IFSM 438 Integrated Team Project

This document outlines the requirements for the "Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) in IFSM 438, a project-based course replacing a final exam. The ITP, worth 65% of the grade, is divided into seven weekly deliverables (ITP-1 to ITP-7) focusing on various project management aspects, from project charter creation and WBS development to risk assessment and cost estimation. Students work in teams, assigned by the instructor, and utilize Microsoft Project and other tools. Team contribution is assessed through either a peer review system ('Creds') or by omitting non-contributing members from the cover page. The project uses a case scenario involving the Marley Dental Clinic's IT system installation. The document provides detailed instructions, rubrics, and guidelines for each deliverable, emphasizing APA formatting, credible sources, and clear communication. Two additional team projects (TPP-1 and TPP-2) focus on team process planning and post-mortem analysis, respectively, but are not part of the main assessment.

27 March 2016
IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
Integrated Team Project (ITP) Master
Document
Project Descriptions
This document provides all of the details and instructions for the ITP and TPP assignments for the
IFSM438 class. In the first week of the semester, students should read the material up to the
Introduction to Team Process Course Completion Plan Assignments. In each subsequent week of
the class, each chapter provides the relevant details, requirements and grading criteria for the
semester. By Week 8, the requirements for ITP-7 and TPP-2 will conclude the assignments.
The details for each assignment are the minimum requirements.
Questions about this document or the assignments should be directed to the instructor of the class.
Contents
"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP).................................................3
Notes on the Integrated Team Project (ITP)..................................................................4
Overview......................................................................................................................................... 4
Team Roles and Interaction............................................................................................................. 5
Team Contribution Assessment and Grading of Team Assignments................................................6
Submission of the Project Deliverables for Grading.......................................................................13
Grading Rubrics............................................................................................................................. 14
General Theme and ITP Project Requirements.............................................................14
Case Scenario – Marley Dental Clinic............................................................................................. 15
Project Documentation Requirements...........................................................................................17
Introduction to Team Process Course Completion Plan Assignments............................21
TPP-1 - Plan and Schedule for Team Process (Team project).......................................21
ITP-1 - Project Charter (Team project)........................................................................27
ITP-2i - Project Work Breakdown Structure with Durations (Individual project).............33
ITP-3 - Project Schedule with Task Dependency Links (Team project)...........................41
tmpw0p4s36j.docx

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
ITP-4 - Project Resources and Costs (Team project).....................................................46
ITP-5i - Project Risk Assessment (Individual project)...................................................54
ITP-6 - Consolidated Project Management Plan (Team project).....................................59
ITP-7 - Project Execution, Tracking, and Changes (Team project)................................65
TPP-2 - Project Post-Mortem Analysis (Team project).................................................71
2 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP)
This course uses a so-called "authentic assessment" instead of a final exam. The purpose of the
authentic assessment is to assess your learning by doing. That is, you will demonstrate project
management by completing a large team project over the course of the semester, including its
project documentation and (in MS Project) its schedule.
The authentic assessment consists of the Integrated Team Project), which in turn is comprised of
multiple parts or deliverables spread out over the course of the semester in the approximate order
they would be done in a real world project. Critical thinking, creativity and problem solving
techniques will be used as the team goes through the project planning and execution exercises.
The authentic assessment (ITP) in total is worth 65% of the overall course grade
equating to 45% as group effort and 20% as individual effort.
ITP Projects: 65. Total
ITP-1 - Project Charter (Word) (Team project) 5.
ITP-2- WBS w/ Durations (Word or Excel or Microsoft
Project MSP - Project is preferred) (Individual project)
10.
ITP-3 - Project Sched w/ Dependency Links (MSP) (Team
project)
10.
ITP-4 - Project Costs and Resources (MSP) (Team
project)
10.
ITP-5- Project Risk Assessment (Table in Word or Excel)
(Individual project)
10.
ITP-6 - Consolidated Project Plan (Word & Excel & MSP)
(Team project)
10
ITP-7 - Project Execution, Tracking, and Changes (MS
Word and MSP)
10.
3 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
In addition, there are two team projects (Team Process Course Completion Plan --
TPP-1 and TPP-2) that are not part of the Authentic Assessment (though they are
graded):
Team Process Plan: 9. Total
TPP-1 - Team Process Plan and Schedule (Word & Excel)
(Team project)
5.
