Overview
This unit will equip you with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively manage project execution and closure, ensuring that projects are completed on time, within budget, and to the satisfaction of stakeholders. You will learn about various activities involved in executing a project plan, such as managing project resources, monitoring project progress, and controlling project risks. You will learn about the importance of communication and collaboration among team members and stakeholders during the project execution phase. You will be able to identify the practical application of project monitoring, control systems, and the management of issues, such as scope creep, risk, quality, and baseline changes, arising during the execution. You will also learn about the importance of proper project closure, including finalizing deliverables, conducting post-project evaluations, and documenting project outcomes.
Details
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 1 - 2024
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).
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
Assessment Overview
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.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
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 feedback
There was a lack of resource availability to support the completion of assessments and facilitate learning for each topic covered.
Assessment documentation is to be reviewed and updated to better support students in completing their assessments. Students will be encouraged to do further research.
Feedback from Student feedback
A bit of misalignment was observed between assessments and the lectures. The assessments could be better aligned to the lectures.
The lectures and assessment topics are to be reviewed and updated to ensure alignment.
Feedback from Student feedback
Both the tutor and lecturer are very helpful. They have excellent teaching skills to ensure students understand the lesson and tasks.
The teaching team will continuously work hard to engage students in the class for comprehensive learning of the best project management practices in real-life fields toward developing skilled manpower for the industry.
Feedback from Student feedback
Students love to have real-life case discussions in class and ensure they are engaged in the lectures.
The teaching team will focus on discussing more real-life cases in class with special care. They will also use appropriate teaching techniques to engage students in class.
- Explain the processes applied during project executing and closing.
- Examine and apply project monitoring and control processes to ensure that the project is effectively managed, and status is accurately reported.
- Discuss and analyse project closure activities.
- Appraise the success of a project and provide recommendations to improve performance on future projects based on the lessons learned.
This unit will satisfy one of the core requirements for the Australian Computer Society (ACS) accreditation in the postgraduate Information and Communication Technology (ICT) courses. This unit is also part of an accreditation package granted by the ACS. The unit contributes to the required number of academic study units for students wishing to undertake professional certification with the Project Management Institute's (PMI) professional qualifications, such as CAPM or PMP.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) recognises the Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA). SFIA is adopted by organisations, governments and individuals in many 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.
This unit contributes to the following workplace skills as defined by SFIA 8 (the SFIA code is included)
- Project Management (PRMG)
- Audit (AUDT)
- Risk Management (BURM)
- Governance (GOVN)
- Quality Management (QUMG)
- Stakeholder Relationship Management (RLMT)
- Change Control (CHMG)
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Online Quiz(zes) - 20% | ||||
| 2 - Practical Assessment - 40% | ||||
| 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 | ||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
Additional Textbook Information
- A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), 7th Edition (2021)
- Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (2018)
- Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 (2017)
- Project Management - A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling, 12th Edition (2017)
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- MS Teams
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: Harvard (author-date)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
r.veljanovski@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Outline
- Overview
- Assessments
- Project life cycle
- Governing a project
- Executing a project
- Closing a project or phase
- PMBOK vs PRINCE2
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 1
The lecture starts with an overview of the unit and the assessments. It then covers the project life cycle, particularly the executing and closing phases.
Tutorial 1
The tutorial focuses on reviewing the concepts presented in the lecture. The tutor also explains the unit expectations and students' pathways to success.
Module/Topic
Outline
- Project performance management
- Metrics for measuring project performance
- Performance themes - Managing PRINCE2
- Project performance management - PMBOK
- Project performance management - Kerzner
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 2
The lecture focuses on project performance management and different approaches to managing project performance in various frameworks.
Tutorial 2
The tutor provides a brief overview of the lecture content and engages students in a class exercise. Students also work on inquiry-based learning based on a set of questions.
