BPP Business School Coursework Cover Sheet

Please use this document as the cover sheet of for the 1^st page of your assessment. Please complete the below table – the grey columns

 MSc Management with Project Management

 Advanced Project Management

 Coursework Assessment Brief

 CW4

1. General Assessment Guidance

• Your summative assessment for this module is made up of this final submission which accounts for 100% of the marks.
  • Please note late submissions will not be marked.
• You are required to submit all elements of your assessment in MS Word format, via Turnitin online access. 
• Only submissions made via the specified mode will be accepted and hard copies or any other digital form of submissions (like via email or pen drive etc.) will not be accepted.
• For coursework, the submission word limit is a maximum of 5000 words. You must comply with the word count guidelines. You may submit LESS than 5000 words but not more. 
• Word Count guidelines can be found on your programme home page and the coursework submission page.
• Do not put your name or contact details anywhere on your submission. You should only put your student registration number (SRN) which will ensure your submission is recognised in the marking process.
• A total of 100 marks are available for this module assessment, and you are required to achieve minimum 50% to pass this module.
• You are required to use only Harvard Referencing System in your submission. Any content which is already published by other author(s) and is not referenced will be considered as a case of plagiarism.

You can find further information on Harvard Referencing in the online library on the VLE. You can use the following link to access this information: http://bpp.libguides.com/Home/StudySupport 

• BPP University has a strict policy regarding authenticity of assessments. In proven instances of plagiarism or collusion, severe punishment will be imposed on offenders.
•  You are advised to read the rules and regulations regarding plagiarism and collusion in the GARs and MOPP which are available on VLE in the Academic registry section.
• You should include a completed copy of the Assignment Cover sheet. Any submission without this completed Assignment Cover sheet may be considered invalid and not marked.

2. Assessment Brief CASE STUDY

You are required to choose one of the following two scenarios to use as the case study for your assessment:

Scenario 1 – TREN MAYA: A “megaproject of hope” for Mexico’s southeast 

Image source: APM Journal ‘Project’ Summer 2024 https://www.apm.org.uk/v2/media/2r4p3xyy/apm-project-summer-24- compressed.pdf (p37) Accessed 26/06/2024

As HS2 was meant to do for England’s north, Mexico’s massive Tren Maya megaproject – a new

1,500km rail line through five states in Mexico’s southeast, with a budget of $28bn – is designed to boost a long-neglected region. Unlike HS2, Tren Maya benefits from unambiguous government commitment.

Tren Maya is a flagship pet project of ‘AMLO’, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico’s president, who is standing down at the coming June elections. Described as the “megaproject of hope”, Tren Maya was launched in 2018 as part of Mexico’s National Development Plan, and in line with AMLO’s motto: “For the benefit of all, the poor come first.”

While it is intended to serve tourism, the region’s biggest industry (centred around Cancún and the Caribbean coast on the Yucatán Peninsula), the plan is that it be more than just a railway and open up other opportunities for economic, commercial and social development. It will also move freight and give affordable transport to local inhabitants who are currently poorly served.

Despite predictions of a 15 year building time, it has taken just five years to get to its current stage

Unlike HS2, Tren Maya has progressed with impressive speed. Despite predictions of a 15 year building time, it has taken just five years to get to its current stage, with the first section (from Campeche to Cancún) inaugurated in December 2023 and the rest, optimistically announced for February 2024, expected before the end of the year.

Tren Maya is, however, deeply controversial. It has been dubbed the “megaproject of death” by some for the environmental damage construction has caused in rainforests and its potential to damage the region’s unique and fragile underground caves, aquifers and archaeological sites. Others say the project has been forced through without proper environmental impact assessments or consultation with local inhabitants.

It is a measure of the Mexican government’s commitment to and control of Tren Maya that the overall oversight, as well as part of the construction, rests with SEDENA, Mexico’s Ministry of

Defence. Consequently, even though numerous private companies are involved in building the seven sections of Tren Maya, Project’s many attempts to speak with the project professionals involved were fruitless.

Military involvement

The military’s involvement has also provoked controversy, especially considering its historic role in repressing Mexico’s population. Étienne von Bertrab, a Mexican born lecturer in development and planning at University College London, and the coordinator of a book on Tren Maya, points out that it is part of a trend of redirecting the military towards civic purposes, including operation of airports and ports, where corruption has often flourished. Military involvement, he argues, also boosts security for the project against criminal groups, and keeps the military boot. The military, he points out, has successfully delivered other projects, such as an airport in Mexico City. “They are very efficient and vertical in their approach.” Furthermore, Bertrab argues that giving SEDENA a stake in Tren Maya will act as a bulwark against privatisation of the new railway, which reintroduces

passenger services to a country where, in the 1990s, the country’s 23,000km long publicly owned rail network was privatised, seeing passenger trains disappear in favour of freight. Down the line, the hope is that Tren Maya will connect with the existing network, reviving a state-owned passenger network throughout Mexico as contracts expire. As for the environmental concerns, Bertrab acknowledges they are genuine. However, he also points out that, during construction, routes have been altered and tracks built on elevated platforms to mitigate damage to environmental and archaeological sites, and the project has also included the creation of ecological reserves and more than 400 passages for wildlife.

