Project Management

Assessment item 3 — Group presentation

Weighting:	20%
Length:	15 minutes; Maximum 15 slides for presentation (see details below)

Overview of assignment requirements

This is a group assignment for the students.Your presentation can be about:

1.    Any area of project management that is related to the weekly topics and adds a significant body of new material, a different perspective or depth to the information already covered in the course lecture material. It is important that you extend your knowledge and that of the class beyond what will be covered in this unit during the term.

There is scope to research and present more information about many of the weekly topics. For example, in the Quality Management week students may wish to investigate Six Sigma further or ICT students may wish to cover more detail about quality management in the Software Engineering discipline.

2. Any other topic that is related to project management that is approved by your tutor.

Some suggested topics are shown below. Remember it is only a 15 minute presentation so you have to decide what aspects of a topic you are going to focus on in your presentation. Some topics below have more content than could be covered in a 15 minute presentation (e.g. procurement management). In that case the tutor may allow different groups to focus on different sub-topics.

You are expected to find appropriate reference material (at least three, good, recent, relevant references).

Remember to relate your presentation to managing a project and explain the significance of your content to project management. Often this is best illustrated with examples from your experience or actual project management scenarios.

a.     International Projects:  This is a chapter from the text book that is not covered in this course, so aspects of this topic would be appropriate for your presentation. You can read this chapter get an overview and understanding of this area. Some of the areas that could be discussed in your presentation are:

·      What additional challenges are there when you are involved in managing an international project?

·   What is culture shock and what are strategies for coping with culture shock?

·        How do you select and train personnel to work on international projects

·        What are cross-cultural considerations?    

b.   Outsourcing/Procurement Management: There is a chapter on outsourcing in the text book that is not covered in this unit.  Some of the areas that could be discussed in your presentation are:

· What is outsourcing and what are the advantages/disadvantages of outsourcing?

·      What is an RFP and what is involved in selection of a contractor?

·       What are best practices in outsourcing project work?

·       Discuss the art of negotiation

·    What are the different contract types and their risks (from the contractor and customer perspective)? What is the “point of total assumption” and how do you calculate this?

c.      Leadership: For example:

·        Different leadership styles

·        The types of power leaders use

·        How to learn to be a good leader and what makes a good leader

·        Stephen  Covey and improving effectiveness

d.     Human resource management: For example:

·  Motivation Theories (e.g. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory, McClelland’s Acquire-Needs Theory, McGregor Theory X and Y, Ouchi’s theory z etc.)

·        Developing the Project Team

                                                             i.      Training

                                                           ii.      Team-building Activities

                                                        iii.      Different “personality types”:  Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, The Social Style Profile, DISC

e.   Quality Management:  Quality management in only briefly introduced in the unit. There are a number of topics within the broad area of quality management that could be covered in more depth. For example:

·        Tools and Techniques for Quality control 

·        Six Sigma

f.  Agile Project Management: Agile project management is introduced in this unit. However there is scope to extend this topic. For example

·     discussion of alternative agile PM methodologies (e.g. Kanban, Scrumban)

·       Scaled Agile Framework

·       DevOps (Agile development  and operations)

g.     Effective Communication: For example

·        Keys to good communication?

·        Use of technology to enhance communication

·        Running Effective Meetings

·        Using E-mail, Texting and collaborative tools effectively

·        What makes a good presentation?

h.    Software Tools and Systems for Project Management

i.      Systems Engineering and Project Management: Topics to be covered could include:

·        What is Systems Thinking?

·        What is Systems Engineering?

·        What are the dimensions of Systems Engineering?

·        What is the Systems Life Cycle?

·        What is the relevance of Systems Engineering to Project Management?

j.       Value Management: For example:

·        What is value management?

·        What are the benefits of value management?

·        What industries use value management?

In this assignment, you can also draw from your experiences and incorporate them into the assignment. If you don’t have any work/project experience, that’s fine too.  You can also take the opportunity to be controversial and find academic and trade literature that challenges an aspect of the material you are presenting.  Pose questions – make your audience think.  Both on-campus and off-campus student, are required to produce the script for the presentation that should include some potential questions and responses indicating where you would pose questions to engage your audience. In addition, the end of the script is to include three potential questions (with their answers) that you would anticipate being asked by your audience at the end of the presentation.

Marking Guide for Assessment item 3 – Presentation

Criteria	Available Marks
1.  Presentation structure:
a. Introduction. Introduce the speakers and the  topic (make it clear what you plan to talk about in the presentation – remember the 3Ts).Aim to engage your audience from the beginning of the presentation. This mark also considers  first impressions created by the speakersBe professional in your behaviour and appearance. Be prepared early.	2 marks
b. Body. Marks will be given for the quality of the content and correct referencing of the sources of the material. The content must expand the knowledge of the class beyond the scheduled lecture material for the course. Marks are also based on the flow and fluency of the presentation.	5 marks
c. Conclusion. Summarise the key points and conclusions.(Remember the 3Ts –summarise and conclude)	2 mark
2.Questions facilitating discussion during the presentation and at the end of the presentation  This includes marks for questions to be posed to the audience during the presentation and for the three proposed “audience questions and answers” at the end of the presentation. Each student should be responsible for at least one of these questions. Note that for on-campus students the final 3 questions can be discussed in class if there is time after audience questions.	2 marks
3.  Delivery and coping with questions/facilitating discussion. Marks for delivery of the material. For on campus students this will also include how well students handled questions from the audience. Each group member should be responsible for answering questions for a section of the presentation. If appropriate, other group members can also contribute to the answer after the student responsible has been given an opportunity to answer.	4 marks
4.  Visual aids (e.g. slides), summary handout, script. Marks for quality of the slides, quality of the script and  a good summary handout with the reference list. For on campus students this must be provided to students in the class on the day of the presentation.	3 marks
5.  Timing   Timing must be within the range of 13 – 15 minutes.	2 marks
6.  Contribution to the group This document must be submitted by all groups before the work can be marked. It is compulsory for all groups.
	Total out of 20 marks