Assessment 2 - The students start forming their groups
Module/Topic
Outline
- Earned value management (EVM)
- Earned value analysis (EVA) - PMBOK
- Earned value management - Managing PRINCE2
- Earned value management - Australian Standards
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 3
The lecture focuses on earned value management and its related concepts.
Tutorial 3
The tutor provides a brief overview of the lecture content and engages the students to do some exercises on EVM in project progress reporting.
Module/Topic
Outline
- What is a control and control system?
- Control scope, schedule, and costs - PMBOK
- Integrated change control - PMBOK
- Change theme - Managing PRINCE2
- Controlling a stage - Managing PRINCE2
- Control processes - Australian Standards
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 4
The lecture covers the importance of control systems in managing projects and introduces project control systems and change approaches from various reference works.
Tutorial 4
The tutorial session presents some practical examples of applying several project control systems, and students do some exercises.
Assessment 2 - Groups must be finalised with the consent and/or approval of the tutor.
Module/Topic
Outline
- Project audits
- Quality management system - Kerzner
- Quality control - PMBOK
- Quality control - Managing PRINCE2
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 5
The lecturer focuses on project audits, quality management processes, quality audits, etc. from various reference works.
Tutorial 5
The tutor provides a brief overview of the lecture content and engages students in a class exercise. Students also work on inquiry-based learning based on a set of questions.
Module/Topic
This is a non-teaching week
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Outline
- What is governance?
- Corporate and project governance
- Project governance principles, types, and frameworks
- Governance of portfolios, programs, and projects
- Governance of complex projects
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 6
The lecturer focuses on project governance, good governance principles, and framework.
Tutorial 6
After a brief overview of the lecture content, the tutor engages students in a situational class activity.
Module/Topic
Outline
- Project resource management
- Acquire, and control resources
- Acquire, develop, and manage teams
- Project procurement management
- Conduct and control procurement
- Contract types in procurement
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 7
The lecturer focuses on the processes, tools, and techniques in managing project resources and procurement.
Tutorial 7
After a brief overview of the lecture content, the tutor engages students in a group activity. Students do some research based on the given questions, find answers, and attend an interactive discussion.
Assessment 1 - due this week (Friday).
Project Exception and Audit Reports (Individual) Due: Week 7 Friday (26 Apr 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Outline
- Manage and monitor communications - PMBOK
- Monitor and control risks - PMBOK
- Managing communications and risks - Managing PRINCE2
- Managing product delivery - Managing PRINCE2
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 8
The lecture covers topics relating to stakeholder management and communication, risk identification and assessment, etc.
Tutorial 8
After a brief overview of the lecture content, the students will work on risk identification, analysis, stakeholder engagement, and communication exercises based on a given project document/research paper.
Module/Topic
Outline
- Monitor and control project work - PMBOK
- Manage product delivery - Managing PRINCE2
- Manage project knowledge - PMBOK
- Project knowledge transformation
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 9
The lecture covers topics on monitoring and controlling project work, managing product delivery, and managing project knowledge and its transformation.
Tutorial 9
After a brief overview of the lecture content, the students will work on managing project work, delivery, and knowledge on a given project document/research paper.
Module/Topic
Outline
- Closing a project or phase - PMBOK
- Authorising project closure - Directing PRINCE2
- Closing a project - Managing PRINCE2
- Project failure and success - Kerzner
- Project reviews
- Lessons Learned
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 10
The lecture explores the processes of closing the project or phase, post-project reviews, and lessons learned.
Tutorial 10
After a brief overview of the lecture content, the students engage in exercises (i.e., reading the given project closure report and finding lessons learned).
Assessment 2 - due this week (Friday).
Critical Analysis Report + Presentation (Group Work) Due: Week 10 Friday (17 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Outline
- Morality, ethics, and corporate culture
- Professional responsibilities
- Professional ethics and code of conduct
- Industry codes of conduct
Chapter
Readings
- To be provided on the Moodle website
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 11
The lecturer provides a discussion on the professional responsibilities of the project managers.
