IFB103 IT Systems Design
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: | IFB103 |
|---|---|
| Antirequisite(s): | ITD103 |
| 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: | IFB103 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Anti-requisite: | ITD103 |
| Coordinator: | Alireza Nili | a.nili@qut.edu.au |
Overview
Developing an innovative, practical and cost-effective IT solution that is user-focused is an important task for IT experts. It requires identifying and clarifying a real-world problem that an IT system can help to resolve; collecting and interpreting requirements; and designing the system and prototyping to ensure that the system satisfies the requirements. This unit presents you with authentic industry challenges and exposes you to design contexts, fundamental analysis and design techniques that IT experts use, either individually or in a group, to analyse and design IT systems. It introduces key skills, such as understanding user needs, communicating user-oriented as well as technical design information, collaborating in diverse teams, career development and employability, and design techniques, which are important throughout the IT industry. These skills are particularly in demand in roles such as Business Systems Analyst, Solution Architect, and Project Manager.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Apply human/user-centred analysis and design thinking principles, theories and techniques to produce practical IT solutions for real-world problems users experience.
- Analyse design requirements and apply system analysis and design techniques to generate a user-centred design for a client or industry-informed context.
- Apply written, verbal and visual communication to explain a real-world problem, analyse competitors and related challenges, and apply innovative IT design decisions that help businesses address the problem.
- Apply teamwork concepts including multi-disciplinary teams as well as critically reflect on personal performance and the performance of others.
- Use agile methodologies to produce outcomes within the agreed timeframe considering the project requirements and potential risks.
- Describe the Information Systems profession and key transferable and technical skills required by the industry
Content
You will be introduced to design thinking in an IT context and guided through the design process of identifying user needs, defining problems, and ideating possible solutions. Based on your growing IT expertise and interests, you will be asked to analyse and design solutions to real-world, industry-relevant problems drawn from professional and community contexts. Your prototype solutions will be tested against requirements and functionality in collaborative, inquiry-based (exploratory) tutorials. Experts from industry and QUT will provide a series of real-world case studies to introduce you to design thinking. The team design project will provide the opportunity for you to apply your knowledge and skills, including the development of strong presentation skills, the ability to pitch multiple designs, and the use of a variety of visual communication techniques to document and describe your designs. To communicate and test your designs throughout the semester, you will create artefacts such as storyboards, wireframes, and low-, medium- and high-fidelity prototypes. Using these tools, you will test, revise, and refine your designs, with guidance from experienced IT professionals, to determine whether your prototypes satisfy stakeholder needs. This design process will culminate in your realisation of elegant and cost-effective pre-production design concepts using different software and presentation mediums (such as mobile devices). This unit introduces the methods of high-performing teams to provide you with a solid base on which to develop the skills required to work productively as a team member and in industry, as well as to gain a better understanding of team processes. You will be asked to critique the work of others, leveraging your growing knowledge of analysis and design of IT systems, and respond to constructive feedback from your peers in kind. Through this team project, you will also acquire the skills and knowledge required to participate as both an individual and an effective team member, learning how to critically reflect on your learning and performance. The unit will also cover topics related to career development and employability, the types of skills you need to be successful in the IT industry, and the development of action plans to improve those skills.
Learning Approaches
This unit is available for you to study in either on-campus or online mode. The unit includes a weekly face-to-face lecture delivered on campus, which will be recorded and made available to support flexible learning. Tutorials are offered on campus or online. You will collaborate with peers to explore design issues (inquiry-based learning) and develop skills in each phase of the design process. You will also engage with authentic, real-world design problems that reflect industry and community contexts. Teamwork skills will be developed, and you will also conduct and complete some of the activities independently (as an individual). The tutorials build directly on the stimulus material presented in the weekly lectures and are designed to be interactive. The lectures in the initial weeks lay the foundations of your design thinking skills, and later sessions extend your knowledge through further examples and case studies. You will be guided through each phase of the analysis and design process through a real-world team project. This unit includes a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) component, where you will apply your design skills in a team-based project to real-world scenarios and requirements adapted from the IT industry case studies. A guest lecture by an industry professional will provide insights into system design challenges, and these real-world use cases will be embedded into assessment tasks. All of these elements are assessed progressively throughout the unit, offering you multiple opportunities to demonstrate your progress and receive feedback on your learning experiences.
This first-year unit provides an introduction to design thinking methods and systems analysis and design techniques, which are important foundations for future IT units. It presents you with authentic industry challenges and introduces key essential skills, such as understanding user needs, proposing and communicating design decisions, collaborating in diverse teams, analysing complex problems, and applying design methods commonly used throughout the IT industry. This unit helps you to build essential skills that are important for your professional success, including critical thinking skills, effective verbal and written communication, ideation and academic writing, effective time management for reducing project risks, and high-performance teamwork. These are achieved through several methods, including embedding resources as part of the learning and teaching activities, facilitating communication with the Student Success Group, particularly their Language and Learning Educators and Careers Development team, and facilitating communication with the BIT First-Year Experience Coordinator.
