REQUIREMENTS FOR TEAM PROJECT
aps1001h Project Management
HINT: This is a project management course, and your team is undertaking a project. One of the most important learning points in this course is to discover and meet the requirements! Therefore, be sure to understand my requirements.
A team research report on an engineering or other “technical” project of your choice which has been completed within the last 15 years, emphasizing “lessons learned” that we can gain from the project. Focus on management lessons, NOT technical lessons. Focus on what to do in the future, not just analyze the past. Maybe, but not necessarily, your lessons can be categorized into the PMBOK Guide knowledge areas if you choose to do so: Scope, Cost, Time, Risk, Procurement, Communications, Human Resources, etc.
Use several sources – refereed journals (if available – for many of these projects they will not exist), government reports, newspapers and magazines, personal interviews.
You may (1) choose a project which has not been reported in this class during the last 12 months, which might include …
- a project which you have worked on as a team member, OR
- a project which I assign to you from your choice of categories (Events, Health, Airports, Nuclear, IT Projects, Civil Infrastructure, Buildings, Aircraft)
In any case, it must be a project which you have not studied in any other course.
Max Wideman’s PM Glossary defines “lessons learned’ as:
- “The capture of what went well as well as past errors of judgment resulting in material failures, wrong timing or other mistakes, all for the purposes of improving future performance.
- The project team’s learning from the project. Usually defined during close out.”
Introduce the project to us, then tell us the lesson learned in one statement, then explain why you concluded that, then go on to the next lesson. They can be both good and bad examples. For each lesson, tell us something that happened or failed to happen. Did the project management team carry out or fail to carry out good practice as described in your textbook or in the class? Describe why and how this can be a “lesson learned” for use when managing FUTURE projects. Most of your reports will contain between 6 and 20 lessons.
A good example from a previous report:
“Lesson Learned #5: Stakeholder input must be sought, and must be seen to be valued.
Massachusetts Secretary of Transportation Fred Salvucci secured local government support for the Central Artery
/ Tunnel program by making two crucial pledges…”
Many teams choose construction projects, because it is easy to find ones which are high profile. But be sure to consider other types of projects, especially ones relevant to the engineering or other discipline of the team members. Look at software development, new product development, aerospace, etc. Military equipment projects of the US Department of Defense can be good choices – they exist in a serious PM environment, have lots of stakeholders, and there may be good published sources of information. Cleanup of contaminated waste sites can be good choices. Olympics and other games facilities make good subjects, but not the games themselves please.
Accurate Documentation:
If in question, please refer to and follow the guidelines. It covers plagiarism, referencing techniques, FAQ, and writing tips. For the course’s use of anti-plagiarism submission software, see paragraph in the Syllabus.
REPORT SPECIFICATIONS: I use these specifications when grading papers.
Filename: Includes the month in ISO8601 date format, the name of your subject project, and your group designation. E.g. “2016-08 Avro Arrow group B.pdf”.
Format: A title page, an executive summary of 1 page, an optional table of contents, and then the body of the report is 14 pages, followed by reference list and possible appendices. It is probably a good idea to include a short introduction in the “body”. Tables and figures and pics should be in the appendix. If you use tables and figures, they must be discussed and referenced in the body text. The body of the report should be double spaced, Times New Roman 12. We will stop reading the body of the paper at the end of the 14th page.
Use your own words: Zero tolerance for plagiarism.
References: Use several references. All references must actually be cited in the text, using the IEEE Citation Reference method shown in brief. Do NOT use the (author, date) method. Be sure to list personal interviews if used. Each lesson must have one or more citations. Be sure to reference your tables and graphs unless they are your own. Do not use a previous paper submitted as part of this course.
Executive Summary: For the executive summary, which is not usually a part of academic papers, refer to the guidelines. The executive summary actually summarizes the paper’s conclusions (i.e. list your lessons) in case the reader does not have time to read the whole paper. By contrast, an abstract helps the reader decide whether to read the paper. The executive summary does not have citations, as they are in the body of your report. In order to keep the executive summary on one page, you may use a denser font and spacing.
Content: As much as possible, include factual data to support your arguments. This can be quantitative or qualitative project data, such as budget or schedule variances, number of changes, statements from qualified stakeholders or commentators, or comparison to other similar projects.
Style: See above about the lessons being worded in a forward-looking way, what would you in a FUTURE similar project.
Writing style should be readable, grammatically correct, lean (dense) without unnecessary flourishes. Work that is not well written and grammatically correct will not usually be considered eligible for a grade in the A range.
Length: It is better to have 14 pages of “body” content than fewer pages.
Critical Thinking: You may draw your own conclusions: you do not need to always agree with what others have said.
Compelling: The highest marks will go to papers which meet the above, but also are interesting to read.
Audience: Assume your audience is mid-to-senior management, about to embark on a loosely similar project, and has no knowledge of your specific project.
Exclusions: It must be a project which none of you has studied in any other course
Q&A:
Q. In terms of the Team Project, the syllabus only says we need to a research on an engineering or technical project of our choice. However, it doesn’t provide us a guideline how to choose it. Could you please help address it?
A. Use Google and ask for “failed projects” or “successful projects project management”, etc. Both “failures” and “successes”, and anything in between can be appropriate; failures tend to be more dramatic and more published. Public sector and private sector are both appropriate; public sector are often more published. For public sector, projects in USA and the UK are often more published than in other less open countries. Look at my “lessons learned blogs” in the portal announcements. Ask your friends and colleagues and other instructors for one relevant to your discipline and interests.
Or ask me to assign your team a project.
Q. What are some projects which you will turn down?
A. Airbus A380, Boeing 787, Denver International Airport, BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and cleanup, Target Canada, Columbia and Challenger Space Shuttles, Boston Central Artery/Tunnel “Big Dig”, emergency responses.
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