BFA704 Work placement Assignment Sample

Assessment Details:

Restrictions on Time/Word Count: 3000 Words
The consequence of not meeting
time/word count limit:

Assessment Task

You are required to produce a portfolio of evidence of your achievements on your placement. The portfolio will critically review your placement role and how you were able to develop existing knowledge and skills to achieve your placement objectives, as agreed in your learning contract. It is essential that your portfolio For assignment help includes evidence of your achievements to support your critical review. Links should be made to skills and knowledge you acquired on your course and how you applied these in the organisation and developed them further.

The suggested structure for your portfolio is:

1. Title Page
2. Contents Page
3. Summary of Organisation and Agreed Learning Contract Objectives
4. Critical Review of Achievements Against Objectives
5. Reflections and Personal Development Plan
6. Appendices (Evidence)

Examples of evidence that you might have collected while on your placement could include those listed below. This list is not exhaustive and there may be other evidence you can collect that is specific to your work placement. The range of evidence can be quite broad and may either be a direct output of your project or it might be secondary. For example, a spreadsheet you produce to meet an objective in the project is primary evidence. The minutes of a meeting in which your contributions are discussed may be considered secondary evidence. Any evidence you include must clearly show your contribution(s).

- Copies of E-mails
- Meetings of Minutes
- Business Documents / Reports
- Documented Working Practices
- Employee Review / Appraisal
- Employer / Manager Feedback
- Reflective Journal Entries

It is expected that evidence wil be included in appendicies and referred to in the portfolio. Each piece of evidence may also be accompanied by a short description. You should not include evidence that has not been referred to in the portfolio. You should ensure that evidence you collect does not breach any rules or laws regarding privacy and data protection. Evidence containing any sensitive or suspected sensitive information should be redacted (censored) and its use in your portfolio should be authorised by your manager at the organisation.

Solution

Introduction

Onfuro Ltd is a growing IT company with a long-range of services. Voluntary Junior software developer must meet all the key responsibilities and technical requirements for the job role. In this report, all of those requirements and responsibilities are discussed and evaluated accordingly. It can show a clear overview of work placement. This also states the required depression for starting the particular job. The whole contract objectives are very specific and constructive in nature. That means all of them must be fulfilled through code or knowledge and experience in building new code.

On the other hand, it includes a detailed evaluation that leads to a personal development plan. Overall, the report helps in determining the required skills and abilities for the particular position. Initially, the research reflection explains detailed research outcomes and their significance. It includes proper application and working requirements. This eventually leads to a better understanding of the personal development plan (Rindri et al., 2019). In this case, this plan must be followed to fulfil the exact requirements of the position of voluntary Junior software developer in Onfuro Ltd. Overall; the report will show a clear plan of action to be prepared for the assigned job role.

Summary of the Organization and Agreed Learning Contract Objectives

Info Limited is basically an IT solution for different businesses. The company has cloud-based products and services. They are majorly based in London. In this report, the assigned role or position is in Onfuro limited. In that case, the developer must follow all the workplace and system policies in the company. On the other hand, there are specific learning contract objectives that must be met with time. It is majorly divided into two parts, such as technical requirements and key responsibilities (Onfuro, 2021). Technical requirements are basically the knowledge and skill-based abilities that must be developed over time and experience (Parr et al., 2021). In contrast, key responsibilities are the works the developer will be assigned to. Both of these contact objectives are essential from different perspectives and scenarios.

Key Responsibilities

The voluntary junior software developer is responsible for writing new codes for the software. Coding is the fundamental step for software to run. New coding is needed to generate and execute new software. The position also requires regular checking and correction of all the written codes (Simpson et al., 2015). This ensures the proper execution of the codes in the software. It is also a crucial responsibility of the voluntary junior software developer to develop new product features for a particular software. The position also demands the ability to fix bugs in the software when needed. Moreover, the company demands a web developer who has knowledge of optimising code performance. The position also needs a person who is efficient in developing leads. The developer should also have experience in communicating with other team members. The developer must understand the problem to provide solutions and develop the system as per requirement (Correia et al., 2019). Moreover, the developer must help me be efficient in the work and should be able to explain designs and concepts as per the requirement.

All of these key responsibilities must be met by the voluntary junior software developer. This will improve growth and organisational sustainability.

Technical Requirements

The position of the voluntary junior web developer needs to be experienced in PHP development. The developer requires knowledge about the version 7+of PHP development (Onfuro, 2021). Moreover, the developer should focus on object oriented programming. It shows that the contract demands the junior web developer to be an expert in PHP development and focus on OOP.

The position of a voluntary junior PHP web developer must have a detailed knowledge of Model View Controller(MVC) frameworks. Moreover, the position requires knowledge of hybrid programming languages such as Laravel. This clearly states that the voluntary junior web developer must be an expert in Model View Controller(MVC) framework and hybrid programming languages.

