Virtual Delivery System Project: Goals, Objectives, and Project Management Plan

This article discusses the Virtual Delivery System Project of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, which aims to switch to hybrid delivery of lectures. It covers the project goals, objectives, budget assumptions, constraints, and project planning with milestones. The article also explores the stakeholders involved, project organization structure, project control mechanisms, and reporting framework.

Virtual delivery system
project

Table of Contents

Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Project goals...........................................................................................................................1
Objectives...............................................................................................................................1
Critical success factors...........................................................................................................2
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................2
Budget Assumptions........................................................................................................................3
Assumptions.....................................................................................................................................3
Constraints.......................................................................................................................................4
Stakeholders and their Involvement.................................................................................................4
Project Organisation Structure and Roles and Responsibilities.......................................................5
Project Control Mechanisms............................................................................................................5
Reporting Framework......................................................................................................................6
Project Planning with Milestones....................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
Project management is referred to as the the using of the skills and knowledge along with
the tools and techniques in order to deliver the valuable thing to people. There are different types
of projects which are unique and different from routine operations and the different ongoing
activities. Therefore it's basically a process which leads the team to achieve the project goals and
objectives at a given constraints. It includes the project documentation and the development
process along with the scope, time and budget.
Project goals
The current project is all about the University of Wales Trinity saint David which is
located in London. This is the institution which has switched from face to face delivery to the
online delivery of lectures because of the coronavirus pandemic in the United kingdom. It is
important to deliver this type of teaching to the students therefore the university is planning to
switch to the hybrid delivery which involves that some students can join online and others who
wish to come to campus for the face to face delivery of lectures are welcomed. University has
planned this because the United kingdom is slowly returning to its normal situation after the
lockdown. hence this current project aims to return the students and staff to the full time face to
face delivery. Hence the goal of the project is to investigate the behavior of the students and
about the mentality of coming back to the university. constructing a project management plan
along with critically analyzing each element within the project management plan are the goals of
the current project named as virtual delivery system project.
Objectives
The Objective of the project is to consider the fundamental elements of a project
management to evaluate the stakeholders and risk along with a budget and time which is
followed by the quality and communication and also human resource management or benefits
realization. Therefore the goal of the project is to produce the project initiated document to
highlight the core details of the project which discusses the methodological approaches which
are adopted in the execution of the project. Moreover the outline of the current project is to
discuss the project scope and budget assumptions along with the constraints and project
organization structure which is followed by the project control mechanism and framework or
project planning with milestones.
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Critical success factors
Critical success factors on the current project are the agreement on the project goals and
objectives in order to develop the clearly defined plans along with the assigned responsibilities
and accountabilities. Moreover, management of the project scope in an effective and efficient
manner along with cultivating the constant effective communications and also making sure that
the management support must be available with the entire project management (Ahmad, Ahamad
Rapani, Ismail and Ahmad, 2020).
Project Scope
The project objective is simply to formulate the version delivery system in order to
deliver the lectures by the teachers either in an online manner or face to face delivery of lectures.
The aim of this project is to increase the number of students who come back to the University for
Better Interaction with the teachers and other students in order to have face-to-face learnings and
different kinds of activities. This is because the United Kingdom is now normalized to the
situation of covid-19 and can help students to move back to University again for studies.
Parameters for the project are such that the proper planning and implementation is needed so that
not only the students and teachers but the parents of the students could also get convinced to
send their students to the university for learning. parameters includes a proper safety and
security for the students so that no one can get affected due to covid-19. Talking about the
expected quality can be of the 90% safety for the students who are willing to come to the
university with full precautions of covid-19. The expected cost can be the$200 which includes
the infrastructure and different systems for the students availability with the safety equipment
and social distancing elements used in the university. The expected time in order to complete the
entire planning in execution of this project can be the six months. The clear understanding of the
project can be given by elaborating a project scope. Talking about project scope then this project
provides various benefits to the students and the teacher's along with the entire University and its
learning system. Online learning does not provide the concentration on the learning materials and
also results in less interaction among the students and with the teachers as well. But it's students
who visit the university that they can interact with various students and can perform various
activities which can help in growth and development of the students. Teachers will find the Good
career growth if they visit University and provide the face to face lectures to the students.
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Therefore this project has a scope and benefit to the entire system of the university (Kibaru,
2018).
