DelftX: Project Management of Engineering Projects: Preparing for Success

• Recognize the importance of the front-end phases in creating a successful project
• Select an appropriate project manager
• Collaborate successfully as part of a specialized project team
• Identify how projects are successfully managed in different sectors and contexts
• Draft a project execution plan

Module 1: The need for and the importance of project management
How is project success defined? How is it achieved? We explain the decision to focus this course on the front-end phase of projects and the people aspect of projects. We also link to a more strategic level: does your project fit the company’s strategy?

Module 2: Organizing the team
This module focuses on the team effort that is needed to bring a project to a successful conclusion. It shows why teamwork is essential and why it should not be taken for granted. It explains the challenges the project manager faces in developing a group of specialists into a coherent team. You will gain insight into your own competences and based on your scores you are challenged to compose multidisciplinary teams with your fellow course participants, five or six participants per team.

Module 3: Opportunity framing
In this module all necessary steps of the early project phases are covered: identifying the stakeholders involved; scoping of the project (high level) after formulating the project objectives; and setting up the initial risk register. Uncertainties are all around and those uncertainties that matter for achieving the project deliverables must be addressed in the project’s risk management. With your team, you will select a topic for your team's project execution plan (PEP).

Module 4: The project assurance plan
Do you select the appropriate contracting strategy after defining the project assurance plan or is it the other way around? We decided to first elaborate on the management processes to be followed in a project. What does a project assurance plan look like? With your team, you will write the first outline of your project execution plan (PEP).

Module 5: Selecting the contracting strategy
In selecting the appropriate contracting strategy, we should not just focus on the contract. This sounds contradictory, but it is an essential lesson to learn in this module. We will introduce the contracting quilt and explain the importance of relational attitudes between clients and contractors. We also discuss the importance of senior management commitment.

Module 6: Time and cost estimates
Now that a lot of the project preparation is done, it is time for some basic project management skills: the skills of scheduling and cost estimation, acknowledging the risks of the risk register. After thorough introduction of these skills, you will be asked to prepare a baseline schedule for your own project and, based on that baseline schedule, to create a rough baseline cost estimate.

Module 7: Bringing it together in the project execution plan
All ingredients of the project execution plan (PEP) have been discussed so far and are to be combined in the PEP that should be delivered at the end of this module.

Adeshola Franklin: “I enrolled in the course in order to gain more knowledge of project management and boost my CV. This course helps in advancing my career and it makes you improve in day-to-day work activities.”

Niyomukiza Samuel: “I work as a senior manager on construction projects but apart from what I’d learned from others in my department, I had no idea what project management was like, despite having an engineering background. With this course I gained knowledge about the management of engineering projects and increased my passion for the construction industry. I learned that people are the key factor in any success. On completion I felt more valuable and confident because it changed and increased my thinking capacity, decision making and leadership in my daily activities.”