Overview
Create your own project plan and learn about the critical role of the early phases of a project and the importance of people as key drivers of project success.
Are you a (project) engineer with a technical background but lack – or wish to enhance – your management skills? Are you eager to improve project performance and optimize your project outcomes?
This business and management course will equip you with the necessary project management skills to successfully manage projects, concentrating on three key areas:
- The project manager and the team
- The project process
- The project context
The course focuses on the early project phases, drawing practical insights and real-world examples from a diverse array of technical projects spanning multiple sectors and industries, including, but not limited to, infrastructure and construction.
At the end of this course, you will have created your own project execution plan, either independently or collaboratively as part of a team.
New cases and activities
The demands of project management in engineering are continually evolving. In response to this, several enhancements have been made to this course, including new examples that draw from today’s dynamic project management landscape. These resources, which reflect the current challenges faced by professionals in the field, offer invaluable insights, combining theory with practical application. By integrating these updates, we ensure that engineers are equipped with the latest tools and knowledge to excel in their project management roles and tasks.
Our project management courses
This course is part of our Engineering Project Management series. Each program consists of two courses – this introductory course, plus one of these specializations: Project Financing and Mastering Project Complexity.
What you'll learn
- Recognize the importance of the front-end phases in creating a successful project
- Select an appropriate project manager
- Collaborate successfully as part of a specialized project team
- Identify how projects are successfully managed in different sectors and contexts
- Draft a project execution plan
Details
Course Syllabus
Module 1: The need for and the importance of project management
How is project success defined? How is it achieved? We explain the decision to focus this course on the front-end phase of projects and the people aspect of projects. We also link to a more strategic level: does your project fit the company’s strategy?
Module 2: Organizing the team
This module focuses on the team effort that is needed to bring a project to a successful conclusion. It shows why teamwork is essential and why it should not be taken for granted. It explains the challenges the project manager faces in developing a group of specialists into a coherent team. You will gain insight into your own competences and based on your scores you are challenged to compose multidisciplinary teams with your fellow course participants, five or six participants per team.
Module 3: Opportunity framing
In this module all necessary steps of the early project phases are covered: identifying the stakeholders involved; scoping of the project (high level) after formulating the project objectives; and setting up the initial risk register. Uncertainties are all around and those uncertainties that matter for achieving the project deliverables must be addressed in the project’s risk management. With your team, you will select a topic for your team's project execution plan (PEP).
Module 4: The project assurance plan
Do you select the appropriate contracting strategy after defining the project assurance plan or is it the other way around? We decided to first elaborate on the management processes to be followed in a project. What does a project assurance plan look like? With your team, you will write the first outline of your project execution plan (PEP).
Module 5: Selecting the contracting strategy
In selecting the appropriate contracting strategy, we should not just focus on the contract. This sounds contradictory, but it is an essential lesson to learn in this module. We will introduce the contracting quilt and explain the importance of relational attitudes between clients and contractors. We also discuss the importance of senior management commitment.
Module 6: Time and cost estimates
Now that a lot of the project preparation is done, it is time for some basic project management skills: the skills of scheduling and cost estimation, acknowledging the risks of the risk register. After thorough introduction of these skills, you will be asked to prepare a baseline schedule for your own project and, based on that baseline schedule, to create a rough baseline cost estimate.
Module 7: Bringing it together in the project execution plan
All ingredients of the project execution plan (PEP) have been discussed so far and are to be combined in the PEP that should be delivered at the end of this module.
License
Unless otherwise specified, the Course Materials of this course are Copyright Delft University of Technology and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Admission
This is a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) that runs on edX.
Prerequisites:
- BSc level or equivalent, or three or more years experience in the field.
