Module IED-2061:
Project, Planning & Management

Module Facts

Run by School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering

10.000 Credits or 5.000 ECTS Credits

Semester 2

Organiser: Mr Chris Walker

Overall aims and purpose

To place computing and engineering within a business context so that students relate the technical aspects of their work to its commercial and social dimensions and are able to prepare project plans which take into account the constraints and limitations imposed by non-technical factors.

Course content

• Project Management: Project scoping and specification. The tender process. Work breakdown structure. Preparation of Gantt charts and identifying milestones. PERT method and critical path analysis. Expenditure projection and profiling. Quality assurance and control, Configuration managment. Use of Microsoft Project or similar planning tool. Project evaluation • Legal, Social and Ethical Issues: Use of standards documents. Health & Safety. IPR, patents, copyright. Company structures. legal responsibilities and business ethics. Roles of regulatory bodies. Confidentiality and non-disclosure. Privacy. Sustainability and the environment. Societal effect of technology. Risk assessments • Data protection act, human rights, obscene publications, research data governance, personal private data, forensic artefacts that could reveal personal information, ethics committees • Business: Tax, NI, investment grants and venture capitalists. Economics – the effect of currency exchange rates and interest rates. Marketing and advertising. Accounting practices – P&L account, the balance sheet and cash-flow projections. preparation of business plans. Financial appraisal – payback methods and cost/benefit analysis. • Project scoping and planning: Literature reviews, negotiation skills, preparing project plans, writing reports, poster / oral presentation skills.

Learning outcomes mapped to assessment criteria

  threshold

40%

 		good

60%

 		excellent

70%

Analyse a project brief, partition the work into a logical sequence and prepare an integrated plan to fulfill the objectives on time and within budget

 Has good understanding of the principles. Has mastered all aspects of the project brief to produce a detailed work breakdown. Can estimate some risk factors associated with milestones and assess effect of uncertainty on the project plan. Sound understanding of the principles. Can extrapolate from the project brief to produce a balanced work breakdown. Can select appropriate, non-obvious milestones and make realistic estimates of time/budget constraints. Conceptual understanding of the principals involved in preparing a project plan. Is able to extract the fundamental points of a brief and produce a basic breakdown of the work. Can recognize the obvious milestones and identify some budgetary and time constraints and apply them to produce an outline Gantt chart.

Identify the implications of the legal, social and ethical issues relating to a proposed project and prepare a plan that addresses these issues

Evaluate the legal and ethical issues that may arise from the examination of digital data / evidence

 Understanding of the breadth of legal, social and ethical issues facing a project. Able to identify the obvious issues applicable to a given project Solid understanding of the issues. Can itemize many of the factors that need to be considered for a given project and able to propose viable solutions/mitigation approaches Mastery of the issues. Able to identify most of the factors applicable to a given scenario, able to present a well-argued critique of the factors, their likely impact, their interrelationships and able to formulate a plan to address the issues

Demonstrate an understanding of the financial issues surrounding a project and able to prepare a range of financial reporting and forecasting presentations

Evaluate the legal and ethical issues that may arise from the examination of digital data / evidence

 Strong understanding of financing and financial reports, able to prepare reports to present a given set of results in the best light, demonstrates an understanding of what a financier looks for in a business plan, demonstrates an in depth understanding of routes to market Solid understanding of financing and financial reports, able to prepare and analyze reasonably detailed accounts, able to prepare a credible business plan Basic understanding of the time value of money, able to prepare and analyze simple accounts, able to identify the basic steps in achieving a route to market, able to demonstrate a basic understanding of appraisal methods

Apply the ideas presented in the first 3 components of the module to prepare an outline plan for a case –study project defined by the lecturer.

 Able to prepare and present a detailed project plan demonstrating a detailed understanding of how the material covered in the course is related in a coherent manner Able to prepare and present a credible project plan demonstrating an ability to pull together the material covered in the course in a coherent manner Able to prepare and present a project plan of a caliber that would be read seriously by a VC or corporate manager, able to identify most of the issues relating to the project and able to identify the impact of each issue and a reasonable mitigation

Assessment Methods

Type Name Description Weight
Closed Book Examination 60.00
Business Plan & Presentation 40.00

Teaching and Learning Strategy

Hours
Tutorial

12 hours over 12 weeks

 12
Lecture

12 hours over 12 weeks

 12
Group Project 24
Private study 52

Courses including this module

Compulsory in courses: