Course syllabus

Course-PM (Preliminary programme)

ACE115 Project management in construction lp1 HT22 (7.5 hp)

Course is offered by the department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

Contact details

Course assistant: Rickard Andersson, PhD students, Building Design ACE, rickande@chalmers.se

Examiner: Martine Buser MB, Associate Professor at Building Design ACE, examiner/lecturer buser@chalmers.se

Teachers:

Antoine Manès, AM, PhD student at Btech Aarhus University, manes@chalmers.se

manes@btech.au.dk  

Dilek Ulutas Duman, DUD, Senior lecturer at Construction Management ACE, dileku@chalmers.se

Dimosthenis Kifokeris, DK,  Assistant professor at Building Design ACE, lecturer dimkif@chalmers.se

Kim Jakobsen, Consultant Ph.D., K-Jacobsen A/S, (KJ), kimjac@chalmers.se 

Mathias Gustafsson, Associate professor at Construction Management ACE, lecturer mathias.gustafsson@chalmers.se 

Stefan Gottlieb, Senior Researcher, Department of the Built Environment, Alborg university, scg@build.aau.dk

Course purpose

Construction projects are the central unit of production of the built environment. Managing a construction project is probably the single most important competence for the critical and skilled design and construction project manager. Project management is the most widespread management task that DCPM scholars and students are engaged with. Management of construction projects is a mature area with numerous standards, certifications, and educations. Yet projects are often delayed, run over budget and do not deliver the expected quality.

The course introduces the diversity and complexity of the construction sector and the role of projects and project manager. The course familiarizes the students with the vocabulary, paradigms and concepts of project management. It presents aspects of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) and presents both prescriptive and analytical tools, methods and theories. In doing so, the course will provide the necessary basis for understanding the discipline and practice of project management – theoretically as well as practically. The course moreover illustrates the application of various tools and understandings in concrete cases and projects, and presents aspects of power, politics, sustainability, ethics and social responsibility as elements of project management in a modern construction industry.

Schedule

ACE115 PM in construction: Course plan 2022/23

Session

Date/time

Person

Topic

Room

1

Monday 29 Aug.

(13.15-16.00)

SG/AM/

DM/KJ

Introduction to course

Group formation and expectations

Introduction to assignment and student-led presentations

 SB -H6

2

Tuesday 30. Aug.

(09.00-11.45)

SG/DK

SG/KJ

Project management paradigms and PMBOK

Q&A regarding assignment and student-led presentations

ED 

Hörsalsvägen 11

3

Thursday 8. Sept

(09.00-11.45)

MB

 Project based organization (lecture)

SB-H6

4

Monday 12. Sep.

(13.15-16.00)

DK/AM/

KJ/DUD

Supervision of group work (students book time slot with their designated teacher)

 Onsite /online

5

Thursday 15. Sep.

(08.00-11.45)

Mandatory

KJ/DK/

AM/DUD

Student presentation seminar (round 1). Groups 1-8 will present +)

SB-M500

6

Thursday 15. Sep.

(13.15-16.00)

Mandatory

KJ/DK/

AM/DUD

Student presentation seminar (round 2). Groups 9-15 will present +)

SB-H7

7

Monday 19. Sep.

(13.15-16.00)

Mandatory

RA

SG

Multiple choice on PMBOK (exam)

Estimating, budgeting and cost management (lecturer online)

 

SB-H6

 

8

Thursday 22. Sep.

(09.00-11.45)

MB

Power, authority, and politics in PM (lecture)

SB-H3

 

9

Monday 26. Sep.

(13.15-16.00)

KJ

PM and digitalization

 SB-H6

10

Thursday 29. Sep.

(09.00-11.45)

SG/RA

Scandinavian approach to project management (lecturer online)

Governance of projects and institutional approaches (Lecturer online)

SB-M500

11

Thursday 29. Sep.

(13.15-16.00)

DUD

Literature seminar

SB-H6

12

Monday 3. Oct.

13.15-16.00

MB

Social sustainability and diversity management in PM (lecture)

SB-H6

13

Thursday 6. Oct

09.00-11.45 A

13.15-16.00 B

AM

Stakeholder management (exercise)

 

SB-H3

SB-L308

14

Monday 10. Oct.

