Overview
The unit introduces you to systems thinking, systems engineering and systems management principles, concepts, tools and techniques for project, program and portfolio managers (PPPM). Systems thinking offers you a powerful perspective to help design clever and enduring solutions. In your study, you will learn how to effectively apply systems engineering and systems management to organise complex projects. You will also identify the implementation of systems to create outputs and manage information flows. You will study contemporary developments in PPPM using international software, standards and knowledge bases as well as modelling and simulation techniques. As a consequence of managing PPPM information, you will be able to support effective knowledge management and decision making in an organisation.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
Pre-Requisite Units: PPMP20007 & PPMP20009
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 - 2019
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 Discipline review group
Learning outcomes (LO's) are too many and too varied.
Revise LO's so that they are fewer and more explicit.
- Apply fundamental principles of system thinking to project, program and portfolio management
- Demonstrate the use of system thinking tools and techniques to solve complex problems
- Discuss contemporary developments and the importance of project, program and portfolio application systems
- Explain the importance for project management application systems to enable knowledge management and decision making
- Evaluate the importance of project management application systems to monitor performance and manage change across projects, programs and portfolios.
The unit contributes 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.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Portfolio - 35% | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | |||||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) - 10% | |||||
| 4 - Online Test - 25% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 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 - Portfolio - 35% | ||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | ||||||||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) - 10% | ||||||||
| 4 - Online Test - 25% | ||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
Additional Textbook Information
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 6th Edition (APA 6th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
r.egelstaff@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Chapter
-
SEBoK (https://www.sebokwiki.org)
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- Please download the Full Final Report from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Unit Introduction
Lecture 1
Tutorial 1
Review Portfolio Assessment
Module/Topic
Identify different systems thinking tools and techniques to aid project managers solve project problems.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- Please download Chapter 5: Overarching Failures of Management of the Chief Counsel’s report from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 2
Tutorial 2
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 1
Module/Topic
Assess the relevance of systems engineering to project cases.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 3
Tutorial 3
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 2
Module/Topic
Describe how systems engineering concepts and methodologies can help a project manager organise a project.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 4
Tutorial 4
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 3
Module/Topic
Explain the importance of appropriate selection of Project Management (PM) application systems in regards to project realisation.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 5
Tutorial 5
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 4
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Describe how the use of PM application systems can lead to effective PM knowledge management and decision making.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 6
Tutorial 6
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 5
Online Quiz Due: Week 6 Monday (22 Apr 2019) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Compare and contrast the advantages and disadvantages of different manual and electronic PM application systems within each PM knowledge area over the life cycle of a project.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 7
Tutorial 7
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 6
Module/Topic
Identify how PM application systems can assist project managers to monitor performance and manage changes within the project.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 8
Tutorial 8
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 7
Module/Topic
Propose appropriate PM application systems to support successful project execution in different industries.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 9
Tutorial 9
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 8
Module/Topic
Discuss contemporary developments in the use of PM application systems.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 10
Tutorial 10
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 9
Group Essay Due: Week 10 Friday (24 May 2019) 11:59 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Discuss contemporary developments in the use of PM application systems.
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 11
Tutorial 11
Write and submit Portfolio for Week 10 & 11
Module/Topic
Summary and review
Chapter
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes;
- You will also be required to read some academic journal papers or texts, visit YouTube, or other web sites information.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 12
Tutorial 12
Consolidated Portfolio Due: Week 12 Monday (3 Jun 2019) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
The set texts for this unit are accessed through the web and the Australian Standards.
The main text is the SEBoK (Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge) www.sebok.org.
1 Portfolio
Assignment Overview
In this unit, you are required to complete weekly portfolios and a consolidated portfolio. A portfolio provides evidence of previous and current experience and presents a dynamic record of your growth and professional learning over the duration of this unit. Your portfolio will provide an account of your learning based on your practice and your critical reflection.
Task
Your task is to write a weekly portfolio reflecting upon your learnings from the prior week. In your portfolio you will identify: the learning outcomes and module/topic of the unit, a description of your experience including reading samples and/or records, the learning from your experiences, and any supporting documentation of prior or current learning.