The position of a voluntary junior PHP web developer must have detailed knowledge of Javascript and jQuery. Moreover, the position requires knowledge on multi-browser such as Firefox and Google Chrome. It shows the ability of the junior web developer to be an expert on Javascript, jury and multi-browser such as Google Chrome.

The voluntary junior web developer must have knowledge of CSS, JS, SCSS, JSON. Moreover, the junior developer must understand software design and architecture. This clearly states that the voluntary junior web developer must have knowledge of using CSS, JS, SCSS and JSON (Onfuro, 2021). The developer must have a clear understanding of software design and architecture.

The junior web developer should be experienced in using HTML, CSS and Javascript. The web developer must be experienced in managing and optimising databases with MySQL. This shows that the contract demands the junior web developer must have experience in using HTML, CSS and Javascript. The developer must have experience in data management and optimisation with MySQL.

The voluntarily junior web developer must be acknowledged with Git source control. Moreover, the developer must have the capability of exploring new ideas for the benefit of the company. The web developer must introduce new technology and solutions that are beneficial for the company's profit margin. Moreover, the developer must know to implement the ideas on the existing services (Sfakianaki et al., 2018). This states that the voluntary junior web developer must have knowledge of Git source control. Moreover, the developer must have the capacity of introducing new ideas, technology and solution for the company's development and solution.

All of these technical requirements must be fulfilled to meet the key requirements of the particular position. These requirements are mentioned by the higher authorities of the company that must be followed. On the other hand, these technical pieces of evidence will also be evaluated before assigning the particular role of voluntary Junior software developer in Onfuro limited.

Achievements against Objectives

The technical requirements are the basic criteria for joining the assigned role. In that case, all of them are already fulfilled, such as the experience of PHP development, JavaScript, multi-browser experience, etc. Overall, technical requirements are already achieved as per the mentioned contract objectives. This knowledge and learnings were developed through learning modules and learning experiences (Carter et al., 2018). On the other hand, the key responsibilities are more critical in nature.

The primary key responsibility of the voluntary Junior software developer is to write new coding for different pages and software. It can be in any language, majorly in PHP. PHP is a light and efficient coding language that has been broadly used recently. PHP and other required languages are already learned for the role. In that case, writing new code will not be difficult enough to fulfil the post requirements. The next key responsibility is to develop new products, fix bugs and optimise the overall performance and quality. In this case, the major key factor is writing new code. After the learning modules and detailed classes, it is not difficult enough to build new pages and fixes bugs with cold knowledge. On the other hand, fixing bugs is totally dependent on identifying system issues. In that case, the developer must be familiar with different management systems and software (Karasheva et al., 2021). It is also a full field over time with core system knowledge and skills. Overall performance and quality depend on script minification and other system changes. It is clear that this key role will also be full field while working in Onfuro limited.

The next key responsibility is communication and team management. In this case, proper leadership qualities are required. The developer must be able to communicate with other stakeholders such as development team members, senior developers, project managers, etc. It is essential to execute the whole project planning accurately. On the other hand, team management is also dependent on communication and leadership (Tavakoly Sany et al., 2020). That explains the significance of communication skills. The developer should also be able to influence other stakeholders or steam members for better engagement. Active involvement of all the stakeholders will improve the quality of the project. Overall, the position requires better communication and team management. For the particular position, it needs regular training and experience to develop these soft skills. This will be beneficial in the long term. This will also be improved over time while working on different projects.

The final key responsibility of the developer is to maintain transparent working practices. That explains the developers must prepare proper policies for working practices. It involves proper management and project planning as well. On the other hand, this transparency will build trust and proper communication between the stakeholders (Fung, 2020). The developers should also be able to explain different designs and concepts when asked. Each describes the requirement of communication skills and explaining behaviour. The developers must have a clear concept and knowledge of the design and different frameworks. Only in that way, he will be able to explain new designs or concepts. It also requires proper use of visual presentation such as diagrams, infographics, etc. (Prestiadi et al., 2019) Overall, the developer needs to explain his work and planning in the board meetings. It is significant for the resource manager and all other higher authorities, including development team members. This is also another ability that has already grown with time. In spite of that, it will be achieved in a precise way over time and experience.

It is clearly seen that major key responsibilities are already a full field for the particular position. In spite of that, some of the soft skills are still there to improve over time. It includes communication management, leadership quality and other minor soft skills. By improving the skills, the developer will be able to improve his work quality and overall job responsibility fulfilment.

Reflections and Personal Development Plan

The research and report include different organisational factors and requirements for my job role of voluntary Junior software developers in Onfuro limited. In this report, all the key responsibilities and technical requirements of the particular position are critically discussed and evaluated. I got a proper explanation of my responsibilities and their significance. After that, the clear evaluation against learning objectives are also critically evaluated. In this way I was able to identify my key abilities. On the other hand, I have some essential skills to developed with time. The research and report also explain organisational aspects of the particular company. After the evaluation, I will prepare proper personal development plan. It will include all the essential skills to be developed along with proper discussion. This personal development plan will help to improve personal abilities as a developer and essential stakeholders in the projects.