(13.15-16.00)

DK

Scope and Quality

SB-H6

15

Thursday 13 Oct.

(09.00-11.45)

MG

Ethics in PM and construction (lecture)

SB-M500

16

Tuesday 18. Oct.

(08.00-16.00)

Mandatory

KJ/DK/

AM/DUD

Project work presentation in parallel sessions (exam) ++)

Plenary wrap-up and participant feedback (plenary session) 

SB3-L111

SB3-L112

*) With an estimated 75 students on the course, there will be 15 groups of 5 students. For the presentations and subsequent group work/assignment, the students will be assigned one recurrent teacher that they will keep throughout the study period. There will be four teachers to choose from: DK, DUD, AM, KJ.

+) For purposes of the student presentations in week 38. Each group will prepare a 10 minutes presentation of their assigned PM knowledge area. This will be followed by 15 minutes of facilitated discussion between the group, teacher and other participants.  Participation by all students is mandatory.

++) The project work seminar is conducted in two parallel sessions under guidance of DK, UDU; KM and AM. Focus is on stimulating discussions and provide in-depth feedback. Each session is attended by half of the groups. Each group will have a total of 20 minutes, which are divided in the following: around 5 minutes of the group presenting their preliminary work, and then around 15 minutes for questions of the opposing group, discussion and feedback. Each group will have to read and provide feedback to one other group. After the presentations, all students per session will join that session’s plenary wrap-up.

The opposition pairs will be made known to the students a the week before the presentations on 18/10. It'd be a good practice to send your draft to your opposition group at least a couple of days before your presentation, so that the opposition group has sufficient time to read it and provide you with valuable feedback. You don't necessarily have to send your preliminary draft to your opposition group on the 10th or 11th of October, just do it in time before the 18th.

TimeEdit

Course literature

The literature will primarily consist of scientific papers but exerts from books will also be used. The students should familiarize themselves with the “Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge” by the Project Management Institute. Chalmers Library provides full text access to the 6th edition of the guide. Most literature is available through Chalmers Library. Further literature will be uploaded on Canvas before the sessions start including handouts from lectures. Literature should be read before the session.

Course day 1:

  • None

Course day 2:

  • Garel, G. (2013). A history of project management models: From pre-models to the standard models. International Journal of Project Management, 31(5), 663-669.
  • Pollack, J. (2007). The changing paradigms of project management. International journal of project management, 25(3), 266-274.
  • Project Management Institute (2017). Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide) (6th Edition). Project Management Institute, Inc. (PMI).

Course day 3:

  • Engwall, M. (2003). No project is an island: linking projects to history and context. Research policy, 32(5), 789-808.
  • Koch, C. (2004). The tyranny of projects: Teamworking, knowledge production and management in consulting engineering. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 25(2), 277-300.

Course day 4: Supervision

Course day 5: Presentation

Course day 6: Presentation

Course day 7:

  • Flyvbjerg, B. (2008). Curbing optimism bias and strategic misrepresentation in planning: Reference class forecasting in practice. European planning studies, 16(1), 3-21.
  • Flyvbjerg, B., Holm, M. S., & Buhl, S. (2002). Underestimating costs in public works projects: Error or lie? Journal of the American planning association, 68(3), 279-295.
  • Lichtenberg, S. (1974). The successive principle. In Proceedings of the PMI International Symposium, Project Management Institute, Washington, DC, USA (pp. 570-578).

Course day 8:

  • Hodgson, D. (2002). Disciplining the professional: the case of project management. Journal of management studies, 39(6), 803-821.
  • Hodgson, D. (2005). ‘Putting on a professional performance’: performativity, subversion and project management. Organization, 12(1), 51-68

Course day 9: To be announced

Course day 10:  

  • Klakegg, O. J., Williams, T., Magnussen, O. M., & Glasspool, H. (2008). Governance frameworks for public project development and estimation. Project Management Journal, 39(1_suppl), S27-S42.
  • Hällgren, M., Jacobsson, M., & Söderholm, A. (2012). Embracing the drifting environment: The legacy and impact of a Scandinavian project literature classic. International Journal of Managing projects in business, 5(4), 695-713.
  • Kreiner, K. (1995). In search of relevance: project management in drifting environments. Scandinavian Journal of management, 11(4), 335-346.