This unit includes embedded teaching and learning resources and an assessment to facilitate your career planning and professional development. You will be supported to develop a professional identity and action plans to improve your transferable and technical skills. The teaching material and assessment have been designed in collaboration with the Career Development and Employability team. The unit facilitates obtaining and applying the knowledge of and respect for diverse design ideas and perspectives from different team members with different cultural, demographic (e.g., gender and ethnicity), and knowledge backgrounds. Specifically, each team member is encouraged and supported to engage in a series of design thinking activities (e.g., role-playing, scenario-based design, empirical data collection and group analysis, and user testing as a group) to collaboratively improve and apply IT design decisions. These activities are further supported by recommendations during lectures and tutorials, and online learning materials focused on respect for diverse ideas from different individuals.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- Ongoing peer and learning facilitator feedback on design activities
- Written comments on assessment work with graded criteria sheets
- Formative critique on presentation of your design prototype and diagrams
Consultation hours are available to clarify the contents of the assignment and to provide constructive feedback; and you may ask teaching staff for advice and assistance during the classes.
Assessment
Overview
The assessments in this unit have been designed so that you may develop an understanding of different aspects of analysis and design of IT systems. You will develop the skills to work collaboratively and present confidently demonstrating effective written and visual communication. You will also develop the skills to engage in reflective practice.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Career in IT
There are various jobs in the IT industry. The jobs are beyond coding, programming and software development. For example, there are various jobs in the Information Systems area of IT for graduates who want to become business systems analysts, systems designers and leaders in the IT industry. This is our first assessment because you need to develop a vision about your future. This assessment requires you to analyse the skills that an IT student needs to gain in order to be successful in the IT industry.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Design Challenge 1
This assessment focuses on defining a problem space in tech with real users and designing a functional mobile application using rapid prototyping techniques. In teams you will develop a practical and user centred design prototype to solve a real world problem applying a design thinking approach within an information intensive environment. This will require you to maintain and submit an individual design logbook, which captures visually and in written format the iterative development process that has led to final prototype for the client.
You will need to contribute productively as an individual and in your team to clarify a business problem, create and evaluate new ideas and implement the best solution that supports the evolving needs of users. Your team will create a video presentation of your high-fidelity prototype. There are individual marks and team marks for this assessment.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Design Challenge 2
You will analyse and design an IT artefact based on one or two case studies, and will need to use an appropriate visual modelling tool to deliver a significant part of the results. The results will include several components such as a description of the methods that you have employed, a concise requirements matrix, detailed use cases, and your UML and/or FMC diagrams. The case study will be based on real-world requirements and scenarios adapted from the IT industry. For this assessment, there is an expectation that you demonstrate competency in executing the various analysis and design methods associated with the development of your work.
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
You may wish to acquire sketch books and appropriate pens and pencils for your intial storyboards. You are not required to purchase any additional artistic tools or mediums. Free software for developing mock-ups will be identified and displayed on the unit Canvas site.
There is no prescribed textbook and most tasks are set around freely available university modules and resources and will be made available through the unit's Canvas site. Appropriate references will be made available on Canvas as well as relevant links.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no unusual health or safety risks associated with this unit. You will be made aware of evacuation procedures and assembly areas in the first few lectures. In the event of a fire alarm sounding, or on a lecturer's instruction, you should leave the room and assemble in the designated area that will be indicated to you. You should be conscious of your health and safety at all times whilst on campus or in the field.
Standards/Competencies
This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.
Australian Computer Society Core Body of Knowledge
1: ICT Professional Knowledge
- Professional expectations
Relates to: ULO4 - Teamwork concepts and issues
Relates to: ULO4 - Interpersonal communication
Relates to: ULO3 - Understanding the ICT profession
Relates to: ULO6
2: ICT Problem Solving
4: Technology Building
- Human factors
Relates to: ULO2
5: ICT Management
- IT project management
Relates to: ULO5
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.DS01 Bachelor of Data Science
- Demonstrate a broad and coherent knowledge of the principles, concepts and techniques of the data science discipline, with depth of knowledge in at least one area developed through a major.
Relates to: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Use appropriate statistical, computational, modelling, data management, programming and generative artificial intelligence techniques to develop solutions for deriving insights from data.
Relates to: Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as adaptivity in applying learned techniques in new and unfamiliar contexts.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Work effectively both independently and collaboratively in diverse and interdisciplinary teams.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1 - Communicate effectively in a variety of modes, to expert and non-expert audiences, including in a professional context.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Develop your learning, professional capabilities and skills, and capture it through a curated portfolio of work.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1
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, ULO6, Career in IT, Design Challenge 1 - 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, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: ULO1, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate an understanding of the role of IT in enabling business outcomes and how business realities shape IT decisions.
Relates to: ULO3, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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, ULO5, Design Challenge 1 - 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: ULO3, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: ULO1, ULO2, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
IZ02 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: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate an understanding of the role of IT in enabling business outcomes and how business realities shape IT decisions.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
PU51 Bachelor of Health Information Management
- Critically evaluate and apply theoretical and technical perspectives on health information management (HIM), applicable to professional practice to solve routine and emergent problems. [Knowledge, Practice]
Relates to: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Initiate effective approaches for engaging in critical thinking, decision making and problem solving that reflect diverse perspectives and culturally safe and responsive practice, encompassing evidence-based HIM solutions. [Practice, Values/Disposition
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Employ digital capabilities in accessing, evaluating, utilising and communicating digital health information across a range of stakeholders, and intra- and inter-professional contexts that demonstrate independence, accountability, creativity and initiative as a HIM professional. [Practice, Values/Disposition]
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Exercise judgement in the context of HIM, informed by sustainable, legal, ethical, and professional perspectives that promote social inclusivity, multidisciplinary collaboration and reflective practice. [Values/Disposition, Knowledge, Practice]
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
Unit Outline: Semester 1 2026, Online
| Unit code: | IFB103 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Anti-requisite: | ITD103 |
Overview
Developing an innovative, practical and cost-effective IT solution that is user-focused is an important task for IT experts. It requires identifying and clarifying a real-world problem that an IT system can help to resolve; collecting and interpreting requirements; and designing the system and prototyping to ensure that the system satisfies the requirements. This unit presents you with authentic industry challenges and exposes you to design contexts, fundamental analysis and design techniques that IT experts use, either individually or in a group, to analyse and design IT systems. It introduces key skills, such as understanding user needs, communicating user-oriented as well as technical design information, collaborating in diverse teams, career development and employability, and design techniques, which are important throughout the IT industry. These skills are particularly in demand in roles such as Business Systems Analyst, Solution Architect, and Project Manager.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Apply human/user-centred analysis and design thinking principles, theories and techniques to produce practical IT solutions for real-world problems users experience.
