Assessment Details
Module Learning Outcomes (MLOs) Assessed by Coursework
Distinguish the economic perceptions of business organisations as clients/sponsors, professional advisors (independent practice), and contracting organizations.
Reconcile the different economic perspectives relevant to demand, supply, costs and revenues and the operation of markets.
Articulate a broad awareness of economics and project economics nomenclature.
Develop your skills in recommending appropriate strategies for effective financial control in competition
/ collaboration; public/private sector interactions, and in the interpretation of economic data for resource forecasting.
Develop and reinforce the ethical characteristics of a Northumbria graduate as you consider the values that underpin ethical approaches to project feasibility and justification.
Coursework Overview Part I
Over the 12 weeks of lectures and seminars, you will learn about a range of concepts, techniques and methods for performing project appraisal and feasibility studies (Table 1). These will cover the whole project lifecycle from the Concept phase through Development to Operation and Termination (see Figure 1). These concepts, techniques and methods will help you understand: (1) the different facets of feasibility including financial, economic, environmental, and social feasibility; (2) the different economic environments surrounding projects including, macro and micro environments, and regulatory/legal environments; and finally (3) stakeholder environments including the Sponsor, Professional, and Contracting environments. You will use your understanding of these techniques to develop a feasibility study as detailed in Section
(Part I).
Table 1. Overview of concepts, techniques and methods taught and discussed during the module1
No.
Lecture Themes
1
Assessing financial health using financial statements and ratio analysis
2
Assessing macro-economic environment and applying financial feasibility methods (CBA, NPV, IRR)
3
Appraising project options using decision trees, LCA, and Simple Addictive Weighting method
4
Multi-dimensional project appraisal using Analytic Hierarchy Process
5
Selection of sources of finance and funding, and understand financial workflows under different procurement routes
6
Critical assessment of Private Finance Initiative (payment mechanism, sources of finance leverage, risks, value for money)
7
Project bidding and estimating
8
Schedule Feasibility: developing a WBS, a deterministic (CPM) and a probabilistic (PERT) project network and duration
9
Project control using Earned Value Analysis
10
Claim, final accounts and financial settlements (claim scenario)
11
The Legal Environment: Contract, Tort, and Statute
12
Summary and Q&A week
1 The delivery does not necessarily follow this sequences and the distribution of topics over the weeks may change.
Figure 1. Linear Project life cycle (APM BOK 6th Edition, p. 27)
Part II
You will also learn about contemporary aspects and practices in project Feasibility and Economics. Academic staff, with the participation of industry guest speakers, will deliver these talks and engage in discussions around these practices in weekly seminars. You may draw upon these talks or the further information provided and discussions held during the seminars. There are also a number of specialised and peer reviewed journals such as: “International Journal of Project Management”, “Project Management Journal”, “Research in Economics”, “Construction Management and Economics”, “International Journal of Managing Projects in Business”, “Journal of Construction Engineering and Management”, among many other sources that will support your knowledge and understanding. You may also identify available industry- wide guides published by professional bodies (e.g. Association of Project Management) and industry associations (e.g. Major Projects Association). Finally, you may select a theme from the ‘collated list of topics’ addressed by previous years’ students and included hereafter. You will use your selected topic to develop a literature review as detailed in Section 3.3 (Part II).
Investigating the value for money of Private Finance Initiative in a selected sector (e.g. health, transport, infrastructure, energy from waste) using the Public Sector Comparator (PSC) method.
Appraisal and selection of renewable energy sources using life cycle based decision making approach under uncertainty
Assessing the economics and feasibility of a selected public sector project (transport, health, etc.) with emphasis upon the social feasibility.
A thorough investigation of risk factors in infrastructure projects procuring under the Private Finance Initiative.
Contractor Liquidity Evaluation Model for Successful Public Housing Projects.
Prioritising Renewable Energy solutions (solar, wind, hydro) using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) within the economic and social environment of a selected country.
Assessing the economic, social and environmental feasibility of a major [infrastructure, health, etc.] projects.
Insights into the legal feasibility aspects in construction: is arbitration still relevant in contemporary construction sector?
Analysing and assessing techniques for cost modelling for contingency pricing in Engineer to Order (ETO) Projects.
The importance of project feasibility in the successful implementation of sustainable and socially responsible of projects within a selected sector (e.g. health, transport, social, etc.)
Evaluation of wind and solar energy investments in a selected country.
Coursework Tasks to be Completed by Students
You are required to submit a 4000-word report with two parts: (Part I and Part II).
Part I – Project Feasibility Report (50% of total)
You are required to submit a 2,000-word report. The report will be based on specific characteristics of a real world project. You will select your own project. A recommended source is The World Bank database of projects (available at https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/projects-home ) but you may use other sources. In many instances, the original project brief may not contain all the information you may require to perform your analyses. You may often need to develop your own assumptions. When you make assumptions, please make sure they are grounded and realistic. You must clearly indicate your assumptions using […] entitled ‘Assumption’ throughout your project report.
