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SEMESTER 2 2021/22

MANG6537

Project Management

2023

1. Introduction to the Coursework

You need to provide a 2000-word essay on critical analysis of a successful project in your country. The analysis should get the full use of the concepts and tools taught in the module and a comprehensive background study using a wide range of academically valid sources (peer reviewed journal papers and textbooks).

This is an individual coursework (CW) of 2000 words, worth 100% of your total mark for this module. The coursework aims to assess the depth and breadth of your appreciation, reflection, and critical analysis of management of a real project using the PM aspects discussed throughout the module.

You will choose a mega project from your own country to analyse. It should have several main sectoral strands (e.g., transportation, healthcare, telecommunication, education, energy, etc.,) and stakeholder networks (e.g., the government, corporate organisations, charitable organisations, and local communities, etc.,).

The project should be widely known in your country for its social and economic impact in delivering measurable benefits to the country and society at large. The project benefits as products or services contribute to significant regional or local development of your country. For instance, a case of transportation project might improve access to movement of agricultural products from remote regions to the cities.

2. Aims of the Essay

The essay aims at your capabilities to: critically analyse what a complex project is; describing a mega project through valid sources of information; critically analysing the project from the PM aspects taught in the module; identifying best practices, governance and leadership employed to manage the project from start to finish, to ensure its successful delivery.

Ultimately, the essay critiques the depth and breadth of your what you have learned from the project analysis and your reflection on how these will affect your approach to the management of successful projects in the future.

3. Overall Expectation of the Essay

The essay should be developed as an ‘academic' piece of work, which entails developing strong analytical and critical discussions and reflections. Throughout the essay you need to use the concepts, tools and techniques learned in this module for description, discussion, and analysis.

Note: Essays that are purely descriptive and are based on intuitive explanations (e.g., very long/detailed project historical or technical specifications and common-sense discussions) do not attract high marks.

Throughout this essay you should clearly demonstrate that you have used formal and academic project management knowledge and information from the valid project sources (e.g., project or company websites, formal news agency or international organisations’ websites) in developing any of the above items. These should all be fully and carefully cited.

You will gradually build up the required knowledge for developing a good essay through attendance in the lectures and engagement with the contents; participating in exercises and case study discussions; besides enough independent background studies.

4. Essay Content

4.1 Project Selection

For the essay, you need to select and review a mega project from your own country across multi-sectors (e.g., transportation, energy, telecommunication) as explained in the above Introduction section. The project should have been completed within the last 5 years with evidence of established social and economic impacts to the society and beneficiaries in your country.

There is no restriction in the sector or the context of the project. You may consider choosing a project which is part of a large programme. Hence, you can select a project in line with your personal or career interests or in line with your educational backgrounds.

Where to find existing projects: websites of public or large private organisations; city councils, ministries, municipalities; PM professional bodies or similar institutes (such as construction or financial institutes) active in your country, and formal news agencies.

It is rare that despite searching all these sources, you could not find even one project that meets the assignment requirements. Changing your keywords and extending your searches most probably resolve the issue. If they did not, consult the lecturers/tutors, during seminars, for advice. Be ready to explain and show them all the searches you had done.

In any case, you should make sure that for your analysis you would be able to access enough valid data and information in the ‘public domain’ (published formally and could be accessed by all without restrictions).

Important Notes:

1) Do NOT SELECT: Very well-known projects, especially from a long time ago, that have already become published as case studies (for example, their stakeholders or PESTEL analyses widely published in journals/websites and easily appear in a Google search) are NOT appropriate or acceptable. These will not let you demonstrate your own capabilities and at the best, your essay will become only a description collection of others’ analysis and insights rather than your own reflections.

2) Do NOT SELECT projects that fall in any of the following categories: Projects discussed in this module’s lectures.

4.2 Main and General Areas Here are the main and general areas to be covered in your essay (see the grade descriptor for much further details):

a. Introduction to the essay and the project (20%)

A brief but precise and systematic introduction to the CW content and structure and the significance of your selected project. Precise background to the project, its objectives, context, planning/governance/leadership/risks (more details should be explored in the analysis), expected and actual outcomes. It should typically explore and answer the WH Questions: Who, What, Why, When, Where, How, How Much? I would highly recommend supplementing this section with schematics and/or tables for clarity and structure.

b. Body of the essay: Project analysis (60%)

This section of the essay should provide an integrated discussion and analysis of the management of your selected project. You need to use an appropriate range of the project management tools and approaches discussed during the module to provide a structured analyse. This should demonstrate the depth and breadth of your knowledge of and ability in using a wide range of PM tools and techniques.

Important Notes:

1) Using only one or two general tool such as PESTEL over two-three pages is NOT acceptable and do NOT demonstrate your PM knowledge and skills. As an example, PESTEL could be done precisely in a comprehensive table (as seen in the lectures). Then this should be linked to and inform the rest of the analysis. Hence, first decide, which tools and concepts would be relevant to your project’s analysis and apply them in the right order, with enough and necessary connections.

