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Course presentation
Development, procurement, and delivery of complex technical systems normally occur in the form of a project, that is, personnel from different parts of an organization collaborate in working towards a well-defined goal. Since the project organization is temporary, effective routines and methods are required for planning, managing, following-up, and documenting the different phases of the project. This is so that the submitted technical requirements placed on the project are reached within the given time frame and at budgeted cost. A complex technical system is a plant or product where software and hardware together comprise the completed system.
In order to provide the students a versatile insight in the management of industrial projects, realistic cases are combined with theoretical studies and guest lectures. In the theoretical parts of the course, fundamental skills in project management such as planning, documenting, and following up are treated. Further, important areas such as risk management, group dynamics and project leadership is be discussed throughout a series of more practically oriented guest lectures.
Headings denoted with an asterisk ( * ) is retrieved from the course syllabus version Spring 2019
Content and learning outcomes
Course contents
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.
Intended learning outcomes
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
Detailed plan
Learning activities
Content
Preparations
Basic lectures
Provides the basic knowledge and theories of project management. The information needed to pass the assignments will be presented in the lectures. Most of these lectures will be provided as videos you can watch whenever you want.
Read through the handbook
Guest lectures
Guests with different specialications and different backgrounds come and present their take on how to manage projects
Come to the lecture on time if you are provided a slot or follow the streaming
Agile workshop
A workshop allowing you to test the agile approach to work
Watch Martin Bäcklund and Henrik Knibergs material
Assignments
The assessment of the course, is where you test and document your knowledge.
You might need to resubmit your assignments
Read through the assignment specifications, watch relevant material and read the chapters in the handbook that you find relevant (it is a handbook, so you need to look for what you need)
Scrum and agile planning (Martin Bäcklund - GUEST)
Fri Sep 24
15-17
F2
Backup lecture
39
10
Mon Sep 27
15-17
M1 + zoom
When risks turn true - KTHs handling of the covid pandemic (GUEST)
11
Fri Oct 1
13-15
F2 + zoom
Organizing projects (Anna Jerbrant - GUEST)
40
12
Tue Oct 5
15-17
F2 + zoom
Agile leadership (Björn Sandberg - GUEST)
13
Wed Oct 6
13-15
F2+ zoom
Leading people (Peter Roos - GUEST)
41
14
Tue Oct 12
15-17
F2 + zoom
Lii Engvall (GUEST)
15
Fri Oct 15
13-15
F2+ zoom
Summary and outlook (Liv GIngnell - KTH)
Preparations before course start
Recommended prerequisites
For single course students: 120 credits and documented proficiency in English B or equivalent
Students from all master programs are welcome!
Literature
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.
Support for students with disabilities
Students at KTH with a permanent disability can get support during studies from Funka:
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 section below is not retrieved from the course syllabus:
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
Other requirements for final grade
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).
Grading criteria/assessment criteria
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.
Assignment
Submission
Course points
Assignment 1
Project plan
3-5 points
Status report 1
pass/fail (no points)
Status report 2
pass/fail (no points
Final report
3-5 points
Assignment 2
Project description
3-5 points
Oral presentation (optional)
3 points
Assignment 3
Risk analysis
3-5 points
Assignment 4
Reflection report
3-5 points
Peer review
3 points
Guest lecture attendance
3 points
A total number of 34 course points can be obtained in the course. The total sum determines the final grade, as follows:
Course points
Grade
21-23
E
24-26
D
27-29
C
30-32
B
33-34
A
Goal oriented grading
Goal
Assignment
G
VG
Describe and apply the different phases of a project, i.e. plan, follow up, and finish a project
Assignment 1
Project documents are created that fulfills the requirment of the assignment (following the project model)
It is clear from the document in every step, what should be done, how the work is structure, what has been done, is there problem, what is the lessons learned
Use methods and tools for planning and following up a project considering time, costs and resources
Assignment 1 and Agile workshop
Project plan is creaeted that includes a WBS EVM is used in status report
The status report is a tool not only used to report status but to make a forcast
Give examples of how activities such as project meetings and documentation are carried out and managed
Assignment 1 Assignment 2 & Assignment 4
Examples are given in the assignments
Examples are analysed and there are suggestions on what works good and why and vice versa
With the starting point of an project model create necessary project documentation
Assignment 1 & Assignment 3
Project documents are created that fulfills the requirment of the assignment (following the project model)
There is a reflection on what was god and bad in the process
Plan and perform a risk analysis
Assignment 3
A risk analysis is performed and documented so it fulfills the requirment of the assignment
There is a reflection on what was god and bad in the process and how the risk analysis could be improved. Actions to identified risks are both procative and reactive, and is not always the obvoius choise
Analyse an industrial project
Assignment 2
An interview is performed and documented
There is an analysis on the differences and similarities between what was done in the industial case you studied and what was taught in class
Present results through oral and written communication
All assignments
Correct language and understandable and following the template
Effort are made for the recivers ability to understand the meassige, examples are given when needed, and there is a balance between concise formulations and reflections
Ethical approach
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.
