PPMP20010 - Executing and Closing Projects

General Information

Unit Synopsis

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

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 8
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the 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).

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Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2021

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Term 2 - 2021 Profile
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Term 3 - 2021 Profile
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Term 1 - 2022 Profile
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Term 2 - 2022 Profile
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Term 3 - 2022 Profile
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Term 1 - 2023 Profile
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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).

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.

Assessment Tasks

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

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

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 87.50% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 26.37% response rate.

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.

Source: Students' comments and emails, discussions during tutorial time
Feedback
While the content of the slides covering the two frameworks PMBok and PRINCE2 and the practical knowledge from Kerzner's brings the benefits of providing different perspectives on project management, it may make the content repetitive and could not fit within the given lecture time. The lecture slides should be designed to be more engaging and attractive.
Recommendation
Provide more short video clips, images, and attractive visualisation in the lecture and tutorial slides.
Action Taken
The revision of the lecture slides and tutorial slides included greater emphasis on visual components. However, further work needs to be done in relation to the repetitive content across the three texts of PMBOK, Prince2 and Kerzner, etc.
Source: Students' comments and emails, discussions during tutorial time
Feedback
Revision MCQ questions in the tutorial sessions sometimes are not related to the content of the weekly lecture. There should be more activities in the tutorials.
Recommendation
Review and update the revision questions in the tutorials to ensure the content aligns with the weekly lecture. Use Kahoot or Mentimeters or other interactive education technologies to improve students' engagement in lecture and tutorial activities. Introduce more practical case studies for in-depth discussions in class.
Action Taken
The tutorial activities were revised and updated to align with the unit learning outcomes, the learning materials and the revised assessments. The MCQ were not included in the tutorials, rather activities were developed for the students to engage with the unit materials.
Source: Assignment 1, 2 submission
Feedback
Many students are confused when completing the requirements in the templates, for example, sections 6, 8 in assignment 1 part 1, and section 4, 5,6 in part 1 assignment 2 (students get confused to differentiate between issues and causes of issues).
Recommendation
Include a specific case study to explain the assignment requirements.
Action Taken
The assessments were revised which included a case study that the assessments linked to.
Source: Assignment 3 presentation
Feedback
With each presentation lasting 20 minutes, the week 12 tutorial time (90 minutes) would not be enough to accommodate all the student presentations if the class size is big (e.g. 30 students in 10 teams).
Recommendation
With a large class size, the presentation could start in the week 11 tutorial.
Action Taken
The assessments were revised and updated where a presentation was given in Week 5.
Source: Feedback from the tutors
Feedback
Lacking a detailed marking rubric could affect the consistency in marking.
Recommendation
Provide a detailed marking rubric that could describe different scenarios for allocating marks. This would help maintain the marking standards crossing different markers.
Action Taken
A marking sheet was provided for staff to follow and information was provided to them in relation to the marking.
Source: Student feedback
Feedback
There is some repetition that arises when lecture content compares concepts across the three texts of PMBOK, Prince2 and Kerzner, etc.
Recommendation
Lecture material will be reviewed to consider the value of concept comparison across texts.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student feedback
Feedback
Weekly readings noted on Moodle are lengthy.
Recommendation
The Moodle site will be reviewed and updated to specify that the weekly readings are not mandatory.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Student feedback and coordinator reflection.
Feedback
There is an opportunity to improve the unit content and delivery to better align to the concept of project execution.
Recommendation
The learning activities will be reviewed to incorporate practice focused examples and industry case studies.
Action Taken
Nil.
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 Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Practical Assessment •
2 - Practical Assessment •
3 - Written Assessment • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Advanced Level
• Professional Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Knowledge • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • • • •
4 - Research • • • •
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility • • • •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Advanced Level
• Professional Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
3 - Written Assessment • • • •
1 - Practical Assessment • • •
2 - Practical Assessment • • •