This module concludes the taught part of the MSc programme and includes a critical assessment of the topics covered in the two years of taught part of the programme (Y1 and Y2).
In module 6 we revisit the purpose of projects, and the management of project portfolios across an organisation, which were covered briefly in year 1.
Managing a project portfolio will be looked at from the perspective of common industry approaches, which will be then contrasted with insights from complexity theory and the management of uncertain and unpredictable situations – which almost all projects are.
The module will also critically assess common approaches to managing project assurance, governance and sponsorship in organisations, and will relate these to the concept of error culture where in striving to minimise errors it is possible to make the situation worse rather than improve it.
This module is divided into six parts.
1. Value, values and ethics 2. Project portfolios and pipelines 3. Managing project organisations 4. Managing change 5. Your career in Project Management 6. Concluding thoughts and remarks
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Understand and critically analyse the common approaches to prioritising projects across a portfolio
Understand the issues that emerge from a shift in project and change management from a control approach to a flow approach
Be familiar with the concept of continuous improvement of project performance and be able to apply it in projects
Demonstrate understanding of the how project management can be a critical factor in achieving the wider business goals
Explain the concepts of optimising and satisficing, and relate this to the prioritisation of projects
Understand the idea of ‘error culture’ and how this relates to organisational inefficiency and poor performance
Explain the role of technology in project management, along with the risks and opportunities technology presents
Describe the role simulation can play in the management of projects and project organisations. Demonstrate understanding through the development of a simple simulation spreadsheet
Explain the impact of the ‘capacity constrained resource’ to the overall throughput of project benefits in an organisation and describe how it can be used to maximise flow
Be familiar with the range of common approaches to managing performance across an organisation’s portfolio of projects, and be able to describe their pros and cons
Understand key theories about change management and explain how this relates to project management