Purpose The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help you to develop skills for undertaking research and translating, via your technical and creative skills, underpinning concepts about project and portfolio management information systems. The secondary purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to enhance your analysis, critical thinking and written communication skills. Developing a portfolio, as a result, makes your learning more explicit as you translate your workplace and personal experiences into documented evidence. You can then learn to critically examine the nature of your learning on this unit in relation to specific experiences in your project management practice and demonstrate that you have learned from those experiences and how you have achieved or maintained your professional competence as a result. The assignment will also give you the opportunity to enhance your analysis and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of rigorous structured assignment writing. Structure You will be provided on the Moodle website with a portfolio template. You should use this template and upload a weekly portfolio to the Moodle website. At the end of this term, you will consolidate your weekly portfolios into a single document and upload an overall consolidated portfolio. Your portfolio should contain a coherent, but necessarily restricted review of the academic literature related to the project management topics for each week. You should also include a weekly reference list formatted in the prescribed style. You are also encouraged to include a bibliography. This assessment item involves researching the topics to enhance your understanding of each concept through a utilisation of academic literature and secondary sources. Whilst you must use the recommended textbooks and web links, you should also refer to other sources on the Moodle website and additional relevant peer reviewed academic journal articles of your choosing. Weekly Portfolio Your weekly portfolio can be as long or as short as you want it to be. It is your portfolio and shows your development of understanding during the unit. Naturally, this will make the portfolio different for everyone. Each student’s background, education, current and past work experiences is what makes it different. Each student’s personal researches will be different. What you need to do is to give yourself enough time to reflect and show how you have thought and come to grips with the ideas that address the learning outcomes of the unit. The amount of time you should be allocating to the unit is 12 hours per week, so there should be a fair bit of time for you to make the reflections and reach a depth of insight that will make the portfolio meaningful. With each week’s portfolio that you submit you do not include the writing that you made for a prior week. Instead you use the same portfolio template using only the section for the week you are writing about. In other words, each week’s portfolio is a reflection upon that week. You should however, revisit the whole of the unit learning outcomes each week. The portfolio for any previous week is a reflection of your insights and thoughts for that week. Once you upload the portfolio then leave it for that week. Over the duration of the term, you will find that there is a development and change of your ideas as you study the material. You will then have opportunity at the end of the unit to consolidate everything and show how you have gained the insights that the unit is seeking to provide. At the end of the term, you should review your weekly portfolios and consolidate them into a single submission. You should make a personal reflection in this submission. This is the assessment that gets marked. It is to your benefit to have the personal discipline to make sure that you do not get behind. If you are allocating 12 hours per week for the unit then there is plenty of time for the portfolio. If you find that one week you slip then ok, but the unit is fundamentally planned so that you need to allocate 12 hours each week. The unit is straight forward, but there are lots of websites to visit and material to download. The textbooks are only part of the story and you won’t be able to do the unit with just the textbooks. Unfortunately, much of the material is written from a North American perspective. You will need to consider other industry sectors and to be able to translate the learning outcomes into an Australian or other cultural perspective. Therefore, you will need to download other files and visit websites to be able to gather the material you need in your portfolio. There are no bonus points for getting the portfolio perfect from the first week. Understanding and familiarity will only develop over time. As you do the portfolios each week and keep revisiting the learning outcomes and adding the unit material then you will gain insights required. Unless you do that on a weekly basis you won’t have the appropriate perspective to make the journey and reach the destination by the end of the unit. Portfolio for week 1 is due in week 2, portfolio for week 2 is due in week 3 and so on. Please note that there is one template for week 10 & 11 portfolio and is due at the end of week 11. Consolidated Portfolio You will be provided with a template for the consolidated portfolio due at the end of the term. Since you will have made your own journey studying during the term then the material that you will want to include in the consolidated portfolio will be unique for you. Your consolidated portfolio will explain how you have developed your understanding of the learning outcomes and the topics with each week’s study.- Your consolidated portfolio MUST be made as a single submission (one file). The weekly submissions should form an appendix to the consolidated portfolio as per the consolidated portfolio suggested layout.
Portfolio's must be submitted weekly with a final consolidated portfolio submitted at the end of week 12.
Feedback on each weekly portfolio will be provided normally in the tutorial session in the week following submission.
Your assignment will be assessed on the extent and quality to which it meets each of the following criteria.
- Evidence in regular weekly portfolios of meeting the graduate attributes? (20%)
- Qualitative reflections of each of the unit learning outcomes? (40%)
- Quantitative achievement of the unit topics? (20%)
- Clarity of expression, grammar and spelling? (5%)
- Strict conformity to CQUniversity Australia APA Referencing Guide (author-date)? (5%)
- Document clarity and presentation format? (10%)
- Apply fundamental principles of system thinking to project, program and portfolio management
- Discuss contemporary developments and the importance of project, program and portfolio application systems
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
2 Written Assessment
Task
Your task is to consider the contents of:-
- SEBoK
- AS/NZS 15288 Systems engineering – Systems life cycle processes
- Full Final Report from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
- Chapter 5: Overarching Failures of Management of the Chief Counsel’s report from the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling
- Other material as you feel appropriate
Then you must write an essay describing how these contents address the questions they pose and that explain the relevance of systems thinking to a project and an organisation by using the theories and ideas related to common themes used during this unit, such as:-
- General systems management
- Organisational structures, forms and culture
- Engineering risk, risk management,
- Portfolio alignment
- Business value
- Portfolio management process cycle
- Organisational maturity.