You are free to select a project of any type from this database or other databases. It is advised that you select a completed project as they provide richer documentation and information, but this is not mandatory. You are free to change any aspect of the project specification(s) to make the project relevant to the project’s feasibility and economic techniques that you intend to apply. For example, you can arbitrarily change aspects such as available budget, location of the project, the type of the stakeholders involved, and the intended benefits. You can also decide to focus on a specific work-package or component of a large project or exclude scope that is out of interest.
To apply the range of techniques and methods over the whole project lifecycle, you are very likely required to assume the role of different stakeholders’ types across the project report. For example, at the very early Concept stage you may play the role of a Sponsor interested in assessing the financial health of the organisation/consortium undertaking the project or some of its specific parts; at the Definition phase, you may play the role of a Professional Service provider who will perform the appraisal of the project options to the client/sponsor; at the Development phase, you may play the role of a Contractor interested in delivery aspects (cost, schedule, and their control); during procurement and assuming that Private Finance Initiative is adopted, you may play the role of a public sector client interested in understanding the contract structure, the risks, and the value of money. You are required to clearly indicate the stakeholder perspective for each analysis you present in your report.
The aim, from providing this flexibility in adapting the project brief and your role, is to enable you to challenge your knowledge of Project Feasibility and Economics while working on a suitable case for the application of the concepts, techniques and methods discussed in lectures and seminars.
The project’s report will have three Sections (A, B, C) as described hereafter.
Section A. Project Specifications (300 to 400 words)
In this section, you are required to summarise using a table the project specifications and global assumptions made at project level. You may make further specific/local assumptions when you apply different methods and techniques as the project/report progresses but these specific assumptions should be placed under their corresponding parts and not in Part A. The purpose of this part is to provide the setting/background for all the subsequent parts of the report. This project specifications part should address, but is not limited to:
General project information (e.g. name, value, timescale, location, etc.)
Project briefing information (e.g. objectives, scope, critical success factors, etc.)
A list of main stakeholders (e.g. client, funders, sponsors, etc.)
Macro environment surrounding the project (e.g. political, economic, social, technical, environmental, legal aspects)
Section B. Feasibility and Economics Analyses of the selected project (1400 to 1600 words)
In this section, you are required to apply various feasibility, appraisal and economics analyses of the project, analyse and discuss the findings. You are expected to have a sub-section for each type of analysis performed. Sub-sections should be numbered B1, B2, etc. and each should be given a representative title. You are required to address ‘most’ (or at least six) of the techniques, methods and concepts covered during the 12 weeks (see Table 1) and you are free to apply further techniques you have learned independently. A very good source for further related guidance and techniques is the HM Treasury’s Green Book (Link: https://bit.ly/35luxhf ). You are required to explicitly state the assumptions (using […] entitled Assumption) and the stakeholder role (e.g. client, contractor, etc.) you are undertaking when applying each individual technique or concept.
At the start of Part B, you should include a table summarising the list of techniques, methods and concepts applied throughout part B and the stakeholder role undertaken. Following the application of each technique, method or concept you are required to critically analyse and evaluate the findings. Whenever possible, support your work with a clear theoretical rationale, academic references, relevant data and references to project specifications.
Integration among the different parts and sub-parts is important. You should endeavour to develop a comprehensible storyline/narrative and show links between the different sections/sub-section. As an example of a link between two parts is when you take forward the best project option you identified at the concept (e.g. through performing an appraisal study) into the development stage (e.g. assess schedule feasibility / plan budget for the selected project option).
Details of the calculations can be placed in the appendix and they do not count towards the word limit.
Section C. Executive Summary (200 – 250 words)
The Executive Summary is usually the first section of the project report. However, in this coursework, you will include it as the third/final part. You should start this part only when the project (Part A and Part B) has been finalised.
It should be concise and compelling summary of the report. Readers of the executive summary should get the essence of the project without the need to get into the details. Sentences should be short and concise. Avoid technical jargons and acronyms. Use active verbs (e.g. “the project achieved its goals” instead “the goals of the project were achieved”.
In your executive summary you should address the following: what is the need or the problem the project is addressing?; Who is involved (the stakeholders)?; What are the project options?; What are the techniques used to analyse the project and what are the corresponding findings?; what are the implications (social, environmental, legal, etc.:) of the key findings/decisions?; what are the limitations affecting the findings validity?, and what are the recommendations (e.g. future short / long term steps, responsibility for implementation)?
Student Checklist for Part I:
Section A: A table for the project specification (general project information, project briefing information, project’s stakeholders, and macro environment surrounding the project) is included.
Section B: A table listing the feasibility and economics techniques/concepts (at least six) applied and the stakeholder position assumed is included at the beginning of Part B.
Section B: Assumptions made (where applicable) for different techniques are clearly stated.