Budget Assumptions
Budget is referred to as the amount of money which is required to implement the entire
project which includes every stage of the project management. Each stage of the project
management includes the planning and initiation along with the execution and implementation
which is also followed by the documentation and deployment of the project and at the last the
maintenance of it. Each stage of project management requires some kind of a budget which is
highly needed to the accomplishment of the entire project. For example if the university wants
students to come back to the university for the face to face lectures delivery. Then it is important
to arrange the sufficient furniture and other systems along with the sufficient teachers which is
followed by the safety and security precautions from covid-19 and many more as per the needs
and requirements of the students. Labour is highly required for the cleanliness of the washrooms
and classrooms so that students can easily set and capture delivery of lectures from the teachers.
Therefore the assumption made for the budget for all such requirements is the $200 because not
only are these the arrangements which are acquired but also the virtual delivery system is highly
needed because there are some students who are not willing to come back to the university and
they need online classes. Hence several computer systems and the internet connectivity along
with the other computing elements are highly required for the university to arrange in the given
budget assumption for better delivery of lectures online and in the face-to-face manner as well
(Pererva, Lavrentieva, Lakomova and Tolmachev, 2020).
Assumptions
Apart from the budget assumptions there are other assumptions as well which are
required to be analyzed so that the risk assessment can be evaluated in an effective and efficient
manner. The known part of the project is simply the entire planning and execution path along
with the goals and objectives of the project with the time constraints and budget. The unknown
information of the project is the successful rate of the project. This is because this information is
still not known. What is the rate of the success and how many students will be ready to visit the
university for the face to face delivery of lectures. It is also not known that parents will be
willing to send their students in the situation of covid-19. Therefore assumption can be made that
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there can be 30% of the students and the parents who will be willing to visit the university for the
face to face delivery of lectures and another 70% will be preferring the online virtual delivery
system of lectures. if the 30% students will join the university and observe that there are full
precautions with safety and security from covid-19 then they can also encourage the other 70%
of the students also to join the university as soon as possible (Jackson and Anagnostopoulou,
2018).
Constraints
After the assumptions of budget and other unknown assumptions it is being analyzed that
there are various factors which are important to analyze for example the different constituents of
the project and the risk assessment. Basically the project overview is simply the virtual delivery
system and to make the hybrid system for some students who can stay at home and receive the
lectures and also some can attend the university and attend the lectures face-to-face. This project
has the risk which can impact the entire project and its accomplishment. Therefore, it is
important to analyze the risks such as the failure of the virtual delivery system and the planning
of hybrid systems. This is because some of the students will not be referring to visiting
University because of the covid-19 and some students can visit for the face to face lectures. This
is the risk which is required to be mitigated so that the hundred percent successful rate can be
evaluated from the current project. this can be done by increasing the students to attend the face
to face lectures in the university and even if they are using the virtual delivery system in the form
of hybrid system then it is important for them to interact better with the teachers and among the
students and participate in the the activities conducted by the university for better growth and
development (Torres Martín, Acal, El Honrani and Mingorance Estrada, 2021).
Stakeholders and their Involvement
There are various stakeholders of the project such as the teachers who will deliver the
lectures in the hybrid system and the students who will be receiving the lectures along with the
leaders and managers of the university and the most important are the parents of the students
who have the major role in sending their students out to attend the lectures. They are classified in
the external and the internal stakeholders such as the internal stakeholders are the leaders and
managers along with the teachers and talking about the external stakeholders then they are the
students and parents. These are the stakeholders which are identified and prioritized in order to
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manage their needs and requirements on a priority basis. Other stakeholders can be the
competitors and investors who are as important to conduct for better accomplishment of the
project. The analysis of the stakeholder can be done by simply analyzing who the stakeholders
are and what their contribution in the entire project so that the successful rate of the project can
be decided in order to have the successful implementation of the undertaking. Therefore it is
evaluated that the major contributions in this project of the stakeholders are the students and
parents because without them it can be impossible to implement this project (Migkotzidis,
Ververidis, Anastasovitis and Hadiji, 2018).
Project Organisation Structure and Roles and Responsibilities
The organizational structure which is used in the current project management is the
hierarchical organizational structure. This is because it is a structure which has the divisions
from up to down according to the board of directors and their post along with their roles and
responsibilities to manage the organization. Project board of the university includes the trustees
and owner of a University who leads and manages the entire University along with the planning
and decision making of every new project the conduct for the betterment of the university. These
are the board of directors of the university which are highly involved in all the stages of the
project management from planning to the execution path. their roles and responsibilities are to
monitor all the stages of the project management and rectify all the risks which are associated
with the project management. Moreover they are also responsible for the entire budget
development and the planning of other constraints which are required in the entire project
management for the accomplishment and increase the successful rate of the undertaking (Wang,
Lowe, Newton and Kocaturk, 2020).
