Students

COMP8770 – Information Systems Project and Risk Management

2023 – Session 1, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Convenor
Stephen Smith
stephen.smith@mq.edu.au
Contact via 02 9850 1099
Rm 362, Level 3, 4 Research Park Drive
Monday 2-3pm, or (online via Zoom)
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
ITEC602 or COMP6770 or Admission to MRadiopharmSc or Admission to MLabAQMgt
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit has three themes: IT project management, agile software development and risk management. Topics covered in the first theme include project definition, roles and responsibilities, resource management, time and cost estimation, project planning, project control and reporting, measuring project success and post-implementation review. Microsoft Project is used to assist with resource allocation, costing and schedule. Hands-on experience is gained using the Rational Unified Process during the second theme. Towards the end of the course we focus on identifying causes of project failure and managing project risk based on the International and Australian Standard, ISO31000.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Apply an understanding of the contextual issues of an IT project to the identification and management of expectations of the main project stakeholders.
  • ULO2: Develop, maintain, manage and report against a project plan which defines the critical path and resource requirements, with tool support, such as MS Project 2019.
  • ULO3: Critically evaluate the concepts of agile methodologies such as the Rational Unified Process, DSDM and DevOps and incorporate appropriate components into the planning for complex software development or off the shelf enterprise system projects.
  • ULO4: Analyse IT project risks and formulate a risk management plan compliant with the international standard, ISO31000.
  • ULO5: Critically evaluate the role of the IT project manager and how to handle organization politics, individual and team management

General Assessment Information

General Assessment Information

All other assessments (assignments) must be submitted by 11:55 pm on their due date. 

Late Assessment Submission Penalty 

Unless a Special Consideration request has been submitted and approved, a 5% penalty (of the total possible mark of the task) will be applied for each day a written report or presentation assessment is not submitted, up until the 7th day (including weekends). After the 7th day, a grade of ‘0’ will be awarded even if the assessment is submitted. The submission time for all uploaded assessments is 11:55 pm. A 1-hour grace period will be provided to students who experience a technical concern.  For any late submission of time-sensitive tasks, such as scheduled tests/exams, performance assessments/presentations, and/or scheduled practical assessments/labs, please apply for Special Consideration. 

Please note:  

Assignment  Assessment 1 – Standard Late Submission Penalty applies, unless Special Consideration is Granted   

Assignment  Assessment 2 – Standard Late Submission Penalty applies, unless Special Consideration is Granted 

Special Consideration

The Special Consideration Policy aims to support students who have been impacted by short-term circumstances or events that are serious, unavoidable and significantly disruptive, and which may affect their performance in assessment. If you experience circumstances or events that affect your ability to complete the assessments in this unit on time, please inform the convenor and submit a Special Consideration request through ask.mq.edu.au. The policy on Special consideration is located - https://policies.mq.edu.au/document/view.php?id=136&version=2

Academic Integrity and Open AI Also note that the university is starting to become aware of new Artificial Intelligence websites that can be used by students to generate assessments (i.e. cheat). Please note there are penalties for plagarism and any form of cheating.

 

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Assignment 1 20% No Friday, week 4
Assignment 2B - Presentation 10% No week12
Assignment 2A - Group Project 20% No Monday week 13
Final examination 50% No week 14

Assignment 1

Assessment Type 1: Modelling task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Friday, week 4
Weighting: 20%

 

In the first part, you are given the tasks, resources and schedule for a project which need to be entered into MS Project 2019. You are required to answer a series of questions on the resource requirements, critical path, schedule and costs associated with this project. For the second part of the assignment you are given a case study for a complex project and asked to identify the risks and possible mitigation strategies. Furthermore, you need to advise on how to use MS Project in this context.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply an understanding of the contextual issues of an IT project to the identification and management of expectations of the main project stakeholders.
  • Develop, maintain, manage and report against a project plan which defines the critical path and resource requirements, with tool support, such as MS Project 2019.

Assignment 2B - Presentation

Assessment Type 1: Presentation
Indicative Time on Task 2: 10 hours
Due: week12
Weighting: 10%

 

A series of IT projects will be allocated among groups of 4 students. These will include software development, off the shelf package and mixed projects (a package requiring integration with back-end systems). Your team are consultants recommending your project and risk strategy to secure a go-ahead from the client organisation. Your focus is on the project process/methodology and risk management plan to suit your project and client organisation.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply an understanding of the contextual issues of an IT project to the identification and management of expectations of the main project stakeholders.
  • Develop, maintain, manage and report against a project plan which defines the critical path and resource requirements, with tool support, such as MS Project 2019.
  • Critically evaluate the concepts of agile methodologies such as the Rational Unified Process, DSDM and DevOps and incorporate appropriate components into the planning for complex software development or off the shelf enterprise system projects.
  • Analyse IT project risks and formulate a risk management plan compliant with the international standard, ISO31000.
  • Critically evaluate the role of the IT project manager and how to handle organization politics, individual and team management

Assignment 2A - Group Project

Assessment Type 1: Project
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Monday week 13
Weighting: 20%

 

