Enhancing project-related behavioral competence in education

The workforce has increasingly been demanding an educational model that produces students experienced in real project management (PM) practices. This includes producing technically competent students--one who can manage real-world project constraints of cost and schedule but also possess critical project related behavioral competence. Such soft skills are essential if a project is to run smoothly and eventually succeed. In this paper, we describe an educational framework grounded in outcomes based education to enhance project-related behavioral competence. Instructors can leverage this framework to augment their existing courses and develop the critical career skill sets of graduating students

New curriculum on managing projects: Responding to 21st century workforce needs

Academics in many disciplines are effectively practicing experiential education to engage students using a project-oriented curriculum. The experience gained from working with projects is helpful from a career perspective as well since projects are increasingly viewed as a mechanism to implement organizational strategy and to manage organizational change. Employers today are seeking competent team members and individuals who understand the art and science of leading and managing projects. Business schools can enrich their curriculum with learning outcomes that can address this growing demand from project-oriented organizations for a “project-ready” pool of job applicants. To facilitate course design of a “project-oriented” curriculum, the newly released undergraduate project management curriculum guidelines can be leveraged. In this paper we describe the architecture of the curriculum guidelines and illustrate how business faculty can enhance their courses with project management (PM) principles and concepts

Trends & Themes that will dominate in ITPM Education through 2020 (SIGITProjMgmt)

Project management will continue to be the most important skill that employers will be seeking across industries through 2020 after application development. Our panel will discuss the following trends in IT Project Management education that educators need to be aware of a) Agile SW development and agile PM continuing to trend upwards, b) mobile and smart device usage gaining ground, c) information security and cyberattacks dominating the conversation and the impact on project managers leading software development, and finally, d) formal PM education of technical and behavioral competencies. We will invite discussions on the above issues and provide insights on how to address the issues and adapt them in our curriculum

Integrating Ethics and Professionalism Learning Outcomes in a Project Management Course

Integrating core topics associated with ethics and professionalism is a challenge in many foundational courses. It can be an especially tall-order to integrate them in a foundational course in Information Systems (IS) or Information Technology Project Management (ITPM) while several other foundational topics are also being introduced to students. In this paper, we provide a framework to teach ethics and professionalism by integrating current media events. Using a live mini-case called Volkswagen’s Compliance and Expansion in the United States, we illustrate how three learning outcomes and eight key teaching topics pertaining to ethics can be incorporated in any IS/ITPM course in a lively manner

Addressing the Discrepancy between Workforce Skills Expectations and Undergraduate Information Systems Education

This panel addresses the topic of the perceived discrepancy between workforce skills expectations and undergraduate IS education. Literature research, employer surveys, education jam sessions, and informal interviews reveal that there is a gap between essential competencies expected by employers in the workplace and what is being taught in the information systems curriculum. The problem possibly stems in the focus of some Information Systems program (IS), and Computer Information Systems (CIS) curricula. If so, it appears that there is a need to reconcile industry expectations with what is being taught in academia. Within this context workshops have been targeted to upgrade IS curriculum (ACM/AIS in 2016) and project management curricula PMI (2015). We have an opportunity here in the panel to discuss and integrate our current knowledge about IS learning outcomes, competencies and curriculum. Key questions addressed by the panel: Is there a talent gap? If so, why is there a gap? What are the gaps in competencies? What is being taught today and what are the expectations from the workforce for students? How can we go about addressing the gaps in education? Should our core learning outcomes be upgraded

A social anatomy of disability

Based on a synthesis of multiple kinds of data, ranging from sociological texts and medical statistics to feature films and personal interviews, this study takes the form of a set of interconnected essays that explore the social meaning of disability in American society. In Chapter 1, using the 1946 award-winning film, The Best Years of Our Lives, as the centerpiece of evidence, we show that the cultural interpretation of disability is related to a number of factors. Some of these are the stage in the life cycle in which disability occurs, the faculties that it affects, the degree of its visibility, its origin or cause, and the extent to which persons with disability are viewed as morally culpable. Despite the growing awareness of disability in American society, the discipline of sociology has largely ignored the social construct of disability. Evidence that this is so and the reasons underlying the absence of a sociology of disability are addressed in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 analyzes the social structures and socio-cultural processes, beginning in the 1940s, that caused disability to erupt in the public domain in the 1980s. This essay also illustrates that the way in which the facts of disability are constructed has contributed to the evolution of disability from a social to a public problem. The conceptual framework in which the facts of disability are grounded, the social nature of these facts, the metamorphosis of scientific estimates of disability into indisputable facts , and the avenues through which these facts find their way into the public consciousness are discussed. In the few instances in which disability is taken as a focus for sociologists, the tendency has been to emphasize physical disability. In an effort to present disability as a unified rather than a disaggregated concept, Chapter 4 looks deeply into the meaning and experience of the disability of mental illness by focusing on the life history of an Italian-American family. The final, overview chapter contains reflections on the meaning of disability in contemporary American culture

Constructing a Code of Ethics: An Experiential Case of a National Professional Organization

development of a code of ethics, ethical culture, ethical leadership, ethical validity,