MOT8221 – Spring 20021Karl A. Smith

Project Management

MOT 8221, Spring 2002

SYLLABUS

MOT8221 – Spring 20021Karl A. Smith

Karl A. Smith

Department of Civil Engineering

236 Civil Engineering

500 Pillsbury Drive SE

Minneapolis, MN 55455

Phone: 612-625-0305

FAX: 612-626-7750

E-mail:

http://www.ce.umn.edu/~smith

MOT8221 – Spring 20021Karl A. Smith

Course Overview

Graduate course covering broad areas of project management and project leadership in the management of technology. The course emphasizes a practical understanding of business and engineering project management--including project planning, scheduling, and controlling; budgeting, staffing, task and cost control; and communicating with, motivating, leading, and managing conflict among team members. 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. A WebCT site is being established for the course – http://webct.umn.edu

Textbooks

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

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

Smith, Karl A. 2000. Project Management & Teamwork (B.E.S.T. Series). McGrawHill Higher Education; ISBN: 0070122962

PMI Standards Committee. 1996. A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Upper Darby, PA: Project Management Institute ( Available in PDF format from PMI web site or from www.ce.umn.edu/~smith.

Reprints

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

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.

Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T., and Smith, K.A. 2000. Constructive controversy: The power of intellectual conflict. Change, 32 (1), 28-37.

Sutton, Robert I. 2001. The Weird Rules of Creativity. Harvard Business Review, 79(8), September.

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

Electronic Documents

Peters, Tom. 1999. The WOW project: In the new economy, all work is project work. Fast Company, 24, p. 138-144 - (Accessed 12/20/01).

Schrage, Michael. 1999. The proto project: To learn how to innovate, learn how to prototype. Fast Company, 24, p. 138-144. -- (Accessed 12/20/01).

Senge, Peter. 1999. Learning for a change. Fast Company, 24, p. 178-188 -- (Accessed 12/20/01).

Computer Software

Provided. CritPath for Windows. Available from Karl Smith or download from www.ce.umn.edu/~smith.

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

Organization and Themes

The course is organized around four aspects of project management:

  1. Technical Aspects
  2. Human Aspects
  3. Systems Aspects
  4. Emerging Trends - technology, community of practice, knowledge management, virtual communication, ?

And three themes:

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

Objectives

1.Learn about project management and project leadership

Master the concepts and principles

Develop skills for formulating and solving project management problems

2.Improve computer applications skills

Develop proficiency using project management software

Develop skills for virtual communication

3.Improve skills for working effectively with others

4.Improve written and verbal communication skills

Course Requirements

  1. Attend all classes (if you must miss a class, make arrangements with other group members for a summary and review).
  2. Read 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, http://www.osai.umn.edu).

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., Delta Design Project, Structured Controversy Discussion Assignments)
  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) Systems aspects of PM or (3) 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., Delta Design Project, Structured Controversy Discussion Assignments)
  2. Complete Statement of Work (SOW), Project Charter, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Critical Path Schedule for a project (or sub-project).
  3. Complete three brief reports (See description below): (1) Human aspects of project management, (2) Systems aspects of PM or (3) 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

[BTP1]

Grade A: Meet course requirements (see above) plus

  1. Complete and submit all group project reports (e.g., Delta Design Project, Structured Controversy Discussion Assignments)
  2. Complete Statement of Work (SOW), Project Charter, Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) and Critical Path Schedule for a project (or sub-project).
  3. Complete three brief reports (See description below): (1) Human aspects of project management, (2) Systems aspects of PM or (3) 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 oral report to small group.

Brief Report [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: attend a seminar and write a review, review a journal article, 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 management or (2) a practical application paper describing a typical application in project 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).

MOT8221, Project Management Class Sessions

(Topics and schedule are tentative and subject to modification)

Session 1 (2/2/02 pm) Overview and expectations. Introduction to project management and leadership. Engineering approach. Systems thinking and systems approach. Project models. Instructional approach.

Lewis: Chapter 1, 3[1]

Smith: Chapter 1, 4

PBMOK: Chapter 1

Peters: The WOW project

Johnson, Johnson, and Smith: Constructive controversy

Session 2 (2/8/02 am) Project life cycle. Project planning. Work breakdown structure.

Lewis: Chapter 5, 6, 7

Smith: Chapter 5, 6, Ch6 Corrections

PMBOK: Chapter 2, 5

Peters: The project 50

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

Session 3 (2/16/02 pm) Project scheduling. Critical Path Method. Resource allocation. [BR#1 due]

Lewis: Chapter 9, 11, Appendix: Schedule Computations

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

Smith: Chapter 6, Ch6 corrections, 9

PMBOK: Chapter 6

Session 4 (3/2/02 pm) Project Control, Monitoring and Evaluation [BR#2 due]

Lewis: Chapter 8, 10

Smith: Chapter 7

PMBOK: Chapter 7, 10, 11

Session 5 (3/8/02 am) Delta Design Simulation

Session 6 (4/6/02 pm) 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

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

Senge: Learning for a change

Garvin: Building a learning organization

Session 7 (5/10/02 pm) Leading project teams. Leadership. Negotiation and conflict resolution.

Lewis: Chapter 13

Smith: Chapter 3

Sutton: The weird rules of creativity

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

Wenger and Snyder: Communities of practice

Session 8 (5/19/02 am) Implementing project management. Team and project problem solving [Individual Project Report due]

Lewis: Chapter 2, 12

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

[BTP1]You might put a range here, i.e. 5-7 mintues, 5-10 slides???