TPP-2 - Project Post-Mortem (Word) (Team project) 4.
Because this course uses an authentic assessment, there is no final exam.
Notes on the Integrated Team Project (ITP)
Overview
Business and IT professionals and/or project managers are involved with the development and
management of a variety of small- and large-scale projects. They are also required to prepare
documentation and guidelines associated with these projects.
There will be a semester-long team project (the Integrated Team Project – the ITP) with multiple
individual and group deliverables due weekly throughout the semester to coincide with the topics
covered in the textbook and weekly Conferences. This assessment will reinforce the lessons
learned from the professional IT project management environment and will use the application tools
employed in that environment, such as Microsoft Project and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, and
PowerPoint). Students are expected to apply critical thinking, creativity, and problem-
solving techniques as the team goes through the project planning and execution exercises.
The purpose of the ITP is to give each classmate the opportunity to apply many of the project-
management techniques to a practical project. This includes both the hard skills of project
management (developing project schedules, using MS Project, etc.) and the soft skills of managing
and participating on a project team.
The course-long ITP project is the hands-on, real-world practical application part of the course. The
experience students gain by accomplishing these weekly assignments is experience that often is
directly applied in the student’s professional life.
Like any good project, our classroom ITP project is too large and too complex for one person (or
even a small team) to do in one week as one assignment. Therefore, the ITP is assigned in smaller,
step-by-step pieces each week of the course. Each piece concentrates on one (or a small number
4 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
of) aspect of project management such as project initiation, project task scheduling, risk
management, and so forth. The resulting "output" of each piece is a class deliverable (and is
submitted for grading as an assignment). The process of producing each deliverable involves one
or more team tasks. The weekly assignments and deliverables are numbered ITP-1 through ITP-7.
The entire project builds to the final Consolidated Project Plan that brings all of the assignments
together so that the student is able to “see” and manage the project as a whole, rather than
individual pieces.
Each project deliverable will be specifically assigned, with a due date, in the weekly
CONTENT area of our LEO Classroom. The full set of requirements and specifics plus the
grading rubrics of each weekly ITP assignment are contained within this document. The
Content area only includes a brief discussion of the assignment.
Note that the technical IT work of the project will not be done in this class, only the project
management planning work. For instance, if the project is to develop a Web site, then we will not
be doing any Web development, but will be developing project management tasks, documents and
deliverables to plan the development of a Web site.
It is a good idea to check ahead weekly for the projects and deliverables due in the next few weeks,
in order to get a feel for what lies ahead. There is a project or deliverable due every week, and
some of them are more extensive and difficult than others. It is a good idea to start the projects a
week or two in advance so that there is plenty of time to work with your team on them.
Team Roles and Interaction
Because it will be difficult to form your own teams online with students scattered around the world,
the instructor will assign students to teams. Each team member is responsible to his/her own
team; the degree of the team’s success is dependent on the efforts contributed by ALL team
members.
The instructor will serve in the roles of client/customer, bill-payer, and executive sponsor for the ITP
project. When decisions need to be made by stakeholders, they must be submitted to the
instructor, who will make the final decision. The buck stops here. The teams will need to work with
the client/customer to define and refine the project requirements.
In order to accomplish any IT project, the project team must include a project manager and other
PM-related roles for managing the IT project. The project team must include IT-related roles such
as software developer, system analyst, network engineer, installer, and so forth. Without these
types of roles, no IT project can succeed.
Our ITP assignments include the fictional work of a real project management team to manage the IT
project given in the scenario. For the ITP assignments, team member Joe might be the network
engineer, team member Jabari might be the software specialist, and team member Corinne might
be the project manager. If there are not enough students on the team, then these fictional roles
may include fictional names to round-out the functional needs of the project team. For example,
your project team might need 12 people to accomplish all of the project effort, but your class team
5 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
only includes 5 members. Those other 7 project team members would be fictional functional
members of the project team. And the ITP fictional team roles would not change from week to
week.
The team areas will include a private discussion area and team lockers to facilite
communications and collaboration while working on assignments. UMUC provides
Google+ tools (such as Google Chat and Hang-Out) that may be used for team exchanges.
Other collaboration tools may be used by the team to hold live meetings and discussions.
