What Makes an Effective Project Manager? Planning the BEM1083DA Presentation (Assessment 2)

The BEM1083DA presentation rewards a clear line from knowledge, to skills, to behaviours, with each part tied to a real example from your own work and to a strategic outcome. Ten slides and about twenty minutes are not enough for everything, so choose a few strong points, support them with theory and show how the Project Manager role changes what the organisation achieves.

This guide is for University of Exeter degree apprenticeship students preparing Assessment 2 of The Business Environment and Organisational Strategy. It explains how to read the task, divide your time, choose examples and avoid common losses. The brief is on the BEM1083DA Assessment 2 question page.

If you would like your slide plan checked before you record, you can send your brief for a free quote.

What the presentation is really testing

You are speaking as a Project Manager to potential new recruits. The audience is not your marker, even though the marker will judge you. That means the tone should be explanatory and encouraging, but the content must still show academic understanding. The task has three parts.

The cover slide and the reference slide do not count towards the ten, but the narration limit still applies. Plan slightly under twenty minutes, because the time margin applies to duration only.

Step-by-step plan

1. Choose one main project from your own area. It should be real, recent and big enough to show context, constraints and people issues.
2. Map the project to the three parts. Note one knowledge point, one skill and one behaviour that the project demonstrates.
3. Select two or three theories. Examples include strategy and environment frameworks from the module, stakeholder analysis and a model of trust or team learning. Decide where you will praise them and where you will criticise them.
4. Write the speaker notes first. The notes pages are assessed, and writing them first stops the slides becoming crowded.
5. Build the slides. One message per slide, short phrases, a simple visual and no wall of text.
6. Record the narration in your own voice. Rehearse twice, then record, and check the timing.
7. Add citations and the reference list. Use APA 7 in-text citations on slides or in notes, and a reference list at the end.

Knowledge: showing why projects matter

This part is about the bigger picture. Explain how projects create value at different scales: a local service improvement, a regional supply chain boost, a national infrastructure programme or a global technology rollout. Then link your examples to the main UK business sectors, such as construction, manufacturing, finance, health and public services, and the parameters that shape projects in each.

Sector parameters are the practical limits and drivers, for example safety regulation in construction, quality standards in manufacturing, data protection in financial services and funding cycles in the public sector. A short comparison table works well here and saves speaking time.

Finally, show how projects enable strategy over three time horizons. Short term means quick improvements, medium term means building capability, and long term means repositioning the organisation. Explain that strategy is delivered through projects, so the Project Manager sits between planning and action.

Skills: analysing context and constraints

Skills are shown, not claimed. Use a short analysis of your example: what was happening in the external environment, who the stakeholders were and what limited the project. Frameworks such as PESTLE and stakeholder mapping are useful, but name their limits. They are snapshots, and they depend on the quality of information available.

Treat constraints seriously. Budget, time, regulation, resources and approval routes all shape what is possible. A strong slide shows a constraint, the options considered and the trade-off made. Mention that some project problems are straightforward to define, while others are contested and changing, and explain how this affects the way you work with people.

For support with the wider module, our project management assignment help team works with apprentices on both assessments.

Behaviours: role-modelling in practice

The behaviours section is where many presentations become generic. Avoid lists such as “honest, reliable, positive”. Instead, show a behaviour in action.

• Vision, purpose and values: describe a decision where the organisation’s values affected the project plan.
• Rapport, trust and networks: give an example of how you built a working relationship with a supplier, client or colleague and kept it going afterwards.
• Bigger picture and solution focus: describe a problem, the options you explored and what you learned.

First person is acceptable when describing your own experience, so use it here. Keep it specific: what you did, why, and what changed as a result.

Choosing the right example

The strongest examples have a visible decision, a constraint and an outcome. A project that ran perfectly offers little to analyse, whereas one that met a supplier delay, a changing client request or a budget limit gives you something to explain and evaluate. Choose an example that you can describe without sharing confidential figures.

You can use more than one project, but one main example carried through all three parts is easier to follow in twenty minutes. Smaller supporting examples can illustrate a single behaviour, such as how you rebuilt trust after a missed deadline.

Slide design and narration tips

Slides should support the voice, not replace it. Use a heading that states the message, three or four short phrases and one visual such as a table, timeline or simple diagram. Put detail into the speaker notes, where it can be assessed without crowding the slide.

For the voiceover, write in short sentences and avoid reading the slide word for word. Pause between sections, and check the recording for clear audio before you upload. Because the narration must be in your own voice, do not use synthetic speech or someone else’s recording.

Linking the role to strategy

Strategic impact is the idea that lifts a good presentation. Do not claim that the Project Manager sets the strategy. Show that the role turns strategy into delivered change, protects it from drift and feeds back what is learned. A sentence such as “the project delivered the capability the organisation needed to enter a new market” is stronger than a general statement that projects are important.

Mark-maximising checklist

• Ten slides or fewer, excluding cover and references.
• Narration around twenty minutes, in your own voice.
• Speaker notes completed on the notes pages.
• All three parts covered in balanced proportions.
• A real example from your own area in each part.
• Theory used and critiqued, not just named.
• Clear statement of strategic impact on the final slide.
• APA 7 citations on slides or in the notes, and a complete reference list.
• File uploaded as PowerPoint, not PDF.
• AI prompts listed if AI support was used.

Common mistakes

• Filling slides with paragraphs and reading them aloud.
• Describing the Project Manager role in general terms with no personal example.
• Giving theory without evaluation, for example no mention of limits or alternatives.
• Spending twelve minutes on knowledge and rushing behaviours.
• Forgetting the strategic link, so the presentation reads as a project management tutorial.
• Uploading the wrong file type or leaving the notes pages empty.
• Using confidential company data without anonymising it.

A slide-by-slide extract showing how these ideas can be arranged is available as a BEM1083DA project manager presentation sample, for reference only.

FAQs

Can I use real examples from my employer?

Yes, the task asks for examples from your own area. Remove confidential details and describe the organisation in general terms if necessary.

Does the time limit include the cover and reference slides?

The ten-slide limit excludes them, but the narration length of about twenty minutes still applies to what you present.

Do I need to include theory on the slides?

Theory should appear on the slides or in the notes, with APA citations. It must be applied to your example and evaluated, not just described.

Is first person allowed?

Yes, when you describe your own experience. Keep the rest of the explanation professional and evidence-based.

How do I show strategic impact?

Link each example to an outcome that matters to the organisation, such as faster delivery, lower risk, stronger relationships or progress towards a long-term goal, and say so directly on the final slide.

Is AI allowed for this presentation?

The assessment is AI-assisted, so AI can help with ideas, research, structure, proofreading and citations. The narration must be your own voice, and a list of prompts is required.

The report assessment for the same module has its own guide: how to approach the BEM1083DA IKEA case study. If you want help with the slide deck itself, see our PowerPoint presentation service, or read how our team works.