Project Management MSc
2 Years Full-Time (with Advanced Practice in Second Year) | September and January Start

Academic skills when studying away from your home institution can differ due to cultural and language differences in teaching and assessment practices. This module is designed to support your transition in the use and practice of technical language and subject specific skills around assessments and teaching provision in your chosen subject area in the Department of Architecture and Built Environment. The overall aim of this module is to develop your abilities to read and study effectively for academic purposes; to develop your skills in analysing and using source material in seminars and academic writing and to develop your use and application of language and communications skills to a higher level.

The topics you will cover on the module include:

• Understanding assignment briefs and exam questions.
• Developing academic writing skills, including citation, paraphrasing, and summarising.
• Practising ‘critical reading’ and ‘critical writing’.
• Planning and structuring academic assignments (e.g. essays, reports and presentations).
• Avoiding academic misconduct and gaining credit by using academic sources and referencing effectively.
• Listening skills for lectures.
• Speaking in seminar presentations.
• Giving discipline-related academic presentations, experiencing peer observation, and receiving formative feedback.
• Speed reading techniques.
• Discussing ethical issues in research, and analysing results.
• Describing bias and limitations of research.
• Developing self-reflection skills.

Training in research methods provides researchers with an understanding of the “do’s” and “don'ts” that are associated with employing particular approaches to the collection and analysis of data. Awareness of research methodologies and methods will enable researchers to practise appropriate techniques and to implement methods accurately. The primary aim of the module is to inform and sensitise you to the choices that are available when planning to undertake a research project. This includes making you aware of a selected range of qualitative and quantitative research methods that can be employed to collect and analyse primary and secondary data arising from studies using these methodological paradigms. Such awareness will enable you to make appropriate choices when executing your research investigation. Of equal importance, the module will also introduce you to a range of academic skills that will support you during your programme of study in addition to the execution of your research project.

You will develop conceptual understanding around, appreciate the characteristics of, and be able to evaluate, projects. You will also develop an understanding of the project management role, and the relevant approaches, skills, tools and techniques available to a practising project manager. You will be introduced to the dynamics associated with project teams and stakeholders. The module will consider projects within the wider context of programmes and portfolio management. This management of projects, programmes and portfolios are often referred to as P3 management; thus, you will have a basic understanding of complex scenarios of multiple and major projects environments. You will be able to evaluate project management knowledge critically and competencies, reflect on lessons from project case studies, as well as the processes, methods and technologies used by Project Managers and Project Management Offices (PMO’s) in P3 management. You will also embrace the necessary ethical and professional standards to attain competence in the future management of P3 projects.

In Project Organisation and Information Management, you will explore leadership issues, critically reviewing a range of models and practices with particular emphasis on the leader as a communicator and negotiator. You will be introduced to a variety of approaches to organisational analysis; thus, enabling you to challenge and critique, both organisational practice, and the theories, models, and frameworks underpinning management, business, and organisation. Mainstream views of organisational methods and learning are introduced, with progression to exploring alternative ways of ‘seeing’ organisation and organising. This approach will enable you to develop your critical thinking and draws on contemporary research to explore alternative ways of organising. You will also explore the value of the information system within the organisations. Specifically, you will consider the evaluation and application of appropriate strategies for the management of information systems at intra- and inter-organisational levels, and how they might affect the use of Information Modelling applications. You will identify the various types of knowledge in organisations and analyse the management of that knowledge and information flows throughout the different project life-cycle stages. An important aspect of the module is the identification and evaluation of standards and procedures underlying the exchange of project information, including processes connected with supply chain integration, electronic commerce and mobile commerce on the project environment. You will also evaluate the beneficial and detrimental effects of using real-time network tools for project collaboration.

You will learn about the theories and practices that inform the steering of projects for the delivery of benefits and how they enable you to respond to the challenges of managing organisational change initiatives. The module integrates several topics under each of the competencies within relevant Project Management Bodies of Knowledge: Contextual, Behavioural and Technical. Themes that may be covered include ensuring that benefits are understood and pursued through reliable decision-making, promoting effective identification of risks and opportunities throughout the life-cycle of projects, enabling processes that capture and assess potential changes to project scope, and identifying and customising governance frameworks that successfully integrate stakeholders behaviours and expectation.

Group dynamics are the influential actions, processes and changes that occur within and between groups of people. Groups come in all shapes and sizes, and their functions are many and varied. To understand groups and their dynamics, you must understand how people interact and function while working together in formalised organisational contexts. The module aims to unite and contextualise selected key theories associated with team dynamics from psychology and the social sciences with selected key theories associated with groups, teams and management processes from management and organisation sciences. The overarching aim is to equip and empower you with the knowledge, skills and abilities to create, participate in and lead real and virtual project-orientated teams.

In this module, you will learn the various economic environments surrounding project organisations and project delivery, and examine the resources and constraints relating to financial decision-making for project formulation, initiation, delivery, and review. This module goes to assist in defining the levels of responsibility and directions of accountability required of a project manager. Themes that may be covered include the sponsor economic environment: general economic theory; financial reportage, ratio analysis, determinants for solvency, business case appraisals, sources of finance and funding, project portfolios, the professional economic environment; general economic theory; resourcing, scheduling, forecasting (risk and uncertainty), cash flow and professional services marketing, the contracting economic environment: general economic theory; budgeting and cost management, labour and earned value analysis, and social, economic environments: public and private sector distinctions.