Please be aware that if a question arises regarding the timeliness or quality of team members’
contributions, the instructor will ask for evidence of the alleged non-contributing team members
participation and contribution.
As is the case with business organizations in the Twenty-First Century, our class is a GLOBAL
environment. We have students all around the world so the team must work with teammates in
other geographic and time zones. Asynchronous communication is one solution, but the team
should work with EACH member to build communication channels that work for ALL team members.
The instructor will silently monitor the LEO Groups and discussions, and may chime in if necessary
to keep the team on track, answer questions specifically directed to the instructor, or help avoid
problems.
Though we hope to keep the teams as stable as possible, students dropping or adding the course
will affect team membership. Students may be re-assigned to different teams if it is necessary to
re-balance the teams in cases such as these; but we will try not to do this as it is very disruptive for
all members of both groups. These, unfortunately, are all too common real-world experiences.
Team Contribution Assessment and Grading of Team
Assignments
Team effort and member contributions are important in this course. There are TWO
METHODS of reviewing and grading contributing and non-contributing team members
provided below. Your instructor should specify which method will be used. If your
instructor has not done this, please contact him/her and ask which method applies to
this class.
The grades for each deliverable will include components based on: (a) the content and quality of
the documents delivered; (b) the format of the documents (where applicable); and (c) individual
contribution to the work of the team deliverable.
In a well-functioning team where everyone contributes adequately, everyone should earn the same
score. However, the team members MAY end up with different total grades for the project
assignments, since the grade of someone who doesn't contribute substance to the team with the
team’s schedule for the week, for instance, will be lower than the grades of rest of the team.
6 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
In other words, the team deliverable will be graded based on content, quality, and format. This will
establish the "team base score". The individual team members' scores will be adjusted up
or down from the team base score, based on each team member’s level of
contribution to the team and to the work on the deliverable.
Method 1. "Creds" and "360 Degree Assessment" of Team
Member Peers
Your instructor may optionally elect to use a "360 Degree Assessment" of team member peers (AKA
"Creds") in which every team member assesses all his or her team member peers' level of
contribution to the team effort. This section explains how Cred assessment works.
It is important that you read this section because it requires action on every team member's part
every week -- action on your part.
As in many computer games, each team member will get 23 "Creds" per deliverable assignment
to allocate among the other team members in any way desired*. The intent is to allocate
more Creds to team members who contribute more to the team, and allocate fewer Creds to
members who contribute less to the team.
For instance, if desired, you may allocate all of your Creds to a single, deserving person who is
chiefly responsible for the work of the team. Or you may allocate a similar number of Creds to each
team member if all contributed similarly [Note 2]. Or you may hand them out to team members in
any way you wish [Note 1], giving more Creds to members who contributed more, and giving
fewer Creds to members who contributed less. You may hand out zero Creds to a team member if
you feel that he or she has not contributed significantly. It's up to each of you [Note 3] how you
wish [Note 1] to allocate the Creds given to you.
Here are some examples:
7 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
Figure 1 - Creds Examples: How to do it and how NOT to do it
Here is an example spreadsheet that may be helpful to you:
Fill in the yellow cells --> Your name: Reminder: Don't rate yourself
Assignment: (e.g., ITP-4, etc)
Team Member
Contribution
"Creds"
Earned Comments
Grand Total for Team: 0
8 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
0
Remember: Don't
rate yourself
Notes:
[Note 1] -- Well, you may allocate Creds in almost any way you wish: There are four
conditions or caveats:
a) First, Creds cannot be kept for yourself or allocated to yourself. Creds that are
not allocated to others grow moldy and rot and are no good for anything. They count
as zero toward your own grade if kept for yourself. As the fine print on most store
coupons says, they "have no cash value".
b) Second, Creds vaporize before the next assignment, at which time a fresh
allocation of Creds is made for the new assignment. So Creds cannot be stockpiled
for future use.
c) Third, Creds shatter when you try to split them, so please don't use decimals
or fractions of a Cred. Be careful: when they shatter, the explosion might damage
your own score. So make sure to allocate Creds only in whole numbers.
