ASSIGNMENT TOPIC: House

Renovation
Summary: You are responsible for managing a property renovation project, and need
to address project scheduling, risk assessment, and leadership and motivation issues
for your project.

Word Limit: 3000

This assignment is worth 50% of the total mark for the Project Management
Leadership and Skills module.

Assignment brief

You have recently been appointed by a large property investor in the UK who wishes
to renovate a house. To keep his costs to a minimum he likes to have only one
worker working on each activity. The property renovation involves various tasks
which he estimates will take one worker the times shown in the table below:

Activity Time needed to complete

Substantial repairs to the
8 days
roof
Internal structural work 4 days
Electrical work 7 days
Plumbing 6 days
Installing a new kitchen 3 days
Installing a new bathroom 4 days
Garden 5 days
Plastering 4 days
Internal decoration 5 days
Fitting carpets 1 day
Outside paintwork 5 days

The roof and structural work must be completed before any other activities (inside
or outside) can commence. Once these are done, the external jobs can happen at
any stage. However, inside the house, the plumbing and electrics must be completed
before the plastering can be done. The plastering must be complete before the new
kitchen and bathroom can be installed. Decoration can only happen once the kitchen
and bathroom are in place, and carpets can only be fitted after decorating.

The property developer knows that to keep his budget on target, all work needs to
be completed in 6 weeks. His team only works from Monday to Friday. Can it be
done? Which activities is it most important for the property developer to keep on
track?

The developer has several other projects on the go at the same time and decides
that he can only spare two of his team to work on this project. By assigning activities
to Worker 1 and Worker 2 show how this is possible.

There are three (3) parts to this assignment, and each is worth 33% of the final
assignment mark.

Part 1 – 33%
A. Create a network diagram with the critical path clearly marked
B. What are the advantages to the property developer in using critical path
analysis to plan this project?
C. How realistic is the idea of using only two workers to complete the project
given the deadline of six weeks?

You do not need any specialist knowledge of construction to answer this question.

Part 2 - 33%
Review the case above of The House with regard to risk management.

A. Identify at least 5 risks relevant to this project and create a simple risk table
showing how you would manage these risks with appropriate risk controls
B. Discuss how you would derive a risk score for each of these risks explaining
what evidence you could access to support you calculation of impact and
probability
C. What are the opportunities available and how would you categorise these
strategies?

Please note that you are being assessed on your understanding of risk management
and not the discovery of the ‘correct answer’.

Part 3 – 34%
You have recently hired Kevin, a retired ex-lecturer in project management, to work
as part of your project team on the house build. He is very good at solving technical
project problems but seems to find working in the team very difficult and gives
constant negative feedback on his co-workers. His performance and temper has
become progressively worse over time. He seems to lack motivation and you may
have to consider ending his employment. Why might Kevin lack motivation?
Discuss with reference to appropriate theories and case examples; suggest ways in
which Kevin may be motivated.

Marking scheme

 Criteria Marks

Part 1 33

- A. network diagram 11

- B. critical path discussion 11

- C. discussion of 2 workers/6 11
weeks constraint

Part 2 33

- A. risk analysis 11

- B. risk score discussion 11

- C. opportunities discussion 11

Part 3 34

- Review of theory relating to

12
leadership and motivation

- Examples 11

- Conclusion on ways to motivate

11
Kevin

Further marking guidance

You will also need to take the following into account when completing your
assignment:

• Quality of abstract (does it give a succinct summary of your paper?)

• Allocation of credit and sources used (have I included references and
citations to the material I have used?)
• Clarity of argument and integration of different components of the report
• Overall report presentation including spelling and grammar
• Word processed (letter size 12, times new roman, 1.5 space), fully referenced
(Harvard Referencing System)
Please remember that marks for the assignment will also be awarded in relation to
presentation and structure, and aspects such as use of examples, figures, tables,
illustrations and statistics that indicate wider/independent reading.

Good scholarship
You are required to follow the University’s regulations regarding plagiarism and
citing sources and references used

Module learning outcomes covered by this assignment

1. Locate, synthesise and critically evaluate recent/current information from a
wide range of published literature in Project Management
2. Apply knowledge of the theory and practice of project planning and control
and the use of Project Management methods and techniques.
3. Critically evaluate the use of techniques in leading, planning, control and
process management.

This is an individual assessment worth 50% of the module mark. Word length 3000
words (do not exceed word limit). Do not include the cover page, abstract, table of
contents or References section in the word count

The paper should have a clear structure, with:

- a cover page (student number, module title, assignment title, word count (effective, not
max), declaration of originality
- an abstract (300 words max, one single paragraph)
- a table of contents
- the main body of the paper - you have full creative control over the structure, but do use
section headings to signpost your work
- references list - this is mandatory at Master level

BOOK

Project Management, 4th edition (by Harvey Maylor)

ISBN: 978-0273704324

Search in SOLAR

This book is recommended

90-100 80-89 70-79 60-69 50-59 40-49 0-39

Standard comparable to Standard comparable to Distinctive work for Masters Merit work for Masters Acceptable for Masters Below Masters pass Significantly below
journal publication conference paper level level standard Masters pass
publication standard

Outstanding clarity of focus, Excellent clarity of focus, Clear focus. Very good Clear scope and focus, Scope evident and satisfactory Poorly scoped, with Little or no scope or
includes what is important, boundaries set with no setting of boundaries with some omissions or but with some omissions and significant omissions focus evident.
and excludes irrelevant significant omissions or includes most of what is unnecessary issues. unnecessary issues. and unnecessary
issues. unnecessary issues. relevant. issues.

Outstanding with critical Excellent with critical Very good with critical Good with some Basic with limited awareness of Poor with little Little or no
awareness of relevance of awareness of relevance of awareness of relevance of awareness of relevance of relevance of issues. Limited awareness of understanding of
issues. Outstanding issues. Excellent issues. Outstanding issues. Ideas are expression of ideas. relevance of issues subject matter is
expression of ideas. expression of ideas. expression of ideas. expressed, with some demonstrated.
limitation.

Comprehensive literature Excellent independent Very good independent Good secondary research Limited secondary research to Little or no extension Poor use of taught
review. Evaluation and secondary research. secondary research. Sources to extend taught extend taught materials. of taught materials. materials. No
synthesis of source material Sources are evaluated and are evaluated and materials. Evidence of Limited evaluation of sources, Poor choice and synthesis.
to produce an outstanding synthesized to produce an synthesized to produce a evaluation of sources, with deficiencies in choice and synthesis of materials.
contribution. excellent contribution. very good contribution. some deficiencies in synthesis.
choice and synthesis.

Standard of critical analysis Excellent standard of A very good standard of Critical analysis with some Analysis evident but uncritical. Little or no analysis. No valid analysis.
– showing questioning of critical analysis – critical analysis. Sources are questioning of sources, Sources are not always
sources, understanding of excellence in questioning questioned appropriately, understanding of bias, questioned, with limited
bias, independence of of sources, understanding and a very good independence of thought. independence of thought.
thought of bias, independence of understanding of bias,
thought showing independence of
thought

Well-structured, compelling Argument has excellent Well-structured and Structured and fairly Argument has some structure Argument is No evidence of
and persuasive argument structure and persuasive argument convincing argument leads and development towards unstructured, no argument or
that leads to a valuable persuasiveness, leading to Insightful conclusion draws to conclusion that conclusion with limitations in recognizable conclusion.
contribution to the field of very significant insights together key issues and summarises key issues. summary of issues. conclusion.
study, paving the way for and relevant future work. possible future work.
future work.