Projects are vehicles to get visions translated into action and change status quo. They are therefore fundamental to address our grand challenges. For example, containing and responding to climate change requires a portfolio of projects such as the development of new technologies, mega infrastructure projects such as the energy islands, marketing campaigns to make us change our consumption habits, and many others.

This course aims at enhancing participants’ knowledge about project management, while fostering a reflexive approach to the subject and its practice.

The course will introduce two different theoretical perspectives on project management: one represents the traditional view on project management, clearly portrayed in international standards and most textbooks. This perspective represents a close connection with analytical thinking and assumes that projects can be planned upfront and controlled. The other perspective represents the so called ‘Scandinavian school’ of project management, which on the one hand acknowledges the need for classic planning tools and methods, but also reflects on the need for flexibility and co-creation to cope with the high uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity of projects. We call them tightly and loosely coupled perspectives, respectively.

We then bring the two theoretical perspectives into four managerial practices that every project practitioner will do:

1. Aiming: why are we doing this project? Develop project vision, purpose, scope, and connect it with plan.
2. Collaborating: who are we working with and for? Engage with people within and outside the project, and thinking critically about project objectives while also develop constructive collaborations to enable the project, for example, attracting relevant stakeholders, and accommodating different and volatile requirements from different stakeholders.
3. Coordinating: how are we doing the work? Who is doing what and when? How much does it cost? Coordinate work of different people and organizations through e.g. roles, schedules and milestones.
4. Adapting: What if? What now? Prevent, adapt and learn from uncertainty and changes in projects and between projects.

The two perspectives and four project practices form a 2x4 matrix that will guide the course.

Surrounding this matrix are three components.

Project Society: Projects are part of our daily life - both our professional and private life, what we term a ‘Project Society’. Organizing life through projects creates ethical dilemmas, such as the ‘use’ of projects to accomplish other aims, or the misrepresentation of project benefits to deliver societal value. We will discuss these dilemmas and encourage the students to reflect on their values and stances to cope with challenging choices.

Context: no project is an island. We will explore how projects are embedded in their local contexts, and what project managers can do to cope and create value in line with its context. 

Project Success: projects are plagued by tales of failures and disasters, some even say that being a project manager is a recipe to end one’s career. Yet, despite the apart failures, we, as a society, reply more and more in projects. Projects are indeed short-term vehicles to deliver long-term prosperity. Why are projects then considered to be such a failure? Are they really failing or are they being unfairly evaluated? We will discuss and critically engage with the important and ethical understanding of project success.