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Unit Outline: ITEC300

Semester 1, 2008

Convenor: Mehdi Nikibin

Prerequisites: Admission to GDipIT or GradCertIT; ITEC100(P); ITEC101(P); 4cp from ITEC100-ITEC399

Students should read this unit outline carefully at the start of semester. It contains important information about the unit. If anything in it is unclear, please consult one of the teaching staff in the unit.

About This Unit

ITEC300 provides students with a thorough introduction to the skills that they will need in order to successfully navigate the business environment as Information Technology (IT) professionals. It introduces the tools, approaches and issues involved in the management of IT projects. Topics covered include project measurement, estimation and benchmarking, project risk management, system selection and evaluation, capital budgeting, outsourcing, system test planning, system delivery and post-implementation reviews. Practical work concentrates upon the use of project management tools to support the planning and evaluation process. These are applied in the context of a major case study, which spans from project proposal to post-implementation review.
The unit also introduces a range of topics vital to good professional practice, including quality management, value engineering, leadership and managing stakeholders and teams.

Teaching Staff

Role	Name	Email	Room	Office hours
Convenor, Lecturer	Mehdi Nikibin	mnikibin@ics.mq.edu.au

All emails related to ITEC300 should be sent to itec300-admin@ics.mq.edu.au and must include your full name and your student id number.

Classes

Each week you should attend 2 hours of lectures, a one hour tutorial and a one hour practical. For details of days, times and rooms consult the timetables webpage.

Please note that satisfactory performance in all of the assignments and in the final exam constitute a necessary pre-requisite for passing this unit.

Required and Recommended Texts

The following text is required for this unit:

J. Cadle and D. Yeates. ‘Project Management for Information Systems’ Prentice Hall, 5th Edition, 2006.
This book is available from the University Co-op Bookstore.

Additional reading that you may find useful for this unit:

• N. Stevenson, ‘Microsoft Project 2003 for Dummies’ Wiley, 2003
• P. Kruchten, ‘The Rational Unified Process: An Introduction, 3rd Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2003

Lectures will list appropriate Web based references and further reading for some of the rapidly evolving technologies discussed in this course.

Unit Web Page

The web page for this unit can be found at http://online.mq.edu.au/pub/itec300. Note that the majority of the unit materials are publicly available while some material requires you to log in to WebCT to access it.

The unit will make use of discussion boards hosted within WebCT. Please post questions there, they will be monitored by the staff on the unit.

Learning Outcomes

A student completing the unit should have:

1. An understanding of the concepts, approaches and techniques in management of IS projects from proposal to post-implementation review.
2. Significant experience with MS Project tool
3. Awareness of project and risk management standards
4. Improved planning, leadership, management and communication skills

In addition to the discipline-based learning objectives, all academic programs at Macquarie seek to develop students' generic skills in a range of areas. One of the aims of this unit is that students develop their skills in the following:

• Critical analysis skills;
• Creative thinking skills.

Teaching and Learning Strategy

ITEC300 is taught via lectures, tutorials and practical sessions in the laboratory. Lectures are used to introduce new material, give examples of the use of tools and techniques and put them in a wider context. While lectures are largely one to many presentations, you are encouraged to ask questions of the lecturer to clarify anything you might not be sure of. Tutorials are small group classes which give you the opportunity to interact with your peers and with a tutor who has a sound knowledge of the subject. Practical sessions give you an opportunity to practice your project management skills under the supervision of a practical demonstrator. Each week you will be given a number of problems to work on; it is important that you keep up with these problems as doing so will help you understand the material in the unit and prepare you for the work in assignments.

Each week you should:

• Attend lectures and tutorial, take notes, ask questions.
• Attend the practical session, do as many of the practical problems as you can and seek feedback from the practical demonstrator on your work.
• Read appropriate sections of the text, add to your notes and prepare questions for your lecturer or tutor.
• Prepare answers to tutorial questions for the week.
• Work on any assignments that have been released.

Lecture notes will be made available for each week but these notes are intended as an outline of the lecture only and are not a substitute for your own notes or the textbook.