2) You could better explore the complex and mega nature of your project when you find and read sources expressing various/contrasting views (e.g., what a contractor sees as the source of the project complexity might be different from what the project sponsor might see). Hence, only one source on the project does not provide you with enough evidences on the project complexity. The same applies in literature where different authors might have different views on the same subject.

c. Conclusions (20%)

Based on the previous sections of your essay, here you should provide a brief account of your findings besides the lessons learned from this project. The section needs to clearly and concisely:

- Sum up the main points and findings of your analysis rather than a descriptive summary.

- Explains and justifies at least:

1) TWO main good project management practices you learned from this project and you would carry over should you manage such a project in your future career.

2) TWO main critical decisions you observed that were made in the project that significantly contributed towards successful delivery of the project.

5. Coursework Format and Structure

5.1. Format

Margin: Normal

Structure: Make sure your essay is structured with sections separated with appropriate and relevant titles and subtitles as required. Essays without titles and subtitles are hard to read and mark.

Paragraph: Should be ‘justified’. Avoid using very long paragraphs. Break very long paragraphs into manageable small ones with a clear central idea and a few relevant sentences focused on one or two clear themes. (Additional info: use Study Skills textbooks)

Line Space: 1.5

Titles Font: Larger than 12, bold, and should be easily distinguished from the body text.

Font of the Body of Essays: 12, Times New Roman or Arial.

Figures and Tables Fonts: 10 or 11 (preferred), Times New Roman or Arial. These should be very clear and easy to read if they are part of a copied picture or figure.

Cover page: Should include module code and name, title of the assignment, your student ID and the word count.

Table of Contents: provide the list of the titles and subtitles used in your text with their page numbers on the first page after the cover page.

5.2. Structure

* You should choose appropriate titles and subtitles (the above are indicative titles) to fully structure your text.

* Deciding the length and the word count of each section as appropriate is your own responsibility. The lecturers will not decide on your behalf.

Pay careful attention to the weight of each section, especially the conclusion. With 20% weight, this section should obviously go beyond a simple and general summary. It should at least clearly state your main findings, learnings and actions you will take for your future role as a project manager/analyst (review the essay aims once more).

6. Further Notes on Resources and Referencing

- Essential resources: It is necessary that you initially study the main references given for each topic in the lectures and then move on to further background studies using other resources. This will ensure you have appreciated the fundamentals as far as expected. It will also help you to select better and more relevant resources for your further studies, rather than a random selection of numerous PM/non-PM online resources, which might not be of a high quality or academically valid.

- Further resources: You should use a good range of relevant textbooks and papers from (mainly) the PM academic journals for your theoretical discussions. See above point for more details.

- What needs citation: Anything you learned about the project from valid sources and all the theoretical information you learned from the PM literature should be cited following Cite Them Right.

- Correct citation: It is necessary to follow the Harvard referencing system based on Cite Them Right guide (available via the Library Catalogue).

- Lecture slides: Lecture slides are for teaching purposes in lectures and guiding you through your background studies. These should NOT be used as the only reading material for preparing your coursework. If you miss a lecture, you will need to read the readings/references of the lecture much more carefully.

The overall lecture and/or the text and pictures on the lecture slides should NOT be used as references or be copy/pasted to your essay. All lectures have reading and/or references list, for your further and in-depth studies. It is expected that you study and refer to the original references and go beyond (i.e., more papers and textbooks) rather than only the lecture slides.

7. Word Count

- For this essay, cover page, table of contents, references list, in-text tables and matrixes and appendix are not counted towards your word limit. For inclusion or non-inclusion of any other items, please refer to and follow the Business School word count (limit) policy. Use of tables and figures are highly encouraged, if appropriate, but these should not be used for circumventing the word count.

- Please note +10% does NOT apply for this CW (the above allowances already provide you with more flexibility than the School’s policy anyway) so you are not allowed to go beyond the 2000 words limit. You could have an appendix only if necessary and not for circumventing the word count.

8. Submission Date and Time

Submission time for the essay is 4:00 pm on the given date via Turnitin on the Blackboard. You do NOT need to submit a hard copy as the essays are marked electronically and you will receive mark and feedback via e-grade.

*Please do not email your essay to the lecturers before or after the deadline. The School will not accept, or mark submissions received via email. If you had problem submitting, contact the Student Office and Service line.

9. Further Guidance and Tips

- Balance your theoretical and actual data and discussions: High quality essays provide a reasonable balance between literature/theoretical discussions and the actual data (i.e., collected data and information on the project). Such essays carefully select the main project highlights, which are worth to discuss and analyse. They focus on the most relevant theories and provide discussions, which add value in line with the essay aims. You need to be selective and precise to get the best out of your word permit.

