ISYS90050 IT Project and Change Management

How ISYS90050 is assessed

What ISYS90050 covers

ISYS90050 runs as a 12-week postgraduate subject built around the PMBOK: it opens with project-management foundations and the project life cycle, moves through requirements, stakeholders, risk, scheduling (WBS, PERT, critical path) and costing/Earned Value Management, then turns to the people side — methodologies and communications, teamwork and ethics, negotiation, organisational change and quality.

Assessment is a 30% group planning report, a 20% individual critical-analysis report, weekly secure lecture (5%) and tutorial (5%) quizzes, and a 40% two-hour closed-book digital exam. Both the coursework block and the exam carry their own 50% hurdle, so the guide is sequenced in teaching order to build toward that exam.

Across the semester it moves from foundations — what a project is, the project life cycle and the triple constraint of time, cost, scope and quality — through requirements engineering, stakeholder management and the project charter, risk management, scheduling (WBS, Gantt, PERT and the Critical Path Method) and costing/Earned Value Management, then turns to the people side: development methodologies and communications, teamwork and ethics, negotiation and conflict resolution, organisational change management and quality management.

It is a method-and-application subject: marks come from applying a framework correctly, working a calculation with the right formula and units, and reasoning about a project scenario.

Assessment is a 30% group planning report, a 20% individual ~1000-word critical-analysis report, secure weekly lecture (5%) and tutorial (5%) quizzes, and a 40% final exam — one 2-hour, closed-book, on-campus digital examination delivered through Canvas via Respondus LockDown Browser, 5 questions worth 40 marks across short and long answers.

The subject carries a two-part hurdle: to pass you must score at least 50% of the examination marks AND at least 50% of the non-exam (coursework) marks — clearing one is not enough. This subject is worth 12.5 credit points and its result feeds the Weighted Average Mark (WAM). Confirm the exact exam date, room and permitted materials on Canvas and the UniMelb examination timetable.

Worked example · free

Earned Value Management: variances and indices at a status date

Key terms

Triple constraint (project diamond)

The interrelated priorities a project balances — time, cost and scope — with quality at the centre. Compromising one influences the others: keep scope and cut time by adding cost, keep scope and cut cost by adding time, or cut scope to reduce both. PMI treats quality as conformance to requirements and fitness for purpose.

PMBOK process groups

The five generic project life-cycle groups defined by PMI: Initiating (define and authorise), Planning (develop the workable scheme), Executing (coordinate resources to do the work), Monitoring & Controlling (measure progress and manage change) and Closing (accept outcomes, capture lessons learnt). They overlap in intensity across the timeline rather than running strictly in sequence.

PERT expected time

A three-point activity estimate: TE = (a + 4m + b) / 6, where a = optimistic, m = most likely and b = pessimistic time. The weighting of 4 on the most-likely value makes it a weighted average biased toward the mode; path length is the sum of the TE values along the path.

Critical path (slack)

The start-to-finish chain of activities whose slack (float) is zero, so any delay on it delays the whole project. Slack = LS − ES = LF − EF, found from a forward pass (EF = ES + duration) and a backward pass (LS = LF − duration).

Earned Value (EV)

The budgeted value of the work actually completed to date, EV = (actual % complete) × BAC. It is the pivot of EVM: compared with Planned Value it gives schedule performance (SV, SPI) and compared with Actual Cost it gives cost performance (CV, CPI).

Change targets / agents / sponsors

The three organisational-change roles: change sponsors have the willingness and power to initiate and back the change; change agents (the project and change-management team) make and manage it; change targets are the people or groups who must actually change. Most projects fail because targets do not adopt the solution — acceptance is key.

ISYS90050 FAQ

Questions students ask in each ISYS90050 chapter

What is the difference between a project and ongoing operations?

A project is temporary and unique — it has a defined start and finish and delivers a one-off product or service — whereas operations are ongoing and repetitive. That temporary, unique character is why projects need explicit planning, a life cycle and a single point of accountability. Chapter 01 · Project Management Foundations & the PMBOK

What is the difference between functional and non-functional requirements?

A functional requirement is something the system does — a service, an output, a response to an input. A non-functional requirement is a quality or constraint on how it does it — speed, reliability, usability, security, privacy. Non-functional requirements apply system-wide, are harder to verify, and often shape the architecture more than functional ones do. Chapter 02 · Requirements Engineering & Management

What goes in a project charter?

A charter typically captures the document's purpose, background, project governance, objectives and benefits (including the MOV), scope with what is in and out, dependent projects, key milestones and resources, an initial risk analysis, and assumptions and constraints. It is agreed first, before the detailed plan, and sets the first scope baseline. Chapter 03 · Stakeholder Management & the Project Charter

How do I rank risks quantitatively in ISYS90050?

Convert each risk's probability to a decimal, multiply by its impact on the 0-10 scale to get a P x I score, then rank descending — the highest score is rank 1. The point is that ranking uses the product: a low-probability, high-impact risk can score below a likely moderate one, so never rank on impact alone. Chapter 04 · Managing Project Risk

What is the difference between a WBS and a schedule?

