University of Melbourne B.Tech: Electric Bus Project Reflection

This report reflects on a B.Tech project undertaken at the University of Melbourne, focusing on the development of an electric bus for the Australian transport sector. The project involved a team of two students, who collaborated on various aspects, including project planning, proposal development, and execution. The report details the project's goals, which included addressing pollution issues and improving transport accessibility in Melbourne's suburbs. The student discusses the division of responsibilities, with one focusing on hardware and the other on software and documentation, and the innovative features of the bus, such as GPS and Wi-Fi. The report further analyzes the project's quality management, including planning, assurance, and control, and the risk management processes employed to mitigate technical and other challenges. Additionally, it addresses cost management, highlighting the challenges of high costs associated with technology and digital operations. The student acknowledges the guidance received from the head of the department and the lessons learned, including improvements in communication and teamwork. The project aimed to solve issues of the Australia transport and thus the quality management of the product successfully achieved and it was analysed that the product enhances the transport system in various ways.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PROJECT MANAGEMENT: Reflection on Undertaking the Electronic Bus Project
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1PROJECT MANAGEMENT
While pursuing B.Tech from University of Melbourne, our head of the department asked to
prepare a project in the final year. Thus, he decided to group the students of the class in a
group of two students. I named my group as genius minds. Our head of the department
encourages and guides us to complete our project. I and my group member set the project
goal and a proper project plan. Initially we prepare a project proposal and deliver the proposal
to one of the vehicle manufacturing company of Melbourne namely, Lumen Australia Pty
Ltd. We choose the transport sector of Australia to innovate the system with this innovative
project. We collect the ideas and the project requirements. The topic of our project is to
establish an electric bus. Then, we divide our responsibilities according to our expertise.
The core topic of our project is to establish an electric bus which contains innovative
features such as GPS system and other services as well. The initial operation we undergone is
to set the proper timeline framework for our project. Then we prepare the project
requirements which consists of overview of the organization, product details, problems
regarding the Australia transport, brochure of the project, SMART goal features, defining the
project scope, SWOT analysis of the project, risk management of the project. The Australian
transport was facing many issues like pollution issue of noise and air. We presented our
project to the Australian transport in the form of presentation which describes our project.
The project was prepared to fulfil the demands of Australia transport. The Australia transport
was facing two type of issues. One of them is the air and noise pollution and the other one is
the limited number of transports in suburbs places of Melbourne. All operations of the
electric bus were undertaken by electric and digitally too. It provides many features to the
customers like GPS systems, free Wi-Fi to the passengers and it was pollution free mode of
transport. The responsibilities of the project was distributed among us according to our
expertise like I am expertise in the hardware section, so I took all hardware related task and
my friend was expertise in software section and good communication skill, so he took all the

2PROJECT MANAGEMENT
software related task and also he prepare all the documents needed for our project. Moreover,
he represented the project presentation to the Australia transport which influenced them a lot.
The project was generated or build to solve the issues of the Australia transport and
thus the quality management of the product successfully achieved and it was analysed that the
product enhances the transport system in various ways. The Quality management was
undertaken by three process quality planning, Quality assurance, and Quality Control. In
Quality planning phase we identified the demands of the transport system and determined the
method to fulfil the demands and deliver a product which will help them to overcome the
issues and will develop the overall transport system of Australia. In quality assurance phase
we examine the product in a repeated and regular basis so that it could satisfy and influence
the Australian transport system and we identified that the product was covering all the
requirements of the transport system of Australia. In quality control phase, we eliminate the
causes of the operation which is not satisfactory. Here we presented many statistical data of
our projects. We mainly focused on the quality of the product which allow us to complete the
project. The quality of our project was successfully achieved by us as it satisfied the offcials
of the Australia transport and was happily accepted by them.
However, our project was covered by many risks and threats. One of the major risk of
the project as the technical failure. Thus, we undergone a risk management analysis by five
processes like risk planning, risk identification, risk analysis, risk response and risk
monitoring as well as control. The risks are identified and their impacts were noted. Then the
risks were evaluated according to their impacts and proper mitigating countermeasures were
provided to the client such that they could handle any error that arose during the project
execution. The risk management analysis disheartens us as it covers too risks and threats.

3PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Another aspect that disheartened us was the cost management of the project. The
project was totally based on the latest technology and many information systems. Thus, it
consumed high cost which indirectly implies that the individual travel cost was also high. The
cost was an important factor in this project. Initially we predict the overall cost of our project
but the unfortunately the overall cost crossed the limit of the estimated cost and lead it in a
huge factor. We analysed the cost management by four process resource planning, cost
budgeting, cost control and cost estimating. In resource planning we determined the resources
like equipment, materials and people. Then, we develop an approximation cost for the total
resources that were the requirements of the project. The individual cost of operation was
allocated based on the type of operation. Lastly, some budgets were kept for security in case
of any changes in the project. We also consider the cost of the stakeholders of the project.
The IT system consumed huge cost which made the overall project cost to cross the estimated
cost. All operation are done digitally which again required high cost. The travelling cost was
also too high.
The head of the department helped a lot to successfully complete the project because
without his guidelines and lessons the project would be an impotent one. However, the
project encouraged me a lot and I learnt lot of lessons from this project and I improve many
qualities. Moreover, I am really thankful to my group member who taught me various lessons
during the project session and helped me to improve my communication skills.