The personal development plan must be precise enough to determine the exact requirements. A personal development plan usually is long-term in nature. That means the whole plan will be implemented over time with gradual experience in different project developments. The first essential skill or component of the development plan is communication management. Communication is one of the essential skills in any organisation. It presents the ability to understand specific requirements and to be engaged with the whole project. The position demands better communication management. This can be improved over time with regular communication with other stakeholders and higher authorities (Englisch et al., 2020). On the other hand, it requires a complete understanding of the organisational structure and work system. This will build adaptive ability in different scenarios as well. This communication will also be improved through proper stakeholders' engagement. It explains the requirement of being engaged with other team members from different projects. This will not only improve the communication skills but also will improve project implementation ability. I will also be able to improve myself effectively, over time.

The next essential personal development component is leadership quality. It involves the ability to influence other team members. It also includes the capability of engaging different people in a singular project. All the stakeholders, such as junior developers and other employees, come from different cultures and geographic locations. It explains the huge difference between them in terms of thought process and working experience. The team leader is responsible for engaging all of them into a single project with the highest potential (van der Vleuten et al., 2019). In this way, the project will be benefited in terms of time management and effectiveness as well. Leadership quality can be developed through gradual communication with other people in the organisation (Hoffmann et al., 2021). On the other hand, different meetings and presentations will also help to improve leadership skills while managing development teams (de Sousa Mata et al., 2021). This is also essential for organisational growth and fulfilment of all the key responsibilities. Overall, this soft skill will also grow with time and gradual effort. It also requires proper understanding with other team members and stakeholders. In that case, the developer must communicate with others on a regular basis. It will help him to connect with them on a psychological level. This will eventually lead to an influence in connection. This leadership quality is essential to growing over time for further growth and sustainability of the assigned position.

The next thing is the presentation or visual interpretation in project development. Any development must prepare the designs and basic concepts of the website first. In this way, the end result becomes more efficient and effective in nature. In different meetings, the developer will be asked basic structure and design of the development. It requires proper planning, decent communication and visual skills. The developer must be able to build a precise presentation that will help to communicate with others. This skill will also be developed over time with gradual effort. This is also another part of communication management (Ournani et al., 2020). In this case, the presentation or other visual interpretation must satisfy the exact project requirements and planning. The developer needs to understand the whole project requirement through different meetings with the client and other higher authorities, such as the project manager. On the other hand, she must be familiar with different visual tools and presenting methods for better delivery. This will not only help in better presentation but also will improve project implementation.

Finally, the personal development plan involves time efficiency or management. It is essential in every project from an organisational aspect. Every development must satisfy a particular time frame along with the required results. In that case, the developer must maintain time management in every project. This is also another skill that must be developed over time with continuous understanding and involvement with different projects. Primarily, the developer needs to improve different project understanding and implementation abilities. On the other hand, this time management will improve the overall project management skills of the developer. In this way, you will be able to manage different teams, project planning and all the other components. It is clearly seen that decent time management skills will influence all the other project management abilities in a positive way.

This whole development plan is prepared according to the technical requirements and key responsibilities of the road. On the other hand, some of the skills are included as general soft skills in any organisational position, such as time management. This whole development plan will be implemented over time through proper communication and regular involvement with teams and higher authorities (Gilson et al., 2020). This development plan will not only improve the work quality but also will improve the overall personality of an individual. In that case, this plan will be beneficial in the long term from an organisational aspect.

Conclusion
In this whole report, the particular position of voluntary Junior software developer in Onfuro limited is discussed and critically evaluated. It includes proper description of the particular organisation and post responsibilities. All of the key responsibilities are discussed in terms of effectiveness and effort. On the other hand, these key responsibilities are compared with the current abilities. In this way, it has become easier to prepare a proper personal development plan. On the other hand, the technical requirements are also mentioned in the report. These are some technical skills that must be met by the particular position for greater growth and organisational sustainability. In that case, the assigned position already makes all the essential technical requirements. It presents the reasonability of the particular position in Onfuro limited.

The personal development plan is prepared by evaluating all the technical requirements and key responsibilities of the particular position. This plan includes different soft skills that are required to develop a particularly project. It also includes some general soft skills that are required in every organisation. This development plan must be implemented over time through regular communication and effort. In the case, the developer must be efficient enough to engage himself with the whole development team and other stakeholders. Overall the report concludes a proper plan of action to meet all the key responsibilities of the assigned position in Onfuro limited. The report also explains the significance of developing new organisational skills in practical scenario.

References

Carter, S., & Abawi, L. A. (2018). Leadership, inclusion, and quality education for all. Australasian Journal of Special and Inclusive Education, 42(1), 49-64.

Correia, R., & Adachi, E. (2019, September). Detecting design violations in django-based web applications. In Proceedings of the XIII Brazilian Symposium on Software Components, Architectures, and Reuse (pp. 33-42).
de Sousa Mata, Á. N., de Azevedo, K. P. M., Braga, L. P., de Medeiros, G. C. B. S., de Oliveira Segundo, V.H., Bezerra, I. N. M., ... & Piuvezam, G. (2021). Training in communication skills for self-efficacy of health professionals: a systematic review. Human resources for health, 19(1), 1-9.

Englisch, N., Bergelt, R., & Hardt, W. (2020, November). An Educational Platform for Automotive Software Development and Test. In 2020 IEEE 32nd Conference on Software Engineering Education and Training (CSEE&T) (pp. 1-4). IEEE.

Fung, H. (2020). Becoming a Successful Software Manager. Software Quality Professional, 22(4), 4-10.
Gilson, F., Morales-Trujillo, M., & Mathews, M. (2020, June). How junior developers deal with their technical debt?. In Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Technical Debt (pp. 51-61).

Hoffmann, M. W., Drath, R., & Ganz, C. (2021). Proposal for requirements on industrial AI solutions. In Machine Learning for Cyber Physical Systems (pp. 63-72). Springer Vieweg, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Karasheva, Z., Amirova, A., Ageyeva, L., Jazdykbayeva, M., & Uaidullakyzy, E. (2021). Preparation of future specialists for the formation of educational communication skills for elementary school children. World Journal on Educational Technology: Current Issues, 13(3), 467-484.

Onfuro Ltd, (2021). Voluntary Junior Software Developer. Onfuro Contract.

Ournani, Z., Rouvoy, R., Rust, P., & Penhoat, J. (2020, October). On reducing the energy consumption of software: From hurdles to requirements. In Proceedings of the 14th ACM/IEEE International Symposium on Empirical Software Engineering and Measurement (ESEM) (pp. 1-12).

Parr, J. M., Teo, S., & Koziol?McLain, J. (2021). A quest for quality care: Exploration of a model of leadership relationships, work engagement, and patient outcomes. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 77(1), 207-220.

Prestiadi, D., Zulkarnain, W., & Sumarsono, R. B. (2019, December). Visionary leadership in total quality management: efforts to improve the quality of education in the industrial revolution 4.0. In The 4th International Conference on Education and Management (COEMA 2019) (pp. 202-206). Atlantis Press.

Rindri, Y. A., Ferdiana, R., & Hartanto, R. (2019). Developer Payroll Approaches for Startup Environment Based on Agile Project Management. Procedia Computer Science, 161, 66-73.

Sfakianaki, E., Matsiori, A., Giannias, D. A., & Sevdali, I. (2018). Educational leadership and total quality management: Investigating teacher leadership styles. International Journal of Management in Education, 12(4), 375-392.

Simpson, R., & Storer, T. (2015, June). Formalising Responsibility Modelling for Automatic Analysis. In Workshop on Enterprise and Organizational Modeling and Simulation (pp. 125-140). Springer, Cham.

Tavakoly Sany, S. B., Behzhad, F., Ferns, G., & Peyman, N. (2020). Communication skills training for physicians improves health literacy and medical outcomes among patients with hypertension: a randomized controlled trial. BMC health services research, 20(1), 1-10.

Van der Vleuten, C., van den Eertwegh, V., & Giroldi, E. (2019). Assessment of communication skills. Patient Education and Counseling, 102(11), 2110-2113.

Project Management Coursework Assignment Sample

1. General Assessment Guidance

Please note late submissions will not be assessed.

You are required to submit all elements of your assessment via Turnitin online access. Only submissions made via the specified mode will be accepted and hard copies or any other digital form of submissions (like via email or pen drive etc.) will not be accepted.

For this coursework, the submission word limit is 1,000 words. You must comply with the word count guidelines. You may submit LESS than 1,000 words but not more. Word Count guidelines can be found on your programme home page and the coursework submission page.

Do not put your name or contact details anywhere on your submission. You should only put your student registration number (SRN) which will ensure your submission is recognized in the assessment process.

You are required to use only Harvard Referencing System in your submission for assignment help. Any content which is already published by other author(s) and is not referenced will be considered as a case of plagiarism.

You can find further information on Harvard Referencing in the online library on the Hub (Found via Help & Support). You can use the following link to access this information: http://bpp.libguides.com/Home/StudySupport

BPP University has a strict policy regarding authenticity of assessments. In proven instances of plagiarism or collusion, severe punishment will be imposed on offenders. You are advised to read the rules and regulations regarding plagiarism and collusion in the GARs and MOPP which are available on HUB in the Academic registry section (Found via Help & Support).

You should include a completed copy of the Assignment Cover sheet. Any submission without this completed Assignment Cover sheet may be considered invalid and not assessed.

THE SMART CITY OS CONSULTANCY

In the role of a Project Consultant you are required to develop a project for the Smart City OS project by leveraging the techniques and concepts you have covered in the module.

