2.4.2 Project planning models

2.4.2 Project planning models

A project planning model usually contains a number of stages/steps which a project has to go through to be successful. There are several project planning models on the market that can be used in educational settings. In some of the courses described in this guide, the students decide upon their own working process in terms of project planning and management. In other courses, there is a project model integrated into the course and the students are working according to that model during the project. In some courses, agile methods such as Scrum and Kanban are taught and used.

An Example of learning activities on a project planning model from First Year Project
Course in Electrical Engineering:
In this course, project planning and management skills are important. ILOs state that participants
should be able to describe and use the principles of project work, present technical information in
oral and written form, and create the fundamental documents required for planning, following up,
and finishing a project.

The course contains three parts:
1) Basic project planning, project management and the project model.
2) Execution of the projects.
3) Project evaluation and feedback.
During the first part, there are lectures on how to work according to the specific project management
model. In part two , the projects must be executed according to the model. In part three, the students
reflect on and evaluate to what extent their project planning was successful.

A project model, which is the structure used in a project, shows the general stages of a project. This
particular model contains the following steps: (1) Pre-Study, Start of the project including project plan,
(2) Execution of the project including status reports, and (3) Closing the project including final report.
There are also other essential aspects of a project which the students need to be aware of, e.g.
resources, roles, stakeholders and the so-called “core three”; time, cost and function. The model is
described in the course book Handbook for Small Projects.

An Example of Agile Methods used in the Degree Programme in Information and
Communication Technology:
Students are learning agile methods, mainly Scrum and Kanban, throughout the study programme.
Current problems within software engineering and how they have been addressed with agile methods are discussed to introduce the students to the way of thinking within the agile methodology. The agile development cycle and various modern practices such as for instance, iterative development, pair programming, refactoring, test-first programming, release planning and the combinations of these methods are interwoven in both theoretical and practical courses over the study years.

Scrum: “Scrum is an agile way to manage a project, usually in software development. Agile software
development with Scrum is often perceived as a methodology; but rather than viewing Scrum as
methodology, think of it as a framework for managing a process. In the agile Scrum world, instead of
providing complete, detailed descriptions of how everything is to be done on a project, much of it is left up to the Scrum software development team. This is because the team will know best how to solve the problem they are presented with.”
 
“Scrum relies on a self-organizing, cross-functional team. The scrum team is self-organizing in that
there is no overall team leader who decides which person will do which task or how a problem will be
solved. Those are issues that are decided by the team as a whole. And in Scrum, a team is cross
functional, meaning everyone is needed to take a feature from idea to implementation. Within agile
development, Scrum teams are supported by two specific roles. The first is a Scrum Master, who can be thought of as a coach for the team, helping team members use the Scrum process to perform at the highest level. The product owner (PO) is the other role, and in Scrum software development the PO represents the business, customers or users, and guides the team toward building the right product.”

Kanban: “Kanban is a lean approach to agile software development. Actually, Kanban means many
things. Literally, Kanban is a Japanese word that means “visual card”. The core of Kanban means:
Visualize the workflow: Split the work into pieces, write each item on a card and put on the wall. Use
named columns to illustrate where each item is in the workflow. Limit Work In Progress (WIP) –
assign explicit limits to how many items may be in progress at each workflow state. Measure the lead
time (average time to complete one item, sometimes called “cycle time”), optimize the process to make lead time as small and predictable as possible.”

For additional information on Scrum and Kanban, see http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/scrum-xp-from-the-trenches and http://www.infoq.com/minibooks/kanban-scrum-minibook

Suggestion: If the intended learning outcomes at program level contain project working/planning skills, a course focusing on methodological steps could be fruitful since the students will most likely not learn these skills by themselves. Later on during the program, to secure a progression of these skills, the complexity level of both the project tasks as well as of the students’ project working/planning skills should increase. When choosing a project planning model, consider which models are used in industry within the specific discipline and introduce these models to the students.