The course focuses on creating an understanding of problems connected with technical management rather than offering practical competence in a particular project method. Nevertheless, invited guest lecturers will present examples of different project models.

Within the course the following moments are treated: the "project" as a working form, product development, delivery and procurement projects, interplay between supplier and customer, presentation and examples of project models, the different phases of a project, the bidding process, risk analysis, leadership, group dynamics, documents in a project, for example, request for bid, bid, contract, project manuals, project plan/start-up reports, progress reports, project conclusion, and evaluation, quality standards.

Upon completion of this course, participants shall understand what a project manager does and how one works in an industrial project by being able to:

• describe and apply the different phases of a project, i.e. plan, follow up, and finish a project
• use methods and tools for planning and following up a project considering time, costs and resources
• give examples of how activities such as project meetings and documentation are carried out and managed
• with the starting point of an project model create necessary project documentation
• plan and perform a risk analysis
• analyse an industrial project
• present results through oral and written communication

Schema HT-2020-228

For single course students: 120 credits and documented proficiency in English B or equivalent

Students from all master programs are welcome!

Course literature consists of “Handbook for small projects”/“Handbok för mindre projekt” by Mikael Eriksson and Joakim Lilliesköld (Liber). It is sold at the Kårbokhandeln (KTH student union bookstore) in both Swedish and English. Assignment instructions and supplementary material needed for the course is available via Canvas.

There are many other interesting (but fully optional) books about project management. A Swedish example is “Handbok i projektekonomi” by Agneta Östlund (Liber). A good English book is ”Project Management Toolbox” by Russ Martinelli and Dragan Z. Milosovic (available online). We also recommend the Swedish book “Projektledning” fourth edition, and the English version “Project management”, by Bo Tonnquist.

Students at KTH with a permanent disability can get support during studies from Funka:

https://www.kth.se/en/student/studentliv/funktionsnedsattning

Please inform the course coordinator if you need compensatory support during the course. Present a certificate from Funka.

A, B, C, D, E, FX, F

• PRO1 - Project, 0 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PRO2 - Project, 1.5 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PRO3 - Project, 1.5 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PRO4 - Project, 1.5 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• PRO5 - Project, 2.2 credits, Grading scale: P, F
• SEM1 - Seminar, 0.8 credits, Grading scale: P, F

Based on recommendation from KTH’s coordinator for disabilities, the examiner will decide how to adapt an examination for students with documented disability.

The examiner may apply another examination format when re-examining individual students.

The course consists of four assignments, each of which gives a certain number of points (not to be confused with university credits). The total number of points obtained determines the grade (see the grading system table below). It is required that you have at three points for every mandatory course assignment. Furthermore, you can receive additional points through optional assignments, or if your assignments are very well done.

To reflect the fact that real life industrial projects require participation in meetings and careful planning of available time, lecture attendance at 6 out of 8 guest lectures is required. This means that you will have to be on time and attend both lecture hours. If you know that you will be unable to fulfill the attendance requirement it is possible, under special circumstances and agreement with either the course responsible or examiner, to compensate your absence by doing a literature study. A typical literature study requires more time to complete than the equivalent lecture attendance.

Project ( PRO1 ) - Assignment 1 - part 1 - Project Plan

You make a plan for running the course as a project.
For requirements see the assignment specification and the handbook

Project ( PRO2 ) - Assignment 2 - Interview

You book an interview with a project manager and make a short analysis comparing your case with what has been taught in the course
For requirements see the assignment specification

Project ( PRO3 ) - Assignmnet 3 - Risk analysis

You work with two other teams and perform a risk analysis on a given case, for requirements see the assignment specification and the handbook. It is enough to hand in one report for all three groups with everyones name on it.
For requirements see the assignment specification and the handbook

Project ( PRO4 ) - Assignment 1 - part 2 - Status report and final report

You continiously follow ut your plan in status reports, using Earned Value Management to predict your result and at the end you also create a Final report that summarize the lessons learned so you can make use of them in future projects.
For requirements see the assignment specification and the handbook

Project ( PRO5 ) - Assignment 4 - Agile project

You take part of the agile workshop and then make an analysis of agile vs traditional projects, and what you think will influence your future career as an engineer. Further, you will make a peer-review on some other students report and present in a seminar.
For requirements see the assignment specification and the handbook

Seminar ( SEM1 ) - 80% attendence on guest lectures

80 % mandatory class attendance (SEM1; 0,8 p).
5 written exercises (PRO1: 1,5p + PRO2: 1,5p + PRO3: 1,5 p + PRO4: 2,2 p).

The different submissions get graded with a number of course points, see Table 2 below. Some assignments can give either 3, 4 or 5 course points, whereas others are pass/fail only. To get more than three points, the assignment must be very well done when submitted the first time. This means that it should be clear that the authors have fully understood and mastered the important concepts and skills tested in that particular assignment in addition to having fulfilled the specific requirements. Both contents and form are important in this respect; i.e. no important contents or analysis should be missing, the structure and formatting should adhere to the relevant templates, and the text should be carefully proof-read.

Note that a higher grade can be rewarded for an assignment that is very well done, even if a re-submission is required due to some minor details. Whenever an assignment requires a re-submission to pass, the comments from the course staff will make it clear whether the final grade after re-submission is likely to be a pass or a pass with a higher grade. However, a higher grade is never guaranteed, but is completely determined by the quality of the final submission.

Table 2. Project phases with submission and grades.

A total number of 34 course points can be obtained in the course. The total sum determines the final grade, as follows:

Goal oriented grading

• All members of a group are responsible for the group's work.
• In any assessment, every student shall honestly disclose any help received and sources used.
• In an oral assessment, every student shall be able to present and answer questions about the entire assignment and solution.

Please note that when solving the project assignments co-operation between students is allowed and even encouraged. However, both project group members are responsible for the content of their own reports and any plagiarism will result in an immediate failing of the assignment in addition to a written report to KTH’s central disciplinary committee.

This means that all groups should write their own reports. You are not allowed to copy text from other students; you are not allowed to copy text from the internet. If you want to use a quote from a source, it must be clearly indicated that it is a quote.

The use of references is mandatory. When you use a fact from some source you should include a reference to this source.

NOTE!  The better the sources, the more accurate the facts, therefore please note that reports that use credible sources (as for instance peer-reviewed scientific papers) will receive higher grades than those that only rely on Wikipedia as a source.

Use references according to this or some similar standard but be consistent. For instance:

”Early assessment of system characteristics in software projects is one of the main concerns of the discipline of software architecture [1] [2] [3].”

List of references:

[1] Heineman, G., W. Councill (Eds), Component-based software engineering: Putting the pieces together, Addison-Wesley, 2001.

If the source is a web-page use the following standard.[name of page],[URL],[access date]

Wikipedia: Requirement, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Requirements, 2015-08-26