ISE 5101 – Fall 20031Karl A. Smith

Project Management

ISE 5101, Fall 2003

ISE 5101 – Fall 20031Karl A. Smith

Karl A. Smith, Ph.D.

Morse-Alumni Distinguished Professor

Department of Civil Engineering

236 Civil Engineering

500 Pillsbury Drive SE

Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: 612-625-0305

FAX: 612-626-7750

E-mail:

ISE 5101 – Fall 20031Karl A. Smith

Course Overview

The project management has been expanded for this offering to include knowledge management. ISE 5101 is designed to cover broad areas of project and knowledge management in Infrastructure Systems Engineering. The project management aspect of the course emphasizes a practical understanding of business and engineering project and knowledge management--including project planning, scheduling, and controlling; budgeting, staffing, task and cost control; and communicating with, motivating, leading, and managing conflict among team members. The knowledge management aspect of the course focuses on the development of concepts and processes through which the knowledge assets of the organization and its members can be understood, managed, and evaluated. A broader "systems" approach to viewing problems with particular emphasis on the interactions among various perspectives – technological, environmental, economic, social, international, etc. – is used to integrate all the various aspects of the course. The entire course is problem-based, that is, the emphasis is on formulating and solving problems, and interpreting and evaluating the results. Class sessions will be spent in small-group work, lectures, discussions, and simulation exercises.

Textbooks

Davenport, Thomas & Prusak, Lawrence. 2002. Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know. HarvardBusinessSchool Press. (Paperback).

Lewis, James P. 2000. Project Planning, Scheduling & Control, 3rd ed. McGrawHill; ISBN: 0071360506

Smith, Karl A. 2000. Project Management & Teamwork (B.E.S.T. Series). McGrawHill Higher Education; ISBN: 0072922303.

PMI Standards Committee. 1996. A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Upper Darby, PA: Project Management Institute ( Available in PDF format from ISE 5101 web site or from

Reprints

Collins, Jim. 2001. Level 5 leadership: The triumph of humility and fierce resolve. Harvard Business Review. January, 66-76.

Garvin, David A. 1993. Building a learning organization. Harvard Business Review. July/August, 78-91.

Garvin, David A. and Roberto, Michael A. 2001. What you don’t know about making decisions. Harvard Business Review, 79(8), September, 108-116.

Kloppenborg, Timothy J. and Opfer, Warren A. 2002. The current state of project management research: Trends, interpretations, and predictions. Project Management Journal, 33 (2), 5-18.

Pollock-Johnson, Bruce and Liberatore, Matthew J. 1998. Project management software usage patterns and suggested research directions for future developments. Project Management Journal, 29 (2), 19-28.

Wenger, Etienne C. and Snyder. William M. 2000. Communities of practice: The organizational frontier. Harvard Business Review. January/February, 139-145.

Electronic Documents

Brown, John Seely and Duguid, Paul. 1991. Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: Toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation. Organizational Science, 2 (1), 40-56.). Available in electronic format at (Accessed 1/5/03).

Peters, Tom. 1999. The WOW project: In the new economy, all work is project work. Fast Company, 24, p. 138-144 - (Accessed 1/5/03).

Schrage, Michael. 1999. The proto project: To learn how to innovate, learn how to prototype. Fast Company, 24, p. 138-144. -- (Accessed 1/5/03).

Senge, Peter. 1999. Learning for a change. Fast Company, 24, p. 178-188 -- (Accessed 1/5/03).

Recommended Reading

Brown, John Seely and Duguid, Paul. 2000. The Social Life of Information. HarvardBusinessSchool Press. Also check out

Collison, Chris and Parcell, Geoff. 2001. Learning to Fly: Practical Lessons from one of the World's Leading Knowledge Companies. Capstone Publishing Limited

Peters, Tom. 1999. The project 50: Fifty ways to transform every “task” into a project that matters! New York: Knopf. Also available in eBook format (Palm, Windows CE, Pocket PC) at

Computer Software

Provided. CritPath for Windows. Available from Karl Smith or download from

Provided. WinExp. Windows based expert system shell. Available from Karl Smith for in-class use. Bundled with Starfield, Anthony M., Smith, Karl A. and Bleloch, Andrew. 1991. How to model it: Problem solving for the computer age. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.