Task 1 – The Project Manager

Critically discuss what skills the project manager of the Smart City OS project needs to develop to be effective and reflect on possible actions the project manager of the Smart City OS project should take to develop those skills. Support your arguments with academic literature and references to other similar real projects.

Task 2 – Problem Solving & Decision Making

Identify relevant stakeholders and create a stakeholder influence map for the Smart City OS project and discuss why these are the most critical stakeholders emerging from your analysis., Then, by leveraging the academic literature and similar real projects, critically discuss how you engage the stakeholders you have identified with the Smart City OS project.

Task 3 – The Project Triangle

Critically discuss the importance of the various project triangle parameters that will need to be managed by the Smart City OS project manager over the course of the project, and how they may inter-relate to each other. Discuss the impact of possible changes to this project. Support your arguments with academic literature and references to other similar real projects.

Presentation and Structure
Assessment Self-Evaluation
Word-count: up to 1,000 words.

Solution

Introduction

In this area of technological advancement Hull is the first UK city to develop ‘The Smart City OS’ to visualize real life data on large displays. The project management plays significant role when it comes to development and execution of project in systematic way through using skills and abilities. Therefore, the current study will shed light on the skills and attributes to be considered by the project manager for completing the project process. In addition to that, significance of stakeholder participation will be discussed in this paper. Apart from that, the involvement of stakeholders will be discussed as it helps in making effective decision.

TASK 1

The Project Manager

The job of project management is not as easy as it sounds. It requires a lot of knowledge and skills in order to make the project successful. The project manager majorly focused on the below mentioned skills while executing this project for attaining goals and objectives associated with it.

Leadership:

The project manager needs to develop his leadership in order to lead his team in the project making it successful. The project manager needs to mediate as well as motivate the entire team so as to make each part of the project perfect (Novo et al, 2017).

Communication:

Communication and leadership are the two sides of a coin. In order to become a good and ideal leader the manager needs to have excellent communication skills. The project manager of Smart City OS is required to develop and implement effective communication skills for sharing relevant data information about the project scheduling and strategy to be considered by the project manager ((Novo et al, 2017)). For instance, for providing high quality service to the populace, the project manager is requiring to use advanced communication tools through which the project team will be able to have proper understanding of the project procedures.

Scheduling:

A project can prove to be effective only when it gets finished within the prescribed time. For this the manager must ensure that a proper realistic schedule is set up for the employees.

Risk Management:

Planning a project always comes with risk as a combined offer irrespective of the project being big or small (Srivastava and Rathod, 2017). It is the job of the project manager to identify access and find solutions for the risks before starting the project.

Actions taken by project manager to develop these skills are as follows:

Timeline planning:

Project managers act as the keepers of a calendar of a project, as they are responsible for the successful completion of projects. In order to develop this skill, they need to search on time chart flows therefore planning each phase of the project systematically.

Project Budgeting:

Project managers also act as the budget managers for a project. For this they need to go through the past projects to analyse the mistakes and prepare a budget accordingly. Project team need to look through the project scope in order to estimate the approximate budget and implement a plan accordingly.

TASK 2

Problem Solving & Decision Making

Stakeholders are the people who invest in a project and are directly involved with the respected project. They gain profits or loss with the implementation of the project. Some of the important stakeholders for the Smart

City OS are as follows:

Internal Stakeholders:

Employees:

Employees devote a major portion of financial as well as time in developing the project and making it successful making them an important stakeholder.

Managers:

Managers play a significant role in deciding the strategy and operation of the project making them an important stakeholder for the Smart City OS project.

Owners:

The owners hold major shares of the project marking them as an important stakeholder for the Smart City OS project.

External Stakeholders:

Suppliers:

The suppliers are the source of resources required for implementation of the project marking them as important stakeholders (Li et al, 2017).

Society:

The interest of the society towards the environmental effects of the project makes them a concerning and important stakeholder for the Smart City OS.

Government:

The government ensures the project runs properly as it aids in the economic way to the government providing productivity as well as employment. This highlights them as important stakeholders (Gil-Garcia et al, 2019).

Creditors:

Creditors lend money to the project making them a financially important stakeholder for the Smart City OS project.

Shareholders:

Shareholders own the shares of the company reaping the profits of the company. Thus they are important because they help the project to earn money.

Customers:

Customers are the sole reason behind the survival of the Smart City OS project in the market.

The project manager needs to identify the stakeholders and get to know them so as to make it easy to communicate and initiate the project successfully. The project manager needs to arrange for meetings and seminars so as to initiate discussions amongst the stakeholders. This will help thyme to find out the similarities and resolve the conflicts beforehand. The project manager needs to make the stakeholders believe that they are genuinely interested to hear their ideologies first giving them utmost priority.

