IAB402 IT Consulting and Leadership
To view more information for this unit, select Unit Outline from the list below. Please note the teaching period for which the Unit Outline is relevant.
| Unit code: | IAB402 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisite(s): | IAB204 OR (192cps in SV03 or SV04 or IV04 or IV05 or MV05 or MV06 or BV06 or BV07 or EV08 or EV07) OR (Admission to IN20 or IN27 or IN31 or IV53 or IV57 or IV54 or IV59 or IV55 or IV52 or IV56 or IV51 or IV58 or IV60) |
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Timetable | Details in HiQ, if available |
| Availabilities |
|
| CSP student contribution | $1,192 |
| Domestic tuition unit fee | $4,704 |
| International unit fee | $5,640 |
Unit Outline: Semester 1 2026, Gardens Point, Internal
| Unit code: | IAB402 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Pre-requisite: | IAB204 OR (192cps in SV03 or SV04 or IV04 or IV05 or MV05 or MV06 or BV06 or BV07 or EV08 or EV07) OR Admission to IN20 or IN27 or IN31 or IV53 or IV57 or IV54 or IV59 or IV55 or IV52 or IV56 or IV51 or IV58 or IV60 |
| Coordinator: | Kenan Degirmenci | kenan.degirmenci@qut.edu.au |
Overview
In this unit, you will develop a practical understanding of the IT consulting sector and the management of consulting engagements in contemporary organisations. Building on skills in business requirements analysis, the unit focuses on identifying organisational problems, evaluating solution options, and translating these insights into clear and persuasive consulting proposals.
The unit emphasises professional communication, client engagement, and leadership in project-based environments. You will learn how to articulate value propositions, manage stakeholder relationships, and communicate data-informed technical and organisational requirements effectively to support evidence-based decision-making. The unit also introduces the fundamentals of establishing and managing a consulting practice, preparing you to operate as a trusted advisor and effective IT professional in modern consulting-style organisations.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Discuss IT consulting and leadership frameworks and practices that support IT professionals and their professional activities.
- Analyse a real-world client problem or opportunity using appropriate methods and analytic tools to ensure that different perspectives, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, are incorporated into IT strategy and management practices.
- Ideate potential solutions for a client using innovative approaches, and systems and design thinking skills to address complex IT consulting and leadership challenges.
- Demonstrate autonomy and responsibility in creating a comprehensive client proposal with clear recommendations that will assist in decision-making processes within a client firm.
- Apply oral communication skills to communicate effectively in consulting-style presentations and engagement meetings within a competitive team environment while adapting to new challenges and technologies.
- Collaborate with others in a team environment to manage a consulting project through the application of the principles and practices of consulting and engagement and personal review techniques.
Content
This unit examines the tactical and strategic dimensions of IT consulting and leadership, with a strong focus on client engagement and consulting management. Client engagement is explored as a structured process that includes identifying clients and their IT needs, developing appropriate responses, and securing agreement to progress through the consulting and management lifecycle. The unit focuses on IT-related consulting work, which represents a significant proportion of consulting activity and spans areas of business expertise. It explores the dynamics of IT consulting and management within large consulting firms, providing insight into consulting engagement lifecycles as well as the strategic and operational contexts in which consulting firms operate.
You will also be introduced to key consulting management issues, including capability planning, marketing, strategic positioning, and client engagement techniques. Particular emphasis is placed on professional consulting practice, such as structuring proposals, planning and conducting client–consultant meetings, delivering effective consulting presentations, and navigating tendering, contracting, and negotiation processes. Exposure to consulting practices across both large and small firms further develops your understanding of the diverse contexts in which IT consultants operate.
Learning Approaches
This unit is structured around the IT consulting process and integrates theory with practice throughout the semester. Concepts and frameworks introduced in lectures and readings are applied in tutorials through hands-on, skills-based activities. These learning elements culminate in a compulsory workshop in which you work in client and consultant teams within a simulated consulting environment to evaluate proposals and reach a client selection decision. Structured reflection on this experience enables you to demonstrate how theoretical ideas and professional practices inform real-world consulting decisions.
Tutorials focus on developing practical consulting skills, including professional communication, client meetings, presentations, and proposal writing. These activities are closely aligned with lecture content and supported by prescribed readings. Lectures provide the conceptual and practical foundations of IT consulting, covering both theoretical perspectives and industry-relevant practices, which you progressively reinforce through tutorial exercises and applied learning activities.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
You will receive ongoing, individual feedback on your performance in tutorial exercises throughout the semester. During tutorials, structured feedback is provided on key consulting skills such as presentations, client meetings, and negotiation techniques, drawing on lecture content, prescribed readings, and in-class discussions. Peer feedback is also incorporated to support reflection and continuous improvement. Together, these feedback processes help you progressively build a practical consulting toolkit.