A WBS decomposes the work by deliverable into a numbered hierarchy of objectives, tasks and activities — it says what must be done. A schedule adds durations, sequencing and dependencies to that work and lays it on a timeline (a Gantt or network diagram) — it says when. You build the WBS first, then estimate and sequence it. Chapter 05 · Scheduling: WBS & Gantt Charts

What formula does PERT use and why the 4?

PERT's expected time is TE = (a + 4m + b) / 6, a weighted average of the optimistic (a), most likely (m) and pessimistic (b) estimates. The most likely value is weighted by four because it is the mode — the single most probable duration — so the estimate leans toward it while still accounting for the best and worst cases. Chapter 06 · Network Diagrams, PERT & the Critical Path

Why load a task cost with overhead and personal time?

Because the raw hours x rate figure understates what the task really costs. Overhead spreads indirect costs (rent, power, shared services) across the work, and the personal-time allowance recognises that an 8-hour day is not 8 productive hours (breaks, admin). Loading both gives a realistic cost = duration x rate x (1 + overhead) x (1 + personal-time). Chapter 07 · Cost Estimation & Budgeting

What is the difference between a variance and an index in EVM?

A variance is a dollar gap — CV = EV - AC and SV = EV - PV — so its sign tells you the size and direction of the problem (negative = over budget or behind). An index is a ratio — CPI = EV/AC and SPI = EV/PV — that tells you efficiency (below 1 = trouble, above 1 = good). Variances say how much; indices say how efficiently. Chapter 08 · Earned Value Management (EVM)

When is Waterfall better than Agile?

Waterfall suits projects with stable, well-understood requirements where each phase can be completed and signed off before the next — its sequential structure gives clear documentation and control. Agile suits projects where requirements are uncertain or evolving and delivering value early and adapting to change matters more than a fixed up-front plan. The choice depends on complexity, constraints, client expectations and industry practice. Chapter 09 · Development Methodologies & Communications

What is the difference between a working group and a real team?

A working group shares information and best practice but has no shared performance goals, no joint work-products and no mutual accountability. A real team has a small number of members with complementary skills, a common purpose and approach, and holds itself mutually accountable. On Katzenbach & Smith's curve the working group sits well below the real and high-performance team. Chapter 10 · Teamwork & Ethics

What is principled (win-win) negotiation?

Principled or win-win negotiation seeks an outcome that satisfies both parties' underlying interests rather than their stated positions. Its moves are to separate the people from the problem, focus on interests not positions, invent options for mutual gain, and use objective criteria. It rests on trust, a belief that success depends on cooperation, and enough gain for everyone to share — so it is not a soft or easy approach. Chapter 11 · Negotiation & Conflict Resolution

What does change management mean in ISYS90050?

It means managing the people and organisational side of adopting a new IT solution — explicitly not scope, requirements, budget or technical change. The subject's premise is that most projects fail because people do not accept or use the system, so acceptance is key, and the change team's job is to smooth the transition for the users who must change. Chapter 12 · Organisational Change Management

What is the difference between quality assurance and quality control?

Quality assurance is process-focused: it defines and audits the processes that produce the deliverable so quality is built in (setting coding standards, auditing that the test process is followed). Quality control is product-focused: it inspects and tests the actual deliverable to catch defects and verify it conforms to requirements and is fit for purpose (running tests, acceptance checks). QA prevents; QC detects. Chapter 13 · Quality Management & Exam Revision

How to study for the exam

Treat ISYS90050 as two linked skill sets — the calculable core (WBS/PERT/CPM scheduling and Earned Value Management) and the framework core (requirements, stakeholders, risk, methodologies, teamwork, negotiation, change and quality) — and rehearse both weekly rather than cramming through SWOTVAC.

Because the exam is closed-book via Respondus LockDown Browser, you must be able to reproduce the formulas from memory: drill PERT TE = (a+4m+b)/6, a full CPM forward and backward pass with slack = LS − ES, and the EVM set (PV = %planned × BAC, EV = %actual × BAC, SV = EV − PV, CV = EV − AC, SPI = EV/PV, CPI = EV/AC, and the ETC/EAC forecasts) until setting them up is automatic, then practise the plain-English interpretation because the exam rewards it.

For the framework topics, build a one-page map of each model and the trigger that signals it — the three requirement types, the power-interest grid, the P×I risk ranking and the four responses (avoid/transfer/mitigate/accept), the four negotiation outcomes, and the change roles with Leavitt's four interacting elements — so a short-answer question maps straight to a structure.

Cover breadth first so you can start every question, then deepen the calculation topics that carry the most marks. When a step will not click, ask Sia to explain that single step a different way and set you a fresh practice item in the same style; it teaches the method and checks your reasoning and never substitutes for your own graded work.

Remember the two-part hurdle — you must clear 50% on the exam AND 50% on the coursework block — and confirm the exam date, room and permitted materials on Canvas and the University of Melbourne exam timetable. Steady effort here also protects your WAM.

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