- Analyse design requirements and apply system analysis and design techniques to generate a user-centred design for a client or industry-informed context.
- Apply written, verbal and visual communication to explain a real-world problem, analyse competitors and related challenges, and apply innovative IT design decisions that help businesses address the problem.
- Apply teamwork concepts including multi-disciplinary teams as well as critically reflect on personal performance and the performance of others.
- Use agile methodologies to produce outcomes within the agreed timeframe considering the project requirements and potential risks.
- Describe the Information Systems profession and key transferable and technical skills required by the industry
Content
You will be introduced to design thinking in an IT context and guided through the design process of identifying user needs, defining problems, and ideating possible solutions. Based on your growing IT expertise and interests, you will be asked to analyse and design solutions to real-world, industry-relevant problems drawn from professional and community contexts. Your prototype solutions will be tested against requirements and functionality in collaborative, inquiry-based (exploratory) tutorials. Experts from industry and QUT will provide a series of real-world case studies to introduce you to design thinking. The team design project will provide the opportunity for you to apply your knowledge and skills, including the development of strong presentation skills, the ability to pitch multiple designs, and the use of a variety of visual communication techniques to document and describe your designs. To communicate and test your designs throughout the semester, you will create artefacts such as storyboards, wireframes, and low-, medium- and high-fidelity prototypes. Using these tools, you will test, revise, and refine your designs, with guidance from experienced IT professionals, to determine whether your prototypes satisfy stakeholder needs. This design process will culminate in your realisation of elegant and cost-effective pre-production design concepts using different software and presentation mediums (such as mobile devices). This unit introduces the methods of high-performing teams to provide you with a solid base on which to develop the skills required to work productively as a team member and in industry, as well as to gain a better understanding of team processes. You will be asked to critique the work of others, leveraging your growing knowledge of analysis and design of IT systems, and respond to constructive feedback from your peers in kind. Through this team project, you will also acquire the skills and knowledge required to participate as both an individual and an effective team member, learning how to critically reflect on your learning and performance. The unit will also cover topics related to career development and employability, the types of skills you need to be successful in the IT industry, and the development of action plans to improve those skills.
Learning Approaches
This unit is available for you to study in either on-campus or online mode. The unit includes a weekly face-to-face lecture delivered on campus, which will be recorded and made available to support flexible learning. Tutorials are offered on campus or online. You will collaborate with peers to explore design issues (inquiry-based learning) and develop skills in each phase of the design process. You will also engage with authentic, real-world design problems that reflect industry and community contexts. Teamwork skills will be developed, and you will also conduct and complete some of the activities independently (as an individual). The tutorials build directly on the stimulus material presented in the weekly lectures and are designed to be interactive. The lectures in the initial weeks lay the foundations of your design thinking skills, and later sessions extend your knowledge through further examples and case studies. You will be guided through each phase of the analysis and design process through a real-world team project. This unit includes a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) component, where you will apply your design skills in a team-based project to real-world scenarios and requirements adapted from the IT industry case studies. A guest lecture by an industry professional will provide insights into system design challenges, and these real-world use cases will be embedded into assessment tasks. All of these elements are assessed progressively throughout the unit, offering you multiple opportunities to demonstrate your progress and receive feedback on your learning experiences.
This first-year unit provides an introduction to design thinking methods and systems analysis and design techniques, which are important foundations for future IT units. It presents you with authentic industry challenges and introduces key essential skills, such as understanding user needs, proposing and communicating design decisions, collaborating in diverse teams, analysing complex problems, and applying design methods commonly used throughout the IT industry. This unit helps you to build essential skills that are important for your professional success, including critical thinking skills, effective verbal and written communication, ideation and academic writing, effective time management for reducing project risks, and high-performance teamwork. These are achieved through several methods, including embedding resources as part of the learning and teaching activities, facilitating communication with the Student Success Group, particularly their Language and Learning Educators and Careers Development team, and facilitating communication with the BIT First-Year Experience Coordinator.
This unit includes embedded teaching and learning resources and an assessment to facilitate your career planning and professional development. You will be supported to develop a professional identity and action plans to improve your transferable and technical skills. The teaching material and assessment have been designed in collaboration with the Career Development and Employability team. The unit facilitates obtaining and applying the knowledge of and respect for diverse design ideas and perspectives from different team members with different cultural, demographic (e.g., gender and ethnicity), and knowledge backgrounds. Specifically, each team member is encouraged and supported to engage in a series of design thinking activities (e.g., role-playing, scenario-based design, empirical data collection and group analysis, and user testing as a group) to collaboratively improve and apply IT design decisions. These activities are further supported by recommendations during lectures and tutorials, and online learning materials focused on respect for diverse ideas from different individuals.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- Ongoing peer and learning facilitator feedback on design activities
- Written comments on assessment work with graded criteria sheets
- Formative critique on presentation of your design prototype and diagrams
Consultation hours are available to clarify the contents of the assignment and to provide constructive feedback; and you may ask teaching staff for advice and assistance during the classes.
