Prior to Semester
Teaching Opportunities with Contemporary Project Management
This book offers four specific teaching opportunities: all work guided by measurable
learning objectives, use of real projects as learning vehicles, design consistent with Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) to facilitate student study for Certified Associate
in Project Management (CAPM®) and Project Management Professional (PMP®)
certification, and full incorporation of Microsoft Project instructions into the fabric of seven
chapters.
1. Measurable learning objectives:
Each chapter begins with measurable learning objectives. This is critical since all of the
chapter text, end of chapter material, suggestions in this IM for teaching, PowerPoint files,
and test questions are designed to help the students learn each objective.
For example, the final objective in Chapter 1 is: Identify key project roles and describe
responsibilities for each. In section 1.4 of the text, project roles are introduced and
described as executive, managerial, and associate level. An example of a related test
question is:
Typically, the person or group that provides the financial resources, in cash or in kind
for a project is the project...
a. benefactor.
b. sponsor.
c. manager.
d. treasurer.
ANS: B DIF: Average REF: 1.5 OBJ: Identify key roles
2. Suggestions for using real projects:
,This book is designed to give the instructor the option of having the students practice on
real projects. Each chapter has a section after the questions and exercises with suggestions
for use of an example project. The instructor can choose to have students work in teams or
individually on their projects. However, it is easier to have the students work in teams
when feasible since that requires fewer projects. This can also work for students who are
taking the class via internet.
There are several choices in how to arrange projects. The instructor can line up the
projects before the class begins. This ensures the instructor that the projects are of
sufficient size and complexity without being overwhelming. Alternatively, some instructors
put the burden of finding a project on the students. This requires less up front time on the
instructor’s part, but should be communicated to the students before the term starts so that
they can come in prepared.
The projects can be for non-profit organizations such as churches, schools, hospitals,
United Way agencies, or university offices. If an instructor chooses to use non-profit
organizations, there may be a service learning office at the university that can help identify
potential projects. Alternatively, most United Way offices have a volunteer research
coordinator who will gladly help. Most universities these days are eager to help their
community and receive good publicity in return.
Student projects can also be conducted for companies. If your university has
entrepreneurship, there will often be many companies with potential projects. Whether
projects are used for profit or non-profit organizations, alumni can often offer ideas and it
helps to connect the alumni better to the business school.
If you use service projects, you might consider these five macro objectives for your
project management class: context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation.
Context – Project management can serve universally
Three aspects of context are teacher, students, and world. Teaching project management
via service learning can help a professor improve teaching, scholarship, service, and
training/consulting by practice, reflection, and sharing. Students can learn to see dignity in
others – to truly understand the perspective of those who are less fortunate. This
perspective is valuable both to better life in society and to better work in business where
one needs to understand various perspectives. The world is full of projects in every
industry and of many applications and types. By having student teams collectively plan
different projects and then discuss them in class, students appreciate the wide applications
for the skills they are learning.
Experience – Stakeholder relationships need to be built and sustained
Students need to understand that a business must deal fairly with various stakeholders such
as stockholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and community. By having the students
meet the ultimate recipients of each project (the often unempowered people a project is
,meant to serve), the students develop an understanding and passion for all stakeholders as
they gather information, prioritize needs, communicate, and revise plans.
Reflection – Knowledge management can be actively utilized
To rapidly improve our companies, students need to learn to translate knowing into telling
and to determine when to reapply, when to adapt, and when to create entirely new. In
using service projects, students use learnings from past projects; collect lessons from
current projects; and then share those lessons with other student teams.
Action – Projects are useful tools
Hopefully the results of student-planned projects are useful deliverables for the community.
In the process of performing the projects the students learn and refine useful business
knowledge and skills through experimentation and reflection.
Evaluation – Projects can be used to “revolutionize the local fishing industry”
The best way to learn is to teach. If students “do” an entire project for an agency – they
“provide fish.” This only works for small projects that fit into the academic term and yields
little learning for the agency. At the other extreme if students merely “plan” a project – they
“teach how to fish.” This is better since some learning in the agency takes place. The best
situation occurs when students “collaborate with stakeholders” on a project and
“revolutionize the local fishing industry.” Maximum learning takes place for both students
and agency members since they work together and transition a partially completed project
to full agency responsibility for completion.
How the Project Management Service Learning Class operates
1. The professor arranges projects in advance. This gets the professor into the
community and enhances the university reputation – but it takes time.
2. Bring agency executives to class the first week. Share common expectations with
them and with students.
3. Make the first assignment only a draft with extensive suggestions but no grade. This
eases student fears.
4. Use many, frequent assignments. Give both grades and feedback. Allow students to
improve assignments for end of semester evaluation.