Seriously, it does nobody any good to allocate Creds exactly equally. It turns out that
in the Creds accounting algorithm, that's equivalent to not allocating any Creds at
all. So nobody gets helped by it, nor do you since you only earn a small bonus for
actually allocating Creds. You earn no bonus for failing to allocate Creds.
d) Finally, while it is permitted, there is really no point in allocating any Creds to
someone whose name is omitted from the title page. Those Creds would
simply be wasted and would do nobody any good (or any harm).
On the other hand, you may hand out zero Creds to a team member who is listed on
the title page if you feel that he or she has not contributed significantly. Doing this is
valid, and would indicate your assessment of that team member's level of
contribution without actually going quite so far as "Voting Team Members Off the
Island".
[Note 2] -- But please only allocate Creds similarly if everyone actually contributed
similarly. Some people, out of a misguided sense of parity, attempt to
allocate Creds equally to everyone even when they didn't contribute equally. This
actually hurts people; it does not help (see item (c), above). Like plagiarism, it penalizes
people who knocked themselves out on the project, while providing a bonus to people who
did not contribute. It also wastes your vote; it's essentially a non-vote. In the aggregate, it
hurts all team members, yourself included. So while you are perfectly justified in allocating
similarly if everyone actually contributed similarly, please bite the bullet and take the effort
to assess your peers' level of contribution, and allocate your Creds according to
their actual levels of contribution. And remember to use only whole numbers, not fractions
or decimals (again, see item (c), above).
9 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
[Note 3] -- Also, note that allocation of Creds is not a group decision but is each individual's
assessment of his or her teammates' contribution. Allocation of Creds is not to be discussed
within the team. Like your choices in a voting booth, it is a private decision.
Reminders and Tips
People often have problems in assigning "Creds" to their teammates for their peer review
assessment. So here are some tips and reminders:
 You each get 23 Creds to divide between your team members. That's not 23 credit per
team member to allocate on a scale of 1-23. Rather, that's 23 total to divvy up among your
team members so that when all the Creds you allocated to all of your teammates are added
up they will total to exactly 23, no more, no less.
 Don't allocate any Creds to yourself. They won't "stick". Divvy up the 23 Creds among your
teammates.
 If there are two assignments in a given week (like TPP-1 and ITP-1, then you may
allocate Creds separately for each assignment if your teammates' contributions differed for
each assignment. Alternatively, you may allocate them once for the week and they can be
applied them to both assignments. However, you must tell me which you wish to do. If I
don't see your Creds while I'm grading assignment #1 because you only posted them to
assignment #2, then it will look like you didn't allocate Creds for assignment #1 and you
won't earn the bonus for having assigned your Creds (see below). Therefore, if you want to
do that, it's best to make a copy and post a copy under both assignments. Then there will
be no confusion (and no loss of points).
 Assigning Creds is a personal, individual thing, not a team task. It's like voting for
President. Do it yourself, by yourself; don't let anyone tell you who to vote for or how to
allocate your Creds. Don't tell them how you allocated them, either.
 Don't split Creds. For instance, don't try to allocate 11.5 Creds to someone. Allocate them
only in whole numbers. Give them either 11 or 12, but not 11.5.
 You can't borrow Creds (from either a teammate or from a previous week), and can't carry
over Creds to a future week. It's 23 per week, period.
 Don't tell me, "everyone contributed equally, so please just split them up equally for
me." That doesn't work. Divide them out and allocate them as you wish. I won't do it for
you. And remember not to use fractions.
 Remember that you earn a few points as a bonus for allocating your Creds. In other words, if
you don't allocate your Creds, you won't earn those points.
 Assigning Creds is independent of voting someone off the island (sort of). That is, you can
allocate someone zero creds without voting them off the island. (On the other hand, if you
vote them off, you might as well not assign them any Creds because the Creds you assign
them would be wasted since people voted off earn a score of zero anyway.)
 Everyone should make a submission in your Assignments folder and that submission should
include how you are distributing your Creds.
 Ideally, it's best to just type them into the text area of your Assignments folder
submission. However if necessary you may attach them in a Word doc or a .txt file. But
don't mix them into the team deliverables files.
 While you're at it, please include a note of who your team PM is (for the week).
10 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
 The team's PM (or PM of the week) should also attach the team's deliverables files for the
week in the PM's Assignments folder. (The PM may delegate this posting to someone else,
but should let me know that in the PM's Assignments folder.)
