Managing a Professional Engineering Project - Pearson BTEC Level 4 Higher National Certificate in Engineering

Assignment - Formulating & Planning a Project

Learning Outcome 1: Formulate and plan a project that will provide a solution to an identified engineering problem.

Learning Outcome 2: Conduct planned project activities to generate outcomes which provide a solution to the identified engineering problem.

Learning Outcome 3: Produce a project report analysing the outcomes of each of the project processes and stages.

Learning Outcome 4: Present the project report drawing conclusions on the outcomes of the project.

Assignment Brief: Scenario

You have recently been appointed as Assistant Engineering Project Manager within a global manufacturing company "Tourat Industries" whose core business lies in the manufacture and provision of high-quality engineering products and services.

The company brand is facing significant competition and aims to consolidate its position and improve its place in the global market, with an increased emphasis on "Digitalisation" across all their products and services. Your line manager is the Senior Project Manager for Engineering Development and you have been seconded to his team to provide project engineering support.

To test and improve your competency, you have been instructed to formulate and plan an engineering project of your choice, using your own experience and technical knowledge. You are to consider yourself as the Project Manager, effectively liaising and providing evidence of collaboration with other company disciplines and team members. You will provide evidence of original thought and innovation along with entrepreneurial skills applicable to the project.

Your report will include the implementation of your project, in which you will be required to achieve the objectives set out in your project plan, namely, to address and solve the initial problem. Given that this is a professional engineering project you will need to address and analyse all relevant engineering activities for your project, and to provide good evidence of the impact such activities might have on health, safety and the environment. Your project must also show that you have investigated the core theme of digitalisation and that this has been implemented within your project.

Your Tasks:

Task 1 - Go/No-Go Planning Meeting
• Firstly, after defining your project Aim & Objectives (see below), download this project management softwarenad produce a detailed Gantt chart to plan your project. Ensure you use all the software's available functionality, including a detailed consideration of all necessary resources and identification of the critical path. An example project plan is included within the software download, so you can fa- miliarize yourself with its functionality. Give this stage some considerable thought, as it will determine whether you are able to progress to Task 2.
• With your initial plan complete, email the project files to your Unit 4 tutor: mike.shaw@unicourse.org.
• Secondly, arrange an online meeting with your Unit 4 tutor, to discuss the details of your project plan. The outcome of that meeting will determine the go/no-go status of your project, and whether you may proceed to Task 2. A no-go decision at this stage will require further development of your project plan.

Task 2 - Project Completion & Reporting

1. Produce a Report on your project, with a front title sheet and numbered contents page.
For this you will identify the planning and delivery stages of your project and discuss the outcome of each stage, analysing the outcome and providing practical conclusions, ensuring that digitalisation forms part of your discussion throughout. Be sure to include a critical analysis of your project findings using suitable evaluation techniques. Your report should follow the outline structure given on the fol- lowing page, (approx. 5000 words).

2. Produce a detailed record (Appendix 1) of your project activities including progress, milestones, delays, project changes, showing how you have monitored and managed these in relation to your original project plan. You may use the logbook template contained in the resources section within Moodle. You may also explore alternative project monitoring methods that you could employ to help achieve milestones, giving practical and logical reasons for their use.
3. Project Reflection Report (Appendix 2)
For this task you will be required to provide a discussion on your own performance and behaviours you exercised throughout your project. Your aim will be to take a critical look at the outcomes from your project and to analyse them and make recommendations for potential future improvements, (approx. 500 words)

4. Produce a PowerPoint and video presentation.
For this task you will record a video of your project report based on a pre-prepared PowerPoint presentation of approximately 10-12 slides. Your video should be of approximately 10 minutes duration. This will be produced in a format designed as if it were being presented to a group made up of relevant and interested parties, probably from your workplace, and where you and your slides will be clearly visible. You should also include a question-and-answer section at the end of your formal presentation. It is preferable that you prepare your video using the Record tab feature in PowerPoint and your computer's webcam.
5. Submit the final software version of your project Gantt chart (filename.gan).

Formal Report Outline Structure

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Acknowledgements
• Contents page
• Introduction

Part 1 - Planning stage to include sections which discuss each of the following:

• Aim & Objectives
A project aim, written in no more than one or two sentences.
No more than four project objectives, written as single bullet point statements.
N.B. A project aim is what you are seeking to achieve. The objectives are those things you are going to do to meet your aim.

DigitaDlisation
Define what this means and provide evidence of research and engineering techniques that can be implemented to improve product or service performance in relation to your project.

• Feasibility Study
Conduct a comprehensive feasibility study, considering all the relevant options using the TELOS methodology, and justifying your final choice using an appropriate decision matrix.

• Forecasting and Project Planning Methods.
Define the techniques which you have considered and used within your project. A sufficiently detailed Gantt chart, with critical path identified, along with any other appropriate methods, should be included within your report.

• Financial Planning
Your report should include a budget, and appropriate costing analysis.

• Project Risks and Hazards.
Define those which you have encountered and are relevant to your project and discuss the practical methods and techniques that you have used to mitigate such risks.

• Engineering Tolerances and Factors of Safety
Explain where these have been considered and applied within your project.

• Examples of Relevant and Current Legislation
Explain those which are relevant to your industry and your project.

• Environment & Ethics
Consider relevant environmental and ethical issues relevant to your project.

Part 2 - Implementation & delivery stage to include:

• Background literature review
Discussion of relevant recently published literature which sets the scene for your work.

• Project implementation
How your decisions taken from the planning stage were implemented in practice.

• Results
An explanation about the results obtained from the project implementation phase.

• Discussion
A final opportunity for an overall discussion about the project, particularly relating to how well the project aim was met.

• Conclusions & recommendation for further work
This final section draws together your concluding comments about the work undertaken and the results obtained, and any recommendations you can make to take the work fur- ther in the future.

• References
A list of all references cited in the main body of your report, using the Harvard method.

• Appendices
Any appendices, to include Appendix 1 & Appendix 2 identified above.