PPMP20012 - Program and Portfolio Management Information Systems

General Information

Unit Synopsis

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

Level Postgraduate
Unit Level 9
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
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).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

Term 1 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 2 - 2025 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
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).

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. Portfolio 35%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. Online Quiz(zes) 10%
4. Online Test 25%

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 - 2023 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 78.95% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 43.68% 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: Feedback from the student evaluation survey
Feedback
Provide formative feedback on students' performance
Recommendation
Encourage students to seek clarification on their marks. Include a dedicated session in the tutorial lesson plan after releasing the marks to discuss assessment results. Continue to incorporate Turnitin rubrics for each assessment to streamline administration and enable markers to provide direct feedback on student submissions specifically.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Lecturer feedback unit evaluation survey
Feedback
Remove the program management content for weeks that we do not teach it (Weeks 3, 6,7, 8, and 12). Programs and portfolios are seeking completely different agendas and they do not fit in this unit we need to gradually make this unit just about PPM.
Recommendation
To sharpen the unit's focus on portfolio management, we should streamline the program management content. We should only retain program management aspects that directly relate to portfolio management, such as the program life cycle and governance.
Action Taken
The teaching materials have been streamlined in accordance with the recommendations. However, the topic of program management is introduced only in specific areas, particularly when discussing the relationship between portfolio, program, and project.
Source: Lecturer feedback
Feedback
Students lack business strategic management knowledge to understand the ideation process to initiate portfolios.
Recommendation
Continue enhancing slides with up-to-date practical data, information, and references, while seamlessly integrating them into class activities. However, it's important to note that accessing information about for-profit organizations' portfolios, like their strategic plans, might be challenging due to limited publication and accessibility. This constraint is not easily surmountable. Particularly, students who have not had any working experience (i.e enrolling Master's degree right after taking their bachelor's degree) or have not had a business background (i.e. studied business-related courses previously) would need to be provided with references, business cases, example, etc to establish a foundational knowledge for the unit.
Action Taken
Business cases from for-profit organizations were provided. New emerging trends related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were discussed in lectures and assessments. For instance, in Assessment 1, which focused on consolidated portfolios, a case about Woolworths aiming to achieve sustainability goals was introduced.
Source: Feedback from the student evaluation survey
Feedback
It is highly appreciated to enhance the online quiz 1 since the questions were situational and quite challenging.
Recommendation
Offer sample questions for the online quiz corresponding to each learning week, allowing students to review lecture content and prepare for the quiz. Integrate case studies into tutorial material to help students become accustomed to situational questions.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Apply fundamental principles of system thinking to project, program and portfolio management
  2. Demonstrate the use of system thinking tools and techniques to solve complex problems
  3. Discuss contemporary developments and the importance of project, program and portfolio application systems
  4. Explain the importance for project management application systems to enable knowledge management and decision making
  5. 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 • •
2 - Written Assessment • •
3 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
4 - Online Test • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Knowledge • • • •
2 - Communication • • • •
3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills • • • • •
4 - Research •
6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility • • • • •
7 - Leadership •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
• Professional Level
• Advanced Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1 - Portfolio • • • • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • • •
3 - Online Quiz(zes) • •
4 - Online Test • • • •