Evaluating Learner-Centeredness Course Pedagogy in Project Management Syllabi Using a Content Analysis Approach

Project Management (PM) capability continues to be a highly desired skill set in many for-profit and not-for-profit organizations across a range of industries. However, the PM field faces a talent gap, and one approach that may increase the interest in PM education is having a learner-centered pedagogy. A learner-centered pedagogy seeks to create a community of learners through the implementation of several initiatives namely, sharing power between the teachers and the students, providing multiple assessments and evaluation avenues, specifying clear feedback mechanisms, and articulating a rationale for the course by tying the course content to the learning outcomes. The goal of this research is to conduct a descriptive content analysis to examine the nature and content of the PM syllabi to gain a better understanding of how they reflect and communicate the attributes of a learner-centered pedagogy and thus help in improving the learning, teaching, and delivery of the PM curriculum. This study makes use of a sample of 76 PM syllabi gathered in 2018 from instructors affiliated with the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) schools in the United States. The results have implications for the academy and the PM practice and call for improvements in the design and content of PM syllabi by including language and activities that foster the creation of a community of learners, mechanisms for offering periodic feedback, and consistent teacher-student interactions. Furthermore, it is suggested that the assessments and evaluations should be tied to the learning outcomes and incorporate “real world” experiential projects aligned with the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) areas and process groups

DEVELOPING COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT JUDGMENT: USING ONLINE PROGRESSIVE CASES TO INTRODUCE REALISTIC AND UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES

A project is a finite activity aimed at producing a tangible product or service. Designing and developing instruction is a type of project. Instructional design projects (design projects) require instructional designers (IDs) to manage multiple and often overlapping work tasks, balance the triple constraint (time, budget, and quality), and react to project changes. Thus, project management (PM) is a critical aspect of instructional designer competencies. Traditionally, professional development (PD) involves the use of cases that present a complex, realistic problem for learners to discuss. Most of these cases are static; the problem does not change during the learning process. Static cases do not engage learners in anticipating and resolving project changes, including client requests for scope additions, or changes in budget or timelines; therefore, novice IDs and project managers (PMs) are often ill-prepared to work on real-world, complex, dynamic projects. PD should engage learners in thought and action around messy project problems. Zingers, realistic and unexpected challenges, were introduced while graduate students were developing a PM plan for a design project. These zingers were designed to simulate the complex, dynamic real-world practice of PM within instructional design (ID) work. This dissertation study aimed to inform the design of instruction to develop the expert-like thinking strategies and practice strategies required to respond to unexpected events and solve messy problems. The case study research method (CSRM) was used to describe the learning process during the progressive case by tracking participants’ flexible thinking (cognitive flexibility [CF]) and PM judgment in thought and action dimensions over a semester. In general, the selected teams approached the zingers differently. In most cases, teams made optimistic assumptions, did not balance constraints, and submitted PM plans with internal inconsistencies. While teams had difficulty executing responses to unexpected changes on their PM plans, they exhibited flexible thinking and an understanding of PM concepts in their reflections and discussions. Thus, participants demonstrated more CF than PM judgment, and their thoughts exhibited more CF and PM judgment than their actions

Project management in higher education

This study identified factors that influenced the use of project management in higher education research projects. Using a qualitative grounded theory approach that included in-depth interviews with assistant professors, the researcher examined how these individuals were using project management processes and tools and factors that enabled, motivated, and/or inhibited the use of project management processes and tools in research projects. A total of 22 participants (12 women, 10 men) from 21 different universities across 13 states took part in the study. Participants were selected based on specific inclusion criteria. All participants were assistant professors working in colleges of education or other education-related areas at doctoral-granting universities. Participants were currently working on funded research projects or had worked on funded research projects in the past two years. Focusing on participants in a single discipline (education) enabled a meaningful grounded theory to be developed from the data and has established a method for study and comparison with other disciplines in the future

Communication risk and strategy in temporary organizations

Communication is a critical and emerging metric for successful outcomes in the high-stakes field of project management. Professional management societies have quantified financial losses caused by ineffective communication. Consulting project management exemplifies a maximum communication risk environment - misunderstanding threatens project finances, strict deadlines, and technical benchmarks - exacerbated by the complexity of a temporary organization structure. The context of work in a temporary organization adds layers of ambiguity to project communications - an ill-structured domain in technical communication terms. Formal study of communication in temporary organizations is relatively new. Recent studies are derived from engineering and business management perspectives. This baseline study investigates risk and strategy in temporary organizations from a communication perspective. Project management consultants dialogue about their experiences of project risk and communication strategy in a critical incident interview. This research identifies the communication complexities of work in these temporary contexts. Contrasting the base communication models of professional project management, this study proposes rhetorical analysis as a systems thinking strategy for project communication. This thesis argues that professional technical communication is strategic expertise and advocates humanistic strategies to mitigate the elevated sociotechnical communication risk within a temporary organization