Supplemental. Use whatever project management software you=re familiar with. I=ll demonstrate Microsoft Project.

Contacting Karl Smith

I am fairly easy to contact between class sessions if you persist (and are patient). I travel at least every other week, since I have a joint appointment between the University of Minnesota and MichiganStateUniversity and I consult, work on research projects, and attend conferences. E-mail is the most reliable way to reach me. I read my e-mail regularly during the day and almost every evening at about 10:00 pm and I will reply promptly.

Organization and Themes

The course is organized around four aspects of project management:

ISE 5101 – Fall 20031Karl A. Smith

  1. Technical Aspects
  2. Human Aspects
  3. Systems Aspects
  4. Knowledge Aspects

ISE 5101 – Fall 20031Karl A. Smith

And three themes:

  1. Innovation/Creativity
  2. Synthesis/Design
  3. Learning

Objectives

  1. Master concepts and principles for project and knowledge management and project leadership.
  2. Refine skills for formulating and solving project and knowledge management problems
  3. Identify means for representing the knowledge (assets) of individuals and organizations.
  4. Describe processes that guide the development and diffusion of knowledge in organizational settings.
  5. Improve proficiency using project and knowledge management software

Course Requirements

  1. Attend all classes (if you must miss a class, please let me know and make arrangements with other group members for a summary and review).
  2. Read/skim all assigned materials by the assigned time.
  3. Actively participate in class discussions.
  4. Satisfactorily complete all in-class projects.
  5. Contract for a grade of A, B, C
  6. Submit all assignments on time and at the contracted level of quality.
  7. Participate in on-going assessment of class.
  8. Complete and submit a course evaluation.
  9. Follow scholastic conduct policy (See Office for Student Academic Integrity (OSAI) website,

If you have special learning needs, please bring documentation from Disability Services and contact me to make suitable arrangements.

Grading

Grades will be determined on the basis of learning contracts. A specified minimum amount of work is expected of all students. The alternative learning contracts are:

Grade C:Meet course requirements (see above) plus

  1. Complete and submit all group project reports (e.g., Expert System Project, Delta Design Project)
  2. Complete Statement of Work (SOW), Project Charter, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Critical Path Schedule for a project (or sub-project).
  3. Complete two brief reports (See description below): (1) Human aspects of project management, (2) Technical or Systems aspects of PM, (3) Knowledge management, or (4) Topic of your choice. Oral Report: Present brief reports (provide a brief written summary) to your small group.

Grade B: Meet course requirements (see above) plus

  1. Complete and submit all group project reports (e.g., Expert Systems Project, Delta Design Project)
  2. Complete Statement of Work (SOW), Project Charter, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Critical Path Schedule for a project (or sub-project).
  3. Complete four brief reports (See description below): (1) Human aspects of project management, (2) Technical or Systems aspects of PM, (3) Knowledge management, or (4) Topic of your choice. Oral Report: Present brief reports (provide a brief written summary) to your small group.
  4. Present one Brief Report to entire class – 5 minutes/5 slides

Grade A: Meet course requirements (see above) plus

  1. Complete and submit all group project reports (e.g., Expert Systems Project, Delta Design Project)
  2. Complete Statement of Work (SOW), Project Charter, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Critical Path Schedule for a project (or sub-project).
  3. Complete four brief reports (See description below): (1) Human aspects of project management, (2) Technical or Systems aspects of PM, (3) Knowledge management, or (4) Topic of your choice. Oral Report: Present brief reports (provide a brief written summary) to your small group.
  4. Present one Brief Report to entire class – 5 minutes/5 slides
  5. Complete an Individual Project Report (see description below). Present Individual Project Report to entire class – 5 minutes/5 slides

The following Excel Spreadsheet summarizes the contract.

