Using Project Management Skills To Improve The Outcome Of Student Projects

Does your course require the completion of a project? Do your students put off their project assignments until the end of the term? Do they cram all their efforts into a very short period of time only to finish with an inferior project? Do you have to deal with teamwork and cooperation issues? If you can answer yes to any of these questions, then you may find the information in this paper of interest. In order to meet accreditation requirements and the needs and expectations of future employers, Engineering and Engineering Technology programs nationwide have added projects to a large number of their courses. These projects range in size from weekly lab activities to term projects. The use of projects enables students to learn to work together in teams. The nature of a project also allows them to combine their skills and knowledge from a variety of areas in order to apply creativity in the design of systems, components and processes. Unfortunately, the use of projects also brings with it complexities related to the management of these projects. In the work world, cross-functional teams strive to complete major projects on time, within budget, and to customer specifications. These projects benefit from the application of project management techniques. In a structured project management course, students are taught tools and techniques to use in order to successfully complete a major project for a business. These same tools and techniques can be used to aid student teams in the successful completion of a term project regardless of the course. An added benefit to requiring students to use project management skills for every project is that it reinforces the project management concept as a key business skill. Consistent use of project management techniques also helps students develop their organizational skills. Project management skills enable students to guide their projects from inception to completion. These skills are useful regardless of the course. However, integrating project management skills into all project requirements can be challenging for the educator. Just how extensively project management skills are used in courses other than project management courses often depends on the expectations and experiences of the instructor. The purpose of this paper is to provide information about how to integrate basic project management skills into any course project regardless of the topics covered in that course. P ge 9.386.1 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education Introduction In the business world today, with increased global competition and the continuing requirement for more complicated products and systems, the focus is increasingly on agility, quality, customer satisfaction, employee empowerment and teamwork. Many organizations are seeking ways to streamline their internal functions and implement productivity improvements. One of the techniques gaining more emphasis is project management. Project management provides the organization with the tools to meet the challenges of a complex project while ensuring that accountability and responsibility are clearly defined. Each term, the University of Dayton offers a Project Management course, which the Engineering Technology Department requires of all its majors. The primary goal of this course is to familiarize students with the tools and techniques necessary to manage a project. The course also seeks to expose students to the real life complexities of managing a large-scale project. Prior to 1999, the Project Management course was the required capstone course for Industrial Engineering Technology majors. Teams of students worked on a project during the semester for a local business. Other majors took the course as a technical elective. In 1999, during a department curriculum review, the Project Management course was combined with a course in Organization and Management. At the same time as part of the review of the entire Engineering Technology curriculum, it was decided to implement an interdisciplinary capstone course, where students of various majors worked together on an external project. That same year, Dr. Donna Summers surveyed graduates and their employers and the results indicated that they felt that the Project Management course was important enough to be a standalone course. In 2001, the Engineering Technology faculty in conjunction with the Industrial Advisory Committee decided that it was important not only for Industrial Engineering Technology graduates to have Project Management skills, but also it is an important skill for all engineers. Thus, the Project Management course is now required for all Engineering Technology majors. The course is normally taken in either the Sophomore or Junior year and students are expected to use these Project Management skills to manage projects in subsequent courses. Project Management Skills Taught The skills taught in the project management course are described by the course outcomes which state that upon successful completion of the course students should know the specific characteristics, techniques, and insights that are necessary to be an effective project manager: • Know how to write a project proposal. • Know how to prepare a project plan. • Know how to prepare a project schedule • Know how to establish a project budget. • Know what it takes to be an effective team leader and/or member. P ge 9.386.2 Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference and Exposition Copyright 2004, American Society for Engineering Education • Be able to solve PERT/CPM network problems and determine the critical path, early start, late start, slack times, etc., using Microsoft Project software. • Be able to make oral presentations about their proposals, plans, and project activities. Various methods are used to assess how well students are able to achieve the course outcomes, including: • Projects (either with industry or a simulated project) • Written technical reports (proposals, plans, budgets) • Oral Presentations (proposals, plans, project update summaries) • Homework • Quizzes/exams A future additional assessment will be to develop methods to try to get a deeper evaluation of team chemistry. How well are the teams functioning? How well are the participants performing their role as team members and team leaders? At what point is a correction necessary by the instructor? Project Management Course Structure The Project Management course at the University of Dayton is structured as follows: