CQUniversity Unit Profile
PPMP20010 Executing and Closing Projects
Executing and Closing Projects
All details in this unit profile for PPMP20010 have been officially approved by CQUniversity and represent a learning partnership between the University and you (our student).
The information will not be changed unless absolutely necessary and any change will be clearly indicated by an approved correction included in the profile.
General Information

Overview

Executing and Closing Projects will develop your skills in the executing and closing stages of the project life cycle. You will consider several different definitions of what is required when executing a project from the perspective of different standards, frameworks and academic works. Projects will be investigated according to industry, project domain, and other factors to enable you to describe their influences and approaches to project execution and closing. You will analyse inputs and outputs, and the tools and techniques applied in different project domains. This will enable you to identify the practical application of project monitoring, control systems, and the management of control issues, such as, scope creep, risk, quality, baseline changes in the context of project outsourcing, oversight, and contract closure.

Details

Career Level: Postgraduate
Unit Level: Level 8
Credit Points: 6
Student Contribution Band: 10
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load: 0.125

Pre-requisites or Co-requisites

There are no requisites for this unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Offerings For Term 3 - 2020

Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Perth
Sydney

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Class and Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Postgraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Class Timetable

Bundaberg, Cairns, Emerald, Gladstone, Mackay, Rockhampton, Townsville
Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

Assessment Overview

1. Practical Assessment
Weighting: 30%
2. Practical Assessment
Weighting: 30%
3. Written Assessment
Weighting: 40%

Assessment Grading

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.

Previous Student Feedback

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Feedback from Student e-mail, number of unclear answers about time and event driven controls in the assessment submissions.

Feedback

Due date assessment 1 should not be at the start of week 7 as the final project control theory is discussed in week 6. This does not allow students enough time to incorporate new knowledge into the assessment.

Recommendation

Due date assessment 1 be moved to week 8 or 9.

Feedback from Assessment 3 submissions.

Feedback

Assessment 3 is valuable; however several groups seem to select their study project from a limited list of well documented projects, with their work simply endorsing already formed opinions. This limits their research and critical reflection efforts and therefore the intended learning from this assessment.

Recommendation

Tutors to spend more time and effort with students on project selection. A more comprehensive list of projects that do not qualify for selection needs to be included.

Feedback from Student comments, e-mails and Q&A forum questions

Feedback

Fully online learning has benefits as well as dis-benefits. A benefit is flexibility for students to attend lectures and view recordings afterward in their own time, and obtain different viewpoints on a topic. A dis-benefit is the loss of interpersonal contact with fellow students and tutors, especially in the tutorials doing teamwork, while teamwork is a critical skill in project management.

Recommendation

Learning materials have to be more complete to allow students to self-study with less guidance. Recordings of all lectures and tutorials should be published on Moodle as soon as possible. The topic of virtual teams is to be elaborated in the theory and virtual teamwork exercises to be included in the unit.

Unit Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
  1. Examine the knowledge areas and processes applied in the execution and closing stages of the project management life cycle
  2. Critically analyse how the needs of stakeholders might change the priority of outputs from the execution and closing stages of the project management life cycle
  3. Define and justify project event-driven and time-driven controls for a case study project
  4. Define and justify audit, governance and termination reporting for a case study project.

This unit will satisfy one of the requirements for Australia Computer Society (ACS) accreditation in the postgraduate ICT courses.
The unit may contribute to the required number of academic study units for students wishing to undertake profession certification with the Project Management Institute's (PMI) professional qualifications, such as CAPM or PMP.
The ACS recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is in use in over 100 countries and provides a widely used and consistent definition of ICT skills. SFIA is increasingly being used when developing job descriptions and role profiles. ACS members can use the tool MySFIA to build a skills profile at https://www.acs.org.au/professionalrecognition/mysfia-b2c.html
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills codes as defined by SFIA:
  • Business Analysis (BUAN),
  • Project Management (PRMG),
  • Stakeholder Relationship Management (RLMT),
  • Systems Integration (SINT),
  • Change Management (CHMG),
  • Release and Deployment (RELM),
  • IT Operations (ITOP),
  • Problem Management (PBMG).

Alignment of Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Graduate Attributes
N/A Level
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Professional Level
Advanced Level

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes

Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Practical Assessment - 30%
2 - Practical Assessment - 30%
3 - Written Assessment - 40%

Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes

Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Knowledge
2 - Communication
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 - Research
5 - Self-management
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility
7 - Leadership
8 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes

Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Practical Assessment - 30%
2 - Practical Assessment - 30%
3 - Written Assessment - 40%
Textbooks and Resources

Textbooks

There are no required textbooks.

