BUS353 Project Management End Course Assessment (ECA) 2025 | SUSS

Section A 

Answer all questions in this section.

Question 1

The Objective of this ECA

To provide an opportunity for students to apply the knowledge learnt in the course and to develop/sharpen the necessary technical skills and knowledge in project management.

Please note that:

• The details and names in the ECA case are fictional. Any resemblances to real-life situations are purely coincidental.
• As information is given throughout the case and the questions may be interrelated, you are advised to read the entire ECA document before working on the report. In some situations, you need to make inferences from the information.
• Students who simply reproduce the course materials without relating to the ECA case will be given low or no marks.
• Students should not include the questions in the report.
• Students are recommended to use Microsoft Project 2021 to prepare the project planning.

You are required to compose a report for Section A.

PROJECT: Implementing An Air Taxi System

Background

Singapore is a small country. There is limited land that can be catered to road usage. However, many economic activities need to be carried out by transportation. Hence, alternative modes of transportation have to be explored.

Air Taxi System (ATS) can be used to transport passengers for short to medium distances by applying Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) technologies, which include vertical takeoffs, autonomous capabilities and fully electric systems. The vehicle is quiet, environmentally friendly, can take off in small areas and is driverless by remotely controlled from a centre. It has the potential to offer alternatives to land transportation, particularly in congested cities or hard-to-reach rural regions. Currently, there are pilot air taxi services in several parts of the world. However, there is no unified ATS standard yet.

Cross Country Transport (CCT) is a transportation company that provides bus, taxi, and train services. CCT’s senior management is interested to pilot an air taxi service between Sentosa Cove and Marina Bay. However, as a transportation company, CCT does not have the knowledge and resources to develop the system.

Air Bot Creator (ABC) is a technology company which designs and manufactures drones for surveillance and logistic industries. ABC intends to extend its capabilities to develop an ATS.

Question 1a

Through an economic platform provided by the government to match Business to Business (B2B) partners, CCT came into contact with ABC. After intensive discussions, CCT decided to outsource the development of its pilot air taxi service to ABC. Both parties call it the Air Taxi System (ATS) Project.

Relate four (4) approaches of Principled Negotiation, each to a situation that CCT can adopt when negotiating with ABC on an item or issue about the ATS Project.

You must present your answer in the following format:

CCT shall apply the approach: ___________ (name the approach) in negotiating ___________ (identify an item or issue) with ABC. Details: ___________ (describe the situation, how CCT can apply the approach and the reason of doing so).

You should limit your essay for Question 1(a) to a maximum of 450 words and indicate the word count at the end of your answer.

Question 1b

ABC’s CEO, Mr James Tan, gathered the following staff to form the ATS Project team:

• Yourself, an ABC’s Product Manager. You are appointed as the ATS Project Manager. You are responsible for coordinating the project activities, providing administrative support and dealing with external organisations such as contractors to construct the taxi landing stations and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) to certify the system.
• Ms. Hannah, an ABC’s Software Engineer. She is in charge of developing the Air Taxi in-vehicle application software and the control centre software.
• Mr. Ravi, an ABC’s Mechanical Engineer. He is in charge of designing the taxi chassis, selecting the engine and working with a contract manufacturer to fabricate and assemble the taxi.

Before the project starts, James briefed you on the management’s expectations:

• The company’s finances are tight. An initial budget has to be worked out. It will be good to achieve a Cost Performance Index (CPI) of at least 1.0. Any subsequent increments have to be justified by the project team. He will approve the change if it is reasonable.
• CCT wants the project to be started on 1 Feb 2025 and completed by 11 July 2025, so that it will have sufficient time to prepare for the launch of the service at the Singapore Smart City Convention which will happen in the following month. There will be penalty to ABC if the project is delayed.
• Besides the basic functions of air taxi service, such as booking, transporting and payment, the project team shall incorporate as many additional features, e.g., in-vehicle infotainment, as possible into the ATS.

Based on the CEO’s directions, you are required to appraise the priorities of the project and construct a project priority matrix.

Note: Each criterion can be assigned to only one unique priority.

Question 2

You have conducted a pre-project discussion and worked out the project activities, as shown in Table 1.

