Project Management of Engineering Projects: Preparing for Success

The need for and the importance of project management

How is project success defined? How is it achieved? We explain the choice of focussing this course on the front-end phase of projects and the people aspect of projects. Also we link to a more strategic level: how to select the right projects?

Organizing the team

This week focuses on the team effort that is needed to bring a project to a successful end. It shows why teamwork is essential and why it should not be taken for granted. It explains which challenges the project manager faces in developing a group of specialists into a coherent team. You will obtain insight in your own competences and based on your scores you are challenged to compose multidisciplinary teams with your fellow-students, 5/6 students per team.

Opportunity framing

This week all necessary steps of the early project phases are elaborated: identifying the stakeholders involved, scoping of the project (high level) after formulating the project objectives and setting up the initial risk register. With your team, you will select a topic for your team's project execution plan (PEP).

The project assurance plan

Do you select the appropriate contracting strategy after defining the project assurance plan or is it the other way around? We decided to first elaborate on the management processes to be followed in a project. How does a project assurance plan look like?

Selecting the contracting strategy

In selecting the appropriate contracting strategy, we should not only focus on the contract. This sounds contradictory, but it is an essential lesson to learn this week. We will introduce the contracting quilt and explain the importance of relational attitudes. Also we discuss the importance of senior management commitment. With your team, you will write the first outline of your project execution plan (PEP).

Time and cost estimates

Now that a lot of the project preparation is done, it is time for some basic project management skills: the skills of scheduling and cost estimation. After thorough introduction of these skills, you will be asked to prepare a baseline schedule for your own project and, based on the baseline schedule, create a rough baseline cost estimate.

Bringing it together in the project execution plan

All ingredients of the project execution plan (PEP) have been discussed so far and are to be combined in the PEP that should be delivered at the end of this week.