[These criteria are described in more detail in the notes on the following pages.]

Notes

1.       Presentation structure:

a.     Introduction:

·        greet the audience courteously

·        title/topic made clear

·        purpose of the presentation is clear

·        issues to be discussed are outlined

·        unusual terms defined adequately.

Speaker/presentation appearance and other first impressions:

·   appropriate standard of dress for the occasion (tidy and free of distracting features)

·        first impression was one of confidence and poise

·        speaker appeared confident and purposeful before starting to speak

·        speaker attracted audience’s attention from the outset

·        little or no fidgeting and few distracting mannerisms

·        presentation format is simple, clear and appealing

·   For off-campus students this will be marked on the basis of their recording, script and PowerPoint slide presentation.

b.     Body of presentation:

·  each issue from the Intro is discussed simply and clearly, and conclusions/recommendations made, if relevant

·        sufficient information and detail are provided

·        sufficient periodic recapitulation

·        appropriate and adequate use of examples/anecdotes

·        discussion flowed logically.

·        the material is relevant and new

·    good sources of reference material were used to prepare the presentation

·        references included (and reference slide included at the end)

c.      Conclusion:

·        ending of presentation signalled adequately

·        main points summarised adequately - ideas brought to fruition

·   conclusion linked to Introduction and follow from discussion in the Body

·        final message is clear and easy to remember

·        opportunity for questions from the audience

·        reference slide included at the end

1.     Questions facilitating discussion during the presentation  and at the end of the presentation

·      Inclusion of questions designed to facilitate discussion with an appropriate response (or possible responses) for each question. These are to be included during the presentation to engage with the audience. They must be shown clearly in the script.

·   Any questions slide at the end of the presentation. Students must propose at least three questions that might be posed by the audience with an appropriate response to each of the questions.

2.     Delivery and coping with questions/facilitating discussion:

Delivery:

·        speech clear and audible to entire audience

·        suitable vocabulary (few clichés, little jargon and repetition)

·        interesting variety in tone of voice

·        clarity and quality of pronunciation

·        little false or excessive use of spoken emphasis

·        short comprehensible sentences

·        presentation directed to all parts of audience (on-campus presentation)

·      eye contact held with audience throughout the presentation (on-campus presentation)

·        meaningful gestures appropriately used

·        full text not read

·        each speaker kept to his/her time limit (start on time and finish within the time frame)

·        good use of time without rushing at the end

·        pace neither too fast or too slow

·        showed enthusiasm

·        audience rapport (e.g. approachable) 

Coping with questions/facilitating the discussion (relevant to on-campus students0:

·        interact with the audience courteously

·        invited audience to ask questions

·        whole audience searched for questions

·        ability to listen

·        questions answered in order

·        questions handled adeptly

·        full audience addressed with answers

·        speaker maintained control of discussion

·        “any questions slide”

4.       Visual aids (slides), summary handout, script

·       visual aids clearly visible to entire audience

·       overhead/slide projector/computer, equipment etc. operated correctly

·       speaker familiar with own visual aids

·   visual aids well–prepared (content well-presented on the slides, not too cluttered, slides consistent, easy to read, good use of diagrams and images, bullet points to show key points etc.)

· effective use of handouts and/or visual aids (i.e. integrated into the presentation)

·      handouts well–prepared and useful – a good summary and with reference list

·     Script clear and well written. Script must make it clear how each part of the script relates to the slides. Questions and answers must be easy to find within the script. (see criteria 2).

5.       Timing

·     The timing of the presentation must be within the range 13- 17 minutes and ideally 15 minutes in length. If it is longer than 17 minutes, the tutor will be required to interrupt your presentation. All students in the group are responsible for ensuring that the timing for the overall presentation falls within this range.

6.       Contribution to the group

·     All groups must submit this document before marks can be awarded. It may be taken into consideration when marking each student’s work.

·       Examples of the tasks for this assessment item are

-                     researching the topic

-                     developing the slides,

-                     producing the handout, printing the handout,

-                     developing the script

-                     developing the embedded questions and answers

-                     developing the final “any questions” questions

-                     practicing the presentation

·        Note that more than one student can contribute to each task. For example, each student should be responsible for researching the topic and finding appropriate references. All members of the group should work together to make sure that the introduction, body and conclusion flow and are appropriate. It is also acceptable (and expected) that all students will be involved in all or most of the tasks. It is also acceptable to give an indication of each student’s contribution to each task (e.g. 30%, 50%).

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