but the components of the PMP will be carefully chosen.

This is to mention that all the audience does not need full PMP document. Some of the audience may need parts of the PMP. Section 2. 1, P4 of the plan document describes about the various stakeholders. In following table various stakeholders are examined and also explained the reason of the intended audience of this PMP.

Table 1: Key stakeholders and the reason to be included as intended audience.

Victoria University is the initiator of the project WIL. The essential steps of aprojectinclude beginning, planning, execution,monitoringandcontrolling, and closing (Abushaiba & Zainuddin 2012) As a project leader the university needs to learn the execution plan of the project. Monitoring and controlling of the project is also necessary for a successful closing.

The role ofprojectmanageris important toprojectaccomplishment (Ahmed et al. 2013). Judie Key is the project manager. She is in charge of planning and leading the project. She needs to execute, monitor and control the project in order to successfully accomplish the project.

Thirty four partner universities made a consortium to make national WIL portal. When the portal will be finished they will also be benefitted by this project.

Australian Collaborative Education Network (ACEN) will provide the national doorway for industry and community into the universities.

Structure of the PMP

Organisational culture and the methodology determine the formation of the PMP (MGT8022, P56). PMP should be significant to its intended audience. According to the functional area and difficulty of the project, project management diagram contents will differ (PMBOK Guide 2004). Actually there are no rigid rules as MGT8022 discussed (p56). The PMBOK described (p89) that the PMP can be either summarised or detailed and it can also be consists of one or more subsidiary plans and other mechanisms.

In the traditional formation, the authority scale is realized throughout the chain of command, whereas in the project configuration, authority comes from reliability, knowledge, or being a sound decision-maker (Kerzner 2013)

According to MGT8022 course outline suggested structure of PMP might include: Overview, objectives, general approach, contractual, schedule, resources personnel Evaluation methods Potential

Table 2: Structure of the National WIL portal project.

Contents of the major sections of the PMP

Customer satisfaction is the main condition for in general project achievement and content design goals is the next (Müller & Jugdev 2012). In this PMP customer satisfaction should comes first before making contents of the PMP and contents should be design according to customer satisfaction. The content of project management differs depending upon the relevance area and difficulty of the project (Institute 2013). The elements of the main sections of the PMP would again rely on the organisational culture and methodology. The contents size depends on the particular project requirements. The contents of the national WIL portal PMP document are explored at the below table. MGT8022 course material is used as theoretical framework in the following table columns.

Introduction is not supported by PMBOK. As a methodology PMBOK does not support introduction in any section. PMBOK suggests overview or executive summary of the project. The Victoria university portal project starts with introduction but it would be better if it started with executive summary or overview. Key personnel involved in the project are key stakeholders and team members (Turner 2008). The interest of the project creates a negative or positive outcome of the project. If the stakeholders are against the project they will not wilfully involve in the project. Project team members is vital for project performance, achieving information sharing is still tough (Han & Hovav 2013). Team members must be trained how to work together and correspond with others effectively (Tseng & Yeh 2013). Projectmanager (PM) capabilities are essential inproject accomplishment (Chipulu et al. 2013). In the Victoria university project there are many parties involved as various stakeholders, it would be a crucial task to make all of them happy. One of the disputes that one face when running aprojectis improbability. This differs fromprojecttoproject. The Risk Management process include identify, assess, plan, implement, and communicate (Hinde 2012). Appendix G discussed about the risk management process, here in the case of Victoria university risk assessment based on four major criteria. It is also noted that risk management will be reviewed periodically and, if necessary new things will be added to the process. The project schedule is the complete duration of theprojectwork, including the project management work, in order to generate the project scope (Phillips 2010). In the WIL project start date and end date are given but it would be better if a Gantt chart was given.

The project scope is no longer a unimportant assessment (Léger et al. 2013). Manage through a breakdown formation, focus on outcome, balance objectives and levels of ambition and keep it easy are the four principles of scope management (Turner 2008). National WIL portal PMP described various scopes of the project but it would be better if key milestones are given in chart that would be more visible.

Quality management process systems are the central part and information warehouse for making any decision regardinga course of action (Ul-Hasnain, Waqar & Shahbaz 2012). Quality management process of the WIL project is discussed in appendix C elaborately. Project roles and responsibilities are discussed in appendix D with a chart. Project budget is very important because it identifies the financial resource of that project will use. project is successful when it is delivered on-time, on-budget (Ellis & Berry 2013) . Project budget is discussed in the page number eight of the PMP plan as a summery but it is also noted that budget is a sensitive issue. Everybody involved in the project may not have the same interest on budget; the funding party DEEWR has the most interest on budget. Project Communication (PC) pursues regular procedures and guidebook, as Project Management conducts within restrictions of budgets and deliveries (Rajhans & Shah 2012). If communication breaks down during any of the stage of project accomplishment, it generates a lot of obstacles and ruins the smooth performance of the whole project (Rajhans & Shah 2012) . Appendix D also discussed about the communication plan of the project. Communication plan described the type of information to be communicated and the medium of the communication. This chart shows how all parties involved in the project will be communicated.

Although project benefit is discussed in WIL portal project, it is not suggested by Project Management Institute or any authors to include in it project content. Basically, project benefit may be discussed in business case. In this particular case Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) the funding authority of the project may have particular interest of this project benefit.

Four requirements are essential for effective control of the PMP. Monitoring and reporting of the results, comparison results with the plan and forecast future results, plan and take effective action to improve the main plan – these three are discussed in WIL project plan but potential work and estimate performance are missing from the content of project (Turner 2008). One means to improve success of theseprojectsis adequatecontrol.

Table 3: Contents of the National WIL project.

Conclusion:

This is an average report on PMP. The lecture material covered in the module and also the information suggested in the PMBOK are covered in the documents. The total number of stakeholders is given in the PMBOK. Project management team are also integrated in communications plan. The risk management plan and risk register were arranged in the PMP. There is one inconsistency in the Appendix E with work breakdown structure. It would be better if explained in milestone chart. A Gantt chart describing the schedule of the project task has not been given.

Recommendations:

After the analysis following recommendations are given:

1. To confirm good capacity of the management an appropriate work breakdown structure should be added in the PMP.
2. More in depth budget presenting the cash flowed costs of the project should be given. Project manager will be benefitted to observe the costs of the project.
3. More standard Gantt chart should be incorporated to demonstrate the intended scheduled of the project.
4. The main idea planned in the PMP should be added to the risk register. The reason behind is that if these assumptions are not correct then the project would be at threat
5. All schedules must recognize the time restrictions and, if possible, should recognize those funds vital for all event
6. Plan future work and estimate performance should be added in project control.
7. Project benefits can be omitted from the PMP