During my final year at Nottingham Trent University I undertook the optional module ‘Business Analysis’ alongside ‘Project Management’. Thee two modules combined to account for 25% of my final year grade.

Business Analysis was a year long module in which each student used an international company (in my case E.ON) as a basis for analysis. The analysis project accounted for 50% of the module marks, and was split into two 25% sub-projects. The first of the two sub-projects focused on Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and used a House of Quality (HOQ) to analyse the Key Process Indicators (KPI’s) and consumer needs. The resulting House of Quality table demonstrated associations and relationships between company elements and customer requirements giving an insight into the differences between consumer delighters, exciters, satisfiers and dissatisfies. (Based on the KANO model).

The second sub-project focused on development of a managerial dashboard for the same company; Critical Success Factors (CSF’s – More acronyms, I know!) and key milestone goals were identified and prioritized using a number of business orientated priority mechanisms (including SWAT and PESTILE analysis). The top level process indicators were then mapped onto an example managerial dashboard and a ‘Request for Proposal’ document was produced.

Alongside the business example (E.ON) project, a 50% exam was also taken (at the end of the year). The exam encompassed areas covered in the Business Analysis module, as well as sections on 7 Tools of Quality (including Histograms, Pareto analysis and Run charts), SixSigma and ServQual (including GAP analysis).

The final result for the combined 50% exam and 50% project for Business Analysis was 72%.

Project Management was a half year module, and as such was worth only 50% as much as Business Analysis (10 credit points). The module expected a basic understanding of existing business terminology and built upon these foundations in two main areas; Financial management and project management.

Financial management covered areas such as Return on Investment (ROI), Simple Payback Period and Net Present Value (NPV). Also incorporated into this section was Pareto analysis, Network Diagrams, Precedence Diagrams and Task ‘Crashing’.

The second section of the examination covered motivation techniques, managing teams, correcting potential issues and launching/evaluating projects. Elements included Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Belbin’s Team Roles and other managerial tools which could be used in a professional setting.

The overall result for Project Management was 80%, amongst the highest in the year.