Lectures and Notes
We have timetabled two lecture slots per week during Semester One
and Semester Two. They will be used to discuss project issues as they
emerge. For example, early on we will have sessions to help you develop
a team culture and an effective relationship with your client. Later on
we will address topics such as requirements elicitation, estimation,
architecture, quality and V&V, change control and professional
ethics. In general, these will not be traditional lectures, but rather
will be workshops when we will discuss reading material and lead you
through exercises that help you apply your learning to your project.
As the course proceeds, lecture content, readings and other resources will be made available. Students need to read the readings prior to each lecture.
Note: Content is indicative only
and may change in response to issues uncovered through reflection and
team mentor meetings
| Week |
Day & Date |
Topic |
Assessment - Due date Reflection Homework Topics |
| 1 |
Tues 21 February |
Introduction to the course Introduction Introduction - 3 slides per page, notes format |
|
| Thurs 23 February |
Client Project Presentations |
||
| 2 |
Tues 28 February |
The million dollar club! Project Value What are the common problems encountered? Common issues 2010 4th year reflections on issues encountered What will your collaborative work environment look like? Collaborative work spaces Sample wiki pages What is the role of communication, both formal and informal, in achieving project success? Communication Meetings When to call a meeting |
|
| Thurs 1 March |
What is the purpose of your project? Project Purpose Achieving Value from ICT Project Teams Project Teams |
||
| 3 |
Tues 6 March |
What works and what doesn't Creativity and problem solving Becoming a high performing team Teamwork Team formation Belbin Self Perception Inventory HumanMetrics - MBTI testing |
|
| Thurs 8 March |
What project lifecycle is appropriate for your project? Project Lifecyle Choices What will you do to demonstrate your ability to deliver a successful project? Project Lifecyle Choices Project Lifecyle Choices Backpackers Guide to Lightweight PM |
||
| 4 |
Tues 13 March |
Team activities - no lecture | |
| Thurs 15 March |
Reflection and your learning journal Reflection Reflection writing comic reflief Report Writing Style Guide for Engineers What will you do to demonstrate your ability to deliver a successful project? Improving Project Status with Visual Reporting |
||
| 5 |
Tues 20 March |
Team activities |
EA Stage 1 competency self assessment |
| Thurs 22 March |
Guest lecture Mobile App. development - Andrew Wellington Setting up your collaborative team envrionment - Ben Coughlan |
||
| 6 |
Tues 27 March |
Team activities |
If you don't know where you're going any road will do. How will you know if your project is poised for a successful completion? If your product performs as promised, is delivered according to the schedule and meets budget and cost goals, will that be considered a success? |
| Thurs 29 March |
Student presentations - teams present their projects to their peers |
||
| 7 |
Tues 3 April |
Team activities |
"You cannot build a reputation on what you are going to do" - Henry Ford How will you use the review process to convince your client that you are on track to deliver value and that your project should be continued? |
| Thurs 5 April |
Review preparation Rationale behind Project Reviews Improving project status with visual reporting Project Review Focus Rubric Course assessment overview including reviews Project Progress Report |
||
| NON-TEACHING
PERIOD |
|||
| 8 |
Tues 24 April |
Team activities - Project reviews all week |
Poster - Due Monday 23 April Project Reviews - all week |
| Thurs 26 April |
No lecture - Project Reviews |
||
| 9 |
Tues 1 May |
Team activities |
|
| Thurs 3 May |
Feedback from reviews & key issues |
||
| 10 |
Tues 8 May |
Team activities |
"Bad Projet Management Olympics" - Scrappy Project Management What could go wrong with your project and what are you doing about it? |
| Thurs 10 May |
RequirementsIan's slides Requirements Ideas Requirements - OCE, SRS and VSD Reqirements Humour Reqirements Engineering Weigers - Sample Vision And Scope document Weigers - SRS template Value of requirements and design Sample Business Requirements Document How to write an IEEE 830 SRS Use Case Template |
||
| 11 |
Tues 15 May |
Team activities |
It's not my fault. It wasn't me. It was "the others". How are you avoiding this issue? |
| Thurs 17 May |
Design |
||
| 12 |
Tues 22 May |
Team activities |
The #1 reason why teams fail to achieve their goals is that they don't have clear goals, and the #2 reason why projects fail is that communication sucks (or in more politically correct form, is less than sub-optimal). - Scrappy project Management What are you doing to avoid these traps? |
| Thurs 24 May |
Testing Guest lecture - Craig Johnston, Dolby Laboratories Craig is Team Lead of the server software, architecture and client delivery team for Dolby's Axon product, which has now evolved to a much larger Business Communications initiative. Craig received his BE (Electrical) and BSc (Comp Sci) from USyd. He was one of the founding employees of Spatial Voice, which was acquired by Dolby. Currently, Craig's work has been released to over 500,000 desktops or unique users and is approaching a total of 1,000,000,000 minutes of communication time. The system has been evolving whilst online for the last 5 years, and achieved an uptime in excess of 99.9% with less than a thousand user complaints to date. Craig will share some of the ideas that have been deployed to achieve this software engineering feat, and the lessons learnt along the way. His team follows a rhythmic soft waterfall approach, with marketing stakeholders directing feature requests, and a three month release cycle. Of particular interest to Craig are the differences between production software and development software. Many innovations have been applied by the group to expedite testing, and learn from the situations and operation in the field in situations that could not possibly be foreseen and tested for. |
||
| 13 |
Tues 29 May |
Team activities |
|
| Thurs 31 May |
Reflective learning journal - Develop assessment scheme Review preparation |
||
| EXAMINATIONS
&
NON-TEACHING PERIOD |
|||
| 1 |
Tue 24 July |
No Lecture |
Project Reviews - all week |
| Thurs 26 July |
Team activities | ||
| 2 |
Tues 31 July |
Feedback from reviews & Key
issues |
|
| Thurs 2 Aug |
Team activities |
||
| 3 |
Tues 7 Aug |
What is quality? |
What do you mean, it's changed? Have you been surprised by change? What might you be doing to avoid change surprising you? |
| Thurs 9 Aug |
Team activities |
||
| 4 |
Tues 14 August |
Developing confidence in our
deliverables |
|
| Thurs 16 August |
Team activities |
Stage 1 Compentencies re-assessment |
|
| 5 |
Tues 21 August |
Hand-over and succession planning |
|
| Thurs 23 August |
Team activities |
||
| 6 |
Tues 28 August |
Guest lecturers |
|
| Thurs 30 August |
Team activities |
Reflective Learning Journal (Due Friday 31 August) |
|
| 7 |
Tues 4 September |
Key Issues |
|
| Thurs 6 September |
Team activities |
||
| NON-TEACHING
PERIOD |
|||
| 8 |
Tues 28 September |
No lecture |
Project Reviews - all week |
| Fri 30 September |
Team activities | ||
| 9 |
Tues 5 October |
Feedback from reviews & Key
issues |
|
| Fri 7 October |
Team activities |
||
| 10 |
Tues 12 October |
Team activities
|
|
| Fri 14 October |
Team activities |
||
| 11 |
Tues 19 October |
In-class presentations |
Project
presentations |
| Fri 21 October |
|||
| 12 |
Tues 26 October |
Team activities |
|
| Fri 28 October |
Team activities |
Artefact submission | |
| 13 |
Tues 2 November |
Project
showcase & student BBQ |
|
| Fri 4 November |
Additional references can be found on the Reading Materials page.