TASK 3

The Project Triangle

Smart City OS is required to incorporate and follow key four parameters of project management for attaining effective comparative advantage. It has been observed that application of these specific parameters helps in improving the quality of the project process. The four parameters of project manager are discussed below:

Time:

Time plays a crucial role when it comes to accomplishment of project goals. Therefore, the project managers are required to focus on time management skills for meeting deadlines. The project deadline is bound to be one of the key parameters since it helps in creating strong brand image. Failure in meeting deadlines may negatively affect the growth and development process of the project. (Sanchez and Terlizzi, 2017).

Quality:

Quality helps in determining the standard followed by the company towards accomplishment of the project. Quality parameter is beneficial for establishing quality standards that may help in attaining strong comparative advantage. (Radujkovi? and Sjekavica, 2017).

Cost:

Cost is another primary parameter required to be considered while conducting a project. The project manager is responsible for ensuring a budget that will be used for completing the project within a specific time.

Conclusion

After the identification of the major factors that are known to influence the project triangle, it is important to be able to conclude with certain remarks to acquire a proper understanding of the project. It is hence important for the project manager to be able to potentially define the project aspects, which are further split into potential tasks that are spread among team members. This would involve the identification of the project milestones that would keep the stakeholders informed regarding the progress of the project. The current study mainly focused on acquiring the skills and attributes for attaining project goals in an effective manner.

Reference List

Gil-Garcia, J.R., Guler, A., Pardo, T.A. and Burke, G.B., 2019. Characterizing the importance of clarity of roles and responsibilities in government inter-organizational collaboration and information sharing initiatives. Government Information Quarterly, 36(4), p.101393.

Li, Z.Q., Tan, H.C., Anumba, C. and Chia, F.C., 2017. Development of a web-based system for managing suppliers’ performance and knowledge sharing in construction project. Built Environment Project and Asset Management.

Novo, B., Landis, E.A. and Haley, M.L., 2017. Leadership and its role in the success of project management. Journal of Leadership, Accountability, and Ethics, 14(1), pp.73-78.

Radujkovi?, M. and Sjekavica, M., 2017. Project management success factors. Procedia engineering, 196, pp.607-615.

Sanchez, O.P. and Terlizzi, M.A., 2017. Cost and time project management success factors for information systems development projects. International Journal of Project Management, 35(8), pp.1608-1626.

Shrivastava, S.V. and Rathod, U., 2017. A risk management framework for distributed agile projects. Information and software technology, 85, pp.1-

BSV11101 Project Management and Construction Assignment Sample

Coursework Scenario

Construction projects are difficult but not impossible to manage!

Construction Project Management is the art of managing projects so that they are delivered successfully. It has been described as the overall control and coordination of all activities necessary, from inception to completion, towards the realisation of a completed asset that meets a clients expectations with respect to function, utility, schedule and budget.

The track record of project management in fulfilling this description, in the case of construction projects, is significantly less than perfect. Empirical evidence suggests that construction projects in the UK have approximately a 50% chance of being completed in accordance with their targeted objectives. Outside the UK it has been reported that approximately 65% of all infrastructure projects it supports encounter budget and schedule overruns. Despite this, it is clear that SOME construction projects are managed and delivered successfully.

Academics, theorists and practitioners have debated the causes of project failure and various recipe’s for success. Since some projects are delivered successfully while others aren’t, it is reasonable to suppose that there could be some ‘ingredients’ that can be found within the successful projects that are missing from the unsuccessful projects. On the other hand, construction projects are inherently uncertain, complex and extremely varied one from another, so it could be countered that success or failure may not be directly within the direct control of individual project managers or project management teams, rather being determined by certain factors within the projects themselves.

However, if true, this second position would substantially undermine much project management thinking and would certainly cause significant problems for the project management profession! For this coursework, you are to assume that you work within a large project management practice and you have been invited by a leading UK Project Management Institute to be a keynote speaker at a national conference that has as its theme: “Project Management for successful Construction Project delivery”.
As the basis for your keynote presentation you have been asked to produce a research paper that will be included within the Conference Proceedings. These Proceedings will be published by the conference organisers and will be made available to the delegates.

The title of the conference paper that you have been invited to submit is:- “Evaluating construction project success; investigating the PM role in delivering success and appraising the propensity for PM success”.

Coursework Tasks

“Examining construction project success; investigating the PM role in delivering success and appraising the propensity for PM success”.

Your coursework task is to prepare and submit this conference paper. To do this you will need to research ideas on the subjects of project management success; this should include examining what criteria should be used to determine whether or not a construction project has been delivered successfully and why these criteria valid. You will also need to investigate the project management role in relation to delivering a successful project; this requires examining literature on the expectations that can be reasonably demanded of those discharging the project management role. Lastly, to complete this conference paper you will need to appraise the things within the construction project management process that may aid the project manager in delivering successful projects and those which hinder the same and in so doing understand those things upon which the project manager may need to place greatest attention on - this is likely to include factors related to the project managers skills and abilities and organisational aspects within the PM process.

