| Submission Deadline | Marks and Feedback |
| Before 10am on: Click or tap to enter a date. | 20 working days after deadline (L4, 5 and 7) 15 working days after deadline (L6) 10 working days after deadline (block delivery) Click or tap to enter a date. |
| Unit title & code | Operations and Project Management BSS027-2 |
| Assignment number and title | Assessment 2 |
| Assessment type | Individual Report |
| Weighting of assessment | 60% |
| Size or length of assessment | 3,600 words |
| Unit learning outcomes | Demonstrate the following knowledge and understanding Understanding of the importance of business systems and the use of information systems and databases to facilitate planning and management decision-making. Knowledge of a range of tools, techniques, frameworks and academic models relating to management solutions involving operations and projects. Demonstrate the following skills and abilities Ability to analyse and evaluate the operational and project requirements of organisations and generate appropriate and coherent administration and planning recommendations and choices. |
| What am I required to do in this assignment? |
| You will be Case Study data on the operations of Luton Town Residences (LTR) with a focus on data storage and sharing, internal communications and collaboration. With this information you will be required to write a 3,600 word business report (word-count excluding cover page, bibliography/reference list and appendices) with responses to the following: Give reasoned recommendations to improve and/or add to the LTR operations and business systems from the Case Study. Support your recommendations with high-quality evidence. Present a Project Plan to implement your operational recommendations, including, at minimum, a WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), Network Diagram and attempt at CPA, Risk Management Plan and proposed Budget. Additional Guidance The balance between case study analysis and the actual planning/recommendations– ensure that your submissions are balanced with regards to analysis and recommendations. For example, do not use a lot of space summarising the case study, at the expense of developing your recommendations and considering potential issues. Vagueness – your project planning needs to be very specific; stating that a deliverable will be produced is not sufficient unless you clearly present a plan to achieve that deliverable. You need to explain the rationale behind your choices, the academic tools/frameworks used, the issues that you took into consideration and also demonstrate that you have given some thought to the implementation and implications of your recommendations. Academic content – you are expected to include academic material into your report rather than relying upon online sources alone. You need to demonstrate an understanding of the theoretical background of operations and project management through your citation of relevant academic content. Executive summary – an executive summary should be written in a way that allows the executive who reads it to know what the problem is and how it is to be solved. Essentially, it is a summary of your problem statement, objectives and how to achieve them (i.e. how to solve the problem). Presentation and structure – to achieve an excellent grade, your presentation also should be excellent – this includes numbering tables, referencing correctly etc. Do not present a lot of data and information in tables as appendices. Data or statistics that refer directly to your discussion in the main body, should be presented in the main body. Tables and figures – tables and figures need to be numbered and each should have a title that is self-explanatory. Your analytical content must be high, demonstrating critical thinking and the ability to apply relevant marketing concepts Word limit – 3,600 words. This will exclude your references in the executive summary, reference list, title page, table of contents and the appendices. Please, note that your cover page must have your Full Name and ID Number. |
| What do I need to do to pass? (Threshold Expectations from UIF) |
| Demonstrate an awareness and understanding of how operational systems can be employed to support planning and decision-making and apply operations and project management techniques and tools to produce reasoned recommendations. |
| How do I produce high quality work that merits a good grade? |
| We will be filling this section in together in class on Click or tap to enter a date. make sure you have downloaded/printed out the Assignment Brief and bring it to the session with you. |
| How does assignment relate to what we are doing in scheduled sessions? |
| We will discuss and explore both necessary operations management concepts and the project management tools in scheduled sessions, developing and refining our knowledge regarding internal communication, data silos, business systems and other related academic theories, models and concepts. You should develop this body of knowledge and apply to your individual reports. |
| How will my assignment be marked? |
| Your assignment will be marked according to the threshold expectations and the criteria on the following page. You can use them to evaluate your own work and consider your grade before you submit. |
| 3rd Class – 40-49% | Lower 2nd – 50-59% | Upper 2nd – 60-69% | 1st Class – 70%+ | |
| 30% | Some use of academic literature but with little or no logical interrelation with the problem set. Little use of relevant operations management concepts, models or theories. | Fair use of academic literature but lack of depth/connect to problem set. Some use of operations management concepts, models and theories. | Good use of academic literature, good use of operations management concepts, models and theories but lacking in depth and/or breadth | Very good use of academic literature in connection to problem set and excellent overall application of multiple operations management concepts, models and theories. |
| 30% | Poor use of project management planning tools and techniques. WBS, Risk Management plan and Budget present but lacking in depth/incorrectly applied. | Fair use of project management planning tools and techniques. WBS, Network Diagram, Risk Management plan and Budget present but some errors in application or lacking in detail. | Good use of project management planning tools and techniques. WBS, Network Diagram and CPA, Risk Management plan and Budget present and correctly applied with only minor errors or omissions. | Excellent use of project management planning tools and techniques. WBS, Risk Management plan and Budget present and correctly applied with no errors or omissions. |
| 30% | Poor reasoning and recommendations. Poor input into discussion and conclusion of report. | Fair reasoning and recommendations but limited in scope or depth, limited input into discussion and conclusion of report. | Good reasoning and recommendations with reasonable input into discussion and conclusion of report. May be limited in scope/depth. | Excellent reasoning and recommendations demonstrated, with clear input into discussion and conclusion of report. |
| 10% | Poor structure and design with a reasonable flow of ideas. No report structure used or poor report structure. Referencing present but frequent errors. | Fair structure and design. Report structure used by with errors and/or poor implementation. Referencing present but some errors. | Well-structured arguments and design with reasonable flow of the report. Formal report structure used. Mostly accurate referencing. | Well-structured arguments with good design of the sections with good flow of ideas. Formal report structure use. Accurate referencing. |
