Lessons

Connection to the Curriculum:
KPPM = communication, presentation and project management

Time:
1 unit of 50 minutes

Resources required:
Data projector: Content of a project plan
Handout Vocabulary, definitions and descriptions

Overview:
Why is team building important?

Team building is an essential component of project management and should be included in PM-training. Project management is a process of managing people. Project teams are effective because of constructive action and mindsets of team members and leaders.

Use the questions listed below for discussion:
1. What types of participants should be involved?
2. Why should each be involved?
3. What might each contribute to the project? (E.g. information, advice, representation)
4. How might each be involved?

Objectives:

• Identify the types of participants involved in a project team
• Understand the reasons why each participant should be involved
• Appreciate the contribution of the stakeholders to the project? (E.g. information, advice, representation)
• Develop awareness of intercultural concerns
• Being able to handle diversity

Suggested procedure

Opening:
Revision: Ask students to write down the answers to the following question on a blank sheet of paper and pass it on to the teacher when finished. Suggested time: 5 minutes.

State four questions a project team has to ask before building a project plan and give examples for the features these questions include.

• What needs to be done? Objectives, characteristics of expected products, activities and tasks.
• How long will it take? A schedule.
• Who will do it? Assignments and responsibilities.
• How much will it cost? Time, cost and effort required for each task and for the project as a whole: a project budget.

What are the characteristics of effective project teams?

Have students break out into groups of 3 to 5.
Ask each group to discuss the characteristics of a successful work team they have worked on. Ask them to make a list of the five top characteristics they felt created a good, efficient work team.
Have each group report their discussion findings to the class.
If their past experiences with teams were negative ask them what would make these teams more effective.

Record key points on the blackboard.

Activities:

Handout: Characteristics of an Effective Project Team.
Ask students to compare and discuss differences to the list.

Introduce the characteristics of effective project teams:

• Clear and accepted objectives
• Good leadership
• Members have a vested interest in the group mission. They must see a benefit for themselves.
• Members have time to participate in group meetings and work.
• Members are able to put in the time and energy necessary for the team to succeed.
• Members have important information, skills or opinion to contribute.
• Communication is open and user-friendly. Members express concerns and expectations openly and are listened to by the group.
• Members are considerate and accepting of each other.
• Members are sensitive to varying perspectives arising in an inter-disciplinary, multi-organizational, intersectional, open public, cross cultural team.
• Members seek consensus on group decisions and test ideas to ensure everyone is on-board.
• Group problems solving based on basic interests, rather than on positions and causes of problems rather than blame.
• Members volunteer for taking the lead on group tasks.
• Members are willing to contribute effort to accomplish group goals.

What are the characteristics of effective project team leaders?

Have students break into groups of 3 to 5.
Ask each group to discuss the characteristics of an effective team leader.
Ask them to make a list of the five top characteristics they feel create an effective leader.
Have each group report their discussion to the large group.
Report key points on blackboard.
Introduce the characteristics of effective project team leaders.

Hand out: Key points.

Leaders should

• Be clear on what their role is
• Understand and practice a team approach
• Facilitate open, positive communication
• Organize project team to do work
• If possible, ensure right persons are chosen for work assignments (e.g. skills, team player)
• Coach team members on their roles
• Encourage team members to take responsibility for tasks
• Coach, but allow freedom to act
• Work with team members to address role conflict (e.g. with other job duties)
• Encourage team work over individual success
• Confront problems, not people
• Understand and mitigate conflicts among team members
• Avoid power politics and turf wars
• Maintain project control through continuous communication and checklists (e.g. project control charts, budgets)
• Always keep the objectives and expected results in mind
• Use people’s time and efforts effectively, and not to waste time.

What are approaches to deal with inter-department difficulties?

Projector

• Keep external departments informed at all times
• Involve other departments in developing schedules
• Maintain continuous contact during project
• Anticipate problems, e.g. phases that involve larger time commitments of external departments
• Be flexible. Be prepared to modify the project if necessary, if priorities of team agencies shift
• Recognize team members have different career tracks, work routines, supervisors and that your project may enhance their job.

Exercise: How can the project team manage diversity?

The goal of this exercise is to raise awareness of how team functioning is affected by the roles and perceptions each member brings to a team. By identifying difficulties and advantages, students will be able to see how their roles can influence project effectiveness. They can develop some methods for addressing future complications both as a chair of a meeting and as a member in support of the chair and the team.

Divide class into two groups and assign each group one of the questions and have them discuss.

Interdisciplinary project team management

• What difficulties arise because team members come from different disciplines (e.g. engineering, social sciences, business management, biology, government, administration, planning)
• How can these difficulties be resolved? (List at least three ways!)
• What advantages does an interdisciplinary project team have?
• How can these be enhanced? (List at least three ways!)

Cross cultural project team management

What difficulties arise because team members come from different cultures? (e.g. First Nations, Euro-Canadian, Developing Countries)
How can these difficulties be resolved? (List at least three ways!)
What advantages does a cross-cultural project team have?
How can these be enhanced? (List at least three ways!)

Closing:

Have each group present a short summary of their findings to the large group.
Outlook: Project Planning Methods.

Key terms

Interdisciplinary project team management: Team members come from different disciplines: e.g. business management, engineering
Cross-cultural project team management: Team members come from different cultures: e.g. First Nations, Developing Countries

Revision questions:
1. Describe the attributes of an efficient team leader.
2. Explain the advantages of cross cultural project teams.
3. What difficulties arise because team members come from different disciplines?