Out of poverty

Other benefits have included the creation of jobs and a rail industry building trains in the region. The UN Development Programme has estimated it will help lift many out of poverty in the region. Tren Maya is indeed more than just a train – the project also includes housing, urban renewal and infrastructure provision in many neglected cities and towns along the route, as well as affordable transport provision where there previously was little or none. Whether Tren Maya will achieve its promised benefits remains to be seen – but as a transformative rail project for a region that has seen the light of day in prompt time, its contrast with HS2 is marked.

Source: Heine, C. 2024. Global lessons: how Mexico and New Zealand are taking on their own ‘HS2’ megaprojects. APM Journal ‘Project’ Summer 2024 Edition (pp36-37). Available at: https://www.apm.org.uk/v2/media/2r4p3xyy/apm-project-summer-24-compressed.pdf [Accessed 26/06/2024]

Additional resources for background information about the project:

• Al Jazeera, 2023. Mexico’s Maya train: Rail project completed ahead of schedule. [online video] Available at:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl2aA2E6grQ [Accessed 26/06/2024]
• BBC, 2024. The Train Maya: Mexico’s ambitious new tourism megaproject. [online] Available at:https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240102-the-train-maya-mexicos-ambitious-new- tourism-megaproject [Accessed 26/06/2024]
• The Guardian, 2023. Mexico’s Maya Train pulls in ahead of schedule but with a host of questions. [online]. Available at:https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/dec/15/mexico- maya-train-yucatan-cancun-environment [Accessed 26/06/2024]

**Please do your own further research on the Tren Maya project if you choose Scenario 1**

OR you may choose:

Scenario 2 – Your own choice of organisation and project

Choose a real-life organisation and project of your choice that is known to you, it may be from any industry or sector, located in any country.

The company you choose should have a website or published reports and / or articles that you can use as reference material.

In the first task give a brief overview of the case study project and organisation you have selected.

You may want to consider projects listed in the World Bank Group Project List where you can search for a case study project by country or sector or theme. Available at: https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/projects-list?os=0 [Accessed 28/06/2024]

PROJECT CONSULTANCY REPORT

The required submission for this assignment is a 5000 word “Project Consultancy Report”. In the role of a Project Consultant, you have been tasked by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to develop a consultancy report for your selected case study organisation by leveraging on the techniques and concepts you have covered in the module, drawing on relevant frameworks or theories and wider research to address four key tasks, aligned to the four Module Learning Outcomes.

The Module Learning Outcomes required to successfully pass this assessment are:

LO1 - Critically evaluate the organisational attributes that are integral to the success of a project within an organisational context.

LO2 - Critically evaluate how organisations select projects from numerous opportunities using best practices in a global setting.

LO3 - Develop the skills required for building and leading successful project teams within

 a project management environment.

LO4 - Critically appraise techniques in Project Planning and Scheduling and how these apply within a project environment.

Your Project Consultancy Report should contain the following:

Task 1 (LO1) - The organisational context (1250 words)

• Critically evaluate how organisational attributes such as organisational strategy, structure, culture and governance influence project success within an organisational context. (See Section

1. Assessment Guidelines for guidance on how to approach the task).

Task 2 (LO2) - Project selection best practice (1250 words)

• Critically evaluate how organisations select projects using best practices in a global setting and discuss how organisations determine which is the best approach for their context. (See Assessment Guidelines for further guidance).

Task 3 (LO3) - Building and leading successful project teams (1250 words)

• Critically discuss key factors in leadership and teamwork that influence project success and describe how the case study project manager could adapt their style of leadership to enhance the success of the project team. (See Assessment Guidelines for further guidance).

Task 4 (LO4) - Project planning and scheduling techniques (1250 words)

• Critically appraise techniques in project planning and scheduling and discuss how these apply within different project environments. 
• Make recommendations for techniques you would recommend for the case study project. (See Assessment Guidelines for further guidance).

Presentation, Research & Referencing

Support your report throughout with reference to the academic literature and application to the case study, showing evidence of independent reading and research.

 Sources should be correctly cited, with complete references using Harvard referencing standard. Formatting and presentation should be professional throughout.

The report must be in clear font (e.g., Arial/Calibri point size 11) with consistent format styles, and page numbers.  Line spacing should be 1.5.

This document must be uploaded to Turnitin in Word.doc format and not in pdf format. Maximum word count: 5000 words (Summative)

Your report structure should include the following sections:

Cover page (BPP University cover sheet)

Table of Contents Suggested word count:

Task 1 - The organisational context 1250 words

Task 2 - Project selection best practice 1250 words

Task 3 - Building and leading successful project teams 1250 words

Task 4 - Project planning and scheduling techniques 1250 words

References

Appendix (if appropriate)

Word count – only applies to the main body (shown in bold); i.e., cover page, table of content, list of abbreviations, references and appendix are not part of the 5000-word count.

If you have any further questions about this coursework assignment, please contact the module leader or the tutor.

3. Assessment Guidelines