Assessment
Overview
The assessments in this unit have been designed so that you may develop an understanding of different aspects of analysis and design of IT systems. You will develop the skills to work collaboratively and present confidently demonstrating effective written and visual communication. You will also develop the skills to engage in reflective practice.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Career in IT
There are various jobs in the IT industry. The jobs are beyond coding, programming and software development. For example, there are various jobs in the Information Systems area of IT for graduates who want to become business systems analysts, systems designers and leaders in the IT industry. This is our first assessment because you need to develop a vision about your future. This assessment requires you to analyse the skills that an IT student needs to gain in order to be successful in the IT industry.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Design Challenge 1
This assessment focuses on defining a problem space in tech with real users and designing a functional mobile application using rapid prototyping techniques. In teams you will develop a practical and user centred design prototype to solve a real world problem applying a design thinking approach within an information intensive environment. This will require you to maintain and submit an individual design logbook, which captures visually and in written format the iterative development process that has led to final prototype for the client.
You will need to contribute productively as an individual and in your team to clarify a business problem, create and evaluate new ideas and implement the best solution that supports the evolving needs of users. Your team will create a video presentation of your high-fidelity prototype. There are individual marks and team marks for this assessment.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Design Challenge 2
You will analyse and design an IT artefact based on one or two case studies, and will need to use an appropriate visual modelling tool to deliver a significant part of the results. The results will include several components such as a description of the methods that you have employed, a concise requirements matrix, detailed use cases, and your UML and/or FMC diagrams. The case study will be based on real-world requirements and scenarios adapted from the IT industry. For this assessment, there is an expectation that you demonstrate competency in executing the various analysis and design methods associated with the development of your work.
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
You may wish to acquire sketch books and appropriate pens and pencils for your intial storyboards. You are not required to purchase any additional artistic tools or mediums. Free software for developing mock-ups will be identified and displayed on the unit Canvas site.
There is no prescribed textbook and most tasks are set around freely available university modules and resources and will be made available through the unit's Canvas site. Appropriate references will be made available on Canvas as well as relevant links.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no unusual health or safety risks associated with this unit. You will be made aware of evacuation procedures and assembly areas in the first few lectures. In the event of a fire alarm sounding, or on a lecturer's instruction, you should leave the room and assemble in the designated area that will be indicated to you. You should be conscious of your health and safety at all times whilst on campus or in the field.
Standards/Competencies
This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.
Australian Computer Society Core Body of Knowledge
1: ICT Professional Knowledge
- Professional expectations
Relates to: ULO4 - Teamwork concepts and issues
Relates to: ULO4 - Interpersonal communication
Relates to: ULO3 - Understanding the ICT profession
Relates to: ULO6
2: ICT Problem Solving
4: Technology Building
- Human factors
Relates to: ULO2
5: ICT Management
- IT project management
Relates to: ULO5
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.DS01 Bachelor of Data Science
- Demonstrate a broad and coherent knowledge of the principles, concepts and techniques of the data science discipline, with depth of knowledge in at least one area developed through a major.
Relates to: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Use appropriate statistical, computational, modelling, data management, programming and generative artificial intelligence techniques to develop solutions for deriving insights from data.
Relates to: Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as adaptivity in applying learned techniques in new and unfamiliar contexts.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Work effectively both independently and collaboratively in diverse and interdisciplinary teams.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1 - Communicate effectively in a variety of modes, to expert and non-expert audiences, including in a professional context.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Develop your learning, professional capabilities and skills, and capture it through a curated portfolio of work.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1
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, ULO6, Career in IT, Design Challenge 1 - 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, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: ULO1, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate an understanding of the role of IT in enabling business outcomes and how business realities shape IT decisions.
Relates to: ULO3, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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, ULO5, Design Challenge 1 - 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: ULO3, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: ULO1, ULO2, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
IZ02 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: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate an understanding of the role of IT in enabling business outcomes and how business realities shape IT decisions.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
PU51 Bachelor of Health Information Management
- Critically evaluate and apply theoretical and technical perspectives on health information management (HIM), applicable to professional practice to solve routine and emergent problems. [Knowledge, Practice]
Relates to: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Initiate effective approaches for engaging in critical thinking, decision making and problem solving that reflect diverse perspectives and culturally safe and responsive practice, encompassing evidence-based HIM solutions. [Practice, Values/Disposition
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Employ digital capabilities in accessing, evaluating, utilising and communicating digital health information across a range of stakeholders, and intra- and inter-professional contexts that demonstrate independence, accountability, creativity and initiative as a HIM professional. [Practice, Values/Disposition]
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Exercise judgement in the context of HIM, informed by sustainable, legal, ethical, and professional perspectives that promote social inclusivity, multidisciplinary collaboration and reflective practice. [Values/Disposition, Knowledge, Practice]
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
Unit Outline: Semester 2 2026, Gardens Point, Internal
| Unit code: | IFB103 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Anti-requisite: | ITD103 |
| Coordinator: | Alireza Nili | a.nili@qut.edu.au |
Overview
Developing an innovative, practical and cost-effective IT solution that is user-focused is an important task for IT experts. It requires identifying and clarifying a real-world problem that an IT system can help to resolve; collecting and interpreting requirements; and designing the system and prototyping to ensure that the system satisfies the requirements. This unit presents you with authentic industry challenges and exposes you to design contexts, fundamental analysis and design techniques that IT experts use, either individually or in a group, to analyse and design IT systems. It introduces key skills, such as understanding user needs, communicating user-oriented as well as technical design information, collaborating in diverse teams, career development and employability, and design techniques, which are important throughout the IT industry. These skills are particularly in demand in roles such as Business Systems Analyst, Solution Architect, and Project Manager.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Apply human/user-centred analysis and design thinking principles, theories and techniques to produce practical IT solutions for real-world problems users experience.
