ILM Course

This task requires you to assess project management tools and techniques and their usefulness within your organisation. You are then required to identify and plan a project within your own organisation, communicate the project plans to appropriate colleagues or stakeholders, reaching agreement for the project where necessary. You are then asked to implement the project plan, monitoring progress against agreed targets. Finally, you are asked to use feedback from others to critically evaluate your performance as a project manager and create a self-development plan to improve your performance in managing projects.

If you are not currently working within an organisation, then you may complete this task in relation to an organisation with which you are familiar. This could include experience working in a voluntary capacity.

This assignment contains two activities. The first involves the development of a Project Plan (Part A). The second is a Project Report (Part B) which will detail the implementation of your project. Your project can be delivered over the remainder of the programme, with your Project Report being submitted towards the end of your course of study. The tasks you need to undertake are:-

• read all the questions

• complete the learning activities associated with this course
• discuss the assignment with your coach at your tutorial
• complete any other activities that you need to undertake for your assignment
• answer the questions in the spaces provided

Here are some tips on completing the assignment, based on submissions from previous students:

• make sure you read and answer all the questions! Even the most accomplished writers have fallen down by providing answers that are exceptionally well written – but well off the mark. This is usually because they have not gathered a full understanding of the questions before embarking on the answer.
• read the assessment criteria on the next page. They are built into the questions, but it is useful to know the detail against which your work is being assessed
• use a combination of your own observations, the course materials and other readings when answering questions.
• make sure you follow the guidance on how to achieve a Good Pass, which you will find at the bottom of each question
• when you have completed your work, read it again, in the light of the questions, the Good Pass definitions and the assessment criteria. Make sure you have answered the questions and that your answers meet the assessment criteria.
• provide a brief conclusion at the end of each question, summarising what you have said in the answer, in no more than a paragraph or two. This will help you progress to the next question, especially as there is some analysis required of your preceding work.
• keep your analyses concise and linked back to the question and assessment criteria

The ‘nominal’ word count for Part A and Part B combined is 2500 words: the suggested range is between 2000 and 3000 words. When you have completed Part A, you should upload it along with your completed workbook through iAcademy. You will be provided with instructions on how to do this in the section for Week 4. Part B can be submitted for assessment any time before the end of your course of study

By the end of the unit, you should be able to:

• assess the usefulness of project management tools and techniques for managing a project within your own organisation (20 marks)
• plan the implementation of a project within your own organisation (20 marks)
• communicate the project plan with appropriate colleagues and stakeholders, gaining agreement where necessary (20 marks)
• implement the project plan, monitoring progress against agreed targets (20 marks)
• use feedback from others to critically evaluate your own ability to plan and implement a project, identifying strengths and weaknesses (12 marks)
• create a self-development plan to improve your own performance in managing projects (8 marks)

The purpose of this unit is to develop the understanding and ability to be able to manage projects as required by a practising or potential middle manager.

This task requires you to assess project management tools and techniques and their usefulness within your organisation. You are then required to identify and plan a project within your own organisation, communicate the project plans to appropriate colleagues or stakeholders, reaching agreement for the project where necessary. You are then asked to implement the project plan, monitoring progress against agreed targets. Finally, you are asked to use feedback from others to critically evaluate your performance as a project manager and create a self-development plan to improve your performance in managing projects.

The ‘nominal’ word count for this assignment is 2500 words, the suggested range is between 2000 and 3000 words. However, individuals have different writing styles and there is no penalty if the word count range is exceeded. Write your responses in the white boxes below, or reference them as appendices.

1. Be able to manage a project in an organisation

These questions ask you to consider the usefulness of project management tools within your organisation, and then to identify and plan a project within your organisation.

1.1   Assess the usefulness of project management tools and techniques for managing a project within your own organisation.

A Good Pass will use a range of objective criteria to assess project management tools and techniques as to their usefulness for managing a project within your own organisation.

(400 – 600 words, 20 marks )

A Good Pass will demonstrate that the implementation of a project within your own organisation is correctly planned making full use of the capabilities of an appropriate project management tool and techniques.

N.B    It is advisable to include a Project Plan as an appendix to this assignment. This forms part of the        suggested word count.

(400 – 600 words, 20 marks)

1. Be able to manage a project in an organisation

These questions ask you to review how you communicated and implemented your project plans.

1.3     How did you communicate the project plans with appropriate colleagues and stakeholders, gaining agreement where necessary?

A Good Pass will demonstrate that the communication needs of appropriate colleagues and identified project stakeholders have been formally and objectively determined, and the project plans are communicated appropriately to fulfil those communication needs using a fully-developed formal project communication plan. Explicit evidence is provided that agreement has been reached for the project plans, where necessary, with appropriate colleagues and identified project stakeholders.

(400 – 600 words, 20 marks)

A Good Pass will provide explicit evidence of implementing the project plan and monitoring progress against agreed targets.

(400 – 600 words, 20 marks)

These questions ask you to review your performance as a project manager and identify areas for further development.

2.1     Use feedback from others to critically evaluate your own ability to plan and implement a project, identifying strengths and weaknesses

A Good Pass will demonstrate that a wide range of colleagues and project stakeholders have provided comprehensive and objective feedback on all aspects of planning and implementation and that this has been used to critically evaluate and identify strengths and weaknesses in your own ability to plan and implement a project.

(240 – 360 words, 12 marks)

You may wish to review and update the plan on page 46 of your digital workbook for this unit. If so, please re-submit it as an appendix to this assignment.

A Good Pass will demonstrate an appropriate and comprehensive self-development plan to improve your own performance in managing projects that prioritises and ranks self-development objectives based on the critical evaluation.

(160 – 240 words, 8 marks)

This is the feedback from your assessor. Should you need to add any work in order to meet the assessment criteria to a sufficient standard, these will be given in red.