KAPs Automated Systems Project

PRMAN Coursework 2018-19

Issue date:  3rd October 2018

This coursework covers ALL Learning Outcomes for this unit:

1. Explain and describe the principles of a recognized methodology for IT project management and justify its applicability for a specified project type.
2. Justify a project planning technique and demonstrate its application.
3. Explain the critical importance of soft skills, change management, risk analysis and communication planning in an operational IT environment.
4. Explain key concepts in human resources management as relevant to IT project management.
5. Demonstrate personal critical thinking and lucid writing skills in analysis, discussion and argumentation about the practical application of IT project management concepts.

General instructions

Carefully study the scenario (after the Tasks below) and think about the assigned project management tasks that you need to work on. 

Questions about the scenario will be addressed via a discussion thread in the General Coursework Questions Forum  in Moodle.

Group membership will be agreed by the lecturer during online chats and via the General Coursework Questions Forum  in Moodle.

Correct UK English grammar and spelling is expected in narrative essay writing. Serious failings in English usage will result in lower marks. Good communication skills are inherent in the unit learning outcomes. 

This assessment comprises 100% of your mark for this unit.

Submission instructions

Group Work: Each group must nominate one group member to submit the group work with a cover sheet. This must be in ONE PDF file. 

Group work components should make clear whether sections have been uniquely contributed by individual students, subgroups or the entire group working collaboratively. Group work marking will reflect the level of contribution of individual students. Issues with poor group coordination or unequal participation that cannot quickly be resolved within the group should be brought to the lecturer’s attention for review and intervention as necessary.

Individual work: Each student must submit their own individual tasks. There will be 2 files:

1. One pdf for the Individual tasks 3, 5, and 6 plus Learning journal, reflective critique (tasks 7 and 8) and exercises if not in Moodle. 
2. One MS Project file for Task 4

Please follow the submission instructions as set out in Moodle. Incorrect submission format may result in deduction of marks.

Anonymity of work

All work must be submitted anonymously. You should therefore ensure that you do not include your name anywhere on your work, either in the main body of you report, the appendix, or in any headers or footers. Use your Student ID number only.

Plagiarism and poor scholarship

Extracting sections from the internet or other sources, including them in your assignment, and passing them off as your own work is not acceptable, and will be penalised with a fail result. Copying the work of your fellow students is also not acceptable.

Use respected websites for your information gathering. 

To avoid plagiarism rewrite using your own words, but ensure where you have used the ideas of others you acknowledge the source within the text and provide the full source in the references at the end of the document (using Harvard APA 6 format). 

Much of this Coursework requires you to apply knowledge to a specific situation and therefore copying lots of theory from the internet will not be relevant. However, where you do use words from the internet and/or books it will need be referenced. If you are not sure how to reference, use the information provided by the Library (see  referencing link in the moodle unit).

Note 1 – Your Project Product Description should contain ONLY the following sections from the PRINCE2 Project Product Description.doc  in Moodle:

• The Objectives of the Project i.e., what the project must deliver to the business  to gain acceptance and solve the problems / issues identified
• Its composition, i.e. the set of (high level) products that will be delivered during the project that make up the main product. Any clarification on Scope.
• Customer’s Quality Expectations
• Acceptance Criteria, Acceptance Methods and Acceptance Responsibilities

Note 2 – Reflective Learning Journal:

The purpose of the Learning journal is for you to document how your learning and understanding progresses throughout the unit. The reflection on how it has developed your understanding of the subject and how you might use what you have learnt. See also Learning Journal - Explanatory notes

You do NOT have to do all the exercises / activities in Moodle. They are there to focus your thoughts / provide a preparation for the chat / reinforce the theory with practical application. So focus on doing the exercises / activities in the areas that you have least experience. They should not require more than 1 side (2 at most) of A4 and 30 mins of your time each. They are intended to be answered in note form (e.g. numbered / bullet points).

To achieve a good pass or above (see marking criteria on last 2 pages) you will have attempted at least three of the exercises or, if you decide to work as a group (see ‘Group Working’ below), five exercises. 

I would prefer those to include some or all of those listed below as there are no coursework tasks for these:

• ‘Quality Management’,
• ‘Financial Management’,
•  ‘Professionalism’,
• Either ‘Managing IT Procurement’ or ‘Implementation’.

The exercises are not included in word count.

Group working: To manage the workload it is perfectly acceptable to divide up the tasks amongst your group or for one person to start the task and others to comment. 

If the exercises are not posted onto Moodle then they will need to be attached to the final submission as an Appendix, making it clear (via student number), who has done each task.

_________________________

Scenario:     KAP Speciality Chocolates

KAP Speciality Chocolates (KAP) sells of a range of speciality chocolates to the general public from their 20 shops around the country. They also supply approximately 50 supermarket stores across the country and plan to expand this side of the business.

KAP do not manufacture the chocolates - they purchase them from the manufacturers. KAP has about 10 of these suppliers who supply a total of 100 different types of chocolate products. The number of suppliers is expected to remain fairly constant during the foreseeable future though the range of types of products may vary.

KAP employs about 120 people in their shops and 150 people in a number of departments at their Head Office in Portsmouth. Head Office manages and processes the supermarket sales and all purchasing, accounts and HR.

KAP was started 11 years ago by Mrs K Parker and Mrs A Plummer (a self-confessed chocoholic) and has grown rapidly in the last 3 years with the increased interest in good quality chocolate and novel product lines. Katie Plummer (Mrs Plummer’s daughter) has pioneered this development with a subsequent increase in trade of 150% in the last 2 years.

However, problems are beginning to emerge. KAP’s domination of the southeast of the country and its expansion into the southwest is being threatened by a serious rival, Newchoc Ltd. This company was set up nine months previously with a large injection of capital. 

Newchoc is able to offer a superior service because of its modern systems, which give it a significant edge over KAP.  Also, and this is most serious for KAP, Newchoc is now moving into the area of supplying supermarket stores in direct competition with KAP.

The management has been conscious for some time of the slowness of satisfying orders to the supermarkets and its inability to give an accurate delivery dates. They also suspect that Sales in their shops are not as high as they could be due to the inadequacy of their sales forecasting and the replenishment of stock in the shops.

This has been further exacerbated by the expansion of KAP over the last 3 years. Their existing systems have not been able to cope adequately with the increase in trade, even though more staff have been employed. 

KAP management are nervous about changing their systems. This is partly because of a previous bad experience with the computerisation carried out 4 years ago.  They are also conscious of the demise a friend’s business, which rapidly moved from being a flourishing business to bankruptcy as a result of a completely mismanaged and inappropriate introduction of a ‘modern’ computer system.

The recent rise of Newchoc has forced KAP to reconsider the possibility of new systems. They are not experts with computer systems, but they realise the potential and see this as necessary if KAP is to stave off the threat from Newchoc and to expand further gaining business from large supermarket stores.

You have been approached with a view to discussing what they need to do to improve their systems to compete with Newchoc, whilst still minimising the risks to the business.