Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment

School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University

IN-COURSE ASSESSMENT (ICA) SPECIFICATION

Module Title: Module Leader: Dr Vladimir Vukovic

Advanced Project Planning and Visualisation
Module Code: CEN4009-N

Assignment Title: Deadline Date: 12th April 2023

APPV Assignment
Deadline Time: 11:59pm

Submission Method:
Online (Blackboard) 
Middlesbrough Tower 

Online Submission Notes:

 Please follow carefully the instructions given on the Assignment Specification
 When Extenuating Circumstances (e.g. extension) has been granted, a fully completed
and signed Extenuating Circumstances form must be submitted to the School Reception
or emailed to [email protected].

Central Assignments Office (Middlesbrough Tower M2.08) Notes:

 All work (including DVDs etc) needs to be secured in a plastic envelope or a folder and
clearly marked with the student name, number and module title.
 An Assignment Front Sheet should be fully completed before the work is submitted.
 When Extenuating Circumstances (e.g. extension) has been granted, a fully completed
and signed Extenuating Circumstances form must be submitted to the School Reception
or emailed to [email protected].

FULL DETAILS OF THE ASSIGNMENT ARE ATTACHED

INCLUDING MARKING & GRADING CRITERIA

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Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment
School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University

Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation

Assignment

Submission deadline 12th April 2023, midnight

Your submission (including the front page and references) should not be
longer than 10 pages A4. You must adhere strictly to this page limit.
Writing beyond the specified page limit will be ignored.

You should not use font size smaller than 11, line spacing smaller than 1,
nor margins smaller than 2cm.

Marks will be awarded based on the following criteria:

 Your understanding of the main themes of the lectures.
 Evidence that you have read additional material and refer (using
references) to the contributions from relevant authors in the field.
 Clear structure and presentation of the software (MS-Project,
Synchro Pro) outputs and their analysis.

Report Submission
 You should submit on the Blackboard, No extension is given
 Report should be submitted in a single .doc or .docx format file; pdf,
.xls or other format is not accepted.
 File name of the submission document should include your first and
last names
 All output from used software (MS Project, Synchro Pro) should be
exported to your assignment document. No Excel, Project or
Synchro files are accepted.

The Assignment is worth 100% of the module. Each part of this

assignment is worth 25% of the module.

PART 1 (25% of the assignment)

There is an increasing demand in the international market for high quality project
managers to run multinational and multi-sites projects. As a Project Manager you have
been given the task by an international company to identify qualities and attributes of
project managers with emphasis on project planning and project organisation domain.

You need to include the following, backed-up with journals, books and references:

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Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment
School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University

1. Communications, with emphasis on a project manager working remotely with

project team members. (9% of the assignment)
2. Managing multi-cultural project stakeholders. (8% of the assignment)
3. Develop scenarios where a project manager has to cope with pressures from
stakeholders with respect to cost and time overruns and outline how advanced
planning and scheduling technique can help overcome these issues. (8% of the
assignment)

Part 2 (25% of the assignment)

Augmented/Virtual/Mixed/Extended Reality

Discuss and analyse the practicality of AR/VR/MR/XR application in the industrial

sector in which you have experience. Provide outline analysis of value and constraints
of applying the approach. Use the following papers as example references for your
bibliography (1000 words). You need to build a bibliography of at least 20 recent
(within the last 5 years) references from a range of sources.

Dudhee, V. and Vukovic, V. (2021), "Building information model visualisation in

augmented reality", Smart and Sustainable Built Environment, Vol. ahead-of-print No.
ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/SASBE-02-2021-0021

Alizadehsalehi, S., Hadavi, A., Huang, J. C. (2020), “From BIM to extended reality in
AEC industry”, Automation in Construction, Vol. 116, No.103254, ISSN 0926-5805,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103254

PART 3 (25% of the assignment)

A Teesside PLC has won a contract to work on a major Project to start on 1 st

December 2023. As a Project Manager you need to develop and analyse the planning
schedule for this project using MS-Project. Your project team has identified major
activities of the project, their dependency and resources needed to run each activity
(see Appendix 1).

Appendix 1 provides information about the project, which includes project logic
(activity links and their relationship – finish to start (FS), start to start (SS), and start to
finish (SF), activity durations, resource allocation and work breakdown structure
(WBS).

You have been asked to perform the following planning and scheduling processes
using Microsoft Project 2012 or later version.

A: CPM & WBS (10% of the assignment)

1. Draw a Gantt-Chart and CPM network for the project. Calculate early start (ES),
early finish (EF), late start (LS), late finish (LF) and total float (TF) based on As
Soon as Possible (ASAP) method and identify critical path.

2. Draw WBS for the project (must include Level 1, Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4) and
discuss the importance of WBS as a Project Management tool.

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Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment
School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University

3. Explain why identification of the critical path is important? Also comment on the
changes to the Critical Path, if the project is developed using As Late as Possible
(ALAP) method.

B: Resource Planning (10% of the assignment)

1. Produce and draw smoothed resource histograms for the skilled labour resources
used in the project. Critically assess the output identifying the maximum units of
each resource required for this project.