Formative feedback on your mini-proposal is provided by teaching staff to support the development of your final workshop proposal. In addition, the compulsory workshop offers a rich feedback opportunity through client-team evaluations and a facilitated reflective debrief, where you gain insight into consulting performance, decision-making, and professional practice.
You can also seek feedback on your progress throughout the unit through the following mechanisms:
- Direct advice and guidance from teaching staff during lectures and tutorials
- Formative feedback on your workshop consulting proposal
- Personal consultation with teaching staff by appointment
Assessment
Overview
Assessment is based on formative participation in the development of consulting skills and summative assessment of those skills within the tutorials and workshop.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Mini Proposal
Working as a consulting team, you will prepare a concise professional proposal in response to a client request, outlining the problem context, proposed approach, and value proposition.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Major Proposal
You will deliver a bid-style presentation of a substantially developed consulting proposal. The workshop provides an opportunity to clarify and refine the proposal in response to client-style questions prior to final submission.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
Risk Assessment Statement
All commencing FoS students are required to complete the Mandatory Safety Induction
There are no extraordinary risks associated with the classroom/lecture activities in this unit.
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.IN01 Bachelor of Information Technology
- Demonstrate a broad theoretical and technical knowledge of well-established and emerging IT disciplines, with in-depth knowledge in at least one specialist area aligned to multiple ICT professional roles.
Relates to: ULO1 - Critically analyse and conceptualise complex IT challenges and opportunities using modelling, abstraction, ideation and problem-solving to generate, evaluate and justify recommended solutions.
Relates to: ULO2, ULO3, Mini Proposal, Major Proposal - Integrate and apply technical knowledge and skills to analyse, design, build, operate and maintain sustainable, secure IT systems using industry-standard tools, technologies, platforms, and processes.
Relates to: ULO3, Mini Proposal, Major Proposal - Demonstrate initiative, autonomy and personal responsibility for continuous learning, working both independently and collaboratively within multi-disciplinary teams, employing state-of-the-art IT project management methodologies to plan and manage time, resources, and risk.
Relates to: ULO4, ULO6, Mini Proposal, Major Proposal - Communicate professionally and effectively in written, verbal and visual formats to a diverse range of stakeholders, considering the audience and explaining complex ideas in a simple and understandable manner in a range of IT-related contexts.
Relates to: ULO5, Mini Proposal, Major Proposal - Critically reflect, using a human-centric approach, on the social, cultural, ethical, privacy, legal, sustainability, and accessibility issues shaping the development and use of IT, including respecting the perspectives and knowledge systems of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, ensuring IT solutions empower and support people with disabilities, and fostering inclusive and equitable digital technologies that serve diverse communities.
Relates to: Mini Proposal, Major Proposal
Unit Outline: Semester 1 2026, Online
| Unit code: | IAB402 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Pre-requisite: | IAB204 OR (192cps in SV03 or SV04 or IV04 or IV05 or MV05 or MV06 or BV06 or BV07 or EV08 or EV07) OR Admission to IN20 or IN27 or IN31 or IV53 or IV57 or IV54 or IV59 or IV55 or IV52 or IV56 or IV51 or IV58 or IV60 |
Overview
In this unit, you will develop a practical understanding of the IT consulting sector and the management of consulting engagements in contemporary organisations. Building on skills in business requirements analysis, the unit focuses on identifying organisational problems, evaluating solution options, and translating these insights into clear and persuasive consulting proposals.
The unit emphasises professional communication, client engagement, and leadership in project-based environments. You will learn how to articulate value propositions, manage stakeholder relationships, and communicate data-informed technical and organisational requirements effectively to support evidence-based decision-making. The unit also introduces the fundamentals of establishing and managing a consulting practice, preparing you to operate as a trusted advisor and effective IT professional in modern consulting-style organisations.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Discuss IT consulting and leadership frameworks and practices that support IT professionals and their professional activities.
- Analyse a real-world client problem or opportunity using appropriate methods and analytic tools to ensure that different perspectives, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, are incorporated into IT strategy and management practices.
- Ideate potential solutions for a client using innovative approaches, and systems and design thinking skills to address complex IT consulting and leadership challenges.
- Demonstrate autonomy and responsibility in creating a comprehensive client proposal with clear recommendations that will assist in decision-making processes within a client firm.
- Apply oral communication skills to communicate effectively in consulting-style presentations and engagement meetings within a competitive team environment while adapting to new challenges and technologies.
- Collaborate with others in a team environment to manage a consulting project through the application of the principles and practices of consulting and engagement and personal review techniques.