- Analyse design requirements and apply system analysis and design techniques to generate a user-centred design for a client or industry-informed context.
- Apply written, verbal and visual communication to explain a real-world problem, analyse competitors and related challenges, and apply innovative IT design decisions that help businesses address the problem.
- Apply teamwork concepts including multi-disciplinary teams as well as critically reflect on personal performance and the performance of others.
- Use agile methodologies to produce outcomes within the agreed timeframe considering the project requirements and potential risks.
- Describe the Information Systems profession and key transferable and technical skills required by the industry
Content
You will be introduced to design thinking in an IT context and guided through the design process of identifying user needs, defining problems, and ideating possible solutions. Based on your growing IT expertise and interests, you will be asked to analyse and design solutions to real-world, industry-relevant problems drawn from professional and community contexts. Your prototype solutions will be tested against requirements and functionality in collaborative, inquiry-based (exploratory) tutorials. Experts from industry and QUT will provide a series of real-world case studies to introduce you to design thinking. The team design project will provide the opportunity for you to apply your knowledge and skills, including the development of strong presentation skills, the ability to pitch multiple designs, and the use of a variety of visual communication techniques to document and describe your designs. To communicate and test your designs throughout the semester, you will create artefacts such as storyboards, wireframes, and low-, medium- and high-fidelity prototypes. Using these tools, you will test, revise, and refine your designs, with guidance from experienced IT professionals, to determine whether your prototypes satisfy stakeholder needs. This design process will culminate in your realisation of elegant and cost-effective pre-production design concepts using different software and presentation mediums (such as mobile devices). This unit introduces the methods of high-performing teams to provide you with a solid base on which to develop the skills required to work productively as a team member and in industry, as well as to gain a better understanding of team processes. You will be asked to critique the work of others, leveraging your growing knowledge of analysis and design of IT systems, and respond to constructive feedback from your peers in kind. Through this team project, you will also acquire the skills and knowledge required to participate as both an individual and an effective team member, learning how to critically reflect on your learning and performance. The unit will also cover topics related to career development and employability, the types of skills you need to be successful in the IT industry, and the development of action plans to improve those skills.
Learning Approaches
This unit is available for you to study in either on-campus or online mode. The unit includes a weekly face-to-face lecture delivered on campus, which will be recorded and made available to support flexible learning. Tutorials are offered on campus or online. You will collaborate with peers to explore design issues (inquiry-based learning) and develop skills in each phase of the design process. You will also engage with authentic, real-world design problems that reflect industry and community contexts. Teamwork skills will be developed, and you will also conduct and complete some of the activities independently (as an individual). The tutorials build directly on the stimulus material presented in the weekly lectures and are designed to be interactive. The lectures in the initial weeks lay the foundations of your design thinking skills, and later sessions extend your knowledge through further examples and case studies. You will be guided through each phase of the analysis and design process through a real-world team project. This unit includes a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) component, where you will apply your design skills in a team-based project to real-world scenarios and requirements adapted from the IT industry case studies. A guest lecture by an industry professional will provide insights into system design challenges, and these real-world use cases will be embedded into assessment tasks. All of these elements are assessed progressively throughout the unit, offering you multiple opportunities to demonstrate your progress and receive feedback on your learning experiences.
This first-year unit provides an introduction to design thinking methods and systems analysis and design techniques, which are important foundations for future IT units. It presents you with authentic industry challenges and introduces key essential skills, such as understanding user needs, proposing and communicating design decisions, collaborating in diverse teams, analysing complex problems, and applying design methods commonly used throughout the IT industry. This unit helps you to build essential skills that are important for your professional success, including critical thinking skills, effective verbal and written communication, ideation and academic writing, effective time management for reducing project risks, and high-performance teamwork. These are achieved through several methods, including embedding resources as part of the learning and teaching activities, facilitating communication with the Student Success Group, particularly their Language and Learning Educators and Careers Development team, and facilitating communication with the BIT First-Year Experience Coordinator.
This unit includes embedded teaching and learning resources and an assessment to facilitate your career planning and professional development. You will be supported to develop a professional identity and action plans to improve your transferable and technical skills. The teaching material and assessment have been designed in collaboration with the Career Development and Employability team. The unit facilitates obtaining and applying the knowledge of and respect for diverse design ideas and perspectives from different team members with different cultural, demographic (e.g., gender and ethnicity), and knowledge backgrounds. Specifically, each team member is encouraged and supported to engage in a series of design thinking activities (e.g., role-playing, scenario-based design, empirical data collection and group analysis, and user testing as a group) to collaboratively improve and apply IT design decisions. These activities are further supported by recommendations during lectures and tutorials, and online learning materials focused on respect for diverse ideas from different individuals.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- Ongoing peer and learning facilitator feedback on design activities
- Written comments on assessment work with graded criteria sheets
- Formative critique on presentation of your design prototype and diagrams
Consultation hours are available to clarify the contents of the assignment and to provide constructive feedback; and you may ask teaching staff for advice and assistance during the classes.