5. Use class time each week to discuss issues and plan work on the projects. When
students ask questions, encourage other students to answer first. Students learn
from all projects – not just their own. (Most weeks this will only require about 10
minutes.)
6. Work with a local Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter. A panel of PMPs can
give a great deal of real world perspective. Their inputs can be part of the
evaluation.
, 7. Ask the agency representatives to provide evaluation also. They can discuss student
attitude, methods, and results. This can also be part of the evaluation.
8. Encourage students to clean up all deliverables based upon all evaluations and then
to take clean copies with them when interviewing. Proving that they have actually
done something is more powerful than saying they understand it.
3. Facilitating student preparation for CAPM® and PMP® exams
Project Management Institute (PMI) is by far the largest professional group in the world
that deals with project management. PMI offers three certifications: CAPM ®, PMP®, and
Program Management Professional (PgMPSM). This text book is designed to help students
prepare directly for the first two and indirectly for the third.
A student can qualify for the CAPM® credential by taking a project management class
and passing a 150-question multiple-choice exam that is based upon the PMBOK®. The
student can qualify even before finishing an undergraduate degree. A student is eligible for
the PMP® credential by finishing an undergraduate degree in an appropriate field such as
business or engineering, taking one course in project management, having 4500 hours of
project management work experience, and passing a 200-question multiple-choice exam
that is based upon the PMBOK®. To be eligible for the PgMPSM credential, a person must
have an undergraduate degree, four years of project management experience, four years of
program management experience, and pass a 170-question multiple-choice exam
concerning program management. Contemporary Project Management covers a bit more
program management than other texts in Chapter 2 on project selection and prioritization
and in Chapter 3 on roles and responsibilities.
Contemporary Project Management, while designed primarily as a text book that helps
students learn how to manage projects, has also been designed to be totally consistent with
the PMBOK® specifically to help students prepare for the CAPM® and PMP® exams. Both
exams are based on processes and glossary terms in the PMBOK®. All glossary terms used
in Contemporary Project Management are directly from the PMBOK® and have been
highlighted in the PowerPoint slides. All processes from the PMBOK® are included in this
text as shown below.
PMBOK® Guide Area/Topic Process Chapter Covered
Project Management Introduction 1, 2
Framework
Project Life Cycle 3
Project Stakeholders 3, 5
Teaching Opportunities with Contemporary Project Management
This book offers four specific teaching opportunities: all work guided by measurable
learning objectives, use of real projects as learning vehicles, design consistent with Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) to facilitate student study for Certified Associate
in Project Management (CAPM®) and Project Management Professional (PMP®)
certification, and full incorporation of Microsoft Project instructions into the fabric of seven
chapters.
1. Measurable learning objectives:
Each chapter begins with measurable learning objectives. This is critical since all of the
chapter text, end of chapter material, suggestions in this IM for teaching, PowerPoint files,
and test questions are designed to help the students learn each objective.
For example, the final objective in Chapter 1 is: Identify key project roles and describe
responsibilities for each. In section 1.4 of the text, project roles are introduced and
described as executive, managerial, and associate level. An example of a related test
question is:
Typically, the person or group that provides the financial resources, in cash or in kind
for a project is the project...
a. benefactor.
b. sponsor.
c. manager.
d. treasurer.
ANS: B DIF: Average REF: 1.5 OBJ: Identify key roles
2. Suggestions for using real projects:
,This book is designed to give the instructor the option of having the students practice on
real projects. Each chapter has a section after the questions and exercises with suggestions
for use of an example project. The instructor can choose to have students work in teams or
individually on their projects. However, it is easier to have the students work in teams
when feasible since that requires fewer projects. This can also work for students who are
taking the class via internet.
There are several choices in how to arrange projects. The instructor can line up the
projects before the class begins. This ensures the instructor that the projects are of
sufficient size and complexity without being overwhelming. Alternatively, some instructors
put the burden of finding a project on the students. This requires less up front time on the
instructor’s part, but should be communicated to the students before the term starts so that
they can come in prepared.
The projects can be for non-profit organizations such as churches, schools, hospitals,
United Way agencies, or university offices. If an instructor chooses to use non-profit
organizations, there may be a service learning office at the university that can help identify
potential projects. Alternatively, most United Way offices have a volunteer research
coordinator who will gladly help. Most universities these days are eager to help their
community and receive good publicity in return.
Student projects can also be conducted for companies. If your university has
entrepreneurship, there will often be many companies with potential projects. Whether
projects are used for profit or non-profit organizations, alumni can often offer ideas and it
helps to connect the alumni better to the business school.
If you use service projects, you might consider these five macro objectives for your
project management class: context, experience, reflection, action, and evaluation.
