Course Project: Portfolio Management Plan
Your Professor will determine whether the Course Project is an individual or team assignment. If the project is completed as a team, your professor will assign teams promptly. (Watch for an announcement.)
Objectives | Project Deliverables | Schedule and Grading Rubric | Paper Guidelines | Best Practices
Objective
The project for this course is a portfolio management plan for a company of your choice. You may use your own employer or a public company you can research to provide necessary details. To get started, you need to know the company’s strategic plan and strategic capacity plan.
Project Deliverables
Your portfolio management plan should include the content below.
Organization’s strategic plan Organization’s strategic capacity plan Portfolio management process Project selection criteria Program management plan Plan to Identify and resolve possible areas/sources of conflict related to cost, schedule, or quality Change management plan: Develop a plan to manage organizational and cultural change and conflict that may occur due to project/program/portfolio implementation. Resource utilization plan: Analyze and plan resource utilization to achieve maximum/optimal capacity utilization.
Schedule and Grading Rubric
Week 2: Outline due (ungraded but required)
Week 4: Draft is due in class Week 4
Week 7: Final portfolio management plan
Week 8: Presentation
Grading Rubrics for Draft and Paper
Category
Points
Description (draft outlines these sections—9 points each)
Draft
45
Organization Strategic Plan Organization Strategic Capacity Plan Flow Chart of Portfolio Process Outline of Project Selection Criteria Program Management Plan
Category
Points
%
Description
Organization’s strategic plan
20
8%
Overall mission, long-term goals, and principal methods for attaining those goals for the organization
Organization’s strategic capacity plan
20
8%
How organization matches resource requirements with available resources
Portfolio management process
20
8%
Overview of the entire PPM process
Project selection criteria
20
8%
Addresses both qualitative and quantitative criteria for selection
Program management plan
20
8%
Overall plan for how projects in the program will be managed (especially Quality, Scope, and Schedule)
Plan to Identify and resolve possible areas/sources of conflict related to cost, schedule, or quality
20
8%
You you’ll ensure that your stakeholders will be “on the same page” regarding priorities of cost/schedule/quality among the projects in the portfolio.
Change Management Plan: Develop a plan to manage organizational and cultural change and conflict that may occur due to project/program/ portfolio implementation
20
8%
NOTE: This is not a scope change management plan but a plan for promoting, communicating, and gaining acceptance of PMO, PPM within the organization.
Resource Utilization Plan:
20
8%
Analyze and plan resource utilization to achieve maximum /optimal capacity utilization
Content Total
160
64%
Contains All Project Portfolio Management Plan Deliverables
Documentation and Formatting
40
16%
Follows APA guidelines for citing sources. Paper may be in a professional business format, using good design and attractive formatting. Use of tables, graphics, charts, and other PM communication elements are encourage. Paper MUST be in a single MS Word document!
Organization and Cohesiveness
40
16%
Good flow and clear presentation of the 8 required content Deliverables.
Editing
10
4%
Corrections made as suggested in the first draft and appropriate peer reviewed changes made
Total
250
100%
A quality paper will meet or exceed all of the above requirements.
Grading Rubrics for Presentation
Category
Points
%
Description
Flow
50
20%
All parts of the presentation flow seamlessly from one presenter to the next.
Participation
50
20%
All members of the team present equally.
Professionalism
50
20%
Handouts, PowerPoint, participation, and so on are presented or conducted in an appropriate and professional manner. Includes actions of team members when not presenting.
Time Limit
50
20%
The presentation is within the 5–10-minute time limit.
Grammar
50
20%
All participants and materials use proper grammar.
Total
100
100%
The presentation will meet or exceed the above guidelines
Paper Guidelines
Papers must be 10 to 15 pages in length (this would be roughly one page per area included in the report), double-spaced, and in 10-point font. They must include a cover page, table of contents, introduction, report body, summary or conclusion, and works cited. Even though this is not a scientific-type writing assignment, and is mostly creative in nature, references are still very important. At least six authoritative outside references are required (anonymous authors or web pages are not acceptable). These should be listed on the last page, titled “Works Cited.” Appropriate citations are required (in APA format). All DeVry University policies are in effect, including the plagiarism policy. Papers are due during Week 7 of this course. Any questions about this paper may be discussed in the weekly Q & A discussion topic. This paper is worth 250 total points, plus 30 points for the rough draft, and will be graded on the quality of the research topic, quality of paper information, use of citations, grammar, and sentence structure (see grading rubrics).
Best Practices
Below are best practices in preparing this paper.
Cover page: Include who you prepared the paper for, who prepared it, and the date. Table of contents: List the main ideas and sections of the paper and the pages where they are located. Illustrations should be included separately. Introduction:Use a header on your paper. This will indicate that you are introducing the paper.
The purpose of an introduction or opening is to
introduce the subject and why the subject is important; preview the main ideas and the order in which they will be covered; and establish the tone of the document. Include in the introduction a reason for the audience to read the paper. Also, include an overview of what you will cover and the importance of the material. (This should include or introduce the questions you are asked to answer in each assignment.) Body of the report: Use a header with the name of the project. An example is, “The Development of Hotel X: A World-Class Resort.” Proceed to break out the main ideas: State the main ideas and the major points of each idea, and provide evidence. Show some type of division, such as separate, labeled sections; separate groups of paragraphs; or headers. Include the information you found during your research and investigation. Summary and conclusion: Summarizing is similar to paraphrasing but presents the gist of the material in fewer words than the original. An effective summary identifies the main ideas and the major support points from the body of the report; minor details are left out. Summarize the benefits of the ideas and how they affect the subject. Work cited: Use the citation format specified in the Syllabus.
Additional hints on preparing the best possible project are below.
Apply a three-step process to writing: plan, write, and complete. Prepare an outline of the research paper before going forward. Complete a first draft and then go back to edit, evaluate, and make any changes required. Use visual communication to further clarify and support the written part of the report. Examples include graphs, diagrams, photographs, flowcharts, maps, drawings, animation, video clips, pictograms, tables, and Gantt charts.
