Unit rationale, description and aim

Effective IT project management is essential to delivering technology solutions on time, within budget, and aligned with strategic goals, while managing risk and creating value for stakeholders. The Masters project (Parts A and B) extends across two semesters and is designed to promote the development of research including project management, communication. The objective of these two units is for students to show initiative, acquire new knowledge, develop basic skills in research, evaluating solutions, and disseminating results.

The focus of Part A is to provide students with fundamental project management, communication and technical skills in the context of a particular information technology project, with an emphasis on investigation phases. It specifically covers the ACS (Australian Computer Society) code of ethics for the information technology profession as well as catholic social thought, for example, students may work on developing successful community and environmental stewardship projects such as digital identity for homeless people, marine pollution, carbon foot-print tracking. The aim of this project is to prepare students for professional or academic futures by building their capacity to lead and manage IT research projects that address real-world needs.

2026 10

Campus offering

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  • Term Mode
  • Semester 1Campus Attendance
  • Semester 2Campus Attendance

Prerequisites

ITEC627 - Advanced Programming Concepts OR ITEC622 Data Analytics and Visualisation OR ITEC613 Machine Learning with Scikit-Learn

Incompatible

ISYS630 - Information Systems Project A, ITEC633 Information Technology Masters Project

Learning outcomes

To successfully complete this unit you will be able to demonstrate you have achieved the learning outcomes (LO) detailed in the below table.

Each outcome is informed by a number of graduate capabilities (GC) to ensure your work in this, and every unit, is part of a larger goal of graduating from ACU with the attributes of insight, empathy, imagination and impact.

Explore the graduate capabilities.

Demonstrate advanced understanding of research fun...

Learning Outcome 01

Demonstrate advanced understanding of research fundamentals and project management principles, and familiarity with recent developments for a particular area under investigation
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC1, GC9

Critically evaluate alternative approaches, projec...

Learning Outcome 02

Critically evaluate alternative approaches, project management practices and innovative solutions that serve the common good
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC6, GC7

Collaborate effectively to produce a coherent and ...

Learning Outcome 03

Collaborate effectively to produce a coherent and consistent set of project documents embedding the principles of effective written communication skills
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC4, GC11

Apply the knowledge and skills learned so far to d...

Learning Outcome 04

Apply the knowledge and skills learned so far to demonstrate your understanding and achievement utilising relevant tools and technologies
Relevant Graduate Capabilities: GC2, GC10

Content

Topics covered: 

  • Project planning
  • Literature review including relevance of the topic under investigation to the common good
  • Project scope management
  • Project schedule management
  • Project quality management
  • Project communications management
  • Project people management
  • Project stakeholder management
  • Professional code of ethics

Assessment strategy and rationale

A range of assessment procedures will be used to meet the unit learning outcomes and develop graduate attributes consistent with University assessment requirements. The first assessment is a project management plan. The aim of this assessment item is to test students’ critical ability to apply and synthesise their project management knowledge and skills in deeper levels. The second assessment is a literature review report, which details literature search process and techniques used, existing work and gaps, justification for new ideas, and ethical considerations. The aim of this assessment item is to test students’ literature review and critical thinking skills. The last assessment is a project proposal presentation where students will present their project design and demonstrate what has been achieved in Part A of the project. All the assessment items require group work as collaborative work is common in the information technology industry and the capstone project aims to provide authentic learning experience so that students are prepared to transit into professional workplace. Peer assessment of group work will be adopted so that students will be marked based on the contributions to the group project.

Overview of assessments

Assessment Task 1: Project management plan This...

Assessment Task 1: Project management plan

This assessment task consists of a 2000-word project management plan. This task requires students to demonstrate their critical ability to apply and synthesise their project management knowledge and skills in deeper levels.

Submission Type: Group

Assessment Method: Project Management Plan

Artefact: Written project management plan

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO3
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC4, GC9, GC11

Assessment Task 2: Literature review report This...

Assessment Task 2: Literature review report

This assessment task consists of a 4000-word literature review report, which details literature search process and techniques used, existing work and gaps, justification for new ideas, and how. The aim of this assessment task is to test students’ research and critical thinking skills.

Submission Type: Group

Assessment Method: Literature Review

Artefact: Written literature review

Weighting

40%

Learning Outcomes LO1, LO2, LO3
Graduate Capabilities GC1, GC4, GC6, GC7, GC9, GC11

Assessment Task 3: Project Proposal Presentation ...

Assessment Task 3: Project Proposal Presentation

This assessment task consists of a project proposal presentation. This task requires students to present their project design and demonstrate what has been achieved in Part A of the project.

Submission Type: Group

Assessment Method: Presentation

Artefact: Presentation notes

Weighting

30%

Learning Outcomes LO4
Graduate Capabilities GC4, GC12

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit will be delivered in attendance mode over a twelve-week semester or equivalent study period.

Students will have access to all primary learning materials online through LEO, along with formative and summative assessments, all of which will be available online, to provide a learning experience beyond the classroom. While there are no formal classroom lectures for this unit, students will be required to attend weekly three-hour workshops, which will include a seminar and specific tasks related to achievement of the unit learning outcomes.

Students should anticipate undertaking 150 hours of study for this unit, including class attendance, readings, online forum participation and assessment preparation.

Representative texts and references

Representative texts and references

Kung, D. C. (2022). Software engineering: An agile unified methodology. McGraw-Hill Education.

Pressman, R. S., & Maxim, B. R. (2023). Software engineering: A practitioner’s approach (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill Education.

Sommerville, I. 2021, Software Engineering, 10th edn, Pearson 

Schwalbe, K. (2021). An introduction to project management: Predictive, agile, and hybrid approaches (7th ed.). Schwalbe Publishing.

Timinger, H. (2025). Modern project management: Successful projects with plan-based, agile and hybrid approaches. Wiley-VCH.

Tolbert, M., & Parente, S. (2020). Hybrid project management: Using agile with traditional PM methodologies to succeed on modern projects. Project Management Institute.

Watt, A., 2014, Project Management – 2nd Edition, [Open textbook] Available at https://opentextbc.ca/projectmanagement/

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