T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

Hi Richard,

Your marks are contained in the PT3 form which is a file returned with your TMA. The PT3 form also
contains other information that will help you in future TMAs and, hopefully, improve your marks.

My feedback on your answers to the TMA questions is below. Please read my comments carefully.
My comments are highlighted in blue text. Any grammar, spelling, punctuation, typos,
sentence/phrase improvement opportunities, etc are highlighted in yellow followed by my blue text
with an explanation. If I have highlighted your text in green like this, then my following comment in
blue text is referring to your green highlighted text. Just in case you can’t see the colours, I also
enclose my comments with curly brackets { } so you can search for the curly brackets. Please let me
know if the colours are not visible and I’ll choose a different method.

Any lost marks for the main questions are indicated with a negative value in square brackets. For
example, [-1]. However, it may not always be possible to indicate lost marks for presentation and
style issues.

Please contact me if there is anything I can clarify.

Regards

Kawal

Kawal Banga
Kawal.Banga@open.ac.uk
+44 (0)1908 655000 ext 85516

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T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

Contents
Question 1………………………………………………………………P2

Question 2………………………………………………………………P3-4

Question 3………………………………………………………………P5-6

Question 4………………………………………………………………P7

Question 5………………………………………………………………P

Question 6………………………………………………………………P

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T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

1a)

My workplace is a private school based in Sussex and my project proposal is to introduce a new HR
module to our current database. The purpose of the project is to enable ease of access to staff
information and better governance of the data kept within. The benefits that this will deliver will be
that we can track our information better and adhere to the GDPR compliance procedures regarding
private data, eradicating the need for paper records and be able to access data as needed should the
HR manager be unavailable.

{You had a good concise summary including the workplace context, the project proposal, the
purpose of the project and the benefits.}

b) WBS for Implementation of HR module

{Good WBS}

{The Network diagram, Gantt chart and commitment matrix are missing. [-12]}

{8 out of 20}

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T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

2a) ICT is to be heavily used for communications during this project. We will ensure that all
discussions regarding the project between teams is followed up by email and the project manager
cc’d in to ensure that we are on track with agreed activities. This covers off both the Social and
Technological aspects of STEEPLE as in pertains to communication between people via electronic
means. ICT is the main driver of change in this project as the new module requires a significant
upgrade to our hardware which again fits into the Technological aspect of STEEPLE. It is also the
main solution to the difficulty of becoming GDPR compliant as the new module enable us to have
documented governance of the data which falls under the Legal and Political aspects of STEEPLE. ICT
will also be used heavily to research the costs associated with the hardware upgrades and negotiate
quotes from suppliers which fits squarely in the Economic area of STEEPLE {full stop missing}

{Very good demonstration of the use/impact of IT across the four roles on your proposed project.}

2b)

i) Table for Question 2

Colleague title Top tip for presentations

Network and IT manager
Headmaster
Finance Manager
Network and IT manager
Make sure you aim the presentation at the level of
those attending. Explain technical jargon to those who
may not know
Ensure that you let colleagues know when something
will be in their area of expertise and involve them if
possible.
Keep it short and to the point avoid “waffle” and
practice before you present. “There is nothing worse
than someone fumbling through a presentation to make
people lose interest”
Make sure you give people an opportunity to ask
questions and maybe think about possible questions
beforehand and have an idea of how you may answer
the concerns. Keep this open ended rather than closed
i.e. “Does anyone have any questions?” say “What
questions or concerns do you have?”

{Very good varied selection of colleagues/people and 4 good points}

ii) The WBS seems like the best fit to be converted into a slide due to it’s concise but
understandable nature (it is basically already bullet pointed). It is easy to explain to
everyone what the process will be and what their remit will be, it doesn’t involve too
much jargon, is basically already bullet pointed and each step can open up to questions
from the person whose area of expertise is required.
{Good choice, but then it’s the only diagram you produced!}

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T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

iii) Text for slide :

- Font to be used is Arial size 42 for the title and 32 for the bullet points for ease of reading.

