Overview
Today, most organizations recognize the importance of projects in delivering strategic initiatives. Many are starting to recognize that project management is much more than a set of operational tools. Few, however, have successfully implemented a full and complete project management governance framework including portfolio and program management tools and techniques and a solid understanding of the role of senior executives in delivering successful projects. This course is designed to shed light on this emerging organizational issue that is expected to be of interest to both strategic management and project management.
This course will prepare managers to understand projects as part of the strategic management of organizations. We begin by exploring why projects fail and then go on to discuss the key attributes of effective project governance at the strategic management levels of organizations. By generating discussion between project managers and middle and executive managers about how to set up projects and project management for success, we will develop critical insights into the organizational supports necessary to successfully manage projects in today’s organizations.
Outline
The course is divided into eight themes that are studied over an eight-week period:
- Lesson 1: What makes or breaks projects? Project success and failure.
- Lesson 2: Why project management is not enough: Project and project management governance, governmentality, and leadership.
- Lesson 3: What approaches inform project governance? Theories, models, paradigms, and institutions.
- Lesson 4: What are the organizational enablers of project governance? Tactics and strategy.
- Lesson 5: What are the benefits and challenges of implementing project governance? Benefits realization and best practices in private and public sectors.
- Lesson 6: What are effective tools and techniques of project governance? Established practices and state of the art perspectives on earned value management, stage-gating, and systems engineering.
- Lesson 7: What are the consequences of project governance? Success, trust, control, and ethics.
- Lesson 8: Now what do we need to do? Shaping project success from the top down and bottom up.
Learning outcomes
The objectives of this course are to:
- Understand what makes or breaks projects.
- Describe the fundamentals of project and project management governance, governmentality, and leadership.
- Assess theories, models, paradigms, and institutions of project governance.
- Evaluate the costs, benefits, and consequences of implementing project governance.
- Play an effective role in the leadership and management of project management within their organizations.
Materials
Digital course materials
Links to the following course materials will be made available in the course:
Chandler, D. E., & Hall, P. (2017). Improving executive sponsorship of projects: A holistic approach. Business Expert Press.
Müller, R. (Ed.). (2017). Governance and governmentality for projects: Enablers, practices, and consequences. Routledge.
Other materials
All other course materials will be accessed online.
Evaluation
Your grade will be based on the successful completion of individual and group work: a Group Debate, a Group Case Analysis, a Final Individual Assignment, and your participation contributions in moderated group discussions and group work.
| Component | Marks |
Participation - Includes individual weekly discussion and group work contributions
| 30% |
Group Activities - Group Debate (25%)
- Group Case Analysis (25%)
| 50% |
Individual Work - Final Individual Assignment
| 20 % |
| Total | 100% |
To receive a passing grade in this course, you must meet these minimum standards:
- receive a minimum of 60% on the weekly discussion participation component; and
- receive an average grade of 60% over all course components, including the assignments and the participation component.