Description
WEEK 5- FINAL PAPER: DUE MARCH 29TH
Project Management Final Paper
[WLO: 3] [CLOs: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
Before starting with this final assignment, please (a) complete this week’s readings, (b) review the weekly lecture, (c) review grading rubric, (d) read the 8 Simple Rules of Good Writing, and (e) review the PRM300 Week 5 Final Paper Template from your class. It is highly recommended that you use grading rubric as your checklist to ensure every element is included in your final paper.
While a five-week course barely covers the full range of responsibilities of a project manager, it should have given you a solid perspective on what does it take to manage a project. Now that you have a basic understanding of the project management life cycle, it is your turn to share what you have learned.
The Project Management Final Paper needs to include screenshot examples and explanations of project selection form, project scope template, work breakdown structures (WBS), and the Gantt chart created in prior weeks. Be sure to update these examples based on: (a) any new criteria presented in these instructions, (b) any feedback you received on the previous assignments, (c) any knowledge you obtained in the class, and/or (d) any additional information you obtained during your research so that your final paper can reflect project management best practices.
Include the following elements in your paper:
Introduction
- Introduce the paper and highlight what the paper will include.
- Explain what a project is and how project management can contribute to an organization’s success.
- Briefly outline the five process groups in the project management life cycle.
Initiating
- Explain the pre-planning stage of the project management lifecycle.
- Explain project management terms, tools, and techniques that are applicable to the pre-planning/project selection stage.
- Describe the elements of the project selection form.
- Provide an example of a project selection form.
- Explain the purpose of a project selection form.
- Insert an updated and corrected copy of the project selection form from week 1 to use as an example.
- Explain the elements of the project selection form and their importance.
Planning
- Explain the planning process of the project management lifecycle.
- Explain the purpose of the project scope statement and all the terms used in the project scope template.
- Project Basics:
- Project Name
- Project Sponsor
- Project Scope Statement
- Project Scope:
- Assumptions
- Milestones
- Out of Scope (Exclusions)
- Project Execution:
- Stakeholders
- Time estimate
- Cost estimate
- Project Acceptance Criteria
- Insert a corrected and updated screenshot of your project scope template from week 2 into your final paper.
- Be sure to use the feedback you received and what you learned in the class
- If you need help with obtaining a screenshot or embedding an image, then please review these tutorials: See How to Use the Snipping Tool in Windows 10 [Tutorial]. (Links to an external site.)
- Explain the work breakdown structure (WBS), project milestones, and the critical path.
- Explain how these elements relate to your project’s status.
- Create a work breakdown structure (WBS) in the ProjectLibre or modify the example you created in week 3, incorporating both instructor and peer feedback (as applicable).
- Include a screenshot of the WBS as an example in your paper. (Make sure the example contains the appropriate level of details, so the reader understands the full context of the project without assuming anything.)
- Project Basics:
Executing
- Explain the executing process group of the project management lifecycle.
- Explain the change control process.
Monitoring and Controlling
- Explain the monitoring and controlling within the project management lifecycle.
- Explain project management terms, tools, and techniques that are applicable to monitoring and controlling the project.
Closing
- Explain the closing process within the project management lifecycle.
- Explain what a “Lessons Learned” report is and highlight its importance for future projects within the organization.
Conclusion
- Conclude the paper by reiterating how project management improves an organization’s success and highlighting the importance of using the five process groups for accomplishing a project’s objectives. (Review the Writing Center’s page on Introductions and Conclusions (Links to an external site.)for more information.)
Your Project Management Final Paper
- The final paper must be 2,500 to 3,500 words in length (10 to 12 double-spaced pages, not including title page, screen captures, or references pages) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s APA Style (Links to an external site.) resource.
- Must include a separate title page with the following:
- Title of paper
- Student’s name
- Course name and number
- Instructor’s name
- Date submitted
- For further assistance with the formatting and the title page, refer to APA Formatting for Word 2013. (Links to an external site.)
- Must utilize academic tone in your final paper. See the Academic Voice (Links to an external site.)for additional guidance.
- Must include an introduction and conclusion paragraph. Your introduction paragraph needs to end with a clear thesis statement that indicates the purpose of your paper.