Content
This unit examines the tactical and strategic dimensions of IT consulting and leadership, with a strong focus on client engagement and consulting management. Client engagement is explored as a structured process that includes identifying clients and their IT needs, developing appropriate responses, and securing agreement to progress through the consulting and management lifecycle. The unit focuses on IT-related consulting work, which represents a significant proportion of consulting activity and spans areas of business expertise. It explores the dynamics of IT consulting and management within large consulting firms, providing insight into consulting engagement lifecycles as well as the strategic and operational contexts in which consulting firms operate.
You will also be introduced to key consulting management issues, including capability planning, marketing, strategic positioning, and client engagement techniques. Particular emphasis is placed on professional consulting practice, such as structuring proposals, planning and conducting client–consultant meetings, delivering effective consulting presentations, and navigating tendering, contracting, and negotiation processes. Exposure to consulting practices across both large and small firms further develops your understanding of the diverse contexts in which IT consultants operate.
Learning Approaches
This unit is structured around the IT consulting process and integrates theory with practice throughout the semester. Concepts and frameworks introduced in lectures and readings are applied in tutorials through hands-on, skills-based activities. These learning elements culminate in a compulsory workshop in which you work in client and consultant teams within a simulated consulting environment to evaluate proposals and reach a client selection decision. Structured reflection on this experience enables you to demonstrate how theoretical ideas and professional practices inform real-world consulting decisions.
Tutorials focus on developing practical consulting skills, including professional communication, client meetings, presentations, and proposal writing. These activities are closely aligned with lecture content and supported by prescribed readings. Lectures provide the conceptual and practical foundations of IT consulting, covering both theoretical perspectives and industry-relevant practices, which you progressively reinforce through tutorial exercises and applied learning activities.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
You will receive ongoing, individual feedback on your performance in tutorial exercises throughout the semester. During tutorials, structured feedback is provided on key consulting skills such as presentations, client meetings, and negotiation techniques, drawing on lecture content, prescribed readings, and in-class discussions. Peer feedback is also incorporated to support reflection and continuous improvement. Together, these feedback processes help you progressively build a practical consulting toolkit.
Formative feedback on your mini-proposal is provided by teaching staff to support the development of your final workshop proposal. In addition, the compulsory workshop offers a rich feedback opportunity through client-team evaluations and a facilitated reflective debrief, where you gain insight into consulting performance, decision-making, and professional practice.
You can also seek feedback on your progress throughout the unit through the following mechanisms:
- Direct advice and guidance from teaching staff during lectures and tutorials
- Formative feedback on your workshop consulting proposal
- Personal consultation with teaching staff by appointment
Assessment
Overview
Assessment is based on formative participation in the development of consulting skills and summative assessment of those skills within the tutorials and workshop.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Mini Proposal
Working as a consulting team, you will prepare a concise professional proposal in response to a client request, outlining the problem context, proposed approach, and value proposition.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Major Proposal
You will deliver a bid-style presentation of a substantially developed consulting proposal. The workshop provides an opportunity to clarify and refine the proposal in response to client-style questions prior to final submission.
The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.
The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.
You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.
Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.
Resources
Risk Assessment Statement
All commencing FoS students are required to complete the Mandatory Safety Induction
There are no extraordinary risks associated with the classroom/lecture activities in this unit.
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.IN01 Bachelor of Information Technology
- Demonstrate a broad theoretical and technical knowledge of well-established and emerging IT disciplines, with in-depth knowledge in at least one specialist area aligned to multiple ICT professional roles.
Relates to: ULO1 - Critically analyse and conceptualise complex IT challenges and opportunities using modelling, abstraction, ideation and problem-solving to generate, evaluate and justify recommended solutions.
Relates to: ULO2, ULO3, Mini Proposal, Major Proposal - Integrate and apply technical knowledge and skills to analyse, design, build, operate and maintain sustainable, secure IT systems using industry-standard tools, technologies, platforms, and processes.
Relates to: ULO3, Mini Proposal, Major Proposal - Demonstrate initiative, autonomy and personal responsibility for continuous learning, working both independently and collaboratively within multi-disciplinary teams, employing state-of-the-art IT project management methodologies to plan and manage time, resources, and risk.
Relates to: ULO4, ULO6, Mini Proposal, Major Proposal - Communicate professionally and effectively in written, verbal and visual formats to a diverse range of stakeholders, considering the audience and explaining complex ideas in a simple and understandable manner in a range of IT-related contexts.
Relates to: ULO5, Mini Proposal, Major Proposal - Critically reflect, using a human-centric approach, on the social, cultural, ethical, privacy, legal, sustainability, and accessibility issues shaping the development and use of IT, including respecting the perspectives and knowledge systems of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, ensuring IT solutions empower and support people with disabilities, and fostering inclusive and equitable digital technologies that serve diverse communities.
Relates to: Mini Proposal, Major Proposal