Assessment
Overview
The assessments in this unit have been designed so that you may develop an understanding of different aspects of analysis and design of IT systems. You will develop the skills to work collaboratively and present confidently demonstrating effective written and visual communication. You will also develop the skills to engage in reflective practice.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Career in IT
There are various jobs in the IT industry. The jobs are beyond coding, programming and software development. For example, there are various jobs in the Information Systems area of IT for graduates who want to become business systems analysts, systems designers and leaders in the IT industry. This is our first assessment because you need to develop a vision about your future. This assessment requires you to analyse the skills that an IT student needs to gain in order to be successful in the IT industry.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Design Challenge 1
This assessment focuses on defining a problem space in tech with real users and designing a functional mobile application using rapid prototyping techniques. In teams you will develop a practical and user centred design prototype to solve a real world problem applying a design thinking approach within an information intensive environment. This will require you to maintain and submit an individual design logbook, which captures visually and in written format the iterative development process that has led to final prototype for the client.
You will need to contribute productively as an individual and in your team to clarify a business problem, create and evaluate new ideas and implement the best solution that supports the evolving needs of users. Your team will create a video presentation of your high-fidelity prototype. There are individual marks and team marks for this assessment.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Design Challenge 2
You will analyse and design an IT artefact based on one or two case studies, and will need to use an appropriate visual modelling tool to deliver a significant part of the results. The results will include several components such as a description of the methods that you have employed, a concise requirements matrix, detailed use cases, and your UML and/or FMC diagrams. The case study will be based on real-world requirements and scenarios adapted from the IT industry. For this assessment, there is an expectation that you demonstrate competency in executing the various analysis and design methods associated with the development of your work.
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
You may wish to acquire sketch books and appropriate pens and pencils for your intial storyboards. You are not required to purchase any additional artistic tools or mediums. Free software for developing mock-ups will be identified and displayed on the unit Canvas site.
There is no prescribed textbook and most tasks are set around freely available university modules and resources and will be made available through the unit's Canvas site. Appropriate references will be made available on Canvas as well as relevant links.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no unusual health or safety risks associated with this unit. You will be made aware of evacuation procedures and assembly areas in the first few lectures. In the event of a fire alarm sounding, or on a lecturer's instruction, you should leave the room and assemble in the designated area that will be indicated to you. You should be conscious of your health and safety at all times whilst on campus or in the field.
Standards/Competencies
This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.
Australian Computer Society Core Body of Knowledge
1: ICT Professional Knowledge
- Professional expectations
Relates to: ULO4 - Teamwork concepts and issues
Relates to: ULO4 - Interpersonal communication
Relates to: ULO3 - Understanding the ICT profession
Relates to: ULO6
2: ICT Problem Solving
4: Technology Building
- Human factors
Relates to: ULO2
5: ICT Management
- IT project management
Relates to: ULO5
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.DS01 Bachelor of Data Science
- Demonstrate a broad and coherent knowledge of the principles, concepts and techniques of the data science discipline, with depth of knowledge in at least one area developed through a major.
Relates to: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Use appropriate statistical, computational, modelling, data management, programming and generative artificial intelligence techniques to develop solutions for deriving insights from data.
Relates to: Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as adaptivity in applying learned techniques in new and unfamiliar contexts.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Work effectively both independently and collaboratively in diverse and interdisciplinary teams.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1 - Communicate effectively in a variety of modes, to expert and non-expert audiences, including in a professional context.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Develop your learning, professional capabilities and skills, and capture it through a curated portfolio of work.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1
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, ULO6, Career in IT, Design Challenge 1 - 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, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: ULO1, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate an understanding of the role of IT in enabling business outcomes and how business realities shape IT decisions.
Relates to: ULO3, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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, ULO5, Design Challenge 1 - 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: ULO3, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: ULO1, ULO2, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
IZ02 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: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate an understanding of the role of IT in enabling business outcomes and how business realities shape IT decisions.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
PU51 Bachelor of Health Information Management
- Critically evaluate and apply theoretical and technical perspectives on health information management (HIM), applicable to professional practice to solve routine and emergent problems. [Knowledge, Practice]
Relates to: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Initiate effective approaches for engaging in critical thinking, decision making and problem solving that reflect diverse perspectives and culturally safe and responsive practice, encompassing evidence-based HIM solutions. [Practice, Values/Disposition
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Employ digital capabilities in accessing, evaluating, utilising and communicating digital health information across a range of stakeholders, and intra- and inter-professional contexts that demonstrate independence, accountability, creativity and initiative as a HIM professional. [Practice, Values/Disposition]
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Exercise judgement in the context of HIM, informed by sustainable, legal, ethical, and professional perspectives that promote social inclusivity, multidisciplinary collaboration and reflective practice. [Values/Disposition, Knowledge, Practice]
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
Unit Outline: Semester 2 2026, Online
| Unit code: | IFB103 |
|---|---|
| Credit points: | 12 |
| Anti-requisite: | ITD103 |
Overview
Developing an innovative, practical and cost-effective IT solution that is user-focused is an important task for IT experts. It requires identifying and clarifying a real-world problem that an IT system can help to resolve; collecting and interpreting requirements; and designing the system and prototyping to ensure that the system satisfies the requirements. This unit presents you with authentic industry challenges and exposes you to design contexts, fundamental analysis and design techniques that IT experts use, either individually or in a group, to analyse and design IT systems. It introduces key skills, such as understanding user needs, communicating user-oriented as well as technical design information, collaborating in diverse teams, career development and employability, and design techniques, which are important throughout the IT industry. These skills are particularly in demand in roles such as Business Systems Analyst, Solution Architect, and Project Manager.