- Depth of your Essay: To add academic value to your essay, try to be as analytical, reflective and critical as you can throughout the essays.

- Follow the Coursework Instructions: Before you start working on the actual assignment, read these instructions carefully once more and review as many times as required while you are in the process of preparing the assignment. This will ensure you do not unintentionally deviate from the cw instructions and that your essay will cover all the tasks set in here. We will have assignment workshops to further clarification on the instructions and Q&A so that you could ask your questions. Do prepare before attending the sessions.

- Assessment workshop/surgery and office hours: Part of a lecture will be assigned to discussing assessment and giving feedback through answering your questions. I will also announce a few office hours for answering your potential questions, use these feedback opportunities proactively. Note that the lecturers will not review your draft or the detailed check of your analysis.

- Important Note: All your contacts with lecturers for the potential assessment questions should be made during the lecturers’ given times before or after the Easter Break. The lecturers could not reply the queries during the weekends, over the University Holidays or during their annual leaves.

Best of luck!

- **Please carefully read the next two pages for further general information provided by the Student Office.

Nature of Assessment: This is a SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT. See ‘Weighting’ section above for the percentage that this assignment counts towards your final module mark.

Word Limit: +/-10% does not apply to this cw. Any text beyond 2000 words (counted by Microsoft Word, not Turnitin), will not attract marks.

Essay below the word limit will not be penalised for less words (focus is on quality rather than quantity) but it is up to you whether and how you will use this opportunity to provide as much details as possible. Cover page, titles and subtitles, table of contents, tables and figures are not counted towards your word count. The relevant word count excludes your list of references and potential appendices (provided that they are essential, relevant and not used for circumventing the word limit) at the end of your coursework submission.

To be clear, only use appendices only where it is essential based on your judgment. You should do your best to include all the main and essential analysis and information within the main body of the coursework rather than appendix.

Title/Cover Page: You must include a title/ cover page that includes: your Student ID, Module Code, Assignment Title, Word Count. This assignment will be marked anonymously, please ensure that your name does not appear on any part of your assignment.

References: You should use the Harvard style to reference your assignment. The library provides guidance on how to reference in the Harvard style and this is available from: http://library.soton.ac.uk/sash/referencing

Submission Deadline: Please note that the submission deadline for Southampton Business School is 16.00 for ALL assessments.

Turnitin Submission: The assignment MUST be submitted electronically via Turnitin, which is accessed via the individual module on Blackboard. Further guidance on submitting assignments is available on the Blackboard support pages.

It is important that you allow enough time prior to the submission deadline to ensure your submission is processed on time as all late submissions are subject to a late penalty. We would recommend you allow 30 minutes to upload your work and check the submission has been processed and is correct. Please make sure you submit to the correct assignment link.

Email submission receipts are not currently supported with Turnitin Feedback Studio LTI integrations, however following a submission, students are presented with a banner within their assignment dashboard that provides a link to download a submission receipt. You can also access your assignment dashboard at any time to download a copy of the submission receipt using the receipt icon. It is vital that you make a note of your Submission ID (Digital Receipt Number). This is a unique receipt number for your submission, and is proof of successful submission. You may be required to provide this number at a later date.  We recommend that you take a screenshot of this page, or note the number down on a piece of paper.

Important: If you have any problems during the submission process you should contact ServiceLine immediately by email at [email protected] or by phone on +44 (0)23 8059 5656.

Late Penalties: Further information on penalties for work submitted after the deadline can be found here.

Special Considerations: If you believe that illness or other circumstances have adversely affected your academic performance, information regarding the regulations governing Special Considerations can be accessed via the Calendar: http://www.calendar.soton.ac.uk/sectionIV/special-considerations.html

Extension Requests: : Extension requests along with supporting evidence should be submitted to the Student Office as soon as possible before the submission date. Information regarding the regulations governing extension requests can be accessed via the Calendar: http://www.calendar.soton.ac.uk/sectionIV/special-considerations.html

Academic Integrity Policy: Please note that you can access Academic Integrity Guidance for Students via the Quality Handbook: http://www.southampton.ac.uk/quality/assessment/academic_integrity.page?. Please note any suspected cases of Academic Integrity will be notified to the Academic Integrity Officer for investigation.

Feedback: Southampton Business School is committed to providing feedback within 4 weeks (University working days). Once the marks are released and you have received your feedback, you can meet with your Module Leader / Module Lecturer / Personal Academic Tutor to discuss the feedback within 4 weeks from the release of marks date. Any additional arrangements for feedback are listed in the Module Profile.

Student Support: Study skills and language support for Southampton Business School students is available at: http://www.sbsaob.soton.ac.uk/study-skills-and-language-support/.SEMESTER 2 2021/22