Overview
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
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).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2024
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).
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.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
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.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure - International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback - Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
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.
Feedback from Feedback from the student evaluation survey
Provide formative feedback on students' performance
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.
Feedback from Feedback from the student evaluation survey
It is highly appreciated to enhance the online quiz 1 since the questions were situational and quite challenging.
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.
- Apply fundamental principles of system thinking to project, program and portfolio management
- Demonstrate the use of system thinking tools and techniques to solve complex problems
- Discuss contemporary developments and the importance of project, program and portfolio application systems
- Explain the importance for project management application systems to enable knowledge management and decision making
- 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 - 35% | |||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | |||||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) - 10% | |||||
| 4 - Online Test - 25% | |||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | |
| 1 - Knowledge | |||||
| 2 - Communication | |||||
| 3 - Cognitive, technical and creative skills | |||||
| 4 - Research | |||||
| 5 - Self-management | |||||
| 6 - Ethical and Professional Responsibility | |||||
| 7 - Leadership | |||||
| 8 - First Nations Knowledges | |||||
| 9 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | |||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
| 1 - Portfolio - 35% | |||||||||
| 2 - Written Assessment - 30% | |||||||||
| 3 - Online Quiz(zes) - 10% | |||||||||
| 4 - Online Test - 25% | |||||||||
Textbooks
The standard for portfolio management
- Edition: 4th edn (2017)
- Authors: Project management institute (PMI)
- Project Management Institute (PMI)
- ISBN: 9781628253962
- Binding: eBook
The standard for program management
- Edition: 4th edn (2017)
- Authors: Project management institute (PMI)
- Project management institute (PMI)
- ISBN: 9781628251968
- Binding: eBook
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
- Basic project management software such as MS Project
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 7th Edition (APA 7th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
t.trinh@cqu.edu.au
Week 1
Begin Date: 04 Mar 2024Module/Topic
Program and Portfolio Management Overview
Chapter
- The Standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 1
-
The Standard for Program Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 1
Events and Submissions/Topic
Unit Introduction
Lecture 1
Tutorial 1
Week 2
Begin Date: 11 Mar 2024Module/Topic
Program and Portfolio Strategic Management
Chapter
- The standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 3
-
The Standard for Program Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 3
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 2
Tutorial 2
Week 3
Begin Date: 18 Mar 2024Module/Topic
System Thinking in Program and Portfolio Management
Chapter
- SEBOK - https://sebokwiki.org/wiki/systems_thinking
- SEBOK - https://sebokwiki.org/wiki/portfolio_management
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 3
Tutorial 3
Assessment 3 (Group formations must be finalised by Week 4)
Week 4
Begin Date: 25 Mar 2024Module/Topic
Program and Portfolio Life Cycles
Chapter
- The Standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 2
-
The Standard for Program Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 7
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 4
Tutorial 4
Assessment 2 - Portfolio Part 1 (Forum discussion topic released)
Week 5
Begin Date: 01 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Program and Portfolio Governance
Chapter
- The standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 4
-
The Standard for Program Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 6
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 5
Tutorial 5
Assessment 2 - Portfolio Part 1 (Forum discussion due)
Vacation Week
Begin Date: 08 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Mid-term break
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Week 6
Begin Date: 15 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Program and Portfolio Management Information Systems
Chapter
- The Standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 2, Section 2.4
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 6
Tutorial 6
Assessment 1 - Online Quiz (During the tutorial class in Week 6 for on-campus students, Online students would attend a Zoom/Teams session)
Assessment 2 - Portfolio Part 2 (Forum discussion topic released)
Online Quiz Due: Week 6 Friday (19 Apr 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 7
Begin Date: 22 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Portfolio Capacity and Capability Management
Chapter
- The Standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 5
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 7
Tutorial 7
Assessment 2 - Portfolio Part 2 (Forum discussion due)
Week 8
Begin Date: 29 Apr 2024Module/Topic
Portfolio Stakeholder Engagement
Chapter
- The Standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 6
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 8
Tutorial 8
Week 9
Begin Date: 06 May 2024Module/Topic
Portfolio Risk Management
Chapter
- The Standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 8
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 9
Tutorial 9
Assessment 2 - Consolidated Portfolio (Consists of Part 1 & 2) Submission due
Week 10
Begin Date: 13 May 2024Module/Topic
Program and Portfolio Value Management
Chapter
- The Standard for Portfolio Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 7
-
The Standard for Program Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 4
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 10
Tutorial 10
Week 11
Begin Date: 20 May 2024Module/Topic
Program Activities
Chapter
-
The Standard for Program Management (PMI) - 4th edition - Chapter 8
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 11
Tutorial 11
Assessment 3 - Portfolio Management Plan (Submission due)
Portfolio Management Plan Due: Week 11 Friday (24 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 12
Begin Date: 27 May 2024Module/Topic
Advanced Topics on Program and Portfolio Management
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Lecture 12
Tutorial 12
Review/Exam Week
Begin Date: 03 Jun 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Assessment 4 - Online Exam
Online Exam Due: Review/Exam Week Friday (7 June 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Exam Week
Begin Date: 10 Jun 2024Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Portfolio
This is an individual assignment that is worth 35% of the unit marks.