The section below is not retrieved from the course syllabus:
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]
The members of the course staff correct hundreds of assignments every week. In order to give you quick and relevant feedback on your work, the following rules apply:
Assignments are done in groups of two, with the exception of assignment 3. These groups must be formed and reported on lists available at the lectures before Assignment 1 is submitted! Note that the members of a group must aspire to the same grade.
A prerequisite for obtaining a higher grade than an E is that all assignments and re-submissions are submitted on time!
The assignments are submitted in the pdf format via the Canvas system. Pdf files can be created with the Adobe Acrobat software, which is not free-of-charge. There are, however, several services on the Internet which can be used free-of-charge to create pdf files.
Any reports suggesting mass duplication will be unconditionally failed, and no opportunity to complete the course will be offered
Build a single pdf for each assignment. Do not hand in any appendices separatelyif not explicitly specified. Either build the pdf from a single document containing everything, or merge separate pdf files into a single one using Adobe Acrobat or free software services available on the internet.
You must name your assignment by the following convention: pdf, where “XX” is your group number (two digits, 01, 02, 03, etc), “Y” is a number between 1 and 3 indicating whether it is the first, second or third submission of the assignment, and “assignment” is one of the following: projectplan/ statusreport/ finalreport/ projectdescription/ riskanalysis/ agilereport (EH2720) / reflection (EH2070) / peerreview.
Example: G06_2019_projectplan_2.pdf is group 6’s project plan, which after correction had to be submitted a second time.
Optional parts of an assignment will only be corrected twice, i.e. if you don´t perform the necessary corrections after the first submission the chance to get a higher grade will be lost.
Assignments submitted after the deadline will be corrected during the next re-exam period.
Any complaints about the corrections are to be submitted in writing to the course responsible or examiner.
Deadlines for assignments and presentations
Suggested dates for optional oral presentation of Assignment 2:
A doodle will be available on Canvas. The oral presentations will take place during week 39.
Dates for A4 agile workshop
A doodle will be available on Canvas. Available dates for the workshop is:
Wednesday September 22
Thursday September 23
Friday September 24
Obs! During this workshop you will work in teams of 5, those who for any reason can not be part of that, contact Joakim Lilliesköld, for an alternative assignment.
Dates for peer review seminars in Assignment 4:
A doodle will be available on canvas. The peer review seminars will take place during week 41.
Submission deadlines
Week
Date
Submissions due
Corrections complete
Re-submissions due
Corrections of re-submissions complete
36
Thu
Sep 9
A1 Project plan
11.59 p.m.
37
Thu
Sep 16
A1 Project plan
11.59 p.m.
Fri
Sep 17
A1 Status report 1
11.59 p.m.
38
Tue
Sep 21
A1 Status report 1
11.59 p.m.
Wed
Sep 22
A1 Project plan
11.59 p.m.
Fri
Sep 24
A2 Project description
11.59 p.m.
39
Tue
Sep 28
A1 Status report 1
11.59 p.m.
Wed
Sep 29
A1 Project plan
11.59 p.m.
Fri
Oct 1
A3 Risk analysis
11.59 p.m.
A1 Status report 1
11.59 p.m.
40
Tue
Oct 5
A1 Status report 2
11.59 p.m.
A2 Project description
11.59 p.m.
Wed
Oct 6
A4 Agile report
11.59 p.m.
Fri
Oct 8
A1 Status report 2
11.59 p.m. A3 Risk analysis
11.59 p.m.
A2 Project description
11.59 p.m.
41
Mon
Oct 11
A4 Peer review
23.59
A1 Status report 2
11.59 p.m.
Fri
Oct 15
A3 Risk analysis
11.59 p.m.
A1 Status report 2
11.59 p.m. A2 Project description
11.59 p.m.
42
Mon
Oct 18
A1 Final report
23.59 p.m.
Wed
Oct 20
A3 Risk analysis
11.59 p.m.
Fri
Oct 22
A1 Final report
A4 Agile report
11.59 p.m.
43
Wed
Oct 27
A1 Final report
23.59 p.m.
A4 Agile report
Fri
Oct 29
A1 Final report
Further information
Course administration
The course administration and communication are handled on Canvas, the learning management system, reached via https://kth.instructure.com (NB: we are not using KTH Social): Canvas is used for:
Signing up in groups
Posting questions to the course administration
Communicating with other course participants
Reading and accessing instructions and other material needed for the assignments
Submission and re-submission of assignments
Obtaining corrected assignments and comments, and lists of results
Booking time slots for seminars
The course leaders are located at Teknikringen 33, ground floor (NSE department).
Attendance will be registered on one or more lists that are passed around during the guest lectures. Approved attendance of a minimum of 6 guest lectures yields 0.8 ECTS credits, which means that the attendance requirement is a grading factor. Therefore, cheating with the attendance list is equivalent to cheating on an exam. You are required to inform the course staff if you have to leave a lecture. Show respect to our guest lecturers by being on time to the lectures!