Additional Textbook Information

  • The following are available as ebook from CQU library (Students's do not need to purchase them):
    • A Guide to The Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) 6th Ed. (2017): 
    • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (2018).
    • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (2017)
    • Harold Kerzner: A systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling, 12th Edition (2017)

IT Resources

You will need access to the following IT resources:
  • CQUniversity Student Email
  • Internet
  • Unit Website (Moodle)
Referencing Style

All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)

For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.

Teaching Contacts
Ghulam Chaudhry Unit Coordinator
g.chaudhry@cqu.edu.au
Schedule
Week 1 Begin Date: 09 Nov 2020

Module/Topic

Executing and Closing Processes in Project Management

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapter 1 and Part 2: Chapters 1 & 2
  • Kerzner Chapters 1, 2, 3 & 21
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 1, 3, 5, 11 & 12
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 1, 2 & 3

Topics

  • Unit overview
  • PMBoK life cycles, process groups, Knowledge areas & processes
  • PRINCE2 life cycle, principles, processes and themes
  • PMBoK vs PRINCE2
  • Directing projects with PRINCE2
  • Executing processes in a project
  • Closing processes in a project
  • Closing a Project

Events and Submissions/Topic

Unit overview

Lecture 1

Tutorial 1

Week 2 Begin Date: 16 Nov 2020

Module/Topic

Project Performance Management

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapters 4.3, 10.2-10.3 & 13.3-13.4
  • Kerzner Chapters 2, 3 & Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 4 & 5
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 11 & 12

Topics

  • Project performance management
  • Metrics for measuring project performance in PRINCE2
  • Project performance management in PMBoK
  • Project performance management by Kerzner

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 2

Tutorial 2

Week 3 Begin Date: 23 Nov 2020

Module/Topic

Earned Value Management - I

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapters 6.7, 7.4 & 10.2
  • Kerzner Chapter 14 & Appendix E  
  • Standards Australia: AS 4817-2006 : Project performance measurement using Earned Value

Topics

  • Earned Value Management (EVM)
  • Project schedule control in PMBoK
  • Project cost control in PMBoK
  • EVM in Australian Standards

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 3

Tutorial 3

Week 4 Begin Date: 30 Nov 2020

Module/Topic

Earned Value Management - II

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapters 10.3 & 11.7
  • Kerzner Chapter 17 
  • Standards Australia: AS 4817-2006 : Project performance measurement using Earned Value
Topics
  • Managing & monitoring communications in PMBoK
  • Monitoring & controlling risks in PMBoK
  • Communications & risks in PRINCE2
  • Managing Product Delivery in PRINCE2 

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 4

Tutorial 4

Vacation Week Begin Date: 07 Dec 2020

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 5 Begin Date: 14 Dec 2020

Module/Topic

Project Control Systems - I

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapters 6.6 & 8.2-8.3
  • Kerzner Chapter 5, Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Appendix A
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapter 17 & Appendix E.4
  • Standards Australia: AS/NZS 15288:2015 Systems and software engineering - System life cycle processes

Topics

  • What is Control?
  • Controlling schedule in PMBoK
  • Managing & controlling quality in PMBoK
  • Controlling a stage in PRINCE2
  • Control mechanisms in PRINCE2

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 5

Tutorial 5

Week 6 Begin Date: 21 Dec 2020

Module/Topic

Project Control Systems - II

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapters 9 & 12
  • Kerzner Chapters 2, 16, 19 & Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Appendix A
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapter 17

Topics

  • Project resource management in PMBoK
  • Developing and controlling resources in PMBoK
  • Project procurement management in PMBoK
  • Change control management
  • Configuration management strategy and procedures

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 6

Tutorial 6

Vacation Week Begin Date: 28 Dec 2020

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Week 7 Begin Date: 04 Jan 2021

Module/Topic

Project Audit

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapter 4.5-4.6
  • Kerzner Chapters 2, 11, 20 & Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapter 10
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 8, 11 & 18

Topics

  • Project audits by Kerzner
  • Quality objectives, assurance, control & audit
  • Quality audit trail in PRINCE2
  • Quality control in PRINCE2
  • Monitoring & controling project work in PMBoK
  • Performing integrated change control in PMBoK

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 7

Tutorial 7


Project Status and Controls Reports Due: Week 7 Monday (4 Jan 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 8 Begin Date: 11 Jan 2021

Module/Topic

Project or Phase Closure, Project Termination & Lessons Learnt

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapters 4.7 & 12.3
  • Kerzner Chapters 9, 11, 19 & Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapter 9
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 19 & 20