Section B: Details of the calculation are included in the appendix
Section B: Brief discussion of the results for each feasibility and economic technique is included
Section C: Executive summary complies with specification given above
Citation and references of relevant resources are included at the end of Part I.
Part II- Project Feasibility and economics: Literature Review (50% of total)
You are required to submit a 2,000-word academic literature review, structured and referenced, on any contemporary topic of project economics and feasibility. For the topic selection, please refer to description in the Item II of the earlier Coursework Overview section.
Your research question or literature review’s aim must be clearly stated within the abstract and must be pertinent to aspects of project feasibility and economics. For example, industry-wide matters (e.g. sustainability of the construction/healthcare sector, impact of skill shortage on performance of the manufacturing sector) are not accepted as topics unless the paper shows clear connections with project feasibility and economics aspects. Similarly, literature reviews ‘explaining’ the merits or demerits of a specific management process (e.g. risk management process) are also not accepted. A title for this part that best represents the focus of your literature review must be provided at the start of this part II.
The literature review (Part II) submission must be done via Turnitin (Blackboard) together with Part I in a single file.
Student Checklist for Part II:
Topic that is relevant to project feasibility and economics was selected.
Abstract complies with good practice of academic writing (e.g. include background statement, aim, findings, and limitations).
Main body of the literature review uses resources that are relevant and from peer-reviewed sources
Main body of the literature is focussed on addressing the aim stated in the abstract
Conclusion Section clearly recaps the work done and the findings, and explains the relevant theoretical and practical implications.
References consistently follows Harvard Referencing
References Section includes only sources that have been cited in the paper.
Expected Size of Submission
4000 words in total, split in 2000 words for part I (as indicated above for Section A, Section B and Section C), and 2000 words for part II (Literature Review).
Referencing Style
You are to write your coursework using the Cite Them Right version of the Harvard referencing system. An online guide to Cite Them Right is freely available to Northumbria University students at: https://www.citethemrightonline.com/
Assessment Criteria
Part I (Case Study Project Report): Assessment Criteria
Weight
Criteria
10%
Choice of project, title, and project specification
The relevance of the project selected to the module
The title conveys what the project is about
the project specifications are clearly identified and presented.
3) Inclusion and exclusion of scope of feasibility and economics study are clearly explained
60%
Choice of feasibility and economics techniques and their applications
The selection (type and amount) of feasibility and economics techniques applied on the case studies including a table summarising the list of techniques applied and the stakeholder position assumed.
The assumptions are clearly stated
The techniques are correctly applied and the outcomes are analysed and discussed
The conclusions clearly and logically articulate the findings that arise from the applications of the selection techniques
The sources used demonstrate clear relevance to the paper and are used critically, with original commentary on their value and limitations
A good range of key source references are drawn upon
All citations are suitably referenced using the Harvard-type referencing system.
15%
Executive Summary
A summary of the main findings of the performed feasibility and economics study
A deduction made about the project options to pursue based on the performed feasibility and economics study
A personal professional opinion on what has been discussed
A statement about the limitations of the work
A comment about the future based on what has been discussed
15%
Integration between sections
The feasibility and economics study shows links between its different parts
the links are explicitly stated and explained
The links properly illustrate the logic of the argument followed
Any diagrams, illustrations, etc. are clearly and appropriately presented
Part II (Literature review): Assessment Criteria
Weight
Criteria
15%
Choice of topic, keyword, abstract and introduction
The relevance of the topic selected to the module
The title, keywords and abstract clearly convey what the paper is about
The abstract clearly establishes the aim, the scope/areas of literature, key results and possibly the limitations.
The introduction establishes the topic and context of the paper and signposts the structure of the paper.
15%
Literature and sources review
The paper is supported by relevant, up-to-date, scholarly sources that are reasonably comprehensive in regard to the topic
The sources used demonstrate clear relevance to the paper
Sources are used critically, with original commentary on their value and limitations.
40%
Main body of the paper
A logical and structured approach is demonstrated throughout the main body of the paper.
The conclusions clearly and logically articulate the findings that arise
Conclusions are explicitly linked to the stated aims of the paper
Limitations of the paper are identified
Gaps in knowledge are identified and recommendations for further study are discussed.
15%
Conclusions
1) A summary of the main findings of the literature review
A deduction made on the basis of the main body
A personal opinion on what has been discussed
A statement about the limitations of the work
A comment about the future based on what has been discussed
The implications of the work for future research
15%
Presentation
The paper is presented in an academically acceptable format
Writing is clear, precise and free from grammatical errors or spelling mistakes
The structure and headings properly illustrate the logic of the argument
Any diagrams, illustrations, etc. are clearly and appropriately presented
A good range of key source references are drawn upon
All citations are suitably referenced using the Harvard-type referencing system.
MCE | Learning and Teaching
MCE | Learning and Teaching
Version 2.0 | Page 1 of 7
Version 2.0 | Page 1 of 7