 Everyone else who isn't a PM this week should post only Creds. There is no need to post yet
another copy of the assignment files. It won't really hurt to post duplicate identical copies,
but I'd rather not have to read them all and figure out which one is the "real" one to
grade. (You'd think they'd all be the same, but often they are not.)
-----------------------
Here's how it works:
On or before the assignment due date, every class member (i.e., every team member including the
team PM) will submit in his or her own LEO Assignments folder a text note or attachment that
specifies the way that member wishes to distribute his or her Creds. This would be a list of team
members and the number of Creds allocated to each one. Remember, this is each individual's own
personal assessment of how he or she wishes to distribute his or her own Creds. It is not a team
assessment. The Assignments folder note should also tell who (normally the team leader) is be
submitting the team's deliverable.
In addition, the team leader or designee will submit the team's deliverables in his or her own LEO
Assignments folder.
Finally, the day after the due date (normally Monday), the team PM should also post a copy as a
response/reply in the week's assignment topic in the weekly class discussion Conference.
____________________________________________________________________________
Your instructor may use a more traditional methods of assessment, as follows. Please
clarify with your instructor WHICH method of team member assessment will be used.
Method 2. Omitting a Team Member from the Cover Page
The grades for each deliverable will include components based on: (a) the content and quality of
the documents delivered; (b) the format of the documents (where applicable); and (c) individual
contribution to the work of the team deliverable.
The team is responsible for managing itself. Among other things, this means that the
TEAM determines whose names go on the cover page for each assignment. If one
team member does not participate and/or contribute in a timely manner, the team is EMPOWERED
to omit that name from the deliverable, thereby indicating their joint assessment that the
11 of 73

"Authentic Assessment" Integrated Team Project (ITP) IFSM 438 - Authentic Assessment
omitted team member did not contribute and should not earn a grade on that assignment. In other
words, omitted team members earn a zero on the assignment.
Important note to the team members -- Please do NOT include the names of teammates who
submit nothing to the team’s efforts on the Cover Sheet of team assignments. Some members of
the team might think they are being kind by including names of teammates who did not contribute,
but this is unfair to the teammates who did contribute in a timely manner. There may be situations
when the team agrees to give a teammate a break to deal with a life event, but normally, only
those who contribute should be included for credit, please! If the team agrees to allow one member
a bit of an easy week to deal with a family emergency, that person should willingly contribute twice
as much the following week to EARN the credit for the previous week.
It is VERY important that ONLY students/team members who do contribute quality work in a timely
manner should receive credit for the assignment. If these assignments were individual assignments
and a teammate did not submit, that teammate would not receive a grade. It should be the SAME
in these team efforts. This is a very real-world experience, as not all members of our teams are
willing to fulfill their agreements and/or responsibilities.
Here's how that works: I will expect members of the team to notify any and all omitted
teammates (with a copy to me), informing the omitted persons that they will not be
included on the deliverable assignment. The omitted persons can protest to me, with a copy
to ALL teammates. My final determination will be based on the activity in the LEO GROUP
area and any evidence that the omitted student provides that he/she did, in fact, contribute on
time (based on the team’s weekly schedule) and the contribution met the requirements as set forth
by the team.
Each assignment is new and fresh and is assessed "de novo". Omitting a team member's name
holds for only one assignment at a time, not for the entire semester. So team members who
contribute to the next assignment are automatically reinstated and earn a grade – unless they are
also omitted from that following assignment's title page. However, it must be re-assessed
separately for each assignment.
How this generally works out in practice … and its impact
How this generally works out in practice is that if someone isn't contributing, then the rest of
the team needs to step up team efforts to fill in and complete the work. If team members do not,
then it would be an incomplete assignment that is submitted, and it would earn a low team grade.
In other words, everyone would be penalized. However, if the teammates fill in and complete the
work, then the team will earn a higher team base score because the assignment is complete. In
that case, only the team members who didn't contribute would be penalized.
It also requires that you be honest about assessing contribution
Submission of the Project Deliverables for Grading
First, the LEO Group is for your use in the team and not for submitting assignments for
grading. Team members should use the Group area to work on documents together. That is,
you can post them and can each edit them and re-post. LEO's Help guide should have details
on how to use Groups.
12 of 73