Assignment 1 – Project Proposal

This assignment is worth 15% of your total grade.

• Due date: Friday, Week 5 by 5:00 pm (Darwin time)
• Word limit: Maximum 2000 words
• Name, student number and page number if the footer of every page (excluding title page)
• Submission: via Learnline as a single MS Word Document
  • No attachments will be accepted
  • No emailed submissions will be accepted

Background

You work for a large organisation that has recently introduced PRINCE2 as a required method for managing projects. Several policies, templates and other resources have not yet been developed, which means that you might be required in this, and future assignments to provide information that covers more than one component outlined in PRINCE2.

Your employer wants to improve their profile as being more socially responsible and has decided to allocate up to $50,000, spent over the next 12 months to achieve this goal.

You and several colleagues have been asked to individually design a proposal for a project that meets the criteria stated below. Later, in assignment 2, you will evaluate your proposal against your colleagues and determine which mutually exclusive proposal is to be selected.

To receive the funding, the project must meet the following criteria:

• It is to benefit a community in the Northern Territory or a target audience in the NT. External students can use the home State or Territory.
• It is to be a unique endeavour
• It is to be completed within one (1) year
• It is to be limited to a budget between $25,000 and $50,000
• It can create income; however, proceeds are to be donated the cause
• It should relate to your area of study (degree program). If not negotiate with your lecturer.
• It is not to include additional sponsorship, grants, donations beyond the $50,000. If the organisation’s staff are required to volunteer in the project during normal work hours the opportunity costs to the organisations normal work must be included as an expense.
• All statements must have legitimate references. (Harvard Style)

Project Proposal

1.    Title page

• Project title
• Name and student number

2.    Table of Contents

3.    Executive Summary

4.    Overview

a.        Purpose or objectives of this proposal

i.    Identify the problem to be solved or need to be filled.

ii.    What will be in scope and what is not going to be included.

iii.    Explain how the project will be conducted. Will it be managed by embedding and tailoring PRINCE2 to suit the project or will you use /create another methodology? You should explain any alternative methodology in detail or provide some information to show that you understand the process embedding and the detail of your tailoring.

b.        Describe how you believe is the best way to measure the success of the project and explain why your suggested measures are appropriate over alternative measures.

5.    Expected Benefits and Dis-benefits

a.        Context and analysis

i.    To provide context, briefly explain corporate social responsibility, why your organisation might want to raise its profile and how the proposed project will align

ii.    Provide a SWOT analysis to improve a reader of your proposal a balanced understanding.

iii.    Provide further analysis using a weighted scoring model.

1.    You are to determine the criteria. The criteria should consider the way you would expect the success of the project will be measured

2.    To conduct a weighted scoring analysis, you will need to have an alternative to compare it with. You can create an alternative proposal if it can be quickly summarised, or your alternative could be the act of not doing the project.

iv.    Include more context by explain how / why you developed the idea

b.        Identify the expected benefits and dis-benefits, ensuring they are informed by the strategic context (social responsibility context you have explained above).

i.    This paragraph is an opportunity to sell the value of your project to decision makers.

6.    Project requirements

a.        List and describe the requirements needed to carry out this project.

i.    Include human resources

b.        List and describe the possible assumptions for this project.

c.         List and describe the constraints for this project.

7.    Costs

a.        Estimate how much it will cost.

i.    Breakdown to major milestones

b.        Explain how you estimated costs.

i.    e.g. If you used a three-point method, explain what it is and show a couple of examples of how you did your calculations

8.    Major Risks

a.        Identify five (5) risks and quantify their potential likelihood and severity.

b.        Indicate how each of the above-mentioned risks will be managed

i.    This could include, Avoid, Transfer, Mitigate or Accept, but you will need to explain what is meant by the terms that you use and why you plan to use them. You are not required to use all four.

9.    Timescale

a.        How long is the estimated time to complete the project?

b.        List and describe the major milestones.

10.  Conclusion

11.  References