Ensino de gerenciamento de projetos de software mediado por ferramentas

Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciência da Computação, Florianópolis, 2017.Projetos de software muitas vezes fracassam por não seguirem um processo de Gerenciamento de Projetos (GP). A adoção deste processo pode ser apoiada pelo uso de ferramentas de GP. Por isto, saber como utilizá-las é uma competência de grande relevância para os egressos dos cursos na área da Computação. Atualmente, observa-se que as unidades instrucionais (UIs) existentes tipicamente incluem aulas práticas para o uso de ferramentas de GP, adotando a estratégia de aprendizagem experiencial. Ainda, algumas UIs fazem uso de ferramentas de GP educacionais, que incluem características didáticas para facilitar a aprendizagem dos alunos. Entretanto, observa-se que estas UIs podem ser melhoradas, abordando lacunas como a cobertura do conteúdo, que tipicamente não abrange áreas de conhecimentos como integração, comunicação, custos, riscos, aquisições, e qualidade. Neste contexto, o objetivo desta tese é cobrir parte das lacunas existentes no ensino de ferramentas de GP, por meio do desenvolvimento de uma UI abordando os processos de iniciação e planejamento alinhando ao PMBOK. A metodologia de pesquisa inclui métodos de revisão bibliográfica para fundamentação teórica, análise do estado da arte e prática por meio de revisão sistemática da literatura e survey, e design instrucional para o desenvolvimento e avaliação da UI. Os resultados desta tese incluem o levantamento do estado da arte e prática do ensino de ferramentas de GP nos cursos superiores de Computação. Entre os resultados também está uma UI para ensino de ferramentas de GP para a iniciação e planejamento, evoluindo a ferramenta dotProject como parte de seus materiais instrucionais. Resultados da avaliação desta UI indicam como ensinar ferramentas de GP alinhado ao guia PMBOK, promovendo a aprendizagem no nível de aplicação do domínio cognitivo da taxonomia de Bloom. Este resultado busca contribuir para Ciência da Computação ao reduzir lacunas existentes no ensino de ferramentas de GP, impactando na melhor formação dos profissionais da área, e possibilitando o aumento do sucesso de projetos conduzidos pelas organizações de software.Abstract : Software projects fail by not adopting a Project Management (PM) process. The adoption of this process is facilitated by PM tools, which take advantage from technology to support the PM process or part of it. The usage of such tools has been considered mandatory to manage the contemporary software projects. Hence, the usage of such tools is an important competency for computer students. Analyzing the state of the art and practice about the teaching of PM tools, it is observed that the existing Instructional Units (IUs) typically adopts the experimental learning strategy, including practical classes for propitiates the usage of PM tools by students. More specifically, some IUs adopt some educational PM tools that include didactic features to improve students learning. However, when analyzing the addressed content by these IUs it is observed that commonly just the time and human resources knowledge areas are addressed, hence existing a gap between what is currently been taught and the complete PM process. In this context, this thesis aims to develop and evaluate an IU for teaching PM tools covering the initiating and planning processes, addressing the 10 PM knowledge areas aligned with PMBOK. The research design includes methods as bibliography review for background definition, Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and survey for state of the art and practice analysis, and an instructional design approach for developing and evaluating the proposed IU. The main result produced by this thesis is the IU, which based on the context analysis, has developed the IU teaching plan and instructional materials compatible with higher computer education in Brazilian institutions. This IU covers a reasonable part of PM tools education, being aligned with PMBOK and addressing topics of curriculums guidelines for computer science higher education. Secondary results include the state of the art analysis which is composed of 2 SLRs, and the state of practice analysis carried out by a survey conducted with teachers that teach about PM tools in higher computers programs. These results may be important for computer science by reducing existing gaps in the teaching of PM tools, thus better preparing computer professionals, and assisting to the success of software projects conducted by Brazilian organizations

Project Management and Strategy Alignment in Academia

This study analyzed the understanding of project and strategy alignment in higher education institutions. Literature revealed many projects fail because projects are not aligned to strategy. There is an abundance of project management literature in many industries; however, literature on project management in academia is deficient. This qualitative case study sought to close the gap of understanding project management and strategy alignment in academia. The researcher conducted a review of literature and interviews in order to gain insight in the understanding of project and strategy alignment in two higher education institutions. Three themes were developed based on these interviews: alignment, leadership and culture, and communication. The study revealed employees perceived more successful projects when they understood how projects are aligned with strategy. Recommendations for action and further study were suggested, along with the biblical foundations supporting project management and strategy alignment

The Use of System Dynamics Simulation Models in Project Management Education

This thesis explores the impact of using System Dynamics (SD) as a simulation tool to help learners understand complex, dynamic concepts in project management education, and specifically with the learning of the theory associated with Earned Value Management (EVM). SD simulation models have been used widely but mainly in business contexts to support managers in the decision making process. However the application of SD in the field of project management education has been limited and particularly in terms of assessing its potential impact to help improve learners’ skills and understanding about project management concepts. ‘Projects’ are considered to be complex information feedback systems, characterized by causality and underlying dynamic relations between multiple variables, and the ability of junior project managers to apply and experience higher practical skills in the management of these complex systems presents a real challenge in the higher education context. The ability of SD to simulate the behaviour of a system, to reveal the underlying relationships, and to help visualize its dynamic changes over time, makes SD a potential modelling tool to help supporting the learners in the project management education area. This study sets out to evaluate the use of SD in an instructional context to help postgraduate project management students to visualize and to more understand the complex dynamic relationships in the concept of EVM, a topic that features significantly in project management education. In this study, SD was deployed to teach EVM through a series of computer based models to visualize changes of multiple interacting variables over time. The SD simulations were evaluated and improved in a series of pilot and formal studies. In an experimentally controlled study involving 46 students, EVM content was delivered with SD simulations and using traditional methods respectively. Results, both quantitative and qualitative, demonstrated a positive impact of SD on the learning of the EVM concept. Recommendations of further work to deploy SD in the delivery of complex project management content and other challenging topics, with wider pool of learners are discussed