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:
- Apply human/user-centred analysis and design thinking principles, theories and techniques to produce practical IT solutions for real-world problems users experience.
- Analyse design requirements and apply system analysis and design techniques to generate a user-centred design for a client or industry-informed context.
- Apply written, verbal and visual communication to explain a real-world problem, analyse competitors and related challenges, and apply innovative IT design decisions that help businesses address the problem.
- Apply teamwork concepts including multi-disciplinary teams as well as critically reflect on personal performance and the performance of others.
- Use agile methodologies to produce outcomes within the agreed timeframe considering the project requirements and potential risks.
- Describe the Information Systems profession and key transferable and technical skills required by the industry
Content
You will be introduced to design thinking in an IT context and guided through the design process of identifying user needs, defining problems, and ideating possible solutions. Based on your growing IT expertise and interests, you will be asked to analyse and design solutions to real-world, industry-relevant problems drawn from professional and community contexts. Your prototype solutions will be tested against requirements and functionality in collaborative, inquiry-based (exploratory) tutorials. Experts from industry and QUT will provide a series of real-world case studies to introduce you to design thinking. The team design project will provide the opportunity for you to apply your knowledge and skills, including the development of strong presentation skills, the ability to pitch multiple designs, and the use of a variety of visual communication techniques to document and describe your designs. To communicate and test your designs throughout the semester, you will create artefacts such as storyboards, wireframes, and low-, medium- and high-fidelity prototypes. Using these tools, you will test, revise, and refine your designs, with guidance from experienced IT professionals, to determine whether your prototypes satisfy stakeholder needs. This design process will culminate in your realisation of elegant and cost-effective pre-production design concepts using different software and presentation mediums (such as mobile devices). This unit introduces the methods of high-performing teams to provide you with a solid base on which to develop the skills required to work productively as a team member and in industry, as well as to gain a better understanding of team processes. You will be asked to critique the work of others, leveraging your growing knowledge of analysis and design of IT systems, and respond to constructive feedback from your peers in kind. Through this team project, you will also acquire the skills and knowledge required to participate as both an individual and an effective team member, learning how to critically reflect on your learning and performance. The unit will also cover topics related to career development and employability, the types of skills you need to be successful in the IT industry, and the development of action plans to improve those skills.
Learning Approaches
This unit is available for you to study in either on-campus or online mode. The unit includes a weekly face-to-face lecture delivered on campus, which will be recorded and made available to support flexible learning. Tutorials are offered on campus or online. You will collaborate with peers to explore design issues (inquiry-based learning) and develop skills in each phase of the design process. You will also engage with authentic, real-world design problems that reflect industry and community contexts. Teamwork skills will be developed, and you will also conduct and complete some of the activities independently (as an individual). The tutorials build directly on the stimulus material presented in the weekly lectures and are designed to be interactive. The lectures in the initial weeks lay the foundations of your design thinking skills, and later sessions extend your knowledge through further examples and case studies. You will be guided through each phase of the analysis and design process through a real-world team project. This unit includes a Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) component, where you will apply your design skills in a team-based project to real-world scenarios and requirements adapted from the IT industry case studies. A guest lecture by an industry professional will provide insights into system design challenges, and these real-world use cases will be embedded into assessment tasks. All of these elements are assessed progressively throughout the unit, offering you multiple opportunities to demonstrate your progress and receive feedback on your learning experiences.
This first-year unit provides an introduction to design thinking methods and systems analysis and design techniques, which are important foundations for future IT units. It presents you with authentic industry challenges and introduces key essential skills, such as understanding user needs, proposing and communicating design decisions, collaborating in diverse teams, analysing complex problems, and applying design methods commonly used throughout the IT industry. This unit helps you to build essential skills that are important for your professional success, including critical thinking skills, effective verbal and written communication, ideation and academic writing, effective time management for reducing project risks, and high-performance teamwork. These are achieved through several methods, including embedding resources as part of the learning and teaching activities, facilitating communication with the Student Success Group, particularly their Language and Learning Educators and Careers Development team, and facilitating communication with the BIT First-Year Experience Coordinator.
This unit includes embedded teaching and learning resources and an assessment to facilitate your career planning and professional development. You will be supported to develop a professional identity and action plans to improve your transferable and technical skills. The teaching material and assessment have been designed in collaboration with the Career Development and Employability team. The unit facilitates obtaining and applying the knowledge of and respect for diverse design ideas and perspectives from different team members with different cultural, demographic (e.g., gender and ethnicity), and knowledge backgrounds. Specifically, each team member is encouraged and supported to engage in a series of design thinking activities (e.g., role-playing, scenario-based design, empirical data collection and group analysis, and user testing as a group) to collaboratively improve and apply IT design decisions. These activities are further supported by recommendations during lectures and tutorials, and online learning materials focused on respect for diverse ideas from different individuals.
