Unit information: Principles of Project Management in 2023/24

Unit name	Principles of Project Management
Unit code	MGRC20003
Credit points	20
Level of study	I/5
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Dr. Lloyd Fletcher
Open unit status	Not open
Units you must take before you take this one (pre-requisite units)	Introduction to Management (EFIM10015)
Units you must take alongside this one (co-requisite units)	none
Units you may not take alongside this one	none
School/department	School of Management - Business School
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Unit Information

Why is this unit important?

You will be involved in project work, no matter where your career takes you.

• Even if you don’t become a professional project manager, you may well find yourself managing projects!
• Or you’ll be involved as a project team member, such as a business analyst, planning specialist, or cost controller.
• You may take on the role of a client, customer, or other stakeholder with a major interest in the outcomes of a major project.
• And if you do enter the project management profession, your career path could lead you to the heights of programme or portfolio management for major corporations or public bodies.

But whatever your involvement in projects turns out to be, you will benefit from learning the theory and practice of project management. By understanding what it takes to manage projects effectively, you can help ensure they deliver their intended benefits, and also learn how to reduce the risks of failure, which is all too common in project work.

How does this unit fit into your programme of study?

Project management has been adopted by a wide range of organisations in industry, commerce, and the public sector. It is therefore a highly relevant area of study for anyone taking a degree in business and management disciplines.

• The purpose of projects is to deliver some new and relatively unique benefit to an organization or society.
• This could entail anything from designing and delivering an improved service or system, to planning and building a major infrastructure programme.
• Projects are hugely diverse in type and scope, but examples include everything from computer software, through new consumer products, to buildings, bridges, company mergers, an Olympic games, or a mission to Mars.

So a good understanding of projects and their management will benefit anyone whose degree course positions them for careers in product development, consultancy, marketing, innovation, operations management, public management, or strategy.

Your learning on this unit

An overview of content

This unit introduces you to the topic of project management. We provide a theoretical grounding in basic concepts, techniques, models, and analytical frameworks. You will learn to apply these to realistic cases and the management of your own projects in a rigorous, systematic, and critical way.

How will students, personally, be different as a result of the unit?

• By learning basic project management theory and applying it to practice, you will develop a critical, integrated, and holistic understanding of what projects are, and how they can be managed in organisations.
• This will equip you with analytical tools with which to explore and explain organisational situations more generally.
• You will develop an appreciation for theoretical debates around complexity, uncertainty, risk, and the social aspects of project working.
• As part of a team that plans and delivers a simple project, you will enhance your collaboration, coordination, and communication skills.
• You will gain confidence and techniques for dealing with complexity and change by using processes for critical reflection, systematic learning, and agility

Learning Outcomes

You will be able to:

1. Cleary explain and critique basic theoretical concepts and approaches in project management
2. Use project management theory to analyse, interpret, and diagnose project situations to propose improvements in the way projects are managed.
3. As part of a team, use project management methods to plan and deliver a simple project effectively and efficiently. This provides practical skills and experience that are highly valued by employers.

How you will learn

We teach you to become conversant with the conceptual ‘language’ of project management to underpin the development of practical skills in analysing and managing projects. Thus, rather than traditional lectures, we put weekly seminars for active learning at the heart of this unit. These focus on applying theory to your group project work, problem solving exercises, and case analysis. Our student-centred, active, problem-based, experiential, and reflective learning is designed to promote your optimal performance in both group and individual assessments. But this is contingent on your diligent preparation, in advance, for class.

• Group coursework assignments are designed to provide you with realistic experience of project working, and the development of practical project management and team working skills. Possible group assignments include (but are not limited to):

o an in-depth study of a project case

o design and delivery of a tangible ‘product’, such as a video

o participation in and critical reflection on a project management simulation or game

o development of a project charter, plan, or business case.

• Group coursework assessment: we assess both the end results of your coursework as well as your performance as a project management team. Tutors act as your guide and coach to support your project work throughout the term, engaging with you both in and out of class.

• Developing your group coursework: in the early stages of your coursework, you will undertake ‘practice’ activities during seminars that you will build on with your team outside class to develop your projects. Many of these in-class activities contribute directly to the planning and delivery of your project. This approach also enables you to deepen your understanding of the theories you are applying (concepts, models, frameworks, methods).

• Preparing in advance for interactive seminars: we provide a clear ‘pathway’ of learning activities for you to follow before, during, and after each class session. These activities include engaging with short pre-recorded Mini Lectures, readings from textbooks, scholarly papers, or news media, and online exercises and resources, as well as key group coursework tasks.

• In contrast to the passive ‘broadcast’ approach of traditional in-person lectures, the Mini Lectures enable you to study at your own pace and in your own time, with opportunities for reflection and interaction with other related learning activities built in.

• Developing your critical analysis of projects: as you build your foundational knowledge and confidence, our attention increasingly turns to the analysis of project cases and critical engagement with project management literature. This is facilitated through active, dynamic, collegial, and open discussions, debates, role-plays, and other group activities during seminars.

How you will be assessed

How you will be assessed

Tasks which help you learn and prepare you for summative tasks (formative):

• Optional online quizzes enable you to assess your emerging foundational knowledge. These also prepare you for the summative tests.
• As part of group coursework, tutors will provide frequent guidance and feedback on your interim work products (such as proposals, plans, and reports). This helps you reflect on and improve your group project before you submit it for summative assessment.
• During in-class activities, tutors will provide opportunities for you to reflect on your learning and receive guidance. This complements several other touch points with tutors, both online and in person (e.g., discussion boards, Q&A classes) where you can ask questions and raise problems with the Unit Director. These help you prepare for your individual assessments.

Tasks which count towards your unit mark (summative):

These are the summative assessments:

• Two in-term individual online and open book short answer/multiple choice tests. Your best performance on these will contribute 10% of your final mark. (In other words, the best of your two marks will be used.)
• An individual online timed open book assessment, worth 40% of final mark.
• A group coursework project worth 50% of final mark and using principles of ‘authentic assessment’ to develop relevant practical project management experience and skills. (We use an Equity Share model for peer assessment. This helps to ensure a fair distribution of work within the team, and fosters ongoing open conversations about workload within teams and with tutors; this enables problems to be resolved early; differential marking may be used based on evidence of team member contributions.)

When assessment does not go to plan

If you do not pass the unit overall, then you will be reassessed with a single piece of work weighted at 100%, covering all Learning Outcomes for the unit, including learning covered by group work. This means that if you passed some components but did not reach the overall unit pass mark, those passed components will be disregarded and not included in the reassessment mark. Your overall mark in the unit will then be solely based on a new assignment in the summer reassessment period.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. MGRC20003).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the University Workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. For appropriate assessments, if you have self-certificated your absence, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (for assessments at the end of TB1 and TB2 this is usually in the next re-assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any exceptional circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.