Topic List

Relationship Between Assessment and Learning Outcomes

1. An Understanding of IS project management from planning to execution and review: all assessment tasks involve understanding of approaches and techniques used in management of IS projects.
2. Significant experience with 'MS Project' project management tool: At least two assignment will involve using the MS Project tool.

Task	Planned Date	Total Marks
Assignment One (MS Project)	Due Week 4	10%
Assignment Two (Business Case)	Due Week 7	10%
Assignment Three (Project Plan)	Due Week 11	30%
Weekly tutorial questions and Participation in class discussions		10%
Final Exam (closed book)	TBA	40%

Your final grade will depend on your performance in each part separately. In particular:

• You must perform satisfactorily in the examination in order to pass this unit.
• You must submit a reasonable attempt to all three assignments to pass this unit.

All assignments should be handed in via the online WebCT system at http://online.mq.edu.au/ by the time specified in the assignment description.

All work submitted should be readable and well presented. Also include code formatting guidelines...

Late work will be accepted with a penalty of 10% of the marks for the assignment per day submitted late. Hence, an assignment submitted five days late will get at most half the marks. If you cannot submit on time because of illness or other circumstances, please contact the lecturer before the due date.

Examinations

The university examination period in First Half year 2008 is from 13-29 June.

You are expected to present yourself for examination at the time and place designated in the University Examination Timetable. The timetable will be available in Draft form approximately eight weeks before the commencement of the examinations and in Final form approximately four weeks before the commencement of examinations.

You are advised that it is Macquarie University policy not to set early examinations for individuals or groups of students. All students are expected to ensure that they are available until the end of the teaching semester, that is the final day of the official examination period.

The only exception to not sitting an examination at the designated time is because of documented illness or unavoidable disruption. In these circumstances you may wish to consider applying for Special Consideration. Information about unavoidable disruption and the special consideration process is available on the web (PDF).

If a Supplementary Examination is granted as a result of the Special Consideration process the examination will be scheduled after the conclusion of the official examination period. For details of the Special Consideration policy specific to the Department of Computing, see the Department's policy page.

Plagiarism

Please refer to the Department of Computing Plagiarism Policy for the definition of plagiarism, advice on avoiding it and the penalties in place if you are found to have submitted plagiarised work.

University Policy on Grading

Academic Senate has a set of guidelines on the distribution of grades across the range from fail to high distinction. Your final result will include one of these grades plus a standardised numerical grade (SNG).

On occasion your raw mark for a unit (i.e., the total of your marks for each assessment item) may not be the same as the SNG which you receive. Under the Senate guidelines, results may be scaled to ensure that there is a degree of comparability across the university, so that units with the same past performances of their students should achieve similar results.

It is important that you realise that the policy does not require that a minimum number of students are to be failed in any unit. In fact it does something like the opposite, in requiring examiners to explain their actions if more than 20% of students fail in a unit.

Student Support Services

Macquarie University provides a range of Academic Student Support Services. Details of these services can be accessed at http://www.student.mq.edu.au.

Staff-Student Liaison Committee

The Department has established a Staff-Student Liaison Committee at each level (100, 200, 300) to provide all students studying a Computing unit the opportunity to discuss related issues or problems with both students and staff.

For each meeting, an agenda is issued and minutes are taken. These are posted on the web at:

• http://www.comp.mq.edu.au/units/300-liaison

Details of the regular meeting dates will be posted on the unit home page. Anyone with an interest in Computing units may attend. This includes staff involved in the teaching and administration of the units, and all students currently taking a Computing unit at that level. There are formal Liaison Committee representatives for each unit who attend to present the views of the student body; all students are welcome and are encouraged to attend.

The meetings are usually held in the Department of Computing Meeting Room, E6A357.

To forward agenda items or get in touch with your representative, send an email to itec300liaison@ics.mq.edu.au.

If you have exhausted all other avenues, then you should consult the Director of Teaching (Dr Steve Cassidy) or the Head of Department (Assoc. Prof. Bernard Mans). You are entitled to have your concerns raised, discussed and resolved.