Topics

  • Why do plans fail?
  • Closing a project or phase in PMBoK
  • Closing procurements in PMBoK
  • Managing a stage boundary in PRINCE2
  • Closing a project in PRINCE2
  • Authorising project closure in PRINCE2
  • Lessons learnt and best practices

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 8

Tutorial 8

Week 9 Begin Date: 18 Jan 2021

Module/Topic

Project Governance - I

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapter 13.1
  • Kerzner Chapters 1, 24 & Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Appendix B
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Glossary
  • Standards Australia: AS/NZS 8016:2013 Governance of IT enabled projects
  • Standards Australia: AS 8000-2003 Corporate governance - Good governance principles

Topics

  • Introduction to governance
  • Why does governance sometimes fail?
  • Project governance types
  • Organisational governance
  • Governance framework
  • Good governance principles
  • Governance of IT projects

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 9

Tutorial 9

Week 10 Begin Date: 25 Jan 2021

Module/Topic

Project Governance - II

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapters 4, 9.2 & 13.2
  • Kerzner Chapters 8, 10 & Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapter 11 & Appendix C
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 4 & 16

Topics

  • Project Management Office (PMO)
  • Governance and project or phase initiation
  • Governance while acquiring project teams
  • Tailoring PRINCE2 to project’s environment
  • Governance and stakeholders
  • Morality, ethics, and corporate culture
  • Professional responsibilities

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 10

Tutorial 10

Week 11 Begin Date: 01 Feb 2021

Module/Topic

Integration Management – I

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapter 4, Part 2: Chapters 3-6
  • Kerzner Chapters 3, 18 & Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Appendix A & C
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 13, 14 & 17

Topics

  • Project integration management 
  • Directing & managing project work
  • Controlling a stage

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 11

Tutorial 11


Project Audit, Termination and Governance Reports Due: Week 11 Monday (1 Feb 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 12 Begin Date: 08 Feb 2021

Module/Topic

Integration Management – II

Chapter

Readings

  • PMBOK Part 1: Chapter 4
  • Kerzner Chapter 11 & Appendix E
  • Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Appendix A & C
  • Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 Chapters 18 & 19

Topics

  • Managing project knowledge
  • Monitoring & controlling project work
  • Performing integrated change control
  • Closing project or phase
  • Managing product delivery
  • Managing a stage boundary

Events and Submissions/Topic

Lecture 12

Assessment 3 - Q&A Session on Presentations take place this week during the tutorial classes.


Critical Analysis Report + Presentation Due: Week 12 Friday (12 Feb 2021) 11:45 pm AEST
Exam Week Begin Date: 15 Feb 2021

Module/Topic

Chapter

Events and Submissions/Topic

Assessment Tasks

1 Practical Assessment

Assessment Title
Project Status and Controls Reports

Task Description

This assessment is an individual assignment. This assessment item requires you to consider:

  • Earned value,
  • Event-driven controls,
  • Time-driven controls

You are required to analyse the items listed above for the supplied case study from a real-life context. The templates for the project status and controls reports have been provided to meet the requirements outlined in the PMBOK (2017) and conform to the project progress and control requirements outlined in Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (2017).

Task

  • Your task is to consider the overview above and analyse earned value and controls reports. You will be graded upon how well your analysis of the project status and controls reports has been completed and reflects on the supplied case study.

Purpose

  • The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help you to develop skills in the compilation of project status report and development of event-driven and time-driven control processes.
  • The secondary purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to consider the role of project progress evaluation techniques and control requirements within a project life cycle.
  • The assignment will also give you the opportunity to enhance your analysis and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of structured assignment writing.

Structure

  • Your submission should be made using the supplied case study, project status and controls reports templates. You should complete all the required parts to the extent you deem appropriate.
  • The instruction boxes given in the templates provide more information that must be deleted before submitting your assignment into Moodle.


Assessment Due Date

Week 7 Monday (4 Jan 2021) 11:45 pm AEST

Your submission should be made using the supplied case study, project status and controls reports templates. You should complete all the required parts in as complete manner as you deem appropriate. The instruction boxes given in the templates provide more information which must be deleted before submitting your assignment into Moodle.


Return Date to Students

Assignments will be returned to students with comments and marks awarded.


