Managing a Successful Business Project

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Pearson BTEC Level 5 Higher National Diploma Business (RQF)

ASSIGNMENT BRIEF – UNIT 6

Unit Title: Managing a Successful Business Project				Unit Credit Value:		Unit Level:
					15			4
Assessor/s:		IQA:
Hillary Korakegha
Signature of Assessor	Hillary		Signature of IQA

Learning Outcomes

	To pass this unit, the student must achieve learning outcomes as follows:
1.	Establish project aims, objectives and timeframes based on the chosen theme.
2.	Conduct small-scale research, information gathering and data collection to generate
		knowledge to support the project.
3.	Present the project and communicate appropriate recommendations based on meaningful
		conclusions drawn from the evidence findings and/or analysis.
4.	Reflect on the value gained from conducting the project and its usefulness to support
		sustainable organisational performance in your chosen organisation
	Student Name:				College ID NO:
	E-mail:
	Issue Date:					Expected
					Submission Date:
	Student Signature:					Actual			101010dw 11
					Submission	Date:		11010010/101101010101000/10

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Unit Introduction

The aim of this unit is to offer students an opportunity to demonstrate the skills required for managing and implementing a project. They will undertake independent research and investigation for carrying out and executing a business project which meets appropriate business aims and objectives. The theme as well as chosen project within the theme will enable students to explore and examine a relevant and current topical aspect of business in the context of the business environment

On successful completion of this unit students will have the confidence to engage in decision-making, problem-solving and research activities using project management skills. They will have the fundamental knowledge and skills to enable them to investigate and examine relevant business concepts within a work-related context, determine appropriate outcomes, decisions or solutions and present evidence to various stakeholders in an acceptable and understandable format

Instruction

Students must complete ALL tasks in order to achieve this unit.

Grading criteria

A pass grade is achieved by meeting all the requirements defined in the assessment criteria for passing this unit. Learners who complete the unit but who do not meet all the pass criteria are graded ‘Referred’. Learners whose coursework is unclassified will be given the opportunity to make necessary corrections and amendments for resubmission. In order to achieve a merit unit grade, all pass criteria and all merit descriptors must be met. To achieve a distinction unit grade, all pass criteria plus all merit and distinction descriptors must be met. Completing the tasks

In order to complete the tasks, you will need to research different information sources such as textbooks, journals articles and the internet. You are also required to develop skills in analysis and synthesis of information. Analysis requires you to critically examine different aspects of a topic and identify important issues. Synthesis requires you to summarise the information you have analysed in a cosies and coherent manner. Make use of information on assignment preparation and command verb usage in your Moodle Platform.

Helpful information

Helpful information

Thefollowingsourcesofinformation may be usefulforthecompletionofthis assignment.

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Costley, C., Elliot, G. and Gibbs, P. (2010) Doing Work Based Research: Approaches to Enquiry

for Insider-researchers. London: SAGE.

Flick, U. (2011) Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to Doing a Research Project.

London: SAGE.

Gray, D. (2009) Doing Research in the Real World. 2nd Ed. London: SAGE.

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2012) Research Methods for Business Students. 6th Ed.

Harlow: Pearson.

Journals

International Journal of Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Qualitative Research Journals

Referencing your work

References to relevant academic theory and research findings should be provided and cited appropriately using the Harvard system of referencing. Example of this referencing style is as follows

Sawyer M, (2004), The UK Economy: A Manual of Applied Economics, 16th edition, OUP Oxford

Author/s name and initials are listed first, followed by year of publication in brackets. Then there is the title of article/chapter of the book and the journal where article appears/ title of the book. If it is a journal, the journal will be in italics and you will have to add the volume and issue number (in brackets) along with the pages where article can be located. If it is a book, you will have to add the place of publication and then the publication company. Include at least two in-text citations and references in each assessment criterion. Further information on the Harvard System of referencing is on your Moodle Platform.

Note: Do not use Wikipedia as a source of reference.

Plagiarism and cheating

You are required to work independently when preparing this assignment. Presenting another learner’s work as yours or taking information from any sources without acknowledging the source constitutes plagiarism. Please note that your work will be cancelled if you plagiarised. In some cases, the college will detect this by using software called ‘Grammarly’. Make sure you read your work carefully and ensure that all sources of information have been acknowledged to avoid any untoward investigations that would result in a delay in your achievement of the unit.

Further information on plagiarism and potential consequences are available in your student handbooks.

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Presentation

Present a document with a suggested word count of 3500 (+/- 10%). The word guide does not include references, bibliography, images, diagrams and appendices. The word count should be stated on the assignment cover sheet. You are required to make use of headings, paragraphs and subsections as appropriate, and all work must be supported with research and referenced using the Harvard referencing system. The word should be processed in a suitable format of 12-point font, 1.5-line spacing and pages numbered.

Submission

When submitting your assignment, you must include:

1. The Assignment Brief
2. Assignment Cover Sheet
3. Other documents required by your assessor as evidence of achievement.

