BUS353 ECA (End-of-Course Assessment) SUSS: July Semester 2024 – Project Management

Section A

Question 1

The Objective of this ECA

To provide an opportunity for students to apply the knowledge learnt in the course and to develop/sharpen the necessary technical skills and knowledge in project management.

Please note that:

i. The details and names in the ECA case are fictional. Any resemblance to reallife situation is purely coincidental.

ii. As information is given throughout the case and the questions may be interrelated, you are advised to read the entire ECA document before working on the report. In some situations, you need to make inferences from the information.

iii. Students who simply reproduce the course materials without relating to the ECA case will be given low or no mark.

iv. Students should not include the questions in the report.

v. Students are recommended to use Microsoft Project 2021 to prepare the project planning.

You are required to compose a report for Section A.

PROJECT: Implementing a bank branch

Background

United Service Bank (USB) is a medium-sized bank based in Singapore. Its vision is “to be a regional bank that provides a full suite of financial services to customers”. With increased competition, USB must adapt to market changes and adopt new technologies to succeed. Even with the availability of Internet Banking, many people still prefer to visit the physical branch for sense of security and intimacy in receiving banking services and advice. USB has acquired a shop space in the centre of Paya Lebar New Town. It intends to use the latest technologies in that branch so that customers can enjoy efficient transactions and pleasant banking experiences. Many different banking equipment shall be integrated to provide seamless services within the branch.

Modern Office Design (MOD) Pte Ltd is a small and medium enterprise (SME) that specialises in interior design and renovation for offices, retail shops and clinics. It has won several awards in the past three years for its innovative office designs. Business is good but finance is tight due to expansion.

USB has called a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the design and renovation of the new bank branch, which is named as the Paya Lebar Branch (PLB) Project. Although MOD has no track record in renovating bank branches, it put up an attractive proposal with innovative ideas at a reasonable price. After evaluating all the proposals, USB awarded the project to MOD. A contract was signed between the two parties. MOD management values this project highly as it will help to build a long-term relationship with USB, and can be a reference to attract other banks.

Question 1a

Assume that you are one of the project managers in MOD and is appointed to head the PLB Project. Your first task is to form the project team. You are asked to recruit team members, either internally or externally. Examine three (3) personal attributes (excluding technical expertise) required of team members that are most critical to the success of this project.

Question 1b

After some searching, the following members are recruited to the PLB Project team:

i. Ms. Mary Ang: an experienced Interior Designer who specialises in Bank Branch design. She was recently headhunted to join MOD.

ii. Mr. Kunan: a Facility Engineer from the MOD Implementation Team.

The project team has a meeting with MOD’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), John Chia, and he has provided the following directions:

i. MOD must comply with all the scope and conditions specified in the contract with USB.

ii. The project has to start on 1 July 2024. USB states in the contract that the branch must be completed and handed over by 3 September 2024. However, MOD management wishes the project team to complete it by 30 August 2024 or earlier so that the resources can be channelled to other projects.

iii. The contract price to USB is fixed unless the bank increases the scope of work. CEO wants your team to evaluate a more accurate internal budgeted project cost. During the project period, the team must be prudent in spending. Any cost increment must be justified to him. He will approve if it is reasonable

Based on the CEO’s direction and considering MOD’s business situation, you are to appraise the priorities of the project and construct a project priority matrix.

Question 2

You have conducted a pre-project discussion and worked out the project activities as shown in Table 1 and the internal budgeted cost in Table 2.

Table 1: Activity List for Paya Lebar Branch (PLB) Project

Table 2: Project Internal Budgeted Cost

Question 2a

Construct a Gantt Chart (after Clear Leveling) with columns on Information (i), Task Mode, Task Name, Duration, Start Date, Finish Date, Predecessor and Resource Name shown in a single diagram. Hence, state the project completion date and explain any resource conflicts.

Question 2b

You need to solve the conflicts within the project deadline. Due to the specialised skills of the team members in this intensive project, resource conflicts cannot be solved by splitting the task, member multitasking, transferring the task to other members nor add in more people. The members will not be working beyond eight (8) hours per day. At this moment, they do not want to work on weekends.

