Project Management Assignment

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UNIVERSITY OF SUNDERLAND
FACULTY OF TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
MODULE CODE: EAT340
MODULE TITLE: Professional Engineering Management Techniques
MODULE ASSESSOR: Dr Ken Robson
ASSESSMENT: Assignment 2 of 2
TITLE OF ASSESSMENT: Project Management
MODERATED: 2020
PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION CAREFULLY.
This assignment contributes 70% to your final module mark.
Please ensure that you retain a duplicate of your assignment. We are required to send samples
of student work to the external examiners for moderation purposes. It will also safeguard in
the unlikely event of your work going astray.
All assessments to be submitted via CANVAS and ‘turnitin’.
THE FOLLOWING MODULE LEARNING OUTCOMES WILL BE ASSESSED:
Knowledge
1. Critical understanding of Engineering management and related business practices 
2. Critical understanding of tools and systems used to control and manage finance within an
operations environment 
Skills
3. Ability to apply theoretical concepts to practical managerial situations. 
4. Ability to apply a range of financial tools that can be used to control cost and manage a
business 
You are required to submit your work within the bounds of the University Infringement of
Assessment Regulations (see student handbook at
https://my.sunderland.ac.uk/display/AQH/Academic+Integrity+and+Misconduct?preview=/105
484813/122213258/Academic%20Misconduct%20Regulations%20v18.pdf).
Your work may be subject to checks for originality.

Where you are asked to submit an individual piece of work, the work must
be entirely your own. The safety of your assessments is your responsibility. You must
not permit another student access to your work.
Submission Date and Time 21 September 2020 (23.59 hrs UKT)
Submission Location Via CANVAS
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EAT 340 Assignment 2 – September 2020
Question 1
This assignment concerns the case study ‘Great Western Mainline Electrification’ which can be
accessed from https://calleam.com/WTPF/?p=9179
You are to research and produce an in-depth analysis on why the project failed (from both a
practical and project management perspective). You are also required to propose a strategy
that could have been implemented to ensure the success, rather than failure of the project.
This should follow a report format (see below). You should draw on the various topics covered
in the Project Management part of the EAT340 module (e.g. Project specification, feasibility
study, selection, estimating, accounting, scope management, project planning, resource planning
and scheduling, control, quality etc.).
Your work should be structured as follows and include the following headings and sections:
1. Introduction- Introduce the failed project. Your introduction should include some
background information on the failed project including the dates during which this project took
place, companies and other stakeholders involved, the project location/s, and value. This
should be followed by a general overview of why the project is considered to have failed. An
outline of what will be discussed within the report should then be provided. (10 marks)
2.General context –Discuss specific indicators of project failure identified in the academic
literature. This should include a consideration of the different problems that can lead to
project failure at the various stages of the generic project lifecycle. (10 marks)
3.Case Analysis – Provide an in-depth analysis of why the project in the case study failed. A
description of what went wrong should be provided, and a breakdown of errors and omissions in
project management mapped to the part of the project lifecycle at which they occurred should
be included in this section. (20 marks)
4.Proposed solutions- Finally you are required to suggest a strategy that could have been
implemented utilising the relevant project management tools and techniques, to prevent the
identified issues leading to failure occurring. (15 marks)
5.Summary – Summarise the key points raised in your literature review and analysis.(10 marks)
6. Reference list –A list of references used in your report in either Harvard or Vancouver
style (5 marks)
TOTAL (70 marks)
Total Word Count for Question 1 is 2000 words +/- 10%.
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Referencing and other guidance for Question 1
 Students will need to demonstrate a wide reading around the subject, with good marks being
awarded for well-argued, structured answers that are supported by the relevant literature.
 Students may use textbooks or appropriate academic literature (journal articles and
conference papers) to support and justify their statements.
 References from commercial and other web pages are allowed.
 Students can use either Harvard or Vancouver style referencing.
 It is expected that the answer to this question will have 5 –10 academic references.
 The assignment can be written in ‘Times New Roman’, Arial or Comic Sans MS, the body of
the report being font size 12pt. The report can be single or 1.5 spaced.
Question 2
a) Provide a critique of three financial project selection models of your choice by discussing
the advantages and disadvantages of each.
(9 marks)
b) A project requires the purchase of a new piece of machinery. You are the project manager
and you must choose between two potential machines (Machine A and Machine B), either of
which would be suitable. The cost of each machine is identical at £311,000. However, they
differ in performance such that the projected future cash flows are different for each
machine. Projected cash flows over a 5 year period are as shown in Table Q2a
Table Q2a. Five year cash flow figures for Machine A and Machine B.
i. Show which machine would be the preferred choice based on a Payback Period estimate.
(2 marks)
ii. For each machine calculate Return on Investment.
(4 marks)
Year Cash Flow: Machine A Cash Flow: Machine B
0 -£311,000 -£311,000
1 10,000 200,000
2 70,000 111,000
3 100,000 55,000
4 131,000 40,000
5 250,000 32,000
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iii. For each machine, calculate the Net Present Value (NPV) after 5 years assuming a
discount (inflation) rate of 1% for each year of the project. Table Q2b provides a list
of discount factors for a range of discount (inflation) rates.
(6 marks)
iv. For each machine, calculate the Internal rate of return after 5 years assuming a
discount (inflation) rate of 1% for each year of the project.
(6 marks)
v. The project manager decides to purchase Machine A. Suggest why. (3 marks)
TOTAL (30 marks)
Table Q4b. Discount Factors for given discount (inflation) rates over a 5-year period.
END
Discount Factors for given discount (inflation) rates over a 5-year period
Years 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% 8% 9% 10%
1 0.9901 0.9804 0.9709 0.9615 0.9524 0.9434 0.9346 0.9259 0.9174 0.9091
2 0.9803 0.9612 0.9426 0.9246 0.9070 0.8900 0.8734 0.8573 0.8417 0.8264
3 0.9706 0.9423 0.9151 0.8890 0.8638 0.8396 0.8163 0.7938 0.7722 0.7513
4 0.9610 0.9238 0.8885 0.8548 0.8227 0.7921 0.7629 0.7350 0.7084 0.6830
5 0.9515 0.9057 0.8626 0.8219 0.7835 0.7473 0.7130 0.6806 0.6499 0.6209