Feedback on Learning and Assessment
Feedback in this unit is provided to you in the following ways:
- Ongoing peer and learning facilitator feedback on design activities
- Written comments on assessment work with graded criteria sheets
- Formative critique on presentation of your design prototype and diagrams
Consultation hours are available to clarify the contents of the assignment and to provide constructive feedback; and you may ask teaching staff for advice and assistance during the classes.
Assessment
Overview
The assessments in this unit have been designed so that you may develop an understanding of different aspects of analysis and design of IT systems. You will develop the skills to work collaboratively and present confidently demonstrating effective written and visual communication. You will also develop the skills to engage in reflective practice.
Unit Grading Scheme
7- point scale
Assessment Tasks
Assessment: Career in IT
There are various jobs in the IT industry. The jobs are beyond coding, programming and software development. For example, there are various jobs in the Information Systems area of IT for graduates who want to become business systems analysts, systems designers and leaders in the IT industry. This is our first assessment because you need to develop a vision about your future. This assessment requires you to analyse the skills that an IT student needs to gain in order to be successful in the IT industry.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Design Challenge 1
This assessment focuses on defining a problem space in tech with real users and designing a functional mobile application using rapid prototyping techniques. In teams you will develop a practical and user centred design prototype to solve a real world problem applying a design thinking approach within an information intensive environment. This will require you to maintain and submit an individual design logbook, which captures visually and in written format the iterative development process that has led to final prototype for the client.
You will need to contribute productively as an individual and in your team to clarify a business problem, create and evaluate new ideas and implement the best solution that supports the evolving needs of users. Your team will create a video presentation of your high-fidelity prototype. There are individual marks and team marks for this assessment.
This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.
Assessment: Design Challenge 2
You will analyse and design an IT artefact based on one or two case studies, and will need to use an appropriate visual modelling tool to deliver a significant part of the results. The results will include several components such as a description of the methods that you have employed, a concise requirements matrix, detailed use cases, and your UML and/or FMC diagrams. The case study will be based on real-world requirements and scenarios adapted from the IT industry. For this assessment, there is an expectation that you demonstrate competency in executing the various analysis and design methods associated with the development of your work.
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
You may wish to acquire sketch books and appropriate pens and pencils for your intial storyboards. You are not required to purchase any additional artistic tools or mediums. Free software for developing mock-ups will be identified and displayed on the unit Canvas site.
There is no prescribed textbook and most tasks are set around freely available university modules and resources and will be made available through the unit's Canvas site. Appropriate references will be made available on Canvas as well as relevant links.
Risk Assessment Statement
There are no unusual health or safety risks associated with this unit. You will be made aware of evacuation procedures and assembly areas in the first few lectures. In the event of a fire alarm sounding, or on a lecturer's instruction, you should leave the room and assemble in the designated area that will be indicated to you. You should be conscious of your health and safety at all times whilst on campus or in the field.
Standards/Competencies
This unit is designed to support your development of the following standards\competencies.
Australian Computer Society Core Body of Knowledge
1: ICT Professional Knowledge
- Professional expectations
Relates to: ULO4 - Teamwork concepts and issues
Relates to: ULO4 - Interpersonal communication
Relates to: ULO3 - Understanding the ICT profession
Relates to: ULO6
2: ICT Problem Solving
4: Technology Building
- Human factors
Relates to: ULO2
5: ICT Management
- IT project management
Relates to: ULO5
Course Learning Outcomes
This unit is designed to support your development of the following course/study area learning outcomes.DS01 Bachelor of Data Science
- Demonstrate a broad and coherent knowledge of the principles, concepts and techniques of the data science discipline, with depth of knowledge in at least one area developed through a major.
Relates to: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Use appropriate statistical, computational, modelling, data management, programming and generative artificial intelligence techniques to develop solutions for deriving insights from data.
Relates to: Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate critical thinking and problem-solving skills, as well as adaptivity in applying learned techniques in new and unfamiliar contexts.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Work effectively both independently and collaboratively in diverse and interdisciplinary teams.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1 - Communicate effectively in a variety of modes, to expert and non-expert audiences, including in a professional context.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Develop your learning, professional capabilities and skills, and capture it through a curated portfolio of work.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1
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, ULO6, Career in IT, Design Challenge 1 - 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, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: ULO1, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate an understanding of the role of IT in enabling business outcomes and how business realities shape IT decisions.
Relates to: ULO3, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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, ULO5, Design Challenge 1 - 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: ULO3, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: ULO1, ULO2, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
IZ02 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: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Demonstrate an understanding of the role of IT in enabling business outcomes and how business realities shape IT decisions.
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - 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: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2
PU51 Bachelor of Health Information Management
- Critically evaluate and apply theoretical and technical perspectives on health information management (HIM), applicable to professional practice to solve routine and emergent problems. [Knowledge, Practice]
Relates to: Career in IT, Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Initiate effective approaches for engaging in critical thinking, decision making and problem solving that reflect diverse perspectives and culturally safe and responsive practice, encompassing evidence-based HIM solutions. [Practice, Values/Disposition
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Employ digital capabilities in accessing, evaluating, utilising and communicating digital health information across a range of stakeholders, and intra- and inter-professional contexts that demonstrate independence, accountability, creativity and initiative as a HIM professional. [Practice, Values/Disposition]
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2 - Exercise judgement in the context of HIM, informed by sustainable, legal, ethical, and professional perspectives that promote social inclusivity, multidisciplinary collaboration and reflective practice. [Values/Disposition, Knowledge, Practice]
Relates to: Design Challenge 1, Design Challenge 2