Professional Engineering Management

Assignment - Risk Evaluation & Services Delivery Plan

Topic - Based on a theme provided by Pearson. The theme set by Pearson is: ‘Sustainability'

Research Proposal: 2500 - 3500 words

Learning Outcome 1: Evaluate the risk evaluation theories and practices associated with the management of projects for the production of current and developing technology

Learning Outcome 2: Produce an engineering services delivery plan that meets the requirements of a sector-specific organisation.

Assignment Brief:

Case Scenario
You are employed as an engineer in a large multi-disciplinary engineering company "Quark & Jones Ltd". The company prides itself on providing very high-quality engineering products and services, making use of current and emerging technologies, with a high emphasis on Sustainability. As part of the company's mission, the engineering department aims to transform business processes by utilising new and emerging digital technologies, ultimately resulting in opportunities for improved efficiency and increased revenue, in a bid to remain a competitive player in their respective markets.

You have recently been identified as a potential candidate for promotion to a project engineering position. The company wishes to find out more about your existing skills and technical knowledge, to evaluate your potential for promotion. To take advantage of this opportunity, you will need to demonstrate your familiarity with the professional standards and skills required for producing a professional engineering services delivery plan.

As part of this assignment, you will need to address the following key areas through a combination of research and your own relevant experience:

The importance of your company's use of and your own commitment to professional engineering standards.

Sustainability as a core value in relation to current and developing technology.

Specific project risks and how they are managed.

Conventional Project Management methods and techniques

Managing your project team.

Evidence of entrepreneurial & innovation skills using original thoughts and ideas where possible.

Your line manager has requested that you produce a professional engineering project in the form of a comprehensive report which will address the above areas and those set out in the task on the following page:

Task:

Your project will require you to complete the following:

A written project proposal & ethics approval form (tutor to authorise, you can access the Research Ethics Approval form through Moodle).

Provide a fully detailed professional engineering services delivery plan, including a task breakdown, responsibilities determination, performance measures and resource and time management methods. You should aim to address the core theme of Sustainability and demonstrate how the developed plan and its constituent steps meet the intended objectives and goals. You should also consider any eventualities which may hinder the plan in meeting those objectives and goals and give a critical account of these potential eventualities and their effects.

Note that you are advised to make use of an industry standard project plan template, or one based on your own experience.

Explain and provide details on the feasibility of your project, considering engineering industry regulations and requirements, internal & external pressures, along with research to be carried out and including any ethical considerations.

Give an account and justification of the relevant engineering management tools which you intend to use, along with some alternative methods.

Consideration of several risk evaluation theories used in engineering project management and provide an evaluation of each, evidencing which theory/theories you will use in your project and why.

Give an appraisal of the range of factors which can influence successful management of engineering activities. Aim to give a veritably critical view of this, concentrating on the practices of risk evaluation and the issues which impact the success of these engineering activities. Try to show your thorough understanding of managing engineering activities, giving specific examples of the challenges that you have experienced previously and the methods of overcoming those challenges, providing examples on how you can use these experiences to benefit your project.

Ethics Form
Your report should be written in a concise, formal style using single spacing and font size 12. You are required to make use of headings, paragraphs, and subsections as appropriate. Use Moodle for resources to support the production of your Research Proposal and Ethics form.

Structurally, you should submit a report with the following sections: -
Cover page - This should feature your name and assignment title - perhaps a nice graphic, if you like (no page number on this sheet).
Contents page - Lists each section in the document and the page number where that section begins (these pages are numbered i, ii, iii etc).
Introduction - An introduction states the purpose and goals of your report. A few sentences will suffice here (this is always section 1, and numbered page 1).
Sections - sections 2, 3 etc. This is the main body of the report.
Bibliography - A bibliography lists all the sources you used when researching your assignment, but you have not referenced.
References - List of all the sources that you have referred to in your text, using either the Harvard or Vancouver referencing system, should be listed fully here. Do not use Wikipedia as a source.
Appendices - If required.

Selected assignments will require a video conference to assess understanding before final grades are issued.