Activity No.	Task Name	Duration (days)	Predecessors	Resource Names
1	Air Taxi System (ATS) Project
2	Study CCT requirements	5		PM (See *Note below), Ravi, Hannah
3	Set up Control Centre	10	2	Ravi
4	Developed taxi application software	18	2	Hannah
5	Develop control centre software	15	2	Hannah
6	Design vehicle chassis	18	2	Ravi, Chassis[1]
7	Select vehicle engine	15	6	Ravi, Engine[1]
8	Assemble vehicle	15	7	Ravi, Production[1]
9	Install control centre computer	10	3,5	Hannah, Computer[1]
10	Construct taxi landing stations	12	6	PM, Construction[1]
11	Test application software	15	4,8	Hannah
12	Test control centre software	7	9,11	Hannah
13	Test overall system	12	10,11,12	Ravi, Hannah
14	Certified by CAAS	10	13	PM
15	Train CCT Staff	5	14	Ravi, Hannah
16	Hand over ATS	1	14,15	PM

Table 1: Activity List for Air Taxi System (ATS) Project

*Note: You must use your surname instead of “PM” in the MS Project Resource Sheet and Column.

To prepare an initial costing for budget approval, you gather the following unit costings:

Resource Name	Type	Max	Standard Rate
PM (See *Note above)	Work	100%	$140/hr
Hannah	Work	100%	$130/hr
Ravi	Work	100%	$120/hr

Table 2: Standard Rates for Work Type Resources

Resource Name	Type	Standard Rate
Chassis	Material	$60,000
Engine	Material	$40,000
Computer	Material	$10,000
Production	Material	$90,000
Construction	Material	$80,000

Table 3: Standard Rates for Material Type Resources

Notes on the costs:

• All costs stated are in Singapore Dollars.
• The standard rates for project members in Table 2 are for eight (8) office-hours on normal weekdays. The members will not work beyond eight (8) hours per day. Hence, you can leave the overtime rates at $0/hr. They do not want to work on the weekend unless you demand them to do so. In this case, the weekend hours and rates are the same as those on weekdays.
• All project members’ costs involved in this project will be treated as variable costs. The total cost will be calculated automatically by MS Project based on the rates in Table 2 and the durations of the activities.
• Each material item in Table 3 is quoted in 1 lot. E.g., “Production” cost is a lump sum charged by the contract manufacturer for assembling the vehicle. “Construction” cost is a lump sum charged by the civil contractor for constructing the taxi landing stations. Both costs include the supply of labour and materials.

Notes on using MS Project for Q2 & Q3:

1. The project schedule is based on a 5-day work week. Each day has 8 working hours (8 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.). No work will be performed on Public holidays and beyond office hours on weekdays. The members will not work on Saturday and Sunday unless stated otherwise or when you deem it necessary.

2. The Public Holidays that may fall within the project period are:

• 31 March 2025 Hari Raya Puasa
• 18 April 2025 Good Friday
• 1 May 2025 Labour Day
• 12 May 2025 Vesak Day
• 6 June 2025 Hari Raya Haji

 If a Public Holiday falls on a Sunday, the following Monday will be a Public Holiday in lieu. If that Monday is another Public Holiday, Tuesday will be the Public Holiday in lieu. There will be no holiday-in-lieu for a Public Holiday that falls on a Saturday.

To mark in MS Project all Public Holidays and Holiday-in-lieu as NonWorking:

Click Project-> Change Working Time. Enter the name of the holiday and the date. Then click Details ->click Nonworking.

3. To enter the name, resource type and cost of each resource item in Tables 2 & 3 into the Resource Sheet: Click View->Gantt Chart (Leftmost icon)->More View->Resource Sheet Enter the name of the resources, standard rates, but leave the cost per use as $0. Choose Accrue as Prorated.

4. If only one member needs to work on a Saturday or Sunday for a particular activity, you must change his/her calendar so as not to affect parallel activities done by other members.Click View -> Resource Sheet. Right-click on the resource to change. Click Information -> Click “Change Working Time”. Enter a description in Name, the chosen date, then click Detail-> Working-> Set the working time (or choose default time). You are advised to do one day per row and check your data before applying it.

5. Click View->Gantt Chart, then View->Table->Entry to enter the Task Name, Duration, and Predecessors into the respective columns.Do not change the order of activities, durations, predecessor relationships, or the resources assignments until needed. You are not required to rearrange the list into a Work Breakdown Structure. Use the dropdown list in the Resource Names’ cells to assign the resources.

6. Set Activity 1 as the higher-level activity by highlighting all activities below and right indent them to second level.Then click Project -> Project Information -> Set Start Date as dictated by the CEO. Right click on Activity 1 to access its Information; Under Advanced Tab, set Deadline as dictated by the CEO.

7. To view critical tasks, click Gnatt Chart Format -> click Critical Tasks.

8. To see all resource conflicts, select all tasks, right click to choose Auto Schedule, then Resource Tab ->Clear Leveling. Observe any resource conflicts.

9. Diagrams, charts, tables, graphs, and relevant project outputs may be shown as images. These must be appropriately formatted and presented so that they can be viewed comfortably.

Question 2a

Construct a Gantt Chart (after Clear Leveling) with Information (i), Task Mode, Task Name, Duration, Start Date, Finish Date, Predecessors, and Resource Names columns shown in a single diagram. Hence, state the project completion date and explain any resource conflicts.

