Stage 1: Definition and concept phase leading to presentation of the ‘Business Case’ • Collectively understand the project brief • Meet the client to determine ‘why’ the project is taking place and...

Stage 1: Definition and concept phase leading to presentation of the ‘Business Case’
•    Collectively understand the project brief
•    Meet the client to determine ‘why’ the project is taking place and ‘what’ the client expects to be delivered. Do test your and their understanding.
•    Negotiate with the client how and when you will communicate. The client will be available to check understanding and will want to know progress.
•    Formally define the aim (benefit), scope (deliverable), boundary and constraints of the project
•    Identify how success will be measured
•    Construct the written Business Case

•    Present the Business Case in a boardroom environment for formative feedback and with the objective of obtaining agreement to proceed to the next stage of the project life cycle. The presentation should be planned and practiced; you may need to ‘sell’ your ideas. You should introduce the team members and propose the business case. Key elements here are the understanding of the client’s requirements and a client communications plan.

•    Make sure the client has a copy of the business case and agrees the scope.



The assessment will be formative; permission to proceed or guidance as to rework required will be given.



A note about boardroom presentations

These should be no longer than 10 minutes. All members of the team must attend but one (or more) member(s) of the team may give the presentation. Questions should be expected. Presentations may be videoed. Hard copy of the presentation together with extra additional relevant documents should be handed over.



Stage 2: Project planning leading to the presentation of the ‘Project Management Plan’ (PMP)


Once agreement to proceed has been received

•    Plan the project in detail focusing on time, cost, quality and communication together with risk and stakeholder management
•    Develop and write the PMP

•    Present the PMP (and its detail) in a boardroom environment with the objective of receiving permission to proceed to the next stage of the life cycle.


The assessment will be formative; permission to proceed or guidance as to rework required will be given.







Stage 3: Project Implementation
Once agreement to proceed has been received the plan of work should be executed.

•    Do remember that you must achieve the deliverable the client is expecting so continual communication with them is paramount.

•    Through the project, monitoring and control of activities are essential.

Team leaders will report to the tutor at set times; facilitation and guidance will be offered if appropriate.



Stage 4: Handing over and close out; final presentations to

a. the client and

b. the cohort


The teams will formally hand over the deliverable (project output) to the client. There are 0 marks for this but the clients feedback will be fed into the final presentation marking.


The team will also make a presentation to the cohort which should include

•    the aims and scope of the project

•    the details of the project output, the deliverable
•    relevant references/bibliography
•    a brief reflection on the project process, progress and team behaviour

•    a list of team members and student numbers
•    a collective agreement about the allocation of marks amongst the team with respect to engagement and work carried out


Presentations may include if relevant
•    research philosophy, methods, ethical considerations
•    an overview of the literature drawn on

•    the sample population, questions asked, the data collected

•    an analysis and evaluation of the data with final conclusions