Your research task

In this activity, you have the opportunity to put your learning into practice and engage with a topic relating to major projects. You will also take part in a peer review exercise by assessing the work of a peer and having your work assessed.

This task will help prepare you for the research task you will complete in Week 5.

What do I need to do?

For this activity you will be researching the UK major rail project High Speed Rail 2 (HS2).

Please find and read a selection of newspaper articles describing the project management performance of HS2. To source your information you might begin by using a search engine. Input the search criteria High Speed Rail 2 UK or HS2 UK and locate news items. Your information sources should be short pieces commenting on how the project is performing in respect of its schedule, cost and scope. You should apply your learning from the course so far to answer the question:

• What are the main challenges faced by the HS2 project, and how are these affecting its performance?

You should write no more than 300 words in response to this question. Your answer should reflect on the evidence and information provided in the news items you find and on your learning from this course.

You will be sharing your work with your peers later and you will assess each other's work using a given set of criteria.

Coming up...

In the next section you will learn more about the peer review process and its benefits.