It is expected that your research paper will be predominantly literature review based, however, you may also introduce empirical evidence from your own experience of a project or projects if appropriate. (It may be appropriate to introduce evidence from your experience within the paper, however, it would be inappropriate to ONLY discuss personal experience with no reference to published literature. Therefore, some consideration of experience is optional, whereas review of literature is compulsory).

Because your paper will be published in the conference proceedings it must adhere to a prescribed template (please note that the publication is hypothetical, but the template is not!). This template is included in Appendix 1. Please note that marks will be deducted if the template is not followed. As well as adhering to the template, your conference paper should be structured in a logical way.

A suggested structure for the discussion section would be: An Introduction; in which the purpose, aims and objectives of the paper are explained: An Examination of Project Success; in which you examine the various criteria and/or indicators that can be used to estimate how a construction project has performed: An investigation of the role of the project manager in delivering project success; in which you assess the project manager’s role in relation to project success and the expectations demanded of the PM: An appraisal of the propensity for PM success; in which you appraise the things that can aid or hinder project success and therefore the areas that might demand the PM’s greatest attention. Finally, a Conclusion in which you sum up the main findings and the contribution that your paper has made.

Note: Your paper must not exceed 6 printed pages (sides) of A4 paper - this applies for all the content of the paper from the Abstract to the Conclusion, but it excludes the list of references. Any text exceeding the 6 page limit WILL NOT be read or marked.

Solution

Introduction

Project management is a significant element of the construction industry, and the construction industry of the United Kingdom is associated with multiple projects of high budgets and value. However, approximately 50% of the construction projects in the United Kingdom are completed by delivering quality to satisfy project objectives, while 65% deal with budget and schedule overruns. Urba?ski, Haque and Oino (2019) identified project success as dependent on the efficiency of a project manager's leadership capability, making them one of the most significant stakeholders required for improving the quality of construction projects in the United Kingdom. This study aims to evaluate the role of a project manager in satisfying different requirements for project success.

Examining the project success

A range of factors can indicate a construction project's quality, and help leaders understand whether a project is successful or not. Some significant indicators for evaluating project success include time, cost, project environment, stakeholder satisfaction, quality of the project, the functionality of a project and more (Unegbu, Yawas and Dan-Asabe, 2020). Among the indicators mentioned above, project quality holds the most significant amount of significance in the success of a project, and the project quality is further related to the cost, time and scope (Refer to figure 1). According to the concepts of triple constraint in a project and its quality, cost, time and scope are regarded as the most crucial elements. A project leader's inefficiency in managing these three elements can undermine the quality of a project (Guo, 2019). Therefore, to examine the success of a project, one must evaluate these three indicators (time, cost and scope) and the efficiency of the project leaders in managing these through the project. It will not only highlight the project's efficiency in managing potential constraints but can also highlight another indicator, which is project quality (Pollack, Helm and Adler, 2018).

Figure 1: Project triangle
(Source: Self-developed)

On the other hand, evaluating the functionality of the outcomes of a project and their alignment with the primary set objectives or performance indicators can be an efficient way of examining project success (Pirotti et al., 2020). If one finds the functionality of a project to be aligned with the expected outcomes by reviewing the notion of a project, the project can be successful. However, a project failing to deliver expected functionality and outcomes can indicate the failure of a project (Pirotti et al., 2020). For instance, in the case of the Crossrail construction project of the United Kingdom, the project was aimed at minimising the disruptions encountered by the residents and business owners of the UK by improving the transport networking system in the UK utilising the power of the railway (Crossrail UK, 2022). However, the project failed to deliver this, and its functionality was not as expected due to the stakeholders' poor decision-making and the lack of proper project execution (GCR Staff, 2019). Moreover, these factors have enhanced the project's cost and time, which is another indicator of an unsuccessful or inefficient construction project.

In addition to the criteria mentioned earlier, the efficient management of project stakeholders and the project management environment is essential for proper project management (Irfan and Hassan, 2019). Therefore, the leaders can also evaluate these factors to understand the degree of success of a project. For instance, a project with positive relations among stakeholders and an efficient environment that can foster stakeholder participation can promote the efficiency of project management and lead the project towards success (Irfan and Hassan, 2019). Hence, evaluating these factors and their effectiveness can indicate the possible chances of project success. These indicators and their positive outcomes are majorly dependent on factors including project manager competency, project team competency, project team efficiency of project teams' needs management, managers' focus on risk management and more (Unegbu, Yawas and Dan-Asabe, 2020). Therefore, one can say that the project manager is one of the essential stakeholders. They should be competent enough to appraise other associated factors required for a project's success, along with ensuring project evaluation of project success and its compliance with the project objectives.
Role of the project manager in delivering project success

As previously discussed, multiple indicators and factors determine the success of a project, and most of them are managed by the project manager. A project manager holds the most important and crucial position in the construction project management process for assignment help which determines the degree of project success (Daniel and Daniel, 2018). Nevertheless, one can regard the project managers as responsible for project outcomes, whether success or failure. Specifically, the projects manager's role should include the following:

Project planning: Project planning is one of the essential parts of a construction project in the United Kingdom which determines the efficiency of project execution. The phase of project planning includes a project breakdown into different tasks, scheduling the tasks, communication between different teams working together on a project, and forming a budget for the entire construction project in the United Kingdom (Armenia et al., 2019). A gap in efficiency of this phase can create a gap in the execution phase and eventually result in overrunning time and budget and compromising the project quality. Therefore, project leaders must ensure the project planning phase efficiently and make proper plans that the leaders can execute properly without overrunning the budget and time or disrupting communication.