Context – Project management can serve universally
Three aspects of context are teacher, students, and world. Teaching project management
via service learning can help a professor improve teaching, scholarship, service, and
training/consulting by practice, reflection, and sharing. Students can learn to see dignity in
others – to truly understand the perspective of those who are less fortunate. This
perspective is valuable both to better life in society and to better work in business where
one needs to understand various perspectives. The world is full of projects in every
industry and of many applications and types. By having student teams collectively plan
different projects and then discuss them in class, students appreciate the wide applications
for the skills they are learning.
Experience – Stakeholder relationships need to be built and sustained
Students need to understand that a business must deal fairly with various stakeholders such
as stockholders, employees, customers, suppliers, and community. By having the students
meet the ultimate recipients of each project (the often unempowered people a project is
,meant to serve), the students develop an understanding and passion for all stakeholders as
they gather information, prioritize needs, communicate, and revise plans.
Reflection – Knowledge management can be actively utilized
To rapidly improve our companies, students need to learn to translate knowing into telling
and to determine when to reapply, when to adapt, and when to create entirely new. In
using service projects, students use learnings from past projects; collect lessons from
current projects; and then share those lessons with other student teams.
Action – Projects are useful tools
Hopefully the results of student-planned projects are useful deliverables for the community.
In the process of performing the projects the students learn and refine useful business
knowledge and skills through experimentation and reflection.
Evaluation – Projects can be used to “revolutionize the local fishing industry”
The best way to learn is to teach. If students “do” an entire project for an agency – they
“provide fish.” This only works for small projects that fit into the academic term and yields
little learning for the agency. At the other extreme if students merely “plan” a project – they
“teach how to fish.” This is better since some learning in the agency takes place. The best
situation occurs when students “collaborate with stakeholders” on a project and
“revolutionize the local fishing industry.” Maximum learning takes place for both students
and agency members since they work together and transition a partially completed project
to full agency responsibility for completion.
How the Project Management Service Learning Class operates
1. The professor arranges projects in advance. This gets the professor into the
community and enhances the university reputation – but it takes time.
2. Bring agency executives to class the first week. Share common expectations with
them and with students.
3. Make the first assignment only a draft with extensive suggestions but no grade. This
eases student fears.
4. Use many, frequent assignments. Give both grades and feedback. Allow students to
improve assignments for end of semester evaluation.
5. Use class time each week to discuss issues and plan work on the projects. When
students ask questions, encourage other students to answer first. Students learn
from all projects – not just their own. (Most weeks this will only require about 10
minutes.)
6. Work with a local Project Management Institute (PMI) chapter. A panel of PMPs can
give a great deal of real world perspective. Their inputs can be part of the
evaluation.
, 7. Ask the agency representatives to provide evaluation also. They can discuss student
attitude, methods, and results. This can also be part of the evaluation.
8. Encourage students to clean up all deliverables based upon all evaluations and then
to take clean copies with them when interviewing. Proving that they have actually
done something is more powerful than saying they understand it.
3. Facilitating student preparation for CAPM® and PMP® exams
Project Management Institute (PMI) is by far the largest professional group in the world
that deals with project management. PMI offers three certifications: CAPM ®, PMP®, and
Program Management Professional (PgMPSM). This text book is designed to help students
prepare directly for the first two and indirectly for the third.
A student can qualify for the CAPM® credential by taking a project management class
and passing a 150-question multiple-choice exam that is based upon the PMBOK®. The
student can qualify even before finishing an undergraduate degree. A student is eligible for
the PMP® credential by finishing an undergraduate degree in an appropriate field such as
business or engineering, taking one course in project management, having 4500 hours of
project management work experience, and passing a 200-question multiple-choice exam
that is based upon the PMBOK®. To be eligible for the PgMPSM credential, a person must
have an undergraduate degree, four years of project management experience, four years of
program management experience, and pass a 170-question multiple-choice exam
concerning program management. Contemporary Project Management covers a bit more
program management than other texts in Chapter 2 on project selection and prioritization
and in Chapter 3 on roles and responsibilities.
Contemporary Project Management, while designed primarily as a text book that helps
students learn how to manage projects, has also been designed to be totally consistent with
the PMBOK® specifically to help students prepare for the CAPM® and PMP® exams. Both
exams are based on processes and glossary terms in the PMBOK®. All glossary terms used
in Contemporary Project Management are directly from the PMBOK® and have been
highlighted in the PowerPoint slides. All processes from the PMBOK® are included in this
text as shown below.
PMBOK® Guide Area/Topic Process Chapter Covered
Project Management Introduction 1, 2
Framework
Project Life Cycle 3
Project Stakeholders 3, 5