Tutorial 11
Based on the predefined schedule by the tutor, the oral presentations will be held within the tutorial classes this week.
Module/Topic
Outline
- Summary and review of the topics covered during the term.
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 12
The lecturer provides a summary and review of the topics covered during the term.
Tutorial 12
The oral presentations continue this week as well.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assessment 3 - The online quiz must be completed this week.
Online Quiz Due: Review/Exam Week Friday (7 June 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Practical Assessment
This assessment is an individual assignment. This assessment item requires you to consider:
- 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 exception and audit reports will be provided to meet the requirements outlined in the PMBOK and conform to the project progress and control requirements outlined in Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2.
Task
This assignment requires you to examine and analyse a case study in a real-life context and produce exception and audit reports. You will be graded based on your analysis, reflection, and quality of the project exception and audit reports.
Purpose
- The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help you develop skills in the compilation of project exception and audit reports.
- The secondary purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to consider the role of project exception and audit 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 exception, and audit report templates. You should complete all the required parts to the extent you deem appropriate.
Week 7 Friday (26 Apr 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 9 Friday (10 May 2024)
Assignment grades will be released along with the feedback.
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 exception report? (40%)
- A complete and correct analysis of the project audit 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%)
- Explain the processes applied during project executing and closing.
- Examine and apply project monitoring and control processes to ensure that the project is effectively managed, and status is accurately reported.
- Appraise the success of a project and provide recommendations to improve performance on future projects based on the lessons learned.
2 Written Assessment
Overview
This assessment item is a group assignment.
- You are required to form a group consisting of 3-5 students (ideally 4 students in a group) within your own tutorial class.
- Distance education students can also form groups with other distance education students or complete this assignment individually.
- Groups must be finalized by the end of Week 5 with the consent and approval of your tutor.
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 to equip project managers with the knowledge, tools, and skills to perform their role. Having said that, project delivery in various domains is still unsatisfactory. Many recent studies and audits have revealed that project management fails to deliver successful project outcomes with alarming frequency. Recent data from PMI (Standish, Wrike, et al) shows that approximately 75% of projects fail to meet at least one of their stated baseline objectives. TeamStage 2023 blog states that 70% of all projects fail to deliver what was promised to customers. 42% of companies don’t understand the need or importance of project management. 55% of project managers cite budget overruns as a reason for project failure. 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 failure. Understanding the reasons for project failure will help protect the project management profession in working 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 schedule overruns, scope, quality, and other issues.
- 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 case study and submit a critical analysis report. You are encouraged to use assignment output and ideas that you may have developed from the practical assessment within this unit as supporting evidence for your analysis.
Tasks
- (Worth 30 marks) This assignment requires you to examine a significant real-life case study and produce a detailed report that forwards a critical analysis of project control approaches used to ensure the 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 or not a poor application of the control systems and lack of stakeholders' management has contributed partially or fully to the project failure. The report should also include recommendations to improve performance on future projects based on the lessons learned from the case study.
- (Worth 10 marks) In addition, you are required to give an oral presentation about your written report. Oral presentations will be held during tutorial classes for face-to-face students (via Zoom for distance learning students).
Purpose
The purpose of this assessment item is to help you develop and demonstrate your skills in the use of project management concepts, principles, theories, and arguments about the project management execution and closing phases. You are particularly required to demonstrate your understanding of the real application of control systems. You must then be able to analyze and argue what type of control systems will enable better or worse project outcomes in the future.
Written Report
The report should be 4000 words ± 5% (excluding references and appendices). The report should include the following key sections:
- An executive summary or abstract of the report;
- An introduction to the real-life (partially or fully failed) project and major issues it encountered;
- An explanation of the range of control systems used to monitor and control the project cost, schedule, scope, risks, 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 relationship between the problems and reasons you identified and the stakeholders’ needs and influence;
- An analysis of the project management actions that could have been taken to better manage and control the project and stakeholders in order to increase the chances for successful project delivery;
- A conclusion that identifies the key lessons that project management can learn from the experience of the project and provides recommendations to improve performance on future projects;
- Self-reflection by each group member for their contribution to the group assignment while researching, collecting, and analysing the data, and compiling the report.