Decision-making: Decision-making is also a significant responsibility of a project manager. For instance, in the case of the Crossrail project in the United Kingdom, the gap in the efficient decision-making by project managers influenced the project outcomes and eventually delayed the project. Along with delaying the Construction project, the wrong decisions of the project manager have also resulted in budget overruns (GCR Staff, 2019). To be specific, one can say that decision-making is a crucial part of construction project planning and its execution with harmony (Erdogan, Šaparauskas, and Turskis, 2019). Therefore, the leaders of a construction project in the United Kingdom must possess the capacity to make proper decisions to enhance the chances for a construction project to succeed on par with its objectives.

Arranging resources: Arrangement and delivering proper resources enhance the efficiency of the construction project team and their performance in the construction project. Resource allocation improves the alignment of construction project team members with the leader's vision by reducing potential constraints associated with the stress triggered by a lack of resources (Yu et al., 2018). Moreover, it contributes to the appraisal of a construction project's scope and potential to succeed in the United Kingdom. Nevertheless, the over-allocation of resources can also be implicative in the over-utilisation of the resource. Therefore, project managers should focus on arranging and allocating required and appropriate resources to avoid stress due to a lack of resources and over-utilisation.

Quality management: As previously discussed, the quality of a construction project is one of the critical indicators for project success, which makes it essential for the construction project managers of the United Kingdom to manage the project quality to ensure success (Guo, 2019). A construction quality management process can be defined as the methods that continuously measure the quality of every project activity and identify the flaws to mitigate them with appropriate action (Pollack, Helm and Adler, 2018). Specifically, managing cost, time and project scope are the fundamental elements that can hinder the project quality. Therefore, the project leaders must focus on managing cost, scope and time management activities and ensure they do not exceed. For instance, the exceeding budget and time of the Crossrail construction project of the United Kingdom have undermined the quality of the project, which is a lesson for the UK-based construction project leaders for their roles to manage these aspects of a project to deliver a project with expected quality.

Stakeholder management: Stakeholders and their performance are crucial for project success. Specifically, effective collaboration among project stakeholders can induce innovation, better risk management performance, and better decision-making. Moreover, it can also contribute to developing a positive project management environment (Ewurum, Egolum and Ogbuefi, 2019). In contradiction, stakeholder management gaps can create a hostile project environment and poor decision-making. Therefore, project managers should appraise better stakeholder management strategies and manage the project stakeholders successfully to ensure project success.

Appraisal of the propensity for Project Success

The personalities of construction project managers can be different, which results in their utilisation of different project management approaches. A project manager's propensity refers to the project manager's specific inclination, tendency and behavioural traits. Multiple factors influence the propensity of project managers (Górecki et al., 2019). Some of the significant factors that influence the character and behaviour of project leaders include confidence in the leaders, project management experience, knowledge, management skills and more (Noor and Mehar, 2021). The factors mentioned above can regulate the propensity of project managers to support project success and lead the project towards failure. Therefore, the leaders should ensure the management of the propensity positively. The leader's propensity or behavioural traits play a critical role in the success of construction projects globally, along with the UK markets. For instance, the leader's emotional intelligence is one of the significant facilitators for stakeholder collaboration, satisfaction and management of a positive project management environment (Rezvani, Ashkanasy and Khosravi, 2020). It can reflect project managers' commitment to regulate project team members' commitment successfully.

On the other hand, Fareed, Su and Awan (2020) have found that transformational leadership behaviours work best while managing a construction project. The emotional intelligence of project managers is also a part of transformational leadership and intellectual intelligence, which contributes to the efficiency of the leaders in managing the competency of leaders in decision-making and managing project teams strategically. These factors are responsible for the management of project success, and one can say that the project leaders should work to promote these propensities to ensure project success. In addition, leaders' propensity plays a crucial role in managing a project towards success and competency in project management (Górecki et al., 2019). Thus, one can say that the management of the propensity of a project can be effective in ensuring project success.

Conclusion

Conclusively, one can say that project managers are the most crucial personnel for ensuring project success. They are responsible for managing project quality, effective decision-making, project planning, stakeholder management and resource allocation. Therefore, their competency and interpersonal skills determine the project's success, and the project managers need to align their skills and propensity with the success criteria of a project.

Reference list