Labs¶
Labs are where this course becomes practical. Each lab has you produce a real project management artefact — or a real calculation — and then mark your own work against stated criteria.
Reading about a charter teaches you the vocabulary. Writing one teaches you the discipline.
Why labs matter¶
Project management is a practice, not a body of facts. You can memorise the parts of a risk register and still produce a useless one. The labs force the decisions — what to include, what to leave out, how to justify the boundary, which number to trust — that are the actual skill.
Labs also put you in a role. You are rarely the person with complete information, and often the person who must say something unwelcome to someone senior. That is what the work is like.
The lab programme¶
25 labs, in three levels, each tied to a course module and to a scenario from the example-project library.
| Level | Labs | What you do |
|---|---|---|
| Beginner | 01–06 | Produce the artefacts that define a project: charter, stakeholder map, vision, constraints, register, scope statement |
| Intermediate | 07–15 | Plan it: WBS, schedule, dependencies, Gantt chart, risk register, communication plan, estimate, backlog, sprint |
| Advanced | 16–25 | Control and defend it: compression trade-offs, risk responses, earned value, change evaluation, quality cost, resource conflicts, monitoring, agile-versus-predictive, distributed teams, recovery |
Labs are cumulative within a scenario where the numbering says so. Labs 08, 09, and 10 build one schedule together: Lab 08 establishes activities and capacity, Lab 09 the dependency logic, Lab 10 the critical path and Gantt chart. If you skip one, the next will not make sense.
How to work a lab¶
- Read the objectives and the scenario, including the project information and assumptions.
- Do the tasks — including the calculations — and produce the deliverable.
- Run the self-check criteria honestly. They are written so a third party could judge them.
- Only then compare your work with the answer key.
- Keep the artefact: several labs feed the capstone.
Every lab uses the same structure:
| Section | Purpose |
|---|---|
| At a glance | Modules, level, estimated time, deliverable, template, answer key |
| Learning objectives | What you should be able to do afterwards |
| Scenario | The project you are working on |
| Your role | Who you are, and what you are accountable for |
| Project information and assumptions | The facts you are given — nothing important is hidden |
| Tasks | Step-by-step instructions, including calculations |
| Deliverable | Exactly what to hand in |
| Hints and guidance | How to avoid the common mistakes |
| Self-check criteria | How to mark your own work |
| Reflection | Questions to consolidate the learning |
| Extension challenge | A harder variant for when the lab is finished |
Available labs¶
Beginner¶
| Lab | Module(s) | Scenario | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 — Writing a Project Charter | 01–02 | Campus Event Portal | Project charter |
| 02 — Identifying and Classifying Stakeholders | 02 | Complaint Management System | Stakeholder map and stances |
| 03 — Defining a Project Vision | 01–02 | University LMS | Vision, success criteria, exclusions |
| 04 — Identifying Project Constraints and Assumptions | 02 | Mobile Banking Application | Constraint register and assumptions log |
| 05 — Creating a Stakeholder Register | 02, 10 | Hospital Appointment Portal | Stakeholder register and engagement levels |
| 06 — Developing a Scope Statement | 05 | E-Commerce Platform | Scope statement and acceptance criteria |
Intermediate¶
| Lab | Module(s) | Scenario | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 07 — Creating a Work Breakdown Structure | 05 | Inventory & Supply Chain | Three-level WBS and work packages |
| 08 — Building a Project Schedule | 06 | Admission Management System | Activities, durations, capacity, calendar |
| 09 — Identifying Dependencies and Building a Network Diagram | 06 | Admission Management System | Classified dependency table and network |
| 10 — Creating a Gantt Chart with the Critical Path | 06 | Admission Management System | Passes, float, critical path, Gantt chart |
| 11 — Developing a Risk Register | 08 | Hospital Appointment Portal | Risk register with responses and residuals |
| 12 — Preparing a Communication Plan | 10 | Complaint Management System | Communication plan and cost calculation |
| 13 — Estimating Effort and Cost | 07 | University LMS | Budget with ranges and derived contingency |
| 14 — Creating a Scrum Product Backlog | 04 | E-Commerce Platform | Ordered backlog and release forecast |
| 15 — Running Sprint Planning | 04 | E-Commerce Platform | Sprint goal, task breakdown, definition of done |
Advanced¶
| Lab | Module(s) | Scenario | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|---|
| 16 — Schedule Compression Trade-offs | 06 | Mobile Banking Application | Crash analysis and recommendation |
| 17 — Risk Response Strategies and Contingency | 08 | Inventory & Supply Chain | Residual exposure and contingency figure |
| 18 — Earned Value Management Calculations | 11 | Analytics Dashboard | Two periods of EVM and a forecast |
| 19 — Evaluating a Change Request | 11, 03 | University LMS | Impact analysis and decision options |
| 20 — Quality Planning and the Cost of Quality | 09 | Mobile Banking Application | Quality plan and cost-of-quality decision |
| 21 — Resource Allocation Conflicts | 10 | Hospital Appointment Portal | Over-allocation analysis and resolution |
| 22 — Monitoring and Corrective Action | 11 | Complaint Management System | Trend analysis and corrective actions |
| 23 — Agile versus Predictive Planning | 04, 03 | E-Commerce Platform | Comparison and decision memo |
| 24 — Managing a Distributed Team | 12 | Admission Management System | Working agreement and coordination cost |
| 25 — Project Recovery Scenario | 12, 13 | Analytics Dashboard | Recovery assessment and re-baselined plan |
Answer keys, and what they are not¶
Numerical solutions and model answers are collected in the instructor section:
| Answer key | Covers |
|---|---|
| Beginner labs answer key | Labs 01–06 |
| Intermediate labs answer key | Labs 07–15 |
| Advanced labs answer key | Labs 16–25 |
A necessary caveat. This is a public repository. Anything published here, including these answer keys, is available to anyone — so they are not secret, and no assessment can depend on them being withheld. Treat them as a reference for self-study: attempt the lab independently first, mark your own work against the self-check criteria, and only then read the key to see where your reasoning differed. An instructor using these labs for graded work must write their own variant problems.
Labs whose deliverables are judgement-based — stakeholder maps, working agreements, recovery recommendations — have model answers, not correct answers. More than one defensible answer exists, and the keys say so.
Scenarios used¶
| Scenario | Labs |
|---|---|
| Campus Event Portal | 01 |
| University LMS | 03, 13, 19 |
| Mobile Banking Application | 04, 16, 20 |
| Hospital Appointment Portal | 05, 11, 21 |
| E-Commerce Platform | 06, 14, 15, 23 |
| Inventory & Supply Chain | 07, 17 |
| Admission Management System | 08, 09, 10, 24 |
| Complaint Management System | 02, 12, 22 |
| Analytics Dashboard | 18, 25 |
All nine scenarios are described in the example-project library. They are illustrative, not records of real projects, and every figure in every lab is labelled as invented for teaching.
Templates you will need¶
Many labs use the Templates section. Copy the template and fill it in — do not start from a blank page.