Assignment: Project Analysis, Selection and Charter

For this 3-part assessment, you will write a 2-3-page analysis of an article about a project, select the subject matter to use for the project plan you will develop throughout the course, and create a project charter for your selected project.

Note: In this course, you will develop a project plan by completing a different component of the plan for each assessment. Therefore, you will need to complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.

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While each project is based on a unique set of requirements, the project ultimately affects the enterprise as a whole. All projects must consider business goals and organizational issues in order to be successful. If they do not, they will lack critical success criteria

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze current approaches and concepts for developing a project plan.

o Analyze concerns regarding a project and the relationship to stakeholders, project background, or organization.
o Describe business need or requirement for a project.
o Describe a project implementation plan including deliverables.
o Describe management approach of a project.
o Describe the regulatory impact of a project.

• Competency 2: Analyze current best practice approaches to develop cost estimates and resource constraints to ensure successful project outcomes.

o Describe the project assumptions, constraints, and dependencies.

• Competency 3: Evaluate research and practices related to methodologies appropriate for managing risk.

o Describe potential solutions for project risks.
o Describe project risks specific to an industry or area.
o Describe initial risk factors for a project.

• Competency 6: Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business profession.

o Communicate in a manner that is professional and consistent with expectations for members of the business profession.

In this course you will develop a project plan; in each assessment you will complete different component of this plan. Complete the assessments in the order in which they are presented.

For this assessment, analyze a project, select the subject matter to use for your project plan, and write a project charter for your selected project.

Be sure to use the following resources as you complete your assessment:

• Review the Concept Map (linked in the Resources under the Capella Multimedia heading) to view the project management life cycle.

• Read the Assessment 1 Coaching document (linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading) for expert tips and advice on how to create a project scope statement.

• Refer to the Project Charter media piece (linked in the Resources under the Capella Multimedia heading) for information on project charters.

Part 1: Project Analysis

1. Read Davis's 2005 article, "An Experiential Case Study in IT Project Management Planning: The Petroleum Engineering Economics Evaluation Software Imperative." This article is linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading. As you read, consider these questions:

o What is the background of this project? That is, why is it being done and what are the key player's expectations?
o Who are the stakeholders for this project?
o What is the organizational context of this project?

2. After reading the article, write a 2-3-page paper in which you address the following as they relate to the article:

o Analyze three concerns about the project related to the stakeholders, project background, or organizational context.
o Describe potential solutions for the project risks.
o Describe risks to the project that might be specific to a project in this industry or area.

Be sure to properly reference and cite the Davis article in your paper using APA style and formatting.

Part 2: Project Selection

Now is the time to choose the subject matter for your project plan. You will use the subject matter you choose for this assessment to complete the project charter and Assessments 2-6. The Davis article addresses some of the important questions you must ask when beginning a project. As you choose the subject matter for your project plan, ask questions based on the information in the Davis article to help with your choice.

The subject matter for your project plan must come from one of the following two options. Once you have selected your project, use it to create your project charter in Part 3 of this assessment.

Option 1: New Product Launch

Plan an event to launch the development of a new car. This event should involve all stakeholders including, but not limited to:

• Marketing.
• Manufacturing.
• Engineering.
• Order fulfillment.
• Customer service.
• Information technology.

The event must include:

• A clear description of the event and its purpose.
• The resources required to plan and execute the event (team members, funding, et cetera).
• A clear business purpose and specific completion outcome.
• A project team with at least four members (not including you, the project manager), each with defined roles and responsibilities.
• A completion window of 90 days.
• Cost estimates that serve as the basis for a budget and are part of the plan development process.

Option 2: Choose Your Own Project

You may choose a project of your own that meets the following requirements:

• There is a clear business purpose and a specific completion outcome.
• The completion window is self paced but must be completed before the end of the present quarter.
• Cost estimates that serve as the basis for a budget are used as part of the plan development process.

Part 3: Project Charter

At a project's initiation, management and stakeholders authorize and approve the work to be done. This process often takes the form of a project charter, which can be either an informal document or a formal contract. In both cases, key stakeholders should sign the document to indicate their approval.

For this part of the assessment, use the Project Charter Template, linked in the Resources under the Required Resources heading, to create a project charter for the project you selected in Part 2. Your project charter should include the following components:

• Business Need: Describe the business need/requirement for the project. Indicate how this will align with organizational strategic goals and objectives.

• Project Objectives: Describe the implementation of the project followed with bullet points regarding the major deliverables

• Approach: Describe how the project will be managed.

• Assumptions/Constraints/Dependencies: Describe each of these things as they relate to the project.

• Initial Risk Factors: Describe the risk factors identified to date.

• Regulatory Cost/Impact: Describe the regulatory impacts of the project.

Submit the following:

• 2-3-page project analysis.
• Project charter (using the Project Charter Template).

Additional Requirements

• Written communication: Ensure that your writing is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Format resources and citations according to APA (6th edition) style.
• Number of resources: Use a minimum of one resource in your project analysis.
• Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12-point.