Project management is a professional practice involving a variety of disciplines to support the tasks required to effectively complete a project. Managerial activities include decision making, problem solving, planning, scheduling, directing, coordinating, monitoring and control. In all sectors, projects are complex endeavors that call for the application of management practices from all players and stakeholders involved. In particular, plant and building asset construction projects require the joint effort of several actors usually organized on a multipart contract structure: owners, investors, lending institutions, developers, designers, construction contractors, and consultants, which take action with different perspectives and interest on the project. The challenge is to establish a managerial environment that enables a successful project development while maximizing the mutual benefit of each party. This course guides students through concepts, methods and practical techniques for managing projects to develop constructed facilities in the industries of oil&gas, power, infrastructure, architecture and commercial building.

A project management framework will be used to illustrate how projects are managed through evaluating, financing, organizing, planning, monitoring, and controlling with reference to both traditional waterfall and agile project management processes. Within this framework, students will learn the main theories, methodologies and software tools necessary for each aspect of the Project Management process. By the end of the term students will be then able to adapt and apply the framework to effectively manage a project. In particular, students will develop knowledge and methods for effectively organize, plan, and control projects in various industries and organizations. As learning outcomes, students are expected to understand: - how project organizations and projects are structured - governance of project management - communication and teamwork in projects - project financing, assessment and strategic planning - project scope management - cost, schedule and resource monitoring and control - risk management, uncertainty and contingency management To this end, students will acquire hands-on skills and learn how to use techniques and software tools to effectively manage a project. Such competencies/skills will include: - define a project management organization - implement a traditional waterfall project management framework - apply agile project management techniques and use corresponding software packages - evaluate project feasibility and define the financial structure of project funding - initiate a project and create a project budget - schedule time and resources for complex projects - define performance metrics for project monitoring and use Earned Value Management techniques to monitor and forecast project performance - use advanced features of project planning and teamwork management software

It is assumed that students have basic knowledge in statistics.

Contract Organization: Construction Project management primarily consists on managing a contract between the owner and the entities charged with the higher-level portions of the project scope, namely: financing, design and development. To this end, this section illustrates some of the most used delivery systems and presents the tradeoffs involved in different contracting mechanisms, with focus on risk-sharing and incentive issues. The various contract architectures are depicted as decomposed into three main components: a delivery system, a payment mechanism, and an award method. At the end, the way that these elements can be put together to form a suitable contract for diverse situations is discussed. Contract Administration: A review of the most important issues that professionals have to consider in contract administration during project planning and execution phases. First, it contains information about how owners and contractors have to handle bids and proposals. Then, as part of the composition of a contract, the main provisions and clauses are discussed with regard to bonds, changes, claims and dispute resolution. A final point is made on recording and reporting. All contents in this chapter consider general international practice. Variations exist from state to state and from country to country, but similar principles apply everywhere. Human Resources A project is basically the implementation of a contract between an owner and a contractor. In turn, a contract is managed by a group of people working for the owner’s organization, the contractor’s organization, or acting as consultants to one of the parties. To handle and manage the project, those people have to work effectively. This can be achieved by a project-oriented organization, in which responsibilities are defined within project management teams. Then, to enable project teams work in practice, there is the need for systems and technologies to provide the information infrastructure as well as communications planning and management. Money Money, which is here referred to as cash made available to sustain a capital investment, is a major concern throughout the life-cycle of a construction project. During the feasibility stage, the decision to proceed is carefully made based on evaluation of project profitability. Also, funding opportunities need to be investigated and appropriate shares of equity and debt funds have to be determined into the capital structure. During the planning phases, budgets and timeline schedules are prepared using dedicated techniques and tools. The planning activity allows for forecasting cash streams. Then, the development phase requires that the project is periodically monitored and controlled. This requires that a set of progress measurement activities are established at the project management level to support the process of continuously estimating the actual completion time and final cost and to help making corrective actions to bring the project in line with the initial plans. Planning and Scheduling: Planning and scheduling are activities required before design and physical development are commenced. We first discuss the basics of structuring breakdowns of project activities (WBS and CBS). Second, principles applying to deterministic scheduling process are outlined. The standard scheduling documents are presented (overall master schedule, project schedule, detailed schedules), and the primary scheduling methods are shown: activity lists, Gantt charts, and network (CPM) schedules. In the process, this section introduces essential concepts, such as the critical path, and various types of floats. Finally, methods for resource-based and resource-constrained scheduling are illustrated. Project Monitoring and Control: As engineering and construction activities unfold, the project actual status may diverge from the planned one, with discrepancies in expenditures, productivity and speed of work. This section highlights the principles of accurate cost and schedule performance monitoring and control. First, it illustrates the method for measuring the actual progress of work. Second, Earned Value Analysis is quantitatively explained, as well as methods for estimating the cost and schedule at completion. Then, various project reporting practices are shown. Finally, the possible control actions to bring the project back on track are discussed. Uncertainty: So far, all management methods and techniques presented along the course assumed certainty about the future outcomes of a project. As a matter of fact, much uncertainty exists in project management with regard to a variety of issues, so that it is hard to carry out many tasks, such as budgeting and scheduling, solely with deterministic approaches. Other more complex methods are necessary to take uncertainty and risks into consideration. One method is to make decision analyses based on multiple scenarios and simulation under uncertain conditions. Another is to use probabilistic scheduling techniques such as PERT. Finally, project risk management methodology is suggested as a way to bring all aspects of project variations and foreseeable uncertainty under the control of the project team.

