| Module Title: |
Project Management and Professional Issues |
| Module Code: |
IS232 |
| Credits: |
12 |
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Aims of the module:
The module aims to prepare students for project-based work in commercial
software development by introducing them to professional, legal and
other issues. Students will be introduced to common problems and pitfalls
of project-based work, and the sort of techniques to use when tackling
them. Students will be able to write and present their work to professional
standards.
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Synopsis of module content:
Project Management:
- Principles of planning, including CPA, Gantt, software tools.
- Selling the plan (PID).
- Planning the timescales, meeting tight deadlines, estimating and metrics.
- Ensuring quality, structured walkthroughs, validation and verification.
- Anticipating problems and motivating staff.
- Identifying tasks, Work Breakdown Structures and product based planning.
- Winning support, financial appraisal, project champion/sponsor.
Professional Issues:
- Researching literature, referencing and citing.
- Writing reports and essays to a professional standard.
- Making presentations to a professional standard.
- Managing your time.
- Doing it right: legislative issues, including IPR, privacy and computer
misuse.
- Doing it right: ethical issues.
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Teaching Methods:
A variety of teaching and learning methods will be used:
- lectures at which concepts, principles and personal experiences are
discussed;
- seminars where problems are posed and possible solutions are explored;
- student presentations
- open learning, for background material and basic transferable skills;
- group work;
- case studies that demonstrate real-life application of concepts;
- formative assessment techniques, with feedback from assessed and other
coursework.
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Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this module students should be able to:
1. use suitable techniques to plan and monitor project work, and apply
the principles and methods of risk management and quality management;
2. research a given topic, write reports and give presentations to a
professional standard;
3. identify actions that breach computer-related legislation or are
unethical.
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Assessment requirements:
Coursework 70 %
Examination 30 %
Typical courseworks will be:
1. to work in a team on producing a project plan;
2. to research and report on a professional issue in project management.
Two hour examination.
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Concise Indicative Reading List:
Hughes, R & Cotterell, M (1999) "Software Project Management",
2nd ed., McGraw Hill
Lock, D (1996) "Project Management", 6th ed., Gower
Mott G, (1997), "Investment Appraisal", 3rd ed., Pitman
Kenny, P (1982) "A handbook of public speaking for scientists and
engineers", Hilger
Wainwright, G (1984) "Report writing", Management Update
Bott, F et al (1995) "Professional Issues in Software Engineering",
UCL Press
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Key Skills delivered by this module:
N/A |
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