- For assistance on writing Introductions & Conclusions (Links to an external site.)as well as Writing a Thesis Statement (Links to an external site.)refer to the Ashford Writing Center resources.
- Must use at least four scholarly, peer-reviewed, or credible sources in addition to the course text.
- The Scholarly, Peer-Reviewed, and Other Credible Sources (Links to an external site.)table offers additional guidance on appropriate source types. If you have questions about whether a specific source is appropriate for this assignment, please contact your instructor. Your instructor has the final say about the appropriateness of a specific source for a particular assignment.
- Must document any information used from sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center’s Citing Within Your Paper (Links to an external site.) guide.
- Refer to APA Style Elements (Links to an external site.)for the use of section headings throughout this paper.
- Must include a separate references page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. See the Formatting Your References List (Links to an external site.)resource in the Ashford Writing Center for specifications.
Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.
Explanation & Answer
Attached.
Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1
Project Management: Organizing a Training Session for 200 Employees
Names
Institution
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
2
Project management: Organizing a training session for 200 employees
Employee training is a project that is commonly undertaken by many companies. As
explained by employee training programs are essential since they promote professional
development and enable employees to align their knowledge/skills with the changing needs of
the organization, while it also raises employee motivation, satisfaction, innovativeness, and the
capacity to handle new functions. Employee training requires a proper balancing of costs, time,
and gains so as to optimize the value that is gained by both the company and the employees. The
purpose of this assignment is to use a model employee training program at ABC, Inc., a
hypothetical Fortune 500 telecommunications company based in California, to illustrate critical
elements of project management. In this case, the paper will comprehensively cover all the five
process groups of project management while providing screenshots from the hypothetical
employee training project as a way of demonstrating a mastery of project management, its
phases, and different documents that project managers should prepare.
The employee training program is a good example of a project. As defined by the Project
Management Institute (2018), a project is a series of tasks that are completed as a means to
achieve a specific goal or objective. In this case, project managers organize these tasks and
assign resources to each of them in a way that assigns value to the company. Projects often
require vast resources, including both materials and human resources. Since resources are often
scarce, it is important for companies to create priorities of utilizing these resources in tasks that
promise the optimum value. Projects can be simple tasks or complex initiatives. As explained by
Schwalbe (2017), the purpose of project management is to assign the process of organizing tasks
and assigning resources to each task to an experienced, competent team that is led by a project
manager. In return, a company is able to complete a project within the lowest time possible and
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
3
at a low cost, which then helps a company in maximizing its value and the profits that it creates.
At the same time, successful project management helps organizations in completing their
projects on time and gaining a competitive edge over their rivals, which then improves the
sustainability of the companies. Successful project management relies on five group processes.
As outlined by Schwalbe (2017), these include initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and
control, and closing. These phases should follow that order since every phase relies heavily on
the completion of some elements of the preceding phase.
Initiating
Initiation is a group process that covers the creation of a project. A project is often
created and documented in a project selection form. The group process covers the definition of
the project, an outline of its purpose, the definition of goals, specification of the deliverables
(Project Management Institute, 2018). This phase is vital since it helps in identifying a need and
creating a relevant project that helps a company in meeting the needs. Project initiation should
start with a comprehensive study of the organization in order to identify a need. It is through
these projects that an organization identifies a need and develops goals that should address these
needs. Jenner (2015) reports the high project failure rate to the poor identification of needs and
the lack of alignment of project goals with the relevant needs of an organization. In this regard, a
project should be initiated only when a sufficient need has been identified.
One initiation group project involves pre-planning processes. As explained by Schwalbe
(2017), the initiation phase begins with the identification of stakeholders. While this is a process
that is often overlooked, it should be comprehensive enough in a way that it identifies all
relevant stakeholders and the responsibilities/level of authority of each stakeholder. In fact, it is
at this point that a project manager is selected. The process group also involves the creation of a
project charter. As defined by the Project Management Institute (2018), a project charter is a
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
4
document/statement that details the goals of a project, the roles, responsibilities, and authority of
the stakeholders, the timeframe, and the budget of a project. While the statement documents the
reasons for undertaking a project, it ...