All assignments should be handed in electronically, with necessary documents and should be signed and dated by the student and lecturer

Submission deadlines must be strictly observed. Therefore, disciplined timemanagement is very important when producing this assignment. Failure to meet deadlines will unduly delay your achievement and progression through the course and may affect your achievement of higher grades. For example, the Merit indicator “an effective approach to study and research has been applied”, and for Distinction, the indicator “activities have been managed” can both be interpreted to mean that submitting assignment work on time is an appropriate learning technique at this level.

Scenario

Failures in talent management are an ongoing source of pain for executives in modern organisations. Over the past generation, talent management practices, especially in the United States, have by and large been dysfunctional, leading corporations to lurch from surpluses of talent to shortfalls to surpluses and back again. At its heart, talent management is simply a matter of anticipating the need for human capital and then setting out a plan to meet it. Current responses to this challenge largely fall into two distinct, and equally ineffective camps. The first, and by far the most common, is to do nothing: anticipate no needs at all; make no plans for addressing them (rendering the term “talent management” meaningless). This reactive approach relies overwhelmingly on outside hiring and has faltered now that the surplus of management talent has eroded. The second, common only among large, older companies, relies on complex and bureaucratic models from the 1950s for forecasting and succession planning legacy systems that grew up in an era when business was highly predictable and that fail now because they are inaccurate and costly in a more volatile environment

It’s time for a fundamentally new approach to talent management that takes into account the great uncertainty businesses face today. Fortunately, companies already have such a model, one that has been well honed over decades to anticipate and meet demand in uncertain environments, supply chain management. By borrowing lessons from operations and supply

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chain research, firms can forge a new model of talent management better suited to today’s realities.

You are to select a business sector from either marketing, finance, operations or manufacturing from which data can be collected to prepare a set of evidence based business project which focuses on the key challenges and obstacles facing different business sectors in terms of talent management

Suggested topic:

What are the key challenges and obstacles facing different business sectors in terms of talent management? (Selectone business sector e.g. marketing, finance, operations, and manufacturing).

The small business project should cover the following aspects

Task 1: (Report)

Devise project aims and objectives for a chosen scenario

Produce project management plan that covers aspect of cost, scope, time, quality, communication, risk and resources

Produce a work break down structure and a Gantt chart to provide time frame and stages for completion

Produce a comprehensive project management plan, milestone schedule and project schedule for monitoring and completing the aims and objectives of the project

Evidence: Project aim and objectives, Comprehensive Project Management Plan, Gantt chart

Task 2: (Report)

Carry out a small scale research by applying qualitative and quantitative research methods appropriate for meeting project aims and objectives. Justify the methods that you used.

Extend your report to critically evaluate the project management process and appropriate research

Methodologies applied and the reliability of different research methods applied

Evidence: Research Methodology report with Justification of methods and Research Findings (data analysis)

Report on evaluation of research methods and project management process

Task 3: (Report)

Analyse research and data using appropriate tools and techniques to communicate appropriate recommendations as a result of research and data analysis in order to draw valid and meaningful conclusions

Evaluate the selection of appropriate tools and techniques for accuracy and authenticity to support and justify recommendations

Evidence: Presentation resources, presentation observation

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Task 4: (Report)

Critically evaluate and reflect on the value gained from undertaking your research to meet stated objectives, project outcomes, how it supported own learning and performance and the decision making process, changes or development of the initial project management plan to support justification of recommendations and learning during the project

Learning Outcomes and Assessment Criteria:

Pass

Merit

Distinction

LO1 Establish project aims, objectives and timeframes based on the

chosen theme

P1 Devise project aims and

LO1 & LO2

objectives

for

a

chosen

M1 Produce

a comprehensive

scenario.

D1 Critically

evaluate

the project

project

management

plan,

management process and methods

P2

Produce

a

project

milestone schedule and project

applied for

gathering

information

management

plan

that

schedule

for

monitoring

and

and data collection

covers, aim and deliverables,

completing

the aims

and

time,

quality,

objectives of the project

communication,

risk

and

resources.

P3

Produce

a

work

breakdown structure and a

Gantt

Chart

to

provide

timeframes

and stages

for

completion.

LO2 Conduct small-scale research, information gathering and data

collection to generate knowledge to support the project

P4 Carry out small-scale research

M2 Evaluate the accuracy and

applying primary and

secondary

reliability of primary and secondary

methods appropriate for meeting

methods applied.

project aims and objectives.

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LO3 Present the project and communicate appropriate recommendations based on meaningful conclusions drawn from the evidence findings and/or analysis

LO3 & LO4

P5 Present findings and datausing appropriate tools and techniques.

P6 Communicate appropriaterecommendations as a result of findings and data analysis to draw valid and meaningful conclusions

M3 Evaluate the selection ofappropriate tools and techniques for accuracy and authenticity to support and justify recommendations.

D2 Critically evaluates and reflects onthe project outcomes, the decision making process and changes or developments of the initial project management plan to support justification of recommendations and learning during the project.

LO4 Reflect on the value gained from conducting the project and its usefulness to support sustainable organisational performance

P7 Reflect on the value ofundertaking the project to meet stated objectives and own learning and performance.

M4 Evaluate the value of the

project management process to

meet stated objectives and

support own learning and

performance

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