 

Overview:
This lesson is mainly a brush-up of PM knowledge taught in the 3rd form. Students will repeat the characteristic features of a project and project management. They remember how to identify the differences between a project and a routine job. They study and practice how to plan and execute a project. To accomplish this, they will have to plan a school event – in this case a Practice Firm Trade Fair/Open House Event – according to the rules and using the methods and techniques of project management.

Connection to the Curriculum:
PMPA: Project Management

Time:
1 unit of 50 minutes a week

Resources required:
PM material of 3rd form  Key terms and definitions
Pre-reading  pma baseline version 3.0 of Project Management Austria English issue p 6-13

Objectives:

Understand the concept of project management
Be able to distinguish between a project and ongoing operations
Learn how to plan a project
Identify the project environment
Be able to take on different roles in project teams

Knowledge and skills:
Group discussion, persuasive speech, time management
Project management basics
Key concepts
Project management
Projects and sub-projects
Types of project
Ongoing Operations

Procedure

Opening
Short lecture about the importance of project management, necessity of standardised documentation, key terms

Activities
Group work
After a revision of last year’s PM basics students are in a position to carry out the following revision questions and essay questions.
Class feedback: compare the answers
Discuss open questions
Provide correct results

Closing
Teacher’s summary: Short review of purpose and objectives of the PM-curriculum. Presents schedule and topics for the next unit. Suggested homework assignment: Getting familiar with the vocabulary, definitions and key points of the first lesson. Write ideas for the school event down.

Key terms

Project management
The project management is a business process beginning with a project assignment and ending with a project approval.
Objects of consideration:
Project assignment, project objectives, project deliverables, project list of dates, project resources, project costs and project risks
Project organisation and project culture
The project context (pre- and post project phases, project environment, other projects, etc.)

Project
Projects are complex, mostly new, risky and important tasks for the company undertaking the project. They are goaldetermined. The objectives for the scope of work, deadlines, resources and costs are agreed between the project owner and the project manager. Projects are temporary organizations and social systems.

Subprojects
Project management contains the sub-processes project start, project coordination, project controlling and project close-down. Others include project marketing and project crisis management. These sub-processes are related to one another.

Types of projects
Projects can be differentiated by industry, location or objective, level of specification and/or level of repetition, ownership, duration and relation to the organisation’s processes.

Source (Key Terms)
http://www.p-m-a.at/

Revision questions

1. What are the features of a project?
2. Describe the social context of a project (internal and external).
3. Define the term project management.
4. What are the objects of consideration when working on a project?
5. Which sub-processes are parts of the project management process?
6. Name criteria for project differentiation.
7. What are the specific characteristics of a project? What’s the difference between projects and ongoing operations? List three examples for each of them.
8. Identify five factors that might be essential for successful projects.

Essay questions

1. Go to the website of an Austrian newspaper. Look for the “Karriere-Section”. Scan the job ads for “Project manager”  job offers. Collect five job ads and list the education and skills requirements for that job.
2. Scan for job ads requesting project management skills. Set up a list of that skills and abilities.
3. What are the benefits of using project management techniques for the performance of tasks?
4. Look at the project school language course St.Petersburg. Describe the subprojects of the project management process by using this example.

Objectives

of this lesson are to know

• the functions of materials management
• how critical materials management is for a company’s success
• how to find suitable suppliers in the procurement market
• how to organise materials logistics
• how to optimise the outbound flow of goods and materials

Materials management and control are critical for businesses because the costs of goods, materials and storage are highly significant cost factors. These costs amount up to 80 % in trading enterprises, up to 40-60% of the sales turnover in manufacturing companies.
It’s easier to increase profit by reducing procurement costs than by increasing sales.

The main function of materials management is to provide the necessary goods and services to a company in the following way: the goods and services have to be available

• in the desired quality
• in the right quantity
• at the right time
• at the right location < and
• at minimal costs.

The following activities have t be performed:

• procurement
• storage
• distribution
• disposal

To optimise the flow of material many decisions have to be coordinated.

Examples:

• Buying more means better prices. Higher stock levels cause higher costs of storage space, capital and obsolescence.
• On the contrary lower stock levels cause the problem that certain materials are not available when needed; and production and sales get stuck but storage costs tend to be lower.

In large firms materials management functions are usually carried out by different departments (procurement, inventory etc.). It’s vital to coordinate and fine-tune those departments.

Learning objectives:

1. Understand the meaning of words used in job advertisements
2. Create a job description using a job ad from the career section of a recent newspaper
3. Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of job descriptions

Procedure:

Review of vocabulary:

Carry out a job ads vocabulary grid game:
Learners in groups of 3 are each given a slip of paper with words and definitions next to the words. The definitions to their words are on the slip of paper which one of the other learners has. They must find together the correct definitions.
(This activity is taken from: Rosenberg, Marjorie (2001). Communicative Business Activities. Wien: bv & hpt)

Analysis of job advertisements:

Analyse a job ad of the weekend career section of a newspaper. Find out the format of the job description and personnel specification.

Creating a job description:

Write down a job description for the post stated in the job advert. Use a template for this activity (E.g. based on Personnel Management. Manz Verlag Schulbuch)

Evaluate the benefits and the negative potential of job descriptions:

Use the Internet to find out articles on this topic.
Discussion of findings.
Create a handout including the essential results of web search and discussion.