Question 2b

You need to solve the conflicts within the project deadline. Due to the specialised skills of the team members in this intensive project, resource conflicts cannot be resolved by splitting the task, member multitasking, transferring the task to other members, or adding more people. The members will not be working beyond eight (8) hours per day. At this moment, they do not want to work on weekends. Hence, you should try to resolve the conflicts within the available slacks. Set up the approach below:

Right-click on the task with the conflict that has the smallest Task (i.e., Activity) ID. Select “Reschedule to Available Date”.

• If an error message shows that the conflict cannot be resolved, click “Stop”. Skip item (ii) below.
• If the conflict is resolved, check the Project Finish Date. If it exceeds the Deadline, press “Control Z” to undo this levelling.

Proceed to the next task below with conflict. Repeat the above operations one at a time until all tasks with conflicts that could be resolved are completed. There is no need to use any additional methods now to resolve the conflicts.

You must explain the outcome of your action in each of the steps above and state the eventual project completion date if it changes.

Note: There is no need to show diagrams for Question 2(b).

Question 2c

You try to push the finish date further to resolve all the resource conflicts without adding demands on the resources. Do the following:

First, select all tasks, right-click to choose Auto Schedule, then Resource Tab -> Clear Levelling. Choose Entire Project.

Then do Auto leveling by clicking Resource-> Leveling Option -> Tick the buttons “Automatic” and “Level Entire Project”. Uncheck all the boxes below. Then click Level All.

Assess the changes due to this resource leveling operation. Identify the finish date and comment on the impact.

Note: There is no need to show diagrams for Question 2(c).

Question 2d

You are aware of the need to hand over the system by the deadline. You need to solve the problem by exercising your Project Manager authority.

First, do Clear Levelling. Then select the items you want to change, followed by Level All.

Explain the changes you make in MS Project so that the deadline can be met.

Note: You should show the settings in MS Project for Question 2(d).

Question 3

The CEO approves the changes made in Question 2. Set the Status Date (Project -> Status Date) as 5 Feb 2025. Save this as a Baseline Plan (Project -> Set Baseline -> check Entire project), which will be used to evaluate the project performance at a later stage.

As the project progressed, the following incidents occurred:

• While constructing the taxi landing stations, the lands at the designated sites were found to be too soft. More solid foundations were needed by adding structures and laying stronger compounds. The construction cost increased by an additional $30,000. Fortunately, there was no change to the schedule.
• CCT’s CEO made a surprise visit to the project team after the application software was tested. He disliked the user interface. He demanded ABC to make some changes, which needed an additional five (5) days’ work in Activity 13. Hannah and Ravi were tired and refused to work overtime or on weekends to solve this issue. Eventually, CCT agreed to extend the ATS Project completion date and pay ABC accordingly. CCT would shorten their launch preparation, which is not in the scope of the ATS Project.

Note: This special allowance of delaying the deadline does not apply to the situations in Question 2.

Update all relevant activities and costs in the MS Project File to incorporate the changes due to incidents (i) and (ii).

The project went on till completion. Set Status Date to the working day after the last activity, then update the MS Project file. (Project->Update Project, Click Entire Project).

Question 3a

Set up in a single diagram the Tracking Gantt Chart view of MS Project with Information (i), Task Mode, Task Name, Duration, Start Date, Finish Date, and Predecessor columns shown. State the project completion date.

Question 3b

Present a MS Project Cost Report or Table with the Cost Performance Index (CPI). State the values for Budgeted Cost At Completion (BAC) and Estimated Cost At Completion (EAC). Formulate the Cost Performance Index (CPI) and compute the final CPI manually.

Question 3c

Discuss two (2) actions that could have been taken to prevent the two incidents during the project implementation period from happening or to reduce their impacts.

Note: Discuss one action for each incident.

Section B 

Answer all questions in this section.

Question 4

The ABC’s CEO has scheduled a meeting one week after the project completion for you, the Project Manager for the Air Taxi System (ATS) Project, to illustrate to the Senior Management the following items:

• What were the objectives and priorities of the project, and were they met?
• Were there changes in the schedule and what were the contributing events?
• Was there a cost overrun and what were the contributors for the cost overruns, if any?
• What are the recommendations for future projects?

Prepare a video recording of your presentation of at least 3 minutes but not exceeding 6 minutes. Refer to Canvas T/RESIT course site > Assignments > ECA_VIDEO for the step-by-step guide on how to submit the video.

Section C

Answer all questions in this section.

Question 5

Prepare a set of PowerPoint presentation slides upon which the video presentation is based. Please note that the PowerPoint file must be converted to a PDF file before submission to Canvas.