Weighting
30%

Assessment Criteria

Your assignment will be assessed on the extent and quality to which it meets each of the following criteria:

  • A complete and correct analysis of the project status report? (40%)
  • A complete and correct analysis of the project controls report? (40%)
  • An appropriate and well structured, concise and clear expression of project management arguments in response to the assessment task? (10%)
  • Clarity of expression, grammar and spelling? (10%)


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Define and justify project event-driven and time-driven controls for a case study project


Graduate Attributes
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Research
  • Ethical and Professional Responsibility

2 Practical Assessment

Assessment Title
Project Audit, Termination and Governance Reports

Task Description

This assessment is an individual assignment. This assessment item requires you to consider:

  • Audit plan and report,
  • Termination (closure) plan and report,
  • Governance report

You are required to analyse the items listed above for the supplied case study from a real-life context. The templates for the project audit, termination (closure) and governance reports have been provided to meet the requirements outlined in the PMBOK (2017) and conform to the requirements outlined in Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (2017).

Task

  • Your task is to consider the overview above and analyse project audit plan and report, project termination (closure) plan and report, as well as governance report. You will be graded upon how well your analysis of the project audit plan and report, project termination (closure) plan and report, as well as governance report, has been completed and reflects on the supplied case study.

Purpose

  • The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help you to develop skills in the contents and compilation of project audit, termination (closure), and governance reports.
  • The secondary purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to consider the role of project audit, termination (closure), and governance reports within a project life cycle.
  • The assignment will also give you the opportunity to enhance your analysis and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of structured assignment writing.

Structure

  • Your submission should be made using the supplied case study, project audit, termination (closure) and governance reports templates. You should complete all the required parts to the extent you deem appropriate.
  • The instruction boxes in the templates provide more information that must be deleted before submitting your assignment into Moodle.


Assessment Due Date

Week 11 Monday (1 Feb 2021) 11:45 pm AEST

Your submission should be made using the supplied case study, project audit, termination (closure) and governance reports templates. You should complete all the required parts in as complete manner as you deem appropriate. The instruction boxes in the templates provide more information which must be deleted before submitting your assignment into Moodle.


Return Date to Students

Assignments will be returned to students with comments and marks awarded.


Weighting
30%

Assessment Criteria

Your assignment will be assessed on the extent and quality to which it meets each of the following criteria:

  • A complete and correct analysis of the project audit and termination (closure) report? (40%)
  • A complete and correct analysis of the project governance report? (40%)
  • Appropriate and well structured, concise and clear expression of project management requirements in response to the assessment task? (10%)
  • Clarity of expression, grammar and spelling? (10%)


Referencing Style

Submission
Online

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Define and justify audit, governance and termination reporting for a case study project.


Graduate Attributes
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Research
  • Ethical and Professional Responsibility

3 Written Assessment

Assessment Title
Critical Analysis Report + Presentation

Task Description

Assignment Overview

This assessment item is a group assignment.

  • You are required to form a group (maximum of 3 students) within your own tutorial class.
  • Distance education students can also form groups with other distance education students or complete this assignment individually.
  • Groups and real-life failed project names must be finalised by the end of Week 5 with the approval of your tutor.
  • You must email your tutor the group members' detail and your top two preferred project names by the end of Week 4 at the latest.
  • The earlier you send your tutor the details of your group and your preferred project names, the more likely you are to get your preferred project. The tutor will approve project names on a first-come basis.

Project management in various domains is considered to be a relatively mature discipline. There is an extensive body of knowledge that promotes project management and supports its main objective of delivering successful projects. This knowledge base is supplemented by well-established standards that have been evolving over the years, such as PMBOK and PRINCE2. These equip project managers with the knowledge, tools and skills to perform their role.

Having said that, project delivery in various domains is still unsatisfactory. Recent studies have revealed that project management fails to deliver successful project outcomes with alarming frequency. In the case of construction, for example, recent figures show that around 50% of projects fail to meet the delivery targets. These problems are not exclusive to the construction sector. IT sector projects also encounter an estimated 66% failure rate. This should be alarming to project management professionals and practitioners whose main duties are to ensure the successful delivery of projects.

Since project management is supposed to improve project delivery, it is essential to fully appreciate the reasons behind project failures. Understanding the reasons for project failures will help the project management profession work towards achieving more consistent project delivery.

This assessment item requires you to consider:

  • Project execution compared to the project management plan.
  • Project success factors and how they may have changed over the course of the project.
  • Reasons for cost and time overruns, scope, quality, and other problems.
  • Application of project control systems, such as the change control system, etc.
  • Stakeholders' influence on project performance.

You must demonstrate your understanding of the above in the context of a real-life project of your choice and submit a critical analysis report. You are encouraged to use assignment output and ideas that you may have developed from previous practical assignments within this unit as supporting evidence for your analysis.

