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Monash University

FIT5180 Business and legal issues in project management - Semester 1, 2013

This unit, together with FIT5057 Project management, and FIT5178 Applied project management, gives a full coverage of the main areas of Project Management. These units will give students the knowledge and skills needed to work in project planning, project control, or as an entry level project manager in industry. The emphasis in FIT5180 is on the business and legal aspects of planning and executing projects. Project management is a common pathway to higher management in industry. These topics are especially important to students who intend to work as project managers and take part in the sales, contract administration, and strategic planning of an organisation.

Mode of Delivery

Caulfield (Day)

Contact Hours

2 hrs lectures/wk, 1 hr laboratory/wk

Workload requirements

You are expected to spend 12 hours per week on various activities including reading, communication with other students and unit lecturers, and preparation for learning tasks and formal assessments.

Chief Examiner

Dr Joze Kuzic

Campus Lecturer

Caulfield

Joze Kuzic

Academic Overview

Learning Outcomes

At the completion of this unit students will be able to:
  • Do financial and accounting calculations for projects. These topics will include in depth costing, balance sheet, NPV, IRR, capital budgeting, cash flow, variance analysis.
  • Understand the legal issues which occur in project management. These will include business law, contract law, international law, understanding legal project management principles, applying project management principles to the practice of law, litigation matters, managing disputes, administrative and judicial way of solving disputes, contract risk analysis, liability in project management.
  • Understand the modern theory of entrepreneurship in relation to project management. These topics will include types of entrepreneurs, problem faced by entrepreneurs, skills and knowledge necessary for entrepreneurs, innovative start-up, sources of finance, opportunity recognition, valuation and negotiations, financial and accounting issues.

Unit Schedule

Week Activities Assessment
0   No formal assessment or activities are undertaken in week 0
1 Accounting and the Business Environment No tutorial in week 1
2 Measuring and Reporting Cash Flows Tutorial in accounting discussions and exercises
3 The Australian legal System In class test 1 (accounting issues)
4 Making the Contract: Offer and acceptance Tutorial on legal cases and exercises
5 Making the Contract: Intention and Consideration Tutorial on legal cases and exercises
6 The process of Business Formation, Business Plans In class test 2 (legal issues)
7 The Entrepreneurial Process Tutorial on business issues
8 Remedies in Contract cases Tutorial on legal cases and exercises
9 Introduction to Company Law Tutorial on legal cases and exercises (Assignment due)
10 Duties of Company Directors and Other Officers Tutorial on legal cases and exercises
11 Introduction to Entrepreneurship, Recognising Opportunities and Generating ideas In-class test 3 (legal issues)
12 When the Venture Grows Up Tutorial on business issues
  SWOT VAC No formal assessment is undertaken in SWOT VAC
  Examination period LINK to Assessment Policy: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/
academic/education/assessment/
assessment-in-coursework-policy.html

*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your learning system.

Assessment Summary

In-semester assessment: 100%

Assessment Task Value Due Date
In class test 1 (Accounting issues) 25 % Week 3 (tutorial class)
In class test 2 (Legal issues) 25% Week 6 (tutorial class)
Syndicate assignment 25% Week 9 (tutorial class)
In class test 3 (Legal issues) 25% Week 11 (tutorial class)

Teaching Approach

Lecture and tutorials or problem classes
This teaching and learning approach provides facilitated learning, practical exploration and peer learning.

Assessment Requirements

Assessment Policy

Faculty Policy - Unit Assessment Hurdles (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/staff/edgov/policies/assessment-examinations/unit-assessment-hurdles.html)

Academic Integrity - Please see the Demystifying Citing and Referencing tutorial at http://lib.monash.edu/tutorials/citing/

Assessment Tasks

Participation

  • Assessment task 1
    Title:
    In class test 1 (Accounting issues)
    Description:
    In class test is conducted in the tutorial time. Students are required to provide solutions/answers for accounting problems and/or questions.
    Weighting:
    25 %
    Criteria for assessment:

    The level of understanding of covered material, and/or ability to provide appropriate solutions for proposed problems.