A series of IT projects will be allocated among groups of 4 students. These will include software development, off the shelf package and mixed projects (a package requiring integration with backend systems). Your team are consultants recommending your project and risk strategy to secure a go-ahead from the client organisation. Your focus is on the project process/methodology and risk management plan to suit your project and client organisation.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply an understanding of the contextual issues of an IT project to the identification and management of expectations of the main project stakeholders.
  • Develop, maintain, manage and report against a project plan which defines the critical path and resource requirements, with tool support, such as MS Project 2019.
  • Critically evaluate the concepts of agile methodologies such as the Rational Unified Process, DSDM and DevOps and incorporate appropriate components into the planning for complex software development or off the shelf enterprise system projects.
  • Analyse IT project risks and formulate a risk management plan compliant with the international standard, ISO31000.
  • Critically evaluate the role of the IT project manager and how to handle organization politics, individual and team management

Final examination

Assessment Type 1: Examination
Indicative Time on Task 2: 40 hours
Due: week 14
Weighting: 50%

 

A formal examination covering all the course work material.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Apply an understanding of the contextual issues of an IT project to the identification and management of expectations of the main project stakeholders.
  • Develop, maintain, manage and report against a project plan which defines the critical path and resource requirements, with tool support, such as MS Project 2019.
  • Critically evaluate the concepts of agile methodologies such as the Rational Unified Process, DSDM and DevOps and incorporate appropriate components into the planning for complex software development or off the shelf enterprise system projects.
  • Analyse IT project risks and formulate a risk management plan compliant with the international standard, ISO31000.
  • Critically evaluate the role of the IT project manager and how to handle organization politics, individual and team management

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

Each week you should attend up to 3 hours of lectures and tutorials (please note Tutorials are on a different day to lectures now). For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage. 

Required and Recommended Texts:

Students are expected to purchase and read the following textbook:

Erik Larson and Clifford Gray, ‘Project Management: The Managerial Process’ 8th Edition (2021), McGraw Hill. This book should be available from the University Co-op Bookstore. or available as an eBook - https://www.mheducation.com.au/9781307023077-aus-ebook-project-management-the-managerial-process-8e 

The following text book is suggested as recommended reading.  Copies are  available from the references and general sections of the library. 

Rob Thomsett, Radical Project Management, Prentice Hall, 2002, not available as an eBook. However, it is available online.

The class Web site will have copies of lecture handouts and additional recommended reading material:  https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/ You will need to use the user name and password issued to you by the University Administration when you enrolled for the unit. 

Technology to be used and required:

We are using MS Project 2016 or 2019.  

Other technology required is MS Word and MS PowerPoint.

Website and access to unit material:

The web page and content for this unit can be found at iLearn: https://ilearn.mq.edu.au/login/MQ/. Note that the unit content is not publicly available and requires for you to log in to access.

Additional Information: -    Non-lecture activities (workshops) commence in week 3.

Methods of Communication -    There are 3 ways I can contact students

  1. Via through Announcements/Forums etc on iLearn, Student queries to convenors can either be placed on the iLearn discussion board or sent directly to Unit Convenor email address (stephen.smith@mq.eud.au) please include the unit Code in the Subject line for a prompt reply,
  2. Via your email (only MQ students or staff email addresses). email will NOT be answered from personal emails, and
  3. Via the phone number in your student records (this is for special circumstances only). 

COVID Information -    All University related information on Covid please go to the COVID FAQs on the MQ website. Please note, pages are updated regularly:  -    For the latest information on the University’s response to COVID-19, please refer to the Coronavirus infection page on the Macquarie website: https://www.mq.edu.au/about/coronavirus-faqs. Remember to check this page regularly in case the information and requirements change during semester. If there are any changes to this unit in relation to COVID, these will be communicated via iLearn.

 

Unit Schedule

Week

Lecturer

Topic

Reading

1

 

Steve

Course Structure

Types of Projects, Role of the Project Manager, IS/IT Projects are Different

Unit Outline

Larson 1, Readings

2

 

Steve

Project Definition

Introduction to MS Project

Hand out Assignment One (Individual Assignment) ‘MS Project 2019 and Case Study’

Larson 3

Larson 4

 

3

 

Steve

Project Selection and Success Criteria

Estimating Project Times and Costs

Sponsors and Other Stakeholders

Workshops start in week 3

Larson 2

Larson 5 

Larson 10

4

 

 

Steve

DSDM Introduction 

Assignment One Due

Hand out Assignment Two (Group Assignment) ‘IS Project Management Plan’

DSDM Handbook

5

 

Steve

 Reducing Project Duration Larson 9

6

 

Guest Lecture

 

Leadership / Communication

Team Management

Larson 10 Larson 11, Thomsett articles

7

Steve

Risk Management Part 1 - Managing Risk

Larson 7 

8

Steve

Risk Management Part 2

ISO31000  

9

 

Steve

DevOps

Virtual Teams and Outsourcing

Project Audit and Closure

Accenture, 2015 Larson 12 Larson 14

10

Steve

Project Plan Structure

Progress Management and Evaluation

Organisational Politics

Larson 6, 10, 12, 13  

11

Steve

Group Assignment Review Workshop (in the Lecture)

  
12 Steve Group Presentations  

13

Steve

Exam Revision + Group Presentations (cont)

Assignment Two (2) Due

 

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Changes from Previous Offering

Updated and revised Lecture content, Assignment 1 re-written, Assignment 2 - updated and re-written

 

Unit information based on version 2023.01R of the Handbook