Background
Report word limit—3500 words
Globally, we are witnessing the worst global economic disruption and health dilemma, with the Covid-19 pandemic affecting every sector and industry. The complexities and challenges posed by Covid-19 propose that different governments worldwide try to ease the spread of the virus and lessen its impacts. In a bid for a way out, non-governmental organisations such as WHO and UNICEF emphasised that the development of safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines (depicted/represented by figure 1) will be a huge step forward toward ending the pandemic and getting back to doing more of the things we enjoy.
A vaccine is a biological preparation that provides active acquired immunity to a particular infectious disease (NHS 2019) and typically contains an antigen, adjuvants, preservatives, and stabilisers (WHO 2021). Vaccines help train the individual immune system to create antibodies, just as it does when exposed to a disease. However, because vaccines contain only killed or weakened forms of germs like viruses or bacteria, they do not cause the disease or put you at risk of its complications.
The Brief
In collaboration with the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca plc, the UK government has announced £65.5 million of new funding for developing the Covid-19 vaccine (University of Oxford 2020). The vaccine development is the first of its kind that will be used to combat the global threat to human health; that is, Covid-19. By working together, the different stakeholders involved aim to deliver a working vaccine that could ease the spread of the virus and lessen its impacts. In addition, the objective of the proposed project is to determine how long immunity from the vaccine lasts, identify groups of people at risk from low vaccine responses, and inform clinical management and vaccine policy.
Following a rigorous selection process, the Project Board has decided that the Project Management Department of RGU will plan and implement the project on behalf of the project sponsors. You have been appointed as the project manager. The proposed project is to be delivered in 12 months due to its urgent need.
Requirements of the Coursework
This is a hands-on assignment intended to give you practical experience managing projects from initiation to implementation and reporting project progress. Therefore, you are required to prepare a Consolidated Plan that combines the project planning, application, and reporting processes. The report should account for the following:
1) Define the proposed project. Your definition should include a proper scope; inclusions, exclusions, objectives, deliverable statement, assumptions, constraints, success factors and success criteria.
2) Identify the 75 top level packages required to complete the project. A typical vaccine development will include the following stages; assessment of public health priorities, basic research, applied research & development, clinical research, pilot production, and full-scale manufacture (Mitchell et al. 1993). Please, include any other activity (reviews, meetings, etc.) that you see fit to assist you complete your project successfully. Also, include project milestones and phase review points.
3) Identify and analyse interrelations, dependencies and produce a Gantt chart using Microsoft Project or any other relevant software that meets the requirement such as ProjectLibre. In addition, critically evaluate the tool(s) and technique(s) for scheduling and defining project dependencies, and critically analyse the project network diagram and critical path.
4) Define resources required and allocate appropriate resources, durations and estimate the total project budget. In addition, critically evaluate the tool(s) and technique(s) for defining project estimates and confidence limits.
5) Update the project on the 7th of September 2022 according to the additional information provided below. After that, discuss the monitoring and control mechanisms required for the project based on the project Earned Value (EV) report.
6) Critically evaluate the purpose of a consolidated plan and its relationship with project progress. In addition, discuss the implications of the project current position and analyse how this impacts the project consolidated plan.
You must support each section of the report focusing on the above-stated requirements with the discussion and critique of relevant and appropriate theoretical concepts by drawing on relevant academic journal literature and other secondary sources.
Assumptions to be taken into consideration
1) Project planning (pre-development activities) to commence on the 1st of April 2022.
2) Work stops every Friday at 6pm UK time.
3) Weekend days (i.e., Saturday and Sunday) are non-working days.
4) Easter holiday: 14 th to 15th April 2022
5) May holiday: 25th May 2022
6) Local trade holiday: 31st August 2022
7) Christmas holiday: 26th to 27th December 2022, and New year holiday: 2nd January 2023. Additional information: Updates to be effected on the 7 th of September 2022
Activities 1-20: are as scheduled.
Activity 21: started 3 days late.
Activity 22: was 2 days late to finish.
Activities 23-40: are as scheduled.
Activity 41: finished 5 days late.
Activities 42-65: as scheduled.
Activities 66: start date to be delayed by 2 days.Subsequently affecting the start date for activities 67-69.
Activities 70-75: not started.
References
MITCHELL, V.S., PHILIPOSE, NM and SANFORD, J.P., 1993. Stages of Vaccine Development. In the Children’s Vaccine Initiative: Achieving the Vision. National Academies Press (US).
NHS, 2019. Why vaccination is safe and important. [online]. Available from: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/vaccinations/why-vaccination-is-safe-and-important/ [Accessed 3 January 2022].
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 2020. Funding and manufacturing boost for UK vaccine programme. [online]. Available from: https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2020-05-18- funding-and-manufacturing-boost-uk-vaccine-programme [Accessed 28 December 2021].
WHO, 2021. Vaccines and immunisation: What is vaccination? [online]. Available from: https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/vaccines-andimmunization-what-is-vaccination [Accessed 5 January 2022].
Coursework aim
To critically assess the techniques, tools, processes and strategies undertaken by project managers to define, plan, monitor, evaluate, control and deliver project requirements.
Coursework Learning Outcomes
1) Understand, analyse and critically apply the theory of planning techniques and evidence competence using contemporary project management tools.
2) Critically appraise and assess resource scheduling and allocation techniques within a project environment including application of network diagrams, critical path analysis and resource levelling.
3) Evaluate and apply key evaluation, monitoring and control processes including Earned Value Management within a project context.
Sample presentation format:
• Title page. An executive summary.
• Table of content.
• Introduction – background to and rationale for the proposed project.
• Project scope including the project inclusions, exclusions, objectives, a statement of the project deliverables, an outline of the main considerations, assumptions and constraints, critical success factors and success criteria.
• Planning tools and techniques.
o WBS.
o Gantt chart.
o Network diagram.
o Critical path.
• Resource allocation.
• Project monitoring and control.
o Project progress report date as of 7th September 2022.
o EV report.
• Consolidated plan.
• Conclusion.
• References.
• Appendices (if appropriate).