2. Carry-out resource levelling for Unskilled resource only (do not use automatic
resource levelling) and discuss how activities might be delayed beyond the latest
start time (LST) to cater for the limits on Unskilled resources as a result of levelling.
Consider resource pool for unskilled resources as 7 units per day.

3. Explain and discuss the process of resource levelling.

C: Cost Analysis (5% of the assignment)

1. Calculate the cost of each activity in the project (level 3). Consider the standard
cost of a skilled labour as £20/hr, unskilled labour as £10/hr and equipment as
£50/hr.

2. Produce cumulative cost-time curve for the project.

Note:
 Start the project on 1st December 2023.
 Use default UK working calendar (i.e. Saturdays and Sundays are non-working
days, 8 working hours in a day, bank holidays should be considered as non-
working days)
 Use resource unit as decimal.
 Use fixed duration and set unit as days.
 Clearly identify each part of the answers to the questions.
 Use header and footer to clearly indicate what the chart or graph is showing.

PART 4 (25% of the assignment)

4D Planning

1. Use Synchro Pro software and link the Building Project planning data with the
given 3D CAD Building Model. Use both Assignment2.1.xml and
Assignment2.2.xml with Assignment2.dxf. You will have two different models to
review. Identify issues and conflicts with the proposed plans and changes. You
should provide the pictures of the visualisation on your assignment. Briefly discuss
the linking procedure carried out. (13% of the assignment).

2. Define 4D planning. Discuss the purpose and benefits of 4D systems as a Project

Management tool in an Engineering industry (12% of the assignment)

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Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment
School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University

Appendix 1 Details of activities, relationships & resources for the Project

Work Activity (Level 4) Immediate Type of Lag Duration Equipment Skilled Unskilled
Level 1 Packages Description Predecessors Relationshi (Days) (Days) / day Worker / day Worker / day
(Level 2) (Level 3) p (numbers) (numbers) (numbers)
            + -        
Project Start - - - FS - - 0 - - -
A1 - Project Start FS - - 10 3 2 3
P A2 - A1 FS - - 9 2 2 3
R A3 A2
O - FS -
3 23 1 1 4
J A4a A3
E FS - 8
C A4 13 1 2 2
T A4b A4a
FS 1 -
Activity A 7 3 3 3
X A5a A4b FS - - 24 1 3 3
A5
A5b A5a FS - 1 5 1 2 2
Project
Start date A6a A5b FS - - 15 2 3 3
01/12/2023 A6
A6b A6a FS 5 - 6 2 3 3
A7a A6b FS - - 20 2 3 3
A7
A7b A7a FS 3 - 17 2 1 1
B1a B1b
FS 6 -
17 4 1 1
B1b A7b FS - -
Activity B B1 11 2 1 1
B1c B4a FS
- -

B4b FS
- -
23 2 - 2
B2 B2b FS - - 28 3 2 2

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Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment
School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University

Work Activity (Level 4) Immediate Type of Lag Duration Equipment Skilled Unskilled
Level 1 Packages Description Predecessors Relationshi (Days) (Days) / day Worker / day Worker / day
(Level 2) (Level 3) p (numbers) (numbers) (numbers)
B2a B1a
FS - 4

B2b B1b FS - - 21 1 1 2
B2c B1c
FS - -
16 3 - 3
B3a B3b FS - -
B2a
FS 2 -
B3 12 3 4 1
B3b B2b FS - - 13 3 3 3
P B3c B2c FS 2 - 19 3 - 3
R
B4a B4b FS - -
O
J B3a FS - - 37 3 3 3
E B4 B4b B3b
FS - -
C 12 3 3 3
T B4c B3c FS - - 15 3 - 3
Activity B
Project B4c
X - - FS 6
Completion 0 - - -

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Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment
School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University
Assessment criteria

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Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment
School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University

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Advanced Project Planning & Visualisation Assignment
School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies, Teesside University
Learning outcomes

This assignment contributes to the following learning outcomes:

Research, Knowledge and Cognitive Skills 
1. Systematically acquire a comprehensive and critical understanding of project management principles, project models and planning. 
2. Interpret knowledge of current planning practice and demonstrate originality in the knowledge together within visualisation understanding of
how planning techniques are used to interpret the engineering projects. 
3. Evaluate commercial risks through understanding of the basis of planning risk including multi constraint techniques.
4. Integrate and synthesise the theory and practice to resolve the planning conflicts in engineering projects.
5. Make logical and argued conclusions on 4D visualisation and project costs.  

Professional Skills 
6 . Synthesise complex customer and user needs and ensure fitness for purpose by demonstrating technical calculation skills on engineering
project cost, logical visualisation and propose collective suggestion. 
7. Act autonomously in planning, implementing and evaluating outcomes on the engineering project planning and visualisation. 

Personal and Transferable Skills 

8. Communicate complex academic and professional issues clearly to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
9. Collaborate and show effectiveness in use of IT skills that are commensurate with the demands of engineering projects.

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