Hence, you try to resolve the conflicts within available slacks. Set up the approach below:

Right click on the task with conflict that has the smallest Task (i.e., Activity) ID. Select “Reschedule to Available Date”.

i. If an error message shows that the conflict cannot be resolved, click “Stop”. Skip item

(ii) below.

ii. If the conflict is resolved, check the Project Finish Date. If it exceeds the Deadline, press “Control Z” to undo this levelling.

Proceed to the next task below with conflict. Repeat the above operations one at a time until all tasks with conflicts that could be resolved are done. There is no need to use an additional method now to resolve the conflicts.

You must explain the outcome of your action in each of the step above and state the eventual project completion date if it changes.

Question 2c

You recall that the CEO’s desired deadline is still some days from USB’s requested hand over date. Hence, there is flexibility in the schedule so you may not need to crash the project. For any resource conflicts that cannot be solved within the CEO’s initial deadline, operate a MS Project Resource Levelling beyond the deadline by:

Select all tasks, right click to choose Auto Schedule, then Resource Tab -> Clear Levelling.

Then do Auto leveling by clicking Resource-> Leveling Option -> Tick the buttons “Automatic” and “Level Entire Project”. Uncheck all the boxes below. Then click Level All.

Assess the changes due to this resource leveling operations. State the project completion date if it is changed and comment on the impact to MOD.

Question 3

The CEO approves the new completion date found in Question 2(c). You must change the deadline for Activity 1 to this new completion date.

Set the Status Date (Project -> Status Date) as 2 July 2024. Save the updated MS Project as Baseline Plan (Project -> Save Baseline -> check Entire project). The schedule and cost in this Baseline Plan will be used to evaluate the project performance at a later stage.

As the project progresses, the following issues are encountered:

i. The raise floor (Activity 11) requirement is different from the initial design due to lack of the detailed floor plan. Additional work and different materials are required. Two (2) additional days and an additional amount of $3,000 are required. As it is an oversight of MOD, USB will not pay for this additional cost.

ii. Due to the appreciation of Japanese Yen, the “Supervise subcontractor on supply and install aircon” (Activity 14) costs 10% more.

iii. USB has just purchased a new bank equipment which needs customisation. The duration of “Customise banking equipment” (Activity 5) has to be increased by three (3) days.

This requirement was not stated in the contract. USB agreed to pay for the additional work, but need the branch hand over date to remain on 3 September 2024. You need to increase Activity 5’s duration by 3 days and request Mary to work on weekday, Saturday and/or Sunday when necessary to meet the deadline. Mary agreed despite her disappointment. Make a decision on the dates. Since the equipment causing the change is not in the contract, the cost will be charged separately to USB. MOD management wants the Cost Performance Index (CPI) to be based on the baselined cost. Hence, leave the Activity 15 cost unchanged.

Update all relevant activities and cost in the MS Project File to incorporate the changes due to issues (i) to (iii). The project went on till completion. Set Status Date to the working day after the last activity, then update the MS Project file. (Project->Update Project, Click Entire Project)

Question 3a

Propose four (4) important accomplishments that you wish to achieve from a Change Control Management System to address issue (iii) and demonstrate them in the context of the PLB Project.

Question 3b

Assemble in a single diagram the Tracking Gantt Chart view of MS Project with Information (i), Task Mode, Task Name, Duration, Start Date, Finish Date and Predecessor columns shown. State the project completion date.

Question 3c

Present a MS Project Cost Report or Table with Cost Performance Index (CPI). State the values for Budgeted Cost At Completion (BAC) and Estimated Cost At Completion (EAC). Formulate Cost Performance Index (CPI) and compute the final CPI manually.

Question 3d

Discuss three (3) actions that could have been taken to prevent the three issues described during the project implementation period from happening or to reduce their impacts.

Section B 

Question 4

The MOD’s CEO has scheduled a meeting one week after the project completion for you, the Project Manager for the Paya Lebar Branch (PLB) Project, to illustrate to the Senior Management the following items:

1. What were the objectives and priorities of the project, and were they met?

2. Were there changes in the schedule and what were the contributing events?

3. Was there a cost overrun and what were the contributors for the cost overruns, if any?

4. What are the recommendations for future projects?

Prepare a video recording of the presentation of at least 3 minutes but not exceeding 6 minutes. Refer to Canvas T/RESIT course site > Assignments > ECA_VIDEO for the step-by-step guide on how to submit the video.

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