آموزش مدیریت پروژه مبتنی بر نتیجه برای مدیران در حال ظهور- مطالعه موردی آموزش و یادگیری مدیریت پروژه

This paper contributes to the scholarship of teaching and learning project management (PM). It reflects on the experience with and presents early findings from three different runs of a leadership course focusing on project management learning taught at the University of New Brunswick’s Renaissance College (RC) in 2005 and 2006. First, the larger context will be introduced. Second, the approach of outcome-based learning will be presented particularly within the context of RC’s undergraduate leadership degree program. Third, it will be discussed how outcome-based learning can improve educational effectiveness and accountability in PM education. Fourth, the experience within the first three runs of the courses will be reviewed. Finally, some initial conclusions will be drawn and recommendations will be made for further improvement of PM education.

PM practitioners and scholars alike increasingly note the importance of including leadership skills into PM curricula [8], [9], [12], [18] and [37]. Starting many years ago, the Project Management Institute (PMI) frequently publishes leadership related books and recently presented its second volume of its leadership in project management annual to the public [28], [29] and [31]. Rarely, however, do we see PM listed as a significant leadership skill. Hence, rather then “selling project management to senior executives” [35] or “preparing project managers for leadership” [9], this paper presents a different approach discussing the value of including PM outcomes and learning opportunities into leadership education programs. Growing pressure on post-secondary institutions for higher educational effectiveness and accountability have increased the focus on improved student learning experiences and on the measurable achievement of clearly defined learning outcomes [2], [24], [25], [38], [40], [41], [33], [43] and [44]. Taking responsibility on all levels of influence, initiating and facilitating change projects, and accountability toward a more comprehensive group of stakeholders are core elements of leadership and leadership education [9], [15], [14], [26], [27], [20] and [21]. Hence, PM as the “unique branch of learning that deals with the planning, monitoring, and controlling of one-time endeavors” [39, p. 5] needs to be integrated into leadership curricula. Everybody involved in leadership processes increasingly needs to be able to contribute effectively to a project environment, to understand the particular elements and prerequisites of projects and PM and, if required, to take a lead in projects or in project based programs or organizations. Furthermore, the way PM related modules and outcomes are designed and integrated into leadership programs needs to reflect PM’s focus on systematic approach toward measurable results. PM education needs to apply an approach based on clearly defined, tracked, and assessed learning outcomes [7] and [4]. This paper focuses on the particular group of undergraduate students of leadership studies, on emerging leaders. While many undergraduate students at post-secondary educational institutions may lack the life and work place experience of more mature students participating in academic programs later in life, they still are involved in projects in various curricular and co-curricular activities. Many of them will be working in projects or project environments after graduation. In particular, undergraduate students engaged in any leadership studies program are typically required to engage in one or more leadership projects [13]. While a project-based approach per se will be enriching student learning [17] and [16], leadership students need to also be exposed to the study and application of the processes, structures, tools, and techniques of PM. Given the increasing significance of projects in all organizational contexts, emerging leaders need to be prepared to effectively contribute to project environments and to particular projects. Hence, the ability to lead, to manage, and to do a project is a key leadership skill of today and is briefly touched on in a recent leadership studies textbook [34]. Given the particular audience of undergraduate students, the focus of the program at hand will be more on community projects and the respective basic project management skills than on the details of the Project Management Body of Knowledge [3] and [30]. Yet, the related skills and approaches will be based on the relevant professional models and approaches. Furthermore, they need to be translated into an educational outcomes model that allows effective assessment of both the students’ performances as well as of the program and courses. The core of this model are the PM related outcomes of being able to (1) Initiate and Plan a Leadership Project, and to (2) Execute, Control, and Close a Leadership Project. Finally, this model and its implementation need to be embedded in a process of continuous review and improvement [42]. In summary, our major arguments and assumptions in this paper are that • PM and basic PM skills are important for emerging leaders; • emerging leaders can and will best learn these skills by – being given a respective framework, by – having to apply this to a leadership project that they are interested in, by – writing a project plan and a project report within this framework; and • PM related outcomes and a respective process of assessment need to be clearly defined. The following sections are intended to contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning project management. In applying its four defining features of asking questions about teaching and learning, of gathering and exploring evidence, of trying out and refining new insights, and of going public [11, p. 20–27], we will first discuss outcome-based learning in general and in regards to PM education in particular. Second, we will review the implementation of the arguments and assumptions presented above. We will further describe how the implementation has been adjusted based on initial feedback and evaluation. Finally, we will conclude with first recommendations.

In their assignments, students have clearly reflected about and provided evidence for their increased competence in regard to both leadership outcomes in general and PM outcomes in particular. Furthermore, comparing their performance between the project plan and the project report based on the respective criteria demonstrates significant growth in most PM abilities and criteria. Hence, we can conclude that undergraduate students can indeed effectively reflect on their learning about and performance in PM outcomes and significantly improve their abilities within that context. PM can be taught to undergraduate leadership students as part of their program. A clear system of outcomes and abilities as used in RC’s approach effectively supports and assesses student learning. The teaching and learning processes can focus on what is to be achieved and why, by identifying, teaching, and learning towards mastering the PM criteria (e.g., create and document reasonable schedule) as part of the bigger RC learning outcome (e.g., problem-solving). Students have a clear understanding of what exactly is required, of how they are doing in each of the required criteria, and what they need to work on in order to improve their abilities. Faculty can clearly see where students are having problems and what their teaching needs to focus on in order to improve student learning. Finally, student and course assessment based on the respective outcome system informs the larger processes of course, program, and faculty development. Thus, the requirements regarding the transparency of processes and structures in post-secondary educational institutions as well as to the increased responsibility and accountability of both faculty and administration are also being served. Initiating and conducting a “real” leadership project has proven to be an important vehicle for both the motivation of students to engage in as well as to learn and reflect about project management abilities and leadership processes. Using the project management phases and respective abilities served well as framework for teaching and learning basic PM knowledge skills and their application within the project. Writing a project plan as well as a project report – including identifying gaps and the respective lessons learned – have been effective assignments supporting the learning process and facilitating its assessment. Student learning about project management as part of their leadership education could, however, be further substantiated and improved by giving PM teaching and the leadership project even more space within the respective course3 and by having a better understanding of the long-term impact of PM teaching and learning. In particular, we recommend the following: 1. Increase the amount of class time used to teach project management modules along the phased approach; particularly provide more learning opportunities regarding scheduling, execution, control, and closure4 (see attachment 4). 2. Increase the role of project check-ins for case-in-point teaching and possibly make project presentations during project execution an additional assignment and course requirement. 3. Continue to engage in the scholarship of teaching and learning focusing on research of the impact of early project management learning and teaching for emerging leaders on their performance in projects or project environments after graduation.