915327 Project management

Type
Lecture and exercise
Semester hours
2
Lecturer (assistant)
Vrzal, Wolfgang
Organisation
Offered in
Sommersemester 2025
Languages of instruction
Englisch
Content

* Relevance:
The importance of project management is high and still rising in all sectors, including the entire academic arena, and research and development. Project management has become a key competency in both the industry and the research context. This is also shown in the number of project management certifications offered by the main PM organisations worldwide (IPMA, PMI, PRINCE2). Thus, the main aim of this course is to equip students with the competencies needed to plan and carry out projects in their specific academic fields and cultural contexts and thus contributing to graduates' employability in both a university (research assistants, PhD candidates, etc) and an industry setting.

* Background:
A project is much more than just a set of tasks performed by a group of people within a certain period of time. It is an organization that is established for a certain timeframe to perform unique processes that are characterized by a high degree of complexity, dynamics and risk. In order to manage such an organisation successfully, tools and methods and specific management processes are needed. To plan and control, to coordinate, facilitate communication and lead in projects, project managers take on a ‘design attitude’ to serve their project teams.

The course outline is as follows:
* The concept of projects and project management - potentials and limitations
* Project types, key characteristics of (externally funded) research projects, project standards, project chains and routine processes
* Systems theory as foundation to project management
* Planning for the long term benefit of projects, impact and purpose
* Defining the project boundaries and project context
* Managing expectations of relevant project stakeholders (such as project partners, suppliers, funding agencies, clients, users, NPOs, communities or governmental agencies, etc.)
* Project scope planning (objectives, work breakdown)
* Project scheduling, project resource and cost planning
* Design of project organisations, effective empowerment
* Project roles - expectations, competences and pitfalls
* Designing the project start as the crucial phase for project success
* Overview project controlling
Previous knowledge expected

None. Beginners as well as students who bring basic project management knowledge are welcome!
Objective (expected results of study and acquired competences)

On successful completion of the course, the students will be able to differentiate between projects and processes. They will understand the benefits and limitations of project management. Students will transfer the main project success factors, such as context-thinking, business-case thinking and social competences to real-world projects of their own. The course participants will understand that project success will not be achieved by creating project plans and by viewing projects just as a 'set of tasks that are performed by a group of people within a certain timeframe'. In contrast, they will understand the benefits of systems theory as a sound theoretical framework to project management that is beyond a pure methods-driven perception of projects. The course participants will know what steps are required to plan projects, depending on complexity and dynamics.
They will apply the main project management methods to their own real-world projects in an international and multi-disciplinary course setting.
You can find more details like the schedule or information about exams on the course-page in BOKUonline.