Complete the following activities:

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Carefully read the following:

This project requires you to develop and manage an operational plan for one business or work area by:

sourcing information relevant to your work area/business and its related operational plan.

consulting with others to develop and approve an operational and contingency plan.

managing resource acquisition and performance according to organisational policies and procedures.

addressing underperformance.

negotiating and approving variations to the operational plan.

Vocational education and training is all about gaining and developing practical skills that are industry relevant and that can help you to succeed in your chosen career. For this reason, we are giving you the choice to base this project on your own business, one you work in or a familiar with, or you can use the case study provided. This will mean that you are applying your knowledge and skills in a relevant, practical and meaningful way to your own situation!

It is important that you are able to access enough information for your chosen business in order to be able to do your assessment. As a minimum this should include organisational policies and procedures related to operational plans. You will also need data to review and assess operational progress in step 5.

Relevant policies and procedures may include:

Recruitment, Induction and Development

Procurement and Suppliers

Reporting and Documenting

Hierarchy of control/ Approval

Any other relevant policies and procedures.

You will need to communicate with people who work for, or are involved, in this business or work area several times. Your communication may be either directly with actual staff members or fellow students/your assessor can play the roles of relevant people/parties. Communication can be in any appropriate format (e.g. face to face, video conference, email) as long as it meets the requirements outlined in the Project Portfolio.

You will be collecting evidence for this unit in a Project Portfolio. The steps you need to take are outlined below.

Preparation

Make sure you are familiar with the organisation you are basing this assessment on and have read through the necessary background information. For the case study business, this is all of the documents included in the Simulation Pack.

If it’s your own business or a business where you are working or are familiar with, have your business approved by your assessor and identify a work area to develop an operational plan for.

If you are using the case study, you will assume the role of sales manager and develop an operational plan for the approved business model “develop a cloud-based solution”.

Complete Page 4 of your Project Portfolio for this unit.

Read through the requirements of Section 1, 2 and 3 of your Project Portfolio.

Planning for an operational plan

Complete Section 1 of your Project Portfolio.

To complete Section 1, you need to:

source information relevant to the development of an operational plan for your work area, including stakeholders, legislative, organisational, financial and intellectual property requirements.

identify potential activities and resource requirements (including their financial implications and KPIs) for the operational plan (include at least one human resource and one physical resource).

identify data security issues.

Make sure you have answered all questions in Section 1. Submit to your assessor for review.

You are also required to attach certain documents as part of your evidence – review the documents you need to attach as outlined in Section 1 of the Project Portfolio and make sure you attach these upon submission.

You will use the work done in this section of the Portfolio to consult with others and lead teamwork to develop an operational plan in the next activity. In preparation, read through step 4.

Developing an operational plan

Meet with at least two of the stakeholders you identified as part of Section 1 of your Project Portfolio. One of the stakeholders must be a client.

Consult with stakeholders to agree on activities, resources, timeframes, KPIs and monitoring processes.

This meeting should take 20 minutes.

This meeting may take place with actual people who work for/are associated with your chosen business. Alternatively, classmates or your assessor may play the role of one or more team members.

This can either be viewed in person by your assessor or you may like to video record the session for your assessor to watch later. Your assessor can provide you with more details at this step. Make sure you follow the instructions below and meet the timeframes allocated. If this session is not viewed in person by your assessor, you will attach proof of the meeting to Section 2 of your Project Portfolio.

As part of this meeting, you are required to demonstrate your ability to:

take a leadership role in the meeting

facilitate effective group interaction

influence the direction of the discussion

present information using appropriate style, language, register and vocabulary

listen to others and comprehend what they’re saying

seek advice, feedback and support.

You will be assessed on this.

Complete Section 2 of your Project Portfolio.

To complete Section 2, you need to:

develop and approve an operational and contingency plan.

document resource requirements.

Approval can be sought in any way as long as you adhere to any organisational communication and approval requirements.

Approval may for example be:

question and answer session (each stakeholder has a copy of the operational plan)
executive team meeting
email requesting approval
updated project schedule

Explain your operational plan to relevant work team(s). Meet with at least one stakeholder who is a co-worker and part of a team who will be responsible for an activity in the operational plan.

This meeting should take 20 minutes.

This meeting may take place with actual people who work for/are associated with your chosen business. Alternatively, classmates or your assessor may play the role of one or more team members.

As part of this meeting, you are required to demonstrate your ability to:

take a leadership role in the meeting
present information using appropriate style, language, register and vocabulary

You will be assessed on this.

Make sure you have answered all questions in Section 2. Submit to your assessor for review.

You are also required to attach certain documents as part of your evidence – review the documents you need to attach as outlined in Section 2 of the Project Portfolio and make sure you attach these upon submission.

Managing operational performance

Assume a period of time has passed.

If you are basing this on your own business, make sure you have data (that shows underperformance) available for the activity/KPI you selected to monitor.

If you are basing this on the case study, assume:

invoices show that the advertising consultant has spent more than what was budgeted for.
a project schedule shows the advertising consultant is still delivering within agreed timeframes.

Complete Section 3 of your Project Portfolio.

To complete Section 3, you need to:

confirm resources were acquired following organisational policy, practices and procedures.
incorporate intellectual property rights and responsibilities (e.g. via memo to staff).
plan and implement the monitoring and documentation of the performance for one activity.
assess the progress performance of the activity (using relevant data).
address the underperformance of a human or physical resource (at least one resource) and confirm support.

Meet with relevant stakeholders to discuss underperformance and negotiate variations to the operational plan. Meet with at least one of the stakeholders you identified as part of Section 1 of your Project Portfolio who is associated with the underperformance.

Negotiate with stakeholder(s) to:

establish reasons and solutions for underperformance.
negotiate variations to the operational plan required due to the underperformance.
establish support requirements.

This meeting and negotiation should take 10 minutes.

This meeting and negotiation may take place with actual people who work for/are associated with your chosen business. Alternatively, classmates or your assessor may play the role of one or more team members.

As part of this meeting, you are required to demonstrate your ability to:

take a leadership role in the meeting
facilitate effective group interaction
influence the direction of the discussion
present information using appropriate style, language, register and vocabulary
listen to others and comprehend what they’re saying.

You will be assessed on this.

Make sure you have answered all questions in Section 3.

You are also required to attach certain documents as part of your evidence – review the documents you need to attach as outlined in Section 3 of the Project Portfolio and make sure you attach these upon submission.

Submit your completed Project Portfolio

Make sure you have completed all sections of your Project Portfolio, answered all questions, provided enough detail as indicated and proofread for spelling and grammar as necessary. Remember to submit all necessary attachments as indicated.