You are required to complete questions and activities and summarise them to provide a consolidated portfolio. Your portfolio will provide an account of your learning based on your practice and your critical reflection.
Purpose
The primary purpose of this assessment item is to help the students:
- To demonstrate an understanding of knowledge and skills that include recent, global developments within the area of program and portfolio management and their applications in professional practice.
- To develop the capability to investigate, research, analyse, and synthesise complex information, problems, concepts, and theories and to apply established theories to program and portfolio management practice.
Task
This assessment item has two parts: 1) Discussion forums, and 2) Consolidated portfolio
(1) Discussion forums:
In a designated week, one topic related to the weekly lectures will be posted on the forum for discussion. The topics will be specified and posted on the forum by the end of week 4 and week 6.
- You are expected to contribute to the topic discussion posted on the forum by Friday 11:45 PM AEST of the following week (Week 5 & 7 respectively).
- Each topic's forum discussion will be closed and will not receive new posts from students after the deadline.
- You can either start a new thread or comment on an existing one.
- A response may extend, support, or challenge the post of another student, and your response must be supported with evidence. You may respond as many times as necessary to elaborate your arguments.
- In week 9, you will consolidate your responses on the forum into a single document which becomes your consolidated portfolio for submission.
- The discussion on the forums focuses on providing and exchanging ideas among students and will not require academic writing.
- A minimum of 150 words is expected from each student in each discussion forum.
(2) Consolidated portfolio
- The consolidated portfolio must be submitted as a single document (Word file).
- The evidence of the forum participation should form an appendix to the consolidated portfolio and is marked.
- The consolidated portfolio submission should comprehensively discuss the topics given on the forums, while arguments are supported with quality evidence. Academic writing is required including the appropriate referencing. The discussion in the consolidated portfolio may be different from the initial response on the forums. This reflects the progressive nature of learning.
- If you fail to provide your response on your forum, you will still be able to provide your response in the final consolidated portfolio.
In summary, the consolidated portfolio consists of 3 sections:
- The final discussion of the forum questions.
- Your reflection on these learning activities.
- Evidence of the forum participation & references.
The marking is done on the consolidated portfolio. The word limit for the consolidated portfolio is 2000 words +/- 10%. Late submission will incur a mark deduction of 10% per each late day.
Referencing
- Accurate referencing is important and will allow the marker to easily identify where your portfolio maps to the unit or other peer-reviewed material.
- You will be able to obtain maximum marks when your work contains a critical analysis of topics followed by proper referencing and proficient academic writing.
Feedback on forum questions will be provided in the following week's tutorial class. Feedback will be general rather than specific to an individual. Written feedback on the consolidated portfolio will be provided.
Your submission will be assessed on the extent and quality to which it meets each of the following criteria.
- Forum discussion participation with posts that are relevant to the discussion topic and demonstrate an understanding of the topic, comments are appropriate, thoughtful, reflective, and respectful of others' postings (25%).
- Quality and appropriateness of the response to questions that demonstrate arguments supported by evidence (40%).
- Quality and appropriateness of the student's reflection (25%).
- Clarity of expression, language, format, citations, and references (10%).
- Apply fundamental principles of system thinking to project, program and portfolio management
- Discuss contemporary developments and the importance of project, program and portfolio application systems
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
- Self-management
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
2 Written Assessment
This is a group assignment which is worth 30% of the unit marks. You are required to propose a portfolio management plan that would realise a company’s strategic objective.
Purpose
- Firstly, this assessment item aims to help you apply systems thinking in coming up with a comprehensive solution to a complex problem in a business case.
- Secondly, this assessment item aims to provide you with the ability to apply portfolio management principles, practices, tools, and portfolio management information systems in prioritising and selecting portfolio components and planning portfolio management.
- Finally, this assessment item aims to give you the opportunity to enhance your teamwork, analysis, critical thinking, and written communication skills; particularly in the areas of argument development and academic writing.
Tasks
- Form a group comprising 3-5 students (ideally 4 members in a group) in consultation with your tutor.
