- Assignment brief
You have recently been appointed by a large investor in the UK who is seeking to
develop Target stores in the UK but they have concerns over the problems Target
US had with their project in Canada (see Appendix 1). Your assignment is to
write a report on the prospective Target UK as a project – considering what is
likely to go well and what not so well.
Your report should therefore focus on the project management aspects including
the key risks e.g. loss of money and overrunning its schedule and not meeting the
performance requirements expected from a project of this type.
Part A (20%)
This involves the preparation of a PowerPoint presentation of your business case
and project plan as detailed in the assignment brief. You are required to prepare
the slides along with associated written presentation notes for submission with
Part B. Part A should be included in the beginning of Part B, in a Word/PDF
document.
Weighting for task A: 20%.
Part B (80%)
Produce a detailed business case and project plan, and any recommendations to
the Project Board that you consider appropriate. You may want to use some of
the sub-headings below, but that is entirely up to you: this is not a template.
Literature review
o Provide a short, but critical view of literature around project
initiation and planning, paying particular attention to the
differences between different approaches and how those are
relevant to your context. Provide justification for choosing one
approach over the other
Introduction to your case
o Identify the major planning problems with the Target Canada
project and suggest how project management techniques might
have helped to mitigate these problems
Project objectives
Performance Measurement / Management of quality
Stakeholder analysis
Project Management Leadership and Skills: Planning and Control –Assignment 1
Activities to be carried out and scheduling including any milestones: your
project plan must include a schedule created with Microsoft Project (MSP)
or equivalent.
Resources to be used including project budget
Constraints and Risks
Communications to be used
In addition please discuss the following in your report:
Possible success/ failure factors for this project
Considerations concerning future operations
Include a bibliography of your sources.
Weighting for task B: 80%. Please note that you are being assessed on your
understanding of Project Management and not the discovery of the ‘correct
answer’.
3000 words
