03 Jan Work cited: Use the citation

PROJ587 Advanced Program Management

Course Project

Introduction

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.)

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.

Course Project Deliverables

There are four deliverables for the Course Project.

Week 2: Course Project Outline due (ungraded, but required)

Week 4: Course Project Rough Draft due

Week 7: Course Project Final Portfolio Management Plan due

Week 8: Course Project Presentation due

The final 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 and 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, and portfolio implementation; and to control changes within your portfolio, program, and projects.

Resource utilization plan: Analyze and plan resource utilization to achieve maximum or optimal capacity utilization.

Guidelines for the Final Portfolio Management Plan

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.

Any questions about this paper may be discussed in the weekly Course Q & A Forum discussion topic.

This paper is worth 250 total points, plus 45 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 portfolio management plan.

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.