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 1 - 2024

Term 1 - 2024 Profile
Brisbane
Melbourne
Online
Sydney
Term 2 - 2024 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 - 2022 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 40.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 33.33% 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: Student evaluation survey
Feedback
Assessment feedback should be provided early.
Recommendation
- Tutors and lecturers emphasise that their comments in the group discussion activity in the weekly tutorial are assessment feedback. - In Assignment 1 (biweekly portfolio submission on Moodle forum from week 2-10), the course coordinator summarises the student responses and gives some hints weekly.
Action Taken
Assessment 1 necessitates student engagement through Moodle discussions. Following the closure of each forum, tutors compiled and summarized student responses. These summaries were addressed during 10-minute follow-up tutorials scheduled for Weeks 4, 6, 8, and 10.
Source: Student evaluation survey, student comment during the class
Feedback
Limited learning support. The course is about portfolio management information systems but there are not any applications and software to use.
Recommendation
- The lectures and tutorials will provide students with templates, examples about portfolio management and also introduce different software and applications for practice.
Action Taken
The Week 6 lecture and tutorials extensively discuss portfolio management information systems (PMIS). Students were given access to a 30-day trial version of some of these applications.
Source: Assessment calendar
Feedback
Overloaded at the end of the semester There are 4 assessments in total. Assessment 1: consolidated portfolio submission (early week 10) - 35% Assessment 2: Quiz (week 6) - 10% Assessment 3: group report (week 11) - 30% Assessment 4: Online test (Exam week either week 13 or 14) - 25%. Starting from week 9, students would be overloaded with the amount of the assignment submission while the tutors would also be overloaded with the marking.
Recommendation
- The new proposal will exclude the online exam ( assessment 4- 25%) as online exams no longer align with recommendations from the CQU Renew.
Action Taken
An Update Unit Proposal will be discussed among the project management teaching team.
Source: Lecturer feedback unit evaluation survey
Feedback
Reduce program management content. Programs and portfolios are seeking completely different agendas. We need to gradually make this unit just about portfolio management.
Recommendation
The Unit Learning Outcomes will be revised to align with updated Course Learning Outcomes and the latest PMI program and Portfolio management standards.
Action Taken
Nil.
Source: Lecturer feedback
Feedback
Students lack business strategic management knowledge to understand the ideation process to initiate portfolios.
Recommendation
More strategic content to be included from the latest resources such as PMI standards. New textbooks may be needed.
Action Taken
Nil.
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
• Advanced Level
• Professional 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
• Advanced Level
• Professional 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 • • • •