• Be able to define the problem and scope for a project
• Be able to select the best management method for different project types
• Be able to explain how project investments turn into results in different project contexts
• Be able to develop a vision and requirements for a solution to a project problem
• Be able to develop a business case for a project.
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Project initiation and design lectures will be given by Fons Wijnhoven and Maya Daneva. Below, you find a list of topics that will be covered in the M&T part.
- Week 1: Introduction. An overall model for projects in context is given named the Formal Systems Model for projects and the learning line in this module is presented. This lecture also presents a classification of projects, following the idea that “one size does not fit all projects”.
- Week 1: A lecture and tutorial will be given on project problem definition and scope decisions by Fons Wijnhoven.
- Week 1: Because projects are in living environments (no controlled labs) understanding of the workload needed and other difficulties during the project may vary a lot (this is called project uncertainty) and many things may be related like organizational culture, type of information systems, and skills of project members (this is called project complexity). Given these uncertainties and complexities project managers cannot be omniscient and often have to work with heuristics in their decisions although rationalisation tools (like forecasting tools and simulation tools) can help them a lot. Characteristics of project uncertainties and complexities and methods to handle them with system dynamics are lectured by Fons Wijnhoven and a tutorial is given where students can work with the Insight Maker tool for project progress forecasting.
- In this week, we will also compose student project teams and allocate the teams to companies.
- Fons Wijnhoven will also discuss the implications of project uncertainties and complexities for project management methods and the difficulties of analysing the contributions of project investments in relation to project outcomes. Experienced project managers of Stork will present their PMBOK-based project management method for a critical comparison with ICT projects during a tutorial session.
- Week 2: Requirements by Maya Daneva covers the practices of requirements engineering, various types of software requirements, and how these can be implemented in practice;
- Week 2: Business case development by Maya Daneva covers why business cases are important for IT project success (and must in fact serve as a valid motivation to start a project that finds a solution to a problem), and how to successfully develop one.
- Week 2: We will have our first guest lecture on the management of a large portfolio of projects in a large multinational firm. Note that many of the exam questions will be reacted to this case.
- Week 3 will hold a test of the 1.00 material.
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