PPMP12003 - Communications and Stakeholder Management

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit introduces you to the core principles of effective communication used to engage and manage diverse stakeholders. The foundational elements of engagement and communications, such as the use of visualisation, alongside techniques used for effective engagement and communications strategies are covered in the unit. Engaging project stakeholders is important and how this is managed can impact stakeholder expectations and satisfaction. Employers place significant emphasis on graduate communications and interpersonal skills, and this unit will provide you with the opportunity to move beyond the theory, develop and apply your communication skills through the lens of human-centered design principles.

Details

Level Undergraduate
Unit Level 2
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

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

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 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).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Undergraduate 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. Online Quiz(zes) 20%
2. Written Assessment 35%
3. Practical Assessment 45%

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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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.

Unit learning Outcomes

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

  1. Identify core principles of effective communication to engage diverse stakeholders
  2. Critically analyse stakeholders' matrix within a project context to develop effective engagement and communication strategies
  3. Identify and apply principles of inclusive and culturally respectful communication for effective engagement of project stakeholders
  4. Enhance stakeholder engagement by integrating visualisualisation into the communication process through the lens of human centered design.

This unit addresses either in full or in part, the following graduate attributes noted in the Engineers Australia Policy on Accreditation:

  • ability to communicate effectively, not only with engineers but also with the community at large
  • ability to function effectively as an individual and in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams, with the capacity to be a leader or manager as well as an effective team member;
  • understanding of the social, cultural, global and environmental responsibilities of the professional engineer, and the need for sustainable development.

(Engineers Australia policy on accreditation retrieved from https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/sites/default/files/content-files/2016-12/110214_P02EA_Curr_Engineers_Australia_Policy_on_Accred_REV_0.PDF on 18/09/2020)

This also aligns with the Five Annual Built Environment Course Review and panel recommendations which stated: 'There is a need for an individual unit dealing with communication, which includes hand drawing, technical drawing and the various drawing software packages used in industry.' The action plan to address the recommendation noted that such a unit should consider such a unit that could provide the outcome for both colleges. It is envisaged that the AutoCAD software could be used for those with an engineering or built environment background, but there is also the flexibility in the future to differentiate the visualisation to software catering to those with an ICT background, such as business process mapping (BPM) visualisation software, should the unit cater across the school more widely in the future. Also, if the unit is opened up to students from ICT programs, the concept of human centered design is a consideration of the Australian Computer Society (ACS) accreditation, as would other aspects of the unit.

Two potential organisations could provide accreditation/endorsement of the course including accreditation by the Project Management Institute and endorsement by the Australian Institute of Project Management.

Both organisations include alignment to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBoK), which is published by the PMI, in their accreditation/endorsement criteria. 

The unit aligns to the current edition (6th) of the Project Management Body of Knowledge, with both Stakeholder Management and Communications Management being both noted as knowledge areas. As the new edition, suggested to be released in 2021, changes away from knowledge areas to principles, early guidance highlights stakeholders as being one of the Principles within the Standards section of the 7th edition and also as one of the performance domains. Although communication does not form one of either the suggested principles or performance domains, it will remain at the heart of project management and underpin many of the areas noted. For example, interpersonal skills, in which communication is an integral element, has been proposed to be noted within the Team Performance Domain.

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Online Quiz(zes)
2 - Written Assessment
3 - Practical Assessment
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4
1 - Communication
3 - Critical Thinking
6 - Information Technology Competence
7 - Cross Cultural Competence
9 - Social Innovation
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Introductory Level
Intermediate Level
Graduate Level
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10