Course Title: Postgraduate Information Technology Project
Part A: Course Overview
Course Title: Postgraduate Information Technology Project
Credit Points: 24.00
Terms
Course Code |
Campus |
Career |
School |
Learning Mode |
Teaching Period(s) |
COSC2648 |
City Campus |
Postgraduate |
171H School of Science |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 1 2017, Sem 2 2017, Sem 1 2018, Sem 2 2018, Sem 1 2019, Sem 2 2019, Sem 1 2020, Sem 2 2020, Sem 1 2021, Sem 2 2021 |
COSC2648 |
City Campus |
Postgraduate |
175H Computing Technologies |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 2 2022, Sem 1 2023, Sem 2 2023, Sem 1 2024 |
Course Coordinator: Golnoush Abaei
Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925 0294
Course Coordinator Email: golnoush.abaei@rmit.edu.au
Course Coordinator Availability: By appointment
Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities
Enforced Pre-requisites: ISYS1106 Software Engineering Project Management
You may not enrol in this course unless one of these courses is explicitly listed in your enrolment program summary. Note it is a condition of enrolment at RMIT that you accept responsibility for ensuring that you have completed the prerequisite/s and agree to concurrently enrol in co-requisite courses before enrolling in a course.
Course Description
This course is designed to provide you with hands-on practical experience developing software in a project environment. Your project team of 4 students should complete projects from inception to implementation. In exceptional cases, with course coordinator approval, you may have a group of 3 students or 5 students.
The emphasis is on understanding and working within a corporate environment, using Agile project management and process model, software delivery methodologies, integrating all the skills and knowledge that you should have acquired from your previous courses into a solid base to progress from into your professional life.
This course includes a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) experience in which your knowledge and skills will be applied and assessed in a real or simulated workplace context and where feedback from industry and/or community is integral to your experience.
Type of WIL activities involved:
- projects with industry and community-based organizations
Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development
This course is a core course in MC208 Master of Information Technology and MC061 Master of Computer Science programs contributing to the following Program Learning Outcomes:
1. Enabling Knowledge
You will gain skills as you apply knowledge with creativity and initiative to new situations. In doing so, you will:
- Demonstrate mastery of a body of knowledge that includes recent developments in computer science and information technology;
- Recognise and use research principles and methods applicable to computer science and information technology.
2. Critical Analysis
You will learn to accurately and objectively examine, and critically investigate computer science and information technology (IT) concepts, evidence, theories or situations, in particular to:
- Analyse and model complex requirements and constraints for the purpose of designing and implementing software artefacts and IT systems;
- Evaluate and compare designs of software artefacts and IT systems on the basis of organisational and user requirements.
3. Problem Solving
Your capability to analyse complex problems and synthesise suitable solutions will be extended as you learn to:
- Design and implement software solutions that accommodate specified requirements and constraints, based on analysis or modelling or requirements specification.
4. Communication
You will learn to communicate effectively with a variety of audiences through a range of modes and media, in particular to:
- Interpret abstract theoretical propositions, choose methodologies, justify conclusions and defend professional decisions to both IT and non-IT personnel via technical reports of professional standard and technical presentations.
5. Team Work
You will learn to work as an effective and productive team member in a range of professional and social situations, in particular to:
- Work effectively in different roles, to form, manage, and successfully produce outcomes from collaborative teams, whose members may have diverse cultural backgrounds and life circumstances, and differing levels of technical expertise.
6. Responsibility
You will be required to accept responsibility for your own learning and make informed decisions about judging and adopting appropriate behaviour in professional and social situations. This includes accepting the responsibility for independent life-long learning and a high level of accountability. Specifically, you will learn to:
- Effectively apply relevant standards, ethical considerations, and an understanding of legal and privacy issues to designing software applications and IT systems.
7. Research and scholarship
You will have technical and communication skills to design, evaluate, implement, analyse and theorise about developments that contribute to professional practice or scholarship, specifically you will have cognitive skills:
- to demonstrate mastery of theoretical knowledge and to reflect critically on theory and professional practice or scholarship;
to plan and execute a substantial research-based project, capstone experience and/or piece of scholarship.
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Apply the many aspects of project management and project delivery in an environment that emulates the corporate world
- Apply standard software development and delivery principles and methodologies in new contexts
- Identity the key factors for successful project completion, as well as the risks and issues associated with project and software delivery
- Negotiate the project deliverables and milestones with your corporate sponsor and/or project manager and assume responsibility for a successful outcome
- Communicate using the proper language of the field including reports written with a professional approach
- Apply effective team dynamics and discuss why this is critical to your project’s success.
Overview of Learning Activities
All your learning activities in this course are based on applying your discipline knowledge in a process of planning and executing a substantial research-based project or industry-sponsored capstone project experience.
The learning activities included in this course are:
- Face-to-face activities, where the project coordinator and industrial partners present project proposals;
- Group discussions, where you will discuss and analyze with the course coordinator project issues for effective outcomes;
- group presentations to industrial partners, colleagues and RMIT academics; and guest lectures/discussion leaders from industry experts on key topics.
- You will be completing your project as a team devising optimal solutions for the business problems provided combined with timely deliverables. This means that you will work face-to-face in a dedicated project office type environment on a full-time basis to complete your project in constant, dynamic interaction with your team members and regular interaction with your course supervisor and project sponsor.
The Project Proposals from the various industrial sponsors are presented during the first week. You will nominate your choice of project during the first week where after teams will be formed and the projects will begin.
Overview of Learning Resources
RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through myRMIT Studies Course.
There are services available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the myRMIT student portal.
As the project teams and projects will be created based on the activities on Week 1, it will not be possible to transfer to this course after Week 1. In a limited number of projects, industrial partners might provide opportunity to work in their offices to gain more mentoring from industrial colleagues.
Overview of Assessment
This course has no hurdle requirements.
Assessment tasks
Assessment Task 1: Project Charter
Weighting 10%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1, 2, 4 & 5
Assessment Task 2: Team Project Report
Weighting 45%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1-6
Assessment Task 3: Presentation, communication and self-management tasks
Weighting 45%
This assessment task supports CLOs 1, 3, 4, 5 & 6