Project Control Mechanisms
There are various methodologies through which the project can be controlled and
improved in every stage of the project management cycle. Measures which must be taken by the
University to control the project are the ongoing feedback systems from parents and students
along with the teachers and taking their point of view about the project. Project control
mechanism has the involvement of the stakeholders of the project and it can be done by the
brainstorming process in an online manner through the virtual delivery system. It is important to
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maintain the project till the end so that the maximum number of students could attend the face to
face degree of lectures in the university (Chambers, Chen, Brown and MacFarlane, 2021).
Reporting Framework
There are different people who are the stakeholders of the project and are involved in the
entire completion of the project. These are the people who are interacting and communicating
among themselves while preparing the project in the form of a virtual delivery system and online
meeting with the help of a brainstorming process. Therefore the medium used for communicating
are the video calls but not in a physical manner so that everyone can attend and nobody can leave
the meeting. Hierarchy of the communication must be from down to bottom if the requirements
are to be discussed and it also must be top to down if the planning and decision making and to be
discussed (Karuović, Tasić, Hains and Milanov, 2021).
Project Planning with Milestones
The project life cycle includes several stages such as the initiation and planning along
with the designing and execution which is followed by the closure and review or evaluation of
the project. There are different project milestones which are considered as a good way of making
sure that what are the key events which occurred on time. Project milestones considered here are
the budget and time along with the progress of the entire project. There are some activities which
occur on time such as the initial planning but the implementation process is delayed due to the
delay in convincing the parents and students to send their students to the university. It has
resulted in the delay in the arrangements within the university of different computer systems and
furniture required along with the precautions for safety and security against covid-19.
Progression rate can be considered as 60% within 6 months after all the arrangements and
implementation of the entire project with the expected budget and timings (Ma, Zhang and Li,
2018).
Conclusion
It is concluded that project management is an important concept to learn and study so that
its applications can be applied in real world organizations. This is because managing a project
that is small or large brings productivity to the individual or an organization. This brings a
positive change for the people and the individuals who are managing the entire project. The
above information is based on the virtual delivery system for the university in order to encourage
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people to join the university again for the lectures. Therefore it is important to analyze the
project goals and objectives along with the critical success factors. It is essential to examine the
project scope and budget assumptions. It is necessary to determine the constraints and
stakeholders' involvement. It is significant to gain the knowledge about project organization
structure and its roles and responsibilities. It is crucial to assess the project control mechanism
and reporting framework. It is vital to evaluate the project planning with milestones. Therefore
the above report covers all such areas in order to better understand the conception of project
management of virtual delivery systems with a university.
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References
Books and Journals
Ahmad, N.L., Ahamad Rapani, N.H., Ismail, Z. and Ahmad, A.S., 2020. Accounting teacher self
effication, usage, teaching preference and skill towards virtual learning environment in
education. International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology, 29(6), pp.249-264.
Chambers, A., Chen, C., Brown, K.A. and MacFarlane, S., 2021. Virtual learning collaboratives
to improve urine culturing and antibiotic prescribing in long-term care: controlled before-
and-after study. BMJ Quality & Safety.
Jackson, B. and Anagnostopoulou, K., 2018. Making the right connections: Improving quality in
online learning. In Teaching & learning online (pp. 53-64). Routledge.
Karuović, D., Tasić, I., Hains, V.V. and Milanov, D., 2021. Students' habits and competencies
for creating virtual learning environments. Computer Applications in Engineering
Education, 29(4), pp.864-882.
Kibaru, F., 2018. Supporting faculty to face challenges in design and delivery of quality courses
in virtual learning environments. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, 19(4),
pp.176-197.
Ma, Z., Zhang, D. and Li, J., 2018. A dedicated collaboration platform for Integrated Project
Delivery. Automation in Construction, 86, pp.199-209.
Migkotzidis, P., Ververidis, D., Anastasovitis, E. and Hadiji, F., 2018, September. Enhanced
virtual learning spaces using applied gaming. In International Conference on Interactive
Collaborative Learning (pp. 710-721). Springer, Cham.
Pererva, V., Lavrentieva, O., Lakomova, O. and Tolmachev, S., 2020. The technique of the use
of Virtual Learning Environment in the process of organizing the future teachers'
terminological work by specialty.
Torres Martín, C., Acal, C., El Honrani, M. and Mingorance Estrada, Á.C., 2021. Impact on the
virtual learning environment due to COVID-19. Sustainability, 13(2), p.582.
Wang, R., Lowe, R., Newton, S. and Kocaturk, T., 2020. Task complexity and learning styles in
situated virtual learning environments for construction higher education. Automation in
Construction, 113, p.103148.
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