Tasks

  • Written Report (Worth 30%): Your task is to consider the first two learning outcomes in the context of this unit. This assignment requires you to examine a significant project (partially or fully failed) of your own choice from any discipline (preferably from your personal experience or through the professional network). You are required to produce a detailed report which forwards a critical analysis of project control approaches used to ensure successful completion of the project and stakeholders’ influence. The report should include a demonstration of the range of control systems and evaluation of their application and whether a poor application of the control systems and lack of stakeholder management has contributed partially or fully to the project failure.
  • Presentation (Worth 10%): You are also required to give a presentation on your written report. You need to submit a video recording of your presentation along with the written report and presentation slides.

Purpose

  • The purpose of this assessment item is to help you to develop and demonstrate your skills in the use of project management concepts, principles, theories and arguments about the project execution, monitoring and controlling, and closing processes applied during the project lifecycle. You are particularly required to demonstrate your understanding of the real application of control systems. You must then be able to analyse and argue what type of control systems will enable better or worse project outcomes.

Written Report

The report should be of 4000 words ± 5% (excluding references and appendices).

The report should include the following key sections:

  • An introduction to the real-life (partially or fully failed) project you have chosen;
  • Explanation of the range of control systems used to monitor and control the project cost, schedule, scope, risk, and quality;
  • An analysis of the reasons that explain the cost and/or time overruns or other discrepancies encountered during the project;
  • An analysis of the extent to which the project execution team could be held responsible for the incurred overruns or discrepancies;
  • An analysis of the relationship between the problems you identified and the stakeholders’ needs and influence;
  • An analysis of the project management actions that could have been taken to better control the project and stakeholders in order to increase the chance for successful project delivery;
  • A conclusion that identifies the key lessons that project management can learn from the experience of the project.

Presentation

  • The presentation should follow a similar structure as per your written report.
  • You need to submit a video recording of your presentation along with the written report and presentation slides.
  • The duration of your presentation (video-recording) must be around 15 minutes.
  • Each group member must present an equal part of the presentation to demonstrate his/her understanding.
  • Presentation Q&A session will be held during your tutorial class in Week 12.
  • Each group will be given around 10 minutes to answer questions on their report and presentation in the Q&A session.
  • Presentations will be graded based on the individual performance of a group member.
  • If a group member is absent at the Q&A session, he/she may be awarded zero (0) marks for the presentation.

This assessment also involves research to enhance your understanding of project management concepts and utilisation of academic literature. You are expected to present information and evidence cited from the reading material of this unit. You are also encouraged to cite other resources that are peer-reviewed.

Start this assignment early in the term as it requires you to research and find a suitable real-life failed project either by searching the web or searching the appropriate journal articles by using the library website.


Assessment Due Date

Week 12 Friday (12 Feb 2021) 11:45 pm AEST

Written report and presentation files must be submitted into Moodle. Presentation Q&A session will be held during your tutorial class in Week 12.


Return Date to Students

Assignment will be returned to students on the day of confirmation of grades.


Weighting
40%

Assessment Criteria

Written Report (30% scaled)

The report will be generally assessed on the quality of the work presented, the extent and coverage of the key aspects, and understanding of the issues involved. More specifically, your assignment will be assessed on the extent and quality to which it meets each of the following criteria.

  • Familiarity with project context, issues and applicable control systems (40%)
  • Critical evaluation of the effectiveness of applied control systems and stakeholder engagement management (40%)
  • Appropriate and well structured, concise and clear understanding of project management arguments in response to the assessment task (10%)
  • Clarity of expression, language, format and presentation of the written report (10%)

Oral Presentation (10% scaled)

  • Preparation and consistency of presentation (10%)
  • Evidence of understanding and relevance of the presentation content (50%)
  • Response to questions during Q&A (30%)
  • Timing including Q&A (5%)
  • Presentation manner (5%)


Referencing Style

Submission
Online Group

Submission Instructions
Written report and presentation files must be submitted into Moodle. Oral presentation will be held during your tutorial class in Week 12.

Learning Outcomes Assessed
  • Examine the knowledge areas and processes applied in the execution and closing stages of the project management life cycle
  • Critically analyse how the needs of stakeholders might change the priority of outputs from the execution and closing stages of the project management life cycle


Graduate Attributes
  • Knowledge
  • Cognitive, technical and creative skills
  • Research
  • Ethical and Professional Responsibility

Academic Integrity Statement

As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.

Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.

When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.

Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.

As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.

What is a breach of academic integrity?

A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.

Why is academic integrity important?

A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.

Where can I get assistance?

For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.

What can you do to act with integrity?