You should illustrate your arguments by identifying what different systems thinking tools and techniques might aid project managers solve project problems, such as what occurred with Texas City and Deepwater Horizon.
Purpose
The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help you to be able to define systems thinking and classify the tools and techniques related systems thinking. The secondary purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to enhance your analysis, critical thinking and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of argument development and essay writing.
Structure
Your essay should be a properly constructed academic essay of 2,000 words. It should contain an effective introduction, body and conclusion. The introduction should introduce the essay and include your argument. The body should present the evidence you have collected to support your argument, and the conclusion should restate your argument, summarise the evidence and make a conclusion regarding your argument. The essay should contain a coherent, but necessarily restricted review of the academic literature on the topics in question. The literature review should be integrated into the essay, not a separate section. Do not include an executive summary or an abstract. A reference list formatted in the prescribed APA style is compulsory. Do not include a bibliography.
This assessment item involves researching your assigned topic to enhance your understanding of project management concepts and utilisation of academic literature. Whilst you use the recommended textbooks you may also refer to relevant peer reviewed, academic journal articles. You will be expected to present information and evidence from, and cite, at least twenty (20) times from the prescribed unit material and you also are encouraged to use other PEER REVIEWED sources. The assessment submission must be made online through the unit web site.
Week 10 Friday (24 May 2019) 11:59 pm AEST
Week 12 Monday (3 June 2019)
- A description of the theories and ideas specific to general systems management, organisational structures, forms and culture, value management, engineering risk, risk management, systems engineering and an assessment of the linkages between these? (30%)
- A demonstration of thorough knowledge and application of relevant project and portfolio management principles, concepts, methods and theories in a systems context? (20%)
- Appropriate and well structured, concise and clear expression of systems engineering arguments in response to the assessment task? (10%)
- A clear flow of thought throughout the paper with a clear purpose described in the introduction and a comprehensive conclusion? (10%)
- A critical review and integration of relevant academic and professional literature (cited at least twenty (20) times from six (6) separate reference sources)? (15%)
- Clarity of expression, grammar and spelling? (5%)
- Strict conformity to CQUniversity Australia APA Referencing Guide? (5%)
- Appropriate presentation format and presented within (±10%) of the word limit: 2,000 words? (5%)
- Demonstrate the use of system thinking tools and techniques to solve complex problems
- Explain the importance for project management application systems to enable knowledge management and decision making
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
3 Online Quiz(zes)
- The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help you to identify factors associated with systems thinking for project, program and portfolio management.
- The secondary purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to enhance your research, analysis and critical thinking skills.
- You will be required to complete a series of multiple choice quiz questions related to the material and topics covered in the first 5 weeks of this unit.
- The quiz will be available from Monday 09:00 AM to Friday 11.45 PM in Week 6 on the Moodle website.
1
Other
Week 6 Monday (22 Apr 2019) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 6 Monday (22 Apr 2019)
The quiz will be graded in the Moodle
- There will be 10 multiple choice questions in the quiz which will be randomly selected from a pool of questions.
- You may attempt the quiz 3 times and your average score will apply.
- You have 30 minutes on each time to attempt the quiz.
- Apply fundamental principles of system thinking to project, program and portfolio management
- Demonstrate the use of system thinking tools and techniques to solve complex problems
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 Online Test
This is an open book test.
- The test will be of 2 hours duration (120 minutes + 15 minutes perusal time).
- You will have to download the test, read the questions, make your answers, check, and finally upload your answers back into Moodle within 135 minutes.
- You should make sure you upload your test answers within time-frame otherwise a penalty of 5% will be applied for every 5 minutes of late submission.
- You should make sure that you save drafts of your test answers frequently in Moodle to ensure that you have partial answers secured in Moodle.
- The test will comprise of 10 questions. You are to submit your answers to 5 of the 10 questions using the assessment submission link located in Moodle.
- Your submission must be in a Microsoft Word document file format.
Review/Exam Week Monday (10 June 2019) 11:45 pm AEST
Exam Week Friday (21 June 2019)
The percentage of correct answers corresponding to:
- A demonstration of thorough knowledge and application of relevant project and portfolio management principles, concepts, methods and theories in a systems context.
- Appropriate and well structured, concise and clear expression of systems engineering arguments in response to the assessment questions.
- A critical review and integration of relevant academic and professional literature.
- Clarity of expression, grammar and spelling.
- Strict conformity to CQUniversity Australia APA Referencing Guide.
No submission method provided.
- Discuss contemporary developments and the importance of project, program and portfolio application systems
- Evaluate the importance of project management application systems to monitor performance and manage change across projects, programs and portfolios.
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
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?