{good}

{16 out of 16}

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T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

3a) The project duration will be 3 months and total estimated costs (with added cost of man hours)
will be £97,000

b) Table 3.8 Project budget estimate

Cost category Notes Project requirements

Hardware Existing (in-house), bought or leased? New hardware – 100 base units @ av
If existing internally, what charge would be unit
likely? Existing peripherals are sufficient and
Maintenance agreement needed? (monitors, mice, monitors etc)

Software Number of licences required HR Pro initial cost - £15,000

Project staff Recruitment costs if new
Staff costs – make sensible estimates of the
rates that could be charged by your
organisation (include on-costs and overheads);
staff may need to be seconded from other
departments
Overtime working?
Yearly licence (multi user) £10,000
Staff members (existing) Per diem co
@ £150 per day (secondment cost)
Staff days estimates over project run
IT Team – 60 days (2 staff members)
Data Team – 30 days
HR Team – 10 days

The three greatest costs to the project are Hardware, Software and Staff costs.

{Good, but your table is truncated to the right. You needed to turn this page to landscape of reduce
table width. }

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T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

c) I could use a project schedule to outline the project timelines this would allow me to identify and
address potential issues and track progress against targets.

Secondly to tie in with this we will hold regular review meetings to talk through where we are with
the project milestones and find out about any potential issues ahead of time allowing us to see if
there is anything we could put in place to allay the issue. Lastly we will use a central project
dashboard to identify areas of concern outside of review meetings and then take corrective action if
possible potentially using some contingency budget to bring things back up to speed.

{good.}

{This question was about artefacts/activities for monitoring project progress, as discussed in section
6.4 of the predictive and adaptive study guides, as explained in the additional advice and guidance
for this question. Section 6.4 highlighted the following artefacts/activities (but there may be others
too): Gantt chart, network diagram, [earned value analysis (EVA)], team review meeting, progress
report, project progress against plan for expenditure/cost.}

d.)

{You didn’t answer this Q.}

{12 out of 16}

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T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

4) The old way of writing school reports is time-consuming and often lacks personalized feedback to
students. The reports are also sometimes difficult for parents to understand, resulting in
misinterpretation and confusion and thus creating more work post report cycles.

I chose the Brainstorming as our problem-solving approach because it promotes creativity,

encourages participation from those who actually complete the reports which gives them ownership
of how things will be done, and generates a large pool of ideas in a short amount of time.

I conducted a brainstorming session with the school staff {who (roles) and how many? [-1]} to come
up with a new way to write school reports. I started by asking questions to understand the problem
and set clear goals for the session. Then, I provided a platform for everyone to share their ideas and
suggestions using satellite group discussions. We wrote down ideas and grouped similar ideas
together to create a “unified thought pool”.

During the session, we identified potential challenges and limitations that we might face while
implementing the new approach due to the limitations of the systems we use. We adapted some
ideas to address these challenges and ensured that the new approach aligned with the school's
values and curriculum.

At the end of the brainstorming session, we had generated numerous excellent ideas, ranging from
using technology to personalize feedback to adopting a student-led approach to report writing
where students could also feedback on how they thought they were doing. We evaluated the ideas
based on their feasibility, impact, and alignment with the school's values.

The outcome of the brainstorming was a new way of writing reports that involved personalized
feedback to students, clear and concise language for parents, and streamlined process that saved
time for teachers. The new approach was well-received by the school community and resulted in
positive feedback from parents and students.

(304 words)

{Very good.}

{11 out of 16}

5)

{You didn’t answer this Q. [-16]}

{0 out of 16}

{Q6) You didn’t answer this Q. [-2]}

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T227-22J – TMA-01 Richard Shepherd (E8948314)

{Presentation}

{No references.}
{The assessment guide states that “Your list of references at the end of each TMA and at the
end of the EMA therefore should include at least one reference to the module materials
PLUS at least one other reference.”. [-2]}

{Not Indicating word count}

{You need to indicate word-counts for each part of a question for ALL questions. [-1]}

{Apart from truncated table, very good presentation.}

{Note that if there is no referencing at all, the presentation and style mark is capped at 11-
14. So please meet the referencing requirements in the EMA to avoid losing so many marks
due to lack of references.}

{14 out of 20}