Oral presentation
Presentations will be held during the tutorial classes in Weeks 11 and 12.
- The presentation should follow a similar structure as per your written report;
- The duration of each group's presentation will be around 15 minutes plus 5 minutes for Q&A;
- Each group member must present an equal part of the presentation to demonstrate their understanding;
- Presentations will be graded based on the individual performance of a group member;
- If a group member is absent from the presentation, he/she will be awarded zero (0) marks for the presentation.
This assessment also involves researching the given case study to enhance your understanding of project management concepts and utilization of academic literature. Whilst you should use the recommended books and standards, you may also refer to relevant peer-reviewed journal articles. You will be expected to present information and evidence from and cite the reading material from the unit. You are also encouraged to cite other material that is peer-reviewed.
Week 10 Friday (17 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Assignment marks will be released to the students on the day of confirmation of grades.
Written Report (Scaled to 30 marks)
The report will be generally assessed on the quality of the work presented, the extent and coverage of the key aspects, and the understanding of the issues involved. More specifically, your report will be assessed on the extent and quality to which it meets each of the following criteria:
- An executive summary or abstract of the report (5%)
- An introduction to the given real-life project and major issues it encountered (10%)
- An explanation of the range of control systems used to monitor and control the project cost, schedule, scope, risk, and quality (15%)
- An analysis of the reasons that explain the cost and/or time overruns or other discrepancies encountered during the project execution (15%)
- An analysis of the relationship between the problems and reasons you identified and the stakeholders’ needs and influences (15%)
- An analysis of the project management actions that could have been taken to better control the project and stakeholders in order to increase the chances for successful project delivery (15%)
- A conclusion that identifies the key lessons that project management can learn from the experience of the project and provides recommendations to improve performance on future projects (10%)
- Self-reflection by each group member for their contribution to the group assignment while researching, collecting, and analysing the data, and compiling the critical analysis report (5%)
- Clarity of expression, grammar, spelling, report format and presentation, in-text citations, references, and referencing style (10%)
Oral Presentation (Scaled to 10 marks)
- Preparation and consistency of presentation slides (20%) - Group marks
- Evidence of understanding and relevance of the presentation content (40%) - Individual marks
- Response to questions during Q&A (20%) - Individual marks
- Presentation manners: tone, eye contact, fluency, etc. (10%) - Individual marks
- Presentation timing including Q&A (10%) - Group marks
- Discuss and analyse project closure activities.
- Appraise the success of a project and provide recommendations to improve performance on future projects based on the lessons learned.
3 Online Quiz(zes)
This assessment item involves an online quiz which is worth 20% of the unit marks. The quiz will evaluate your knowledge and understanding of topics and material covered during the term.
- Only one attempt will be allowed.
- The online quiz will be held within a specific timeframe during the exam week (i.e. week 13).
- The quiz will cover the content from weeks 1 to 10 (lectures, tutorials, and reading materials).
- The quiz will consist of 30 questions (a combination of multiple-choice and true/false questions).
- There will be a time limit of 40 minutes to complete the quiz. The quiz will automatically be submitted after your attempt expires.
- When you attempt the quiz, the questions will be randomly selected from a pool of questions and displayed to you. It is very unlikely that two students will receive the same questions.
1
Other
Review/Exam Week Friday (7 June 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
The quiz will need to be completed within a window of one hour.
The marks will be released after the quiz has been closed.
- Each question carries equal marks, and there are no penalties for incorrect answers.
- The online quiz will be marked by the Moodle computer program upon submission.
- Explain the processes applied during project executing and closing.
- Examine and apply project monitoring and control processes to ensure that the project is effectively managed, and status is accurately reported.
- Discuss and analyse project closure activities.
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?