- Select a specific strategic objective in an organization. Details of the organization will be provided in the assignment description on the Moodle website.
- Propose a portfolio management plan to manage the portfolio implementation using systems thinking tools and techniques that might aid portfolio managers to propose a portfolio and its components (i.e. related projects and programs) that will potentially realise a strategic objective in this organisation.
- The portfolio management plan must consist of all components as stated in the assignment description on the Moodle website.
- Due to the nature of the assessment, there is a loose word limit suggestion of 4000 words +/- 10%.
Week 11 Friday (24 May 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
Week 11 Friday (24 May 2024)
Assessment marks and feedback will be released approximately 2 weeks after submission deadline.
- Executive summary - (5%)
- Portfolio strategy - (10%)
- Portfolio scope management - (10%)
- Portfolio delivery schedule and milestones - (5%)
- Portfolio governance plan - (10%)
- Portfolio capacity and capability management - (10%)
- Portfolio stakeholder engagement - (10%)
- Portfolio risk management - (10%)
- Portfolio value management - (10%)
- Evidence of group work - (10%)
- Clarity of expression, language, format, citations, and references - (10%)
- Demonstrate the use of system thinking tools and techniques to solve complex problems
- Explain the importance for project management application systems to enable knowledge management and decision making
- Knowledge
- Communication
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Research
3 Online Quiz(zes)
This assessment item involves an online quiz which is worth 10% of the unit marks.
The quiz will evaluate your knowledge and understanding of topics and material covered in the first 5 weeks.
- You may attempt the quiz twice and your highest score will be counted.
- On-campus students must attempt the quiz during their tutorial class in week 6. Online students would need to attend an online session via Zoom/Teams or an equivalent platform to attempt the quiz. Students must share their screens and switch on their cameras and microphones while attempting the quiz. Each student will be placed in a separate breakout room under the exam condition and be recorded during the quiz.
- The quiz will be administered during the respective tutorial classes under the supervision of the tutor.
- The quiz is considered a closed-book quiz, and seeking any form of assistance is prohibited.
- All students must be present at the beginning of the session. Late attendance will impact your ability to complete the quiz.
Late attendance of 15 minutes after the quiz starts will be disqualified. - Being absent from the quiz without an approved request for an extension would result in a zero (0) mark.
- There will be twenty (20) questions (a combination of multiple-choice and true/false questions).
- There will be a time limit of 30 minutes to complete the quiz. Your quiz will automatically be submitted after 30 minutes.
- The quiz will cover the content from weeks 1 to 5 (lectures, tutorials, readings, etc.).
- When you attempt the quiz, the questions will be randomly selected from a pool of questions and displayed to you. It is very unlikely that will be presented with the same questions.
2
Other
Week 6 Friday (19 Apr 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
On-campus students are required to participate in the week 6 tutorial for the test, while online students will receive Zoom session access details from the unit coordinator ahead of the quiz.
Students will be able to view their marks once the quiz has been closed.
- The quiz will consist of twenty (20) questions.
- Each question will carry equal marks.
- There will be no penalty for incorrect answers.
- Apply fundamental principles of system thinking to project, program and portfolio management
- Demonstrate the use of system thinking tools and techniques to solve complex problems
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
4 Online Test
This assessment item involves an online exam which is worth 25% of the unit marks.
- The online exam is an open-book test and will be accessible via Moodle website.
- Only one submission attempt is allowed during the allocated exam time.
- The online exam will consist of 3-5 questions. Each question may consist of sub-questions which may be in the form of a short essay.
- The online exam will be of 2 hours duration (120 minutes + 15 minutes perusal time).
- You will read the questions, type in your answers within the given textbox below each question, and submit your answers back into Moodle within 135 minutes.
- You should make sure you complete your answers within the given time frame, otherwise, your answers will be submitted automatically after 135 minutes.
- The questions will be randomly selected from a pool of questions and displayed to you. It is very unlikely that two students will be presented with the same questions.
- The online exam will be administered during the exam week. However, a detailed assessment guide and time and location will be provided on the Moodle website before the exam week.
Review/Exam Week Friday (7 June 2024) 11:45 pm AEST
The date and time for the online exam will be confirmed later during the term.
Assessment marks and feedback will be released on the day of certification of grades.
- The online exam will consist of 3-5 questions.
- The marks will be specified against each question and its sub-questions.
- Only one attempt is allowed for the online exam.
- Discuss contemporary developments and the importance of project, program and portfolio application systems
- Evaluate the importance of project management application systems to monitor performance and manage change across projects, programs and portfolios.
- Knowledge
- Cognitive, technical and creative skills
- Ethical and Professional Responsibility
- Leadership
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
