To stay competitive companies have sought to shorten the production times by managing development efforts effectively by using different project management methods and tools. In this course, three important aspects of project management are taught:
(1) the theory, methods and quantitative tools used to effectively plan, organize, and control projects;
(2) efficient management methods revealed through practice;
(3) hands-on, practical project management knowledge from on-site situations.
To achieve this, we will use a basic project management framework in which the project life-cycle is broken into organizing, planning, monitoring, controlling and learning from old and current projects. Within the framework, the student will learn the methodologies and tools necessary for each aspect of the process as well as the theories upon which these are built.
By the end of the term students will be able to adapt and apply the framework to effectively manage a project in various industries and organization.

Section 1: Project Feasibility & Organization. Project feasibility involves evaluating possible projects, determining the appropriate capital structure and financing mechanism, selecting contracting type, including a payment scheme, selection method, and delivery type, and organizing the company and the project teams for competitiveness. A critical issue of this phase of the project is the handling of uncertainty and risk in projects.
Section 2: Project Planning. Project planning involves establishing the Work Breakdown Structure, mapping this structure to the established OBS and setting a schedule using variuos techniques such as Critical Path Method (CPM), or Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT).
Section 3: Project Monitoring & Control. Project Monitoring refers to the configuration and metrics used to monitor the progress of a project throughout its life. Earned Value Analysis is one project management tool used to help answer these questions. Reports are based on the organization and reporting structure established previously. Based on the information gathered through the Project Monitoring system, corrective action may be required to keep a project on track.
Section 4: Project risk management through analysis and quantitative assessment.
Section 5: Project Learning. Project Learning is recognized by organizations as one of the most important factors for success in current and future projects. Through life-cycle and post-mortem analysis, the project manager may identify areas to be emphasized or more closely managed in future projects. A valuable methodology used in recent years for managing learning is simulation. In this course we will introduce the System Dynamics simulation methodology for evaluating certain performance parameters of a project.

De Marco, A. (2011). Project management for facility constructions, Springer
Hendrickson, C. (2006). Project Management for Construction, on-line at: www.ce.cmu.edu/pmbook/
Meredith, J. and Mantel, S. (2000). Project Management: A managerial Approach, 4th Ed., Wiley

The course will be taught through a series of lectures and recitations. Lecture time will be used for both teaching course materials and case discussions. Classroom participation is strongly encouraged during lectures. Recitations will be used to support and enhance the material covered in the lectures through a practical long term group project.