ENGINEERING AND SCIENCE MANAGEMENT
UNIVERSITY OF ALASKA FAIRBANKS

Term Paper Guidance
ESM 609

 

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

  1. PURPOSE: 

The purpose of this memorandum is to provide students with guidelines for the ESM 609 Term Paper for the Spring 2015 semester.

  1. GENERAL: 
    1. The paper is due on Friday, May 1, 2015.
    2. The paper is worth 120 points, which is 24% of your grade.
    3. The term project will be individual work.  Collaboration is allowed with respect to discussion of principles and ideas, but each student must author his or her own work.

 

  1. THEME GUIDANCE:

The term project theme will focus on the project life-cycle structure.  The textbook is broadly organized around project initiation, implementation and termination; individual chapters highlight key elements of each phase.  Similarly, the Project Management Institute (PMI) builds its Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) around the project cycle as “process groups” defined as follows:

  1. Initiating
  2. Planning
  3. Executing
  4. Monitoring and Controlling
  5. Closing

Although not mandatory, I would encourage students to acquire or borrow a copy of the PMI Project Management Body of Knowledge to review these process groups and their relationship to the “knowledge areas” of Project Management; this will help illuminate the term paper and (along with some standard review texts) help you to pass the Project Management Professional (PMP) exam.  (Some good information is also available online about the process groups but as always, consider the reliability of the source.)

  1. SPECIFIC GUIDANCE:

a.   Using the five “process groups” (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/controlling, and closing) as the basis for discussion of project lifecycle, the student will select one of the following subjects:

      1. Write a paper to evaluate a current project with which you are involved.  Evaluate in a professional (objective) manner how the project could have been improved with better performance at previous phases of the project; and generate and justify how the project outcomes could still be improved in the remainder of the project.
      2. Write a paper to evaluate in a professional (objective) manner a past project, and how practices in each phase influenced the project outcome for better or worse.  Generate and justify lessons learned.  Propose practical means by which the lessons learned could be implemented in future projects.
      3. Write a paper to document how you would plan, organize, lead and control a proposed project through each of the process group phases.  Be sure to establish a clear and specific understanding of what that project would consist of.
    1. Regardless of the choice you make in (a) above, be sure to do the following:
      1. Make sure the paper is completely self-contained.  Provide background information about the project in terms of project drivers, goals, scope, and approach, etc., to provide the reader with a framework on which to hang your recommendations.  Also provide information as to the perspective you are coming from: the client side, the contractor side, the engineer side, etc., so that the reader is clear on the frame of reference.
      2. Ensure that the following basic format is followed:
        1. Title page
        2. Table of Contents
        3. Table of Figures
        4. Executive Summary
        5. Background (include facts and assumptions)
        6. Problem Statement (i.e., intended use of paper)
        7. Body of paper
        8. Recommendations
        9. Conclusions
        10. Appendices (as needed)
    1. Ensure that the paper includes the following phases: 
      1. Initiating
      2. Planning
      3. Executing
      4. Monitoring and Controlling
      5. Closing
    1. Include footnoted or end-note references as needed.
    2. In addition, include use of a project plan and schedule using Microsoft Project or a comparable tool.  You may focus your plan and schedule on the project as a whole or on some critical part of the project on which your paper is focused.  Identify the critical path; include a task and precedence list.  Be innovative.
    3. Pay attention to grammar, spelling, organization, clarity of communication, etc.  Use your acquired wisdom and experience, in addition to what you are learning in this class, to write a good paper.  There is no recommended length.  However, you are expected to cover your subject thoroughly.