The course will be taught through a series of lectures, software tutorials and team work. Lecture time will be used for both teaching course materials and class discussion. Classroom participation is strongly encouraged during lectures. Practice hours will be used to support and enhance the materials covered in the lectures through a capstone practical long term project to be developed in teams.

Course materials will include both textbooks, e-textbooks, course slides, software usage tutorials, case-study readings, business cases, recommended paper readings and additional resources. All course materials will be posted on the course website either prior or after class depending on pedagogical best option. Datasheets, assignments and project work instructions will be also distributed via the course website. A non-exhaustive list of learning resources is anticipated as follows. Main textbook: - De Marco, A. (2018) Project Management for Facility Constructions, Springer, Free educational e-book version Other manuals: - PMBOK by PMI - IPMA ICB4 Recommended textbooks: - Nicholas, J.M., Steyn, H. (2011). Project Management for Engineering, Business and Technology, Routledge - Meredith, J. and Mantel, S., (2000) Project Management: A managerial Approach, 4th Edition, J. Wiley & Sons New York - Hendrickson, C. (2006). Project Management for Construction, on-line at: www.ce.cmu.edu/pmbook/ Business cases provided by instructor.

Slides; Libro di testo; Materiale multimediale ;

Modalità di esame: Prova scritta (in aula); Prova orale facoltativa; Elaborato scritto individuale; Elaborato progettuale individuale;

Exam: Written test; Optional oral exam; Individual essay; Individual project;

... Assessment of learning outcomes will require students to demonstrate that they can: - Select and implement techniques to manage a project - Use effective management techniques in their team work and use software for collaborative project teams - Prove ability in business evaluation and project financing - Develop a project charter and business case - Plan scope, cost and resources. - Prepare and track a project detailed schedule using both deterministic and probabilistic techniques and related professional project planning software tools - Track progress, monitor and control successful accomplishment of projects objectives of time, cost and quality. - Use rigorous managerial methods for decision making in complex case scenarios. Identify, assess and respond to project risks The corresponding total grade mark will be summing the following components of assessment, with maximum grade 33=30 cum laude: - a final written test, duration 2 hours, closed book, composed of a set of questions/exercises/problem solving to score a maximum of 20 points, with min 9 pts to pass. - Capstone project team work: max 8 pts - Optional oral exam: +/- 3 pts Students that will fulfill all requirements within the end of the term, including passing the written test at first available date, will be awarded extra 2 points as a recognition for accelerated learning progress.

Gli studenti e le studentesse con disabilità o con Disturbi Specifici di Apprendimento (DSA), oltre alla segnalazione tramite procedura informatizzata, sono invitati a comunicare anche direttamente al/la docente titolare dell'insegnamento, con un preavviso non inferiore ad una settimana dall'avvio della sessione d'esame, gli strumenti compensativi concordati con l'Unità Special Needs, al fine di permettere al/la docente la declinazione più idonea in riferimento alla specifica tipologia di esame.