Part 1 Quality Management (Group Presentation at Midterm 1) This assessment involves group work resulting in a final presentation. The topic of the presentation will be on the review of Quality management principles in projects, using group experience as input. It should look specifically at current practice, both positive and negative, and should be a collective view of all group members. The presentation can be delivered by a group nominated individual or individuals at the first midterm session. The structure of your presentation follows the following lines of questioning: I. Review of the current quality management system / process in the company. This should be brief, but detailed at a high level. It is also important to define roles and responsibilities; II. How does this system / process impact on the management of projects? Is it mandated from a central activity, or is it developed as part of the project and the project plan? III. How well does this work? Are there any conflicts of interest between those in charge of ‘projects’ and those in charge of ‘quality’? IV. What similarities and differences can you observe as a group regarding the quality management practices across your organizations? V. Any recommendations you can make as a group for future projects?
Part 2 Now that you have developed a critique of managing quality in your own environment, it is important that we review the relationship of managing both quality and scope. You are required to undertake a short literature review to better understand this relationship through published work. You are asked to choose 4 journal articles from peer reviewed journals, that focus on both quality and scope in a project context. As well as a critique of each of the four papers, you are required to draw a comparison between each, showing what they have in common, or alternatively, what they differ greatly on. Finally, you are required to close the review by providing a set of conclusions as to what you personally believe the relationship of quality and scope is defined as.
Part 3 From both parts 1 and 2, you have now assessed the current relationship in your project context of quality management to projects. This has given you a foundation of current practice based knowledge. You have further developed a critical understanding of the relationship between quality and scope, through a systematic review of published work. This has allowed you to explore the ideas of others, and make sense of it by applying it to your own contextual understanding. Part C of the assessment is asking you to demonstrate evidence that you can think beyond current practice in your own environment, and propose changes that will add value to the business. The following structure should be adopted – I. What are the current strengths and weaknesses of both scope and quality management in your current project? (8 marks) II. How do those strengths and weaknesses manifest themselves? (8 marks) III. Are they unique to one or just a few projects, or are they evident across all projects in the business? ( 8 marks) IV. What do you believe could be done to overcome any of the highlighted weaknesses? (8 marks) V. How could the strengths be capitalized upon in terms of overall quality in the business as a whole? (8 marks)
