The most innovative ways to look at project management

Project management is an increasingly in demand role that shows no signs of slowing down. It is estimated that a significant number of project managers currently in roles will be retiring in the next few years, however. This will obviously leave a large gap  in the marketplace for those who have the relevant project management experience and qualifications.

With this in mind, it is important to consider just how important the expansion of professional interest within project management really is. All of this means that there is a distinct need for training programmes and courses in the relevant project management qualifications to help fill this gap.

There are a number of ways for individuals to take their first step on the project management career ladder, but whether this comes from a career move from one role to a project manager role in order to gain hands on experience, or they come directly to project management from university to a project management role, training for project managers is an essential first step.

With people entering project management from a range of different backgrounds, with different experiences and even different attitudes to learning, this is not always a case of one approach fits all. Therefore, it is important to consider some of the different alternatives, including some more innovative ones, that are available when it comes to project management training.

Read on as we take a look at some of these approaches to project management learning.

Project management topics

When it  comes to graduate courses in project management there are a number of main topics that should be followed. These follow the structure that you will find in the concise textbook written by T. Klastorin “Project Management Tools and Trade-offs.

1. Preliminary – discussion on PMI and PMP, motivating the topic through statistics
2. Introduction – the history of project management, what is project management; definitions, perspectives  and  roles.
3. Project selection and evaluation -IRR, NPV, knapsack model of portfolio planning
4. Project organisation – WVS, autonomy, harmony, subcontracting and PMO
5. Scheduling – Precedence, AoA and AoN networks, triple constraint, slack and multitasking
6. Budget – NPV maximisation and timing, fast tracking, time/cost trade-offs and crashing
7. Uncertainty – PERT, critical chains, Monte Carlo simulation, Scrum and Agile
8. Risk – Value of information, contingency, prevention, risk management plan and insurance
9. Resources – levelling of resources, allocation of resources, and when to combine resources
10. Monitoring – earned value management, variances and closing a project
11. Multiple projects – more complex resource allocation, prioritisation

Teaching literature

There are some extensive collections of teaching materials for project management available that can provide a valuable resource for those looking to undertake any form of project management learning. A good starting list of such materials can be found on the Project Management Institute website (www.pmi.org). For many people however, the idea of learning simply from books, especially if it is a long time since they left a more formal educational setting, is one that is less appealing. However, it is important to remember that books form a valuable resource when it comes to independent learning and also as a way of checking information for clarity.

Project management courses

In-person courses, or indeed online courses, are a great way of learning. They offer the expert knowledge of the person teaching the subject matter whilst also providing the structure that self-study does not have. This can be a good way of learning for those who struggle to find the time in a busy schedule to make time for their studies. It’s also a great opportunity to network with other people who work in project management.

For those who cannot attend in-person course sessions there are also the opportunities to undertake project management training online and this can be a good option if you need it to fit in around your work, family commitments.

In order to reinforce the concepts of each lesson there are also a range of other options that are worth considering  and these can really help. These include novel scenarios like games and exercises.

Games and exercises

At first glance, it may seem that games and exercises may not have much educational value, but they can be a valuable tool that can help to support the content of any good project management course. Covering a range of different topics the selection of  games and exercises to consider include:

Creative problem-solving skills exercise – this is a questionnaire based exercise that can be used to assist students in assessing their project management skills. It allocates project team members to work they will enjoy and looks  at how natural conflicts might arise.

Harvard Business School online simulation I – the simulation of a project that is relatively simple and where nothing problematic or unexpected occurs. It does require a balance of time, cost and scope.

Harvard Business School online simulation II – this simulation offers a project scenario that is chaotic, where there are staffing losses and a deadline that is shortened as a result of the unexpected release of the rival product. The simulation encourages students to consider the use of prototypes.

Lego4scrum – almost everyone loves Lego - this simple workshop helps individuals who are new to scrum when it comes to learning those all important techniques and finding reasons for scrum ceremonies.

Work breakdown structure exercise – students in groups design a work breakdown structure for the course assignments. Typically the results include a range of breakdown structures that are interesting. Trade-offs are discussed.

Performance autonomy design level exercise – in groups students design a level of  autonomy that is appropriate, ranging from functional project to project team for a range of given project and organisational date. Collected results are used to build consensus and the effects of subjectivity are mitigated.

Project crashing competition – this uses a project network where task times are standard. It is possible to add additional workers to tasks and using the same constraints add them to other tasks later on. This reduces time taken for tasks and can make the project potentially shorter as well.