Dr Elzbieta Klecun-Taylor NAB 3.37 and Dr Susan Scott NAB 3.12

This course is available on the BSc in Management and BSc in Management Sciences. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit and to General Course students.

Projects are the way that organizations manage change. This course aims to review the theory and practice of project management in order to develop a critical understanding of the processes involved in business transformation. It will cover history and foundations of project management, responding to changing environments, governance and control, contracting and relationships, managing risk and organisational learning. The course will focus on issues and challenges raised by business analysis and project management. Example topics of study include: questioning business transformation and projects as a mode of organising; understanding the dynamics and relations involved in IT-enabled business transformation; strategy formation; business process analysis; projects as an organisational form; project escalation; project management approaches and techniques; and change management. To develop students' practical knowledge and skills and to prepare them for future employment as business analysts /project managers students will participate in group work based on a 'real-world' scenarios of business transformation projects. They will also be required to sit a 2 hour exam.

20 hours of lectures and 15 hours of classes in the MT. 1 hour of lectures in the ST.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

A variety of types of assignments are given for class discussion including exercises and case studies. Written feedback will be given on formative assessment related to the group project and to the examination. 

Maylor, H. (2010) Project Management (Fourth Edition). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:FT/Prentice Hall. Morris, P.W.G., Pinto, J.K. and J. Soderlund (2012) The Oxford Handbook of Project Management Oxford: Oxford University Press. Doherty, S. (2008) Heathrow's Terminal 5: History in the Making, Oxford: Blackwell. Drummond, H. (1996) Escalation in Decision-Making: The tragedy of Taurus. Oxford: OUP.

Exam (70%, duration: 2 hours) in the main exam period.
Project (30%, 1500 words) in the MT.