Course day 11:

  • Storvang, P & Clarke A H (2014) How to create a space for stakeholders’ involvement in construction, Construction Management and Economics, 32:12, 1166-1182, DOI: 10.1080/01446193.2014.966732

  • Lehtinen, J and Aaltonen, K (2020) Organizing external stakeholder engagement in inter-organizational projects: Opening the black box, International Journal of Project Management, 38 (2), pp. 85-98

Course day 12:

  • Colantonio, A., & Dixon, T. (2010). Social sustainability and sustainable communities: Towards a conceptual framework. Urban Regeneration & Social Sustainability: Best Practice from European Cities, 18-36.

Course day 13:

  • Winch, G. M., Morris, P., & Pinto, J. (2007). Managing project stakeholders. The Wiley guide to project, program, and portfolio management, 271-289.
  • Case

Course day 14: 

  • Ward, S., and Chapman, C. (2003). Transforming project risk management into project uncertainty management. International Journal of Project Management, 21(2), 97-105.
  • Basu, R. (2017). Managing quality in projects (2nd). Burlington: Gower. (RELEVANT EXCERPTS TO BE FOUND IN THE SLIDES)
  • Feigenbaum, A.V. (1991). Total Quality Control. New York: McGraw-Hill. (RELEVANT EXCERPTS TO BE FOUND IN THE SLIDES)
  • Howarth, T., and Watson, P. (2017). Construction Quality Management: Principles and Practice (3rd ed.). London: Rouledge. (RELEVANT EXCERPTS TO BE FOUND IN THE SLIDES)
  • Koch, C., and Buser, M. (2020). Good enough quality – multiple quality cultures in a Swedish region. In: Scott, L., and Neilson, C.J. (eds.). Proc. 36th Annual ARCOM Conference (465-474). UK: ARCOM.

Course day 15: To be announced

Course day 16: Presentations

Course design

Contents

  • Introduction to project management, what it involves in the modern construction industry, and its historical development.
  • The Project Management Body of Knowledge
  • The specificities of project-based organizations
  • Actors and stakeholders in contemporary construction projects
  • Power, authority, and politics in Project Management.
  • CSR, sustainability, ethic and social responsibility concerns in the construction industry.

Organization

The course includes lectures, exercises, tests, student-led presentations and seminars. The course

Changes made since the last occasion

The course has been reorganized and the assignments more clearly defined.

Learning objectives and syllabus

Learning objectives:

Knowledge:

  • Describe basic project management (PM) concepts and tools
  • Have knowledge of different PM knowledge areas, paradigms and traditions
  • Identify PM issues in specific cases
  • Understand specific characteristics of construction projects

Skills

  • Identify and synthesize relevant PM literature
  • Analyze and evaluate organizational aspects of PM practice
  • Analyze, evaluate and interpret PM practice
  • Evaluate the impact of PM practices on actors and stakeholders

Competencies

  • Define, formulate and solve PM related problems through process-based pedagogy
  • Critically evaluate project management models
  • Critically review and discuss peer students work
  • Reflect on power, politics and ethical issues in PM practice
  • Reflect on issues of uncertainty, complexity and bias for PM practice

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen.

Study plan

Examination form

Intermediate test consists of:

  • An oral presentation of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)
  • An intermediate individual multiple-choice test in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)

Project exam consists of:

  • A completed group project assignment
  • A presentation and peer-review feedback 

The final course grade is calculated as a weighted average of the points achieved on the different parts of the examination as described below.

Assessment criteria  

Point range

Oral presentation of the PMBOK

0-10 (10 points for presentation, 0 points for non-attendance)

Individual multiple-choice test

0-10

Presentation and peer-review feedback at project work seminar

0-10 (10 points for presentation and feedback, 0 points for non-attendance)

Group project assignment

0-70

Total 

0-100 

Grade limits are as follows:

Grade

Point range

5 

80-100

4

60-79

3

40-59

Fail

< 40