31272 Project Management and the Professional
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particular session, location and mode of offering is the authoritative source
of all information about the subject for that offering. Required texts, recommended texts and references in particular are likely to change. Students will be provided with a subject outline once they enrol in the subject.
Subject handbook information prior to 2025 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 6 cp
Subject level:
Undergraduate
Result type: Grade and marksRequisite(s): (31269 Business Requirements Modelling AND (31265 Communication for IT Professionals OR 48230 Introduction to Engineering Projects OR 41078 Computing Science Studio 1) AND (72 credit points of completed study in Bachelor's Degree owned by FEIT OR 72 credit points of completed study in Bachelor's Honours Embedded owned by FEIT OR 72 credit points of completed study in Bachelor's Combined Degree owned by FEIT OR 72 credit points of completed study in Bachelor's Combined Honours owned by FEIT OR 72 credit points of completed study in Bachelor's Combined Degree co-owned by FEIT OR 72 credit points of completed study in Bachelor's Combined Honours co-owned by FEIT))
Anti-requisite(s): 32541 Project Management AND 48260 Engineering Project Management
Recommended studies:
a general awareness of the systems management and development process, the nature of the IT industry and current social and political issues
Description
This subject covers managing development and implementation of project solutions with an emphasis on information systems project management and professionalism. It considers the roles of project managers, practitioners and stakeholders within a project team; ethics and codes of conduct; organisational context of projects; and different knowledge areas contributing to the successful delivery of a project life cycle.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
| 1. | Explain the social impact of information technology and responsibility of IT professionals and importance of ethical codes of conduct within projects. (B.1) |
|---|---|
| 2. | Divide a project into components to explain what value that project will provide if implemented. (D.1) |
| 3. | Use team building skills and generic tools to plan a project. (E.1) |
| 4. | Collaborate in teams to create the project outcome. (E.1) |
| 5. | Reflect on what has been learnt and how this can feed into better outcomes for future projects. (F.1) |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs):
- Socially Responsible: FEIT graduates identify, engage, interpret and analyse stakeholder needs and cultural perspectives, establish priorities and goals, and identify constraints, uncertainties and risks (social, ethical, cultural, legislative, environmental, economics etc.) to define the system requirements. (B.1)
- Technically Proficient: FEIT graduates apply abstraction, mathematics and discipline fundamentals, software, tools and techniques to evaluate, implement and operate systems. (D.1)
- Collaborative and Communicative: FEIT graduates work as an effective member or leader of diverse teams, communicating effectively and operating within cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural contexts in the workplace. (E.1)
- Reflective: FEIT graduates critically self-review their performance to improve themselves, their teams, and the broader community and society. (F.1)
Teaching and learning strategies
There will be 1 hour of class interaction and 2 hours of tutorial workshops, case studies, discussion and exercises. Pre-reading is provided via Canvas videos and access to the LinkedIn Learning online tutorial Project Management Fundamentals, providing a foundation for subject learning. Canvas will be actively moderated from the start of the teaching session to incorporate responses and provide specific feedback to student queries pertaining to workshops, subject content, assessments and week-by-week discussion topics.
The intention is to build project collateral via the week-by-week student workshops. Working in collaborative teams, students prepare for and collect relevant information. They then compose reports which are collectively reviewed. Objective feedback is provided to students in the workshops, thereby supporting continuous improvement. Tutorial outputs are designed to contribute to the major end-of-term group assessment item.
Case studies, accessed via Canvas, provide opportunities for research-inspired learning where students are given a contemporary dilemma. They then discuss the ethics of this real-life situation, assess the event in comparison to information industry codes of conduct from Australian and international bodies and justify their determinations as a report.
An aim of this subject is to help students develop academic and professional language and communication skills to succeed at university and in the workplace. During the course of this subject, students will complete a milestone assessment task that will, in addition to assessing their subject-specific learning objectives, evaluate their levels of academic and professional communication
Content (topics)
The topic areas are as follows:
- Professionalism: Ethical Foundations, Codes of Conduct; Responsibility; Privacy, Legal Issues
- Governance: How does project management fit into the wider scope of management
- Project Planning: Evaluation; Selection; Planning; Initiation; Execution; Closure
- Organising: Resources; Teams and Human Resources; Procurement; Task Estimation; Time Scheduling
- Controlling: Stakeholders; Risk; Monitoring/Control; Quality; Communication
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Assessment
Assessment task 1: Team Charter
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 3 and 4 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): E.1 |
|---|---|
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Group, group assessed |
| Weight: | 10% |
| Length: | 600 words |
Assessment task 2: Ethics Assignment
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 1 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): B.1 |
|---|---|
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 20% |
| Length: | 2500 words |
Assessment task 3: Interim Reports
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 2, 3 and 4 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): D.1 and E.1 |
|---|---|
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Group, group and individually assessed |
| Weight: | 20% |
| Length: | Based on provided templates. |
Assessment task 4: Project Report
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 3 and 4 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): E.1 |
|---|---|
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Group, individually assessed |
| Weight: | 40% |
| Length: | 4000 words per group member. See assignment brief. |
Assessment task 5: Personal reflections
| Objective(s): | This assessment task addresses the following subject learning objectives (SLOs): 5 This assessment task contributes to the development of the following Course Intended Learning Outcomes (CILOs): F.1 |
|---|---|
| Type: | Report |
| Groupwork: | Individual |
| Weight: | 10% |
| Length: | 1000 words. |
Minimum requirements
In order to pass the subject, a student must achieve an overall mark of 50% or more.
Should you receive an unsatisfactory language level in your milestone task, you may be required to complete further language support after the completion of this subject.
Required texts
Pearson, N., Larson E. W., & Gray C. F. 2022, Project Management in practice- 3rd ed., McGraw - Hill Education, Australia ISBN 9781760427085
Students are expected to source information for themselves from other project management references as needed.
Recommended texts
The following texts may be useful at times as additional references:
- Marchewka, J. (2015), Information Technology Project Management, 5th ed., John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ.
- PMI (2021), Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, 7th ed., Project Management Institute, Pennsylvania.
- Schwalbe, K. (2015), Information Technology Project Management, 8th ed., Course Technology, Boston.
Other resources
Online materials and announcements will be available via Canvas. You are expected to use Canvas regularly so plan for this on a weekly basis: https://canvas.uts.edu.au/.