Purpose:
This Brief sets out what is required to be done by each team. Please note that your Case Project forms part of this Brief.
Your case project should be of sufficient challenge so as to provide a basis for your competency development in all 4 fundamental units of study where possible. In this Brief, the focus is on strategic management of projects/programs covering strategic intent, business case, framework, life cycle and governance.
Simulation:
Assume that your team has been hired as a team of independent professional consultants (Project Advisor/Consultant) to assist with preparation of a project strategic (master) plan for management of strategic intent, business case, framework, life cycle and governance. If you are using the same case project for Project Management Fundamentals 2, 3 and 4 you may use the outcomes from this assignment to guide your work in these units, i.e. the work done in SBM1101 will result in a master plan that can be a blueprint for management of all project phases and activities from start to finish. It can furnish information about strategic context, business case, framework and governance of your case project. All project planning and management activities must take place within that context.
Strategic priorities, the business case, high level budget and timing, decision points and milestones, organisational and quality management strategies, governance rules, strategies for procurement and oversight of design consultant, lead contractor, sub-contractors, suppliers and so on (as may be relevant in your case project) all should be reflected in your Project Strategic Plan albeit at high level (strategic view).
Figure demonstrates the tentative organisation chart for the project, including the position of Project Advisor/Consultant (in blue shade). Please note that Figure is only a notional representation of the case project intended for illustration purposes; the actual organisation differs from case to case, depending on the project and client organisation. Your team needs to develop the organisation structure for your own case project.
As seen, it is assumed that your team is engaged via a Professional Services type to prepare your Case Project Strategic Plan (covering strategic intent, business case, framework, life cycle and governance of your case project) and present this to the client organisation within the specified duration as per the terms of reference (TOR) and criteria set out below and following the process shown in Figure.
Terms of Reference (TOR):
The Project Strategic Plan should be delivered through a quality-managed process (as per your Team QA/Workplan) following all the requirements spelt out in SBM1101 web site (including interim submissions) and within the permitted duration.
Each team develops and submits a coherent Strategic Plan/ Initiation Plan for their case project in electronic form. Your plan must be signed formally by all team members to testify that it is your own work achieved through teamwork. Please keep your own separate copies as the submitted plans are not generally returned to teams (these are kept for examination purposes and become the property of the College to be used for educational purposes if deemed useful). A marked copy will be sent back to each team to provide feedback on the work submitted. For this reason all submissions should be in MS Word format.
The final submission should include a single page qualification statement in the form of a table that gives reference to where each item of the requirements of the assignment has been addressed and if the submitted Plan complies with all the requirements; if not why not.
The Project Strategic Plan must be based on sound research and well justified in terms of conceptual studies. Teams should avoid superficial adoption of the methodologies found in different standards or source documents as the idea is for the teams to show a degree of freshness in tailoring concepts to suit projects or coming up with a really optimum solution to the challenge under consideration.
Submissions 2-3 need to be designed to build up and easily consolidate to form the Project Strategic Plan. Your Team QA/Workplan needs to be included as an appendix to the main report. Also, you should be aware that your Plan will be the basis for integration of all component plans and reports generated on other aspects of the management of the case project in Fundamentals 2-4. The entire work in Fundamentals 2 to 4 should be based on the Project Strategic Plan.
The Project Strategic Plan should be ideally no more than 65-80 pages in size. Its Table of Contents can be similar to that included below. (Please note that this table of contents is a notional one provided for guidance only; your team needs to research and design its own table of contents as variations are expected depending on the case project and host/client organisation under consideration.