ITEC633 - Information Technology Masters Project

Year

Credit points

Campus offering

Prerequisites

ITEC627 Advanced Programming Concepts

Incompatible

ISYS630 - Information Systems Project A AND ISYS631 - Information Systems Project B AND ITEC630 Information Technology Masters Project Part A (Project Management) AND ITEC631 Information Technology Masters Project Part B (Software Engineering)

Teaching organisation

300 hours over a twelve-week semester or equivalent study period

Unit rationale, description and aim

The Masters Project is designed to promote the development of research including project management, software engineering, communication and teamwork skills through the investigation of a particular area in information technology. It prepares students for research higher degree studies or transition from study to professional practice in industry. The objective of the Masters Project is for students to show initiative, acquire new knowledge, develop basic skills in research, evaluating solutions, and disseminating results. The investigation includes the following phases: a) project identification, b) literature search and review, c) planning and management of the project, d) implementation of the project resulting in defensible results, e) development and presentation of seminars, and (f) production of a final thesis. The project is generally software-based, although sometimes it may involve investigation of a particular problem. It requires students to integrate and consolidate knowledge, attitudes and capabilities acquired in other units of study. The project work will involve project management, literature review, software development, documentation, and presentation.

The project has both team and individual work elements. A team of students will work together on the project, while each team member, while also involved in overall team-oriented responsibilities, will contribute to their team by employing the specialist capabilities. The principal product of each project is a thesis, which documents the aim, literature study, process, major outcomes of the project. It also includes a reflection on the project successes, difficulties faced in different phases, potential improvement in project delivery for the future, and the impact of the project processes and outcomes on subsidiarity and stewardship of resources. 

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.

On successful completion of this unit, students should be able to:

LO1 - Collaborate effectively within a team to design a project management plan for a real-life project including project planning and management of scope, schedule, risk, quality, communication and people (GA5, GA7)

LO2 - Develop analytical and critical thinking skills appropriate to research and technical skills relevant to the given area of investigation (GA4, GA5)

LO3 - Prepare presentations to communicate outcomes and experiences of the project with audience using effective oral communication skills (GA5, GA9)

LO4 - Prepare a comprehensive Masters thesis summarising the project processes and outcomes and justifying and interpreting complex ideas by demonstrating research and written communication skills and responsibilities of respecting subsidiarity and stewardship of resources (GA3, GA5)

LO5 - Apply the knowledge and skills learned to assess their professional capabilities and choose the right career path (GA5, GA6)

Graduate attributes

GA3 - apply ethical perspectives in informed decision making

GA4 - think critically and reflectively 

GA5 - demonstrate values, knowledge, skills and attitudes appropriate to the discipline and/or profession 

GA6 - solve problems in a variety of settings taking local and international perspectives into account

GA7 - work both autonomously and collaboratively 

GA9 - demonstrate effective communication in oral and written English language and visual media 

Content

Topics will include:

• Essentials of IT project management
• Project planning
• Project risk management
• Project scope management
• Project schedule management
• Project quality management
• Project communication management
• Project people management
• Teamwork
• Subsidiarity in project management
• Literature review
• Principles of software engineering
• Overview of software processes
• Software requirement engineering
• Software architectural design
• System design and modeling
• Software design and implementation
• Software testing
• User interface evaluation
• Software reuse and evolution
• Distributed software engineering
• Service-oriented software engineering 

Learning and teaching strategy and rationale

This unit is offered in three modes to cater for the learning needs and preferences of a range of participants and maximise effective participation for isolated and/or marginalised groups. These are: “Attendance” mode and “Online” mode.

Attendance Mode

In a weekly attendance mode, students will require face-to-face attendance in specific physical location/s. Students will have face-to-face interactions with lecturer(s) to further their achievement of the learning outcomes. This is in the form of weekly workshop classes and lab sessions. In the weekly workshop classes, students will work as teams to complete weekly tasks covering key concepts, principles, and technology stacks such as project management, software engineering, and development of web applications. In the weekly lab sessions, students are assisted to complete the development of software sprints for their project. This unit is structured with required upfront preparation before workshops, most students report that they spend an average of one hour preparing before the workshop and one or more hours after the workshop practicing and revising what was covered. The online learning platforms used in this unit provide multiple forms of preparatory and practice opportunities for students to prepare and revise.

Online Mode

This unit uses an active learning approach to support students in the exploration of knowledge essential to the discipline. Students are provided with asynchronous learning modules covering key concepts, principles, and technology stacks such as project management, software engineering, and development of web applications. Students are required to complete weekly tasks covered by these modules. Active learning opportunities provide students with opportunities to practice and apply their learning in situations similar to their future professions. This is specifically in the form of synchronous weekly 2-hour lab sessions where students are assisted to complete the development of software sprints for their project. Students receive regular and timely feedback on their learning, which includes information on their progress.

This unit has 20 credit points and students should anticipate undertaking 300 hours of study for this unit, including class attendance, readings, weekly tasks and labs, assessment preparation, and most importantly project development and completion.

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. To pass this unit, students need to achieve an aggregate mark of 50%. 

Attendance Mode

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 consists of a series of software sprint submissions and a final project presentation and demonstration of the developed system. This task requires students to demonstrate the final version of their project, reflect on their project journey, and evaluate their acquired skills throughout this project against the SFIA framework. The final assessment item is the thesis. This task requires students to systematically document a review on literature relevant to the project, the details of development frameworks, technologies, and tools, all software processes involved, specification, design, testing and evaluation reports, and impact of the project processes/outcomes on subsidiary or stewardship of resources. 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. 

Online Mode

The first assessment consists of a series of weekly submissions that test students’ understanding of the asynchronous learning modules. The aim is to test students’ engagement with asynchronous online modules. The second assessment is a project management plan based on weekly submissions. 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 third assessment consists of a series of software sprint submissions and a recorded final project presentation and demonstration of the developed system. This task requires students to demonstrate the final version of their project, reflect on their project journey, and evaluate their acquired skills throughout this project against the SFIA framework. The final assessment item is the thesis based on weekly submissions and software development. This task requires students to systematically document a review on literature relevant to the project, the details of development frameworks, technologies, and tools, all software processes involved, specification, design, testing and evaluation reports, and impact of the project processes/outcomes on subsidiary or stewardship of resources. 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

Attendance Mode;

Online Mode

Representative texts and references

Summerville 2015, Software Engineering, 10th edn, Pearson

Schwalbe  2018, Information technology project management, 9th edn, Cengage Learning, USA

Jones & Bartlett 2016, Essentials of Software Engineering, 4th edn, Cengage Learning, USA

Shneiderman, Plaisant, Cohen, Jacobs, Elmqvist, and Diakopoulos 2017, Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction, 6th edition, Pearson

Leedy and Ormrod 2020, Practical Research: Planning and Design, 12th Edition, Pearson