Brief Reports [BR]: Write brief (500 - 1000 word, approximately two-to-four double-spaced pages) reviews. Reports should include: Summary; critique, implications, applications or reactions; and full reference. Possible choices include: read a journal article or attend a seminar and write a review (summary and critique), conduct an interview, review project management software, conduct a survey, review a book (or selected chapters), review a project management video, etc.

Individual Project Report (A): Write either a (1) review paper on some aspect of project or knowledge management or (2) a practical application paper describing a typical application in project or knowledge management. This paper should be at least 2000 words (approximately 8 double-spaced pages). Review or Application papers must include external references, for example, journal articles, an interview with a project manager.

Project reports that do not meet the minimum criteria will be returned for revision.

Final grades are based on a combination of Quantity and Quality of work. Quality is more important. All work must meet the standards of acceptable performance. On the final day of classes participants must submit a written statement of the contract they are working to fulfill (if all requirements are not met).

ISE 5101, Project Management Class Sessions

(Topics and schedule are tentative and subject to modification)

Session 1 Overview and expectations. Introduction to project and knowledge management and leadership. Engineering approach. Systems thinking and systems approach. Project models. Instructional approach.

Lewis: Chapters 1, 3[1]

Davenport & Prusak: Chapters Preface, 1, 2

Smith: Chapters 1,4

PBMOK: Chapter 1

Peters: The WOW project

Kloppenborg and Opfer: The current state of project management research

Session 2 Project life cycle. Project planning. Work breakdown structure. Knowledge generation and codification.

Davenport & Prusak: Chapters 3, 4

Lewis: Chapter 5, 6, 7

Smith: Chapter 5, 6

PMBOK: Chapter 2, 5

Schrage: The proto project: To learn how to innovate, learn how to prototype.

Session 3 Project scheduling. Critical Path Method. Resource allocation. Knowledge transfer. Knowledge roles and skills [BR#1 due]

Davenport & Prusak: Chapters 5, 6

Lewis: Chapter 9, 11, Appendix: Schedule Computations

Pollack-Johnson & Liberatore: Project management software

Smith: Chapter 6, 9

PMBOK: Chapter 6

Computer Software: CritPath for Windows plus Commercial Project Management Software.

Session 4 Project scheduling continued. Critical Path Method. Resource allocation. Time-cost trade-offs.

Lewis: Chapter 9, 11, Appendix: Schedule Computations

Pollack-Johnson & Liberatore: Project management software

Smith: Chapter 6, 9

PMBOK: Chapter 6

Computer Software: CritPath for Windows plus Commercial Project Management Software.

Session 5 Project Control, Monitoring and Evaluation. Knowledge management technologies. [BR#2 due]

Davenport & Prusak: Chapter 7

Lewis: Chapter 8, 10

Smith: Chapter 7

PMBOK: Chapter 7, 10, 11

Computer Software: WinExp – Expert systems shell

Session 6 Project Control, Monitoring and Evaluation continued. Earned-Value Ananlyis

Lewis: Chapter 8, 10

Smith: Chapter 7

PMBOK: Chapter 7, 10, 11

Session 7Delta Design Simulation. Innovation. Learning.

Davenport & Prusak: Chapter 8

Garvin: Building a learning organization

Senge: Learning for a change

Session 8 Leading project teams. Introduction, problem solving & decision making, teamwork & leadership. [BR#3 due]

Lewis: Chapter 14, 15, 16

Smith: Chapter 2, 3

PMBOK: Chapter 9

Collins: Level 5 leadership

Garvin and Roberto: What you don’t know about making decisions.

Session 9 Leading project teams. Leadership. Negotiation and conflict resolution.

Lewis: Chapter 13

Smith: Chapter 3

Brown and Duguid - 1991 Organizational learning and communities-of-practice

Wenger and Snyder: Communities of practice

Session 10 Implementing project and knowledge management. Team and project problem solving [Individual Project Report due]

Davenport & Prusak: Chapter 9

Lewis: Chapter 2, 12

[1]Chapters in bold should be read with care, others may be skimmed.