Management and organisation of project work

The course focuses on the management and organisation of project work within single or multiple organisations and in an international context. The course covers the following areas.

1. The context for project organising. Here we will be working with the different organisational settings within which projects occur: The demand side, supply side and the inter-organisational project network that brings the participants into a temporary organisation with the aim to deliver on a common outcome.
2. Broader organisational (e.g., strategic and operational) considerations in project organising. Examples include organisational and project capabilities, value and benefits, which are a part of designing and implementing projects within and across organisations.
3. Project stakeholder engagement and management. Engagement and management of stakeholders internally and externally to projects is a key factor of effectiveness and realisation of benefits. The course will cover and the key approaches and frameworks to deal with the potential, impact and influence of stakeholder groups.
4. Project leadership. We will tackle some of the key leadership challenges and opportunities in project organising and discuss how project practitioners can engage with the strategy and policy-level actors on these broader organisational and institutional agendas.

Sessions will be based on theory lectures and in-depth discussions of selected teaching cases covering international examples of project organising. The course covers different sectors, such as urban infrastructure, technology development, and organisational change.

Knowledge:

1. Students will gain an understanding of and familiarity with a selection of concepts, theories and models of project organisation and management and learn to apply those in real-life organisation settings and challenges on projects.
2. Through in-depth small group and class discussions of examples and case studies from organisational practices, students will be able to learn about common patterns of issues and ways to tackle them in several industry contexts.

Skills:

1. Using the frameworks, theories and ideas discussed in the course, students will be able to assess the unique challenges associated with projects their organisation is involved and design the appropriate approach to manage them successfully.
2. The course also aims to facilitate the development of skills necessary to operate in internationally diverse working environments.

The course will be carried out in the format of four full-day sessions, with individual and group work taking place at the same time. Dates of the sessions will be announced separately and will take place either on the NTNU campus in Trondheim or in NTNU facilities in Sandvika out of Oslo. Learning materials will comprise teaching cases and literature that students will be asked to engage with in advance of the sessions. Classroom sessions will include theory lectures, small-group case study discussions, and class discussions to maximise the learning experience of the group. In between and after two full-day blocks, students will engage with the material through self-study and group work, with guidance and development of their individual assignments. There will be two virtual ‘office hours’ sessions between the live session blocks to support students in developing their assignments. To meet learning objective 4, the teaching cases and class discussions will have an international scope, and the primary working language of the course will be English. However, some sessions, small group work discussions and student assignments will be in Norwegian.

Compulsory activities: Pre-session reading and learning activities, class attendance (with a maximum of one-day absence), and development of individual assignments.