    Due date:
    Week 3 (tutorial class)
  • Assessment task 2
    Title:
    In class test 2 (Legal issues)
    Description:
    In class test is conducted in the tutorial time. Students are required to analyse/answer legal cases and/or questions from the material already covered in the class.
    Weighting:
    25%
    Criteria for assessment:
    The level of understanding of covered material, and/or ability to analyse legal cases.
    Due date:
    Week 6 (tutorial class)
  • Assessment task 3
    Title:
    Syndicate assignment
    Description:
    In syndicates of 5 students are to prepare business plan for a business they are considering. Business plan should include: Executive summary, Description of the product, Sales and marketing strategy, and Risk management plan.
    Weighting:
    25%
    Criteria for assessment:

    Ability to develop a meaningful business plan, adhearing to all of the specified requirements.

    Each syndicate will have to submit the division of the work on the assignment, for each syndicate member.

    The tutors will use this information to assess individual contributions when allocating marks to syndicate members.

    Due date:
    Week 9 (tutorial class)
  • Assessment task 4
    Title:
    In class test 3 (Legal issues)
    Description:
    In class test is conducted in the tutorial time. Students are required to analyse/answer legal cases and/or questions from the material already covered in the class.  
    Weighting:
    25%
    Criteria for assessment:

    The level of understanding of covered material, and/or ability to analyse legal cases.

    Due date:
    Week 11 (tutorial class)

Learning resources

Monash Library Unit Reading List
http://readinglists.lib.monash.edu/index.html

Feedback to you

Types of feedback you can expect to receive in this unit are:
  • Graded assignments with comments
  • Graded assignments without comments

Extensions and penalties

Submission must be made by the due date otherwise penalties will be enforced.

You must negotiate any extensions formally with your campus unit leader via the in-semester special consideration process: http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/equity/special-consideration.html.

Returning assignments

Students can expect assignments to be returned within two weeks of the submission date or after receipt, whichever is later.

Assignment submission

It is a University requirement (http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/conduct/plagiarism-procedures.html) for students to submit an assignment coversheet for each assessment item. Faculty Assignment coversheets can be found at http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/student/forms/. Please check with your Lecturer on the submission method for your assignment coversheet (e.g. attach a file to the online assignment submission, hand-in a hard copy, or use an online quiz).

Online submission

If Electronic Submission has been approved for your unit, please submit your work via the learning system for this unit, which you can access via links in the my.monash portal.

Prescribed text(s)

Limited copies of prescribed texts are available for you to borrow in the library.

Brendan Sweeney, Jenifer O'Reilly, and Andrew Coleman. (2011). Selected extracts from: Law in commerce. (4th Edition) LexisNexis.

Other Information

Policies

Monash has educational policies, procedures and guidelines, which are designed to ensure that staff and students are aware of the University’s academic standards, and to provide advice on how they might uphold them. You can find Monash’s Education Policies at: www.policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/academic/education/index.html

Key educational policies include:

Graduate Attributes Policy

http://www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/management/monash-graduate-attributes-policy.html

Student services

The University provides many different kinds of support services for you. Contact your tutor if you need advice and see the range of services available at http://www.monash.edu.au/students. For Sunway see http://www.monash.edu.my/Student-services, and for South Africa see http://www.monash.ac.za/current/.

Monash University Library

The Monash University Library provides a range of services, resources and programs that enable you to save time and be more effective in your learning and research. Go to www.lib.monash.edu.au or the library tab in my.monash portal for more information. At Sunway, visit the Library and Learning Commons at http://www.lib.monash.edu.my/. At South Africa visit http://www.lib.monash.ac.za/.

Disability Liaison Unit

Students who have a disability or medical condition are welcome to contact the Disability Liaison Unit to discuss academic support services. Disability Liaison Officers (DLOs) visit all Victorian campuses on a regular basis.

Your feedback to Us

Monash is committed to excellence in education and regularly seeks feedback from students, employers and staff. One of the key formal ways students have to provide feedback is through the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) survey. The University’s student evaluation policy requires that every unit is evaluated each year. Students are strongly encouraged to complete the surveys. The feedback is anonymous and provides the Faculty with evidence of aspects that students are satisfied and areas for improvement.

For more information on Monash’s educational strategy, see:

www.monash.edu.au/about/monash-directions and on student evaluations, see: www.policy.monash.edu/policy-bank/academic/education/quality/student-evaluation-policy.html

Previous Student Evaluations of this Unit

Based on previous student feedback this unit is well structured and no changes have been made this semester.

If you wish to view how previous students rated this unit, please go to
https://emuapps.monash.edu.au/unitevaluations/index.jsp

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