Testlet 1

Project Scenario C Health and Safety Training Project:

ABC Company is a well-established training company that uses a standard model to develop training materials and deliver courses to customers.

ABC Company has commissioned a project in response to recent changes in government legislation relating to health and safety on construction sites. The project will deliver “capability to provide health and safety training”, including the materials needed for classroom-based training and e-learning. The expected benefits for construction companies include a reduction in lost days and legal costs due to accidents.

The e-learning course will be developed by a specialist external consultancy. The materials for classroom-based training will be delivered by ABC Company’s development team. All course materials will be piloted before they are used. ABC Company will deliver training to its customers and also hopes to sell the course materials to other training companies as part of their operational business. ABC Company will use their own sales and marketing departments to promote the courses.

The legislation requires construction companies to comply with the new legislation within two years. The course materials and trainers have to be accredited by a government agency before courses can be delivered. ABC Company is planning to deliver pilot courses within five months of starting the project.

The ABC Company standard development model for new courses recommends the following stages:

End of the Project scenario.

Additional Information:

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) founded the company five years ago. Under her leadership, ABC Company has grown quickly into a successful training company. It delivers a range of accredited professional training.

The Finance Director is also a founder member of ABC Company and is responsible for authorizing budgets for the Operations and Development Teams. She authorizes all large contracts personally.

The Purchasing Manager reports to the Finance Director and is responsible for managing and monitoring supplier contracts.

The Operations Director is responsible for the delivery off all training and for the training development budget. His department organizes courses, venues and trainers. They work with the Product and the Sales teams to provide a comprehensive training schedule. ABC Company’s IT manager reports to the Operations Director.

The Business Development Director has recently been appointed to identify new training needs and propose new products. She will work with the Operations. Director to ensure a cost-conscious approach and that appropriate development technologies are used for the health and safety course.

The Training Development Manager reports to the Business Development Director and is responsible for developing training materials and gaining accreditation, in accordance with the standard course development model. Course developers in his team have skills in a range of development technologies and are allocated to projects as needed.

The Training Delivery Manager , who reports to the Operations Director, is responsible for ensuring that internal and external trainers deliver ABC Company training courses to the required standard. He also checks course materials to ensure they are fit for purpose and of the required quality.

The Central Services Director has responsibility for corporate communications, facilities management and configuration management. He recently led a project to consolidate all company quality systems into one quality management system and set up a corporate quality department, now managed by the Corporate Quality Manager.

The Corporate Document Manager reports to the Central Services Director. She helped establish the company’s document management system and now operates it across the business. She manages a team of administrators and contracts staff when workload is high.

The Sales Director joined ABC Company two months ago and is keen to establish himself by suggesting new markets for the courses and material. All account managers and the marketing team report to him. They promote existing training courses to other training companies and existing customers.

End of the additional information.

Based on lessons from previous projects that used the ABC Company standard development model, the project board has set low cost and time tolerances for stage 2. As a result, the project manager plans to set very low tolerances for time and cost for all work packages to be carried out during stage 2. Is this an appropriate application of the ‘manage by exception’ principle, and why?

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During stage 4, a work package was authorized for the ‘delivered pilot courses’ to be completed by the end of week 2. The ‘finalized materials’ work package will start in week 3. Both work packages have zero tolerances, and finalizing the materials is dependent on feedback from the pilot courses.

During week 1, there were some problems with the pilot courses, so at the start of week 2 the team manager rescheduled the courses to week 3, and reported this in the weekly checkpoint report as the end of week 2.

Should the team manager have reported this delay previously as an issue, and why?

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The project is now closed. The expected increase in revenue is not being achieved. It has been agreed with the team manager for the ‘marketing materials’ that additional marketing activities will be undertaken to achieve the expected increase in revenue.

Who should be responsible for monitoring the results of the marketing activities, and why?

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MANAGING A STAGE BOUNDARY

The ABC Company trainers have been accredited and the course booking procedures have been amended. The ‘managing a stage boundary’ process is taking place at the end of stage 3 .

Which activity should occur during the ‘update the business case’ activity?

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Towards the end of stage 2, the stage 3 plan is being prepared. This includes the work required to promote the new courses to other training companies. In addition to the current ways of marketing the courses, the Sales Director wants to advertise in trade magazines. The likely costs involved and the opportunities it may bring have been identified.

As part of the ‘update the project plan’ activity, what should the project manager be responsible for?

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All the products that are due in stage 3 have been completed, apart from the ‘updated corporate quality procedures’. The work has been completed but the product has not yet been approved. The executive has been told that it will be signed off before the end of the project. In response to an exception report, the executive has instructed the project manager to plan to obtain approval of the product in stage 4.

Is this appropriate application of the report management stage end’ activity, and why?

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CLOSING A PROJECT

Benefits relating to income and business reputation after the project has closed cannot be shown at project closure.

Which statement describes how the ‘closing a project’ process makes provision for this?

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The Health and Safety Training Project is closing as planned. According to the contract terms, suppliers must submit all invoices within one week of project closure. The project manager will issue a project closure notification informing all suppliers of this invoicing deadline as part of the ‘recommended project closure’ activity.

Is this appropriate, and why?

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The project is at the start of stage 3, and there will be six teams working on product delivery. In order to exercise control, the project manager has asked each team to submit a detailed team plan for approval. The external team manager for the ‘e-learning course’ has agreed to submit a summary to the project manager, but will submit the detailed team plan to the senior supplier to review and approve.

Is the team manager’s response appropriate, and why?

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The project is in stage 2. The project manager is reviewing stage status and has collected the checkpoint reports from the team managers. These show that the products are being completed on schedule. However, project support has raised issues that quality reviews have not been completed as agreed. The project manager reports in the highlight report that the stage is progressing well.

Is this appropriate, and why?

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